SPEAKER_02 0:00

You're listening to Overflow from Riverside Church.

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hey, what's going on? Welcome to the Overflow podcast. You got myself and my man Josh Cook here. Okay. Adam is gallivanting about around the country somewhere. You know, he couldn't get here. We have no idea. No, he's actually uh we got back from a trip uh to the footsteps of Paul. Uh Adam is flying back from New York City as we speak, um, or close to it. And uh so he's not here. And uh so we get to just kind of rail on him a little bit today. So uh no, hey, Overflow Podcast. This is where we dive a little bit deeper into the message from this weekend, uh kind of handle some things that weren't talked about, uh go a little bit deeper, maybe uh tie in some cultural implications and stuff like that. Um, and so welcome to the Overflow Podcast. Uh Josh, dude, great job last week. Well, thanks. You and Campbell like crushed it. Yeah, I was just telling Josh that like they did so well in the the Overflow podcast. And uh Campbell was amazing.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

I'm not yesing myself. I did watch this sermon. Great job, Campbell.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Yeah, great job that you're watching out there. I love it. Dude, I was watching in my room at 9 45 or 9 30, I think 10 o'clock at night, and so I had a good time watching it. Kicked back, relaxed.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Did you have both me and Campbell going simultaneously?

SPEAKER_00 1:12

We did watch it the next day, and it was that was harder. That would be tough. Uh they started 30 minutes earlier, so uh not bad.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

It was astounding to me how different our messages were. I don't I need to go back and listen to you and Adam side by side sometimes and see if that's the case. Oh, that's a good call. But uh, it was great that like the same uh very small piece of scripture, honestly.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Uh to be able to see like different ways that God led us and the Holy Spirit guided us through that whole thing was really cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

You know, you're you're like saying that. I I think back even to like okay, house church back in the day, right? You know, it was probably it's definitely not like this. Um, you know, in terms of like the way we do it now, it's not, you know, stand up preaching doing this, but it's talking about the the the scrolls, if you will, back then, yeah, talking about the things they memorize. And then it's just like the Holy Spirit is leading them on what it says, right? And so so much of that is pertinent because it's what's going on in your life right now, how the Holy Spirit uses it in a certain way, all of it being true, you know, as long as it's not against, you know, doctrine theology, clear-cut doctrine theology. Yeah. But it's like, man, I I've even gone back through passages, right? So I was just in Greece and walking through reading Acts 20, where Paul's talking to the Ephesian elders in Miletus, and I've read it a hundred times, more than that, actually, way more than that. But it hit me so differently as a lead pastor with transition, time in a city, all these types of things, just going a man, like, man, you know, how deep it was. So it is funny, you know, how you can take a piece of pat uh piece of scripture, a passage of scripture, break it down, and completely teach its truth in a way that is is so different yet so similar. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Um, so yeah, that's true. Scripture's so huge and multifaceted that I think it's just it's a blessing to the church that different people get to uh teach and lead on it, that the Holy Spirit leads us in different directions.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Yeah, it's a gift. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Here's a question for you though. Okay. Standing in Ephesus, you were thinking about this passage prepping to preach even this week. Ridiculous. How did it shape? I know this passage, there's not a lot of like geographic anchors or anything like that, but did it shape like you thinking about the armor of God?

SPEAKER_00 3:20

I mean, it did. I was thinking about, you know, obviously you uh we were just talking about this, you know, Paul being tied to a Roman soldier. You know, he's they like they would say or guesstimate that he was somewhere around 18 inches away from the Roman soldier at any given standpoint. Like it this wasn't like a 20-foot chain, it was 18 inches, you know. And so as he's writing it, you think of like him being in a cell, writing to the church in Ephesus, you know, like that first standpoint, right? Then um, I think for me, Josh, like I was sitting there going, it it was all it was like so preemptive to where we see that culture going. I I was thinking, like, I was trying to piece together where Paul wrote different things, right? So like he writes Romans from Corinth, you know, to the church in uh, I mean, to the church in Rome, but he's in Corinth, which all this stuff is going on. Then he's writing these different, he's writing in different places to these. So he goes and he does the ministry in in Ephesus, then he writes the letter, you know, and then, you know, we obviously fast forward, you have Timothy that spends time there, you have John that spends time there, and then what John writes to the church at Ephesus in Revelation and the seven churches, don't lose your first love, you know, and all these things. And it's like, so going back to what I thought about more than anything else was going back to where Paul is walking through the armor. He sent this to them. He spends time there, then he writes a letter back to them, then he's writing about this armor, and then it was almost like they didn't put their armor on because now, 40 years later, John is there after after having spent this time, you know, on Patmos, he gets this revelation that says, Don't you lose your first love. I can I can only imagine that they didn't have their armor on if they lost their first love, you know. And I was sitting there going, like, golly, like how this all like interweaves. I mean, like, dude, Paul was there some 40 years before John, you know, was there for five, six years. John, you know, he died like in his, he was in his late 90s, early 100s. And so you just think about the difference between like Paul and John. They both served there, they do this stuff. But but going back to like, okay, Paul was trying to prepare them. Hey, man, over the next 40 years, you're gonna lose your love. Like it's almost like God gives him, the Holy Spirit gives him that word to write, prepare for this battle, armor up, and the whole armor is standing in Christ. I mean, like, you know, we're talking about this passage, right? I mean, this is what he says: stand therefore. We're standing in what God has already done. Even this week, the breastplate of righteousness, it's not my righteousness, it's God's righteousness. Standing in his righteousness, that means I know his love. I'm standing in his love. And then a short time down the road, one generation, they've lost their first love.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

It makes me think too, like, this battle is not over. Dude. He's letting them know, like, hey, it's not just what you're doing today. Stand there for ongoing action.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

