The WOFOYO Podcast
The WOFOYO Podcast
The Weightier Matters of the Law/Bearing Fruit
We explore the contrast between outward religious appearance and genuine spiritual fruit, diving deep into Jesus's teachings on the weightier matters of the law.
• The difference between leaves (religious activities) and fruit (character transformation)
• How Jesus cursed an out-of-season fig tree, teaching us to bear fruit regardless of circumstances
• Balancing mercy and justice through genuine faith
• Why judgment without mercy and mercy without accountability both lead to spiritual imbalance
• The danger of religious credentials and titles without substance
• Practical ways to examine whether you're producing leaves or fruit
• Why inviting people to Jesus should precede inviting them to church
• Using faith as the lever to balance mercy and justice in our lives
#wofoyo
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Speaker 1:Hey everybody, welcome to another edition of the Wofo Yo Podcast. With C Dubb and Bones, we're going to call this the weightier matters of the law, as the King James uses, and we were kind of debating because we come across some good material that really summed up a lot of the things we were saying Right now. We're going to get in the word for ourselves. So why don't you get in the word for yourself with us? We're going to be over in Matthew 23. Why don't you get in the word for yourself with us? We're going to be over in Matthew 23. My favorite, one of my favorite chapters of the Bible, but my absolute favorite whenever I'm feeling a little froggy, because Beacon Mile, dear gentle, jesus, jesus, lets them have it. Man, we're going. We're going to start at verse 12 in Matthew 23.
Speaker 1:And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased, and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. And that's going to relate a lot to the next thing we discuss. So that's why we're starting there. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour there, make him twofold more, the child of hell than yourselves.
Speaker 1:Woe unto you, blind guides, which say Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing. But whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor. Ye fools and blind, for whether is greater the gold or the temple that sanctifieth gold. And whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing. But whosoever swears by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. Ye fools and blind, for whether is greater the gift or the altar that sanctifieth the gift. I would just like to add in here Jesus overturned the gifts. He never overturned the altar, anyway. Whoso, therefore, overturn the gifts? He never overturned the altar Anyway. Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it and all the things thereon. And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it and by him that dwelleth therein. And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God and by him that sitteth thereon. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith. These ought ye have done and not to leave the others undone, you blind guides which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. And I was going to just start with the weightier matters of the law. But man, he was really talking about what we're going to talk about in this next verse or his next passage, and we will get into that here Matthew 21, verse 18.
Speaker 1:In the morning, as he returned into the city, he hungered, and when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it and found nothing thereon but leaves only, and said unto it Let no fruit grow on thee. Hence forward, forever and presently. The fig tree withered away. And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying how soon the fig tree withered away. And Jesus answered and said unto them Verily, I say unto you, if you have faith and doubt not, you shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also you shall say unto this mountain Be thou removed and cast thou into the sea, and it shall be done. In all things whatsoever you ask in prayer, believing you shall receive. There is another version of this. And the tree takes, basically, he says it in the afternoon and by the time they come back in the morning it's done.
Speaker 1:Still pretty quick. And we were debating. I was like, hey, you know, I was debating, I'm like man, we could talk about fig trees, we could talk about leaves and no fruit, because we heard somebody talk about that. But the way to your matters of the law. Really, when you get into that, it's trying to get into all the minutia and missing the point.
Speaker 1:We had a series, a year or two ago now, where we were talking about balance and mercy and justice or judgment is translated one way or the other. The Hebrew has like multiple meanings for the word, so it's like a fuller meaning, but it is mercy and compassion on one side and then judgment and justice on the other. And then he talks about having faith, which dovetails right into Matthew 21. It's about having faith. If you have faith, you're going to bear the fruit. But I think a lot of times we say, well, god is love and he is Absolutely. John is right, god is love. But I also think that we've gotten so comfortable that we don't realize that a lot of what we're doing isn't really love.
Speaker 2:I think that I think God is so complex when we think of an eternal, omniscient, having always been there, having will always be there, kind of God, all-knowing, everything, kind of God. It's so complex. So I find it kind of I don't know kind of silly sometimes in our finite minds to throw a simple sentence out there, like God is love, to try to explain who or what God is. Just don't do it, Because God is so much more than just love. God encompasses, His nature, encompasses so much more than than love alone. There's love, there's compassion, there's justice, mercy, there's judgment, there's all of these things.
