Check Your Motives

[00:00:02] Speaker A: It takes courage to die, to self, to some, to something else. Right. [00:00:06] Speaker B: It takes courage to want, to love like he tells us to love. [00:00:11] Speaker A: Right. [00:00:11] Speaker B: To love selflessly. Yeah. It takes courage because I got to be willing to trust God that I may be sacrificing everything. I got that. [00:00:19] Speaker A: Because. Because you're submitting to whatever he wants. It takes a lot of courage, if you say it that way, to say, I'm going to sign a blank piece of paper and that he fills in. [00:00:30] Speaker B: Later my name at the bottom. [00:00:31] Speaker A: That's right. And then he fills in the rest. When you consider the alternative, it actually takes a ridiculous amount of stupid courage to not sign your name to them. Because now you're saying, I'm going to fill in the rest. And like you said a show or two ago, who do you want to trust it to? God Almighty or boy from Duncan. Right, right. Well, it feels empty in here. Yes. To listeners and viewers. [00:00:57] Speaker B: We're going old school. [00:00:58] Speaker A: Going old school. [00:00:59] Speaker B: I ain't like the original. Oh, ge. Oh, yes. [00:01:01] Speaker A: Oh, geez. [00:01:02] Speaker B: Original shows. [00:01:02] Speaker A: Other 167, we just. Garrett and Ben. So this has been. I don't. We're coming up on another milestone. This is number 97. [00:01:09] Speaker B: Wow. [00:01:11] Speaker A: Almost to 100. So that's pretty cool. [00:01:14] Speaker B: Now. [00:01:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I lose track of it, but now when I upload them, it says, you know how many episodes there are total? And I noticed a while back, like, oh, we're creeping up here. I better circle on the calendar, make sure I don't forget 100, because who would have thought? [00:01:26] Speaker B: Man, that's awesome. Well, 97, you can't have 100. You don't do 97. [00:01:30] Speaker A: That's right. You got to get this light. [00:01:31] Speaker B: My, like, Carolina hurricanes can't be 82, you know, if you don't go five. And boys don't seem to be able to lose, they. Okay, it's coming. [00:01:39] Speaker A: Are they undefeated so far? [00:01:41] Speaker B: So far? No. I don't know. I didn't even get a chance to watch last night. I. I don't have fanduel that channel. [00:01:47] Speaker A: So I have that. What you got? It's got. [00:01:49] Speaker B: Hardly get to watch them on tv. [00:01:50] Speaker A: We had to do that for gay Gabe. [00:01:52] Speaker B: Was. [00:01:52] Speaker A: I say was. He's starting to lose interest in basketball and is. He's wanting to get back into football. And I'm like, dude, please don't do that. Because he's. Hilltop doesn't have a football team. [00:02:02] Speaker B: No. [00:02:02] Speaker A: So I'm like, where are you going to play at? Know for one and for two, I Don't know if you've looked at the boy, but he ain't exactly built for football. And I'm don't want to worry myself. [00:02:10] Speaker B: I going to say, but I mean, I. [00:02:12] Speaker A: He can play now. [00:02:13] Speaker B: He could probably play, you know, Hilltop Wayne Christian. I mean, I mean there's some bigger guys, but at the same time, it's eight man football. I don't know if they have. [00:02:22] Speaker A: I don't even know if Hilltop has an eight man team. [00:02:24] Speaker B: I don't think. [00:02:24] Speaker A: I think they do. [00:02:25] Speaker B: But now they did have a golf team at one time. [00:02:27] Speaker A: They do. And I think they have boys and girls golf. And so Gabe's asking me. He's, he keeps, he's. He needs to consider a backup plan and I want to support him in his dreams, but he pretty much is wavering. I'm not sure if I'm gonna play in the NBA or the NFL. I'm like, well, you might want to think about the possibility that you don't make either. And he's like, well, maybe I'll be a NASCAR driver. I'm like, kid, we got to think outside of professional sports here. But the only sport, yeah, the only sport that I would have any hope of teaching him how to be good enough at to go pro in would be golf. And he's not interested. [00:03:01] Speaker B: Even that's hard. [00:03:02] Speaker A: It is hard. [00:03:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:03] Speaker A: I told him, I said, even, at least that I know what I'm, I'm doing. I there. I haven't played basketball and golly, 28th grade, wherever that's been. [00:03:12] Speaker B: I kid, a man can dream. [00:03:14] Speaker A: That's right. [00:03:15] Speaker B: But at the same time, it doesn't hurt to, okay, I am going to go to school and get a good education so that I can be something. Because even if you do make the pros, you ain't going to play forever. [00:03:26] Speaker A: Forever. [00:03:26] Speaker B: And, and a lot of times you end up having to go. Some of those guys do end up having. Now again, there's superstars that don't. [00:03:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:03:34] Speaker B: I don't know that Michael Jordan ever had to work too much. [00:03:37] Speaker A: I think he's. [00:03:40] Speaker B: He has to work to spend his money. He's got so much. But most everybody is going to be working somewhere else or doing something. [00:03:47] Speaker A: Well, if you look at guys like, I mean, I doubt Tom Brady needs to work. [00:03:50] Speaker B: Yeah, he's still doing, Been doing some announcing. Yeah, just a side gig. Make a little money. [00:03:55] Speaker A: That's right. [00:03:55] Speaker B: I think they'll pay the taxes on the land. [00:03:57] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that's right. [00:03:59] Speaker B: But, but it is pretty exciting. He's at that age where, yeah, he'll. He'll realize, okay, I may not have the girth and the science for the NBA or the, or the NFL and okay, so what you gonna do? And. But at the same time, I'm excited for, for him to, you know, at least dream. [00:04:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, he's always. He has his backup plan. His backup plan is not. Isn't a bad one. I've told him, I said, as much as you like to. To talk. He. Especially watching the game, he's always got something to say about it. I said, you really look into like announcing or some type of sports commentary, that would be something you would really. [00:04:34] Speaker B: Enjoy as that's a good gig too. Yeah. I mean, you get to travel everywhere and, and you. And you ain't got to worry about too many injuries. Yeah. Voice. [00:04:42] Speaker A: That's it. [00:04:44] Speaker B: But you ain't got to worry about a blown out knee. Yeah. Or anything like that. So I think that would be great, man. Yeah, I invite him to do that. [00:04:51] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, I did have a question that I think we can dig into a little bit. I'll save the homework for next week. Yeah, we wait till we got Kenny and kind of. [00:05:01] Speaker B: Kenny did kind of cheat last week because I did the less youth on Wednesday night. And somehow another. I don't know why he ended up in the youth. I think he might have been trying to set up something for the weekend or something. But anyway, he came in there because I was talking to him in the fellowship hall and I did a lesson with him and he was sitting back down the back row and I was like, well, there you go. You got all the homework, you know, sitting in on the next period's class. [00:05:27] Speaker A: Yeah. All right. Well, yeah, I think that I've got a couple of things on our homework. The tests of discipleship and from Luke 43 through 49 or Luke 6, 43, 49. But I'll wait for. Wait for him. [00:05:40] Speaker B: Yeah, that'll work. [00:05:41] Speaker A: I did. This is one I struggle with a lot. And it's. I've imagined a pretty common one for a lot of