Right. It's and it's like it's a like the way I was reading this, even after looking at that, you know, standing in Ephesus, I mean, hundreds of thousands of people live there. And um, I mean, it it would it is massive. Massive. I didn't know how big it was. Yeah. I like going into it. Um, there's people from all over the world that still visit just because of the archaeological finds that are there. Um, and and you're sitting there and it's like, dude, Paul was in the thralls of worldly everything, right? Um, I was even standing at the library and then thinking about the passage where they bring the books in Acts where they bring the books out and burn them, you know, and it's it's you know, all that money that's wasted. But it's like Paul is sitting there and he's in the thralls of worldly battles. And I was thinking back to like, golly, dude, he just had to, he had to suit up every day, every single day. Um, and it's like, and then I was thinking about the Roman soldier that was tied to him as he's writing it, and I'm thinking like that Roman soldier had to suit up to come and spend that time with Paul, right? And it's like, and he's probably thinking, like, okay, before a soldier goes on his tour, you know, in his time frame, he's gotta do this every single day. I gotta put on my belt of truth, I gotta put on my breastplate of righteousness. I was even thinking of like trying to like process through like you know how how did it what was first, you know? You you have to put the breastplate of righteousness on before you put the belt of truth on. Well, not righteousness, you have to put the breastplate on before you put the belt on. But and so I was trying to even process like, okay, what was Paul doing? You know, in terms of like the way he put this together. You know, and I was like, so my I might I'm like it's a half-baked idea right now, you know, but I've been walking through like why, why did it go belt of truth, then breastplate? The order is interesting, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

And it's and to me, even in in our two weeks, you did a great job last week, and and I'm thinking that like I have to stand on truth before I can even believe in the righteousness of God. And so I like a it doesn't make sense to put a belt on before the breastplate, yeah, but in terms of truth before the righteousness, I have to believe that God's word is true. Yeah, he is who he said he is, he will do what he said he was going to do continually over and over again before I can stand in the righteousness that's his. Does that make sense? You know, so I was even just processing that, like, so it's got to be more not about the armor, it's got to be more about the pieces of followership of truth and righteousness and helmets and everything else. Uh I mean the the shoes, shod your feet with the readiness, uh, the the gospel. And so, yeah, anyways, it like my mind was racing this past week and just sitting there going, wow, and it's gonna take me a long time to process it, to be honest with you, to go like, dude, what he I mean, he spent three years there. And I I really was was sitting there. Um, he didn't spend that long at a lot of places, right? I mean, like he he spent time at a couple different places, but he spent three years in Ephesus. And Josh, we live in a city. I mean, you know this better than anybody, you've been here for a long time, longer than me. And this is a transient city. And I even thinking about Ephesus, to go like, man, Paul goes to all these places before then, right? He goes to, you know, Thessaloniki and Philippi and Berea and Athens and Corinth. And and he goes to Ephesus and he spends three years there. And I think it was because of the strategic city that Ephesus was. I think Paul knew and if we can reach these people, you know, then then we can see obviously he's Holy Spirit led, but it's if we can see God work here in Ephesus, he could work anywhere. And it's like a hub. And you and I are in a big city because we believe that planting churches in cities like Denver will then impact the region around us. And and I just man, that became so real to me in Ephesus. And um, yeah, I mean, like, you know, how much transiency have you seen over your last decade?

SPEAKER_01 10:32

A ton. And you know what I'm thinking about when you're saying that too. I'm like, he was there for three years, and then he writes this letter. We hear it as Paul writing to the the Ephesians, yeah, or the church at Ephesus. Yeah. And that sounds like an abstraction. Like, I've never been to North Dakota. And so if Josh wrote a letter and said to the church at North Dakota, yeah, it would just be like, hey, you guys should put on this armor. That's really cool, right? Yeah. Uh Paul is thinking names, he's thinking stories, these are people that he's prayed with, these are people that he's wept with. I mean, he's like been through it with these guys for three full years, then leaves and gets to write this letter. Also sending Timothy over there, like his like sort of mentee, his like beloved son in the gospel. I mean, it's just a beautiful thing. You kind of get it from the rest of the letter, too, that like he he misses them. He uh at least that's in between the lines.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

I mean, you know, I was reading to you earlier, uh, talking about where he where he's talking to the Ephesian elders in Miletus. And you feel it. You know, I mean you like they're like there I mean it says after he said this, this is Acts 20, 36, after he said this, he knelt down and prayed with all of them. There were many tears shed by everyone. They embraced Paul and kissed him, grieving most of all over his statement that they would never see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship. Like, can you imagine that walk to the ship? They are sitting there, they're like, Okay, this guy spent three years with us and and did this and is writing letters back to us and all this other kind of stuff, and like and he is torn, and I it is, it's the people, right? And it it's funny, we're we're here I don't know if you know this, we're in the midst of a uh auditorium transition, and and you think about uh the building is incredible, like it's been here since 1978, and uh you know, and and it's incredible. And we can get really caught up over a building. Yeah, um, and I just visited the church in Sardis, uh the church in Ephesus, the church in Thessaloniki, the church in Berea, uh, the church in Philippi, um, and uh the church in Corinth. None of those churches are now churches.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

There's no first Baptist Corinth.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

There's no First Baptist Corinth. I look for it. There's no like New Hope Corinth. Um, I did not see a Fresh Hope Corinth. I didn't see any of those. I didn't see Riverside in Philippi. Riverside Philippi. Should have been Riverside Philippi.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

One day.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

And uh yeah, we're praying about that. And uh, but but it was the people of all of that, you know, that and that's what continued on. So a friend of mine said one time before every church in the New Testament that got a book deal is dead and gone. And uh, but the people continued on for generations until we have it now. And so, yeah, you're exactly right. Like Paul was broken over the people. And I think that's why he was broken to stay there that long, anyways, right? You go to this city, you see everything that's going on in this city. And I mean, it is crazy. He's in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This is in Acts 19, this is to Ephesus, right? So and all of this is is it ties into Ephesians 6, right? And so it's like we don't read Acts to think about Ephesians, we just think about Ephesians. But it's like you got to read Acts to think about Ephesians. He enters the synagogue, speaks boldly over a period of three months, arguing and persuading them about the kingdom of God. But when some of them became hardened and would not believe, slandering the way in front of the crowd, he withdrew from them, taking the disciples, and conducted discussions every day in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years. So that check this out. All the residents of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord. He, like usually when talking about people and sending out and the culture of all this kind of stuff. All the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord. That is insane, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:23

So they're flowing in and out of the city as he's preaching the gospel.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

And that's what he's doing. He sees it strategically. He knows I can reach Asia if I reach these people here. And it was so crazy. And so, like many who became believers became uh they came confessing and disclosing their practices, while those who practiced magic collected their books, burned them in front of everyone. So they calculated the value and found it to be 50,000 pieces of silver. By the way, that's in like AD 60.

