Episode 35 - What Are We Saved From

We explore what it means to be saved, why grace—not works—rescues us, and how salvation launches a life on mission fueled by love and repentance. We reflect on the cross in concrete terms and invite anyone who feels far from God to come home.

• saved from sin and death, saved for purpose
• grace through faith, not by works
• motive and mission as evidence of new life
• reflecting on the crucifixion to awaken gratitude
• repentance and sanctification as ongoing rhythms
• help for those who feel they have backslidden
• confession to God and honest community
• everyday mission in neighborhoods and workplaces

Share it with friends, share it with family, let people know about it
If you have any questions or comments, you can leave us a text message at any of the podcasting services that you listen to us on
If you're in the Rockdale area on a Sunday, we have coffee and donuts and fellowship at 10, and then we have worship at 10:30. We meet out at the American Legion here in just north of Rockdale. 

Transcript

Welcome And Listener Momentum

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Welcome to Let's Connect, the official podcast of Connect Church in Rockdale, Texas, where we want to help you to live a life that matters. One that is both on mission and has a purpose to follow Jesus and make disciples. So let's get started.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

All right, welcome into Let's Connect, the official podcast of Connect Church here in Rockdale, Texas. I am Bill Whitmeyer, I guess host, and joined as always by our pastor, Ken Ansel. Ken, how are you doing today? I'm great. How are you? I'm good, man. Yeah, I know that the weather's getting better when I look over and I see you got the little jumper on, you know.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

It's cold here.

What Does “Saved” Actually Mean

SPEAKER_02 0:56

Oh man, I love it. See, you're cold in here right now. And and and I'm I'm fluffier than you are, so so I'm a little warm all the time, you know. At night, you know, the nurse weighs about a buck fifteen. So at night, she's dressed up like you know, Nannook of the North, and she's got a big blanket on her, and I'm over there in shorts and a t-shirt, you know, with no socks on, and I'm still probably sweating a little bit. So, but yeah, so I can tell it's getting to be more my weather. I like the cold weather because I got the fluffiness on me. You're you're pretty you're pretty skinny, or my grandma will call you scrawny. Scrawny, little scrawny. You need to come in here and get a chicken fried steak. So yeah. Hey, this is episode 35, and uh I was talking to you before we went on the air last month, which was September of 2025. That was our best month so far, and that means we're really starting to reach a lot of people. And uh, you know, I uh went to a funeral and uh a couple weeks ago, and while I was there, um this wasn't this wasn't here in Rockdale, it was it was uh north of here in that other town. And uh uh I had three or four people at that church come up to me and say, hey, uh, you know, your dad told us about your podcast, or or one of the other ladies there told us about your podcast, and we've been listening to it. And uh we wanted to thank you. That's really a good y'all are doing a good job really getting that word out, and we're sharing that over here. So I think that's uh but that's how these things go, you know, you get one person that tells somebody else and they listen to it. And so, you know, please share it all you want if you're listening to it. Uh uh our hope, our desire is that we're helping people, that we're that we're helping folks learn about God's word, learn about a relationship with God and strengthen their walk with Christ. So make disciples. So I I told you about this a while back, and it's stuck in my head for a while, but um I was watching, I think I was death scrolling one one afternoon, waiting on, you know. I mean, here's the thing, man. When you're just sitting around waiting on a woman, waiting on your wife, death scrolling. You can death scroll for you know, I feel like if I'm death scrolling for 10 minutes, it's okay. But it's when you're sitting there for three hours at night, you know, and not going to bed, that's when it becomes a problem. So I was doing some of that the other day and I and I saw a um little clip, and I think it was actually Vody who said it was that you know, most people will say that, oh yeah, I'm saved, but most people don't actually know what they're saved from or what that means. And so I'm gonna throw this out to you. You know, what does that mean?