people. But how do you pray for your enemies without sounding like a Pharisee? Because there are a lot of times where, you know, whether it's, I don't know, enemy's not really the right word to use there. I'm not saying it's always enemies, but. [00:05:58] Speaker B: There'S people that you may not see eye to eye with. [00:06:00] Speaker A: Right. [00:06:01] Speaker B: There's people that, you know, it may not be my moral enemy, but then there's people, people that, okay. And again, it goes back to love. And when you love everyone, okay, so those people that is hard to get along with or those people that man, you know who they are. As soon as you say their name, your eyes roll. And even when you try not to, it happens. You're like, okay, I'm going to make sure nobody sees this reaction. But that name, eyes roll. So how do I make sure to pray for them? And I always think about it this way is it's one of those things of Lord, I, I, I want the best for them. Yeah. And again, I'm not judging them. Lord, help them to become more like me. That's how you sound, like a Pharisee. [00:06:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:49] Speaker B: Lord, help them to be better. But no, pray that, Lord, I, I pray that you would just pour your blessings out upon them. I have found the more that I pray that for someone that I may be struggling with or kind of against, the, the more the Lord blesses me. And so I, I have found that that's, I'm not saying that's a promise in the scriptures. I just know that it's been a blessing to me that even you know that it's amazing that as you pray to pray to God for someone, it's amazing how soft your heart to get towards them. It might still be, you know, maintain you're going to spend Christmas with them. But, but you do notice that, okay, I can love them. Yeah. [00:07:29] Speaker A: Well, it can take on kind of two different forms that, you know, there can be a situation where someone is, and I'll say it this way, I'm trying real hard to remember that I'm not the ultimate judge of right and wrong anyway. Just because I think somebody is doing something towards me because I think they're an idiot. [00:07:47] Speaker B: Right. [00:07:47] Speaker A: Just because I think they're needy or just because they're doing something towards me that I think is unfair, I think is even unbiblical or whatever. Just because I think they're mistreating doesn't necessarily mean that I'm even right. Okay. I don't know the whole story. I don't know what's really going on. I don't know their heart. So that's a tough one because I'm out in my mind, draw it as black and white as I can. They're wrong, I'm right. And God, please forgive them for being, you know, they know not what they do, whatever. But I don't necessarily even know that they're wrong, much less what their heart is about it so there's that form of it, but then there's also a form of it maybe where. And this is one that I think is, do you want to do these one at a time or do you want me to give you both? [00:08:24] Speaker B: I'm all right. [00:08:24] Speaker A: Because they're a little separate. The other one is praying for salvation for people. And it can be. I found this kind of odd gray area, right, where if somebody is a self proclaimed atheist or they're going around and they're openly non Christian or they're openly against God or against religion, whatever you want to call it, that's an easier one to pray for in terms of knowing, yeah, we know that they're lost, we know that they need prayers for salvation. But then at the same time you've got the lukewarm Christian that they might be at church, they might not be at church, they might proclaim to be a Christian, but maybe they're not as active as some other people are, things like that. And you can, I've heard you say before, you know, there you've seen some pastors that you wonder, are they actually saved? Right. So it's, it's a, one of those things. We got to be careful not to judge people and slip into that. But at the same time, you can look at the fruit and you can look at the way they handle things and you might be able to see evidence kind of points towards maybe they know of God more than they know God personally. And that can be something that, you know, concerns you and you want to pray for it. But at the same time, I kind of start to feel like I'm judging by assuming that they're not already saved if they don't. I always kind of default to this sort of, I hate to say lazy, but when I don't know what to do, I try to go generic to keep myself out of my water. Just always this, just help them to grow you to know you more. Whether they do already or they don't already, between you and them. But I just pray for them to grow you more and to grow to know you more. But how do you. Because it's got to be, you know, and I'm not talking about, you know, looking around at specific people in the church or anything like that. But there's a lot of people that claim that they're Christians that probably aren't going to be in heaven and there's probably a bunch that you didn't realize were Christians that will be there and things like that. But how do you go there without letting yourself slip into judgment. [00:10:09] Speaker B: It's an interesting, interesting question, and I'm glad you asked it today. I just wrote a newsletter and article in the Flashpoint, and I referenced Jude, chapter one. But Jude only has one chapter. So you can say Jude 2025. And in the whole book of Jude is very much a fiery book against false doctrine, false prophets, false teachers, false this, false that. I mean, it is. You're almost like, whoa, Jude. And it's the half brother of Jesus. And then he gets to the end and he says, but you beloved. And then he begins to go and he says, now build your faith. You know, keep building your faith is how it should be translated. But then he says, pray in the spirit. I think one of the keys that we always got to make sure of that pray in the spirit is not praying in tongues. It is not speaking in tongues. That praying in the Spirit is being guided and led by the Holy Spirit. And I think that's the thing, that when we pray in the Spirit, we're going to pray in accordance to God's will. And I think it's one of. When it comes time to individual praying, what you always want to do is, lord, I'm going to leave that to you. You know, a person's heart. But, Lord, I pray that if you know, whichever way you go. But the main thing is, Lord, I pray that they would know you better today than they knew you yesterday. And that way, if they don't know him at all, well, that's a little bit better, be great. That's salvation. So there's a way to just. I think it all goes back to that. Praying in the spirit allows the selfish motivation, the selfish desires, because that's really what derails our praying most of the time. James said it this way. He said, yeah, the reason you're not having your prayers answered is why? Because you asked with the wrong motives. You're thinking, prayer is all about you and prayer is all about getting what I want. And that's when we're praying for others. We just need to make sure that we have the right motive and the right heart. I think that's the key. Because how do you keep from sounding like a Pharisee? Be genuine. [00:12:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:12:20] Speaker B: And genuinely care. [00:12:22] Speaker A: That's been one of mine that I've had to pray a lot. It seems as time goes on, I have to pray more and more. But I know the words to say, please help me to mean them. [00:12:31] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and that's the whole thing. Help me to mean them. [00:12:35] Speaker A: Yeah, a lot of times it comes back to praying for if you're paying attention in your prayers, a lot of times your prayers