unknown 14:46

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

50,000 pieces of silver in AD. A lot of money. That's a lot of money. A lot of magic. Um, and the word this way the word of the Lord spread and prevailed. And so it's just like, you know, it's it's a reminder. And then honestly, like even what we experience today in Denver and in, you know, big, very progressive cities like Denver, um, man, we're not facing anything Paul didn't like I I would argue that he faced worse situations than we do. And we do. We think we're like, oh, today is so bad. I think it was worse in Ephesus. I really do. And um, and so it's like, yeah, I mean, I I was just blown away. And it, I mean, it goes into just like, man, read the word, engage in the word, like tie it together, spend time. I I think we get so check the box oriented for a long time in my Bible reading, I don't know about yours, I would want to read the, you know, read the Bible through the year, in a year, all the way through, chronologically or Old Testament, New Testament, Saul Proverbs, whatever else it is. And um, and that was good. It was very, very formative for me to do that. But then there became a time where I was like, you know, I'm gonna slow down and just let it like marinate a little bit. And that was also incredible. And it's like, but the reality was get to know the overarching story, yeah. Um, then learn the different pieces and components, let it marinate where God and the Holy Spirit is working. You know, you may dive into one area and then dive into another area. It's back to what we were talking about with Campbell. It was like, okay, let me dive slower into Acts, you know, let me do this. And um, and it's just unique that, like, man, it it's such a fascinating book to like piece together and see, and then to know that we stand on the shoulders of all of those things. I'm not here without Paul going to Neapolis and stepping foot on the Roman road to take the gospel to the Gentiles across the world. And um, yeah, man, it's fascinating.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

And so I was thinking as you were talking too, like, I don't do a good enough job of like tying all of this together and placing it historically. Dude, and I think like uh this is probably good for all of us, but yeah, and I think like uh there's a temptation to just sort of like go through a reading plan, like you said, doing it in a year, maybe even just like a chapter a day or something like that, and that is great. And if especially if you're just starting out reading the Bible, that is a wonderful thing for you to do. Yeah, it is like far and beyond the most common way that I think people read the Bible. Yeah. And yet, like if you're just going through Psalms and then you go to Proverbs, and then you're just sort of plodding along, you can miss a lot of this stuff.

SPEAKER_00 17:11

Dude.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

And so I think like if you especially if you find yourself in a place where you're like you're getting staleness in your reading of scripture and it's not fully coming alive, doing some deeper study and actually placing what you're reading in its chronological time frame, in its historical, geographical time frame or place, uh, I think is a really healthy thing to do.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

I I didn't even I like I've got a question after this week, you know. Paul comes, he's coming back from over across the Aegean C and he doesn't want to stop in Ephesus, which is just north of Miletus. And I'm like, my my mind was like, how did the elders know to come down to Miletus? I don't even know. Like, and we don't know that. But it's like I want to sit and ponder, like, and just think about like, okay, like how did he get the information to the Ephesian elders to come and meet him down at Miletus? Yeah. And why didn't he just go? You know, and because it was he was in a hurry to get to Passover in Jerusalem. And and so, but it you have to start learning his missionary journeys to do that. And like, do we really geographically study his missionary journeys? Not at all. And so it was like I I was taken back this week for me personally, is to like slow down in that area to like understand the components, and then even to like understand the significance of going to Kavala nowadays, Neapolis then, stepping on the Roman road, you know, even how the Roman road got there, how impactful the Roman road was, so that the gospel could be taken all over. Like without the Roman road being there at that time, how does the gospel get taken around? I mean, it God is so perfect in his timing, it's wild. And yeah, man, it and so it's it's like, yeah, it, it, it's mind blowing. And and you're exactly right, slowing down. And I'm honestly, um, you know, I'm slowing down to speed up, uh, so to speak, or doing less so I can do more this this year. And I I do think it is. It's slowing down to speed up. And I I think we just live in such an Americanized culture where it's like more, more, more, more that it's like sometimes more is not great. And um, you know, eating more cheesecake doesn't mean it's awesome. Um, and uh running more isn't great for your bones and joints unless you do it the right way. But it's just like slowing down so that like less is more and and slowing down to speed up. And so I it's a good word, Josh, to go like, hey, maybe you've been reading for a while and you're a little stale um and and it and it feels mundane. Slow down a little bit. I mean, I'm saying the Bible recap, I don't know if you've ever done the Bible recap with Terra Lee Cobble. She does a really good job because she also pairs it with um the Bible project. So she does, so she has a Bible reading plan, but then she and it's chronological, and uh, and then she dives a little bit deeper. It's about an eight to ten minute um uh kind of podcast of her. There's a video or a podcast, and then she links in the Bible project stuff that helps you take a deeper approach into it as well. And it's like you're immersing yourself in it, you know, and uh it's good. It takes a a little bit of time and effort and energy put into it, but man, it's so worth it to understand it more. Because this is this these are letters written to a people in a place, and I need to understand. I don't need to just go, oh, what does that mean for me now? Well, yes, I should, but also it's hard for me to understand what it means for me now unless I understood what it meant to them then. Yeah, and so what do I know about Ephesus? You know, what do I know about those cities? What do I know about Corinth? And why was the city like it was? And so yeah, it's it's good. And uh it's a good book. I had a guy. I had a guy. It's a good book. Here we see him. There's an executive pastor of mine. His name's Drew Tucker. Shout out to Drew Tucker. He's not listening to this, but somebody might be uh that knows him. He was our executive pastor at Bellevue, and we were sitting at a staff meeting one time. I'll never forget this. And he was like, he was diving into um I I forget which aspect of it. I think we were in Joshua or maybe Nehemiah. Oh no, we were talking about the plum lines, and he was like, he was giving this like little devotional plumb line. He just sat back and just kind of sat and share. He goes, Man, it's just such a good book. And it was like that was the first time it had ever like occurred to him that it was a good book. So we never stopped giving him grief on that. Like, hey man, Bible, you still into it? Great book.

