Episode 29 "Patience, Suffering, and in a Tent"

In this episode of the Pick Up Podcast, we start with talking about patience and ultimately lead back into 1 Peter again with talking about sufferings! Peter teaches that suffering is not unusual for believers. Instead, it is a natural part of following Christ. 

"So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while." 1 Peter 1:6

We thank you as always for listening in and encourage you to walk worthy in the manner according to the calling in which you were called! 

Bro. Lane, Bro. Zach, Bro. Philip, Bro. Ryan, Bro. David 

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:11

Welcome to the Pick It Up Podcast, the podcast where we'll discuss what it means to pick up your cross and follow Christ. Living a life for Christ takes commitment, sacrifice, and ultimately being obedient to his word. Not only on Sundays, but every day. God's word says it, that settles it. So pray about it, practice it, and proclaim it. Let's get into it. Good morning.

SPEAKER_06 0:38

Good morning.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Good morning, fellas. Yep. How y'all is? Pretty good, man. How are you, brother?

SPEAKER_06 0:45

Good.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

You going speaking to the mic this morning? Yes, sir. I always do. But last week they had me there and it was perfect. It sounded the same. I can't help that, but it it was good.

SPEAKER_05 1:01

Man, we feel like we got a lot of feedback this morning.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Well.

SPEAKER_05 1:06

It's all that heavy breathing. My bad is that. Go ahead. Go ahead, say it again.

SPEAKER_07 1:12

It's all that heavy breathing.

SPEAKER_06 1:14

For whatever reason, that might pick up a little bit. It picks up a lot.

SPEAKER_05 1:17

Preacher, what you know good this morning? I don't know what. You were uh you've been up early, I know. Passed by here about six o'clock, you were up.

SPEAKER_08 1:26

Yeah, yeah, I don't want to go down if you if we go to discussing what I've been studying here, it's basically gonna get my sermon coming up Sunday. We'll wait. We'll come back to first Peter. You get a double dose, I don't care. Yeah, I I have concluded that I believe that's where the Lord had me to go. Isn't that biblical double portion? Yep. I think it is. Philip. And I have demonstrated something in my abilities over the past six weeks, I think, something like that, in being patient. I haven't always been able to do that in my career as far as holding back on what God has kind of leading to the biggest. Hold back to build a build up, you know. No, but I started talking about the what is the gospel way back in March. I was really wanting to get to Easter when I finally got to Easter.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Well, you and the word patience don't go together.

SPEAKER_02 2:23

Look, yesterday we set up the track, and I can just tell he did not want to set it up like we said it up.

SPEAKER_05 2:30

I can just tell the preacher he's I don't think that's gonna work. Same way we've said it up for the past three years. I don't think that's gonna work. No. But he was patient. I didn't say nothing. He didn't say nothing.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

If you see him walk away with his hands in the egg, he's done. Maybe that's he done handled all it can take. He's done.

SPEAKER_05 2:49

That might be the topic. I'm letting you boys fly. That might be the topic we talk about today. Patience. Patience. I think we're ready for that one. I think you could we could go around the room and everybody's living in a time of their lives where patience is no doubt uh needed.

SPEAKER_04 3:07

From a week old to You talking about my kids? Amen. Talking about all of our kids.

SPEAKER_08 3:15

What's a characteristic of God? Is it a characteristic of us?

SPEAKER_06 3:19

Should it be a good thing? It should be. It should be. It's hard, though.

SPEAKER_08 3:23

Patience towards what? Uh how about how about this patience towards uh eternal life?

SPEAKER_05 3:30

I was just about to say, do you have patience towards the world or do you have patience towards eternal life? Or is both of them needed.

SPEAKER_08 3:37

Say that one more time. That's an interesting concept that people don't know if I need to go here or not, but I will. Salvation is uh is okay. In reality, our salvation is complete. In fact we have heaven as our home, right? But yet it's hasn't been completely realized. And it won't be completely realized until we quit breathing here.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

What do you mean by completely realized? Like knowing what you got.

SPEAKER_08 4:12

Yeah, you know you got it.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 4:14

And there's a hope there, obviously. And that's the reasons why we live the way we live, hopefully, you know. But it's it's we're still waiting on that complete uh what's been made available to us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In other words, we haven't experienced defeating death yet. Yeah. But we will. We haven't experienced that resurrection as Jesus has, but we will. That's hope. That's why they call it hope. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

You think as life goes on and you get you draw closer to your last breath.

SPEAKER_08 4:46

You gotta be careful of saying that the way I said it because it's, you know, it could cause some folks to think, well, no, wait a minute, what are you talking about? You know, and I this is probably not the platform to have that discussion. But it it goes along with patience, you know. We're waiting on an inheritance, you know, that's ours. Kind of like you, you know. There have been many people that waited on a patriarch of the family to die so they get their inheritance. Patient, patient, patient. Uh there'd probably a handful that contemplated speeding that process up a little bit so that they could get their inheritance. And it's the same way with us. We realize what we have waiting on us as God our Father has promised us.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 5:34

And uh, but we'd be patient.

SPEAKER_05 5:36

That's first four of 1 Peter chapter 1, and we don't I understand what you're trying to say, and this might be silly for me to say this kind of practical deal, but like, and my wife will second me on this. Like, I live to know what's for supper every day. I live to know what I can look for. Oh boy, hunger, ain't it? Well, I just I look forward to it. Like, I just mmm, I can just taste it. Until I experience it, then I'm like, man, this is it. This is what I've been looking forward to.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

We're talking about spiritual stuff. That boy was tracked to supper. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 6:10

I said I told you I was gonna be silly, but uh I think it's I was trying to compare it to something.

SPEAKER_05 6:15

10 after eight in the morning, he ain't been gonna make breakfast for about an hour. Hey, I had some rustic chicken and gravy and biscuits this morning for breakfast.

SPEAKER_08 6:21

So it's kind of like getting up at three o'clock, you know, and getting to the duck hole. Oh, like anticipating. Look at there, look at there until you know the day starts to break and you see them, you know, it didn't realize. Yep.

SPEAKER_05 6:33

Turkey season starting, the same exact thing. You know that turkey about to gobble on that limb. Just waiting for it. Or Phillip sitting out there on the highway, knowing that truck about to come by here about 75 miles an hour in a 55 zone.

SPEAKER_08 6:48

I know next Monday, I I can tell y'all right now where I'm gonna be when daybreaks next Monday. They go. I can tell you the bush that my jig is gonna be sitting under next Monday. I got to wait, though. Got to be patient. Anticipation. Know what's coming.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Until then he's gonna be.

SPEAKER_08 7:07

That's the cool thing about salvation, though. Like I'm I'm anticipating that getting that crappy underneath that bush. But if I live my life anticipating heaven, anticipating when I take that last breath, when I encounter the living Savior, you know, in person. I mean, we live with that same anticipation, you know, of that as we do the things in life, whether it's a dirt turkey walking up or a duck flying by or crappy biting my bait. All right, here you go. Here's your biblical. How in the world are we doing?