Saved From Sin, Saved For Purpose

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Yeah, well, we're saved from sin and death uh because of the work of Christ, and then we're not only saved from something, we're saved for something. And so if we're saved, we're going to uh be pursuing Christ and His mission and his purpose. So yeah, we're we're saved from our sins, uh, the penalty of sin, and then we're and and we're we're saved from eternal death, right? We're uh gonna be gifted heaven, we're given eternal life. I mean, everybody's gonna spend eternity one place or the other, as yeah you said I think last time, and and hell is a very real place. I heard someone say recently the that maybe the worst thing besides being separated from God, you know, and having no hope in hell, like there's no second chances, is the isolation of hell and the loneliness of hell. And I I just boy, that breaks my heart to think about that. So yeah, saved from our sin, saved from death, and then saved for something, which I think a lot of people, and maybe this is what what you're gonna get to is uh you know, we're not just saved, and then you talk about that's the finish line. Yeah. Uh we're we're that starts, we become these new creations according to 2 Corinthians 5, 17, and and that new creation pursues Christ with everything they've got. Like they've got they've got a purpose in life, right? We're not trying to figure out like, okay, why am I here? Well, we're here to uh to share, as you just said, the good news of Jesus Christ and make disciples.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

Yeah, and and and that's important to know that that you are saved from really from your human self. You know, um, there's a video that I saw years ago, and I think I sent it to you the other day, uh maybe, but yeah, but it's uh you know, where these people are getting and it's and it's an illustration. So I'm not saying this is how it is when when we pass away, but you know, and each person comes up and they have a book and and they're going through the book and they're looking at it and seeing what that person's done in their life, and then they have to step up on the guilto meter to see if they're you know truly a Christian or not, and all these people. You got people that come up to these these folks and they've they run uh soup kitchens or they run thrift stores and they've given to the poor and they've been on mission trips and they've taught Sunday school and all this, and then they step up there and it's no.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Yeah, woodhand stubble.

Works Versus Grace Made Plain

SPEAKER_02 6:09

And then the one guy that steps up and he's just got red flags everywhere in his book, and then Christ steps in and before he gets up on the guilt to meet or the person that's representing Christ in this uh scenario or in this uh video, he's he says, I got this, and he steps up there and and does that. And it's it's it's a little silly, but it's a good demonstration of that the concept of how we're saved, you know, that through works, not through works, not through anything we do. Uh, you know, my my old my favorite place, Ephesians 2, 1 through 10, says that specifically. We're saved you know, by grace through our faith and not by works. So that it's nothing that we do that saves us. Yeah. It's everything that Christ has done for us that saves us. And so many times we say that, oh, I'm saved. Well, what are you saved from? What exactly are you saved from? Do you actually know or not? And then do, you know, part of it, there's an there should be an appreciation of it that wants you that makes you want to seek out those things that that God wants you to do, that He wants to do through you.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:25

You know, and and and that can be a myriad of things. I I don't, you know, is that I walk the streets of Rockdale and and you know, tell people about God or do I go on that mission trip to wherever? Yeah. If I was gonna go on a mission trip, I just want to throw it in, you know, the the uh, you know, there's some like Tahiti's a good place for me to get mission trip.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

Yeah. But no, I mean one now, but Tahiti's not.

SPEAKER_02 7:52

I've had cousins that have gone to Vietnam. I've had cousins that have gone all over Africa, um a lot of different areas in Asia, some dangerous, some not so dangerous. But the point being, I guess the big point for me though, is that I always make to everybody, everybody's looking for a mission trip, take a trip three blocks over from your house, take a truck, take a trip to the other side of town. Um there are people that need to hear about Jesus everywhere we are. And and and we've been saved for that purpose to reach people, to make disciples, to be a disciple, make disciples, and and tell people about God and bring them to Christ too. And then after that, like we do every week, work to help people to strengthen their walk with Christ and all the things they do and all the things they let Christ do through them. I always say that what they do, but I mean it's Christ working through us, you know.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

Yeah, Galatians 2.20, right? Christ and Paul said he's dead in the life he lives now. It's Christ living through him. And man, what you're talking about makes me think a lot about motive, right? Like what's our motive for some of the things that we're doing? We're not we're not trying to earn salvation, earn being saved. We're we're we're you're either saved or you're not, and that's based on the work of Christ. And then it makes me sad to think that some people maybe say they're saved, which is to say they're a Christian. But but haven't adopted Christ's mission, if that makes sense. No, that's right. But that would be the indicator.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

I I think, you know, to go along with that, I remember you made me remember something from when I was in when I was I don't know how old I was, I was probably in second or third grade, and we used to have a Sunday school teacher that would tell us all the time, you know, um, are you doing what you need to do to get into heaven? And when you're a little kid, oh well, I better do this and I better do that. But then as I got older and I really started to dig into the Bible and I started to read things, I'm like, wow, that's the wrong approach for this whole thing, you know?

