Ever faced criticism that made you question your worth? Join us for a powerful conversation with Pastor Seth from Reliant Church and Pastor Jason Watson from Cross Pointe Church as we reveal how our feelings can mislead us but the Word draws us closer to God. We'll share our personal stories of success and celebration and explore Jesus' response to criticism from religious leaders when He healed a man of his sins.
How do we prioritize God's opinion of us over the feelings that others may impose on us? We discuss the story of Jesse and David and the controversial issue of the White House displaying the LGBTQ flag above the American flag. Learn how to navigate these complex topics while ensuring all citizens are represented fairly and treated with respect.
Lastly, let's dive into how Romans 12:2 can inspire a renewed mindset, positively affecting the way we live our lives. Hear about the enemy's attack on our minds and the power of the Word of God to refresh, affirm, and change our countenance. Discover how reading the Bible four times a week can reduce depression and addiction by 50% or more, and the importance of being led by the Spirit and Word rather than our feelings.
Ever faced criticism that made you question your worth? Join us for a powerful conversation with Pastor Seth from Reliant Church and Pastor Jason Watson from Cross Pointe Church as we reveal how our feelings can mislead us but the Word draws us closer to God. We'll share our personal stories of success and celebration and explore Jesus' response to criticism from religious leaders when He healed a man of his sins.
How do we prioritize God's opinion of us over the feelings that others may impose on us? We discuss the story of Jesse and David and the controversial issue of the White House displaying the LGBTQ flag above the American flag. Learn how to navigate these complex topics while ensuring all citizens are represented fairly and treated with respect.
Lastly, let's dive into how Romans 12:2 can inspire a renewed mindset, positively affecting the way we live our lives. Hear about the enemy's attack on our minds and the power of the Word of God to refresh, affirm, and change our countenance. Discover how reading the Bible four times a week can reduce depression and addiction by 50% or more, and the importance of being led by the Spirit and Word rather than our feelings.
Are your feelings misleading you? Let's talk about it. What's up, family? It's another episode of Pastor to Pastor. I'm Pastor Seth from Reliant Church. I've got a cross from me, pastor Jason.
Speaker 2:Watson.
Speaker 1:Hey, hey, crosspoint Church here in Lombard. We are so thrilled that you took time to watch. listen to us and do us a favor, share it with someone. We've got a great talk today and I'm excited about it. Pastor Jason, let's hear how's your family doing, how's life?
Speaker 2:Everything good. Look, we have a graduate now. Colby graduated this past weekend. He is really man, kind of blowing us away. He's trying to go with Chick-fil-A and go to some other stores and help them open and launch. So, he's trying to do that. He's excited about it. Of course you know we've said he's leaving for the military or for National Guard basic training, AIT here soon, And actually we're recording early, late. However, you want to say that We gave him a week break, right, but we're actually going to Cabo Sunday.
Speaker 1:Oh, living your best life.
Speaker 2:So you know hey, the wife man. She's been killing and crushing the Sentsy goals and she sells Sentsy. Shout out right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she sells Sentsy.
Speaker 2:So she does awesome man, she works hard at it, and this is just one of the benefits, one of the rewards of being a Sentsy consultant, and so the cool thing for us is it is really the first time since she's beat cancer that we've actually got to go somewhere.
Speaker 1:Since she did what? Since she beat cancer, i know that's right. Beat it baby.
Speaker 2:Yeah, with the. Lord Yeah so we are celebrating, we're going to go out together, man. Sunday we fly out and we'll be back next week And we're looking forward just to kind of unwinding, relaxing And I have all intent man of just really dialing in and drawing close to God. That's when they hear from God while we're going, and. but anyway, how about you guys? What's happening?
Speaker 1:Yeah, life is good. man Levi has went to summer camp this week. Okay, he's kind of you know, we've already talked about it. He's got lots of plans for the summer And they're working out, so far Working out perfectly. Every day he's at the pool, he's out on the lake jumping off the little floaty things. I mean he's playing all types of stuff here. This camp Next week he's got like I think it's baseball camp, then he's got basketball camp I mean he is living his best life And we love it.