will circle you back to helping, asking God to help your own heart. Right. Because you'll start to realize, Hang on. I don't know how to say this without sounding like a Pharisee. I don't know how to say this without sounding, you know, like I'm being selfish in some way. Or you, you start to. I think that's why it's important to be honest with God and to be honest with yourself about what you're saying to God. Because if you just say all the right things and assume that you mean it without really questioning yourself on that, you can just slip into thinking, man, I'm a good prayer. I know, but are you really? [00:13:11] Speaker B: I. Can I just. Well, again, we just can just rattle it off. And again, I think that's what Jesus is talking about when he says that vain repetition. Yeah, we can, we can fall into that trap very, very easy. And we get on autopilot when it comes to praying. And when I'm praying in the spirit, that's the exact opposite of autopilot. And that is the. That's seeking his heart, saying, lord, I want to pray in accordance to Romans 8. I don't even know how to pray, but your spirit is going to help me. And so, Lord, help me to listen, help me to, you know, pray in accordance with that and God's will. And you're right, I think it's the right thing to do, is be honest with yourself and listen to yourself. And really, really, as much as you, if you're having a problem judging someone else, just, Just judge yourself. Listen to yourself pray. Think about how selfish we act. Because I, I talked about it Monday when I was at, I was with the senior adults. We do a fall tour where we're touring all the rest homes. And I always had to give like a five minute devotion. And I said, you know, the place where I find out, am I truly selfish? Am I truly about myself, is when Jesus commands me to love others. The two great commandments. Love, Lord, your God with all your heart, mind, body and soul, and to love. Love your neighbor as yourself. That's when I find out just how selfish and wicked my heart really is. [00:14:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:36] Speaker B: When, when I try to love the way I should, because I'll do it with selfish motives. [00:14:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:41] Speaker B: What can I get out of this person? What can I. What's this going to gain me? [00:14:44] Speaker A: Yeah, well, and that's. Sometimes I'll. I always Enjoy the process of putting these podcasts together because we talk about stuff, and then I have to go back and listen to it several times and really digest some of what we said. And a lot of times, the processing of what we talked about last week will lead to more things to talk about the next week. And it kind of, you know, kind of snowballs a little bit. But that was one of the things from. From last week's podcast, we talked about the blessings. [00:15:12] Speaker B: Kenny. [00:15:14] Speaker A: I don't think this is. Kenny, you said at some point, blessings follow obedience, right? And I started thinking about that a little bit. And, you know, a lot of times I'm really bad to obey out of selfish motivation. You can obey because you want to look good to other people. You can obey because you want to feel good about yourself. You can obey because you hope God's going to bless you. I worded it in the description. Obedience is. Is not some, like, divine currency that we exchange back and forth with God. We exchange. We give him obedience. He gives us blessings, right? But it's easy to think, well, you know, if I'll do this, God will give me that, or why hasn't God given me this? Because I've done all that, and that's not the way it should be viewed. And as I thought about it, it's like, you know, I don't do good things. I don't do things for my kids to make them happy. Purpose of making me feel good about it. I do it because I share in that joy. I like seeing them happen. It should be the same way with God. We should obey him because we should obey him, because we like to make him happy, not because we. We want to suck up to it, for lack of a better word. [00:16:17] Speaker B: You got it. You got it. And I think the thing of it is, is we oftentimes associate blessings as material blessings or something else. The real blessing, when I said blessings follow obedience, the real blessing is you get to experience and know God in no greater way. [00:16:37] Speaker A: That's it. [00:16:38] Speaker B: Because when you step out in faith and you see God respond, or you see God do something, or you see him, or it takes you. Takes you deeper with him, that's the blessing. That's always the blessing. And it's not necessarily, oh, man, I get a new house today or I get new cars. No, it's. Your relationship with the Lord deepens because when you act in faith, you please him, and that's. That's going to take you deeper with Him. [00:17:04] Speaker A: This one we're talking about on Tuesday night, Bible Study a few weeks ago in James. James 5. So this is prayer of a righteous man. This is a 5, 16. [00:17:14] Speaker B: Okay. [00:17:15] Speaker A: The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. And I just made note of it that night that it says the. The prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. It doesn't say, the prayer of a righteous man will always be answered exactly the way the righteous man wanted it to. It says it will accomplish much. And I think that that's something that I've maybe experienced in that. And I've said it in different ways, like sometimes I. You pray for one thing, but you get something better. And sometimes the way God answers our prayers, if. If you are praying effectively and honestly, he will accomplish much with that prayer, it may be to help you realize that you didn't need the thing that you were praying for. It may help you to realize that you weren't praying in the right way. Or it may be to help you realize that there's a selfish motivation in there somehow. But it's sometimes what it's accomplishing is accomplishing much for God, not for you. And that can be an easy thing to forget sometimes, is that, yes, we need to pray and, you know, pray in the spirit and pray the way God wants us to pray. But it's so he can do something with it, not do something for us necessarily. [00:18:17] Speaker B: That's right. [00:18:18] Speaker A: And that was just something I. [00:18:19] Speaker B: Well, and I think that goes back to when you have the kingdom agenda and the kingdom mind. And I think that's the key to remember is. No, I'm gonna. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna walk according to what the kingdom is, it kind of resets everything. I said it Sunday that when you're born again, the world doesn't determine your values, the Word does. And the Word determines your priorities, your values, your passions. It is all driven by the word of God then. And so then as you pray, it's amazing how when this gets into your heart, you're praying should, and sometimes it doesn't. But most of the time it's going to be less selfish because again, when you've got the mind of Christ, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12. When you set your mind on the things that are above. Colossians 3. It is amazing that all of a sudden I realize everything I do, a lot of it is less and less selfish, from praying to how I respond to how I. So the real key here is going deeper with the Lord submitting to the Holy Spirit, allowing His Word to get into our lives. So that through. That's how we become selfless. Or as the fruit of the spirit is, you know, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. All these things just begin to work their way out where yeah, my selfish motives die or less and less. [00:19:52] Speaker A: Yeah. I think self control is one of the fruits of the