12 Things the Bible Doesn’t Say (But Many Christians Assume It Does)

We talk through 12 common things Christians assume the Bible says, but it actually doesn’t. Not because those ideas are always “bad,” but because confusing Christian culture with Scripture can create unnecessary guilt, fear, and pressure.

Former police officer and pastor Dale Sutherland is joined by Pastor Nate for a grounded conversation covering:

1. The Bible does not say every Christian will feel a “calling” for every decision.

2. The Bible does not say you will have total peace in all circumstances.

3. The Bible does not say your words or thoughts mystically create reality.

4. The Bible does not say every Christian’s destiny is big or public.

5. The Bible does not say you will always enjoy reading the Bible more than everything else.

6. The Bible does not say everything in the world is evil.

7. The Bible does not say all Christians will experience God the same way.

8. The Bible does not say Scripture verses alone cure all anxiety or mental-health struggles.

9. The Bible does not say godly people with faith never get sick.

10. The Bible does not say suffering automatically means God is displeased with you.

11. The Bible does not say faithful believers won’t experience emotional distress.

12. The Bible does not say it’s selfish to pray for your own needs.

If you’ve ever felt like you were “failing” at Christianity because your experience didn’t match what you heard from others — this one is for you.

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Transcript

Setting The Aim: Twelve Misconceptions

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Welcome to the Cops, Criminals, and Christ podcast. Let's dive in. All right, everybody. We we want to talk about today. This is uh Nate, and Nate is Pastor City Life. Uh he is uh my son-in-law and is a wonderful pastor and a good theologian, too. Uh amateur theologian. You've had two master degrees, though, in spiritual one in church planning, yeah, one in apologetics. And one in apologetics. So, you know, that's pretty close to expertise for the rest of us. You know, you're not a you're not a uh uh converted policeman uh trying to do that.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

There you go. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:36

So listen, here's here's our question. So what I want to do is go through uh 12 uh things that I've so there's a lot of uh Christians that I've talked to that that have these thoughts that this is what the Bible wants them to do or this is what God wants them to do. But really, it's important to point out the Bible doesn't actually say that. It doesn't mean that they aren't good things, it doesn't mean there's anything wrong, but I want to just clarify how the Bible, what what the Bible says versus what we may feel.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Yeah. Sure.

Do Christians Need A Feeling Of Calling?

SPEAKER_03 1:07

Okay, number one, here we go. Uh the Bible does not say, and these are my statements, and then uh Nate is going to correct me.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Uh as Nate find the verse for the thing he says the Bible doesn't.

SPEAKER_03 1:19

Number one, the Bible does not say every Christian will feel feel a calling for every decision.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:27

What do you think?

SPEAKER_01 1:29

The reason you say that is the impression people have is that for every decision they make, they're gonna be called by God or that God's giving them direction with everything they do.

SPEAKER_03 1:41

Yeah, there's a lot of statements made from the pulpit that sound like uh I can't get it.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

God told me, right, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:48

Either God told me or I knew for sure I was supposed to do this.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Sure, sure, sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:54

I was called to marry this person. I was called and then you get in and you're two years into the marriage, and it's goofy. Yeah, so then uh you say, by I just want to point out that while that may have been your experience in ministry, it wasn't my experience in ministry. Yeah, God doesn't tell me I have to have that. A lot of times we make decisions that aren't based on a Bible verse or a direct call. Yeah. So what do you think? Is there a Bible verse saying everybody should get the call? What's the balance?

SPEAKER_01 2:22

I think calling's a funny word because there's a sense, and what you're just trying to discern is the will of God.

unknown 2:28

Yeah.

Must Believers Have Total Peace?

SPEAKER_01 2:28

That's what you're trying to do. Sure. And the will of God is plainly in scripture that you can live according to without feeling any type of way. You know? Uh sense, like when you get saved, you're called to all those things. So you already have a calling. I think what people mean with like receiving a calling is some sort of overwhelming impression or a sense of real certainty that they're supposed to do X, Y, and Z, which certainly can happen. Uh people can feel totally convinced from God, and it might be through a prophetic word or a dream or some other way, or just an internal impression. It's fair to go do something that the Bible says anybody should do, you know. But at the same time, Christians should certainly not expect that level of calling or sense of calling or conviction about everything that they do. So one of my favorite little books I recommend all the time, especially young people, is called Just Do Something. And it's written by Kevin DeOn, it's Little, and just the idea that most of the will of God, I mean pretty much all the will of God in terms of how we should live is plain and clear. And you're just supposed to go do those things as best you can, and you can do them as a policeman, you can do them as a pastor, you can do them as a plumber, you can do them as a you can do it as long as it's within the confines of what God allows, then you can really do any of those things. So my encouragement to everyone, uh Psalm 25, 12 says, Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him will he instruct in the thing he should choose. So God does give guidance and instruction in the things that we should choose if we position ourselves to fear the Lord. However, sometimes we can't discern that when it's happening, and it's more of a trust factor to say, Well, I'm gonna go do the thing God called me to do in terms of what's true in the scriptures. So and trust that God's going to direct that life. So I would say so called to everything, you need to follow the commands, and if you do the commands, you're gonna live in God's calling, you know.

