Anchormen Ep26 Who is God to you?

Who is God to you? 

This question you may never have asked yourself or anyone else but have you ever taken the time to think about it?

What does God mean to you and how much of a part does He play in your life?

We start out reading Hebrew 11:6 " Without Faith, it is impossible to please Him, anyone that comes to Him must believe He exists and that He rewards those that earnestly seek Him."

Do we look to God as a rewarder to those who are "Good" and He holds back from those who are not, while He keeps score.

John and Todd are joined this week by Brad Whitmore looking into this question about who and what is our perception of God.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:10

In our walk with God, we often experience moments when our faith is tested. It's at these times that we truly discover what it means to be anchored in faith. Our faith is like a sturdy ship anchored in the harbor. It keeps us grounded when the waves of life toss us around. When we live in God and His Word, we find the strength to persevere and trust in His plans. They anchormen remind us weekly that Jesus is our anchor, provided stability and insurance in the midst of our certainty. Together, let's dive deeper into the powerful words that encourage us to hold fast in the faith of Jesus the Father and not rely on good words to be righteousness. Good to have you here again. Ahoyer. Ahoy, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 1:33

Oh, that's pirate.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Brad! Oh man. Hey, it's good to have you guys. Um we've got Brad Whitmore here. Uh Bob's still out sick. He's uh he's got a real bad, nasty cold, so or something he's got. I don't know what it is, but thank you. And uh before we get started, I'm just gonna pray real quick for us. So dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the opportunity to do this podcast uh with Todd and with Brad today. Father, we ask you that the words we say be pleasing to you and let the Holy Spirit guide this conversation, as always. In Jesus' name, amen. Alright. Alright, so we're gonna kind of continue a little bit from what we did last week, talking about scriptures that were miss are misinterpreted. The first one, I don't know, do either one of you guys have Hebrews 11 up there? 11 6?

SPEAKER_00 2:26

11 6, yeah. And without faith, it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. What trend? That's NESB?

SPEAKER_01 2:39

Yeah, okay, that's the one you usually use. Want me to read a different one? Uh you want NIV? Try that.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

I don't know if you're just an easier one for you, John? Yeah, I need like a message. Here's an NIV. And without faith, it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. There's what I was wanting to get to. Rewards. Isn't that interesting the difference between the New American Standard and the NIV? Right.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

So the rewards thing, because of that being the version that is probably also read in most churches, you get into the rewards thing, and you know, with a reward in society, you have to earn a reward. It's always conditional. You have to do something.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Yeah. It's always conditional in this world, it's always conditional.

SPEAKER_02 3:29

I know one of the things that I got out of it in reading and researching is that people tend to take words out of context because in here it says without faith. So then what happens is people think that I have to be faithful, which then is an action or a verb, which then means I have to do something, which leads back to what you were talking about, John, about it being conditional. I've got to do something or, and the or is usually God will like me, God will be upset with me for a time being, I'll be separated from God for a little bit, things of that nature.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

And how many times, like even growing up, if you misbehave, uh well, you're gonna, you know, you're not in God's good graces, or you're gonna do more, you gotta do better, you gotta be be kinder, you gotta be be good, you gotta do this, you gotta do that. Yeah, I had a grandmother who used to say, God's gonna punish you.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Hormal thing to tell a child though, you know, but that was kind of the way they thought back then.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

Try to get us to behave, a behavior.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

Yeah, and there's there's family members that I that I know that they harp on the kids about behaving, behaving, behaving. Sometimes, you know, little boys are different to to raise than little girls. Little boys are a little wilder, they're a little more untamed, and which is good. I think it's really good. So sometimes you have to let little boys be little boys, you know. And uh and it's like men have to be men.