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Well, let me I speak, I spoke to the teenager Sunday morning. Uh, of course I read on Matthew and took took them down the road of what happened to Jesus and the the tomb experience and everything at the end, but I I ended with 1 Peter chapter 4 and having the attitude. I told him, I said, look, I don't think you know what you got right now. If you're saved, you don't know what you got. You you you glad you got it, but you truly don't know what you got. And I think it goes with a lot of Christian believers out there, you know. You know you got it, but you truly don't know what you got. Because we we we just we get used to it, we get immune to it, you know.

SPEAKER_08 8:24

I thought, yeah. I do. And that's I mean, it's everything what we're talking about here with the patients waiting. Yeah. We take it for you. Upon that uh complete salvation.

SPEAKER_05 8:38

Alright, you say that now what's the so what's the steps what steps should we be taking in order to realize what you got? Be content with what you got. What steps should we be taking next?

SPEAKER_08 8:55

Pursuing holiness. I know that doesn't really answer your question.

SPEAKER_05 9:06

No, no, no, no. Well, I got my answer right here. Oh, go for it. Philippians chapter 3, verse 12. Now that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on that I may hold of that for which Christ Jesus has already laid hold of me. Press on. Press on. And I and the reason I brought that verse up, because we talked about it, and you brought up Sunday school rhyme. We talked about too, we kind of just went through the week of Jesus', you know, death, burial, and resurrection. Through that whole entire week, one thing I just really tried to make sense to these kids and Tyler did too was hey, this man was willing. He was he went for this reason. He pressed on. Even though he got to the point of Lord, I can't handle it no more, right? He pressed on. He knew what was to come, he knew what he had to do, but yet he just continued to press on.

SPEAKER_08 10:02

What motivates us to live for him? What motivates us to press on? Should be the resurrection. The life of Christ. Does it does it motivate you? Is that what you is that why you do what you do? Is that why we're here this morning? Recording this podcast because of what he did. Is that our motive? Is that what compels us? Yeah, I would say so. Amen.

SPEAKER_05 10:32

Feel it why you go to the gym every day. Uh to be healthier. Get stronger, get healthier, right? You press on. Is it is it hard sometimes to get motivated to go every day? Right. But you press on because you know what's the outcome.

SPEAKER_06 10:47

Yep. You gotta have discipline to do it. Yep.

SPEAKER_08 10:50

Zach got something cooking over here. I don't know what it is.

SPEAKER_07 10:52

I started drawing up a math equation over there, it looks like I'm sitting here looking at uh James chapter five, uh, where he talks about patience and endurance through verses verse 7 on through verse 12. Um and it opens up exactly what we've been talking about. Dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord's return. So be patient as you're waiting for the Lord to return. I mean, that's what we're we're all eagerly awaiting our final day where that trumpet sounds and we're caught up in there. You know, that's uh what a glory. We sang about a glorious day, Sunday. Yep. Man, what a glorious day that's gonna be. You know.

SPEAKER_05 11:39

Read uh James's example. Is that the name of that song where it's running out of the grave? Yeah, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_07 11:44

Yeah, I ran out of that day. Out of that grave. But it goes on to say, consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring, they eagerly look for the vulnerable for the valuable harvest to ripen. So mine says patiently wait. Well, D L L T puts it, they said they eagerly look. So we're excited for that. We're excited for that day to come. We're anticipating. There's that anticipation right there. Um, but anyway, you too must be patient. Take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near. So he tells us to take courage there, you know.

SPEAKER_05 12:22

And um Boy, we're about to get in Revelations here, I feel like.

SPEAKER_04 12:26

But while we wait, what do we do? You press on.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

You go back to 1 Peter chapter 4, it tells you, it says, you won't spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God. Anxious to do the will of God.

SPEAKER_08 12:45

Always do your mind, right? Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

You got to be on the same mind. That's in 1 Peter 2. Prepare your minds for action.

SPEAKER_07 12:55

Well, it goes on to tell us what we're doing.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

Reverse 10, go on.

SPEAKER_07 12:59

I got it. If I'm gonna get 10, I might as well get nine then. It says, Don't grumble about each other, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. For look, the judge is standing at the door. For examples of patience in suffering, dear brothers and sisters, look at the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We give great honor to those who endure suffering. For instance, you know about Job, a man of great endurance. You can see how the Lord was kind to him at the end, for the Lord is full of tenderness and mercy. And that's what I kind of wrote there that um I gotta read my chicken scratch again. Um it's honorable to endure suffering, is what it says there. We give great honor to those who endure suffering.

SPEAKER_08 13:45

Nobody getting that suffering again. Verse 12 may get may give a a reason.

SPEAKER_07 13:51

But the Lord is full of tenderness and mercy.

SPEAKER_08 13:56

Define that. You'll do that for me. Define mercy.

SPEAKER_07 14:02

Mercy is well, Philip, I we were singing that the other morning before uh before we did when mercy walks in. I think I always think about that song uh Gordon Boat sings. But it's the song portrays a man standing in a courtroom and he's guilty, in no doubt. You know, and he said, and but we're not going to basically get the punishment that we deserve. Somebody else is taking it for us. They shall he we were shown mercy, even though we we deserved undeserved forgiveness. Yeah, that's grace.

SPEAKER_05 14:40

That's grace. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

Well, what's the difference, you know, between grace and mercy?

SPEAKER_08 14:44

That's what I'm asking you.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Yeah. Is there a difference? Mercy may be a little deeper, I don't know. Uh or grace.

SPEAKER_05 14:49

We always thank God for his grace and his mercy. So it's two separate deals.

SPEAKER_08 14:55

Well, there's a uh because you always hear that grace is undersigned. Yeah. I'm trying to think and trying to bring it up in my mind. I know because I've I've studied it before on the uh the Hebrew word and and the mercy and all that. I can't remember. I apologize.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

I have actually it's been a year or two ago, but I actually did a study on that, but I couldn't tell you now the difference between mercy and grace. But I I thought about that a lot. What is the difference?

SPEAKER_08 15:29

Maybe that's next week.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 15:30

We have some good answers.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

We all googling now. I can tell you what we go.

SPEAKER_06 15:38

Mercy is God withholding the punishment we deserve, while grace is God providing the blessing we do not deserve. That's it, right there.

SPEAKER_05 15:46

What'd he just say?

SPEAKER_06 15:50

Read that again, Philip. Read that again. Okay. Mercy is God withholding the punishment we deserve. Okay, that's the punishment. While grace is God providing the blessing we do not deserve. So holding and providing. He's holding.

SPEAKER_08 16:09

We deserve death.

SPEAKER_06 16:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 16:11

Mercy walked in.

SPEAKER_06 16:13

Mercy addresses sin's penalty, where grace addresses our need. What do you do?

SPEAKER_05 16:21

You know, I always think about this as a kid. Someone giving you a knuckle sandwich or you know, putting you in an arm or whatever you, and they tell you what? Mercy. Call mercy, you know. What do they say? You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or tap.

SPEAKER_04 16:35

Tap out, yeah. Mercy, mercy, mercy. Maybe mercy is you realizing. They want you to hold back. Hold back from doing this punishment. I can't go no further. This is it. Tapping out. Mercy.