SPEAKER_01 21:07

It's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Um it's uh it's good. Uh man, so you know, uh this week, having put on the breastplate of righteousness. You know, I was telling you before we started uh this week I'm I'm talking a little bit more. It's stand, you know, we can't forget that it's like do we read slow enough to know that it is stand therefore, having fastened the belt of truth, stand therefore having put on the breastplate of righteousness. So it's like that's a reminder also. So it's not just, oh, and put on the breastplate, but it's like, no, don't forget stand, having put on the breastplate of righteousness. And um, and so walking into that this week, you know, Josh, it's um I I think for me, just this whole aspect of righteousness gets hard. Um yeah, I I was processing a couple of things like um Paul cannot be referring referring only to the imputed righteousness, like you know. He is, but also it's not just that because you don't put on what has already been given or credited permanently to you, right? Maybe define actually imputed righteousness. Yeah, you know, I mean, like I I think righteousness, um, righteousness in in terms of um, well, going back in this weekend's message, um the Lord is righteous. Um, the Lord in Isaiah 59, 17, it says this, it's very similar in nature, but it says, He put on righteousness like a breastplate, right? And so we can't forget that when we look at imputed righteousness, that's that's our justification, right? Uh, we are justified because of what Christ has done. So we are righteous by what he has done on the cross, penal substitutionary atonement. He took the place of our sin on that cross through his death, burial, and resurrection. And then to your point, the practical righteousness, so that's the difference, right? The imputed righteousness that we have because of Christ being justified because of what he has done for us, then the practical righteousness is basically our sanctification, right? So we are becoming more righteous, if you will, as we are sanctified into becoming like the image of Christ. Um, and so when Paul says put on the righteousness, I don't think he's only referring to what Christ has already done and his righteousness, God's righteousness in that way. Because he's doing the work Paul wouldn't tell us to do work that God has already done for us. We can't do that, but it's a reminder, stand in his righteousness, but put on ours, like be sanctified, go through and do that, right?

SPEAKER_01 23:33

I think one thing that we saw even walking through that, or uh when you walk through that passage in Isaiah 59, uh, God had a set of armor that he was putting on. Yeah, and now he gives that armor for us to be able to wear. And so it's almost like him giving us righteousness gives us the ability to be in that armor. Uh, and Paul is calling us to stand wearing that armor, which is much more of an active, like it's something that you should do.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

Yeah, and it and it's not ours. You know, I mean, like, and that that's the reminder of of all of this is like it's his truth that you talked about last week. It's not ours. It's his righteousness, you know, that we're able to become uh more like him, you know, in that way. And and so really this like this aspect of like it's almost like I I don't know if this is a I'd have to really dive into this, but like the imputed righteousness is like the transferred righteousness I have because of Christ. Maybe that's a better way to say it. It's like it, it's a it's transferred to me because of what he did, you know. Uh, but I have to put it on. I I'm by my nature I'm sinful, so I have to remind myself to put on his transferred righteousness that I can have attained because of the work that he did. Um and and like um his righteousness is once for all. Like he doesn't have to go back and do it, it's done. Um, but dude, my my sanctification is daily. Um, even like we were talking about a minute ago. The the soldier had to put on his suit every day. And I gotta do the same thing. I need to put it on every single day. Um, and so I I think like this, like this piece is not about getting saved, it's it's more about staying guarded in my salvation, if you will. Uh, which I know we'll get to with the helmet of salvation. I think that's your week in in a couple of weeks. And um, yeah, like um, and so I I think that the aspect of it here is like when we say the word righteous or righteousness, it has such a negative term to a lot of people because of self-righteousness. And I I think that's where people are. Like you, you know, people act very self-righteous in what they've done, what they've accomplished, who I am, how I'm better than you, and these types of things. And so we have to be really careful here that this is not Christians uh acting self-righteously, you know, in the sanctification because because of the imputed righteousness, I am trying to act sanctified, uh become more sanctified in my followership of Christ. And it's not a self-righteousness because I can't do it on my own. Like Jesus had to do what he did because I couldn't do it on my own, right? And so, uh, and so it's it's hard though. I mean, like, I think one of the hardest things about conversations with non-followers of Christ is that they have encountered a whole lot of self-righteous Christians um the who think they're better than them, um, who think, you know, because they live by, you know, a set of moral values that that I love, you know. But just because we try to live by them, it doesn't mean I'm any less in need of what Christ did. And I think too many Christians too often um forget their need for the gospel. And um, and and I think that's a hard thing to walk through with both Christians and non-Christians. Yeah, honestly, I think it's harder for Christians for me to walk through with Christians, yeah, because I want to be like, man, do you like you because it's it's very easy to go, oh they, they, you know, though they're doing this, you know, those Ephesians, they're just, you know, those Denverites, you know, all of this stuff, right? And and man, we got a lot of stuff wrong with our city. Like right now, they're trying to legalize prostitution, right? Uh, that is wrong on so many levels. Um, I I get that there are some some aspects that people are saying it will help, you know, but it's also like, hey man, we we can't like sex is not a transaction. Um, and then what happens is in communicating that, some people sound very self-righteous. Um, I'm better than you. I would never do anything like that, you know, blah, blah, blah. I would never, you know, look at these things as a transaction. Where the reality is is that I don't know what stat is anymore, but over 50% of men are addicted to pornography. Um, that's a transaction when it comes to sexual, you know, promiscuity. Um, and it's like, hey man, just because you didn't engage in prostitution doesn't mean you didn't think about that woman with a lustful thought, which also is a transaction. You don't, it's like, and so they they just forget their need, and so then therefore they're acting self-righteous or better than everybody else. And I don't know. I think that's why I mean, that's why Paul is telling us this, right? Um I don't know. I mean, your thoughts from you?

SPEAKER_01 28:06

Yeah, yeah. I think I looked into this word actually, and it's funny that like it seems like an ancient history is like modern current history. Uh for like hundreds of years, uh, philosophers, Greek philosophers were using this word Dekosinae, I think it is right here. Yeah, right. And uh they were talking about righteousness, and something that I read said that there was like moral and ethical uh obligations towards righteousness, how you reacted to your neighbor, how you responded to the political structures, even like religious authority there.