Speaker 2:But our, our human mind, especially when we're in trouble and we don't want to face justice, we want to focus on love. And maybe, maybe that's kind of interesting because when you're, when you're standing in judgment, you're looking across the gap at mercy, at love. So maybe that's why you want it. So, love and judgment, or mercy and judgment, they have to balance each other out. They have to balance each other out.
Speaker 2:Or you have to balance each other out, or you'll be out of balance and you'll have mercy but no judgment, or you'll have judgment and no mercy and you'll find all throughout Scripture that that's not who God is. I think we can look in our own lives and see where we have plenty of times where there was lots of mercy but because there was no judgment, folks ran rampant. And then there were times where we had lots of judgment but no mercy, and because there was no mercy there was no growth. Mercy where there was no growth. So I think the reason mercy and judgment stand opposite of each other is because they demand balance, they demand equal parts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that's where the faith comes in.
Speaker 1:It's by faith that you learn how to balance it and by faith, you know that God can call you to operate in judgment, not being judgmental in the negative context of just condemning everything, but executing the righteous, as Jesus said. You know, judge righteous judgments while that's necessary and also to exercise mercy and compassion when that's necessary. If you have a kid and you tell your kid that they can do no wrong, that nothing they ever do is wrong and you never correct them, you really don't love your kid, that they can do no wrong, that nothing they ever do is wrong and you never correct them, you really don't love your kid. I hate to tell you it's going to turn out to be a spoiled little brat.
Speaker 2:That's neither love nor judgment.
Speaker 1:No, that's not love, it's a good feeling, it's a dopamine hit. Yeah, it's the same people that end up actually devouring their kids Right, eventually. Take a little page from the Freud book. Don't come after me for that, but Freud talked about the devouring mother Right, and that was one of the things that they can lead into resentment in males.
Speaker 1:And man, if you don't correct your kids, then somebody else is gonna, and I, in the words of Ulysses Everett McGill, it might be straight with the Lord, but the state of Mississippi is a little bit more hard notes. You know, I heard one of my favorite pastors go you think it's cool you're teaching your kid to use them cuss words when they're three and four. And you think it's cool you teaching your kid to use them cuss words when they're three and four? And you think it's cool when they you know, funny and cute when they throw a fit. They said wait till they turn 18 and spit on a cop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you don't have some kind of divine, divinely inspired discipline in how you raise your kids, in how you treat yourself, man, we can see people to where the highest mountain of their existence, the apex of their existence, the thing they live for, is nothing but pleasure, and pleasure is what commands your every whim of their existence. The thing they live for is nothing but pleasure, and pleasure is what commands your every whim. It is your motivating factor and that's how you see people turning 600 pounds over time. Pleasure and comfort Yep, that's how you see people get hooked up at the age of some other venereal disease. That's how you see people get hooked up and lose half their stuff because they wanted to fool around and couldn't keep a marriage. That was a perfectly fine marriage to keep together and now they lost all their stuff. You keep pursuing pleasure to where that's your overriding goal. It will ruin you If you don't not that having a good time is bad, but you have to balance that with discipline, self-discipline, and that's holding yourself accountable. That's a form of personal justice.
Speaker 2:Right, right, right. Yeah, justice isn't always, you know, tit for tat kind of thing. Justice isn't always a matter of someone did this. Well then, this needs to happen to them, or vice versa. Well then, this needs to happen to them, or vice versa. Justice simply is making sure that you're doing the right thing for the right reasons. There's a lot of that involved too. So, yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, doing the right thing is just simply the right thing to do. We've got to learn how to do that. But if your moral compass is yourself, then I mean you're corrupt already.
Speaker 2:That moral compass has to be rooted in God's word. You and I have been there. Our moral compass is rooted in God's word. But we still act a fool sometimes, you know. We still act a fool sometimes when we let our relationship with the Lord slip. But that's what the Holy Spirit is good for. The Holy Spirit is good for reminding us about justice and discipline and all those things, justice and discipline and all those things. And then you know, hopefully, before we get too far out of whack, we're guided back in underneath his wing and then we can kind of go back, kind of get back on with things again. But your moral compass has to be rooted in God's word, not in how I feel, not in my emotions, not in other people's perception or anything else like that. We have to get back into God's word.
Speaker 1:You and I have both taught firearms different organizations. Judgment is used on a firearms range why? Because judgment has to be used when you're operating a firearm in that work environment, that military environment. There's not a lot of leeway there. It's an exacting task. It's an exacting task, and if you are undisciplined in how you conduct yourself and how you operate with that firearm, bad things happen.