SPEAKER_02 5:07

Right. I think what what could also happen is is that you know, all of this stuff forms our perception of God and how we perceive God is then how we're going to act and react. And then we do always make it about behavior because you know, as we've been talking, we're not looking through a grace lens, we're looking through a law lens or a performance lens. And in doing that, we will always fall short. That's that's what they tell us all throughout the new covenant that we will fall short, and that's why we don't have the laws anymore, because those laws were about perfection. And the only way that we have perfection was by believing in Jesus and obtaining his righteousness and his perfection. And without that, we fail miserably because we fail on a daily basis.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Yeah, yeah. Well, much of scripture is written, and we kind of read scripture as it's a a book about human about humans and human actions. And that's not what the scripture is. I mean, the Bible by itself uh has been labeled as a dangerous book because it can be misinterpreted. Uh and it it's not about human actions, but it's about God's actions, not ours.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

Yeah, and you think about it, every Ty, you touched on this, I think, every single thing we do, you know, the this side of heaven and uh on earth is conditional. All our relationships are conditional, even our closest relationships are still conditional. Sometimes it's hard to wrap our mind around this unconditional love that God has for us. We talk about that that vertical plane, you know, from us to God and that horizontal plane from me to you or me to others, and and that that horizontal plane, we we get it wrong a lot of times, and but that but that vertical uh connection or that vertical plane between us and God is different. And and that helped me when I kind of wrap my mind around that a little bit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Well, won't there always be consequences in the lateral, you know, the horizontal relationships. There's always going to be conflict.

SPEAKER_02 7:25

Well, and also what can happen is when we read it as a book about us and what we need to do rather than God and what he's done, it does do serious damage to us. You know, think about our past and how we were taught all this stuff. Boy, oh boy, I couldn't stand going to church. I I didn't want nothing to do with Jesus unless I needed it, needed him in a foxhole prayer.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Well, and didn't we? Yeah, yeah. Didn't we grow up as a fear God? And not in just a fear God as in reverence, but in fear God as He's gonna strike down, you know, bolts of lightning on you if you if you do something wrong or misbehave or or if you swear or anything.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

Yeah, and and looking at it in that lens and looking back on it, it's like, man, no wonder why I didn't like going to church and why I didn't have a relationship with Christ.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

Well, it could make your your perception of God scary, it could make you scared of him. And that's not what he wants us to be afraid of. No. He's love. Yeah. Wow. So what do we think about the the the uh message in Corinthians is God will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. Aren't we tempted? Like when things go bad. How do we handle that? I mean, why do we handle bad things in our life? What verse is that, John? Do you have it there?

SPEAKER_00 8:52

Let's look it up and read it just for fun, just so we have it. 10 13. No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. That's the NIV. That's 1 Corinthians 10 13.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

What that is telling me is though we may have uh setbacks, we may have things that are hard to go through, God's always going to be there with us.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

This is the one where people switch what this is saying over to what Brad just mentioned.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

Oh, that's right. Okay, all right. That's where I was getting I had my notes in it.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

They they they switch uh temptation with with if you can handle it or not handle it, right? Right. The verse that says, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:42

Yeah, God is faithful and will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. Right. And then people have switched that over, which I remember hearing that. I remember five years ago, I remember preaching about that. You know, oh, God won't give you more than you can handle. I used to say that all the time. And uh the more that I thought about it, especially through the grace lens now, it's like, well, certainly he would, because that's when we come out of ourselves and we come to him. Yeah, we rely on him. It's all about him then. Well, not about me, it's about him. It says, if God promised I'd never face more than I can handle, and I'm clearly facing more than I can handle, then one of the two things must be true. If that's what this verse is saying, either God doesn't keep his promises, or he's a promise breaker rather than a promise keeper. Or God doesn't love me because if he did, he wouldn't keep handing me things that are too much.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

A lot of times we have that temptation that turns us from God because we think that God's turned his back on us. Right. He's allowing these things to happen, or he's making these things happen to tempt us, but a lot of people turn away from God because of that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