Speaker 1:I'm just glad the Lord's got us in a place, man, where we can. We can make it happen for me. He enjoyed life and continue to be full of life and stuff, so we're really good man. Everything is great on RM.
Speaker 2:That's great man. So tell me about, tell me about last Sunday how things went for you guys.
Speaker 1:Man, it was beautiful. I preached on. Well, no miracle that Jesus did. It was where the friends had lowered him from the top.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Lowered him down in.
Speaker 2:You know saying some good friends right there.
Speaker 1:You know I started focusing on how Jesus responded to the religious leaders. What I do love this story is recorded twice, but I love Luke's version because Luke, at the very beginning of the verse, he's like yeah, these religious leaders were there. It seems like they always find themselves where Jesus is. It's kind of like Luke was a little frustrated, like you're always coming at my boy, you always pressing him, asking questions. And so when Jesus, when they lowered the man down, jesus' response was young man, your sins are forgiven. And those Pharisees and those religious teachers, they didn't like it. They were under their breath like who does he think he is? Only the Son of God? you know, only God can forgive sins. And Jesus, the Bible says, knowing what they were thinking, i want you to love You always know what you're thinking.
Speaker 1:He says would it be easier for me to heal them or would it be easier for me to forgive his sins? But because you ain't happy with it, i'll just do both. Matter of fact, stand up, young man, take up your mat and walk yourself home. And so I took that part of this story. Pastor Jason and I focused on how Jesus responded to those that were criticize him, those that attacked him, and I put it on us How do we respond when someone says something negative or tried to discredit us in our anointing and our calling and our purpose? Do we use it as ammunition Or do we just use it as something we're going to believe and live in our life as a lie? And so what I love about Jesus is he took it as ammunition And it pulled something even greater out of him, because we know throughout scripture that what the enemy meant for evil, god always turns into good.
Speaker 1:Look at Saul. Right Acts, chapter eight. Saul is persecuting the church in Jerusalem And because of that it forced them to go into Judea and to Samaria. Now we know they didn't want to go to Samaria because there was a little bit of racism in the disciples' hearts a little bit And because they were half-breezed, they didn't want to go preach the gospel But because of the pressure, because of the criticism and the prosecution, it pushed them out and the gospel multiplied all throughout the world And it just proves to us that weapons can form for the enemy and not prosper for him, but they can prosper for us. So use what the enemy is throwing at you and put it So.
Speaker 1:What I did is I took, i brought some Nerf bullets and I gave somebody in our church a Nerf gun And I just started throwing attacks at him with these Nerf bullets. I said you're worthless. I said you'll amount to nothing, you'll always be an addict, you'll always be broke, you'll always be lost, you'll never be loved. I kept doing it, not knowing you know this is how the enemy works, not knowing that all he needs is my ammunition and he can fire back.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:He can fulfill purpose and he can become something great, and so I focused on that. Of course, you know it's important to have a a good circle around you, and then also, the last thing I wrapped it up was this is the beautiful picture of the gospel, of what these guys did to get their friend to Jesus. Because Jesus didn't meet the physical need first, he met the need of his soul. Your sins are forgiven, not you be healed, because Jesus is teaching us that the most important thing that you can do for those around you is invite them to a relationship with Christ. And it's so important that we don't focus only on signs, winners and miracles, but we focus on the soul We talk about all the time. Pastor Jason, you can be healed and go to hell, and that's not our priority. Our priority is to get you closer to Jesus.
Speaker 2:So it was great man And we equipped our people, and that's it, the miracle that we so often disregard, is the most important miracle, and that's the miracle, the miraculous event that you can know, your heavenly Father, because Christ paid the price.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And that is the by far the greatest miracle we will ever encounter in our lives. That's it. Whether you get healed, whether you get delivered, like whatever, like, the greatest miracle is the fact that you know our heavenly Father.
Speaker 1:And one of the greatest things we could do is not invite people to church. Our goal is not to get them to church. Our goal is to get them to Jesus.
Speaker 1:That's right, and so I took that concept of Jesus teaching us Okay. Yeah, i know he needs help, yeah, but the most important thing, like salvation, is not just the additive to the benefit package of the kingdom, it is the legit, first and foremost priority in your life. And it was great man, it was a good message. Yeah, all right. Well about you, let's hear about it. I know you preach some fire Sunday.