SPEAKER_00 28:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:35

When the New Testament writers started using this word, they tied it very closely to a Jewish idea of righteousness, which means being in accordance with God's law. Yeah. So if you go back and you read the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, this word is what they switched in for words that would have been associated for people who are actually following the law of God. And I say all of that to say that it feels very realistic to today or relevant to today, that people are trying to be righteous in a way that they define it. And there is sort of like a collective understanding of what we all kind of think of righteousness, and it's probably very close to that Greek philosophical sense of it, right? Like, are you being good to your neighbor? Are you more or less following the law? Yeah, right. Like, are you kind of like a decent person to be around? Yeah. When Christians use the word righteousness, and when we think about Paul calling us to stand in this breastplate of righteousness, we are people who are submitting to God's law. We have willingly, as I think you're talking about this weekend, like willingly enslaved ourselves to the righteousness of God. Yeah. And we want to submit to what He calls us to do. And I think if we have that firm understanding of the law of God and submitting our lives to that, it gives us a direction to point in terms of righteousness. Yeah. But man, if we have this abstraction of just sort of like generally being what I think is a good neighbor to someone else, then it's impossible for us even to agree on what righteousness is. And so then we are going to be moving in different directions. Because even in the example you shared, the people who are pushing for an end to this law of prostitution think it is the most righteous and kind thing that they can do for people who are in the cycle of prostitution. And I'm not claiming to have legal answers for what is right and wrong there or zero what should be done there, but there are biblical answers for what actual righteousness is. Correct. That's separate from how we like legislate things. I don't want to get too too lost in this, but at the end of the day, there is an actual right and wrong. And without scripture, without the law, without truth, like we talked about last week, there's nothing that we can all agree on and point to.

SPEAKER_00 30:37

Well, and you know, for me, I I even wrote down this like um I think if you so like it's received, put it righteousness, and then the sanctification moving there. And if you reverse the order, you really get crazy, right? So if I if I try to practice before I've received, well, I can't.

SPEAKER_02 30:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

Like I can't practice before receiving anything. But you know what that is? That's legalism.

SPEAKER_02 30:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:56

That's a lot of people that act legalistically, you know, fundamental Baptist type stuff, you know, where it's like, I'm gonna work my way into this salvation. And so I'm trying to practice before I've received. And then on the other side, if if I like, if I receive, so to speak, without practicing, that's just licentiousness. Yeah, oh, I've got this, I'll do whatever I want to now. So if you reverse the order in any of this and don't get it right, yeah, it's it's really messed up. You know, it's really messed up. And and that's where we are, and that's where, like, you know, it's like we were talking about this in in staff today, you know, it's like you rarely see people that that are middle line. You see one or the other, you see legalistic people or licentious people. Yeah, uh, even and I'm talking about like people that would claim to be followers of Christ. You know, it's like, okay, legalistic, you know, over here, adding to scripture, licentiousness, taking away. And it's like, dude, we've got to receive the imputed righteousness of Christ. You know, we have that, and then we have to try to be sanctified because of that. And and that doesn't just give us a freedom to do whatever we want to. It's it's a hard deal, right? I mean, even you know, like you're talking about with the legislation, there are some elements where it's like, yeah, okay, that makes sense, but also from a biblical moral standpoint, we can't, you know, do this. And it's like it's it is a muddy mess, you know, in so many different ways.

SPEAKER_01 32:13

And almost everybody thinks they're doing the right thing 100%, right? Like nobody's walking around waking up being like, I'm gonna be a bad guy today.

unknown 32:19

Right.

SPEAKER_01 32:20

I'm gonna really mess some people up. I'm gonna like take advantage of people. Like, no, like we all think we're just like justified in our own actions and our own righteousness.

SPEAKER_00 32:28

Well, and so like even you know, going into that, we become our authentic selves, right? I was thinking about authenticity and I wrote a couple things down. Like, so our culture values authenticity, self-expression, living your truth, and all these types of things, right? Like we hear that over and over again, but we don't see culture really valuing moral alignment, objective righteousness, or submission to a higher authority. And and that that becomes a problem. So, so to the people in culture that don't adhere to those things, moral alignment, objective righteousness, and submission to higher authority, then righteousness to them seems super judgmental, it seems super repressive, and it seems performative. And so that's the problem, it is where like, okay, they can't like they can't define righteousness. It's a moving target. And so therefore, if it's moving and it doesn't hit what they define it on their own, well, now all of a sudden you're judging me. Oh, well, you're repressive in your thought. Oh, well, you're just doing that because you're trying to perform for other people, which by the way is true. Like, people do that, right? I don't know if you know this, but people perform on Instagram, you know. It's like we were talking about this earlier, like social media wears me out, and I I am like so on the border of like just wanting to be off of it because it's just driving me crazy. But it's like such a useful tool in so many different ways. And it's like you have this aspect of like, look at me, let me see my influence. I was just so wild. I'm over in Ephesus, an ancient archaeological biblical site, and there are people like vlogging.

SPEAKER_01 34:00

And I'm like, Yeah, this is wild. Were you taking like, you know, duck selfies? Yeah, dude. It's like over there.

SPEAKER_00 34:06

And I'm sitting here thinking, like, I wonder if when Paul was here for three years, if he's like, you know, one day they're gonna have these smartphones and these people are gonna be vlogging about this. Or you're in, I was in New York City because we flew in and out of there, and it's like, dude, you're in Times Square, and like every seven steps is somebody either vlogging, videoing for influence, or someone else taking pictures of them. And that like when you walk in there even remotely close to where they're videoing, they look at you like you just like killed one of their family members, you know, and you're like, hey man, like I'm sorry, I didn't know you were doing this for your Instagram following of seven people. Yeah, or 7,000, who cares what it is. But it's like we just live in such this like influential, righteous look at me. And I think what that does is we make people, I mean, like, how many things are you seeing now that are coming out as lies on social media? You have these people that are traveling and doing this and find out like they never did it. AI is is awful for this because you can create all this other kind of stuff. And it's like, and it's because they want people to think they're someone they're actually not. Yeah, that's self-righteousness.

SPEAKER_01 35:06

And it's become so culturally accepted, right? Like, we don't even care anymore. No, even 20 years ago, there are things that you would have done on social media that people would have been like, that's fake. You're such a fake, that's a scam. Now we like find out that something is fake and we're like, well, that's kind of part of the game. Yeah, what are you even gonna do about it?

SPEAKER_00 35:22

Yeah, like, oh, did you think they were gonna be real?

SPEAKER_01 35:24

You know, I remember like uh this this sounds like an old man thing. You ready for this? Like, do you remember when filters first came out? And people were like, Hey, don't filter your photos, that's not real. Yeah. And then like within a year, every photo was filtered.