SPEAKER_03 4:23

Yeah, the the danger is the scary part, is when you said that um that uh he'll instruct you in the way you should choose. The problem is when you're trying to decide to get married, and I love the just do something book. It's not just for young people, and that's for everyone, yeah. It's for senior Christians that have been for a long time. We need it. I think both of us benefit by rereading it. I really do. But but I would just say that uh I really like this statement. Someone 19105 says uh Lord is uh the scriptures like my feet, left path. But somebody said it's it's not a floodlight. In other words, he gives us enough for now, but he doesn't uh open up a floodlight and say this is exactly. I think that's good. I think a scripture-infused, scripture-guided, spirit-led life is what the Lord has encouraged. Totally. But you know one of the common things, you know, Christian colleges, a guy walks up to your daughter tomorrow and says, God's told me he comes, she comes to church Sunday, God tells me we should date.

SPEAKER_00 5:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:25

My response would be God told me you shouldn't date. Okay, that's all that. Yeah, I mean, what do you do? It's uh it's a it's a it's a scary thing. It's a it's a statement we bounce around a lot in Christianity. Yeah, and I would just say, Michaela or whoever, stick to what you know for sure, and then ask the Lord to give you faith to do the things you don't know for sure.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Yeah, I mean, you should live according to the scriptures. That's the simplest way, and just do what God and God told me is this is what I want to do, and I think God approves of it.

unknown 6:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

I think you're pretty, I want to ask you out, and you're also a Christian, so God's okay with that. Yeah, so God told me to do it. That's what they mean, as opposed to like this is from God, you know. So I think we have to be careful with those students.

SPEAKER_03 6:14

So I'll tell you, I have very few of those experiences. I was I was trying to decide if I should retire from the police department or not. And I can remember laying in bed thinking, uh, and I was thinking, Lord, I wanna, I've given you, I've given, you know, I've enjoyed this last 26, 29 years work. And but I think the rest of my life I ought to be focused on saving souls. Or I thought maybe he was telling me that, you know what I'm saying? So while I didn't ever preach that to anybody else, I did have that, I do have that conviction. Like, I wonder if the Lord helps me to be focused on reaching souls. Yeah, and whether the Lord combined my desire with scripture or whatever, I don't know that. But at the same time, I wouldn't tell everybody you better have that before you retire, you know?

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Yeah, well, there's no way you could possibly know in that sense. I do think people who are walking with the Lord God does lead you, and He gives you Led by the Spirit. Bible says it gives you a sense that you're certain about that you don't have any other reason to be certain about. I think about church planning or even when we planted. I think all those things I felt very certain and I had a sense from the Lord that this is what I was supposed to do. Now I do feel like people need to assess their calling based on others' confirmation, also. So if you feel called but nobody else thinks you are, that's probably a misreading to say, especially within the church, that your calling is always confirmed by other people saying, Yeah, you should go do that. You know, we see that.

SPEAKER_03 7:44

So yeah, I would just say, uh, okay, so this we could talk about for six months. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We should uh because of course uh we also have tons of not tons, but great times in world history where the Lord moved William Carey to go in the mission field and everybody told him he shouldn't. Yeah, don't go. You know what I mean? So you have that, but what he's talking about is that, and also being in close enough relationship with people that you could even hear that or you know, interact with that. Okay, number two. Uh here's our second thing. The Bible does not say, these are things the Bible doesn't say, the Bible does not say you will have total total peace in all circumstances. Does the Bible say that, Nate? That you will have total peace. You will have total peace in all circumstances.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

I think it says you can, but we're human, so we don't. Bible does say be anxious for nothing. That's a command. That's a command. Now, obviously, we still experience anxiety, so you gotta work that out, but it doesn't give any qualifications. It doesn't say sometimes be anxious.

SPEAKER_03 8:41

Wait one second now. Paul says he's content in all circumstances, indeed, but I'd like to have talked to him on the way to the guillotine. Sure. Uh and you know, he says things like that. He says in 2 Corinthians 1, he says, In inside, I felt a sentence of death within us, so that we thought we could not bear it anymore. That overwhelming despair. Overwhelming despair. The Lord Jesus is praying in the garden.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 9:07

And I mean anxiety. Anxiety is a sin, technically.

SPEAKER_02 9:11

Agreed.

SPEAKER_03 9:12

I understand, but it's a pretty fine darn line. It's a fine line. It's a fine line. It's really almost I know what you're saying. Jesus was not anxious. No, no, but he was very disturbed and Distraught. Distraught. To the point that some say that he he actually fell. Uh he was so burdened. All I'm saying is there's lots of emotions people get in this life. Totally. The Bible does not prohibit when you're you find out your child just was in a car accident from you saying, Wow, uh, this is terrible. Ah, you get afraid for a sec. Some of this is human. Yeah, it doesn't.

Do Words Create Reality?

SPEAKER_01 9:50

I think there's a difference between fear and anxiety for sure. There's a difference doing something afraid and doing it anxious, I think, is different. It says, you know, be strong and courageous, do not be afraid, the Lord of God is with you everywhere you go. So the idea that the courage comes from my understanding of God's presence. I'm just talking ideals. Obviously, you're gonna struggle with these things. So it's not realistic that you would never be anxious, unfortunately. It's not realistic that you would never be tempted or do anything you're not supposed to. But if we're talking about what the Bible's, you know, ideal presentation is, is obviously even it's not that you wouldn't grieve or have sorrow. Paul talks 2 Corinthians 4 about there's this idea that he, you know, I'm pressed down but not crushed. I'm sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. You know, like I'm broken but not busted up. So there's just a reality of like Christians should be uniquely able to be sorrowful and grieving, yet still sustained by joy and peace, you know, and that's where the supernatural power of God comes in. So it's something you pursue. It's not to say you shouldn't beat yourself up for not feeling that way. But I I just keep pursuing that until you know I'm with the Lord one day.