spirit that when I'm, you know, love, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. Those five I memorized really quickly, the last four. [00:20:02] Speaker B: Yeah, I. Goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control. [00:20:06] Speaker A: And I've slowly been trying to memorize them all. And if I was sitting down, I can't rattle them off just like that. But I can sit down and think about it and I can get to all nine of them. [00:20:14] Speaker B: I'm sure there's a. And I can't remember. I. I know I had to list them out on several tests, whether it was in high school or in seminary. And part of me is like I can't remember if I. I know I memorized them and I can't remember if I was it. M N E M O I C Mnemonic is what it's called anyway. That's like how you know the planets. Mark's very extravagant. Mother just bought Mark 9 parakeets or something like that. Or just purchased. [00:20:46] Speaker A: I heard that one before. [00:20:46] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. It's Mercury, Venus. Mark's very extravagant. Mother just bought Mark or bought him. Bought us. Because uranus bought us 90 parakeets. [00:20:58] Speaker A: One of the people got kicked out. Yeah. [00:21:00] Speaker B: Poor Pluto. [00:21:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:02] Speaker B: What's that about? That is messed up. That's messed up. He'd been a planet his whole life and then he's kicked out. Well, since he was discovered. I don't know. His old life. [00:21:10] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:21:11] Speaker B: But man, that's a rip off. [00:21:14] Speaker A: And that's just mess up. They gotta reroute the entire thing that we spent all that time memorizing. [00:21:17] Speaker B: Yeah. Just bought us 90. [00:21:19] Speaker A: There you go. 90 what? [00:21:20] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:21:22] Speaker A: They have to change that to something. It can't be 90 anymore. It's got to be. That's got to end. [00:21:25] Speaker B: So I can't remember. But there is God. I think I did have one. Love, joy, peace, Patient. But I got to thinking just what, what would. What, what was it that I would love to be? [00:21:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:36] Speaker B: Or what would I love people to say about me? Or maybe it's something that I see in Jesus. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. And you see it. And that. That'll help you memorize those nine. [00:21:46] Speaker A: I think the self control one's been an interesting one for Me not only in the memorizing it, but also trying to learn to apply it because I guess I don't know exactly how to say this, but I think for a long time it seemed like things the. I hate to say this way, it sounds very profitable. But me becoming more righteous or acting more righteous came naturally to an extent and that the spirit was working in me and it was making me want to be more loving, more kind, have more joy. All these things, those were more natural. But at the same time, as you get more to that stony ground, as we talk about a little bit, it's like sometimes I actually don't to want. Feel like doing exactly what I know the spirit wants me to do. And that's where the self control starts to come in. There are times that you've got to kind of check yourself a little bit and say, okay, yes, I'm, I'm not feeling the way I should feel right now in this situation. I need to go to. [00:22:31] Speaker B: Starting to get a little angry. [00:22:32] Speaker A: That's right. [00:22:33] Speaker B: I'm get a little bit. [00:22:34] Speaker A: That's right. I'm. I'm getting a little angry. I'm getting a little testy. I'm getting a little whatever, you know. Yeah, yeah. And you can get a little prideful. I'm starting to. There's just a lot of those things that sometimes that self control is. It's a, it's an important one to not forget, I guess because sometimes, sometimes the spirit's going to always carry you far enough to, to be able to realize that you might need to rely on that self control sometimes. Yeah, but sometimes it's not going to carry you all the way through to where the temptation completely goes away. Completely goes. [00:23:03] Speaker B: No, no, that's. That self control really should be. That's the worst labeled one. It is more of spirit control, but the spirit controlling us. But you're exactly right. There are going to be times and you can feel it coming. Whether somebody did you wrong, somebody cut you off in traffic and the next thing you know, feel yourself just getting ready to blow. And you know, you shouldn't because there's, you know, there's people around or there's something going on. And again, I don't, I don't say people around that, oh, I'm performing for them. Right. No, it's just that I know as a, as a pastor, I have to be careful because I, I know it. My, my actions and my reactions influence people. So if they see me get mad or they see me get upset or, you know, I know, we'll forget. We were building. This was years and years ago. We were building a handicap ramp. Had a lady's house and, And I did. I, I was, I was up there working with the guys and I smashed my finger just as hard as I could with that, with that hammer. I mean it was, it was purple almost as soon as that happened and I hit my finger and everybody just, I mean, without fail, almost to a man, stop swinging. You know, it's a pastor going to cuss. And I'm gonna tell you in my heart, I held it because I was like, I can't, you know, Because I know. [00:24:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:30] Speaker B: You know, that ain't what they need to see. [00:24:32] Speaker A: That's right. [00:24:32] Speaker B: At the same time in my heart. And I told him, I said, boys, I'm going to let you know I held it in. But in my heart I'm cussing up a stone. In my heart I am. You know, I'm so mad at that hammer. I'm so mad at the, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. That Rackham sack them, you know, and so I, I know that our actions carry consequences. So I need to always be, you know, think about, okay, is losing my cool here going to really do anything for the kingdom? Yeah. If anything, it's going to make it worse or make it, make it not. Not build up the kingdom. [00:25:06] Speaker A: Yeah. And sometimes, you know, it's with me and the kids is an obvious example of that one. [00:25:11] Speaker B: Right. [00:25:11] Speaker A: Where, you know, there's, there's times maybe this is a good way of. I don't know if it's really an analogy necessarily, but you know how it is some mornings you wake up and you're in a good mood and everything feels good and you're fixing your coffee and let's get to school and all this stuff. Everything's going great. Those days it's super easy to walk by the spirit and show love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and yeah, a lot. [00:25:31] Speaker B: Of self control today. [00:25:32] Speaker A: That's right. Then there's other days that maybe I didn't get a good night's sleep. Maybe nothing. [00:25:37] Speaker B: Right. [00:25:37] Speaker A: Maybe I don't have any reason whatsoever. I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed. [00:25:40] Speaker B: The young ins. [00:25:41] Speaker A: Nothing's going right. They're fighting, they're whatever. And you're just in one of those moods where it's like, look, today's not this be dressed. That's right. Yeah. [00:25:48] Speaker B: And it was like that today a little bit for me. I wasn't, wasn't upset. It's just. I Had so many things to do. [00:25:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:25:55] Speaker B: And it was all. Had to be done in the morning and I had a staff meeting at 10 and I went in and I said, all right, folks, I'm going to let you know this