SPEAKER_00 35:36

Have you have you seen a photo not filtered anymore?

SPEAKER_01 35:38

I don't even know if they make them.

SPEAKER_00 35:39

Yeah, and I I mean, and or my my favorite thing, it I mean, it's it's like, okay, there's some people I'm like, hey man, this is this is safe space, safe everybody knows that you used a filter to make yourself look better on that video. It's like it's come on. Like you, you don't, your your cheeks are not that clear. You know, it's like it's it's wild. You know what I'm saying? Like your eyes don't sparkle like that. Why are you doing this? It's like, what are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 36:05

Yeah, so what do you think? I think obviously we could get we could definitely rant, right? We could talk a lot about like even just the fakeness of just like appearance and stuff like that. But I wonder for our people, like so with the false righteousness that has become culturally acceptable today, it's the sea that we're all swimming in, right? Like our jobs is to make ourselves look better, particularly online. Yeah, but then our human nature has always been to do that in interpersonal relationships. Yeah. What do you say you would say to our people to sort of like make that what do we do? Do we make that gap go away between our actual righteousness? Do we actually like be honest? Or I don't know. What would you say?

SPEAKER_00 36:39

I I think there's a growing trend in churches today, uh, more where I hate the word authenticity because I think we overplayed it so long in the church world. But really, just because there's not a better word, yeah. Where when people can actually feel like you're authentic, yeah, it's countercultural in a way that draws people in now. Um, and so I think like for me, it's almost like be as raw and real as you possibly can, and you'll actually gain followership and friendship. Like you'll gain influence, I think, now because it has become like the norm is to do those things. So then when when people experience like the just rawness and the realness and the authenticity, yeah, I think people want that. And so I think there's a deep craving for all of mankind for authenticity. And in because of that, when we're able to express that in a very clear way to people and they feel that I had a lady, best compliment I've ever got on my preaching. Uh, she came in and as I've told you the story before, but she came in and uh she got off work, she was a nurse, came in, uh, she did not come in with her, you know, husband or family or anything like that. Uh, I knew she was married. And um, and she goes, Hey, my husband's gonna be here next week. And the way she said it was just like I it struck me because I was like, oh, this must not be a normal thing, you know, for him to come in. And um, and I said, Okay, I said, I'm looking forward to meeting him, you know. And um, and uh, and again, I stand out there like people are like I I stand out there until everybody's gone. People are like, I can't believe you stand there. I'm like, why would I not stand here? Like, this is like the most common, easy thing to do is to talk to people as a pastor. And uh, and so she's sitting there and she's like, he's gonna come in next week. I said, Sweet, I can't wait to meet. And I asked her, I said, why, why like is that something is this gonna be a big deal for him? You know, do I need to be better next week? I think I made a joke. I was like, I need to prepare. Yeah, right. I that's what I felt at first. And she goes, No, she goes, Um, he's not had a great experience at church because um most of the places that we've been, it didn't seem like the pastor actually liked what he was doing. She said, You seem like you love what you're doing. And I just saw, and what she was expressing there was it was authentic. Yeah, I was who I am. I wasn't trying to be anybody else. Um, and that meant a lot to me because I went through a time frame. Josh, you know this from leading and preaching. I think you try to find your voice for so long that you're like, oh, oh, this church is growing. So do you do these things? Oh, this is doing, and I think um, I think the the honestly, at the the more quote unquote success I've seen is when I just realized I'm just gonna be who God made me to be uh because he didn't call anybody else to be the pastor of Riverside, he called Chris to be the pastor of Riverside. So if I try to be anybody else, I can't actually reach who it is he wants me to reach. Um, and so I I had to figure out who am I and and just do it and be comfortable in that, not worry about because I think you know what you're alluding to here is we don't become our authentic self because we're worried about what everybody else has in store for us. Hey, are you gonna be the pastor that I want you to be? And I want to have the freedom to go, hey, you know what, this is who I am. Um, God's called me to be here. And if you're looking for something else, I think you need to go find that. And to be able to have that freedom to think that, act like that, walk in that truth, and be authentic in that, I think is um probably one of the most peaceful places I've been in a long time. It's a kindness of God. It really is a kindness of God to go like, hey, and I I heard a church planter, uh, I mean, he was a pastor and church planter one time. He said, Hey, uh, I'm gonna throw out some names, and some of our listeners may not know these names, but like Tim Keller, JD Greer, Matt Chandler, like all these other ones, he said, Hey, if you go to Denver and try to be Tim Keller, JD Greer, Matt Chandler, any of those people, you'll never reach who God calls you to reach because he didn't call any of them to Denver. He called Chris Phillips to Denver. And um, and so yeah, I just think that like when we are our authentic selves, we are gonna reach the people that God has called us to reach. We're gonna build relationships with people that God's called us to build relationships with, and we'll probably have influence like we've not seen as opposed to being a fake self, you know. Um, so yeah, I think that's what I would say to RP. What about you?

SPEAKER_01 40:52

I'll also say, I mean, for you, I feel like you're very authentic when you're preaching because you're honest even about your own unrighteousness.

SPEAKER_00 40:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:58

And I think like um that's been a trend in preaching. That's not, you know, like unique. You're not the only person that does that, but I think you do it very well.

SPEAKER_00 41:05

I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 41:06

And I think it's also probably more of attention than people sort of recognize, right? You don't want a pastor that gets up there and just sort of like airs every bit of his dirty laundry and is just like, this is how screwed up I am. And then flesh wounds. Everybody's sort of like, well, why would we listen to you, right? Like you're more messed up than we are, which might be true, but we don't want to like lead with that, you know. Like that's not like the first thing that we open with. Uh, but I think like there's an honesty that you're able to preach with that comes through and says, like, I'm not the hero of all of these stories. Tim, I'm a person that's trying to put on a breastplate of righteousness in the same way that you're trying to put on a blessed breastplate of righteousness. Yeah. And I don't always stand in it.