SPEAKER_03 11:02

Listen, I think that it's absolutely correct. I mean, it's so wonderful to think of pursuing peace and pursuing walking with the Lord and that peace that comes with. I think that's absolutely right. I just know you probably are two personalities. It's a good example. I am probably just looking at my childhood all the way now, more prone to anxiety than your personality is. But I don't believe, and I've felt this a lot of my life, that I was ungodly because I felt things that my youth pastor or whatever or other pastor never described ever feeling. You know, I just don't he would say uh I can remember getting ready to leave a job and uh trying to make a decision, and and and this brother's saying, I said, I just worry about this, worry about that. He says, not me. I'll worry about it a bit. Sure, that's where is the where is the balance? I I don't know. I think the balance is found in the scriptures, though, on what he does say. So he says, do not fear. He says, uh, do not be afraid. He says, be anxious for nothing. What is he doing? He's laying out biblical truth that can free me from worrying about my seven grandchildren that you're raising, that how they're gonna try. Otherwise, I couldn't, I really can't go to bed.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

You can't, I mean, too many terrible things in the world.

SPEAKER_03 12:24

Too many terrible things. So we we agree that emotions, um, even godly people, I think that's really critical, and you said it, uh have emotional distress.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Of course. That's the human experience. In this world, you will have trouble, and that's just unavoidable. But I think instead of like giving into that, you ought to continue to pursue. And obviously, personalities do play a big role in that, and that's just that's true with all sin. All sin is personality driven. Like you have a tin, everybody has their temptations.

SPEAKER_03 12:58

I would agree. It's kind of interesting.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

Now, there are some similarities, but episode. No, of course, episode. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:03

But and and I would say, like my generation, we would never say we're anxious, but we would say we worry. And now this one everybody is anxious. Everybody's anxious, everybody's anxious. And I would be totally embarrassed to have anybody say that. I would drive me nuts.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

So, anyway, I think how we say it's important. Um there is a huge emphasis in the Bible, even with Jesus and not worrying. I mean, it's not obviously like you know, you gotta deal with real life, but and yet, and yet you do have a retirement plan.

SPEAKER_03 13:32

You know what I'm saying? So, like, so like there's that. Not enough, but I have easy. You know, you like you think, what am I gonna do if my kids get sick? You got insurance, because there's some Christians say no insurance.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:43

So you follow what I'm saying. So it's it's it doesn't be afraid of it. Uh others would say it's called uh lack of things. So you obviously have insurance, but I'm just saying this is an interesting thing. Okay, number three, we can't do this all day. The the third thing the Bible doesn't say. The Bible does not say that your words or your thoughts create reality. And what I'm gonna say is there's many preachers, many, many, many, and I'm gonna make a lot of people mad now, but there's many, many, many who say, don't speak it into existence. Don't speak it into existence. Now, if all they were saying was, I'm I'm counseling a guy who's depressed, and he wakes up every day saying life is terrible, life is terrible.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_03 14:30

And I say, Okay, dummy, the the the more times you say life is terrible, the more you're gonna feel like life's terrible. You'll make bad decisions and life terrible, yeah. If you're a policeman and you say, I hate violence, I hate violence, I hate violence, and you you can just create you can create your own problems. Uh so so I would say that's true, but at the same time, there is no mystical effect that I'm saying that's gonna affect you or activity is going to happen as a result, unless I'm saying mean things to you or something obvious. So before you come in, here's the thought the Bible does not say your words or thoughts create a reality.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

And the a type of example you're you're thinking of is when somebody is unwilling to say a scary thought out loud, because if they say it out loud, it's more likely to happen.

SPEAKER_03 15:23

Or I'm not in debt. I don't say I have problems, because if you say you have problems, you do have problems, even though you're in debt.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

Yeah. Say first what the Bible does say is the power of life and death is in the tongue. 100%. And so your words do matter. Your words do affect the world around you. So important. Your words do, in a sense, create some form of reality in terms of creating life or death. So your words do matter. You'll be held accountable for every word you say, Jesus says. Literally, which is one of the scariest thoughts on planet earth, is every word you say, you'll be held accountable before God. So your words matter, it's a big deal. Uh, you know, Proverbs 15, a word in season, how good it is, like it really does matter. But can your words do what God's words can do, which is to create, you know, from nothing, to create things that that exist in the world? No, you're not God. So live in some kind of weird mystical fear that if I say it out loud, it's more likely to happen. So um there's nothing in the Bible that would make us think that uh, yeah, if I say I'm I'm debt-free, I become debt-free. Or if I if I say something, an accident might happen, then it's more likely the accident happens. No, no, that's all superstition.

SPEAKER_03 16:33

There's nothing nothing wrong with going out on the football field saying, We gotta win, I'm gonna win, I'm gonna win. I'm gonna win. Yeah, yeah. Nothing wrong. Doesn't mean it'll happen, right? But you can't go out there and think you're an idiot if you go out there and think I I'm gonna throw the football farther than anybody else. Uh it maybe not. Uh nobody can predict the future, nor does the you saying it alone, I'm saying. Yeah, correct the reality.

SPEAKER_01 16:55

Yeah, there's certainly valuable things in all those things. Your words matter a ton, but let's just say not as much as God's words.

SPEAKER_03 17:02

Not as much as God's word, but I would say also more there is I think your words, um, yeah, I would stick to what scripture says about our words, how we're to use them, what we're to say, all those things without adding anything else mystical to it, uh, because the Bible doesn't have that kind of mystical stuff to it. Um when you say the the words are life and death, uh he is not indicating that I'm saying Nate's gonna die and you die, or Nate's gonna live and you live. It's foolishness. But on the same time, if I say to you, I hate your parents, or I hate you, or you're a terrible human being, that hurts people. It's it takes life as a pastor.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

If a parent constantly speaks negative to their children, their children will, our negative reality will be created. 100%. And that'll be real.

