Navigate Podcast
Welcome to Navigate, we are two long term friends doing life and ministry together. I got tired of the same ole answers when I started looking for help when it came to my walk with God. So together we go deeper than most would on topics that most people have heard or were taught but never fully understood. It is our way of simplifying concepts that we may have over complicated throughout our lives. Bringing theology and life experience into each episode. It is our hope and desire to help Navigate your Christian walk with you
Navigate Podcast
Life Sucks Living is Hard
Tjbhpodcast@gmail.com
Today I discuss with Justin something I have been thinking through. When doing what is right is a constant pressure and hard to do. Where can we get comfort in knowing that fighting through the hard times is worth it.
Hey guys, welcome back to Navigate. We are back, justin's back.
Speaker 2:Back again.
Speaker 1:I'm back.
Speaker 2:Tell a friend.
Speaker 1:It's been a minute. I'm happy we still do these. I'm just really tired of not being consistent with it.
Speaker 2:You know, tim it's really hard, it's a problem.
Speaker 1:Both of us Like it's not. I can't just blame, you know. You know, Tim, it's really hard, it's a problem. Both of us Like it's not. I can't just blame you now.
Speaker 2:You know yeah, before I could. No, I can't. So yeah, it sucks, that's life.
Speaker 1:That's life, but we are coming off of our wow, it's been that long.
Speaker 2:Ten Commandments, oh yeah, yeah, the oh yeah yeah, the Ten Commandments we did.
Speaker 1:I hope that was good. We got a lot of feedback from that it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it.
Speaker 2:I think we're using talk to the guy who's doing some curriculum for our kids stuff and he told me he was taking the podcast and using some and applying it with teaching our kids and I was like that's freaking awesome.
Speaker 1:The Ten Commandments, part yeah.
Speaker 2:Having fun getting after it.
Speaker 1:Cool.
Speaker 2:What are we talking about today?
Speaker 1:my brother. You know how I like to come up with some life lessons for myself. Yeah, that aren't really probably Christian.
Speaker 2:This resembles an anime episode I saw more than the Bible.
Speaker 1:We had one called Embrace the Suck right when Jesus stresses you out one we had. Spiritual Life is a life of failure. You can go back and listen to those. It's not what you think. It's better, it's not that bad, it's not that bad, but I got to come up with these processes because it helps me figure stuff out, yeah, so I have a new one for you. I want to see what you think. I kind of want to get into something else too through it.
Speaker 2:So Okay.
Speaker 1:Life sucks. Living is hard, okay. This has been my motto since I've had kids, and this is why I come up with this. It sounds like.
Speaker 2:Jordan Peterson I live, life is suffering.
Speaker 1:It's amazing you're not more anxious. Well, I mean, there's some truth there. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:Go ahead and get to what you were going to say.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I have a small apartment right, and when we had our first daughter it was easy because she didn't move much, yeah, and then she started crawling. I was like, oh crap, this kind of changes a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because now it's getting hard. Didn't get used to that, yeah. And then she starts walking. It's like, oh, this is all new challenge. Now this is hard, you know. And then get used to that. Then you have another one. Now you have one who walks and one who's just now starting to crawl.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Challenges, changes. It's hard, it's hard to kind of keep up with all this stuff in life, right? So when I say living is hard, like I'm trying to get to this process of when we're following Christ all of a sudden, we need to start making right decisions.
Speaker 2:Okay, because you find out that they're more important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, right. And when you're not saved, life sucks, right. Remember we used to have the saying all the time life sucks, then you die.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Then we got saved and we're like, no, that's probably not accurate anymore. It might be accurate, but I feel like we're not allowed to say it yeah, but life still can feel like it sucks, but when you're saved, it's no longer that it sucks. Is that it's hard?
Speaker 2:yeah, I think about lewis's quote on this. He said, uh, die now, there will be no chance after you know. It's like this Either you acknowledge and deal with the reality of your own fallen and broken state now and kneel to Christ like allow yourself to die, or you live for yourself, you abandon all the responsibilities you're supposed to have and you really die later, truly ultimately in an awful way. And there's I mean the whole like take up your cross daily thing, man. It's real. Yeah, it's a real thing. Like I gotta believe Jesus pulled himself off of his mat you know what I mean some days and was like I don't want to do this today, you know.
