Scott Moore: Welcome to the "Building Faith and Family" podcast with Steve Demme. I'm your host, Scott Moore. Thanks for joining us today. Good morning, Steve. How are you today?
Steve: I can feel all my muscles.
Scott: I hope that's for a good reason.
Steve: Well, I did something to my back about two months ago, and I had to go to the chiropractor and get that straightened out. I've been trying to get back to the gym, and I finally went yesterday for the first time.
Even though it was a pretty low‑key workout, I started feeling pretty sore in certain places, and so I stopped before the whole workout was over. I only went 50 minutes, which in the past, I would have scorned of myself. Now I said, "I'm learning to listen to my body."
Scott: It's a good idea.
Steve: Yeah. First time in my life. Anyway...
Scott: Especially at our age.
Steve: I was old school. No pain, no gain, fight through it, and all that garbage. Scott: It works when you’re 18.
Steve: I'm happy to be moving. I'm thankful that I have muscles that I can feel. Scott: Right on.
Steve: Today, we're going to kind of shift gears a little bit. I'm going to title this, 38 years in the wilderness. How's that for a title?
Scott: It's close to 40. I like it.
Steve: Perhaps I should say 38 years wandering, and I'll explain it in just a minute. Let's pray. Father, thank You for each of our journeys. Each one of us is a work in progress. Each one is a work that You are the author and the finisher and the sanctifier and the whole package. We're being worked on and through by You. We have spiritual muscles that have to be strengthened and challenged. Thank You for Your good work that You've begun in each one of us. I pray that You'll bless us today as we consider parts of my journey and how we can apply that to our lives in Jesus' name. Amen.
Scott: Amen.
Steve: You were right. The Israelites were 40 years out of Egypt, but the first two years, they hung out at Mount Horeb where they received the law and built the tabernacle.
That number stuck in my mind. I started doing the math, and I realized that for my journey, 1974 was when I read, "The Cross and the Switchblade." Partway through the book, I sensed God's tug and put the book down, and said, "OK. God. Here we go." That’s when I began to seek first the kingdom. That verse motivated me, and gave me focus.
I can remember times when I had to make a decision about whether I was going to do this or do that or go here for more education or do this ministry. I would simply ask the question, "Which one will help me seek first the kingdom?" That passage shaped me for decades.
Then in 2012, the hardest and best year of my life, which I've talked about a lot on this podcast, and I've written books about it, I had a huge breakthrough because, for the first time, I felt like I understood that God likes me for who I am and not based on what I do. It's called grace. By grace have you been saved.
I don't want to spend too much on that because I've spent so much time in the past, but this was to me a much deeper understanding of the gospel. When I first heard the gospel as a teenager, I knew that God would forgive my sins if I asked Him to forgive me.
I knew that He would give me eternal life. "He that believes in the Son has eternal life," etc. I understood certain components, but I didn't realize until 2012 that for 38 years, I liked to think that I was seeking first the kingdom, and doing all these different accomplishments and achievements for God.
I'd like to think that that's why I did what I did, but I think deep down my real motivation was I wanted God to like me. I wanted to belong, I wanted to be pleasing. I wanted to be loved because I didn't really comprehend the gospel. I wish I could say with Paul in 2nd Corinthians 5:14, "The love of Christ controlled me.” Or “The love of Christ constrained me," as one translation puts it. I wish I could say that I did all those things because in 1974 I understood the gospel and I was so overcome with God's grace that I began to serve Him out of love.
In 2012, I learned how to reflect, I learned how to ask God's Spirit to search my heart. I realized that I didn't really believe that God loved me for who I was. I thought God would love me more if I did more stuff, if I read my Bible consistently, if I was active in the church, if I was involved in evangelism, if I was working with ministries. I did a ton of stuff from 1974 to 2012, 38 years.
The breakthrough for me when God took me to a whole different understanding of the gospel was in 2012. I'd lived 38 years this way. It took time to let this new understanding of grace and God’s mercy sink in.
It took me two years from when I began to comprehend God’s grace, before I could wait on God. I remember you asked me one time, "Why did it take you two years?" I said, "I think it took two years for all these things that I have been knowing in my mind to reach down deep into my heart."
I now know because of what Jesus has done for me, I am an adopted child of God. I'm beloved by the Father. I am pleasing in Jesus. I know these things now. I don't know them only in my head or my notebook, I know them deep in my heart. Because of Jesus and what He has done for me, I am fully known and I am fully liked. I believe that every time I come near to God now, He is smiling.
I didn't believe that for 38 years. I'm not going to go into that. I've written books about it. You can look. One book is "Knowing God's love." Another one is "Crisis to Christ," where I spell this out in a lot more detail.
