Episode 4: You Don't Have To Be Perfect

Transcript

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All right. Welcome back to The Way, The Truth, and The Traveler. I'm super excited to be back, guys. It's been a long time. I want to start this one off by apologizing for that, for the long delay. My job and life has got a little crazy here in the past five or six months. They've had me working seven days a week with very few days off since about last September. It's been hectic, but we're making it through and we're getting back to a little bit of normalcy here, which means I want to get back to doing this podcast with y'all. Wanted to offer my sincerest apologies for the long break. And I'm ready to dive right back into our studies and our talks and discuss some topics and see what kind of situations we can get into and what the Lord may have to tell us about it through His Word. Well, as always, let's start off talking about the travel aspect. I've been in my home state of Texas for the past four or five months Started off in Fort Worth, had a pretty big project going on there. We were able to stay at the Jellystone Park there with our RV, and the kids had a great time getting to play there for three or four months. And then we moved on down to Terrell, Texas, had a project going on down there. Had a lot of fun there. Some great ponds, do a little bass fishing, take the kids out and just enjoy nature a little bit. Now we've been moved up here. We're on the Nebraska-Iowa border, up north a little bit. Got a project going there. We've been able to get out and explore a little bit, backed right up to the Missouri River, get to see some great creation that God has made, and just explore the wilderness a little bit and see what other places that we've never been have to offer. It's been a good time so far. The weather's been back and forth. I'm not used to it being this cool this time of year. Being from Southeast Texas, I'm used to waking up to ninety to a hundred degree temperatures in the mornings, but up here it's been in the low thirties. It's been a little crazy, something I'm not used to, but definitely a little bit enjoyable. I wanted to start today's episode off just a little bit different on this topic. I want to start by asking ourselves a couple of questions. The first one is, have you ever felt like you're just too far gone for help? Maybe because of your actions or maybe even something you couldn't control, but you just pushed the line just a little too far outside the reach of what you think deserves help. Or maybe you think you're not good enough to be saved. Or maybe you just fall a little bit short on the scale of usefulness, like something in your life that you've done. Maybe you just feel like you can't be used for anything or have anything good come out of that. If you're answered any of those questions is yes, I have other questions. My question is, whose voice are you listening to? Is it your own inner critic talking back to you? Are you being hard on yourself? Is it maybe the voice of a tough or strict parent you had growing up that you hear in your mind? Maybe it's the voice of a coworker or anyone who may have possibly had negative words to speak to you in the past. Whoever's voice it is that you hear, I encourage you to stop for a second and analyze it and think on it and discover why it is that voice that you hear. What's the reason behind it? Whose is it and where did that situation first arise? But I can tell you, no matter whose voice it is, I know two things for sure about it. Number one, it's a lie from an enemy. I've talked about him before. Satan likes to creep into any little crack he can get in and bring that negativity in your life. And he is our enemy. I can tell you right now, it's a lie straight from him. And number two, it's not from the voice of truth. Jesus says in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. So if it's not Jesus saying it, it's not the voice of truth because he is the voice of truth. He is the author of truth and all truth comes from him. I tell y'all all the time, I like to use personal experiences from my life so that you don't feel alone in your struggle, and know that you guys aren't the only one that struggle with these things. So I wanna tell you a story about what happened to me a few weeks ago. I was having a terrible day at work. Everything just seemed to be against me. I was having just the toughest time trying to get through any task. It seemed like everything I did was wrong, and I was becoming angry, and bitter, and upset, and mad at every turn of the day. Every little thing that went wrong just seemed to pile on up, just make it worse, and worse, and worse. Well, one thing I can be honest with y'all about that I struggle with very much is my mouth. I have a tendency to run my mouth, say ugly things, and things I don't wanna say. I don't mean to say them, but they come out anyway. It's almost like it just explodes out of me when my temper rises a little bit. It was a rough day, like I said, and the words were flying out, ugly things that I wish I had never said, and just foul language, things that I was very ashamed of. The day was coming to an end. I had to get in my truck, and I was headed back to where the yard was, where everything ties up, where my personal truck is. I'm in my company truck. So I'm driving along and I'm beating myself up. I'm just thinking to myself, I'm like, "Why do you talk like this? Why do you do these things? Why, why do you act this way? What's wrong with you? You're supposed to be a Christian. You know Jesus, and that's how you're gonna act and treat people, and the things you're gonna say to them?" Well, I had to pull over into a gas station to fuel up my company truck. And now this company