Speaker 1:I imagine it was more like I'm never going to have an easy day here as long as I live. Yeah, I mean, and me as a person who's sinful. I'm like I just want an easy life. Give me a million dollars and all my problems go away.
Speaker 2:I think, just I think life, ultimately life is suffering you. I think, just I think life, ultimately life is suffering. I feel like I can't do it. I'm going to try. It is To live, to really live, to breathe, to come up above the surface and not just drown means you have to swim, yeah, if you want the sun in your face, if you actually want to breathe air and not grow stale and die.
Speaker 2:There's this reality of straining towards and straining forward to what God has called us to. I mean, in Philippians he talks about this. He's like I don't know. He's like what I do know is I'm going to ignore what lies behind and I'm going to strain forward to the upward call of Christ Jesus. That word strain there is the same word we use for desire in other portions of the Bible but ultimately means to grab at or grasp for it's like this.
Speaker 2:It's almost like it's something that's unattainable but worthy of your whole life. Unattainable but worthy of your whole life. You know it's something that you can't grip but you desperately wish you could with your mortal body. I mean, we've talked about this idea before Tim, that we live in a world that's fallen and because of that we're not solid enough to hold on to things that are solid. So if you can imagine yourself as a wraith or as a ghost, right, and God pouring living water onto you, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:And it's this kind of thing where it doesn't, it seems good and it seems nice, but at the same time it moves right through you and then you need more. You can't hold on to it because you and your mortal body can't hold on to something eternal with the body that you have. And it's like the earth itself the Bible tells us is crying out for the sons of God to be revealed and the redemption of all things. And so we're caught up in that of all things. And so we're caught up in that. We're caught up in a really messy world that I do think is progressively becoming solid.
Speaker 1:But not in my lifetime, bro, not in yours, not in yours.
Speaker 2:And I agree with you, dude I got five kiddos, I got three dogs.
Speaker 2:Somehow that happened to hamsters you know, and, dude, I love my wife, we love our life, but this last year we had a, we had a kid in the you know, the PICU and we've had all kinds of changes and crazy stuff that we've been walking through and dealing with. And there's days, dude, where we we just talked to each other, to each other, like it's rough right now. Can we just acknowledge that it's rough right now? And I think in verses like John 16, 33, where he says, in this world you're going to have tribulation, and I think we think like, yeah, those you know, this horrible persecution is eventually no, like literally the world is dead and straining towards life and you, as a part of this world in Christ, are dead. But because Christ has placed his spirit in you and gave you a new spirit, you in your corpse, body, are going to be straining towards life but unable to move past it in the current state that you're in. You know, and look, I'm not a Gnostic, okay, I'm not like body bad spirit, good, all right, we're not duelists like that, but I do acknowledge that the new spirit that God has given you makes you a new creation that God will then clothe with a resurrected body. That is actually good.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you've thought about this, tim, but why does God remove the tree of life out of the garden after sin? What does he kick them out? We think about it like they sinned and he kicks them out of the garden like you wicked losers. You know what I mean. You're done. No, if they eat of the tree of life in their fallen state, they will live forever in brokenness. Oh, okay, right, Like they'll stay that way.
Speaker 1:So it was almost a grace to have them die.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, this is Tolkien, man Interesting. The gift that God gave, the gift that Iluvatar gave to mankind that he didn't give to the elves, was the gift of death. Like you will not have to exist like this forever. I will give you something better. There is more to come. That's cool. I like that. And so everything we do in life, Tim, ultimately, is.
Speaker 2:I feel like I'm constantly asking this question, but it's like what will your life say? What will your bones speak after you're gone? And I've been thinking recently about Joseph and how he died in Egypt, away from his own family. You know what I mean. Well, away from the land that his family came to, knowing that that is not where they're supposed to end up. Yeah, and he tells them take my bones with you when you leave this place, which is wild, because at that point there's no, nobody's talking about leaving. This is the best gig ever. We have the best land. You know what I mean. It's totally fine, but he knows like this, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, this isn't ultimately where it's going to be, and demands that take my bones with you, isn't it? This isn't ultimately where it's going to be, and demands that take, take my bones with you. And I think, like that's the, that's the, the tattoo that I that you know what I mean I want to get on my body somewhere, like I want my kids to get this idea hey, after I'm dead, take my bones with you. Remember what I was telling you, what I was trying to communicate with you. When suffering happens, when frustration happens, I want you to continue to strain for, go towards what we will probably not achieve on this side of things, but ultimately will be achieved through Christ in us.