SPEAKER_03 17:50

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

If they speak positively to their children, a positive reality will be created. So that is, it has a ton of power. Some of power. You know what I'm saying? Yep, yep, yep. It has a ton of power.

Destiny: Big Platform Or Quiet Faithfulness?

SPEAKER_03 17:59

But yeah, the idea that I'll just say last thing I'll say on that is the only thing I'd say is if you're somebody who heard that all your life, it does not mean that you are destined to have that life that somebody said to you because they said it. No, no, no, no. You can absolutely divert something over you or whatever. That's right, it's foolishness. Okay, number four. The Bible does not say every Christian's destiny is big or public. And the reason I'm good, this is because it's very common in preaching. And let me just say, as a preacher, when I preach sermons, I'll get the biggest uh I don't know if you've noticed the most uh welcomed reaction is when I say you're gonna see your destiny this week this year. This is your year of destiny, and and I'll say that in and uh and if I say that everybody's gonna be very excited. Um, and and there's this idea like you were made, there's another sermon quote all the time, you were made for something more. Yeah, that's an exciting thing to say. Yeah. The problem is, you know, I think of aspire to live quietly and work with your own hands in first Thessalonians. And the majority of Christians never have like a big destiny, it's very big for what God planned for them, but it may not be a book or uh whatever. So speak to that. Bible doesn't say Christian destiny is big or public. What do you think? Uh every Christian destiny.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

I would say every Christian has a thrilling, amazing, eventful, impactful life God wants to live. Amen. True in every sphere of your existence. So, yes to that. And the idea that we're all made for more than what we're probably doing is probably true, you know, for each for myself included, you know. If I would be a little more holy, if I would if I would do things God's way a little bit more and grow, I would be living more, you know. So I think that's true. That God most people sell themselves short. The idea that I would want to re empty. Emphasize that God has made you for something big is true. The definition of big can get twisted in terms of like many or a lot or to be well known about any of those things.

SPEAKER_03 20:18

He had this disabled child, uh Jill. Um and everybody said God's gonna turn that around. Yeah, and then he later had Jill's he was able to start this house to kids. Well, uh number one, she's still she's 35 now, I think, or something. I'm not clear that the reason she came here was so they could start that house. Yeah. How the heck do I know? And I wouldn't want to be one of probably millions, millions of millions of. But think about how many, yeah, exactly. Think of how many in our church never had a house named after their disabled child. Sure. So, so how do we how do we couch that? So we say, even to Lon, Lon, your biggest destiny was to love your daughter, your biggest destiny was to be, I don't know, you know, used in sermon illustration when he wrote a book or whatever. But at the same time, my friends who have never nobody even knows their name and knows that they're raising this child because they're just faithful and godly and good. Um, is it fair to them to say that this is um their destiny is really exciting, even though they lose a child this year?

SPEAKER_01 21:28

Well, I mean, that's why the Bible reminds us, Synchron 4, you know, that the suffering's light and momentary, and but it far the glory that's connected to it far outweighs it. So we look to not what is seen but what is unseen. So the idea being that might uh sometimes what more means is more suffering, more pain, more sorrow, more bad things. And the biblical perspective is in the midst of those bad, difficult, challenging things, it's producing something exciting and wonderful that I can look forward to. So sometimes in life we have moments of and the impact we get to make for God, and it's exciting. Sometimes in life, you endure suffering well, love well in ways that are unseen by anyone other than God, and you remind yourself that this is connected to something exciting and glorious in heaven. So life is full of highs and lows, big moments, small moments. The idea that I need to be faithful in my everyday life, like a person to impact one person or to love a special needs child well is an amazing accomplishment. Is it a significant thing to do, you know? It's a great destiny. To change diapers and take care of your to love your kids well and to do these mundane things, or to serve just your neighborhood, or to befriend somebody, you know, like all things are huge to God, and in God's providence, some people touch a lot of lives and some people touch a few, but same thing with the talents, like the guy who got five talents, if he doubles it, he gets ten. Expect the four the two talent guy to get ten. He gives five, two, and one, right? The two becomes ten, the two becomes four. The one only needed to become two. It's just the idea that we don't know, but God has given different people different uh abilities or spheres of influence. And he's not asking the two talents to give him ten. He's not asking, but it so there's situations where some people have a lot of let's say Lon's situation has more capacity, ability, network, provision, influence. His situation should probably magnify. True to make good use of the situation he's in, right? Right, right. The things in his lap, right? He's so he has God's given him five talents, so to speak. Yeah. So he's gotta turn that into ten. But somebody else might just have the one, and the return on that is to be faithful to that. So everybody has their own situation. Okay, I like that.

Loving The Bible Amid Dry Seasons

SPEAKER_03 23:58

What about um the Bible does not say you will always enjoy the Bible more than everything else? And the reason is I'm speaking to those brothers who have their devotions but would be rather watching the Alabama Auburn game than have their devotions. And I believe you could even say that at times. You there you obviously have things other than the Bible. So um, always enjoy the Bible more than everything else in your life. No, of course not. I'm a sinner. So I think everybody has would godly holy people want the Bible more than anything else in their life?

