Ep 37 Being on Auto Pilot!

What does it look like to be on Auto Pilot for Christ? In this episode we discuss the importance of walking for Christ, being Holy for He is Holy! It's not easy, but yet simple! Christ wants us to stay obedient to Him. Once you realize that you are on auto pilot, coming out of it can be one step closer to Holiness. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. 

We thank you once again for joining us this week! We are here, we are ready, and we are striving to live a life acceptable unto God.

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

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 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. What's up, boys?

SPEAKER_02 0:41

Good morning, good morning, good morning. We are here.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Dragging, everybody dragging. What are y'all dragging for?

SPEAKER_01 0:50

We played like nine innings of woof football the other night. Okay. I ain't got a lot of things. Is that a new tradition? Oh man, we've been doing that. I what surprised me, because I was like, man, I like I like beating up on the little kids because the adults always have a team, then the little kids have a team. But we couldn't the other night. There's just no way possible. We play the teenagers.

SPEAKER_04 1:10

We used to do that when we was at the park. Yeah. We'd play at Raw.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Yep. That's just some fun, man. Did Max participate? Max did participate.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

Injured my screen.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

All of us old men.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

I think I warned you, fellas. She's doing some stretching.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

I wonder how many of them ruined their shorts sitting on that trailer. Hey, I mean Tyler both told them.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

But anyway, we had a great Sunday Memorial Day fellowship.

SPEAKER_02 1:47

Some good ribs.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Good eating. Real good food. Only thing we're disappointed in, and we're leaving them with Watson. We didn't have no homemade ice cream.

SPEAKER_02 1:57

Yeah, we didn't have any.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Not a sick. I did my heart. Not a shit.

SPEAKER_04 2:00

I told the whole church. You said you were gonna bring some.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

I'm worried about your credibility there, Doc.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

I am too. You were gonna bring some sugar burger out there.

SPEAKER_04 2:06

I think I just I'll let y'all handle the announcements from here on out. I'm done. Oh man. Anyway. You better believe I'm gonna let them have it this week, though. I'm worried about the wear them out. Wear them out.

SPEAKER_02 2:23

When's our next uh food game? Let them have it.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

Hey, we're having potluck for Bible school, right? Yeah, we're having pot luck.

SPEAKER_04 2:31

Let them have it so bad they're gonna bring ice cream every night to VBS.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

We are. We're having potluck on the first on the first night of VBS, kind of something trying something here. So I'll bring something.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

Do we have anything for 4th of July?

SPEAKER_01 2:46

No.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Maybe not yet, but we'll see. Years ago, that that used to be our church celebration day, but it's hot. Yep. We backed her up to Memorial Day and it works out very well.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Everybody really enjoyed it, I thought. Before we get going, I do want to. We brought up Vacation Bible School. We're two weeks away. We're starting to decorate or starting to cut things out, and then Sunday night we're gonna build some scaffolding, Sunday afternoon, and decorate her up, and uh for the next two weeks we'll be full blown VBS.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

So we'll discuss this in a minute, but you and I uh remember we talked to already have that stuff hanging? Yep. Yeah so we're gonna put the scaffolding up like Wednesday or Thursday. Right. Anyway, that's not for this.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

That's right, yeah. Anyway, but yeah, we uh we look forward to that. Got any questions, reach out to us and we're going through the Emerald Crossing. Talking about the Good Shepherd. Y'all ready for camping? Do what? Ready for all the camps coming up? Yes and no. Lat out, nope.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

Yes, and my kids in Houston, DJ and his two oldest boys are gone. They left yesterday. Somewhere around Dallas. Yeah. They live in Houston, so yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

I'm ready, I'll be off. Which one are you going to? Kids can't. Both of them be in it this time, so cool.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

Kids can. I love Kids Kim. Preacher, what uh this past Sunday, you talked on the verse that everybody either takes real seriously or doesn't take real seriously. Be holy for I am holy. It did.

SPEAKER_04 4:33

You have any notes here, Doc? Man, I took a page of them. Page and a half? Page and a half. Sure did. You want me to get in them?

SPEAKER_00 4:42

I don't care. We want to go the direction the Lord wants us to go in this morning. There you take his grand interest.