SPEAKER_07 16:46

I'm done with the Ric Flair chest laps. Yeah. That's right.

SPEAKER_06 16:51

Every time a preacher gets up there, he goes, Woo, I want to see it.

SPEAKER_05 17:00

Oh, Rick Flair.

SPEAKER_03 17:02

That's right. That nature boy.

SPEAKER_05 17:05

Well, I don't think we still have not answered preaching.

SPEAKER_08 17:07

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again into a lively hope. By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 3. Abundant mercy. By his abundant mercy, we're born again. That's a biggie. All because of grace. Yeah. All because of grace.

SPEAKER_05 17:34

Right before we're gonna put grace and mercy together. Well, go back to the main the verse everybody knows of Ephesians when it has grace in there. By grace.

SPEAKER_08 17:45

You're saved through faith.

SPEAKER_05 17:46

Through faith. You are saved. Well, you said it, go back and look at it. Ephesians 2. For by grace.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

What do you talk about Sunday morning have to go to the front of the Bible?

SPEAKER_05 18:01

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God. Not of works lest anyone should boast.

SPEAKER_08 18:10

Look at verse 4.

SPEAKER_05 18:12

But God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us.

SPEAKER_08 18:17

Even when we were dead in sins. Well, verse 5.

SPEAKER_05 18:23

Even when we were dead in trespasses. Made us alive.

SPEAKER_08 18:31

Made us alive under Christ. In verse 6, he's raised us up together to be made to sit together in heavenly places Christ Jesus.

SPEAKER_05 18:42

Do you think grace is the grace is the action there? Grace is the subject there, and mercy's the mindset.

SPEAKER_06 18:55

Grace is love.

SPEAKER_05 18:56

It's a description of God who is rich in mercy. Right.

SPEAKER_08 18:59

And then it says, For by grace are you saved.

SPEAKER_05 19:01

Our God's merciful. He has the mindset of being merciful. Right? And therefore he pointed out, he he gave us grace through his son Jesus Christ. Which is the gift which is there to save us, but only through faith. Read verse seven. That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

SPEAKER_08 19:29

There it is. Yep. Verse 4 is rich in mercy. Verse 7 is rich in grace. So they're different. Correct. And Philip, give us the answer a while ago.

SPEAKER_07 19:48

But I feel I feel like I feel like when you're referring to mercy and grace, though, because I mean right here in this passage, you see them together a lot. Very true. All throughout the Bible. But I feel like they almost have to coexist, even though they're different.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

You can't have mercy without grace.

SPEAKER_07 20:06

Because God looked down upon us and was merciful and said, you know, you deserve this. Because I mean, time after time after time. But by grace you ain't gonna get it. That's right. By love.

SPEAKER_08 20:16

That's it right there. Yep. Good stuff, boys. Have no idea what we're gonna do.

SPEAKER_05 20:23

Thank y'all for joining this week's podcast.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

We're gonna close it right there and we're gonna hang it up, hang it up. Well, through that mercy and through that grace, it ought to cause us to live a different life.

SPEAKER_08 20:34

Read verse 10.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Flipped the pages. Hold on.

SPEAKER_08 20:37

Ephesians 2. You gotta go back to the index, though.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

I'm gonna go back. Verse 10. Verse 2.10. For we are God's masterpiece. You in verse 1, or chapter 1, verse 2. I'm about to read the reader.

SPEAKER_05 20:57

We are his workmanship corrected in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Yeah, I was.

SPEAKER_08 21:04

Right after the mercy, right after the grace, or grace you say through faith, he said, Now, you are his workmanship. You have been recreated in Christ Jesus unto what? Good works. So we we're talking about what motivates us moving forward. We're being patient, we're waiting on this inheritance. You know, heaven is to come. We got jobs to do.

SPEAKER_05 21:30

I got it written right there beside that verse. It ain't about you. It's about what God done for you.

SPEAKER_08 21:36

That we should walk in them.

SPEAKER_05 21:38

All right, here you go. Can you have does God have multiple mercies? Can you have multiple mercies through your life? Mercy can be a plural word, but grace can't. You don't say graces. Grace is one thing, that's through Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

Merci.

SPEAKER_08 22:03

Merci. Multiple mercies. Abundant merci. It's abundant grace, too.

SPEAKER_05 22:14

Amen. I'm just asking. I just thought about that. You started it. You got to finish. I know. I'm asking y'all. That's what I'm the co-host here, so I ask you questions and y'all kind of just stir your minds up a little bit about it.

SPEAKER_08 22:26

And the question was, is there multiple mercies? Is that what you asked?

SPEAKER_05 22:30

I guess let me say this. Does God show us mercy? Does he continue to show us mercy every single day? I think it's a blanket.

SPEAKER_08 22:40

I think he has to. Yeah. Or we wouldn't stand a chance. We couldn't live with ourselves.

SPEAKER_05 22:45

He only showed us, he's only going to show us grace one time, and that was through his son Jesus. That's all we needed. We don't need anything else. That was the grace. Right? You almost can kind of relate that grace and Jesus. Boom. That's it. Right. When his mercy he forgives you. You live, deserving death, but yet every day you live.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

Merciful every day.

SPEAKER_05 23:06

Right.

SPEAKER_01 23:09

Have mercy.

SPEAKER_05 23:10

That's why I kind of go back to that question I asked was.

SPEAKER_08 23:12

Does that give you a license to sin, knowing that he's going to be merciful?

SPEAKER_05 23:15

Not at all. But people would use it. Once it goes back, what is it? Once it's awesome that even. Use it for granted.

SPEAKER_01 23:27

Well, that was my take with the teenagers, is you know, the reason we live the way we live, you know, sinful lives is because we don't realize what we got in Christ.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

You know. Once we realize it, and it's like it says it there in 1 Peter chapter 4, once we realize it, we will physically suffer for Christ. That's what it says in 1 Peter chapter 4. We will physically, and once you physically suffer for Christ, you're done with sin. You're through with it.

SPEAKER_08 24:00

And you will be done with your consequence.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

You will be done with your sinful and your own desires once you realize what you got. You don't need nothing else. You got Christ, and that's it.

SPEAKER_08 24:14

So how are we to abstain from the things of the world? How are we to abstain from the fleshly lusts? Things that we desire.

SPEAKER_01 24:21

And he says that very next thing, to live in the will of God. To live in the will of God.

SPEAKER_08 24:27

Is that not what we do as ministers try to motivate people to live according to the will of God, not according to your own will, your own wishes, your own desires?

unknown 24:35

What?

SPEAKER_08 24:36

Need an example? Be an example. Be an example. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 24:41

Here it goes. You have, and this is verse 3, right after I was what I was saying a while ago, you have had enough in the past of these evil things that godless people enjoy. Their immorality and their lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties and terrible worship of idols. You're done with it. You don't need it no more. Because you've realized what you have.

SPEAKER_08 25:06

It's almost like you're saying you can't you can't truly get there until you have experienced physical suffering.

SPEAKER_01 25:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 25:15

Well, once you know what you're saying?

SPEAKER_01 25:17

Well, the very first part of it is, you know, Christ suffered physical pain.

SPEAKER_08 25:22

All right.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

You must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, is what it's saying.