is a short meeting today. [00:26:04] Speaker A: So don't. [00:26:04] Speaker B: We're not. We're not sitting in here all day long. We're going to cover the devotion. We're going to go through whatever we got coming up that we need to discuss. I said, we. We can't be in here long because I got to get over here and take care of this, this and this. I got a luncheon then I. So it was one of those things of. I think they could tell I wasn't. I was upset. It wasn't. I wasn't walking by the spirit or your self control. It's just that I ain't got time to play. And sometimes that I ain't got time to play can turn into. Ain't got time to deal with you either. [00:26:37] Speaker A: That's right. Well, and I've even. I've said this before. This is not a, you know, we are going old school today. This is not an appropriate thing probably to say on a biblical podcast. But there have been days that I've have told the kids or told. Yeah. In general, it takes a little bit of time to take the time and, and say something in a nice way. And I've told the kids before today, I don't have time to be nice. You're gonna do it. [00:26:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:58] Speaker A: You're gonna need to do it the right way the first time because I don't have time to word this the right way. I get. It's going to come out ugly. You know, if I hear that, and I'll give an example. If a kid is. If one of my kids is getting ready to run out into the street and the bus is coming. I don't have time to say now gay sleep. Stop what you. No, I've got to scream and get your attention. Yeah. And it's kind of that. I mean there's days that you just. I'm sorry, but I don't have time to be nice and. [00:27:20] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:27:21] Speaker A: But that's. Those are the days where the self control is going to need to. To kick in a little bit more. [00:27:26] Speaker B: And there. And there are days when, let's just be honest, they're going to test every bit of your patience. [00:27:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:31] Speaker B: I think God gives us our spouses and our children for a particular reason. One is to. To rub off those rough edges on a stage because it is, it is through your children that you learn a lot of patience. It's through your children that you learn a lot of lessons about yourself that I tell you what that hard headed youngin and then you realize, oh, I know where he gets the hard headedness from. Yeah, it looks just like me. [00:27:57] Speaker A: That's right. [00:27:58] Speaker B: As I told Nicole that the other day when she was in town for fall, her fall break was, I just finally realized that no wonder we sometimes just. Not that we're at odds, but we can, we can, we can clash. And what I love, because she loves to fuss and she loves to debate. I love to debate and we love each other. But I said, dad gum. I realized it. You're the female me. Yeah. And she realized that and she's like, oh gosh, I am. Yeah. And so you know that that's what. And your youngins will test you and your youngins will, will put you. And, and the thing of it is, if it didn't your youngins, it'll be something else. Because I, I think those are things that I think sometimes the Lord gives those things in our life just to see, let us know where we're at. That, that same passage in Jude that I talked about said, build yourself up in the faith, keep on loving the Lord. And, and part of it has to do with, you know, examining, making sure that you're growing. Or am I, am, am I building myself up? Am I growing more and more each day? Yeah, yeah. [00:29:05] Speaker A: One of the. So I am going to cheat a little bit because it's kind of related to what we were were talking about here. Okay. And get into some of the tests of discipleship because there's one part of it of the three, there was one that stood out to me that I had to really kind of examine a little bit. And that was the middle one. Who's your first? [00:29:24] Speaker B: Okay. [00:29:24] Speaker A: So. Because as I challenge that, as I thought about that a little bit. Okay. God should always come first. Gotcha. That's an easy one. That's, that's literally the mayor by agrees. That's. That's a simple one. Yeah. God confirms. So then as I started to look at. Okay, what competes with God, My answer to that question became really tough to acknowledge because if you circle back to it, basically it's just an internal struggle that I always have between who comes first, me or God. It's one or the other. Even in the things. It's because we can look at life and say, well, you know, how. What's. It's. It's God first, then it's the kids, then it's work, or then it's family, or then it's friends, or then it's whatever. But it really comes down to God first, and then he determines everything below. That is the way I've tried to look at it, I guess. [00:30:06] Speaker B: Yeah, we do it this way. Remember I said. But it should be this way. [00:30:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:10] Speaker B: God's over every bit of it. [00:30:12] Speaker A: That's it. Yeah. And. And what I found a lot is that the struggle there. There is not a competition of 18 different things fighting for first place in my life. It's two. It's me and God. I'm it. It always comes down to. [00:30:26] Speaker B: I get it. [00:30:26] Speaker A: Is what I want important or is what God wants important? [00:30:29] Speaker B: That's right. [00:30:29] Speaker A: And man, when you. When you simplify to that level, it's. It comes on pretty strong. [00:30:34] Speaker B: Well. And I think that's where Galatians 2:20 comes into play. I think that's where. When L. Luke describes what discipleship is, I believe it's in chapter 14 where he says, take up your cross and follow me. So you're exactly right. It's either going to be you or it's going to be the Lord who's going to sit on the throne of your life today, who's going to call the shots. And if you're taking up that cross and dying to self. Galatians 2:20. I've been crucified with Christ, but yet I live. If that old nature is being crucified, then, yeah, it's Christ on the cross and Christ in my life, and Christ centered on the throne of my life. But too often we put ourselves back home. Yeah. And that's when. That's what. That's what you had to. That's really the. The point. It talks about dying daily. That's it. Are you. Are you going to be willing to die to yourself that it's no longer about me each and every day? [00:31:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Well. And because I've caught myself so many times in the last week especially. But, I mean, I do it all the time. It's just now it feels. I think he's calling me out on it more now maybe than he used to, where I'll just sit around and I start just call it daydreaming, call it whatever, but I'm. I'm thinking about something that's nowhere close to the present. It's way down the line or whatever. And it's just like, why? What's the point in that? You. You don't have Any control over it. There's so many hundreds of things that can happen between them, then why are you even bothering with it? And it's almost just like an, you know, a pastime or what. There's not a good reason to do it. It's not necessarily harmful to think about that. But it's not. Not fruitful either. It's not. And it's one of those things where when you get to the end of the day, if you've, you know, not had as much time in the word as you like to have had or you didn't have time to do to call this person you should have called or you didn't have time to do. There's probably a list of things that you could have done, could have, should have that you didn't. [00:32:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:32:22] Speaker A: And I think that's just been a