SPEAKER_03 5:01

Turn right and I'll go neither there.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Just a sign and know where he's going on his air, but you know where he's going after.

SPEAKER_04 5:14

Oh man. We just get to meet people. We meet on autopilot every day.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Oh, ain't no telling. When you pass the road up. The what? When you say you pass the road up? He said all the way to the shop.

SPEAKER_04 5:27

He passed a bunch of road.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Wait a minute. I just got it an analogy. You call it an analogy? Or is it a parable? I don't know, Philip. You say it's a parable. So uh Zach was on the whole autopilot going to work. How many of us are on autopilot going to heaven? I got you.

SPEAKER_04 5:50

Hit that old button.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

I'm talking about when an individual gets saved, they know they say they're going to heaven. That's what they got to know they're worried about. They got the insurance policy paid for. They know they're going to heaven when they die. Don't autopilot. Well, well. I got something to say about that, but I don't know how much I need to say.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

What's your sixth note say, Run? Huh? Let's see here. One, two, three.

SPEAKER_04 6:27

I do that autopilot thing a lot. How do we solve the problem? That's my sixth note.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

How do we solve the problem of autopilot? Here we go.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

Well, yeah, I know what the problem is.

SPEAKER_04 6:41

Hey, I wrote that holy, holy, holy equals God.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

Yeah. And then he says for us to be holy is him. And that's the problem. We aren't. We're sinners. There's no way we can ever be or attain holiness, yet the calling is there as obedient children. Well, here's your holy for I'm holy.

SPEAKER_04 7:00

Here's your question that goes with that. You brought up. What have you done with Jesus? What have you done with Jesus?

SPEAKER_00 7:07

That's the greatest question on earth. I mean, you know who he is. What are you going to do with him? What have you done with Jesus? Well, answer that.

SPEAKER_04 7:20

What have we all done with Jesus? Well, we give him testimonies now.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

Well, you claim him as your Savior. Yeah, that's good. But realize this, he he died so that you might live and that you might have life and have it abundantly, and that's not just fraternity, that's on this earth. So here Peter's fixing to get into talking to these folks in 1 Peter about sojourning. You know what sojourning means? Do your life. Somebody tell me what sojourn means. Like mending, like mending together. Living on this earth, sojourning. While you live on this earth. So the time that you have here on this earth, I also washed you, redeemed you, set you free, released you from the penalty of sin so that you might live on this earth unto me. Sojourn journey.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

Not just go to heaven. Temporary resident or traveler.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Thank you very much. Pilgrim. Are we temporary residents? Yeah, thank you very much. So what are we doing with this time that we are sojourning on this earth? I'm 60 years old, I got 10, 15 years left. You know? What am I gonna do? What are we gonna do? I don't know. Well, how long? You know, I may I may die tomorrow, you know, but the time that I have left, you know, I need to be, I need to realize that I was I was precious enough in the sight of God, I was worth enough in the sight of God that he gave his only son the precious blood of his only son for me, that motivates me to live for him now. And not just wait, not just get on autopilot, you know, and wait on heaven, wait for it to come. I got I got a purpose. He got a plan. I need to be holy as I can be. It's called do something with it. Do something with it, yeah. Do something with it. What you gonna present to the Lord you stand before? What you got? What you bring in the show and tell. All right, you'll say you got you got a million dollars in the bank. Well, he's gonna be real proud of you. Having a million dollars in a bank that's still on earth. They can't get to heaven, the only thing that can get to heaven is the soul. That ought to be where we're investing.

SPEAKER_02 9:32

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

We tell people all the time we're in the soul business. Well, let's act like it. Let's live like it. The OB. I'm on a ramp, boys. Y'all get me off of it. How many people have you caught? We're talking about fishing. Yeah. Make you fishers to me.

SPEAKER_02 9:49

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Oh, I had another one. Another thought. Talking about being on on uh autopilot when it comes to living for the Lord. Zach, you have really come in and brought this one to us this morning. We get up and do the same thing over and over and over and over and over again. Routine. Routine. That's not necessarily a bad thing, ain't all bad, but let's realize there ain't nothing, it ought not to be anything routine about a bloodbought child of God. We ought to be unpredictable.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

We ought to be dangerous. It's routine serving the Lord, but yet the act the actions that come with that are.