Well, and it's also you know, it's training us to monitor our performance. And then what happens is we think that they're uh managing, watching, evaluating, keeping score to see if we finally measure up. And uh that's that's not what he wants. That's not what he does, but unfortunately, that's how a majority of the world sees things, and the way that scripture is just interpreted. I just heard uh uh speaker of the house, Mike Johnson, is it? I just heard him yesterday, and I think I sent it to you guys, where evidently a judge or somebody is also a pastor, and they used scripture from Matthew 25, right, and they used it wrong. And so Mike Johnson went ahead and spoke about it and spoke about what the scripture actually meant, and then he asked them questions of the lady, and she's a pastor, and he asked her what it meant, and or if you could tell me what's it, what Matthew 25 says, and she didn't know anything that was in Matthew 25, and he had to refresh it to her. But my whole point is is when I was watching this, I'm thinking this is how the majority of churches are. Everything, all the a lot of the scripture is just so messed up. Taken out of context. Yeah. I think if you when you look through the grace lens, it's it points to Jesus. The whole book is a story about Jesus. And when you get off that story and you point it back at yourself, you've got the wrong story. What do you think, Bram?

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Yeah, big topic. But uh yeah, I think that we've made it in the modern church all about us instead of all about, you know, like you said earlier, rather than what he's done, we've made it all about what we do. And and and you know, we gotta give ourselves some grace on that too, because that's what we've been taught. You know, that's what the churches are teaching, and that that comes from you know, from the Reformation, and and and a lot of these pastors and teachers are going to schools where this is what they teach, and it it's more heavily influenced by um, you know, you're saved by grace and you're kept by your works, you know, and and that's a topic maybe for another day. But yeah, uh yeah, I I think that most people are being preached to, you know, they're going to church and they're being talked to and preached to, but they're not getting discipled, which is which is what I love about what we do here on Thursday nights, you know, is that we're trying to kind of dig some of this out that I was thinking to tonight, you know, we're I'm gonna present a little something on the history of the church. And where else would you hear anything about the history of the church? I mean, they don't talk about it at church. I mean, unless you watched a documentary on TV or you read a book about it, and most Christians are busy and they don't do that, you know. So unless you're in a small group and talk about some of this, you know, no pressure, but but that's where you're gonna shoe on some of this stuff with other like-minded people. Um, I don't know if that answers that question.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

Well, yeah, I think it does. And what I also emphasizes by what you said, Brad, is the fact that to get into groups, not just try to do it on your own. Get into groups and let a group of people look what you're looking at and interact with whatever you're reading or seeing. So you can maybe misinterpret it. When you hear it, you might misinterpret it. A lot of that comes from if you're watching documentaries, who's giving the documentary? Right. Is it a is it a a PBS documentary or who's through what lens is that being brought?

SPEAKER_00 14:45

Yeah, I don't watch most of those because most of them are garbage, you know, because they're um they're filtered through a lens of of not really really any church, more through secular, you know, systems that what they think Jesus is and who they you know that who they think uh he was, and and yeah, so I stay away from a lot of those. But yeah, I'm reminded when we talk about God won't give you more than handle, a verse I always go to is 2 Corinthians 1, 8 and 9. Paul says, For we do not uh want you to be unaware, brethren, of our afflictions, affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life. But you know, here's Paul. You know, talk about God won't give you more than you can handle. Here's Paul saying, We we were in real trouble and we were freaking out, and and uh we couldn't handle it, you know. And if you think about the things that you guys have gone through, all of us here at this table, any human being, and I I know you guys well enough to know some of the things you guys have gone through. And same with me, uh, you know, I mean, part of being human is going through some really, really tough stuff that I know, John, you couldn't handle the stuff you went through. I sure as heck no, uh Todd, that you couldn't, some of the stuff, you know, and same with me. It it's it's hard, hard stuff. And to think that God gave that to us to test us or something, I don't know, doesn't really add up.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

No, no, it doesn't. It's life. Yeah. It's life. And and I also look at it as a strengthener of faith. Because when you go through it and you rely on Christ and you see these things and you understand it, then when other things come at you later on in life, I think you're better better prepared to handle it, and you have much more wisdom. Yeah, and and you know and understand this. And you know, we talk all the time, you know, I have no idea how people go through life with the loss of a loved one that don't have Christ in their life. It's just gotta be so difficult.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

And just yeah, just thinking about, I mean, I've we've all well, I can't say we've all, but you know, I lost both of my parents. And it's a lot different losing a parent than it is a child. Because in the the circle of life, you expect to lose your parents before you lose children, and you never expect to outlive your your kids. Right. So it's it's a difficult situation. And I can understand where some people go off the deep end when that happens because they don't have Christ in their lives.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