Speaker 2:you get all gassed up when you start opening, i know 100. That's it, i know, that's right, you know you don't start at zero.
Speaker 1:Like you start at 100, man, and I love it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, It actually. Everything was real good man, We've made it awesome, And the liberty and the freedom was in the house this past Sunday was truly, truly awesome. I actually preached on. We've been in this series about renewing our minds And because there's so much that we have to unlearn, like you're saved, your soul, your spirit is saved, your body will be made perfect And your soul is what we're walking through, called sanctification. That's what we're walking through And we're trying to perfect, right, And so we're talking about it's sanctification overall.
Speaker 2:But inevitably we're talking about renewing your mind, And it comes from Ephesians four, where he talks about putting off the old, the former conduct, the older man which is corrupt according to deceitful lust, and be renewed, be made new, make your be renewed in the spirit of your mind. We have to unlearn a lot of things that we've been taught over the years. We have to unlearn a lot of things that the enemy has tried to tell us and that people have tried to tell us, And sometimes we've even told ourselves right, that is contrary to the word of God, And so, anytime. So when we renew our mind, we're taking, we're saying, Hey, what the world says is is, is right, is actually wrong And what the word says is right It is actually truth.
Speaker 2:And it is the only truth that we will ever truly know on this earth. Your truth and my truth are not truth. Only the word of God is truth, because our truth changes along with and this is going right into it, right, this is this is truly the main topic we're talking about.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, our truth changes with how we feel And our truth changes with our perspective. But the only truth there really is is the word of God, because it changes not, he changes not, and that is the truth. But I'm not going too hard on it, man, because it's really a lot of what we're going to talk about in the main topic.
Speaker 2:And so I really kind of talked about how our feelings can fail us And I talked about David, how David could have felt some kind of way when, when he's dead, he's looking for all the boys because Samuel comes up and he's like, hey, the next, your, your children, one of your children is the next king. Go get all your kids. And so he goes and gets you know, the tall ones, the strong ones, the good looking ones, he gets all them.
Speaker 1:That was me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, yeah, okay, like your body's perfect Yeah that's right.
Speaker 2:But no. So he goes down each one, samuel goes to each one, and even Samuel's deceived a little bit by what he sees And he's like, hey, this has got to be the one. He's strong, he's good looking, he's got it together. And God says No, keep moving. Like you look at what's on the outside, i look at what's on the inside, i look what's in the heart. And so he goes through all these boys and never gets the okay from God. And and so he's like he got to have some more kids. Where's the rest of them? And he's like, well, there is that one, you're the one in the field. He's out there with the sheep And he's like great, go get him. We're not even going to sit down till he gets here. And so he shows up, god, god confirms like this is the one annoying him.
Speaker 2:And it said that he was bright eyed, he was, he was uh, uh, he was. He was the one that God wanted to anoint as the next king. And so, even though Jesse's father discounted him, didn't consider him good enough or didn't consider him worthy enough, god considered him worthy enough. And so it would have been easy for David to look down on Jesse, to be upset to be frustrated, even with his relationship with with Saul. Our relationships can make us feel a certain way, but it's what God says about us. It is the actual truth, not how we feel. That's right. So really kind of man it is so. So, in line with what the main topic is today, i'm gonna kind of stop there.
Speaker 1:But let me say this you do know that not only could David had felt some type of way toward his father, but he also could have went the other route and went with the oil still on him.
Speaker 2:They look at me Oh yeah, oh yeah, flaunting.
Speaker 1:I'm God's favor, i'm the man And, uh, you know we learn a lot from David on how he, how he responded in that. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely Yeah, There's. There's so much behind that, Um, but let's, let's. Let's get into the next topic.
Speaker 2:Let's cover the news, because it all, it's this whole, this whole conversation, really all of it just kind of falls in and into the main topic. And so, man, let me, let me get your and we're. The reason why we're doing the news thing, man, is that we want to bring some relevancy and some to our point of view, to a pastor's point of view, in in things, in the news. It's really what it's about. And so my question today, in terms of in the news, is how do you feel or what are your thoughts on the White House display in the LGBTQ flag above the American flag centered at the White House? What's, what's your feelings on that?