SPEAKER_00 10:35

Well, when we become routine, we become religious. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:39

In the law enforcement world.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Frankly, I'm sick of religion. Are y'all sick of religion?

SPEAKER_02 10:43

In the law enforcement world, it's called complacency. Are you complacent? Are you sitting there just waiting on waiting to die? Doing your routine and everything.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

It ought to be routine that you do your job justicely. Like, hey, that you you're doing it right every day. You know. But yet every day's a different job because you don't know what's gonna happen today. You don't know if you're gonna pull over a truck that's gets a speed and ticker or pull over a truck that's got pounds and pounds of marijuana in it, you know. Or a trafficker. So you don't know in your life with or your walk with Christ. Every day you should you should live your life for Christ, be holy, for I am holy. Routinely, but you don't know what God's gonna have for you that day. So you always have to be on guard as far as what the devil has for you as well.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

Well, Peter knew that. Peter, Peter of all people knew that uh, as a matter of fact, he said it in chapter 5, verse 8. He's a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He's trying to get you, he wants to he desired to have you de sift you. It just all comes together. All these things we've talked about the last several weeks, it all makes sense. That's the way the Bible works. Living word of God. And whether you're talking about living a life of conformity and just taking a left and heading to work, you know, or actually looking for God. That's really good.

SPEAKER_03 12:19

I'm just glad I didn't put my clothes in the refrigerator thinking that we wouldn't.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

All right, if you're gonna get up and go fishing, we talk about fishers of men. He wants us to be fishers of men, calls us to be fishers of men. Uh the real life scenario is all right, I'm gonna get up in the morning, I'm going catch me some crappie, I'm going to the lake. You do you have a plan?

SPEAKER_03 12:40

What are you gonna do before you go fishing, though?

SPEAKER_00 12:42

Well, you're gonna pray or you're gonna prepare for it. Pray about it. Sure. You're gonna be thinking about it, probably lose some sleep over it because you're thinking you're anticipating. Not long ago, I said that from the pulpit. I know where I'm gonna be in the morning, I know where my genie's gonna be sitting under what limb by what bush. Now, how in the world would that affect our life to approach the souls of men that way? I'm going fishing this morning. I'm getting up today. God's gonna put somebody into my path, into my presence, that is a soul that is worth the blood of his son. And I ought to recognize that and realize that and take advantage of that and put the bait out.

SPEAKER_04 13:23

And it may be someone you don't really want it to be.

SPEAKER_02 13:27

I thank God a lot of people. What if that bush is not under water? What yeah. What if it's out of water? Planning changes.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

Yeah, okay.

unknown 13:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Changes.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

There you are, adjust.

SPEAKER_04 13:41

I said that's a good one. That's a problem.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

That's a problem we all on live scope.

SPEAKER_04 13:44

When I said it may be someone you don't want it to be, I think I'm I'm back in Jonah, you know. God put someone in Jonah's life that he didn't want to go to until about redemption and forgiveness.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:56

You know.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

It's good. But you gotta go anyway. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

Because if you don't obediently, well, Jonah couldn't adjust to God's standards or God's plan.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

Well, you know, Watson about eight inches from that mic. I'm about a half inches. Oh, I know it, no. Yeah, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_04 14:12

Y'all might have it this morning.

SPEAKER_02 14:15

Trying to get away talking talking to them way back here. I wasn't gonna say nothing.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

I brought it up. What comparisons could y'all uh compare to that? I say, all right, well how we used to fish for fish, you know, ten years ago as opposed to how we fish for fish today with modern technology and live scope. It's kind of effortless.

SPEAKER_03 14:37

Autopilot. Autopilot.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Just walk around looking.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Yeah, iPod. I think it's using your resources, but tools. Tools.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

Well, we have more tools available to us today because there's a lot of God blessing us to reach people, and we aren't using them effectively.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

All right, here's a here's a perfect example. I say perfect example. All right, ask y'all this. This is a perfect example. I've always thought about this. You take these inflatables, we get them for these kids Wednesday nights, whatever. What in the world is that inflatable doing for the Lord for these kids? Bringing people together. Having fun, you know. Having fun, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:22

The attraction.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

You know, but yet 40 years ago, 30 years ago, they didn't have inflatables.