SPEAKER_08 25:28

So is it true that God will allow things to occur and transpire in your life in order to get you to the place to where he wants you to be?

SPEAKER_01 25:35

Yeah. It says the very next thing. And be ready to suffer. Be ready to suffer too.

SPEAKER_08 25:41

Do people not ask the questions, why me, Lord? Mm-hmm. Could it be the answer to that question is because, well, if God truly answered our question, why me, Lord, we would learn that God is allowing us this in order to get us on the right track. Yeah. In order to get us going in the direction that He so desires us to go, not as we so desire to go. So basically, we should be able to look at suffering, physical suffering even in our lives, and understand God is allowing it as a father. God is allowing it to teach us a lesson. God is allowing it to redirect our lives. God is allowing it to get us truly following the steps, the path that He has for us. So that's why you lean not into your own understanding or trust in the Lord with all your heart and he'll direct your steps. That all that does all that fit together? What I just said?

SPEAKER_05 26:42

So let me ask you this. What about the ones? Because like you go on, like on that verse 3 when it talks about for we spent enough our pastime walking in lewdness, lust, drunkenness, drinking parties and idolatries and everything else. What about the ones who can't tie themselves to that physical suffering of those things? Who've never went to that physical suffering of those They're lost. Well, you just you mentioned a while ago, you know, in order for us to get to that point of salvation, we must go through this physical suffering.

SPEAKER_01 27:20

Well, I think I think everybody may be a little different as far as what their sufferings may be.

SPEAKER_05 27:26

I think that's what I'm asking.

SPEAKER_01 27:27

Like, you know, the extent of their sin. You know, they they realize, well. All sin is the same, though. All sin is the same, but he names a few things, and it may be what Peter knew they were dealing with at that time.

SPEAKER_05 27:42

I guess the reason why I'm asking that question, you take a nine-year-old kid who's never went through any of these physical sufferings of drunkenness and everything else, but yet they come to save a knowledge of Jesus Christ. So where's the physical suffering in their life? Could be their examples, their parents, they're Could it be they haven't reached the age of accountability? We're getting in deep waters here, preacher.

SPEAKER_04 28:08

Well, you know.

SPEAKER_07 28:09

Well, you don't want to ask the question. Well, if you in order to be saved, you've got to first realize that you're a sinner. That's right. So, and there's got to be some shame in that.

SPEAKER_05 28:20

Yep.

SPEAKER_07 28:20

So can a nine-year-old have shame for telling lies?

SPEAKER_05 28:23

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_07 28:24

That's what I meant, you know, the extent. You know, you know, as far as he realizes he's a sinner, and with that comes shame, guilt. Yep. You know, I've done they've realized I've done something wrong in the eyes of God. And I and I knew better. I knew right from wrong.

SPEAKER_08 28:42

And as a result, I'm gonna die.

SPEAKER_07 28:44

That's right.

SPEAKER_05 28:44

Majority of the times when you're when one of your boys that uh knows they did something wrong, what are they gonna do? They're about to look at you, right? They're looking where you're at, seeing if you've seen it. That's right.

SPEAKER_07 28:55

Right. It's daddy around.

SPEAKER_05 28:57

Yep. I don't know when y'all said that, it just made me start thinking, you know, all right. You said you gotta go through physical suffering in order to obtain or see the salvation. Well, what's this physical suffering? Let's explain that a little bit. For the ones who might not understand the physical suffering of that. Who doesn't go through drunkenness, lewdness, idolatry, whatever.

SPEAKER_08 29:23

I'm waiting. I'll let y'all talk.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

I'm on a different deal now, y'all.

SPEAKER_08 29:31

Watson has removed himself from the conversation.

SPEAKER_00 29:34

He started in 1 Peter chapter 4.

SPEAKER_08 29:38

For as much then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind. For he that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should have the rest of his time in the flesh of the lust of men, but to the will of God. Where in where in there do you see salvation?

SPEAKER_05 30:00

I don't. I'm just saying that's what y'all said while ago.

SPEAKER_08 30:05

I think you maybe misunderstood what we said.

SPEAKER_05 30:08

I'm just I'm referring back to what y'all said while ago.

SPEAKER_08 30:11

Repeat it.

SPEAKER_05 30:12

Y'all just said that in order to, I can't remember which one it was, in order to attain to get to that point of salvation, you must go through physical suffering.

SPEAKER_08 30:22

I don't remember anybody saying that. All right, I could be wrong.

SPEAKER_05 30:26

I'll bad.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

We're gonna go back here a little bit and listen. I was on that same road. I was thinking about that, you know. If you've never physically suffered for Christ, are you truly saved?

SPEAKER_08 30:39

Oh, that's where I said it. I did. I spoke, I said he lost.

SPEAKER_01 30:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 30:43

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 30:44

So that I was told that question by God. Say it again, Ryan. Say it again. If you have never physically suffered for Christ, are you truly saved? I would I would say when you come become saved, there's a change about you.

SPEAKER_02 31:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:01

Right? No doubt. It don't matter if you're nine or nineteen. There should be a change about you. Now, you're not going to change as much at nine years old because you didn't have as much to change as you would at 19. But there should be a difference in you.

SPEAKER_05 31:17

See if you remember this one, Watson. How do you view your sufferings?

SPEAKER_04 31:22

Was that last week? That was last week. How do you view your sufferings?

SPEAKER_01 31:26

There's a uh well, I'm gonna answer that real quick. Okay. Real quick. It tells us in 1 Peter chapter 3. But even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it. So whatever your suffering is, big or small, if you're doing it for God, he will reward you for it. All right, go ahead, preacher.

SPEAKER_08 31:51

Well, there is a there is a tie there though to lost people. Because in that context, where you start in 1 Peter chapter 4, it talks about those who think of you differently. Because they see that you aren't doing these things. You aren't, you're different. You know, you don't fall prey to these things. What's what's the difference? That's the lost individual. Does make sense? Verse 4, wherein they think it's strange that you run not with them to the same excess of right. You run not with them. Who's them? They think it's strange. Those are lost folks.

SPEAKER_01 32:32

They they they see a difference in you. Your former friends is the way mine put it. Yeah. Your former friends are surprised when you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things.

SPEAKER_08 32:47

So that individual who cannot understand your desires to live differently, to be differently, because of what's in you and dwell in you, because you're a saved child of God, right? That you don't run to the same excess, you don't do these things, and that lost person says something different about you. Right. That all ties together.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

If you've never experienced a lost of friendship because of your salvation, think about that. If you've never experienced a lost of friendship because of your salvation, have you changed anything?

SPEAKER_08 33:25

I like where you're going. I see what you're saying. It's hard to put it into words. There should be, it it goes back to evidence. If you are a true bloodbought child of God, whether you were six years old, nine years old, nineteen years old, or ninety years old, there's there's gonna be a change. There's a transformation that takes place. And people see it. And it should show up in your lives to where those who see you living different, acting different, running not to the same excess of riot as the Bible says. So if that is not evident in your life, then we can say he's lost.

SPEAKER_01 34:03

Yep.

SPEAKER_08 34:04

And people around Can we truly judge between somebody who's saved and somebody who's lost as a live.