Speaker 2:And so I tend to look at the grand narrative. What's the big picture through this and what's the significance of individual moments and how does that overflow into victory in all kinds of different areas? Man, but yeah, to live is to choose to die every single day to the thing that we wish, the way that we wish things were and the hopes that we had about this particular thing or that particular thing. One of my favorite John Piper quotes. He says weep for the life you wish you had, wipe your tears, get up and trust God. Right, and I think that's it.
Speaker 1:I think about that a lot too.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I was raised this way, dude, and I know I've talked about this over the years with you Like I just want to be somebody good, awesome. You know, like I want to be special Not famous or anything but accomplish a lot of things. And you know where we work. They're starting to school stuff now, right, so I literally went home to my wife and I was like well, I'm officially a school janitor now, you know, I was like you proud, you proud.
Speaker 2:No, I am. Oh my gosh, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:You know, but there's something in me who's always wanted to be somebody. You know what I mean, and it's a hard mindset to get out of.
Speaker 2:I think there's a. There's two kinds of mindsets. One is like a poverty mentality and one is like a prosperity mentality. And christianity plants itself firmly in between. Poverty mentality is christians should have nothing, life is only suffering, and if you act like it's not, you're denying christ. That's a problem, right? All right, david platt, at his church, famously in the name of missions, took the goldfish out of the kids' Sunday school rooms, trying to save money for mission. All right, that might be cool, man, but give the kids their goldfish. You know what I mean. Come on Right, stuff like that and then like Piper sometimes I think is a little bit more on this side of things. Where it's like man, it's really rigid.
Speaker 2:Stewardship is great, it's important. I also think it's important to multiply what God has given us and it's okay to like, it's okay if God blesses you in the process. Our world today if somebody is blessed, we're like you must be a sinner, you did something wrong. Somebody's blessed, we're like you must be a sinner, you did something wrong. But in the Old Testament or in the Bible and history, we look at somebody. If they were good people and they were wealthy, we're like yeah, god blessed them. But if it happens to somebody we know we're like that's not blessing.
Speaker 2:You're evil right which tells us something about what's inside of us. But this prosperity mindset is that well, if I just do the right things, everything will go perfectly well for me. And you need to be careful about defining blessing in a different way than how the Bible defines blessing right, that whole makarios happiness in the Greek. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are like that word is like literally, is like happy, but even deeper it's supposed to mean like full of God, has God, and I think we that's what blessed, that's what you're saying.
Speaker 1:blessed means Blessed Makarios.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the Greek is makarios, but the deeper like connection there is, literally to be full of God, to have God Blessed, are those who have, who are walking through this and struggling through this. What does it mean? Well, at some level it means you're walking through and have something. I'm trying to think about how to frame this in a way where I'm not I'm trying not to be heretical here okay, but if you do things and walk through things that God himself walked through, then you uniquely get to identify with him in those things in a way that others do not. You have more, let's say, relationship with God if you have walked through the things that he has walked through in the way that he calls you to walk through them. All right, jesus walked through sin and brokenness and mess, but he didn't sin. He continued to do the right thing. That is the hardest thing. Right? It's not the going through the hard thing, it's doing the right thing when you go through the hard thing.
Speaker 1:Especially going through hard times, it's so much easier to sin. I'm not up for fighting anymore.
Speaker 2:So if you don't, if you choose life, what you just had is Macarius. You just became, let's say, full of God. You're blessed how you just became more connected with God, uniquely in your circumstance. You know him now in a way that you did not before, because you walked through something that Christ walked through.
Speaker 2:Obviously, this is spelled out a little bit in Hebrews when it talks about him being in the same way, yet without sin, right, like he's tested in all the ways that we are, but he didn't sin. And when we do those same things and you wake up and you breathe out and you're like I don't want to do this today, but I'm going to do this today. Right, there's something of God in that and as Christians, it's supposed to fuel us a little, supposed to help us think through, like okay, no, this is the way, this is it, but you're going to, you can't go into this prosperity, everything should be fine. I heard somebody one time quote gosh I think it's Hosea 4.6, I think where he says my people perish for a lack of knowledge. And he was a prosperity preacher and he was basically like the only reason that people struggle is because they just don't know that God wants to bless them.