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Yeah, it's sad.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

It's not a contest to see who can get into heaven and and then who's not gonna make it. It it it's a it it is literally a lifelong relationship with God, walking hand in hand with Christ to be his representative, not for the ulterior motive of making it to heaven, no, but just uh out of the motive of service.

Motive, Mission, And New Life

SPEAKER_00 10:29

Yeah, love, you know, yeah, it's a love relationship that we have with Christ, and yeah, I mean, it's his work, and like we fall in love with him, and just like any relationship, right? That we we love people, we love those people, and we would just do I mean, I was kidding the other day when I said I would steal a coffee mug for my son. And after I said it, I thought I shouldn't have said that. But I hope every parent got it. Yeah, like I mean, we would do anything for our kids and because we love them so much. And and it's I don't know, do you think there's people that wow I mean I would say there's I mean, Christianity is a lifelong I mean you just kind of said that it's a lifelong deal. And no doubt we grow in our love, right? I mean, we're I think we're constantly trying to wrap our minds around that what Jesus did for us on the cross. I mean, why I mean why the word says he did that while we were still yet sinners, right? We were in enmity, we were uh we weren't on his uh list. I mean, you know, per se. I mean, we we weren't anything special, I guess is what I'm trying to say. Sinners.

Grasping The Cross Beyond The Page

SPEAKER_02 11:38

Um You know, uh years ago, they used to do these things in school. I'm sure they did them because that you and I were in school roughly the same time. It was called Scared Straight. And they would a lot of times they would just bring a vehicle to your school that had been involved in a DWI and somebody had died in that vehicle. Yeah. But sometimes they would do the full reenactment and show you what it was like. And I always remember walking up to those cars and trying to wrap my mind around the fact that well, maybe not wrap my mind is not the right way to say it, but just how disturbing it was to me to look in that car. And of course, you know, I've got one grandfather who was the associate pastor at our church, and the other one who was a judge, and then one of my uncles was assistant chief of police, and so I was always worried about that to begin with, but then I go up to this car and I realize there was somebody that was around my age who died sitting right here in this seat. And point being is we we hear about this stuff all the time, but when you see it up close, it really puts it into perspective. The problem with the crucifixion, the problem with Jesus dying for our sins is it's in a book form that should really hit us strong, but it's in a book form and it doesn't always register in our head. Now you can watch some of the movies that have been made, but we all know how special effects are done enough that we know that's just a movie. But there have been times when I have um I don't know if meditated's the right word or not, but I'll sit in, you know, a quiet space and just really reflect on what it would have been like to stand there and watch Jesus crucifixion and then what it must have been like that next Tuesday or Thursday, you know, when he's at the market or something, or he's walking through town, or you're sitting there eating with him, you know. But you've just watched what is I mean, undoubtedly, and and most scholars believe, one of the worst ways to die on this planet. And you've just watched the person that for a lot of people they just watched this person they didn't really know, although later on he he he came back to life. But for the folks that were with him during those three years, you just just watched this person that was your whole world killed. And it how how just to me, sometimes I have to stop and put that into that perspective because that's what Jesus did for us. He could have easily waved a hand and said, You know what, after all, I don't really want to do this. But he went there in human form and gave up his human life and took the pain, took the beating, took the scourging, took the whipping, took everything else that happened to him, got on that cross, and it was a real life thing that happened. And so many of us, I I feel like just read through it, and it was something that's here in this book, that's here in the Bible, and we don't always get the full significance of what he really went through. And uh, I don't know, I I don't know if you can do a scared straight like that for the crucifixion, but you know, it it just it is always popped in my head that I remember those days that they would bring those old cars up and how I felt about that. And so there are times when I will meditate on it, pray on it, trying to almost have that same kind of feeling that I did with that scared straight vehicle right there. And then once you once you get that feeling and you understand it, it changes so much in your life to where you know this was what was given up to save me. Just just regular old me. Nothing special about me. I mean, yeah, okay, I was only one of the two percent in the world that was born with red hair. But, you know, you know, and I does that make sense.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

Yeah, it makes sense. Uh I'm just thinking about how that should be the catalyst when we get a taste of that love that Christ had for us. And how that should be the catalyst for us to die to ourselves. I mean, that's part of this, right? I mean, we acknowledge our sin, we repent, and and we're made new. And so this new person, which really hits at some of the heart of this, like if you're saved, you're new, so why do you continue, why do some continue to uh live like the world?