Speaker 1:Bad things can happen to you, bad things can happen to innocent bystanders, bad things can happen to innocent bystanders. Bad things can happen to innocent bystanders. Also, even if you're dealing with bad guys, you can still find yourself in some legal trouble, because there's a thing called the use of force continuum. And even if you would have been justified in discharging that firearm at one point, that can de-escalate pretty quick, and so you have to have the situational awareness and the self-judgment, or else you're going to come up against a jury or a judge, not to mention, though, your supervisors that are going to hold you accountable. Right, sorry, that's not where the that's not the time for mercy and compassion. That's the time you execute judgments, because firearms are literally life and death. So there's times for that, right, right.
Speaker 2:You know what I find interesting here about this fig tree speaking about times and times for things, what I find interesting about this fig tree here Jesus looks at it, finds no fruit and then curses it, makes it wither. Well, if you go back and look here through the Scripture and find out what time of year it is and everything, this fig tree wasn't supposed to be bearing fruit at this time of year. It was supposed to be bare. There wasn't supposed to be any fruit on the fig tree. So the international question is so why did Jesus you know? Why did he curse the fig tree? Why did he say, you know, wither away?
Speaker 2:A lot of us believe that there's a deeper meaning here, a deeper truth, that of course now the fig tree could represent Israel. And then when we talk about the fig tree representing Israel, we talk about the church being grafted in stuff like that. I won't get into that. I don't think that's what we're trying to learn here at this point. But I do see where I think God expects us to bear fruit all the time, be instant, in season and out of season Instant in season and out of season, even if we're in a season where we think we're not supposed to be bearing fruit. We're not required to be bearing fruit or something like that. The Lord wants us to know that. No, you're always to be bearing fruit. Even if you think you're out of out of your season, you should still be bearing fruit. So Jesus is always looking under the leaves. He's always checking you out, so be careful.
Speaker 1:So you sent me a thing earlier today and it was Phil Driscoll talking about leaves versus fruit and I go, ooh, I could have listened to that little loop probably about three days in a row. It was that good. His synopsis was a lot of what we do in our outer actions in the church as Christians is its leaves. They're very, very visible, but it's not the same as fruit. And it's basically what we've been saying. You have no relationship, but you have all the outer workings. You can have all the appearances of having church and being a good Christian and all these things.
Speaker 1:And, man, I hate to be judgmental because the bottom line is I'm not what determines what somebody's relationship with the Lord is, what determines what somebody's relationship with the Lord is, but I can tell you that back when Bones and you and I worked together, there was a handful of people that talked church and Jesus and talked about how good of a person they were, because they were a Christian, you know, and they don't do this and they don't do that. Well, they also didn't do their job and had several of them got fired. Forgive me if I seem a little bit skeptical, you know, and perhaps I'm reading too much into it. But if you want to talk about how good a person you are but you don't do your job, it's a piss poor witness for Christ and as someone that's had to get dealt with about how I do my job because it's a witness for Christ, even in a harsh environment, high threat environment. You know I am executing a little bit of judgment because if it's good for the goose there, it's good for the gander.
Speaker 2:Right, you know, things like going to church, that's leaf. Praying for people, that's leaf. You know. If God has called you not to drink or if he's called you, called you, to abstain from alcoholic beverages, that's leaf. Okay, um, the things that we quote, unquote, do that that's leaf. Uh, you know you, you know you. You pick your box and check it and that I guarantee that's probably leaf.
Speaker 2:But the fruit of the spirit is a little different.
Speaker 2:The fruit of the spirit which is love, joy, meekness, long-suffering, all those different things, those tie more deeply to our character, to our nature, to who we are and how we treat people different things like that, and that's a little bit harder in myself, anyway.
Speaker 2:People, different things like that and those, that's a little bit harder in myself. Anyway, I find fruit of the spirit harder to exhibit than leaf, because bottom line is man, life gets in the way yeah, life will, life will get in the way of of your fruit bearing. If you're not careful, life won't really step all over your leaf. Because I mean, you can, you can go to, you can go to church as mad as you want to Matter of fact, I'd hate to think how many fights happen on the way to church on Sunday morning, trying to get the minivan full of kids and off to church and everything, yeah, it does. But the fruit of the Spirit, that's where I think, that's where we see the evidence of real discipleship, yeah, and that relationship with the Lord. Everything else is just leaf and Jesus is going to pick up on your leaves and see if you got any fruit hanging there.