Speaker 1:And if they understood who God was.
Speaker 2:They would never have sickness, they would never have financial problems, they would never have any of these issues. And I'm like, yeah, they wouldn't have nailed Jesus to the cross if he could have just believed a little bit more, wouldn't?
Speaker 1:have nailed Jesus to the cross if he could have just believed a little bit more, right.
Speaker 2:Right Idiot. You know it drives me freaking insane. I've heard so many like wacko approaches to theology before. But yeah, tim, I mean the victory that we have in Christ is ultimately a victory over sin and death. Christ has accomplished the victory over sin, but the Bible says the last enemy to be destroyed is death. And ultimately, what you are fighting against and I am fighting against, and the reason for suffering, is that the world is not done trying to kill Jesus and the world is not officially, let's say, conquered death. In time, christ has ultimately conquered those things, but that's the last thing to be destroyed.
Speaker 2:Like I frequently ask the question in the past, how come, if God has given me a new spirit and he's caused my spirit to cohabitate? You know me and you know this. The Holy Spirit is in me, testifying to my spirit that I'm a child of God and allows me to cry out to God and I'm like awesome. And it's this rejuvenating force that changes the way that I think and the way that I process. I'm a new creation. Why doesn't it go all the way and then transform my disgusting body into something with a six-pack?
Speaker 1:You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like, logically, I feel like that it would make more sense for it to continue. But if you realize that your process is the same process as all the world, where the last enemy to be destroyed is death, and it's actually so that you don't stay in an eternal state with the fallen nature, the brokenness that you carry, god's mercy is inviting you into, let's say, the final death, so that you can have real life in the way that you were meant to have it. Wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, interesting, kind of a wild concept. Yeah, you know it's funny. I was thinking I guess, run this by you, why not? I used to think the things that had mattered in the past is what led me here.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I would agree with that, but I don't necessarily think that's what I am wanting to think like anymore. I want to think like I'm here because of what's ahead of me now.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because God says live for the day. Today's the day right, promises good things tomorrow and blessings every morning. Like there's always this concept in the Bible, I think that it has to do with tomorrow.
Speaker 2:Yeah or starting afresh today.
Speaker 2:Luke 9, tim. It tells us Jesus makes this point. He basically says that nobody who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service. And I think there's a real truth there. You can't really drive the car. You know what I mean. You can't get drive the car. You know what I mean? You can't get where you're going, staring in the rearview mirror the entire time. Yeah, and sometimes people are trying to divine their futures by looking at their past and look. Sometimes you can learn a lot about yourself, and that's fine.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's not what I'm saying, but I find myself looking back to when you and I got saved and how fun that was with you know, jeremy, back in the day and everything, yeah, and I feel like there's days. I'm just trying to reconnect with my old self that way.
Speaker 2:Dude, I remember. But so much of it was exciting. I remember praying for this guy and his nose stopped bleeding. You know what I mean. I was like God did it.
Speaker 1:It was amazing and yes he did, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like there's a sense to that. But also it was the small things, I think, where you began to see it's not all death and destruction and brokenness, it's not just life sucks and then you die. Oh, there's life mixed into all of this. It's not just pure death now. Wow, it's not just pure death. Now You're beginning to see the spark of life and the beauty that things are supposed to be, that you maybe didn't have eyes for before.
Speaker 1:Well, it's a belief thing Because, to bring up your example, it's like, oh God did that. But there's also parts now where I'm like did God do that, or that was just coincidence there. Do I believe coincidence? I don't know. Do I believe you, kind of go? Down this rabbit trail in your own brain.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, and that's the funny thing is, we try to create like the dualism right, like either there was a natural cause there or God did that. I'm like, why is it different?
Speaker 1:I don't want to be wrong if it was not God, because then it feels like a false faith.
Speaker 2:But Tim this is my point there's nothing that exists that is disconnected from God. So the Bible says that he holds everything together by the word of his power. Right? That means the molecules that make up Tim Brown, the quarks and their half-lives, the electron that is spinning around the atom. What keeps it from spinning off literally into nothingness? God's word. So right now and now, and now you're alive because God's word is holding you together. I find that fascinating. And then we're like wait, but did this happen because of God or just because of nature?