SPEAKER_05 34:13

You gotta read verse 5 then of chapter 4. They will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. Ultimately it's gonna be him that judges that.

SPEAKER_01 34:23

Yep. Well, all I know if you look in a lot of Peter's topics here, and what he does.

SPEAKER_08 34:29

If there is a desire in your life to live for Christ, then where is Christ? Yep. It's in us. And if he isn't in us, he's not gonna show up.

SPEAKER_07 34:43

There's a big difference between the two. That's something you can tell, right?

SPEAKER_08 34:47

I think so.

SPEAKER_05 34:48

And you're gonna be able to tell that you got the grace in your life, and you're gonna be able to tell if you got the mercy in your life.

SPEAKER_07 34:54

Are you a fig tree?

SPEAKER_05 34:56

Oh, there you go.

SPEAKER_07 34:58

Particularly one that looks like it bears fruit.

SPEAKER_08 35:01

That's do you actually bear fruit?

SPEAKER_01 35:05

Jesus walked by you in your life right now and say, I'm done with you because you ain't doing anything. Right? Just like he did that fig tree.

SPEAKER_08 35:15

Well, he'll never leave you, never forsake you.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

Yeah. But what I'm saying is, does he just he was what was his thought with that fig tree that morning when he walked by and he reached for fruit and there were no fruit there? It was a tree that was supposed to have fruit. We are people that should have, you know, fruit in our life. But if he looks at your life and he doesn't see the fruit, what does he do?

SPEAKER_08 35:43

Yeah. I never knew you. Depart from me.

SPEAKER_01 35:47

That was my very thinking as well. Depart from me. I never knew. We kind of get in. We started off with our with patience.

SPEAKER_08 35:59

If any man suffers as a Christian, don't be ashamed of that.

SPEAKER_01 36:03

Oh yeah. I like, yeah. That's all up in here.

SPEAKER_07 36:07

Oh, yeah. Can I say I like how chapter 5 puts it in verse 12. Dear friends, don't be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad, for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.

SPEAKER_08 36:29

Amen. When that inheritance is realized. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 36:33

Do you think let me ask you a question, preacher. You know exactly right now where you're gonna be next Monday. All right. So do you get discouraged when you go next like let's just say if you went next Monday and you didn't catch nothing, you know you should have caught, so you got discouraged. Is that gonna stop you from going again the next day?

SPEAKER_08 36:52

No. Or moving on to the next bush.

SPEAKER_07 36:55

Right. Yeah. Right. Or tree. So if you if you caught a fish by every stump, bush, limb that you dropped your jig by, would it be as much fun? Would the reward be as great when you finally do catch one?

SPEAKER_08 37:10

There's not a challenge.

SPEAKER_07 37:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 37:11

Yeah, I see what you're saying. There's not a well that's it. There's not a challenge. Right. We don't. I would change up my tactics. Right. Maybe even change location. But my effort would be the same.

SPEAKER_07 37:29

I just like how the back part of that verse it says And my goal would be the same. It says, For these trials make you partner with Christ in suffering so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed. So without the suffering, would it be as glorious, I guess, is the same as a few. If it come to you so easy. Yeah. Yeah. I see what you're saying. Yeah. So without the suffering.

SPEAKER_08 37:55

I mean, that's just a uh that's a hallmark of uh being a disciple of Christ, a follower of Christ, since the ascension, since he went to the Father. I mean, Acts chapter 2. It started there and it's been going on ever since. So there is a measure of suffering that we will go through. We should go through, should experience if we're truly living for him.

SPEAKER_01 38:21

I've said it before on here, and I've heard Gary Carter say it. If it doesn't cost you anything, does he want it? You know? If it comes so simple, our lives ought to cost. Things in our lives ought to cost. That was what this whole podcast was built on, right? The cost of discipleship. You know, picking up our cross and carrying it. He he nowhere does he say this is gonna be easy, fellas. It's gonna cost us something. We will suffer. And I tell those teenagers, one of the biggest things they're gonna suffer at school for living for Christ, most of all, is probably gonna be their popularity. Right? They might as well turn their popularity over and just live a life for Christ. Because when our when our wants and our desires and our popularity get involved, you know, I'm going back to the teenage years now. You know, it um our walk with God would disappear.

SPEAKER_08 39:26

Ultimately, the motivation ought to be evangelism. And that's hard to see as a teenager, like you said, you know, that time of life. Realize that your lifestyle, your evangelism, the way you live, how you carry yourself, should direct people towards Christ. And if your life is not reflecting that, then you're not in the will of God. It's hard to see, you know. Early on in life, but later on in life, you recognize and realize, you know, just what an impact or difference you had by the way that you chose to follow Christ and live your life. Did you did you did you suffer along the way? Were you persecuted along the way? Oh, of course. Was you unjustly accused along the way? That's that's suffering for Christ.

SPEAKER_01 40:12

Here's a crazy question, but it may sum up some stuff. Can you be saved and not in the will of God? Of course. So if you're not in the will of God, you're most likely not gonna be suffering for him.

SPEAKER_08 40:32

Say that again.

SPEAKER_01 40:33

If you're not in the will of God, if you're not living for God, if you're not in the will of God, most likely you're not suffering for him. The devil's got you in a position where you're comfortable. And that's where a lot of people fall in. All right, I'm comfortable. And when we get comfortable in our walk with Christ, the devil's got us where he don't have to worry about us. Right?

SPEAKER_08 40:57

And what I mean by that is if we're comfortable.

SPEAKER_01 40:59

What I mean is if we're comfortable as far as we're not having to suffer. We're saved, we're on the on the saved train, and we're just ready to for what's next.

SPEAKER_06 41:10

Not putting in those good works?

SPEAKER_01 41:12

Yeah, not putting in any effort, not producing any fruit.

SPEAKER_07 41:17

Well, this raises my question. If you're if you're walking that way, I don't, you know, if you're out of the wheel. You know, that's where my mind goes.

SPEAKER_08 41:34

Mine too.

SPEAKER_07 41:36

Raises the thought, were you saved to begin with? You know.

SPEAKER_01 41:40

Well, there's no doubt that we have a lot of young kids, teenagers that get saved at a younger age, and then for so many years they fall out of the will of God. They live their own life, you know. And then they may come back around to it when they're in their 20s or whatever. Ultimately, we don't want that to happen. We we want them to stay on fire and live and for Christ their whole life.

SPEAKER_08 42:06

All right, brother Ryan. I'm having trouble at school. I can't seem to stay out of trouble. I know I'm disobedient to my parents. I'm just a horrible kid. Yet I was saved at a wanna when I was eight years old, baptized, and I know it. Why? Why do I live this way? Why can't I control it? Am I saved, Brother Ryan? What where are you gonna carry that kid to?

SPEAKER_01 42:33

I'd take them back to to personally I would carry them back to and ask them when and where. You know? Why do you say that you're saved? It ain't based on a feeling, it ain't based on My answer is, well, I prayed the prayer.

SPEAKER_08 42:49

I mean, I was with Brother Lane, I remember. But did you genuinely did you genuinely mean it?