Speaker 1:I think, man, we are straying away from uh where our founders, our founder fathers, you know, have really set the precedent and set what we put our built, built our faith and our trust in uh to do that. I think, again, this is going to go right into our our topic today on feelings and spirit, but it proves that we are so eager to please everybody's emotions, no matter how wrong it is, because it's not a majority of people. Yeah, you know, it doesn't even touch the scale of majorities, of of of who it affects. Um, i think it's wrong 100% man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know my take on this. I had a conversation with somebody earlier about this and I made this statement. It just kind of came to me I'm going to take a little bit different route, a different approach on it. I think the American flag represents all people, it represents every single American. And so when you start separating at the highest level I mean we are the, the White House is, is the, it's in the nation's capital. It's supposed to represent every single person. And so when you start putting a certain demographic, a certain gender, when you start singling out and separating people and saying I think this makes a statement, you're putting them above everybody else, right, and I don't think we should do that as a nation. I don't think we should do that as leaders. I don't think we should do that because we can't put ourselves. If it's not God, nothing belongs above people, nothing belongs to people and the citizens of of this nation. And so now you open yourself up for discrimination in terms of well, you flew their flag, why don't you fly mine? Exactly?
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:And then now, now you start. Now, where do you stop at that point? I mean the flag, the United States flag, everyone who's passed away, everyone who's given their life and fought and defended this country, defended it for everybody. And that's what you take, that's the oath you take when you start serving in the military, against all you defend, against all right, foreign and domestic. And so that flag represents every single American, regardless of their race, regardless of their ethnicity, regardless of their sexual orientation, like that flag represents everybody. And so I don't think we should put ourselves in the position of promoting one over the other when it comes to our nation's capital or to our state's capital.
Speaker 1:And I saw videos from years ago where people that are currently in the White House mentioned that these things would never happen. You see the influence of feelings. You see the influence of these types of things that have on our emotions, things that we used to stand for because of feelings. Now we begin to dilute those things, and we see this sometimes in the pulpit too. Yeah, it happens in the gospel, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And our feelings towards it.
Speaker 1:I'm going to say Right, exactly, our preachers won't preach on these types of things. This community that we're talking about, where this flag, you know it's this month, this whole month. They won't preach on things like this because it affects the following that they'd have And they want to appease the feelings of people. But that's where we get in trouble, pastor Jason, because if we start appeasing the feelings of people, the gospel is supposed to offend us and stretch us and challenge us. You say it all the time. We're not coddling nobody. There's grace and there's love. There's a very fine line to where, especially in the pulpit, if you change to what you preach and what you teach, based off of other people's feelings, Based off my own feelings, our own feelings exactly We have lost the integrity of our calling and purpose, the mantle that God hasn't trusted us with, And so yep, they line up.
Speaker 1:I mean, it is what it is. Let's go right into this from feelings the spirit where we'd be in lead, or our feelings misleading us. I want to read a couple of scriptures. Okay, romans, chapter eight And this is going to be kind of our foundational scriptures and we'll reference them throughout this up.
Speaker 1:The rest of this podcast, versus five through eight, says those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the spirit think about things that please the spirit. And letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death, but letting the spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God's laws and it never will. That's why those who are still under the law, under the control of the sinful nature, can never please God.
Speaker 1:I'm going to flip over to Galatians, chapter five, 16 through 18. This is this, i'm sorry. Yeah, 16 through 18. Making sure I'm on the right one here. So I say let the Holy spirit guide your lives and then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the spirit wants And the spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. Those two forces are constantly fighting each other, and so you are not free to carry out your own good intentions, but when you are directed by the spirit, you are not under the obligation to the law of Moses. And then it goes on versus 1920, 21, 22, all these things that talks about the fruit of the flesh. When you follow the flesh, what you get and you will not inherit the kingdom of God. And then what you get when you follow the spirit is the fruit of the spirit. Yep.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is actually a topic, man, that has come up, you know when, while we're doing this renewed, renewed, renewed series that I've been in, i've actually counseled a lot of people lately on this whole. Well, i feel this way, i feel that way, and my response to them, as always look, you can find this in 2 Corinthians 5, 7, we walk by faith and not by sight. Our sight will put something in front of us, allow us to see something, and we'll create feelings based on something. But we don't walk by our feelings, but walk by our faith. And I tell people, if your feelings are contrary to the word of God, good or bad, the same coin. If your feelings make you feel better than somebody, if your feelings make you feel worse than somebody, if your feelings make you feel contrary to the word of God, your feelings are wrong.