challenge for me lately to say, okay, is what you're doing productive for God? [00:32:28] Speaker B: Right. [00:32:28] Speaker A: Or are you taking an hour for yourself? Are you taking not to make it so. [00:32:32] Speaker B: And. And it's okay. Every now and then? I think human brain needs. Yes. And even some daydreaming. But I think also there are some things you can do during that time to kind of. Especially if you got 30, 40 minutes. I invite you, man. Find yourself a passage and meditate on it. Think about what it says, memorize it, read it over and over again of what. What's being said there so that you know my mind. That's how you transform your mind. That's how it's renewed, is by chewing on the word of God so much that you. It changes how you view things, changes your worldview, and it gets you. You thinking correctly. Because if you'll get this right, this will get right. If you get this right, these will be right. Yeah. And too oftentimes this is. This is the hard part. Yeah. [00:33:22] Speaker A: So Sunday you. I won't get into some stuff from Sunday. I had a lot of notes from Sunday. John 3. This has got to be like. And I was surprised you. You pulled it off in two. Yeah. I thought you were gonna be three parts. [00:33:32] Speaker B: No, I. I knew it would be two. And the reason being is, is look, John 3. 16. That's easy enough. John. Even 20 and 21, I probably could have done a little bit more. But the biggest thing is what does it mean to be born again? And then when you look at verses three and five and what's being said there, that was going to be the hardest part. And tripping on. I really could have done it in two easier had we not had the baptisms the Sunday before, because that took. Took a lot of time. I mean, it was, it was late before I got up on stage. That's why I was originally going to go to number one, the complete end of number one, then do two and three the next. Next Sunday. [00:34:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:13] Speaker B: But give myself time to have. I want to do two the whole time. But I, I, I, I think I covered it enough on the Sunday before. [00:34:21] Speaker A: Yeah, well, there were a few things that One, one thing that you wrote down is when nothing's going right, remember how much God loves you. And I think that's something that is. So we've talked about this before. John 3:16, so well known. John 3:17, not so much, but it should be. Right. And then you said. I don't think I know you preached on verse 18, but this note I don't think was from something you said. But if you rearrange verse 18, he who believes in him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only God, Only begotten Son of God. And I just wrote down. Is this a fair way to paraphrase? I guess you are judged until you believe. Is that just rearranging that verse a little bit? [00:35:04] Speaker B: That's exactly what it's. [00:35:05] Speaker A: So once you believe, you just remove the judgment. [00:35:08] Speaker B: Well, and let's take the word believe out and we can use this term. Are you in Christ or are you out of Christ? If you're in Christ, you're no longer under judgment. If you are without Christ, you are. And that's what I was getting at is you are leaving this church. You're walking around under the condemnation of God's wrath. That's the last place you want to be. [00:35:30] Speaker A: Yeah, well. And another just Garrettism note that I jotted down. I think it's toward the end of the sermon, and I don't really know where it came from, really, but I think it's maybe been said in some way or another. There may be a way of looking at it, that it takes courage to follow Jesus and to have. It takes courage to die, to self, to some, to something else. Right. [00:35:51] Speaker B: It takes courage to. To the one who. To want to love like he tells us to love. [00:35:56] Speaker A: Right. [00:35:56] Speaker B: To love selflessly. Yeah, it takes courage because I got to be willing to trust God that I may be sacrificing everything I got to. [00:36:06] Speaker A: Because you're submitting to whatever he wants. You don't know what that is yet. Back to what we talked about. With mary in John 2. You don't know what that means. It just means, I think maybe you said last week, whatever. Whatever you say. [00:36:19] Speaker B: Yeah, whatever. [00:36:21] Speaker A: And. And it takes a lot of courage, if you say it that way, to say, I'm going to sign a blank piece of paper that he fills in. [00:36:29] Speaker B: Later, my name at the bottom. [00:36:31] Speaker A: That's right. And then he fills in the rest. [00:36:33] Speaker B: Or basically, if you want to make a spreadsheet or a credit sheet or if Kenny was here, I'd ask him about the accountant term and yourself as well. You want to make a balance sheet and you want to just talk about, here's everything I own. That's what you do. Doing everything you own, everything you are, all your talents, times, treasures, all that. Sign it on the bottom line. [00:36:56] Speaker A: But that is. So that was not actually my. The end of my note, though, because the end of the note is when you consider the alternative. It actually takes a ridiculous amount of stupid courage to not sign your name to that. Because now you're saying, I'm going to fill in the rest. And like you said a show or two ago, who do you want to trust it to? God Almighty or boy from Dunc. [00:37:21] Speaker B: Right. And I think the thing of it is, we tend to think about it this way. We tend to say, all right, I'm going to give all my sins to the Lord, but I'm going to hold on to my life. No, that's not what biblical Christianity is getting at. It is the full thing. It is whole hog. I am fully surrendered. That means my sins have been given to him, but it means my life is his. But now here's the thing, too. You don't see many people living that way. [00:37:50] Speaker A: Way. [00:37:51] Speaker B: I mean, we still go about our lives, but there are a lot of people who, who do understand that. [00:37:56] Speaker A: Yeah, well, and you had, you. You referenced you. One of my notes. [00:38:00] Speaker B: You. [00:38:00] Speaker A: I think, things you said. The cross screams God loves you and he's got your back. Yeah, but the cross is like. It is the crossroads, so to speak, of God's power and wrath on one hand with his love in the other. [00:38:12] Speaker B: All meets right there. [00:38:13] Speaker A: All meets together. [00:38:13] Speaker B: Love and justice meets holiness and. And mercy meets his judgment on the law and grace. It all meets right there at the cross. That's why the cross is by far the singular, most singular glorious moment of God. [00:38:30] Speaker A: I mean, that's. [00:38:31] Speaker B: You want to know what the glory of God is about? There it is. [00:38:34] Speaker A: Because it's not just. If it were just his love and compassion and his mercy, then there would have been no suffering. Okay. Jesus had to suffer to sacrifice. [00:38:47] Speaker B: No price paid. [00:38:48] Speaker A: Right. It would just be saying, we're just going to reset the deck and start the game or we're going to. We're just going to ignore sin ever happened. [00:38:53] Speaker B: That's right. I'm going to give you a free pass. [00:38:55] Speaker A: Right. So it's not just 100% all about his grace and love for us. That's. That's one of the. That's part of the cross. [00:39:03] Speaker B: That's why he said Christ. But it also. Part of it is to satisfy that. Because look, if I had a son, they got murdered and we went to court. Court. And I'm saying I want you to throw the. Boom. We got the guy. I mean, I want you to throw the book at him. He took my son. He took part of my life. He took part of my joy. I mean my, I'm. My world's devastated. [00:39:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:26] Speaker