SPEAKER_02 16:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

And have they reconciled what you're talking about, Jesus' death on the cross, an empty grave, you know, with their life. And you you I mean, you just can't, you can't, you know. I mean, it's we're in a covenant relationship, and I mentioned this Monday uh at the men's Bible study that you know when I when Jennifer and I we went to like she would say our first date was a trip to Sonic. Yeah, you've told me mom mom.

SPEAKER_02 16:45

It's a good date. I mean, in high school that's a good day.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

My mom was funding it, and so it was you know even better. You know, but I Jennifer, we haven't been apart since.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

I mean, we've been together ever since, and and so I mean, that's what the walk with Christ is like. I mean, I'm in a marriage covenant, right? A covenant relationship with Jennifer. We're in that I mean that's what testament means. Old Testament, Old Covenant, New Testament, New Covenant, the covenant of grace.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

And so, yeah, I mean, it's very those, those our relationship with Christ and our relationship with our spouses we have on our are on parallel tracks, and we know what that looks like, right? I mean, that we're to be faithful and to honor our our spouses and you know, and sickness and in health, and yada yada. Well, how do you think you respond to the one that died on the cross for you and took your place? That's right. So boom, right? I mean, it's pretty clear those that have wrapped their mind around what you're talking about.

Repentance, Sanctification, And Slipping Back

SPEAKER_02 17:42

It's um Yeah. I mean, and and the thing is, is you you you spend all your time with your spouse. I spend the majority of my time with my spouse, except when we're at work. Um if we're not at work or we're not at Bible study, you you if if you if you throw a rock from where one of us is, you're probably gonna hit the other one because we're right there. And is and as close as that relationship is, God's always there. Yeah. I mean, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, he's right there. And so, you know, uh unlike you know, we joke sometimes, I joke sometimes that I can't do anything even when my wife's not there because she has ESP and she'll pick up on it. But but uh God's right there. Good, bad, ugly. He's right there. And so when when you when you talk about having that close relationship with him, it's you know, it's it's it's it's right there all the time. Never goes away. There are times when I have to wait to tell my wife something. Sadly, I I probably forget more than I remember. But uh I have to wait till I see her, or wait till I'm around her, or wait till I can text her to be able to tell her something. But with God, that's all the time, right there, no matter what. You know, you can talk to him, you can reach out to him, he's right there. I mean, he you know, Jesus went on the cross for us, not for any other reason. Like I said, at any time that he was being tortured or or beaten or whatever, he could have just he didn't even need to wave a hand. You know, he could have just said, All right, I'm done with this and be done. And didn't. And the reason he didn't was for us. Mm-hmm. And I just um when I when I put it into that perspective, and then I think about him on the cross, it just it absolutely blows me away every time I think about that. And you're right, we are uh we have a sinful nature. Um even when we're reborn, that sinful nature is still in us. Mm-hmm. The difference is is or should be at least, is that you have learned repentance when you're saved, and those sins, even though they're still there and occasionally will pop their ugly heads up, that shouldn't be what um our life is about. We should be able to say, oh man, why did I do that, and then not do it again, or work to not do it again. Um if you're not saved, if you're not in with Christ, you're gonna just gonna keep doing those silly things. And some of them are simple, some of them are diabolical.

SPEAKER_00 20:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:21

You know, but uh the fact is that that nature is always there. I know lots of people that have been saved, and then they they can't find their way out of it for many years, whatever it is, addiction, whatever it is that they're sinning with. And then a lot of them will come to that point where they're like they don't think they can ever fix it, that God can never accept it. Yeah. But y uh you can fix it, you can come back, you can have a relationship with Christ, but it first takes that repentance, being truly sorry, being truly penitent, but wanting to change, making those changes, and then having that relationship with God, that prayer relationship, that relationship with other Christians to strengthen you. All of those things go into it. But when you go back to that original thought, you have to know what you're saved from. You are saved from that sin. You are saved from that horrible life, and then that, you know, existence. I won't even call it life, it's just an existence in hell. And that's what it is.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