SPEAKER_01 42:58

I mean, is that not a concern?

SPEAKER_08 43:00

Yeah, I mean.

SPEAKER_01 43:01

Anybody can just say a prayer. Anybody can just, you know, even speak the words. The devil and the the uh his followers knew God's word. But did you genuinely I don't know if I did or not? Well, you better get this right.

SPEAKER_08 43:17

Do I get saved again?

SPEAKER_01 43:20

You know, was you truly saved?

SPEAKER_08 43:23

I'm being obviously I'm being the best advocate here, you know. But it's a very real scenario. Yeah. Well, I was there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:32

I was there. I you know, I got saved at nine, but not until I was eighteen did I now get don't get me wrong, I had conviction in my life when I did wrong. But not until I was, you know, I say 18, 20 something, but until I said, Man, I've got to do right.

SPEAKER_08 43:48

How'd you confirm it? Well, you like as far as How did you get to that place where you quit questioning your salvation? Where you finally come to the realization, hey, I know. I know. That I know that I know.

SPEAKER_01 44:01

I was probably, I dealt with with doubt for a long time in my life. And I probably realized that I was saved probably from 18 to in them years, as far as I, you know, this is the way I look at it. I feel like the devil was telling me for so long God's not big enough to save you. Because you didn't truly know what took place. Right? I felt like that for years. I felt like the devil was after me saying, You ain't saved, you ain't saved. But when I realized when I was saved was when I placed my faith in what God's Word said I had to do to be saved. And that's what I'd done at nine. But I wasn't living in his will for a long time.

SPEAKER_08 44:47

But it it it you have to live a little bit of life, and you have to experience some suffering. You have to get a good grip on what sin is. Even though you're saved as a child of God, you know, at at these teenage years, early adult years, you question those things, but you always come back to that. Yeah. That place to where you were convinced that you needed to be saved. And here's what saved you is Jesus. Nothing you did, nothing you could do, but it's what he did and saved you. Simplicity of salvation. Is there going to be fruit to that? Obviously there is. Obviously, there is. And those are all evidences of the fact that when you, you know, come to that point where you realize you've lost, you need to be saved. That you've saved. Well, the devil calls you to doubt that, question that? Ain't no doubt. Yep.

SPEAKER_06 45:47

When you go to those gates and they say, Why are you here? And then you're first, well, I you're wrong right there. That's right.

SPEAKER_05 45:54

That's what I did. That's right. It ain't about you.

SPEAKER_01 45:58

Yep. Well, when you get to, you know, the you picture that cartoon in your mind when you get to those gates and and uh why are you here? The first thing you want to say is Jesus. Jesus is the reason I'm here.

SPEAKER_06 46:11

That's right. That's what he did. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:14

That's the only reason I'm here.

SPEAKER_08 46:18

By his abundant mercy, he hath begotten us again unto a lively hope. That's 1 Peter chapter 1. I thought you were finna start singing. No, that it goes full circle circle and comes back to mercy. That he forgives us.

SPEAKER_07 46:38

Amen.

SPEAKER_08 46:39

He holds us not accountable. Because he held Jesus accountable for all of our sins. Praise the Lord.

SPEAKER_06 46:49

Something we were talking about a while ago. And the reason why I bring it up because it's it's fresh. Uh, but I was told yesterday that a group of people want me there so they can pray before a game. Which is awesome. I'm not trying to toot my own horn or anything, but there's several saved people there.

SPEAKER_01 47:14

Why can't they do it? Kind of deal.

SPEAKER_06 47:16

Yeah. And they're saved, child of God. You know. Why can't you step up? What's holding them back? What's holding them back? Why can't you step up and make that?

SPEAKER_01 47:27

Well, you know, I I lame preacher probably goes through this too, but you go to a family event, you know, everybody looks at you when it's time to eat lunch. Are you gonna pray for? Yeah. Well, you not know how to do it.

SPEAKER_06 47:41

I'm kind of like preacher, he said Sunday, uh him die, me save. You know, I sometimes I lose my words, and I'm not the brightest person in the world, but I know one thing, he he did die for me. But at the same time, why can't somebody step out and because it's like we said earlier, they're afraid of the suffering.

SPEAKER_08 48:04

Well, is it last week we got into that conversation about being ashamed? Was that last podcast? I can't remember.

SPEAKER_05 48:11

Last week we talked about our suffering. Yeah, being ashamed of yes, I asked the question of do you think do you think they're ashamed of sharing Jesus? Or do you think they're ashamed of of living on it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:25

Yeah. Well, I think I don't think they're a lot of when I'm around and they ask me to pray, I don't think it's a a shameness, but I think it's they're not comfortable.

SPEAKER_06 48:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:36

Because they don't do it a whole lot. Maybe I don't know. And when I say they don't do it a whole lot, they don't do it in front of people a whole lot. They may have the best prayer life, just them and Jesus, but but you know, it's the same way you call out for someone to pray on a Sunday morning, and they tap on my neighbor and they say, Hey, you do it for them. You know?

SPEAKER_06 48:56

I will never forget Pee-week. Shake it we shake it in. Never forget that. And then he did it. And then he did it. Hey, yeah, call them out. They'll do it. Well, just like Zach asked me to pray last Sunday. I was like, oh, I better write these words down so I don't stumble over them. I mean, I and I'm that type of way, because I can think of things and have it planned out and say it right, but if you want me to come up on on my own, it it maybe come out a little different.

SPEAKER_07 49:26

I tell you, a lot of times I get I get nervous getting up on stage, and sometimes I think about, you know, you get inspired by something you read or you know, or a song, you know, and it and it's funny how the Lord works through you. I mean oftentimes though, if I feel like I start paying more attention to me in being an imperfect sinner, you know, that's and I'm focusing on the well all the what ifs, well, what are they gonna think if I mess up, you know, they're gonna make fun of me, you know, and it goes back to the whole praying deal. If you know if I if I pray this prayer and you know, I say a word that I shouldn't have said or I or I misspoke or whatever, you know, and you start getting worried about that. Well, when I find myself reeling and getting in that, I often just have to remember what Jesus Christ did on the cross for me.

SPEAKER_06 50:24

Yep.

unknown 50:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_07 50:26

Because it ain't about us to start with. It it paints it paints that picture in the mind in your in your own mind that and it it and it plays out very quickly, but it it paints the picture of how imperfect we are and how sinful that we are and how great he is.

SPEAKER_08 50:46

That if you are in that situation where you're praying over a baseball team, you're praying over food or a worship service, go back to the cross, go back to Jesus every time. You can't go wrong. That's right. You just can't go wrong with that.

SPEAKER_01 51:01

Well, something has helped me in my prayer life. Well, we're on the topic of prayer now. Uh something that's helped me in my my life and my prayer life is being a tent. Just being a tent. You know, and so here's a question for y'all. When we get ready to be in a tent? Be in tent.

SPEAKER_02 51:19

Intentional.

SPEAKER_01 51:20

Oh. Oh.

SPEAKER_02 51:25

Be in a tent.

SPEAKER_07 51:26

So watch the tent.