Speaker 2:And I'm like that's some doolish nonsense that actually the Bible doesn't have a category, for we're over here trying to like, parse the two and be like oh, this has nothing to do with this, that's just foolish. That's just foolish, that's just stupid. I hate to say it, but people are, like you know, lazarus coming back from the dead. That was a miracle, right? Yeah? Did his heart start beating again? Yes, so. Was it natural? Well, that doesn't normally happen, could it happen? Have we brought people? Yeah, but usually not like that, right? So, if it started, is that natural or not natural? Well, it happened in the natural, but something supernatural caused it, right? Like everything else ever.
Speaker 1:Well, as a little dad he was just asleep To my still To this day I'm like where did he go for those four days?
Speaker 2:you know where did he go? Dude, I would love it. You know was he like? Was he, you know, in like abraham's? You know, bosom, the luke 16 paradise idea. You know, I didn't mean to just get sucked back down into his body.
Speaker 1:He's like oh, this see, I heard that lazarus and jesus were friends and then, after jesus brought him back, he'd never hear about him again.
Speaker 2:They're not friends anymore, he's like you did this to me, you, you, you you didn't save my life, you ruined my death, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:Totally, totally. All right, let me get into the kind of the second part of this. Okay, cause I think what you said, was really cool to get out of this cycle of just living hard right, like not believing that it's just going to be hunky-dory and roses and daisies. But one thing I found has helped me and I really want to know what you think is finding validation.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Whether that's being a father, husband, employee, employer, whatever it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Is it a sinful to pursue validation from others?
Speaker 2:I think I'm trying to. I guess I'm trying to understand. By this do you mean somebody affirming that you're not wrong, Like just saying, yes, you did the right thing?
Speaker 1:I want to bring up the dualism aspect again. It's like everything is God. I want to be validated in that.
Speaker 2:I'm over here like hey, not everything is God. What he meant was everything that happens. God is a part of. God is a part of yes.
Speaker 1:Yes, no, when you? I guess. Let me bring it here. You know the story of Zacchaeus yeah, the wee little man, the yeah, the wee little man. And the wee little man, yeah, which I don't believe he actually was, but that's not the point. But he starts to tell Jesus from this tree hey, I've given to the poor, I've sold all my stuff, I'm treating people better. And Jesus literally looks at him and is like I'm staying with you tonight, like to me that's validation. It's like, oh good.
Speaker 2:The things I heard. That's interesting because I don't know that that story is the story that I would like pick Like. Let me take you down the wormhole for a second. I am a Calvinist, yeah, okay, and so many of the questions that we deal with Tim are like huge sovereignty, human responsibility question. So forgive me if I'm like cannibalism that will pond again that we have sat in together until it became a swamp.
Speaker 1:That's fine. I think the same thing could mean the same thing.
Speaker 2:I'm context, but when the Bible says no one is good, not one. I don't think that anybody did anything and God was like and that's why I did this for you. So like when Zacchaeus is in the tree or it's like did he do the right things or was this the correct? No, none of it was right. He's not good, none of it. Literally, god saved us because he's awesome, right, and he's good.
Speaker 2:It's a very spiritual aspect, well all I'm trying to say, like it almost should help you breathe out for a second, though, because if you just acknowledge, yeah, no, I'm not, I probably screwed that up, it probably wasn't great, you know what I mean. Like yeah, what word do you have? Where God's going to be like you know what, buddy, I'm so proud of you, you did such a good job when it's not like finger paintings on dad's truck. You know what I mean and he's just being nice about it. I don't know. And look, I don't mean to say that you can't do things in Christ that are good and from the spirit and all that stuff. What helps me, tim, is just remembering that it is not my decisions or what I have done. Those are not the reasons. God loves me, right, and that, like, helps me breathe out a lot. Now let me give you the flip side. I guess I would say.
Speaker 2:It seems to me that, because you have an accuser, there is a biblical reason or right to validation, all right. So if you have someone that is accusing you, validation in some sense is affirming that no, I am, I am or I did, I was. It seems to be more associated with identity than moments. Moments are frail and you know circumstances and everything's caught up and everything else, and I don't believe that we're able to make decisions, totally apart from some of the you know the fallen world that we live in and are a part of right. So many situations it's like what is the right thing to do? I don't know. I need wisdom. I got to trust God because it all feels right and it all feels very wrong. You know, like there's just stuff like that.