SPEAKER_01 24:35

Would that be what God is requiring? Every day no, but I would say that should be true sometimes. So if you never feel that way and it's always an obligation, something's really wrong. I agreed. But if you're a normal person who has highs and lows, sometimes I really love reading the Bible and I get a lot out of it, and I feel like I met with God. Sometimes I get perceivedly feelings-wise, nothing out of it. Yeah, uh, it felt very dry, or I'd rather be, you know, doing something else. Of of course, I think the normal human Christian experience is sometimes I feel really connected to God, and sometimes I don't. And sometimes a worship service just really hits and it changes my life, and sometimes it feels like it doesn't. Sometimes I can go weeks where I just read the Bible because I know I should, yeah, but I don't I don't feel anything or in it. So part of it's just sticking to it, and over time you will grow. And it it has to be true though, that you grow to love it more and more. I do feel like that is true. I agree with you, and my enjoyment of the Bible increases over time. So uh I only get concerned if people never emotionally attach themselves to it, as if that was okay. So you should have like some sort of a it should be up and to the right, but a roller coaster along the way. So you should enjoy that.

SPEAKER_03 25:51

I like that very much because I I would tell you that the one thing I'm not very academic, I've not read as much I'd like to have read, I've not um Yeah, gone through as much studying, but boy, uh the Lord has developed a love for the Bible. So it would almost in my life, because I don't love reading and I don't love all that stuff, the fact that I love the Bible is from the Lord. I just don't love written things like this. And and and what I would say is everybody can experience that. In other words, I'm not a pensive guy who sits in a corner and would read anything on a beach or something. I don't want to do that. That's great to have a lot of people. But at the same time, I love that book, even though some matter of fact, a lot of times I've said, the Lord has said, you know, why don't you take this time with me? And I've said, no, I'd rather do something else. Yeah. 100%. Okay, but that doesn't mean I love this. Um, okay, how about this one? This is this one you can speak to really good, but um a little bit here. The Bible does not say everything in the world is evil. Because sometimes you feel like in church, this is what you feel like. Listen, I'm just telling you being in the cheap seats, okay? As being a policeman as opposed to a full-time only pastor. You feel like the pastor is saying the only thing that counts is your serving the Lord, your reading of the Bible, and your fellowshipping in your church group or whatever, your Bible study. The rest of life, yeah, anything gets in the way of any of those things is terrible.

SPEAKER_01 27:15

Like just work, secular work, you mean?

Is The World Only Evil?

SPEAKER_03 27:17

The Bible does not say everything in the world is evil. The Bible does not warn us that all is evil in the world. There's lots of other things, too, don't you think?

SPEAKER_01 27:25

Well, sure. I mean, the the world, once again, remember, creation is made, everything's very good. That's true, and then it gets tarnished by sin, but it's still sin tarnishing very good things. So uh the world is still made by God, and people are made in God's image, and all these things are good. So it's the been tarnished by sin, and that needs to be redeemed. So I think the idea that once again, hey, this is like a Tim Keller has a great book called Every Good Endeavor, and this is built off of years of like Martin Luther was big on this, um, in terms of uh reformed idea of work. Just the idea being that work is valuable, making good shoes is valuable, protecting the well-being of a community is valuable, providing government and oversight and structure over a city is really valuable. Somebody cooking and making food to provide for communities is really valuable. So uh somebody who can build houses, very valuable. So uh somebody who's taking care of uh kids that are distraught. So you think about the idea of everybody can add value to the world around them, can care for creation, can at very least provide for their family, can use some of that money to give to certain things. So, no, not everything is inherently evil, everything is on the front end made by God. People are made in the image of God. These things are good. You know, the Bible calls it common grace. It's the idea that there's special grace, like unique grace would be the particular work of Jesus Christ on a soul to save a soul. And that is the that is God's special grace. Common grace is just that God's kindness and favor is just all over the world when if it wasn't, it would be way more evil than it is now. So, but just to affirm people in their work, like do your work, do it well, do it unto the Lord, try to make the best difference you can, but doing a good job honors the Lord.

SPEAKER_03 29:17

And and on top of job, I think it's also really been enlightening for me the last five years, probably, to appreciate how great football is and and nature.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

Oh, just like hobbies or and things life that God has made.

SPEAKER_03 29:31

I mean, uh the amazing uh things God has given us. He's he's decorated this world majestically, and listen to Piper discuss it, it's just very moving. But I would just say there's all this stuff to enjoy. And I think sometimes the Christian is so worried about when football takes over, you know, when Sunday becomes I worship the stupid pigskin. Or is it really like football's really good? It's just in doses, obviously, idiot. In other words, nature's good, but if you abandon your family and go live under a tree, you're an idiot. That's not what he's saying. So while we put warnings in front of us, yeah, at the same time, we also want to enjoy it, enjoy the heck out of our kids and somebody else's kids for that matter. Uh one of the verses.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

First Timothy 4, Paul tells Timothy that uh to enjoy the food and drink that God has given them, and that it's made uh what does he say, made pure, holy by thanksgiving and prayer. So just the idea that these are blessings. You're not supposed to disdain them, you're supposed to enjoy them. But obviously, the concern for all you know, even most pastors or spiritual leaders is I don't think most people are over worried about how much they enjoy the world. And I think most people are underworried about how little they enjoy God. So it does seem most people need to be told you're probably watching football way more than you read the Bible, and that's not gonna turn out great. Um, as opposed to like, hey, you should enjoy watching football, don't feel bad about it. I'm not sure I've met anybody that feels bad about watching football.

SPEAKER_03 31:05

Well, I think you're I think you you, if you're honest, okay. So what you said is is appropriate, and that is you said most of the world does not have this problem 100%. Broad is the way that leads to destruction, narrow is the way.