Speaker 1:It's that time where soil is getting prepped, got my seeds started and you know here won't be too long, I won't be putting them in the ground Right. It is a lot easier to kill a tree or not to kill the tree, but to kill the fruit on the tree. It doesn't take much to cause something not to bear fruit. It takes a lot more. It's a lot harder to get a tree not to have leaves Right, and you know it takes. Death is what it takes. But you have a frost, you have some kind of chemical imbalance in the soil. Mildew is one of the things we've got to worry about down here, especially with our peaches. I have a peach tree and man, if you don't watch it or like this, fungus can get on them and you think, oh, I'm going to have peaches, and the next thing, you know, they start to turn gray and wither. Yeah, if you don't keep like an antifungal around or some stuff like that, and you know, like the garden, if you don't keep an antifungal around or some stuff like that and like the garden, last year my garden took on the third planting. Wow, I had to plant it. Frost killed it, planted it again. Birds came in and I'm looking for the stuff to come, come up and I see where things have been digging. I'm like, well, you little turds. And then on the third one I got some decent stuff to come up. Really surprised me as far as the amount that I was able to get.
Speaker 1:And it is so much easier for things to rob you of your fruit, for circumstances, for your inner state of being, you know, say, the pH balance of your soil is off. You know, basically, your spirit's not right, your mind's not right, what you're doing is not right. All that stuff can mess up your fruit. Not right. What you're doing is not right, all that stuff can mess up your fruit. You could be well on your way to bearing fruit. You have a cold snap or a bad storm. You know hits you as a person, man, you let your love grow cold, even if it's just overnight, man, that can mess up the fruit of your spirit.
Speaker 2:I found for me, one of the things that hinders my fruit is the constant need for judgment, and what I mean by that. It's very easy to watch the news or to see what's going on around you in the world and to just constantly want everybody to get what they got coming to them. That constant need for judgment sometimes for me anyway can make me so calloused and can make my heart hard at sometimes. So we have to at least what I've learned in myself, I have to sprinkle some mercy and compassion in with that judgment. Sometimes I ain't gonna lie, sometimes I just want people to get what they got coming, absolutely. And then the Lord I feel the Holy Spirit check me and say all right, what about the next time you screw up? You know how about you get what you got coming? I'm like, oh damn Okay, I don't really want that, you know. So you know we got to.
Speaker 2:If you want, if you want mercy, you got to give mercy. So I have to remember that sometimes too. So it's okay to, it's okay to ask for justice and to seek justice, but sprinkle mercy in there with it too, because sometimes there are just folks who are. There's a lot of folks who are just stuck on stupid, yeah, and, and they're doing things because they don't know any better. Now there are other times where folks are just flat-out evil and the Lord's got something for them. But a lot of folks, man, they're just stuck on stupid and they need someone. They need some help, and if you can help them, give it a shot and then, if that don't work, then go on about your business. But I find myself getting calloused sometimes when I look for judgment more than mercy.
Speaker 1:Well, I think a lot of times I go back to the opening scene of the Godfather. It's the baker, correct? Yeah, baker comes in and I believe in America, and he basically comes in to Vito Corleone, don Corleone, and he tells a story that he has this daughter. She was beautiful and she goes Hangs out with these American boys and basically they try and rape her. When she doesn't, when she resists, then they beat her up and Disfigure her face. She has to have reconstructive surgery, which wasn't really existent back then. You know this is in the 40s and so you know She'll never be beautiful again.
Speaker 1:Godfather. And Ovidio says what do you want me to do? And he whispers in his ear and he goes this I cannot do. And he talks about some protocols and he says you know, you come in and ask me to do a murder on the day of my daughter's wedding. And he said I want justice, godfather. And he goes that's not justice. He said your daughter still lives.
Speaker 1:And a lot of times we want vengeance. That's what he was asking for. He said you're asking want vengeance. That's what he was asking for. He said you're asking for vengeance. That's vengeance, not justice. But I think a lot of times we want vengeance, but also I think it's perfectly natural to want judgment to come, sure judgment to come.