SPEAKER_04 15:28

But uh yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

But they had something that Right, but you it you just grow with the tools that the you hate that the world gives you, but yet you turn it into what the Lord can do with it.

SPEAKER_04 15:40

It was just like our Sunday night event. Yeah. You know, we we didn't have to spend the money to buy ribs and chicken and and just have a good time, you know.

SPEAKER_05 15:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:51

But it's uh fireworks. Yeah, fireworks is something that draws people in, you know.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

Well I can remember very well, and Ryan, you'll remember this. We were in Spokane, Washington a couple of years ago, ABA meeting, you know, camp meetings, talking about all these different things that camps brought along, you know, and all this technology that camp's got now, and some are for and some aren't, you know. But you can't deny what the Lord can do with modern day technology uh for his glory.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

Well yeah, I think somebody down the road made that. And God probably blessed them to be able to make that.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

And I think we're just so quick to write stuff off because they didn't just appear and become a devil, you know.

SPEAKER_02 16:39

Yeah. Somebody made that and God blessed blessed us with it. And you you can use it however you choose to. Yeah. For his glory or for an idol.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Well, you go back to autopilot. When did they first have autopilot? It ain't been too long.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

I bet you've been a long time. It's just been a different technology. Yeah. Autopilot's been out for a while.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

The technology that autopilot brings to steer a 737 Boeing airplane, air jet.

unknown 17:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 17:15

Think about you think about that sucker up in the air. Hundreds of people on it, and ain't no one flying it, just hitting a button.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

Just hitting a button in that sucker. Yeah. Well, you're near the colour. Oh, this nigga ain't gonna be flying no more.

SPEAKER_02 17:30

Well, think about this. What about the um autonomous cars?

SPEAKER_04 17:34

Man, I don't even know what that means. Oh, the ones that drive themselves. Oh, yeah. Yeah, but that's always scared me. Hey, they had a pile up somewhere in a city. And things got together and and couldn't. Yeah. They got where they they were done. What I seen.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

We kind of talk about we're on modern technology now, but you you brought it up while ago, you know. Well it and my question was my my scenario was you take these inflatables we have for kids on Wednesday nights. I've always thought about that. Man, why do we have these inflatables? What are what is God getting the glory out of these inflatables on? But yet 30 years ago, what'd y'all do for kids on a Wednesday night, on a fun night, whatever? You know, you didn't know those.

SPEAKER_04 18:19

They played Red Rover. Red Rover, Red Rover.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

You know, but how modern technology can be used for God's glory, you know.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

Well, uh I go back 26 years, I guess, year 2000, 1999. And uh I don't know that the Lord gave me that vision or what, but anyhow, I left this church in uh to build a gym.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

Right, yeah, that's pretty gym.

SPEAKER_00 18:55

Just felt like it's what the Lord wanted us to do. And and they followed me in that and uh we did, we built the gym. But we were uh persecuted pretty severely as a church because we were investing spending back in those days $70,000, which is nothing really today, but in building a gym to entertain kids. What are you doing? And well, why aren't you investing that in missions? Why aren't you investing that in, you know, the way they've always done things? So every time I'd attend a mission rally or anything like that, local preachers, you know, somebody's gonna bring up the fact what they've done built, you know. We were persecuted over that fact. Now, now most every church around has one.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

Yeah, that's some kind of gym.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

But we were kind of the first in that years ago. But I'm just thankful that the church seen the wisdom behind that. Of course, we know that that facility, not just a gym, that's right, has uh benefited us greatly through these years, especially in ministry to our young people. But it was not uh easily accomplished back in those days, and that's just 25 years ago to uh to do that. I mean, if you'd have brought up spending five, six hundred dollars to rent a piece of blow-up equipment, you know, you'd you got laughed out of the church. Something like that.