SPEAKER_01 31:17

I mean most of Christians is what I mean.

Will We Share The Same Experiences?

SPEAKER_03 31:18

But I'm saying Christians that are really on the narrow gate, I'm gonna tell you in talking to them, and you've experienced it, where you have felt, you've felt uh your son says to you, I'm afraid I like baseball more than Jesus. I'm just telling you that sentiment is in real Christians' hearts. There's a struggle in there all the time. And so learning that when I was working a lot, love my job, loved my job. And I'm out there buying drugs and arresting people and so on. What I needed was balance, yeah, but at the same time, it was fine to enjoy the work that God had given me. You know what I'm saying? That's all I mean. Okay, good. Here we go. Next one, we'll be doing this all day. This is good. Um, this is an important one. The Bible does not say all Christians will experience the same things. The reason this happens is the pastor will talk about his experience or the teacher or whatever, Bible study leader. And when they talk about their experience, immediately the rest of us who have not had that experience.

SPEAKER_01 32:25

Like spiritual experience?

SPEAKER_03 32:27

Uh yeah, yeah, that they'll experience the same things, the same spiritual experiences in life, uh, the same way. Um this goes to some of what we've already discussed in terms of how um much uh one may feel. Like I'll I'll give you a good example. A lot of times I worked a lot with men's Bible studies, and and their wives will talk about this emotional connection of the Lord. My wife writes in journals all the time, and so I tried writing a journal. Yeah, but I kept up for about three days and I was done. And and I always feel guilty, like, man, I should do that more. Or they might feel this closest Lord. She used to say, it still drives me nuts. She says, I just know the Lord loves me. I just know the Lord loves me. Like, what the crap are you talking about? Don't you know how sinful you are? How can you possibly feel like that? So my experience, not but the same as hers. Am I right? I don't I don't know, but some of this is is the way the Lord works in you, maybe different than me and so on. And I just want to address the Christians that are feeling down or something because they they just have not experienced things that their spouse or their friend or whatever their pastor says.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

I mean, obviously, once again, your personalities are different. I would say the I mean the Bible the truths of the Bible are available to everybody at the same degree. So you would never say that Patty has more access to emotional nearness to Jesus than you do. You'd you would never say that. That would not be biblically accurate to say that she has more access to that than you do. Or or that the expectations from God are that she's gonna feel closer to him than you do. There's there's nothing in the Bible that would warrant that kind of disparity. Now, obviously, there are personalities and there are sin struggles, and there are different angles people have on that. So uh, should you feel bad about not experiencing things to the same degree as someone else? Probably not. Should you pursue uh a greater experience of God in those ways? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:32

Uh depending what you're pursuing. You're pursuing God, right? I'm not pursuing many emotional.

SPEAKER_01 34:40

Have you ever read the Psalms? Like David was more of a man than you, and he's more emotionally connected. What was that?

SPEAKER_03 34:48

You just threw an I'm not as tough as David. All men, all men. Okay, I'll be talking about manly.

SPEAKER_01 34:52

I thought I was David would represent I'm not talking about manliness, but also emotionally connected. He's got it both. So the idea that also would be emotionally connected, even also depressed more than that. It's not crazy life.

SPEAKER_03 35:05

There's a crazy life, but also some people perceive uh like all I'm saying is I I think I think we're overall in sync here, except that I would say that um the balance is here. We absolutely want to grow close to Jesus, and you can do it man, woman, green, blue, et cetera. Everybody else's equal opportunity to do it. Yes. But do they feel it as much as the way somebody else feels it or the way somebody describes it? I think often that's the only problem is that they actually do have this close to Jesus, but they could never describe it the way others describe it. It can be that, but the bottom line is you want to just you want to pursue the Lord Jesus and love him and be as close to him as you possibly can without feeling like you're gonna necessarily experience the same thing you do. I'll give you an example. You and a lot of other preachers, when they preach, they cry when they preach.

SPEAKER_01 35:54

Yeah. Now I believe cry's a strong word. Uh weep, tear up, get emotionally, weep. Cry. I never let I never cry. I might tear up.

SPEAKER_03 36:04

Okay, so so when I preach, I think I really care about what I'm preaching.

SPEAKER_01 36:09

Yeah, but you know, I know I do.

SPEAKER_03 36:10

I don't have that particular reaction.

SPEAKER_01 36:12

Right.

SPEAKER_03 36:12

So all I would say is to all the preachers. Exactly. So all the preachers out there, I'm just saying, while I applaud my brother's John R. Rice, this great evangelist, and they call him the crying preacher because he wept in every sermon about the lost. He really did. Yeah. So I think that's wonderful. I'm just saying that every preacher doesn't need to feel like they've got to be John R. Rice in the same way with your daily life in Christ. Fair.

SPEAKER_01 36:36

That's then, yeah, sure. That's fair.

SPEAKER_03 36:39

Okay, we do know that David was more humane than I am. No doubt about it. There we go. The Bible does not say verses alone, verse alone, scripture alone, cures all anxiety or mental health struggles. There's a big feeling that uh when you have anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, bipolar, that you need to go home and memorize scripture and the Lord will take care of this. There's a lot of people caught in that right now. Moms trying to counsel their own kids, or more uh let's say more serious, yeah, for somebody's had some schizophrenia or other serious illnesses, and they're feeling like their son is is is away from God necessarily because they're experiencing it, but yeah, maybe. Um, and that they if they just memorize the Bible more, they wouldn't have this problem anymore. So Bible does not say, here's my statement, you can react to it. Bible does not say that Bible alone, verses alone, cure notice my word, all anxiety or mental health struggles. What do you think?