Speaker 1:Yep, exactly, that's plain and simple.
Speaker 2:100% of the time Your feelings, when they're contrary to the word of God, are wrong, and the devil will dance in your feelings all day long, as long as you allow him to. This is why we have to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. We have to take out the things that okay, if I did everything based on the way I feel, i would never get up and go to work, and then bills would keep coming due And eventually I would be out in the street. If I never, if I always followed the way I felt, i would never accomplish anything, because my body, my body, is lazy, my body doesn't want to conform, my body doesn't want to do what the things it's supposed to do. Paul talked about this. I wore against the flesh because I know what the word says, and then I know what my body says. I know what the enemy says, because it's always contrary to the word of God. We cannot allow our physical bodies to dictate who we are as people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, i love Romans 12 too, where it says change the way you think, because when you start changing the way you think, it affects the way you act and it affects the way you live. And you know a lot of times just what Pastor Jason is saying if we don't renew our mind with the word of God, not renew your mind with just another TikTok or just another quote, a spiritual quote, but get in the word and renew your mind, let it refresh you, let it get in your heart, because when it gets in your heart, it gets in your mind, it gets in your actions. You know, a lot of us feel like are worthless, we feel worthless, we feel we have these, these depressing feelings on us And because of that, we think that it changes the way God feels about us. That's what we have consistently. Consistently, pastor Jason, renew our mind daily, because that's the enemy's attack. If he can get your mind, he's got you.
Speaker 2:What was interesting is we took um one Wednesday night recently and I said I want you to go in there, i want you to find positive scripture, scripture that affirms who you are, because the world is not going to affirm you unless they need something from you or unless you're doing what they want you to do. And so I said I want to go in there and I want you to find positive scriptures. But I can't tell you how the people's faces change, how their countenance changed as we're reading positive scriptures over and over, and over and over. And that night in the study I think we probably had 20-something adults and They're reading these scriptures and you and you start to see how the word affects the way they think about themselves, how the word of love, it their physical being and their spiritual being and their mental being, and so their countenance everything.
Speaker 2:Everything changes because they're allowing the word to affirm them instead of the world, and there's a big difference between the two, big difference.
Speaker 1:Yep, absolutely, man. And when? when you think about this, you know feelings can affect our lives and it's up to us to control those feelings. You know, just like you said, if you went, if you led your life by the, just how you felt you wouldn't get up. But really we wouldn't read our Bible, we wouldn't break, we probably wouldn't go to church. But we're being led by the spirit, these passages that we're talking about. You're always consistently contrary to one another, and one way to make sure your spirit is what's leading you really to your flesh And your feelings is to stay in that word. It is a lamp to our feet and a light into our path.
Speaker 1:Now, if you're only in your word on Sundays and Wednesdays, when y'all have Bible study and services, then that means five to six days a week. You living in the dark, yeah, and you're going to be led by your feelings, you're going to be led by your flesh, but you've got to be. You've got to be a person who learns to be led by the spirit and consistently in the word. The word is the Is the changer.
Speaker 1:Absolutely game changer in your life because when you follow the word, you give your spirit something to find a rest and Peace and affirmation in it changes everything and I don't remember this or not, but we did a study a few years ago talking about what the Bible is all about, and we broke it down book by book.
Speaker 2:This, this is what these groups of of scripture are, and this is what these books do and and what they're, what their Purpose is whether it's history, revelation, prophecy, whatever and so I don't know if you remember this or not, but it's it talks about and, as far statistics go, when people read their Bible one hour or once, once a week, there was not much noticeable difference in their life whatsoever in and in their, in their countenance, in their body, and so when they read it two times a week, there wasn't a great deal of difference.