SPEAKER_02 51:28

I thought he was in a tent. Be in a tent. I thought he was going back to uh what is it? Be in a tent. I thought it was. I thought it's going back to Jacobino being the tent. In the middle of the tent.

SPEAKER_01 51:46

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_07 51:48

This is why people don't want to pray.

SPEAKER_01 51:52

Y'all want y'all being cut?

SPEAKER_07 51:54

We're laughing at you. We're not laughing at you, Ryan. We're laughing with you. Be intentional.

SPEAKER_04 52:02

I give up.

SPEAKER_01 52:03

Okay, hey, just say be intentional. Be intentional. There you go. So here we are. Here we are. Where does it tell us now we should bow before God, right? But I do some of my best praying, I believe, in the tent. I do some of my best praying when even if it's up here and I'm doing announcements and I'm getting ready to pray with my eyes open, talking to God. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_08 52:28

Well I do. I know exactly what you're saying.

SPEAKER_05 52:30

Yeah, even a three-year-old Elliot asks why we got to close our eyes and buy our heads, you know. And that's the main question a lot of kids. Why we bow our heads? Why don't we look up? God's up there, why we bowing down and looking down and closing our eyes? And it's just reverence, you know.

SPEAKER_01 52:43

It is, it is, but honestly, I can feel the difference when I'm being an intentional with God. I'll even sometimes use my hand. Like, Lord, you know, almost, if that makes sense to you, um, I just I get more focused, I guess what I'm trying to say. And something that really made me think about that, and I know it's Hollywood and show, but like the chosen I've watched, me and Lindsay watched the series of that this year. And when, you know, when they prayed, a lot of times they they had their hands in the air, you know, sitting there praying. And it when I do that, when I can use my hands to talk and stuff like that, I'm more intentional with what I'm talking about. You build his tent while you put my tent with my hands, you know. I'm through.

SPEAKER_06 53:33

That was awesome. Thank you, Ryan.

SPEAKER_07 53:36

Yeah. Preacher, we're gonna have to put a tent on stage for Sunday. You got to come around with something.

SPEAKER_01 53:42

That has happened. Y'all just hang around, boys.

SPEAKER_06 53:44

I'll teach y'all something. Propitiation. That's right.

SPEAKER_07 53:50

Well, we started off with patience, talking about patience, and we've looped through suffering and tense. Um Lane, is there a difference in contentment and patience? I think you were on the last part of 1 Timothy.

SPEAKER_05 54:11

Yeah, I had the job of defining there's a difference between contentment and being comfortable. Okay.

SPEAKER_07 54:16

But I thought you did that between patience there.

SPEAKER_05 54:20

No, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 54:21

But great gain.

SPEAKER_05 54:24

Yeah, it's great gain. And I go back to what Watson was talking. He brought that word, you know, being comfortable, being content a while ago. And if you're not content, or if you're content in your life and there's not godliness, right, well, you're missing out. But yeah, if you're content in your life and your walk with godliness, the fruit's gonna be abundant.

SPEAKER_07 54:43

We started talking about patience earlier. Yeah. And immediately, that's where my mind went. I'm I remember highlighting um verse 6 of 1 Timothy chapter 6, yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth.

SPEAKER_05 55:00

Yep. Well, what's what's uh what's one of the fruit of the spirit? Patience. Patience, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 55:06

All right, I got another question.

SPEAKER_07 55:07

And we're pursuing godliness in this patience. Yeah, there's suffering with pursuing godliness because we are following Christ as opposed to following the ways of the world. So yet we're judged by the world. Therefore, there comes in this suffering, you know, because the world doesn't understand. They're lost. There's the war. That's right. There's your spiritual war out there, there's your suffering. But to have can to be to be pursuing godliness and you're patient enough with it to be content is where your wealth is found in Christ.

SPEAKER_08 55:47

Very well said. If you're patient enough to be content, there's where your wealth is found in Christ. Yeah. There's commentary there, boys.

SPEAKER_01 55:57

Should you ever be content with how you're patient enough to be content. Should you ever be content with how much fruit you're producing? No. So the closer I get to God, I believe, the the more fruit that can come. Should be.

SPEAKER_08 56:18

Yeah, the closer you get to God should produce a wealth of fruit.

SPEAKER_01 56:24

Well, the closer glory of God. I've heard it said the closer you get to God, the more sinful you feel. Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_08 56:34

I agree with that. And the more you get into the Word, you realize just how sinful you are. And with that comes conviction. With that comes great gain and contentment. And then Lord, and then you'll you'll come across one of these contexts of scripture that's paint paints that picture of the mercy of God and the grace of God full circle, and you realize, you know what, you know, I I do, I mess up a lot. I mess up a lot. And I see that in the scriptures, but man, God is good. And the love that He has for me and Is enduring and it's everlasting, and nothing can separate me from His love. I know that. And the devil will keep reminding me of that. And I keep suffering and I keep messing up and I keep failing. There's mercy, there's grace, there's motivation. Just keep doing it. Just be patient. It's coming. The promises are gonna be realized. You know, but we do we just gotta keep walking in these things. Having that mind. What did Peter tell his folks? Gird up your loins. I like the way the King James says it.

SPEAKER_01 57:46

Gird up your loins.

SPEAKER_08 57:47

Gird up your loins with the mind of Christ. I gotta find that. Isn't that first Peter? It is. Verse 13, first chapter. Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind. Be sober. Of course, that's talking about the mind. Sobering your mind, clearing your mind. You know, have a plan. Arm yourselves. That's that's chapter four. You know, arm yourselves like while I was the same mind. Have a plan. Be prepared. Like David in the rock. It wasn't the first time he flung at rock when he threw it at Goliath. He was prepared. And I think that's what some of this suffering that we go through in life does. It prepares us ultimately for the next battle, because it's coming. And don't think it's a strange thing when they come, because they're coming.

SPEAKER_01 58:36

That's right.

SPEAKER_05 58:36

It goes back to what you've been talking about with the truth. And what is the truth? What is the true gospel? You know, you talk about girding up. What do you gird up in the whole armor of God? You gird up your waist, you gird up your loins with the truth. The belts of truth, they say.

SPEAKER_08 58:52

Yep, the shoes of the gospel of peace. Is that right? Yep. Helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness.

SPEAKER_01 59:01

Well, I I've heard people in the past say, I don't know what God's asking me to do. I don't know, you know, what's my calling? I I would say we all, and it says it right here, we all have a calling to live for God. It's just as simple as that. We all have a calling to live for God. No matter where you're at and you walk.

SPEAKER_08 59:27

How do you turn how do you know what that is? How do you know what he's calling you to do?

SPEAKER_01 59:32

Um get prepared. He'll tell you.