Speaker 1:I look at a couple things in Scripture where it talks about the blood of Jesus speaks better things than that of Abel. Well, if you read the book of Enoch, then you know that the blood of Abel is screaming out. Enoch sees Abel in the ground in his own chamber screaming to be avenged. His complaint is he wants to be avenged. You see, in the book of Revelation all the martyrs are under the altar. How long, lord, until we're avenged? They're wanting divine justice and they get it. But you also have to realize that that justice is in God's timing.
Speaker 1:It also requires this, and I have erred on both sides. I've erred on the side of mercy, when I should have exercised justice, and I've definitely erred on the side of justice a lot more, when I should have been using mercy and compassion. And I'll tell you why it's because I developed my own theology and so I'd rather have faith and see what the Lord wanted me to do and have that relationship and trust that comes through faith. That's what helps keep you from going overboard either way, because I remember I didn't care what people thought when I was younger, about the same age as my youngest son, who's getting ready to turn 21.
Speaker 1:Man from 19 to about 23, 24, I was a grade-A jackass. A lot of y'all wouldn't like me and it was ego, straight-up ego. But I wanted to do what was right. I wanted the right thing, and the truth is what the truth is. And the heck with all your little well, have you thought about how they feel and all that? Don't care. The truth is the truth. Here's what it is.
Speaker 1:And discretion was just straight up out the window with me. I realized how stupid that was because, basically, I had to get humbled and I go. Hmm, maybe that compassion could have been used. And then I at times especially if it was people that I really liked there was times I wasn't probably as truthful as I should have been out of compassion, and that's what it looks like going overboard. Learn to trust God more and had a little bit more faith, rather than what my theology said faith was at the time. Then, man, I, just I just stayed balanced. I stayed on that middle path and not going too far to the right hand or to the left, because the Lord would have directed me. There would have been a time for both situationally. But you have to be able to operate in them. But you're not operating in one or the other all the time, right?
Speaker 2:Faith or sometimes, more importantly, lack of faith. Lack of faith attributes to a lot of the issues that we have in the body of Christ. If we got mercy on one side and justice on the other, I think we could probably put a relationship with Jesus in the center. That relationship is the fulcrum, and then faith is the lever that activates those things. Uh, but if our faith we and you can have, you can have a good relationship with Jesus and your faith be out of whack If you're not careful. Well, maybe not out of whack, but your faith can be, um, your faith can be small. Uh, your faith can be small. Your faith can be small. A short lever Okay, you got big faith. You got a long lever. You got a long lever on a good fulcrum. You can do a whole lot more than you can with a short lever. Yeah, if we have mercy on one side, judgment on the other, and our relationship is the fulcrum that faith rests on, if we can increase our faith, then I think we can do more.
Speaker 1:I looked something up. Definitely not establishing doctrine here, because there are some people that I dearly love who go oh my God, you looked at that. Yeah, because if you tell me something, oh dear God, you can't do that, you can't do that, I'm going to go look at it, I'm going to go read it, just letting you know ain't taking your word for it.
Speaker 1:Holy spirit says don't do it. Believe me, I'm not doing it, but I things that were supposed to be, like Bobby Bichet's mama. Everything's the devil. I'm going to go find out for myself.
Speaker 2:That first question I'm going to ask is who told you that?
Speaker 1:So I went and looked at the mystical tree of life and you can see that a lot of the any y'all watch Oak Island, you've seen that thing it's supposed to be these 10 emanations of the of the one true God. 10 times he spoke during creation, every time they're supposed to be an emanation. That's a Jewish mystical belief. Do I adhere to it myself? I go, yeah, there's some good parts. It can be misused. Yeah, you know you, it can be misused. You know you can fast track it just by having a relationship. You know that's the whole thing. Yeah, that's true. Oh, yes, it's true. Yeah, that's true. And it's more like a philosophical system. You can just have a relationship with Jesus and get to know him for real and all those things they're teaching. You're going to learn it on a very, very personal level.
Speaker 2:So why you got to go through all the hoops. Well, a lot of your books whether it's going to talk about that tree of life or any other subject, and even ours included if we're not careful, a lot of your books depending on how you use the knowledge in those books just become philosophical, just become another philosophy. So you have to keep the relationship with Jesus first and foremost.