SPEAKER_01 37:40

Right. No, the Bible does not say that God's word uh alone, in its own merit, uh in this age right now, cures every possible disease you might have. I think once again, this this is the common grace idea that God's word is obviously essential, especially for our salvation, can't get saved apart from that. And uh uh it's a conduit for healing, of course it is. Um, but the fact that medicine exists, the same way, like if I broke my leg, you wouldn't say just pray over it or memorize a scripture verse about God's restoration. You know, you'd say, well, go to a doctor, uh, put it in a cast, and God has created a mechanism in your body that will actually begin to heal itself. So it's it's the same idea with your brain. Like a lot of it is just, I mean, this goes into the whole brain thing that your brain is not just a spiritual thing, it is a physical thing. So your brain needs help, so you might need medicine. So you just you gotta do all the things. I think medicine's a part of it, relationships and counseling is a part of it, the word of God and spiritual well-being is a part of it. You know, your mind, body, and soul. So the word of God is essential. You can't do anything without it, and you should apply the word of God and memorize it to every possible situation of your life, and you should pray about literally everything, and God can definitely heal with a prayer.

Can Verses Alone Cure Mental Illness?

SPEAKER_03 39:03

Yeah, and I I might even say that if you're struggling with mental health stuff, depression, anxiety, and so on, I ought to expect as a growing Christian that you will have also meditated and memorized on every verse in the Bible on your subject. Do you know what I mean? That would be necessary.

SPEAKER_00 39:17

You don't want to leave that out.

SPEAKER_03 39:18

If you're telling me you're struggling with pornography, but you don't know where the verses in the Bible are against lust or against earnestness, I'd say, well, golly, man. I mean, that would be step one. That would be step one. You'd start there. So, same way with mental health, man, the Bible is this, oh, and in so many places, let's just remember, most places in the world, yeah, even today, do not have access to medical care, mental health care, they don't have access to medicine. So, what is God giving them? I believe He's given them scriptures. So I'm all for that. I just, I just a lot of times when I was having panic attacks as a kid, I was given Bible verses and was told, you know, that'll eradicate it. And I felt so guilty that I would quote those verses to Myself and they didn't kill it.

SPEAKER_02 40:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:01

But once I learned a little bit about how to think and then infuse the scripture, I mean, one couldn't be without the other for me and for what I think for the Christian. Okay, good. You're very body and soul. All right, here we go. I really liked what you said actually, where you said the the mind, the brain is also physical, not just uh spiritual.

SPEAKER_01 40:20

People need to think about it that way. I think that's it's like a broken leg, like you and people dissociate, you know, it's not true. Like that's why medicine's so important, is it just fixes what's broken. And can people overdo it or do it? Of course. But all these things, a wise Christian would take all of them to consider.

SPEAKER_03 40:34

Yeah, I guess it'd be like, I like the broken leg thing. Uh if the if the if the guy says, I broke my leg, and I say to him, uh, you know, here's a good verse, uh I'm through it into the thing.

SPEAKER_00 40:46

But but if I say anything, it's the gospel of Jesus tells the paralytic to get up and go. Just memorize that stuff.

SPEAKER_03 40:51

And by the way, let's be clear. Uh I'll say this. If you or your family, my daughter, or those kids get cancer tomorrow, and praying. I'm gonna pray for supernatural healing. And I'm not against taking them to a faith healer if somebody tells me that this guy, the Lord is using there's some movements.

SPEAKER_00 41:07

I'll take all the prophetic words that anybody wants to do.

SPEAKER_03 41:09

Anything you do to save my kids, absolutely. But at the same time, I'm not gonna tell them not to get chemotherapy, and that's all we're saying.

SPEAKER_01 41:16

Let's just call it step one. Step two. So step one, I am gonna go to God first. I'm gonna quote the scriptures, I'm gonna pray. Yes, that's my number one response. Step two is I'm gonna go to a doctor.

SPEAKER_00 41:28

Yeah, step three, I'm gonna take the medicine.

SPEAKER_03 41:31

And and and and and and this is critical. Um, most of our mental health struggles, when I mean fear, worry, uh, anger, can be resolved with the scriptures. But there is a portion that cannot be resolved with scripture alone. Makes sense, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:48

I mean, it'd be like memorizing all the scriptures, but eating terribly and never exercising, and then wondering why you look at me.

SPEAKER_03 41:57

Why? Why do you look at me?

SPEAKER_01 41:58

So far, you've called me a pet pig and you said that I'm just not a David. Jeez. Hopefully they clip that because those are the most interesting parts of the interesting parts.

SPEAKER_03 42:07

All right, here we go. Uh we're almost done, believe it or not. But there's so many things.

SPEAKER_00 42:11

I haven't eaten lunch yet, so I need to go to eat.

SPEAKER_03 42:14

That was your mistake. That was your mistake. Okay. Uh how about the Bible does not say godly people with faith never get sick.