Speaker 2:But when they hit the third and the fourth, there was a remarkable difference in the way they felt about themselves, how their countenance was, how it changed them. Did you know that reading the Bible four times, four times a week, four separate days, reduces depression by 50%? yep, it reduces addiction by 50 plus percent, because you're no longer waiting for the world, or for drugs, or for sex or for Whatever, to affirm who you are, because the word is affirming who you are. The cool thing is, is I, the? the Bible is over 2,000 years old, however, or give or take right, but as old as the Bible is, it's not the old news, it's the good news, because every time somebody hears it, it does something good in their lives, right, and so it is a living word, it's a living document, and you're something your spirit needs and God gave it to us for that reason, to help God. It's to help renew our mind, to change how we see ourselves, and not just ourselves, but to see how we change or how, how, how it changes other people.
Speaker 2:Yep, because I shared this last night. I said if you were sitting at a stoplight in a 1.3 million dollar Lamborghini and the person next to you was holding a sign that says we'll work for food, who's worth the most? and Of course we know right in, we know that spiritually they're worth equal because God died for both of them. Right, and we have to see our brothers and our sisters that way. We have to see ourselves that way. Don't count yourself better than anybody. It's gonna steam yourself more highly than anybody else. Christ came to serve and we should be serviced as well. We should prefer our brother over ourselves. And so it's not just about who you are and affirming who you are and the renewing of your mind for you, but it's also renewing and affirming who your brother is to you. Yeah, it doesn't matter if they're a different race, doesn't matter if they're different. It doesn't matter what the difference is. Christ died for them, just like he died for you.
Speaker 1:That's right, because the only the only categories that you will see in the kingdom is son and daughter. That's it, nothing else. Nothing else when you will find nothing else in the categories. When you look at the kingdom, you only see sons and Daughters, and we're all heirs to the kingdom. Absolutely, i mean, all have the same Value. I love the old saying she used to say let the word wash you, yeah, the word cleanse you.
Speaker 1:I said courage to do that. You find yourself bound by feelings of Depression, of fear and anxiety, whatever these feelings that you get to where you feel worthless and the enemies is attacking you. Just begin to wash yourself with the word, like pastor Jason says. Find those passages that affirm You, read them daily, make a list of them and just declare these things over yourself daily and watch your life change Forever. And I'll say this boldly when you get in your word, your day changes, your countenance changes, your, your everything changes, your attitude changes and most of the time is instantaneously. I've never read the Bible or I've heard somebody read the Bible and when they walked away They felt worse than when they started reading. It changes you forever, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And we're coming up on and people will be hearing this today after right, but. But we're coming up on father's day and Fathers need to be the priest and the king and the prophet of their own home. They should be. Scripture says we should be washing our wives with the word. We should be washing our family watching our wives.
Speaker 1:We gotta do a whole podcast on this one son, yeah, yeah, the home man, the order of the home, all that good stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we absolutely should that maybe that's something we do here very soon.
Speaker 1:But you know, when you talk about feelings now, there, there is a side that I feel like we have to deal with in on this podcast today. Yeah, it's encouraging what we've said so far, but there's a reality, absolutely, is that we live in a society who is very opinionated, and My feelings are my truth, and if my feelings are true to me, they should be true to you, and it doesn't matter about anything else, and We're we are hope today is that, while you're listening to this or watching this, is that you would, you would walk away from this Conversation being led by the spirit and the word more than anything, that you would put your feelings to the side, that if your truth Doesn't line up with the truth, the word of God, then then you need to change what you label your truth. That's it. And and just because something feels good, pastor Jason, doesn't mean it is good Absolutely. I mean, for example, sex is good in context of marriage.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But it's designed for a purpose. It's designed for a purpose and it's good. But when it's outside of marriage, i used to tell I had a friend of mine who was getting married And this is, this is getting for that. This is the married couple talk right here. He was getting married and you know he, he struggled, he was trying his best to stop Having sex with his future wife before marriage, are trying to make that commitment. And what I told him I said man, bless, bless, sex is the best sex, because it's something that God designed for you.