B: And the judge comes and he says, you know what? I'm just going to give mercy today. Nobody's going to have to pay the price. You're forgiven. No, I would be hot. And if I'm going to be hot from that, imagine how, how hot shocked or mad or upset a holy, Holy God would be because he's the one that's been sinned against. That's the picture of, of, okay, someone took my place. That kind of thing. Yeah. [00:39:52] Speaker A: And. [00:39:52] Speaker B: And mercy and justice. [00:39:54] Speaker A: Yeah. And when you put the two of the. The two sides of it together, you've got the. I guess that's where I go back to the. It doesn't take courage to follow. It takes super courage not to. And I don't even mean it in that way. And that. Okay, you're going to be subjected to hell one day. [00:40:07] Speaker B: Day. [00:40:08] Speaker A: I'm just saying it. There is that side. [00:40:10] Speaker B: Oh, yes. But then that's the worst part. That's the chapter. [00:40:13] Speaker A: Right. But then at the same time, why would you be dumb enough to think that your way was going to be better than the. You. You either have to think that God isn't as powerful or isn't as loving. [00:40:23] Speaker B: Right. [00:40:23] Speaker A: One of the other. [00:40:23] Speaker B: That's it. [00:40:24] Speaker A: Right. [00:40:24] Speaker B: He or he doesn't matter. [00:40:26] Speaker A: That's right. Yeah. Or doesn't exist. [00:40:28] Speaker B: Doesn't matter. Doesn't exist. [00:40:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:30] Speaker B: I call my own shots. Yeah. And. But if you truly, you know, nowadays most, most people. People again, even the atheist to some degree, or maybe the agnostics, they may say there is a higher power. We know there's something. Okay, then how you Gonna be right with him. [00:40:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:46] Speaker B: How you gonna make it right? [00:40:48] Speaker A: I thought about this the other day and I didn't write down my notes anywhere. I was wondering if I did. But probably is probably one of those. It was too. Too deep to try to go into, but it's not really that deep. Which do you suppose is more offensive to God? If you want to say it that way. I don't know. But the people who don't believe, that's one thing. Okay. They're living their lives the way they want to live their lives because they don't believe God exists. Or they think if he's a fairy in the sky or he's something, but. [00:41:14] Speaker B: He'S so the lost altogether. [00:41:17] Speaker A: Right? [00:41:19] Speaker B: Right. [00:41:19] Speaker A: But I was thinking about the other. [00:41:21] Speaker B: Day and maybe they have heard. They just reject it. [00:41:23] Speaker A: They just rejected. Okay, but at the same time. And I'm not again, when anytime I say this, I don't mean for it to sound like I have. Have pictures of particular people in my mind. I'm just thinking at a macro level. You've also got people who believe every. [00:41:36] Speaker B: Word of it, right? [00:41:37] Speaker A: Up one side and down the other. They just do nothing about it. [00:41:42] Speaker B: Right. [00:41:42] Speaker A: It doesn't. They. They still. So they believe God exists. They believe God loves them enough to send his son to die for their sins. They believe every word of the gospel and they still choose to live their life the way they want to live it. And we'll make room for God most Sunday. [00:42:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:01] Speaker A: For an hour. [00:42:02] Speaker B: And so your. Your question is, which one would God have the most wrath for or would God be most upset over? [00:42:08] Speaker A: I don't even know what I'm asking. I guess because I'm not asking which. [00:42:11] Speaker B: One'S going to be points and more. [00:42:12] Speaker A: Yeah. I guess I'm just sitting there thinking it's one thing if you don't even believe it's true. I mean it stinks that you don't believe it. But to me it's like, okay, I know how much you love me. I just don't care. Don't care. [00:42:23] Speaker B: Care. [00:42:23] Speaker A: That's it. And I guess that's just. I don't even know what I'm asking in terms of which is more. Which makes you more mad. Who has a worse. [00:42:29] Speaker B: It's not even. I think. I think. But I think the thing of it is, and I think this is the. The way I would answer what I thought your question was because I think. [00:42:38] Speaker A: Maybe you knew what the question was. I don't know. [00:42:40] Speaker B: But. But to me it would be the One that has the knowledge and does nothing with it. And the reason being is, I'll just use Jesus is an expression to whom much is given, much is expected. You don't really gain spiritual knowledge, true spiritual knowledge, without the help of even God himself. The Spirit's got to show us, guess how spiritually dull and dead we are. The Spirit of God has to help us to see that. And so if the Spirit of God is revealing this stuff and showing you this stuff and helping you to see that God is good, that God is great, that God is faithful, that he is showing you this time after time and he is putting his word in your heart and then you turn your back on him. Or you basically say, I'm gonna keep you at arm's distance versus guy there. That's never heard. No, I think I know which one God's going to be a little bit more lenient on and which one is going to be more disappointed at is. No, I've. I've. Again, to whom much is given, much is expected. [00:43:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I just think that's something that, you know, if you want to call it lazy Christianity or what. But I mean, I think that there's. It's almost like the, the norm or the popular thing in. I don't know if it's a popular thing, but then I don't know what the statistics are on it, but it just seems like there's a lot of. [00:44:02] Speaker B: It's. [00:44:02] Speaker A: It's a whole lot easier to just say, okay, you call it fire insurance. Let's go collect our fire insurance. Okay. Okay, I got my fire insurance now I'm good. I don't need to do anything else. I. I got my. I got what I needed. I got my ticket to heaven. [00:44:14] Speaker B: Right. [00:44:15] Speaker A: I'll see you when I get there. And there's not. [00:44:17] Speaker B: How many people have done that or how many people truly, I don't even. [00:44:21] Speaker A: Know if it's a question or a comment, but it's just one of the. But I just look at it and think, okay, we can look at it and say, well, okay, you got your ticket to heaven, but you, you missed out on all the blessings along the way. But I sit there and think, not that you owe anything back to God. It's not that. [00:44:35] Speaker B: Right. [00:44:36] Speaker A: But if there's not, I go back to what you said so many times. If it hasn't changed you, it hasn't saved you to really accept that and to really believe it, it has to change you. Because if you, if you do continue to put yourself first over the One who loves you that much, then that's like a new level of selfish or self folk. It's almost like you become, if you can believe it and still put yourself above the one who paid that price, then you are now more selfish than you were when you were lost. [00:45:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:45:03] Speaker A: Are you not? [00:45:04] Speaker B: You're right. You're right. And, and I think that's, Yeah. I, I can't add to that. I think you, you nailed it. I mean I, I, I think you're exactly right. [00:45:14] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know. That wasn't like I said, I don't even know if it's a question. [00:45:16] Speaker B: No. But I think it's a, it's a great, it's a great have to get to a place to where we realize, okay, you