truck, it beats everything I've ever seen, guys. It... This thing is known to go haywire and do its own thing at any given time when it wants to, and I can't explain it and don't know why. But I pull over, turn the truck off, I get gas. My phone beforehand had not been connected to my truck at all. It, it wouldn't do it, it wouldn't connect, it wouldn't act right, so I'd just kinda given up. Well, I get back in the truck to head on to the yard, finish my journey for the day. I crank the truck up and as I'm pulling out of the gas station, my phone just automatically connects. And sometimes it does, and when it does, the radio will start playing. It'll play something off my phone, and it doesn't even have to be the last thing I was listening to. Sometimes it just selects it at random. Like I said, this truck is crazy, guys. I don't know. But this particular day, I can 100% tell you the truck wasn't crazy. That truck had a divine intervention with God, 'cause when the radio came on and it starts playing loud, it was playing a song by my favorite band, and yes, I'm a little biased. The song is called Jesus Won't, and it's by the band Reeves. Now a little side note before we go any further in this story. Band Reeves is a duo of two brothers that I grew up with personally in East Texas. I know them well, and yes, I call them brothers because that's what they are to me. They are definitely brothers of mine. They're just great guys, and I love them with everything I got, and they love me. We don't see each other as just friends. We treat each other like brothers, and I can tell you right now these guys are out there sharing the gospel and doing God's work. But anyway, back to the story here. The song comes on, and it's called Jesus Won't. And the first thing this song says, I want to break it down a little bit because I know God was speaking directly to me through this song. The first line that starts off in the song says, The man in the mirror is my worst critic. I beat him up nearly every minute. I'll talk down to myself, but Jesus won't. Guys, this had me thinking already. I was going, is this my voice I'm hearing? Because it sure isn't the Lord, because Jesus doesn't talk to me the way I'm talking to myself. The song continues on, and it says, The past is going to point out my mistakes. The future whispers that I can't change. They say about a million things, but Jesus won't. And I just started thinking, whose voice am I listening to? Because it's not the voice of God who loves me. It's not the voice of the Jesus that died to save me. It's definitely the voice of the enemy that I am hearing in my own mind, beating myself up. I am being my worst critic. But wait, it gets better. It goes into the second verse. And as I'm already coming to a puddle of tears as I'm trying to drive, because I know the Lord is speaking to me through this, the second verse starts off and it says, He will lead me down to the deep wide river with a boundless grace and mercy given, and I'll find rest for my weary soul. Guys, I'm telling you this broke me, because that's what I wanted. After this long, hard day, and after fighting everything I had fought, I wanted rest. And it reminded me that He is the giver of that. It carries on to say, He'll remind me that He ain't done yet, keeps every one of His promises. Anyone else might fail, but Jesus won't. My favorite part that I saved for last of this song is where He goes into the chorus, because it's all truth. This song is based out of things Jesus said throughout the Bible, God has said throughout the Bible, talking to us. It's all promises that He gives us. And the chorus says, he won't turn and walk away. He won't dwell on yesterday. He won't say he's had enough and let me go. He will love me as I am, be my endless second chance. The world might leave me out here on my own, but Jesus won't. Guys, that broke me because I knew that I was listening to a lie from an enemy, not the voice of my Savior, because the voice of my Savior was trying to tell me that he wouldn't say those things to me. It wasn't his voice I heard. It was an enemy lie. Jesus was telling me that he loved me and he forgave me. The minute all that happened, all I had to do was turn to him. You know, I asked y'all earlier to analyze it and ask yourselves whose voice do you hear? I can tell you when it's negativity like that, it's my own voice that I hear for me personally. I am my worst critic and I will beat myself up and I will talk down to myself. That's why I love this song so much because it reminds me that I may do that, but Jesus won't. And I can tell you guys, I've done some deep studying in the Bible since then and I, because I have constant doubt and feelings like I'm not good enough. I'm not good enough to be used by God and that I have these feelings and thoughts that come into my own head from my own inner critic voice that says you'll never be used by God. You won't be able to reach people. You can't even keep it together for five minutes without getting angry and blowing up or saying ugly words. What makes you think that you can be effective to spread the gospel for Jesus? But I can tell you, I started studying the Bible and God speaks to us through his word. And I started reading and studying and trying to search for the answers I was desperately seeking because I didn't care what I had to say anymore. I didn't want to hear that own inner critic. I wanted to hear what Jesus said. So I started reading. The first thing I came across of what Jesus says is Romans 5 chapter 8. It says, but God demonstrates his own love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. It doesn't say that we were first worthy. It doesn't say we first cleaned up our act or we got it all together. It says while we were