For 38 years, I feel like I was pressing towards the promised land but after 38 years, I feel like I'm now living in the promised land. Everything is different now. I don't get up in the morning wondering if God loves me or wondering if I'm pleasing, or wondering
if I'm a child of God. I don't doubt those things anymore. I know deep down that I belong to the King, and He loves me to pieces.
I’ve thought about this and wondered what could I have done differently? As I have been chewing on this and praying, this verse came to me, 2 Peter 1:10‑11. "Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election." I'm going to read that again. "Brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election. For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. For in this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."
Another translation says, "Give the more diligence," but this one says, "Be the more diligent." What does it mean to confirm your calling and election? What's interesting is both of those words, "calling" and "election", we're going to go into the Greek in a minute, but they are something that's from heaven. God is the one that called us. He took the initiative to elect us. Most people that I have talk to, when they tell their salvation story, and sometimes it's even as you're telling your salvation story that you realize that it was God that was arranging circumstances, bringing people into your life, awakening scriptures to you, etc.
It was God that called us. It was God that elected us. What this passage is saying is don't stop there, but be diligent to confirm it. Go deeper. Make this your ambition to know more about your calling and election.
Because that passage says, if you practice these qualities of being diligent to confirm your calling and election, you will never fall. What a great promise. There will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
The first word is "calling," which is Klesis in Greek and is used 11 times, but according to the Strong's that I was consulting, it says, "In the New Testament, Klesis primarily
refers to a divine calling or invitation, particularly in the context of God's call to individuals to enter into a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ." I've got two passages I'm going to read that use this word "calling" that are really good. There are 11, but I am choosing to read two. Ephesians 1:16, Paul is speaking. He says, "I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
"Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of His power to us‑ward who believe, according to the working of the strength of His might which He wrought in Christ."
We need to be knowing more about His calling. We need to have the eyes of our heart enlightened. We need to have wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him so that we can comprehend the greatness of His power.
It doesn't mean that we have to go into the wilderness and sit on a rock and meditate on our calling and election, but it does mean that we not only do service for the king. As an aside, I believe one of healthiest things you can do is to give your testimony when you get saved. There is nothing like a fresh convert to share the gospel. There's a zeal, there's an enthusiasm, there's a reality that is wonderful, but don't let that be your whole life. Also give diligence to understand the gospel and keep understanding it, so you're operating on two fronts.
Yes, you want to be seeking first the kingdom, but what I didn't do is I didn't let the gospel sink in and go deeper. I think my own experience is because my deep motivation was I really wanted the three things that I believe everybody wants. We want to belong, we want to be loved, we want to be pleasing and that's what Jesus received at His baptism. His Father said to Him, "You're my Son. I love you to pieces and you are well‑pleasing in My sight." Those are the three things the Father gave to His Son.
Once I got them from my heavily Father, it was transformative. That when I moved from the wilderness to the promised land. This is what that verse is telling me. "Give diligence to make your calling and election sure," especially if you're a parent and you have children. Children oftentimes in Christian homes make a professional faith when they're younger, six, seven eight years old.
They pray the prayer and they're baptized, they are in the church, whatever your tradition, but the point is, is that they often they forget their salvation experience. It seems so long ago. We need to keep those things fresh and bring it up and talk about their testimony, but then don't stop there because that's not the most important thing that they said yes to Jesus.
That's one piece. We need to give diligence to make their calling and election sure and continue to expound on how powerful the gospel is and salvation from sin and Gods love which never changes. These are things that I had to work through in 2012. I had to do Bible studies on God's grace, His steadfast love, His unchanging nature, His forgiveness, the power of the blood of Jesus, the presence of the Holy Spirit. I did study after study after study, and I'm still finding them in my computer by the way. I did tons of them in 2012 and 2013 and 2014, and then I started writing in 2015. I had to give diligence to make sure what I believed. I had to go deeper with it. 2 Timothy 1:8‑9, more on calling, "Be not ashamed, therefore, of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but suffer hardship with the gospel according to the power of God, Who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal."
He has saved us. He has called us with a holy calling and it was not based on works. I knew that in my head, but I was living as if it did. I wish I had done these studies before.
38 years ago I wish I had been saturated in studying God's love, God's grace, God's forgiveness, God's adoption, all these passages, all these verses which would have strengthened me and made me know that it's Him. He's the one that called me. There's another word. It says, "Your calling and election." There are certain people from different traditions that are getting nervous when I mentioned that word "election," but it's there. These words, the first word was Klesis, calling, but then there's a couple, Eklogē and Eklektos, one's a noun, one's an adjective and they have the same root.