Speaker 2:I think the validation that we need more deeply is ultimately about our own identity in Christ, and every moment I think we're asking the question less did I do the right thing? More am I the right person? Am I the right person for this job? Is what I'm doing wrong and that's why it's not accomplishing what I think it's supposed to accomplish? And there's a grand narrative in Scripture where I don't think we realize that is literally the work of Satan is to get Christians to think that there is more, or they missed out or somehow they're not doing the right thing. Or like, yeah, you screwed this up, because if you did this better, you wouldn't be in the situation that you're in and all this different stuff. And I mean Jesus got tempted that way, right, yeah, he's in the garden like hey.
Speaker 1:I don't want to do this. Yeah, there's another way.
Speaker 2:It'd be cool in the desert, right? He's asking him if you're the son of God, do this, do this? The question really ultimately becomes in every circumstance we ask ourselves like am I truly where I'm supposed to be? Is this right, is this right? And Isaiah 54, 17, I quote all the time. But it's this incredible promise to me.
Speaker 2:He says no weapon that is fashioned against you will succeed. And we're like well, that seems incorrect. Well, let's break it down, all right, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. And you're like cool, justin, but that's talking about the children of Israel. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication, or validation, if you wanted to say it that way. Tim is from me, the Lord.
Speaker 2:So this promise here is really a promise to those who are the children of God, not just the people of Israel. I mean. Earlier on he's like all your children shall be taught by the Lord. The great shall be the peace of your child and righteousness. You should be established. You'll be far from oppression. All this different stuff. It's really cool, but ultimately he's trying to say okay, no weapon that is fashioned against you will succeed in taking you off the course that god has planned and the work that god is doing and the person that god is making you to be in your life. This should beg the question when Goliath stands against David, did he do something wrong? Goliath, yeah, no, david, I mean Goliath. You could ask the question the same way, did Goliath?
Speaker 1:do something wrong.
Speaker 2:Or was he ordained for that too? You know, a whole nother question. And again, I'm not trying to make it too abstract because I know, like Tim, my goal in this is always to, like, get us up into heaven a little, and your goal is always to pull our feet right back down to the ground. And I love it. It's a good dynamic. But when I think about this text, ultimately what it's saying is that if you're facing something and you're feeling the breath of the accuser on your neck, it's probably a good evidence that you are validated in what you're doing, that there is vindication for you when you walk with Christ.
Speaker 1:that Macario blessing that, no, I'm going to trust and walk with the Lord. There's still this responsibility that we have, along with that verse right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, and every story tells a story, right. So like, uh, the israelites did nothing. Could they have done something? Hypothetically, yes, did they? No. Was it part of their story to not do something? Yes, could they have done something?
Speaker 2:Yes, um, their story speaks to us about how we want our story to be, and the accuser will always be telling you you're in the wrong spot, you're doing the wrong thing, you're not this, you're not that, and always tends to validate you when you're doing the wrong things. Don't challenge the giant, no way. Oh, come on, only a fool, would you know how to be like? There's always that spectrum of encouragement and discouragement in these different places, and I don't know when I read this verse and it says no weapon that is fashioned against you will succeed. I would take this to mean that anything that you actually come against, whether you perceive it as it's succeeding against you or not, and Christ does not, because God will have his way and bring about what he's supposed to through this, and the fact that Jesus says you will have suffering, there are going to be problems, there is going to be some pain, tells me that it's written into your story.
Speaker 2:I mean, philippians 2 says, or is it Philippians 1? It says it is granted to you, on behalf of Christ, that you would suffer with him. Hate that, okay, but granted, what do you mean? Granted you mean? I mean given is one thing, but granted is like you're welcome. But if we're to know Christ, if we're to understand the greater story that we're a part of, we should know that no weapon that was formed against Christ succeeded. And because Christ is now in me, I can trust that taking up my cross daily is not me dealing with failures and problems, but ultimately, the new spirit that is in me, because Christ has given me a new one and his indwelling spirit can testify that no, I'm a child of God. And all of these negative voices, all these things that come against my, my mentality and how I'm living, ultimately I will be vindicated in the presence of God and he will. He will cancel out those debts himself for those who are in Christ and and call it according to his purpose.