sinners, before we did anything, before we even realized we needed Jesus, he died for us because of his great love and he sacrificed himself for us. It never had anything to do with me. It never had anything to do with you or anyone else. God said while we were still sinners, he died for us. That means he knew what was going to happen and he paid the price beforehand. And he's telling you that before you knew me, before you looked for me, before you turned to me, I already loved you. So that's one thing that Jesus says. Another passage that God brought me to is in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 4 through 9. This is another thing Jesus tells us. It says, But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. He's telling us that we didn't do anything. It is His sole grace that saved us. Like I said before, He loved you before you even knew He existed, before you ever heard His name first spoken. He loved us. And He just shows us this abounding grace and mercy and chooses us and calls us anyway, no matter if we think we're not good enough, no matter if we think we've gone a little too far. Jesus is promising us through His word that we were saved by His grace and His grace alone because of His love. And if those two weren't enough proof for you or even for me, God brought me one more, which might be my favorite of all. It's just driving his point home of his love for us and how he feels about us. And that's in Titus chapter 3, verses 4 and 5. And it says, But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. Guys, I'm telling you, if you don't know that Jesus loves you, you don't know that God cares for you, or you think you're not good enough, read these words. Don't just take my word for it. Search it out in the Bible for yourself. Read the words of God and what he says to you and what he says about you. All right, now I know what you're thinking. You're probably thinking what I would be thinking or what any normal person thinks. Am I sure that we don't have to have it all together? Of course, I am. Take a look at my life as an example. Listen to episode two of this podcast if you haven't, the story of how I came to know Jesus. I have done nothing to deserve the love, grace, and forgiveness of Jesus, but He called my name anyway. Countless people in the Bible have had encounters with Jesus the same way, who before they met Him, by all standards we could think of in today's world, were not good enough. One particular story that stood out to me in this was the woman at the well in John chapter four, verses four through twenty-nine, and I wanted to read that to you guys. It's talking about Jesus here and it says, "Now he had to go through Samaria, so he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well, and it was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, 'Will you give me a drink?' His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, 'You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?' For Jews did not associate with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, 'If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.' 'Sir,' the woman said, 'you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?' Jesus answered, 'Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.' The woman said to him, 'Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.'" So I'm gonna stop right here for a second in the middle of the story and explain a little bit. This woman has a past that Jesus is about to go into and explain. Most people went to the well in the morning time when it was cool, so it wasn't hot when they would have to go draw and carry these big, huge water buckets back to their house. But not this woman. She had a bit of a past. She didn't wanna run into anyone or have to deal with anyone, so there's a reason she's going there at noon And once again, as it said up there at the top, just a little backstory, Jews and Samaritans didn't typically interact with each other. Jews didn't pass through Samaria. They normally went around it. But Jesus stopped there on that particular day. He knew where He was going, and He knew why. But let's get back to the passage here. We'll back up and read verse 15 again and then carry on. "The woman said to Him, 'Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.' He told her, 'Go, call your husband and come back.' 'I have no husband,' she replied. Jesus said to her, 'You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.' 'Sir,' the woman said, 'I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.' 'Woman,' Jesus replied, 'believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming, and has now come, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.'" Guys, this woman that Jesus encounters here, five different husbands, now living with another man who was none of the five. Most people today would shame her for sure, if they don't know Jesus, that is. Anyone who doesn't know Jesus would probably be judging her, at the very least gossip about her, and then probably say something like, "Oh, bless her heart." And if you're from the South like me, you know that's not necessarily a good thing. Doesn't mean what you think it means. But not Jesus. He stopped there intentionally to visit with her because of His love. He wanted to redeem her, rewrite her story. He didn't care about the past or how qualified she was or how good she thought she was or how far gone she thought she was. He reveals who He is to her, and He changes her life. And I'm gonna continue on in the passage and read you the rest so you can see what happens. Says, "The woman said, 'I know that the Messiah called Christ is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.' Then Jesus declared, 'I, the one speaking to you, I am He.'" Jesus