SPEAKER_08 59:37

How did Peter know he was calling him? How did any of the apostles' disciples know? You know, he told them. And God will tell you in your word, you just may suppress it. I know what I gotta do. And you and we all do that, especially early in life. We got all these other things that we're chasing. You know, we want to be successful, we want to have a career in sports, or we want to be rich, and you know, and all the whole time we know what God's calling us to do. It may not be this life of riches and worldliness and all that good stuff. But he's been telling you the whole time. God will not waste his time communicating his will to somebody who ain't willing to do it. So when you get to that place, you say, all right, Lord, here we go. I don't know what this looks like, but I know you do. And I know you call me to it because you've been bothering me with it for a long time. You've been telling me that. And when you finally surrender to that, there ain't a better place to be in life. Because you finally get into that purpose and that path for which he puts you on this earth. I think my own example, I was 32 when I finally surrendered to the fact that I think, you know, God's put me here to, you know, pastor to do this thing. And I knew that. I did. I go back and look at it, I just run from it, I suppressed it. And was there physical suffering? Was there were there things that God allowed to carry my life in order to get me to yep. And I can share testimony after testimony of that with you guys what it took for God to get me on the right path. And it took a lot. It was my stubbornness and my sinfulness that caused me to stay out of the will of God for a long time. But when I got there, not knowing the future, not knowing what he would do with me and how he was going to do it, uh, well, it's a good place to be.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:30

And you'll find yourself kind of wait wavering every now and then. You entertain thoughts of doing this, and everything, especially when you do are persecuted, when you have these false accusations, and you think, boy, you know what, I'll just go drive a truck. You know, I'll do something different. I don't have to do this. I've been doing it too long. Those little thoughts creep in. And then uh Zach says, always go back to the to Jesus, always go back to the cross. And it'll it'll refocus you and recenter you every time. And you realize, man. Dude, I think I am. My goodness.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:08

I'm gonna start our encouragement off here, and we'll go around, do our last word, hour and two minutes into it, finishing up here. Um, but I'm gonna be in Colossians chapter uh chapter three, verse 16 and 17. And the reason is because just talking about what you just got done saying, you know. How do we get all this around to the same picture? You've got to dwell in the truth. You've got to dwell in the word of God. And so verse 16 of chapter 3 of Colossians says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. And all wisdom teaching and dominant one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Whatever you do, do in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to the God through uh the God the Father through him.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:54

Let me ask you a question about that. The very first word you read, let.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:57

Let us or let, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:59

So is it up to us? Is it a choice that we have to allow the word of God to do this to dwell in us richly? Yeah. Can we stand in the way of that? Of course we can. So that is a huge word, the very first part of that, let the word of God.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:14

Yeah, if you're not willing to let it mold you, then you're not willing to produce the fruit that it has to produce through you.

SPEAKER_08 1:03:23

Amen. So I know that's your words of encouragement. I didn't mean to.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:28

I want to say this, and then I'm gonna pass it on to Philip, and it goes back to what Philip talked about a while ago, you know, be in those situations of somebody wanting you to pray for them when you can ask the same question, why don't you just pray for them? That's the same way. Let the word of God, you're doing this in word and in deed in the name of Jesus Christ. As it says there in verse 17. Everything you're doing, whether it's from coaching, whether it's from crutching a three-pound crappie, whatever, whatever you're doing, let it be in the name of Jesus Christ. And if you can't reconcile that, you can't come to terms with that, you need to start, you need to start letting the word of God dwell in you. Amen. Because you're standing in the way.

SPEAKER_08 1:04:06

Amen.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:07

Philip.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:08

Uh just like what you just said. Pick up your cross and follow him and quit. I'll just read this. If anyone desire to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? So don't worry about what other people say and just live for Christ. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:50

Well, if I can give y'all any encouragement this week, it's build a tent and pray.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:56

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:57

Now it would be this, and I'm reading on in 1 Peter chapter 3, accept his authority in your life. Accept his authority in your life.

SPEAKER_08 1:05:08

That's good.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:09

He is seated at the right hand of the Father. Amen. And it goes on to say that he is a place of honor, and all the angels and authorities and the powers accept his authority. But have you? Have you, as a man walking this earth, accepted his authority in your life?

SPEAKER_07 1:05:29

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:29

Or are you still trying to take over?

SPEAKER_03 1:05:33

Zachary.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:34

Guys, we're fresh off of Easter weekend with our Easter services. Um, not only, you know, I said something earlier, remember the cross, but remember the tomb. Amen.

SPEAKER_08 1:05:45

Praise the Lord.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:46

And the manner of which it was found. It was empty. Empty. We serve a risen Savior, and guys, I just want to give you the encouragement for all of you who are children of God, carry that confidence that we serve a Risen Savior that He defeated death and go out there and live for Him. You never know when you are the only version of Christ somebody's gonna see. You never know there's people around you all the time that may never open up a Bible, but they look at how you live your life and they say, Man, there's something different about that guy. When the opportunity opens it up, have that confidence that we serve a risen Savior to share the gospel with that person.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:36

You know, it's the same way as the thief on the cross. He ain't never done anything like that, but he just knew the man in the middle. That's right. He said, Man, I want something some of that. The man on the middle cross I could go.

SPEAKER_08 1:06:49

Yep. That's a good one. Um I guess I'm wrapping her up. Wrapping her up. Zach reminded me I have a appointment with a person tomorrow who's been visiting our church for quite some time now, who's got lots of questions. Some competing theologies from more what she's known her entire life. But what she's seen in others and in this church is really, really God convicting her. And I'm excited about that. But that comes directly as a result of a lifestyle evangelism. She's just seen a difference. There's something different about this than what I've always known. So I'm excited to be able to talk to her tomorrow. But uh my last word of encouragement is this is uh recognize God's hand upon your life when He is trying to redirect you. And what I mean by that is you may find yourself questioning what's happening in your life. You may be jobless, you may be seeking a job, you may hate your job, you may be I mean, maybe maybe you find yourself at a low point in your life. Recognize this that all throughout history, biblical history, God has always allowed circumstances and things to come in people's lives in order to get them going in the direction he wants them to go. Does that make sense? God is in the business of redirecting lives. And I know a lot of people are questioning that, you know, why is this happening to me? Why am I so miserable? Why am I missing? Well, you aren't on the right track. And uh I just encourage you to see God's hand in that. And then go back and answer the question what do you want me to do? What is my purpose for existing? You know, and there's an God's been telling you, if you're a child of God, God has been telling you, you've just been suppressing it. So listen to it. Listen to it. We love y'all. Thank y'all for listening.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:46

We appreciate y'all joining in for another week. Well, uh Lord will be back next week. So Zachary, you want to lead us in or close us in prayer?

SPEAKER_07 1:08:54

I will. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for your son Jesus and what he did on the cross for us, God. Lord, we thank you for him defeating death, Lord, and defeating death, Lord, and leaving that tomb empty. Lord, rising again, God. Lord, that we may have an opportunity that if we just believe in you, Lord, and that you sent your son to die for us, Lord, to save our sins, Lord, that we have that opportunity of living with you in heaven eternally, God. Lord, I pray everyone here listening to that, Lord, that believes in that, Lord, I pray the ones that have questions will ask those questions, God. Lord, I pray for each and every individual in this room, Lord, as we dig into your word, Lord, and and study it and and chew on it, Lord, and and and and let it stir our hearts and move us and motivate us, Lord, to be better for you, God, Lord, to to lead lives, Lord, that others can look at and see examples of you living within us, God, Lord. We ask you to forgive us for we're all sinners and we've come short of your glory. Lord, we ask these things in your name, Jesus. Amen.