SPEAKER_04 20:22

Back in those days. Well, I mean, I think it even goes as far as ministry, ministers or whatever. You know, youth pastors wasn't a a thing at one time. You know. Uh it uh it developed, you seen the need. And you brought them, you know, in, then children's pastors and worship leaders, all that.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

Would you say, would you say that when it comes to ministry, when it comes to I mean we said it a while ago, when it comes to being holy for I'm holy, you have to adjust not to what you want, not to what your standards are, but what to what God's standards is. Whatever God has to hold for you. Yeah, you gotta adjust to it. So all right. But I don't know. And I made that comment while I go when Brother David was preaching that Sunday morning, you know, be holy for I'm holy. Is there one sitting in that crowd that morning or Sunday morning thinking, well, yeah, I'm gonna I'm I'm saved, I'm forgiven, as Brother David said, you know, I'm good to go because I know I cannot reach this holiness that God's asking me to do. I'm scared of failing. Oh, ain't no doubt. I think there's multiple people.

SPEAKER_02 21:40

Yeah, we're all scared.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

I think we're all one time. We probably doubted that ourselves. Yeah, we're all scared to fail.

SPEAKER_02 21:46

You just gotta be willing enough to you gotta strive for something. Yep. Discipline, you know. We're all gonna fail. Yep. That's that's the whole point of the cross.

SPEAKER_04 21:58

I was gonna bring this question up. Preacher, but he's he's on a spiritual journey, I think, this morning. He exited the room again. But uh he he brought up a question Sunday night or Sunday morning, and it was you know, we talked last week about us having testimonies, some are easier than others, and what I mean is some people go out and get saved at a young age, yeah, and yet they they feel almost bad about it come testimony night because well, I ain't got a whole lot to talk about. And then you got these ones that have these what we call big testimonies, you know, they went through this and they went through that, and and all of a sudden they come to know Jesus through it all, you know, big testimony. I've always told my kids, uh, I'd rather you have a simple testimony versus a huge testimony. Just get saved, you know. And he asked the question Sunday morning, what did you avoid to do because you were saved? And that that kind of stuck with me because, you know, there's a reason why some people don't have huge testimonies is because they were saved at a young age and through the spirit moving in their life, they were able to avoid certain circumstances.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

They knew they were changed that moment. Yeah. They knew something was different in their life that moment.

SPEAKER_04 23:26

You know, we got on a kick last week of conversion. This word conversion has been on my mind. You know, when were you converted or whatever? You know, did conversion take place at salvation or does conversion take place throughout your whole life?

SPEAKER_05 23:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:40

You know, do you realize, okay, I messed up? And I think preacher preached on that a while back in Peter. Do you realize, all right, what I did yesterday wasn't right? Yeah. You know, I'm saved, I'm saved at nine, but what I did yesterday wasn't right. I realize that now I need a change. Yeah. And so that conversion takes place right there.

SPEAKER_05 24:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:01

And I think it's in Peter where he talked about since you realize that, it's time to go tell others. That's right. You know. Um, so what are you able to avoid without because of salvation that took place at a young age?

SPEAKER_03 24:19

That's pretty huge, I would say. Yeah. I would say that would, you know, we we we we want this or we we we're scared to share testimony because we don't have this spicy story or all these gory details or or this or this status quo, prodigal son, return to the father story, you know, type of deal. But how huge is it? I mean, is it a it's a much bigger deal to to me and should be to us as Christians to go, thank God that you found Christ as a child and you were obedient. That's right. Yeah. You know, that you didn't have to go through a broken home. Yeah you know, mom and dad both loved the Lord, showed it to you, you know, every day. Thank God for that. Yeah. You know, because that's not the norm these days. Doesn't seem like. That's right.

SPEAKER_04 25:11

Preacher, I brought up the question you asked Sunday morning. Um, what did you avoid to do because you were saved? What is it that you prevented h prevented to happen in your life because the Holy Spirit was living in you, you know? Talking about being on autopilot, that's that's almost good in a way because you know, hey, I've got one place to be, you know, and that's with Jesus. All this other stuff can just, you know, that spirit kicks in.