Speaker 1:And I think that's what Jesus is talking about here in this passage in Matthew 23. He's going, man, you're focusing on all this minutiae and you're missing the big picture here. But when I looked at that on that tree, in the middle of it, you had mercy on one side, justice on the exact opposite side, one on the right, one on the left. Well, if you've ever looked at it, kind of in between, just a little bit lower, was beauty. And so Jesus talks about justice, mercy and faith. But when you're talking about the relationship, there's nothing more beautiful than that relationship with God and if you're staying balanced, it's going to be a beautiful thing and you'll have that fruit and not just leaves. I'm going to close it out with one other thing. Real quick, man, I happen to know like what in the world, because you sent me the thing talking about leaves and it's just Mark Driscoll said it, so good he goes and the bottom line is you're just deceiving, you're using it as the leaves to deceive others as well as yourself, because you think you're going through all that activity and you're really not. You're not developing relationship one bit.
Speaker 1:And so I got a friend of mine, went to school together, went and got that doctorate in theology doing their thing ministering. But there's definitely a focus. There's definitely a church-based thing, and there was a post about it. I almost took a screenshot and sent it to you so you could just give me the slap myself in the face emoji. But it was simply this I invited five people to church that are, you know, not in the kingdom, and they all had other things to do. But guess what? I want to keep inviting people to church.
Speaker 1:Here's my issue with that. And you got to press on and you got to keep on doing it, keep moving forward, because the time is now and you know all the churchisms. But the issue is this, especially as somebody who learned from Phil Miller why in the hell couldn't you just talk to him about Jesus in the first place, instead of bringing them to the pastor or whatever title of whatever you got? Going on is preaching in the pulpit that day over at your church? Maybe the Lord brought them across your path for you to talk to about Jesus?
Speaker 2:Right, that's man. That is such a tender topic for me. That is such a tender topic for me. I'm still not convinced that Sunday morning church is where the nonbelievers are supposed to be. That's where the believers are supposed to be. Now, if you invite nonbelievers to church, I guess your hope is that they would get saved. But you know once again, I know I'll make people mad with this but your worship service, where you're going to worship the one true God, that's where the believers are supposed to be. So, talk to folks about the Lord, talk to folks about Jesus, get them saved. And then, uh, didn't worry about getting them plugged in, uh, invited to church.
Speaker 2:All these other sayings and cliches and one-liners. Um, we have a bad habit of trying to clean the fish before we catch them, and that can be a hard habit to break because, once again, the only model that we know is what we have on Sunday mornings. We're taught that from the very first time we go to Sunday school. We're taught invite people to church, get people to come to church so that they can get saved. Well, in essence, the flip side of that coin is true as well. If you're inviting people to church so they can get saved.
Speaker 2:Well then you're saying on the other side of that coin that they can't get saved on the outside of church, which is wrong. I didn't get saved in church. A lot of folks didn't get saved in church. I know a lot of folks that didn't get saved in church. But be be open to the Holy spirit, listen to him when he's talking and listen to what he's saying and do. A proverb says don't listen and lean under your own understanding, just listen to what he's saying. We have a bad habit of listening to the Holy Spirit and then filtering it through what our pastor said. Well, I know we've preached on that before, but don't lean under your own understanding, listen to what he says and then just do it. The reason we don't just do it is because what we said a while ago little faith.
Speaker 1:You got little faith. Close it out with this. This is reading a book and this will be quick Dr Jordan Peterson. I can read about three pages of him a day. He's talking about the flaming sword and he basically is talking about discernment. And and he basically he's talking about discernment and knowing yourself. And he goes you know, there's this phrase about believe not every spirit, but test the spirit, see whether they're of God. He said if God gives you something that's good, loving, god gives that. You know, why do you need to test? Because we're taught that all these good gifts come from God. And he said indeed they do, but if your attitude isn't right, you're going to misuse it. He said the first thing you need to check is yourself, and I'm like yep, and so that's what we're talking about with faith, mercy and judgment. That's what we're talking about with fruit, and fruit versus leaves man. Be willing to listen to the Holy Spirit and then check yourself to make sure you're listening right.
Speaker 2:Yep, Just take a quick peek in the mirror and adjust your armor. Make sure you got everything on and step out in faith. Have a great attitude, you know, and make sure you're bearing fruit, not just leaves. You can you can bear leaves, but work some fruit in underneath there too. You'll be better off for it.
Speaker 1:Amen. Hey everybody, Thanks for listening. We hope this challenges you and causes you to grow. You can always check us out at wofoYoorg or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Audible, or check us out on YouTube. Remember, folks, if you're going to grow, you've got to Wofo. Yo Get in the word for yourself.