SPEAKER_00 41:41

Tim Corbin, I don't know who said this originally, but he said this a lot. He was a pastor that was here for a while, for those that are new. But uh, he said, Man, I'm just a beggar trying to lead other beggars to food. And and I think once we realize that, I mean, this is what we're talking about, even like when I recognize that I'm so desperately in need of the gospel today in my own life. Uh if I forget that I'm in desperate need of the gospel, then I'm not gonna be who I'm I'm not gonna have any influence. But I think just recognizing that, like, dude, I I'm trying to figure this out. And honestly, it's gonna be until I'm face to face with Christ, until I'm fully formed and who he wants me to be. Um, and yeah, you you did a good job. I actually made a note. I think I told you about this, but you made a note. Uh you you were talking about the way you were talking to your kids a couple of weeks ago. Not not this past week, but the last time you preached. And uh, and it was it was endearing because you you had friends that were there at church for the first time. And I guarantee you they thought, oh, that's awesome because I struggle with having those conversations with my kids in that way too. And so, yeah, man, if I if if I lead a church in any way, I just want to have an authentic, real raw. And you're right. I I think what happens too is there are pastors that are are very good and gifted at a number of things, like evangelism. I I was around a pastor for one time and I felt like every illustration was always, well, I was leading the gospel, I was uh sharing the gospel at a gas pump with this. And you know, I was at a uh coffee shop the other day and I shared the gospel with this. And I I just thought like, I suck. Yeah, I absolutely suck. You know, if every illustration I use is something that I'm doing, you know, that that looks good, you know, according to the the world view, I think it's gonna fall on deaf ears more times than not. And it's gonna make people go, you're just self-righteous. Now, don't hear me. I don't think those pastors were self-righteous. I think they just didn't like cognitively think like, oh, hey, what if I thought about where I'm weak to, you know, and um because I it's an antidote to the self-righteousness that we all know is just not real. I I had a guy recently in my discipleship group, he told me um he just appreciated I I wake up early, I read early, um, and I'm very dedicated. I I I've not um I'm gonna say something very humbly here, so I don't want it to become self righteous because if you listen to the end, I've shared this on stage before, so it's not anything new. Um, I've not missed a quiet time. It's like 2008 or something like that, I think is the last one I've missed, and uh from a daily standpoint. Now, what I need you to hear and what I need you to hear, audience, is the reason I've not. Done that is because of how absolutely weak I am. What for a while I was self-righteous. I hung my hat on that for a while. I lived in the Bible belt. It was one of those, yeah, look at me. I've not missed a quiet time in so long. And then what I what happened to me one day is God wrecked me. And he said, The reason you haven't missed one is because you need it so badly every single day. And so it's actually out of a weakness that I've not missed one, not out of a strength. It is 100% out of a weakness.

SPEAKER_01 44:30

And um It's an armor that you're putting on to protect yourself against the schemes every day. It's exactly what we're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 44:36

I and I've got to do it in the morning. I I'm not one of those who you got to do it in the morning. I have to do it in the morning because, dude, the second I am getting going, it's the world hitting me, and I'm susceptible to the world hitting me. But every single day I have to think back to what it is that the Lord showed me in his word during that day, during that time frame. And um, yeah, you know, it's and it's like, yeah, I mean, it's hard. It's a hard balance. We don't want to be self-righteous, but we don't want to also, you know, um just go, you know, and go, well, okay, we'll do whatever, and hopefully the Lord will do it. We have having put on, having received, and now having put on that breastplate. And um, yeah, man, I I think um, I think in a world where like moral categories are fluid, um, I think in a world where, you know, each person has their own truth, uh, where sexual ethics are redefined consistently. Um I think in a world where, you know, um sometimes righteousness feels like political alignment, you know, if I'm being really real. Oh, for sure. Um, you know, it's like uh, or like, you know, virtue signaling, you know, we just live in this world where there's like moral outrage, you know, we just we live in that world. I just think like, man, faithful obedience to God and his word in every relationship and every area, just pursuing that is what I think about with putting on the righteousness, putting on the breastplate of righteousness is to go, okay, I need to pursue obedience to God's word in every relationship I have with my kids, you know, with uh my wife, with co-workers, with the staff we lead, with lay leaders, with elders, with church members, with uh my Huck, you know, server Sarah, you know. Shout out to Huck. Uh yeah, best coffee around. Um I just need to pursue, you know, being obedient to God and all his right. And that's what putting on the breastplate of righteousness is for me. Yeah. Because of what he's done for me through Christ and his justification, I need to pursue living the Jesus life in every way. And um, yeah, I mean, it's like, and that that's the that's that's where we live, right? We live in that world, and so that and that's the only thing I can do. I can't change the moral outrage. I cannot change the righteous political alignment, you know. I cannot change redefining sexual ethics of people. What I can change is my pursuit of obeying God. Yeah, and I think that's it, right? And it's like and if we all did that, like if we all pursued you know, obedience to God and and his word, then those things could be changed. Sure. And but it's not gonna happen if I don't first pursue that. Yeah. Um yeah, does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01 47:32

Yeah, and it's the only thing in your hands to be able to control it. Yeah, you know it's sad that like we never grow out of like that third grade kind of aphorism that our teachers are telling us of like, well, you can only control what you can do. You can't control what anybody else can do. Yeah. And in a world where we can't define righteousness in any sort of collective sense, like and we're still in that third grade.

SPEAKER_00 47:52

You can be anything you want to be. It's true. It's like both of those things are true. It's true. It's true. Third grade was it. Yeah, really wrecked everything.

SPEAKER_01 48:01

Sarah ever teach third grade? She did. Well, no, actually, she did fourth and second. She missed it.

SPEAKER_00 48:07

Okay, Libby did first and first and second. Yeah. Kindergarten.

SPEAKER_01 48:10

Okay, that's good. Um I was actually thinking, I don't know if this is too much of a tangent. This is gonna be an OG throwback. So kids ask your grandparents about this. We once had a president who was not exactly ethical. I know, I know, shooting. We can't believe that would happen today. But uh Bill Clinton, actually back in the day.

SPEAKER_00 48:26

Uh wild truth. Do you know that Bill Clinton is younger than Donald Trump and Joe Biden?

SPEAKER_01 48:31

I don't like these no, I don't like that truth.

SPEAKER_00 48:33

He is younger than Donald Trump and Joe Biden. I'm rejecting.