It means, a choosing or an election or a selecting. Again, it's a divine selection or election in those several passages. I'm going to read a couple. 1 Peter 2:9, "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession." Revelation 17:14, "They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with Him are called and chosen and faithful." There it is. The people that are following Jesus are the ones that He called and He chose. Called and chosen. Then Ephesians 3, I love this prayer that Paul prays for the Ephesians.
Remember, these was the people, and we know this from Revelation the second chapter, that had lost their first love. Somehow, they hadn't comprehended God's love. They were doing great stuff. They did four things really well. They got the "well done," and then He said, "You've lost your first love."
Here is Paul praying for these same people. Ephesians 3:14, "For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from Whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His Glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being."
That's his prayer. He wants us to be strengthened with power, he wants His Spirit to strengthened our hearts in our inner being. Here's the result, "...so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love." We've got to get our roots right down deep in God's love and so that we're grounded. Then he said, "...so that you may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." Paul knows the only way these Ephesians are going to get over the hurdle, going to get into the promised land and leave the wilderness is if they can take in the love of Christ.
If they can comprehend it in a whole new way that they can go deep in understanding their calling and election, that then they'll be filled with all the fullness of God, then they'll be able to thrive in the gospel instead of barely getting by.
38 years living a certain way, and now I'm in year 13 of living in the promised land and It is night and day. I don't know how else to say it. What do you think? Scott: I think I wander back and forth. Like you testified too, this will change your life if you get in there, if you get it down in your heart. I'm grasping onto the idea of being elected or being selected. The idea like, as a kid, when you were picked for a team, it really felt terrible to be not picked, or to be the last one picked. Steve: There's hardly anything worse, but go ahead.
Scott: We've been selected by God for His team.
Steve: Amen.
Scott: None of us were the last one picked. Maybe there is somebody who's the last one, but even so, you were still selected by God Almighty to be on His team. I don't claim to comprehend the conflict seemingly of election and freewill. I accept that I may understand it when I get to heaven, but it's OK. I believe they're both operating and I can find verses to back them both up. We don't have time to fight about it. I don't know if you even want this on the podcast.
Scott: I don't know if you want.
Steve: When you talked about that being the last one chosen, it says in 1 Corinthians 1:26, "Consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful.
"Not many were of noble birth, but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is
low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are."
You get both of those verses in there. I'm glad you brought this up because this is powerful stuff. This is our calling. We weren't called because we were smart, powerful, or noble. We may have been foolish and weak, and despised, and it's OK because we got chosen. Hallelujah.
Scott: Right on. That will change your life if you let that down into heart. Steve: Yes.
Scott: Obviously. I'm in the word a fair amount pretty much daily and I still feel like, "Wow, I need to spend a lot more of my effort on this and a lot less time scrolling my phone."
Steve: I feel like, in some ways, it's good that you get saved and you get right in the battle. Somebody gets saved and sadly sometimes are put into positions of ministry and leadership. If you're young and athlete and you become the head of the youth group even though you just got saved a year ago.
I became a Sunday school teacher immediately. I probably shouldn't have been. I probably should have had some seasoning. I should have had some little bit of depth, but this is the way we operate in the evangelical world. You get saved and you jump into battle, but boy we really need to make our calling and election sure and give diligence to it and work on being discipled and not just hear the gospel, "OK. Now you're saved, now go." No. We need to really make disciples over all the nations which is what Jesus said in Mathew 28. That's not new telling a former Navigator that. Scott: No, I'm thinking of how were the disciples trained up, how was Paul trained up. It wasn't just a jump right in, but that's how we do it. You jump into the battle and you get shot sometimes. There's people who never join the battle again, it seems because they get taken out and it's so frustrating.
Steve: This is my exhortation, but it's leading to next week because now when people asked me what are you doing in the promised land? Different. That's a teaser for next week. Let's pray. Father, thank You for calling us. Thank You for choosing us. Thank You that you've given us Your word so that we can make our calling and election more sure, more solid, deeper.
I pray that You help us to do that. Help us to deepen our relationship. Thank You that you didn't call us because we were wonderful or we had something to offer, but You chose us and called us because of who we were, and so that You could make your power known in us. Thank You for these passages that we read today. Write them on our hearts, I pray. In Jesus' name, amen.
Scott: Amen. That's our show for this week, folks. Thanks for joining us for the Building Faith and Family podcast with Steve Demme. If you have a question for the show, email Steve at spdemme@Gmail.com. Thanks for joining us. Have a great week.