was telling her, "I am the Messiah. I am the one you're looking for." And it carries on a little further down, and it says, "Then leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 'Come see a man who told me everything I ever did.'" Could this be the Messiah? He revealed who he was to this woman. He didn't care about the past. He didn't care about the qualifications. He didn't care about anything. He said, I am the one you're looking for. Even though you don't know you're looking, I am he. This woman forgot everything she was doing. She went there to get water. She left her jar and just takes off running to go tell everybody else about the great love of Jesus that she had just experienced. In a single moment, in a single encounter with Jesus, it completely changes her life. So much so, she forgot what she was doing before. Like I said before, don't just take my word for it. Read the Bible, search it out, see what Jesus has to say. But one more example that I can think of in this instance to help us out that comes to my mind is a young woman that's about to be killed for committing adultery in John chapter eight, verses two through eleven. Now, back in this time, the way that they would punish these people and put them to death was by stoning them. They would pick up these big rocks and throw them at them and basically beat them to death with these rocks until they just couldn't take it anymore and their body gave in and shut down because of either blood loss or loss of consciousness or whatever the case was. But anyway, let's check out this story because it's pretty awesome to see what happens and what Jesus says. Like I said, John chapter eight starts in verse two, and it says, "At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people were gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, 'Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. And the law of Moses commands us to stone such women. Now what do you say?' They were using this question as a trap in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, 'Let any of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.' Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left standing there with the woman still. Jesus straightened up and asked her, 'Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?' 'No one, sir,' she said." And then watch what Jesus says. He says, "Then neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin." So this woman is about to be killed for her committing of adultery and for whatever sin she had in her life. But once again, here enters Jesus to show love and forgiveness and to rewrite another story. And once again, the past didn't matter, qualifications didn't matter. If she felt she wasn't good enough, didn't matter. He was ready to save her and pay the price in her place, just like he does for every single person who will believe in him and turn to him. Jesus will say the same thing to me, to you, to anyone, if you will just put your trust in him. And the thing that Jesus will tell you is, "You're forgiven." Translation: Neither do I condemn you. Go and leave your life of sin. Now, I don't know about you, but the power of that one sentence in my life, knowing what I deserve because of my sins and the things I've done and what He gave me instead, which is a full and eternal life, it just humbles me greatly and it makes my heart cry out with gratitude that He would love me so much. So forget what you think you know. Forget about not feeling qualified or not good enough or like you're not useful or like you can't be saved because it's not true. I'm telling you, God's love and grace will change your life if you let Him. He gives you the choice, but He promises to rewrite your story the way He intended it to go if you let Him. It says so in 2 Corinthians 5, 17. It says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old is gone and the new is here. He promises to change you, to rewrite your story, to have it go the way that He intended it from the very beginning. You may not be able to rewrite your story, but Jesus sure can. If you turn to Him, trust Him, let Him give you peace and rest. Follow Him. See the transformation begin. Watch your life and your story change. It may not always be perfect, but the one who is perfect, which is Jesus Christ, will always be present. So I have one final question for you guys today, and I want you to ask it to yourselves and really search your hearts on this one. Is Jesus coming to you today? Is He intentionally passing by the well in Samaria, maybe just for you, wherever your well in Samaria may be? Does He want to have the same encounter with you as He did with the two women in the two stories we talked about today? I can tell you for sure He is. It says in Revelation chapter 3 verse 20, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone lets me in, I will come in and eat with them and them with me. What He's saying is if you give Him a chance, He'll come in, He'll take over, and He'll take care of everything. So give Him a chance. You don't have to clean up. You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to have it all together. The only thing you have to do is believe that He died to save you, to forgive you, and to completely redeem you for anything that you've ever done. So put your faith and trust in Jesus. I can guarantee you He will take care of the rest. Thank y'all so much for listening today. We hope to see you back next time for a new episode and some new topics. If you have any questions you'd like answered or a topic you'd like discussed, you can always reach us at truthtravelerpodcast@gmail.com. I sincerely appreciate all your time, and always remember, love God, love your neighbor, and trust Jesus with everything that you do