Speaker 1:And what we don't realize is it's just because it's good in a moment. We don't realize the effects that it has later, absolutely, and I know we're going off a little bit, but, but the reality is this is that it feels good for a moment, but it attaches long-term, solitize Absolutely. And when you're not connected to the right person and you're not connected to the right spirit and these things, man, it's long-lasting. You look at even drugs. Drugs are are good for a moment. They feel good for a moment, but look at the results, a long-lasting results, some of them in in death. Yeah, and this is the one that I think gets a lot of us faster, jason, just because it feels good to say it and get it off Your chest, mm-hmm, and you feel good about it after you've just released it. How does it affect that? those that you spoke to, right?
Speaker 2:how does it?
Speaker 1:affect as your witness? How does it affect that those who heard it or read it or looked at it? We've got to start considering these things. Just like you said, it's not just about how you feel, but you're represented as a fall of Christ. You're representing Christ in your actions And if your feelings don't line up with the word, you say no to your feelings and yes to the word, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because your feelings will mislead you, and I'm every time I remember if this was just in our conversation. We're talking about it, but our truth changes. It changes based on how we feel. It changes based on the own, a lot of different things. It, our truth, is never the same. Yeah, because it changes. I mean, if you're watching TV now, 40, 50 years ago, it wouldn't have been the same thing. They covered themselves differently, they spoke differently, very different. So while the world may change, while their feelings may change, while their tolerance and acceptance on things may change, scriptures clear that God never changes. That's right. God is the same today, yesterday and will be tomorrow, like he is the same.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he doesn't change. That's right. And look at yourself. I Can't have you. You can, you can look at yourself.
Speaker 2:No, i'm not right now in the mirror.
Speaker 1:Can't wait for you to look at the face you just made when you go back and look at this.
Speaker 2:I gotta get you out of it.
Speaker 1:I am taking a screenshot of that one Oh these bugs? what time was it when this But here's the reality is we've got it. We've got to be self-aware.
Speaker 1:Yeah are we being led by our feelings more than we are by the spirit? now We're all gonna fall short, pastor Jason. We're gonna. We're human, we're there sometimes where we're just gonna miss it, yeah, and we're gonna say things we shouldn't say and react the ways we should act. But we should all fall back on the word and get back in alignment. I want to say the alignment is key. I wrote this down.
Speaker 1:The strength of the Christian spirits, alignment with God's spirit, is indirect correlation to what the Christian chooses to focus on. So a focus on God's word will cause a person to see things from his perspective and react in ways that God, that that pleases God. Your alignment is key. If your life doesn't align with the word, you're off of alignment. If you're only being led by your flesh and you're always gonna deviate off the path of righteousness, the path of holiness, the path of right.
Speaker 1:Standing with God is so important that you check yourself Daily with the word and make sure okay, how should I respond to this? how I? just this week, pastor Jason, i literally had to ask myself. I told my wife, i said I'm second-guessing the way that I feel, because I'm struggling to make sure that the way I'm feeling is justified with the word. It's not that I'm not looking for goodness in somebody else. I want to make sure they're still good in me, based of how I'm responding to this situation.
Speaker 1:And So when you only go about what you feel and not what the word says, you're really, you're really all out of alignment With how God intended you to act and respond and live as a Christian and as leaders. It's even more. We set the precedent With our, with our leaders, with our team, how we respond. Just we show them how to respond in tough moments and In those high emotional moments when those members come and they barking at you and they're not happy with you, but your leaders are around and so you have to show up how to approach those things.
Speaker 2:It starts from the head, follows down absolutely and and You've got absolutely got to be aligned and here's the thing, too, i want to bring the light is that if you continue following your flesh, god will give you over. Oh yeah to your flesh.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:He's given over, and you can read scripture Several times where where they've been. and one scripture we refer to often is is in Romans, one where they gave him over to a reprobate mind. And I think, honestly, i just got to be honest. I think a lot of what we're seeing today is God handing people over to reprobate mind. Yep, i mean, i Just gonna go into it. I Understand that some people may feel like they're attracted to same-sex people.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, can I be honest with you. every man is attracted to, to. every straight man is attracted to members of the opposite sex, and not just one of them. Like someone who's sexually attracted to people isn't attracted just to one person, they're attracted to multiple people. My flesh may desire or lust, want to lust, i should say after those people, but I have to control myself. And it's the same way with same-sex attraction.