SPEAKER_01 42:28

It says the opposite of that. What does it say? It says that we should in this world you will have trouble, right? Jesus said. I mean, look at Paul's the expectation is you will suffer. Actually, the expectation is take up your cross and follow me. The expectation, seconds 4, is you are a jar of clay. Like the the the beauty of the gospel is inside a broken vessel. So the expectation, actually, too, is that more than likely God's going not more than likely, definitely, God's going to use your sufferings as a much more pronounced way of you becoming like Jesus and giving testimony to him than your successes. It's like what's more powerful? Somebody winning the game and saying glory to God, or somebody losing and their whole life falls apart and saying glory to God. Like, so sufferings just have a unique way of giving testimony that everybody can be happy when things are good. There's nothing profound about your faith if it stabilizes, if it allows you to enjoy success. But so it's kind of like faith is tested, and you know, first uh Peter or 2 Peter says that our our faith, first Peter, that our faith is tested and it comes out, and the verified faith is more precious than gold. So it's just like it's the other side. It's you should expect to suffer, not expect not to suffer.

SPEAKER_03 43:47

We'll get sick and um we'll get sick and die. And die. They all do, apparently.

SPEAKER_01 43:52

Everybody dies.

SPEAKER_03 43:53

Isn't that interesting? Yeah now, uh, when you see Robert Murray McShane dies at 29, yeah, and David Brainerd too. Yeah, yeah. Uh if they died um young, it could you know, part of Jesus' whole mirac miracles was that there was the thinking at the time was that they sinned. Who sinned? This guy.

SPEAKER_01 44:15

Right, who's responsible for this? You know, John 9.

SPEAKER_03 44:18

Yeah. And I'm just telling you, if you're sick or whatever, it could be God getting your attention. It could be. It could lead to repentance and you need it. And I would always go there first. I always go there first. If I'm get sick, I can tell you right now, I'm gonna go to Jesus right away. What's that? And I'm gonna say, Lord, did I do anything? If I did, I repent. I'm gonna do that. That may not be the most uh faith-filled. But at the same time, you start there like we did with mental illness go from there. Okay, last one, here we go. The Bible does not say it's selfish to pray for your own needs. There's a lot of there's a lot of talk about prayer that says I don't pray for myself, I just pray for others and I and I uh you know worship the Lord and so on, but I don't pray for myself. And uh there's even teaching where you'll hear and uh kind of limiting the amount of uh your time praying that you spend talking about yourself with the Lord. So go ahead and tell me what heretical thing you think about this.

SPEAKER_00 45:19

I mean, first Peter 5 7 says to cast your cares on the Lord because he cares for you. So I think probably the first step of prayer is Lord, I need help, you know. Like I have problems.

SPEAKER_01 45:30

Um, I think it's to over-spiritualize to think that all my prayers are about things that don't concern my life, you know? That's just ridiculous. So I think the only fight against that is just to make sure all your prayers aren't about your life and that you care about what's going on in other parts of the world, or you care about what's going on in your city or your neighbors, you know, and to grow, that's a muscle you need to grow in. But it's certainly God loves to take care of your needs, he's your father. It'd be like me being mad that my kid came up to me and had a need and they told me about it. How dare you, you know, how dare you bring your needs to me. Like God's your father, he wants to take care of you, and so bringing him your needs is the first thing you should always do with your needs.

Do Godly People Avoid Sickness?

SPEAKER_03 46:12

Yeah, if you had I got a guy who works with me now that he um he works in the ministry, and I mean this dude seven days a week, he's helping other people, just all over it. But but I have to beg him to take a minute off or to think about himself at all. And anytime I talk about himself, he wants to change subject. The point is that's no relationship. And and like you said, I love the idea with kids. So listen, let me just summarize here. This has been great. And and and let me give a testimony too that Um The cool thing about God's Word and uh getting this wider perspective of how we interact with God's word and how he interacts with us is to say that you know now are you 40? I'm 39. 39. Yeah, so 39-year-old son-in-law don't speak that into existence. Yeah, right. So so when did you start dating? How old were you starting dating, Kristen? How long has that been? So about 20 years. So for 20 years, if you span the 20 years, isn't it uh really cool that uh and you gotta think of this for you too, that uh I can learn so much uh from your teaching and your thing. Why? Because the Holy Spirit has done this great work and and because we can learn to enjoy all things and to we can appreciate this and really learn a lot. I bring my notebook every Sunday to church. And the reason I want you to think about it, you'll appreciate if you think about it this way. What if uh I don't know, one of your uh nephews or somebody, uh Levi ends up uh teaching 20 years from now, and you're 60 or 59, you know, the beauty of being able to go there and say, This will be great. The idea that I can learn from the Lord Jesus. Why? Because it's so good and it's so lovely, and and the Lord does great things and teaches us and makes us so the Bible doesn't say a lot of the things that people feel pressured about, but it does say He does the words of life, and it will bring life to you uh with whatever your struggles. Fair?

SPEAKER_01 48:12

Any last thoughts on the Bible? And just that everybody can know the Bible, you don't have to go to seminary, you don't need some sort of special degree. Just read the Bible, have the Holy Spirit, be committed to it, memorize the little bit you can, and give God your time and attention, and He'll teach you, and you'll be less confused about like you'll grow, you'll still have confusion, but the more you know the Word, man, the better off you're gonna be in a million ways. So you don't have to be a pastor or none of that.

SPEAKER_03 48:35

It's one of the best reasons to share the gospel is that the people I know that don't know Christ, they also don't have access to the Bible. And that's it. It's the guide for life.

SPEAKER_02 48:46

It's the guide for life.

SPEAKER_03 48:46

That's right. The rules of the game. Okay, enough, preacher. Okay, okay, okay. Come on now. We can't have this podcast going for seven hours. All right, let me pray for you. Lord, thank you so much for uh Nate. Thank you for the word, thank for the power of the word of God, and thank you, Lord Jesus, that you are so clear and so merciful, and then allow us faith to experience life in the ways that the Bible is not clear. So thank you, Lord. Bless those who hear this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you.