know, who, what's the best way. And I think one of the things, the challenge I would give to folks, especially those who live on this side of the world. United States of America. What, what have we not been blessed with? We've got so many stuff and so much stuff. Maybe to some degree it may be a curse, but God has blessed us and given us so much. To whom much is given, much is expected. And so what is he expecting from this church with all that he's given us, the church in America, the, the, the whole country. What is he expecting that we, he's been giving us this much. Then we need to make sure we're reaching the world with it because that, that's what he's looking for. What, what are you going to do with it? [00:46:08] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's where I'm the maybe where all this started to, to brew from or wherever. Is that when you're looking at your priorities, things like that, it's so easy to look, look at, well, I did this good thing for God or I did that good thing for God or boy, I'm, you know, I'm checking my boxes and I'm doing all this and you're wanting your brownie points for what? God. But it shouldn't be that way at all. If you, if you believe what you say you believe, you should be running to God with every single thing you begging, what can I do next? What can I do next? Right. It's, and you've already talked to me. [00:46:39] Speaker B: That's right. He showed you that. [00:46:40] Speaker A: Yeah, but we flip that inside out sometimes and it's, I don't know, just a thought. I had this. [00:46:45] Speaker B: No, I like that. But, but I think it goes back to it. And that's your motives. [00:46:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:46:50] Speaker B: And maybe that's the whole gist of today is check your motives. What is it, what is it that really is behind what you're doing? Whether it's how you pray, whether it's how you serve, whether it's how you, whatever you're doing, what are the motives behind it? Is it to be seen by others? Or is it that the Father can be seen through me in front of others? Is it so people can applaud me and say, look at man. I just, man, look at that guy. Or is it that people would see God's glorious handiwork in my life? That's what you want. And that's Matthew 5:16. That your light will shine before men. [00:47:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:47:29] Speaker B: And so. Yeah. And it's not for my. My that I would be built up, that I would be edified. [00:47:35] Speaker A: Right. [00:47:35] Speaker B: But for his edification. [00:47:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [00:47:37] Speaker B: So, yeah. Motivation is the key. And being properly motivated and making sure that you are kingdom centered, motivated. That's sip. [00:47:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:47:47] Speaker B: That's the answer. [00:47:48] Speaker A: I think that's all I've got. What you got motion? [00:47:52] Speaker B: Yeah. We're right at an hour and we're getting close. I tell you what, I would. I wrote about it today in the, in. In my devotion with my flashpoints. And I mentioned it earlier, was the book of Jude. And I just want to. I'll close it here with the book of Jude. And it is one of those books that, like I said, said, interesting read. You got stuff in there from the prophet Michael and Moses, body to all kinds of stuff. That's okay. But he gets to verse 20 and maybe we'll close with this. But you beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keeping yourselves in the love of God, looking forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, to eternal life. Now listen to this. Have mercy on some who are doubting, save others snatching them out of the fire. And on some, have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by flesh. Now, to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, blameless with great joy to the only God our Father and God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority before all time, now and forever. All right, here's what I would say. I want to do this real quick. I think there are three categories that we have responsibilities for now. Each and every person out there listening, you have responsibilities. There's not a person on this earth that doesn't have some kind of responsibility. Now, you might not have as much as others. There are some of us that we got more responsibilities than we know what to deal with. But there are three categories of responsibilities that, as I look at this text and trooping on, those categories just about fit into everything we do. Whether it's your work, whether it's your work, responsibilities. And here it is. You. You got to have responsibility for yourself. There's a responsibility for others, and there's a responsibility to God. Okay, so. So somewhere in there, no matter what responsibility you have, if it's for your job, whether that's for others, or maybe for yourself, whatever the case may be, but yourself, your others, others, and then God himself. In those five verses, you have several. Several responsibilities that we're to have. We need to continue to build up. That means we. We are to continue to have progress. All right, Then he says, so we should be building up in our faith. Then. Then he says, pray in the spirit. So you got progress, you got prayer, and then you got perseverance. That he says, and stay by the st. Press on. Don't throw in the towel. What's your responsibility to others as you look at this text? Well, it's to show mercy to those who are doubting. So for those that are struggling in their faith, be patient, be kind. God was patient and kind with you. But then it says the other S is to snatch people out of the fire. Man, what a picture of evangelism that is. I mean, that really is. And then the last, what's your responsibility to God? Well, verse 25 and 24 is one of the best benedictions in the Bible. And that benediction says this. We need to praise God. Praise God, because look at what he does for us. There are three things. He protects you from stumbling. He keeps us from stumbling. Not only that, he will present you. Notice it says he is able to present you blameless and holy before a holy spirit God. And then it says he's going to preserve you, that he will call you to that day when it says, be glory and dominion. But then it also talks about his power as well. Glory and dominion before all time, now and forever. What? I mean, if you read the book of Jude, you're going to think, what in the world was Jesus half brother? I mean, I'm not sure what he's talking about here, but you get those last five verses and bam, man, it is good stuff. So enjoy that. But take a look at those responsibilities of what we need to be for each other, for yourself, but more importantly, for God. [00:52:17] Speaker A: Yeah, good stuff, man. [00:52:19] Speaker B: Hey, man, we still got it. [00:52:21] Speaker A: That's right, we do. Look, look quicker without Kenny's. Kenny's commentary. But we miss you, Kenny. [00:52:29] Speaker B: Yes. [00:52:30] Speaker A: I don't know if Kenny will ever hear this. Does he ever listen to the show? [00:52:32] Speaker B: He has no. [00:52:33] Speaker A: Renee does. I know Renee does. [00:52:35] Speaker B: And Renee tells him everything that happens. [00:52:37] Speaker A: I think that's just generally less life. I think it happens. She tells Kenny. [00:52:41] Speaker B: I don't know that. Kenny. Yeah, yeah. [00:52:43] Speaker A: We love you. [00:52:43] Speaker B: Kenny keeps track of it. [00:52:44] Speaker A: See, if you be here next time, we won't be able to make fun. [00:52:46] Speaker B: Of you and Brandon. I didn't make fun of Brandon. [00:52:49] Speaker A: That's right. We left him. Left him out of it today. Bye, y'. [00:52:51] Speaker B: All.