Speaker 2:You may feel attracted to a certain person or a certain way, for a certain reason, but just because you're attracted to them doesn't mean that you can give in and just follow the will of the flesh. You have to follow the will of the father And you may be a boy and feel like a girl, but then again your feelings are lying to you, because God created two genders, male and female. And some people say what about hermaphrodites? That percentage of the population is so low, it's nominal. That's right, and so your feelings are going to mislead you, and that's where the renewing of your mind has to come in. I know how I feel, but what does the word of God say?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and let me go ahead. Let me get Romans, chapter eight back up, pastor Jason, because I just feel like this is where we need to. I mean, i'm sorry, galatians, sorry, sorry, sorry, galatians, chapter five When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, results are very clear Sex, remorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I said before, living this way, you were not a hermit the kingdom of God. But then it tells you the fruit of the spirit, pastor Jason, what you just said. Just one fruit of the spirit self-control.
Speaker 1:Self-control can eliminate all these fleshly desires because you are controlling yourself and committing yourself to the word. You always fall back to the word, always. That's why Isaiah 55, I wanna go back to what you said is that the reprimand. Isaiah 55 says that come to the Lord while he is near, which emphasizes that there will be a moment where he draws himself away. Come to him while he's near and get salvation. Let the wicked turn from their ways. Draw to him while he is near.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Some people will say, well, and I love this, i've used this before. Some people will say, well, i was born this way and that might be so.
Speaker 1:Born again.
Speaker 2:But that's why Jesus told Nicodemus you must be born again.
Speaker 1:Born again, man.
Speaker 2:You must be born again. That's right. There's no. The word has an answer.
Speaker 1:It has an answer. For every situation, you can find yourself in, but we reject truth because truth deals with our lives.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. You mean I have to pick up my cross, I have to deny myself. Yes, your salvation is free. Your discipleship costs you everything And the only thing keeping you from getting closer to God is you. Because scripture's clear. He says you draw not of me, i'll draw not of you. Draw close to me, i'll draw close to you. His word is true. He's not going back on his word. That's right. Highlight right. He's not going back on his words. That's right, for good and bad. So, while you can draw close to him, he'll draw close to you.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:If you continue following your flesh, he's going to turn you over to a reprobate mind.
Speaker 1:There, you go Absolutely.
Speaker 2:So this topic really, man, is the whole renewing of your mind, the whole following of your feelings. We've got to renew our mind, man. We've got to allow the word of God to tell us how we're supposed to act, regardless of how we feel, that's right. How we're supposed to see ourselves, regardless of how we feel, because it's the exact same way, true. When it comes to feeling unworthy, scripture says you're worthy because Christ forgots to love the world. God gave his only begotten Son. That's right. That whosoever meaning anybody, whosoever, i mean you may not feel worthy, but you don't feel worthy because the devil's playing in your feelings Or you've done something. You're bringing condemnation on yourself, but when you're walking in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. So the condemnation you're feeling is either because of something you've done for yourself or because the enemy's bringing it to you. That's right, not because the word of God says it is. And so, anyway, we've got to renew our mind, man. We've got to get out of our feelings and get into the word. Yep.
Speaker 1:And Psalms 37.5 says submit everything unto the Lord.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Even your feelings. Even your feelings, submit them to the Lord. Listen, i hope that you've been encouraged. I hope this has challenged you. I hope you feel equipped. I hope you feel the confidence to be able to walk the line of the word and not your feelings. Again, i'm gonna say it again If your feelings do not align with the word, say no to your feelings and yes to the word of God. I wanna bless you today. Pastor Jason, are you good?
Speaker 2:I'm good brother.
Speaker 1:Numbers, chapter six. It says this may the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you his favor and give you peace. We were trying to say we thank you so much for taking time to listen and to watch, for honor that you're here. Share it with someone who just can encourage. We'll see you here next time. On Pastor the Pastor.
Speaker 2:Hey, God bless you. We'll catch you next time laying on ground.