It's not a life. Yeah. And you're talking about if someone's actually been saved, someone actually established a relationship, and then the old Baptist term maybe have backslidden and think they've slidden back so far that God wouldn't have them. Or I mean, first of all, once you're saved, you're saved. And so if you've established that relationship, man, I would encourage people, you've not been bad enough that you can't come home. I mean, that that God's waiting, right? Like the prodigal child, he's he's waiting for you to just want to encourage anybody that thinks they've been too bad that you know they can't get involved in church again or or um stoke the fires of that relationship that that's already been established. I mean, that forgiveness, we've been forgiven of past sins, right? Current sins and future sins. And so, I mean, we're we are forgiven. And yeah, the the sin nature that we have that that as we progress in our sanctification process of becoming more like Christ and less like ourselves, sin ought to become um the exception and not the rule. Right. And bec because sin's lost its grip on our lives and we're living more for Christ and less for ourselves, right? And when I say ourselves, our flesh that we've talked about in men's Bible study, I mean, we sin because we we like it. That's right. That's just what came to my head. Yeah. I mean, you know, people get drunk because they I mean, I don't I mean, there's certainly some people that have addiction issues, but yeah, we do we do things like get drunk or you know, cat around or whatever it is people do. I don't know, gossip, you know, maybe we'll pick on some of those people, but yeah, they gossip and tell lives. You know, I guess they like to do it, stir up trouble. But um, you know, God is good to forgive us of those things if we've been saved, or we turn to him and get saved.

SPEAKER_02 23:20

You're gonna have those weak moments where you know, backslide. Yeah, boy, that was uh that was the word.

SPEAKER_00 23:26

Yeah, we don't hear that word anymore. When Reagan left office, did that get outlawed or from the 80s? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 23:33

You said it, I was like, wow, I haven't heard that in a while.

SPEAKER_00 23:35

But what do we call it now? I don't know.

Confession, Forgiveness, And Coming Home

SPEAKER_02 23:37

I don't know. But you know, and I'll I'll shut up and you can finish it off with this one. But one of the things I think some folks that are in certain churches, especially liturgical churches, you know, to to confess to those sins, you have to actually confess to another human being about those sins. And there's a lot of people who maybe their sins are are not horrible but embarrassing. And they don't want to admit that to another human being. Well, you know what? The one you have to admit that to is God Himself.

SPEAKER_00 24:11

Yeah, He's the one that freaks out.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

You don't need to tell Ken, you don't need to tell Bill, you don't need to tell anybody else, you need to talk to God about that. Yeah, and so a lot of folks that grew up in those kind of churches, they're hung on to those, they cling to those ideals. And the thing is, that's not biblical, that's a that's a man-made deal. The Bible, if you're repentant towards that and and you want forgiveness towards that, that's between you and God. Yeah. And so if you are and you're struggling with that, please get the Bible and pray.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

Yeah, the book says if we confess our sins, he's good to forgive us. I mean, so boom, you're forgiven. And he's waiting on us, right? He is. He's not, I mean, he does discipline us, but I mean, God's just like he's the perfect dad, and uh he he wants the best for us. So yeah. All right, who's praying us out?

Prayer, Closing, And Church Invitation

SPEAKER_02 25:04

It's me today. Great. All right, dear Lord, we thank you for all that you do for us, and we love you so much, Father. We we thank you for these lives that we have and the abilities that we have to reach out and touch other people's lives and bring them to you, make disciples and to do what we need to do. And Father, we thank you so much for the you know, that that Jesus died on the cross for us and then three days later was resurrected and spent time and then gave us the orders to, you know, gave us the great commission to go out and to make disciples. And so we ask that you strengthen us all and you work through us all to do that. We thank you for all that you do in our lives, for it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right, that is episode 35 of Let's Connect. We'll be back next week with another episode. Like I said earlier, share it with friends, share it with family, let people know about it. We want it to help people. If you have any questions or comments, you can leave us a text message at any of the uh podcasting services that you listen to us on, and uh, we'd be happy to hear from you if you're in the Rockdale area on a Sunday. We have coffee and donuts and fellowship at 10, and then we have worship at 11 at 10:30. We have children's church, we have nursery. We meet out at the American Legion here in just north of Rockdale. Just type in Rockdale, Texas American Legion, you'll find us. Until next week, God bless you.