Speaker 1:Right, right, and it really comes from if we're living life hard, in those seasons where it just sucks, you know, yeah, I want to be validated in that, knowing that I'm still doing the right thing, that I'm on the right track here, yeah, and I'm steadying the course here, yeah. So, to bring it, it can get weird, because you have James talking about a man with doubt is just, you know, two-minded and back and forth in the waves. I'm like dang, I'm that guy a lot.
Speaker 2:So let's bring it back down to the ground. Were the decisions that you made made in faith? Were the decisions that you made made in wisdom? Were the decisions that you made made in obedience? I would say, if you can answer, you might add one more Were the decisions that you made made in love? Right, which could fall under the category of obedience? But ultimately, if you're doing those things and you're getting punched in the mouth, praise God Like I don't know, but it's been granted to you. It's like you're welcome. God's like take this, this is good, this is a good thing. I know it doesn't feel good in the moment, but this is accomplishing something, it's doing something and feeling God, but I feel like a janitor. Good Right, this is doing something.
Speaker 1:Well then there's always that thing people say in church. It's like well, when you die, it would all be revealed to you as to why things happened, you know. So I'm like, really so I have to just live as best I can, even though I feel like I'm just crap all the time. And then, when I get to heaven, oh, that's why I did this. Think about it this way I don't live like that either.
Speaker 2:I don't think it's that way. I don't think it's that way, all right, so I brought this up in the past. Resurrected with scars, he comes back in his resurrected body with holes in his hands. Seems strange, Unless the marks that we bear from the struggle that we walk through are actually medals of honor in the kingdom, okay so.
Speaker 2:So think about it this way when you get to heaven, there's not going to be like, hey, now let's sit down and I'm going to prove to everyone, in front of everyone else, every circumstance so that you can sit here and be like ha see, right? No, instead, you get a robe thrown over your shoulders and you get a crown placed on your head and then you judge the angels. Okay, so it's not as though you're sitting here trying to figure it out. It's more like I'm going through life trusting that what he said was the case. And when I get to the other side and I'm given my crown and I'm placed at his table and I'm called to judge the angels, it won't be a question, it will be vindication, not because we had to go through every circumstance, but because the crown is on your head and the Lord Christ has given it to you himself. That, to me, is and again, why is that important? Because the moment-to-moment thing isn't the biggest deal. The most important thing is the identity that you're given, and if Christ says you're a prince, then I am a prince, that I am a prince If Christ says that no tongue that is set against me will prevail and that every enemy that is fast against me will not succeed, then I'm going to live like. This is exactly the way. If I continue to do and walk as Christ did is I would continue to live in that blessing.
Speaker 2:In that the word of shalom literally means you know, people say shalom. I mean like, hey, peace, peace be upon you. But ultimately it means as God wills it. Like shalom would be like I hope you walk out exactly God's plan for your life. Right, and we can talk about tangents and hey, when we do stupid stuff. Is that cool? And there's no accusation? No, but the cool thing is is the Bible makes it clear that God punishes his own kids when they do that. He's like this one's mine, I'll take care of it. And then even that is why. Well, what does that mean? Well, at that point, it's not the accuser that's condemning you, it's your own dad telling you to get your life together, which is almost more encouraging, but almost more scary as well.
Speaker 1:Well, it's scary trying to figure out between the two. It's like is this God? Are you disappointing me, or is this just the enemy?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, that's what I was talking about earlier. You know what I mean. If you, if you're walking through this process of like faith, obedience, love, like am I doing the things and wisdom that God has called me to, and if you're running it through that spectrum, you're running it through the, what you've learned from the word, what you know about the Lord and what he's called you to do, um, I cannot imagine you getting to heaven and God being like, yeah, you, just you screwed it up. Really bad, no, because sin ultimately is sin of, not not confusion, but but I, I truly thought I was doing the right thing, to the best of my ability, to the word that you gave me, the wisdom that you gave me, the spirit that you gave me. I walked those things out. I can't imagine you get to heaven and God's like you idiot, all of the things that I said in that particular moment didn't count for you.
Speaker 1:Honestly one of my fears when I get to heaven is not that you know. Depart from me, worker. I don't fear that as much as I used to.
Speaker 2:You fear more that you've missed something.
Speaker 1:I would fear more of God being like. Look at the life you could have had if you would have chosen me in that circumstance there.