SPEAKER_01 48:36

That is so wild. Anyways, sorry. Uh anyway, Monica Lewinsky scandal. Uh he had a sex scandal in uh the White House, right? Everything's blowing up. Uh, and I was like reading a history about it, because now it's history, but yeah, or it's a podcast really. Uh basically what happened is uh feminists across the world were like up in arms, and they were up in arms for two reasons. And I want you to hear these two reasons because they are distinctly opposite. Wow. One is uh how dare someone in power take advantage of someone who is not in power. This is clearly an inappropriate relationship, and that is crazy. The other side was saying, uh, how dare you guys judge a young woman for making her own choices with her own body?

SPEAKER_02 49:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:17

And it's crazy that, like, right there, I think either something was brought to light or an actual like fracture happened in our society that, like, to me, that will always be the most clear example of like we can't even decide what is true here. Yeah, like we don't even know. Was she actually a hero for following what her heart and doing what she wanted to do? Yeah, and we should all praise her for that and her freedom in that, or was she actually a victim and someone who was like deeply taken advantage of? Yeah. And we've basically been living in a world for the past, I guess that was what, 30 something years ago now. Yeah, right. Where those type of disagreements have taken on new forms. Now there's absolutely nothing that we can agree on.

SPEAKER_00 49:55

I mean, it is crazy, right? Like, think of the people that fought for the feminist movement in sports, female sports, who, you know, then you you enter into this transgender time of sports. And they're gonna fought for all this. Then you have the people that were they're a little like they have tension because they're like they they they lean in that area anyways, right? So they're probably okay with transgenderism in that type of way. They're probably want to accept men playing in women's sports, you know, biological men playing in in in female sports. But then they're like, but also it's like, hold on, you know, I mean, you you got a you got a male who can't make it as a swimmer, you know, with pen. He goes up there, then he becomes a woman, you know, cause claims to be a woman, biologically still a male, and then he dominates women's swimming, you know, and it's like, and it's it's wrecking and ruining women's sports. So you have this whole feminist movement with sports, and rightfully so, Title IX, all they fought so hard for everything. And then it's like, but at the same time, it's being broken down by biological men playing. And then now you even have this like reversal a little bit because they're going, oh, maybe we went too far, so we need to pull this back. So the NCAA and all these other things are now starting to dial it back. Right. And it's like, so it's like this ebb and flow, this wind, these waves of you know, the world's doctrine, so to speak, going in. And it's like, dude. It should reassure us, honestly, that we have something firm to hold on to. I mean, i if you don't have a relationship with Christ and and you don't have a moral compass, I can't imagine right now being a better time to grab a hold of something that's not changed for thousands of years. Yeah, you know, and um and I think that's it. Now, we we mess it up, right? Self-righteously, legalistically, licentiously, like you know, we as followers of Christ don't have it right. And I think that's the reality with this, is like understanding you have to go into the breastblood of righteousness understanding that I don't have it all together. Yeah, um, that will help you actually put it on more, you know.

SPEAKER_01 51:53

And everywhere that I am not letting the law of God uh lead my own righteousness, I am just filling it in with that exact flavor of my own chosen righteousness, my own ill-defined moral compass, like throwing in those gaps.

SPEAKER_00 52:08

Well, and it's funny, right? Because like the the self-righteous Christians clearly haven't read Ephesians 6. You have to put on righteousness. So if you're acting self-righteous, why are you you do you need to put on anything? You don't need to put on it if you're acting self-righteous. It's like so, even even like as we talk about progressive, you know, ideologies and stuff like that being crazy, it's the same thing in the Christian world where it's like, okay, I got these legalistic, self-righteous Christians that are like clearly not reading Ephesians 6 14, you know, where it's like, hey man, you having put on the righteousness of Christ, like you need to put it on. Like this, this means you you don't come with anything, you actually need to put this on, also.

SPEAKER_01 52:45

And so it's like, dude, it's just a wild It strikes me that these two first ones actually are like uh perfect because the enemy wants you to think that you're already wearing them when you're not. Yeah. Right? Like he wants you to think, oh no, you've you've figured out truth. You got it. You got it. Your truth is truth. He wants you to think, like, oh, you're righteous, you're better than your neighbor. Yeah. They don't pick up after their dog the way that you do. They must be scumbags and you're like some sort of saint.

SPEAKER_00 53:08

Right.

SPEAKER_01 53:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:09

It's an old Chris Rock skit. Don't look it up, uh, don't listen to it. Essentially, he says, you know, he's got a guy in jail, and uh the guy's like, Yeah, man, he's coming out, he's like, Man, I didn't, I didn't I didn't go to jail this year, I didn't beat my kids. He's like, Man, you're not supposed to. Like, what do you want? A cookie for not going to jail this year? You know, and it's like, this is what we do, right? We compare ourselves to the lowest on the totem pole. We feel like we're better than them. And it's like, dude, that's not it. So um, it's a good week. And um, so uh, man, it's integrity, it's pursuing God's commands, it's pursuing that with everything else. And so um it's hard. I I mean this is very I I just want to acknowledge this is not easy to put on the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness is not easy because you you've got to do it daily. Um I mean, maybe not even daily, uh you have to do it multiple times a day. Um, right? And and it's like everything in the world wants to throw it against that, right? Even this morning I was, you know, uh reading about Herod and John the Baptist, and I mean he he's afraid of man. He's like he's convicted in his his own like convictions that it's not right to kill John the Baptist, not right to behead him, but he was afraid of his reputation. Yeah, um he didn't want the people to be mad because he said, Oh, you can do anything you want to. And so he makes an oath to that, and then he was more afraid of his reputation than he was following his conviction and obedience to God. And it's like that this is where it is, right? And it's like that we have to just be really careful to just follow God's commands as opposed to where the world may, you know, bring this tangled web that we weave.

SPEAKER_02 54:56

So yeah, that's a good word.

SPEAKER_00 54:58

All right, man. Breastplate of righteousness. Next week, we're shodding our feet with the gospel of peace. We're shodden. We're shodden. Ready to be shodden. Let me pray. Uh Father, we love you and thank you that uh you have given us um the righteousness through your son Jesus Christ. And um, and so as we pursue that, um, let us not be self-righteous. Uh let us not think we're better than anybody else. Let us not forget our need for the gospel. Like I think ultimately that's what I can say here is just let us not forget our own need. So if if I don't forget my need for the gospel, it's really hard for me to become self-righteous. And um, so God guard us from that. Help us uh put on the breastplate of righteousness um in a daily, uh in a very humble way, knowing that we need you in every way. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Until next time. See you soon, Church Fanny.