Well, and the other thing I think it does is and you touched on this, Taz, it allows us to help others, right? Because, you know, I I reminded us first 2 Corinthians 1, 3 and 4, where Paul talks about um the Father of mercies and God gives us comfort, right? Who comforts us in all our afflictions so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort that we we ourselves are comforted and re received. So, you know, I know John, you do your ministry with uh um uh with the amputees, and I know Todd, you've worked with some people and encouraged and helped some people that have had lost kids and and and had sick kids and stuff, and boy, you've you've walked a mile in those shoes, you know, and you know what that's like, and to take them aside and say, you know, Jesus is enough, right? God's grace is enough, and and that's a I think that's a real powerful thing that we don't talk about enough as Christians.

SPEAKER_02 18:11

Yeah, I I agree with that. I I know that it's one of my favorite scriptures, and uh it's a scripture that I take very seriously because it doesn't say think about it, it doesn't say well maybe it tells you so that you can comfort others. You know, those those trials and tribulations that we go through, they should be used, and we should use our experience and beliefs to help people and show them our faith and explain to them how we were able to get through it because of Jesus and only because of Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

And and what about how we feel about God affects how we feel about ourselves and others?

SPEAKER_00 18:55

Yeah, I mean, if we see God as an as an angry, judgmental, wrathful God, then I think we may have a tendency to want to, you know, let that trickle down into our relationships and our lives and and how we live and how we view how he sees us. You know, if we see him as a God of love and grace, um, you know, we talk all the time about how um, you know, are are you gonna believe what God says about you in Scripture? And I and I think that you know that sometimes that takes a while to let that stuff sink in, what he says about you.

SPEAKER_02 19:29

Yeah, John and I were talking uh before you got here, and I was uh explaining to him how I I see things in my life, like when I I hear or read things. And, you know, if we believe God's love depends on what we do, we'll make everyone around us feel like our love depends upon what they do. Right. You know, we'll withdraw from people when they disappoint us. And I had heard that uh somebody say, we call it boundaries, but it's really conditional love and conditional affection. And I find myself doing that with my wife when she doesn't react in a manner that I'm wanted her to or doesn't say something that I wanted her to do, then I get upset and then I withdraw.

SPEAKER_00 20:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:14

And that's not good for a relationship. And so, you know, in just thinking through some of this stuff that uh we were gonna talk about, it made me realize stuff that I do. And and it's performance-based, and then I gotta think about okay, where did that come from? Where did that come from? You know, that's that's not what Jesus, my relationship with him is.

SPEAKER_00 20:37

But in the past, I think I don't know that you would have thought that. I don't know if you would have evaluated that self-evaluation and said, wait a minute, kind of acting out my flesh here, and this isn't who God says I am, that kind of thing. And it's not who you want to be either. No. No. It's not who we want to be, not at all. No, but even even when we have a handle on some of this on some small level, we still do it, right? Sure we do. We still get two's quick to anger and all kinds of stuff. Some the people who we love most usually get the brunt of it, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:06

Yeah. And I think it's because we can, we we feel we could be more transparent with people that we love and that we're close to. And sometimes, but transparency becomes hurtful. So, guys, I'm gonna wrap it up for today. I know it's uh a little bit longer than usual, but uh hey, the the magic of editing can do. And we still had a lot to go. We still had a lot to do. Because we could talk about this for an hour, but yeah, I'm there I'm sure there'll be other opportunities to do this. So um just want to remember everybody that what you think about God, I think is really uh important, how you feel, what who God is to you. And that's the that will help you relate to those around you, family and close and you know, relationships all all around you. So thanks, Brad, for joining us today. Yes. And thanks, Todd, as always, as usual. Bob, we miss you. Hope to see you back next week. Alright, see you guys. Bye. Thank you for listening to Anchorman Anchored by Grace Podcast. Please share, like, and listen each week right here on our website or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Subscribe to our podcast and never miss a new episode. Reach out to us at anchoredbygrace at duck.com. Thank you again from John, Bob, and Todd, your anchormen, Anchored by Grace.