Speaker 2:Or look if you would have just come to me during this time and chose this, then look what would have happened, you know that's to me as a fearful thought, tim, let me put it to you this way I don't think you get to heaven in the splendor and glory of God with a crown on your head, a robe on your back, and get to sit and judge the angels and then are then told your your fold, your identity, and given whatever your beautiful purpose is in that eternal state.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then you're thinking back on what you missed.
Speaker 1:Well, that would happen before all that. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, this happens right after you die, all right.
Speaker 2:So I just wrote this into a chapter, tim, but I'm going to go ahead and say it. Okay, what is amazing to me about the burning bush is that Moses is encountering the holiness of God. A bush is set on fire. God is speaking to him out of the bush. He takes off his sandals because he's on holy ground. Sand from this holy ground is literally pressing up in between his toes to make him totally uncomfortable and not focused on. Like you know. It's not about comfort here, it's not about you. You are being invaded. You know what I mean Like. And then he's telling him I'm going to send you, throw your staff down Look, you know what I mean. Put your hand in your coat. Look, you have leprosy. Now it's gone.
Speaker 2:Like the power of God has descended in this moment and Moses is being told I'm sending you, and he's in the presence of the Lord and the first thing that he's fighting against is his own inadequacy. And I get it Like. I get our tendency when we see God is to think about us, but that's actually the bigger blasphemy. The tendency when we see God shouldn't be about to look at ourselves and our own thinking and our own stuff. Our tendency should be to behold him and worship and praise and walk out whatever he has told us to do. The great scandal in all of this although I know it's pious and popular to stare at yourself when you encounter God, but the opposite is actually what we should be doing. When you encounter God, you stare at him, you focus on him and you do what he says. And so, just as we're processing this idea of heaven and how things roll out, what happens, I think we're looking at it through the lens of our own inadequacy and our sinful tendencies here. And I think this idea of no weapon formed against you, every tongue that condemn you you will destroy on the last day. Why? Because I am a child of God. When you come into the eternal state, tim, I don't think there is an ounce of doubt, regret or mess left in you, because you are literally a prince in that kingdom and there is no limp. You know what I mean. There's only power from God and love of the community and being fully known and fully knowing, and whatever the cost.
Speaker 2:On this side of things, paul tells us I think it's 2 Corinthians 9, that it pales in comparison. These light and momentary afflictions pale in comparison to eternity and the glory there, and I think we just have to. We got to remember that Each moment is valuable. Whatever condemning voices I'm hearing, they don't hold water.
Speaker 2:If you're walking in faithfulness to Jesus, if you've made mistakes and you're not walking in faithfulness to Jesus, it's the Lord bringing you back to where you should be, and one day you will breathe out, you will give up this body, uh, this the last enemy. Death will be destroyed for you and you will be clothed with a resurrection body and and invited into eternity where, um, I don't even think you're going to think about this stuff, except to celebrate, you know, and um, so, whatever we're walking through now, tim, the life suffering, you know the, the whole idea. It's not wrong, it's. The problem is that it's half right and Satan loves to ignore the refrain that God gives us, which is yes, but God, the gospel itself, and so we embrace that and we trust him through it, and in that we find not just our ultimate vindication but our individual, momentary validation. So hope that helps. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's probably good for time there, but thanks for going through this Tackling it. Yeah, every time before I hit record I always say this might suck. So we'll just see what happens. It still might, I don't know. It was good. I enjoyed the topic.
Speaker 2:And guys praying that today God would put just some courage in your heart and steel in your spine to walk in the fullness of who he's called you to be and reach out If you guys have any topics you want us to cover.
Speaker 1:On that note, there's a new feature with our podcast. In the description above our email address there's a link that says send a text.
Speaker 2:Oh cool.
Speaker 1:Click on that on your phone, you're able to write in anything right away. Only we can see it, you and I. So yeah, if you guys have questions off when you're listening or have something, in mind.
Speaker 2:You want to talk about pictures. I won't even look at them.
Speaker 1:I don't think it's even allowed for pictures. I hope not, I just have.
Speaker 2:I have some sick friends too, that's true, no, but it's a link.
Speaker 1:If you have anything you want to bring up or any questions you have right on the top of your head and you don't want to type out an email or something, just send it right away.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, it'll be pretty fun. All right guys, great to be back and have an awesome week. Yeah, catch you all next time.