SPEAKER_02 25:47

That's right. Depends on how you look at it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

You go back to those testimonies, Doc, and we talked about this last, and I think it's hard for an adult because you take someone who's 30 years old. They have lived almost, I would say, half of their life already. You know, they have gone through probably the hardest part of their life, as far as most tempting part of their life. Um, so some so an encouragement to it could be a teenager, early 20s, whatever, the ones who I don't want to have, you're saying I don't need to have that testimony. It's fine, okay, if I do have a testimony that's quote unquote simple. What's the next step to take? And I think we talked about last week we made up mention that's fearing the Lord. Ultimately, if you do not fear God, you will end up having trials, failures, sufferings, whatever it might come, because ultimately you're not fearing the Lord. I can remember very well, eight, nine, ten years old, even up until I was 18, I feared my dad. He's gonna laugh when he hears this, but I feared my dad, really. It wasn't a fear of scared. Yeah, right. It was a fear I'm gonna let him down, kind of deal. Respect. Respect. Yep. And so I think that's what people have got to grasp. And even at 30, 40, 50, 60 years old, fearing the Lord is still something that you need to take part in. Because that's where Satan's gonna come in, and ultimately, if you want if you want a big testimony or whatever, then yeah, keep disobeying God like that and not fearing the Lord. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 27:26

Remember me talking about sojourning a while ago? Yeah. The Bible says here, and if you call on the Father, if you pray to God, that means you're his child, right? Who without respect to persons, judges according to every man's work. Pass the time of your sojourning. The time that you have on this earth, and then there's two more words to verse 17, it says, with fear. Or here in fear. The time that you have left to live on this earth, live it in fear. And of course, that's talking about reverent fear unto the one that you're praying unto. So it's a reverent, respectful fear of God. Yep. And somebody, I think it's Jay Hill, a couple weeks tonight ago, he filled in for his dad, Norman, and adult Bible study. You guys ought to come to that if you don't have anywhere to be on Wednesday night, it's good stuff. He made a comment, and the lesson he was teaching was uh he brought up this aspect of forever fear of God, and he got on tithing, giving to God. And the way he approached it was, I'm I'm I'm scared not to. Yeah, I remember you saying that. And the reason a person would be afraid to not give back to God what he asks of us is but out of a respect and a reverence for God. Well, why in the world would we want to be directly disobedient to him whenever he has explicitly told us what to do? So that's the way Peter's instructing these folks, and the Bible instructs us to live our lives with a reverent fear into the Lord. Now, God is not, does not the Bible also says doesn't give us a spirit of fear, right? Um but yet we have that in us, as we would fear our, as you said, Lane, your daddy. Same way with God. That's a motivator, isn't it?

SPEAKER_05 29:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:21

Well you talk about what not to do in life, what you didn't do, what you stayed from, was a lot of that, because you knew you were gonna get in trouble if you did.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

Yeah, it was the result of what I knew what was gonna come from this if I did do it. And I don't uh and I talked about that a couple uh last week, I think as well. We're result people, we want results. You know? Ultimately there's gonna be a result for every action that you have, and it's either gonna be good or it's gonna be bad. It's either gonna be obeying or it's gonna be disobeying. Right? So I was looking up a verse here, y'all go ahead, my bad.

SPEAKER_03 29:56

I think I think a lot of another word there, Lane, is not necessarily result, but consequence. I think a lot of people want to see good results from what they do. But when there's negative results, or input that word consequence, we don't want to be responsible. You know.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

Well, that's when they start fear, that's when they start getting scared. Right.

SPEAKER_00 30:25

You don't want to have to suffer the consequences of those laws.

SPEAKER_03 30:34

I like it. I like how the NLT puts it, you just read in verse 17. The NFT puts it as, and remember that the heavenly father to whom you pray has no favorites. And he will judge and reward you according to what you do, so you must live in reverent fear of him during your time here. And it's got in quotations as temporary residence.

SPEAKER_00 30:57

Sojourner, yep. If you just if you just read in the Bible and you read that verse, you'd read, you just keep on going. Yeah, you really wouldn't even slow down. I don't know, I gotta comprehend that. But if you stop and and look at it and let it kind of like that caramel in your mouth, is soaking, then man, you start getting some getting fed as a result of that. And it begins to really come to life and make perfect sense. And there's two things there that you can mention, and one is it says judge, and the other one is reward. So there's both of God. God judges and God rewards. He's the only one. Just like our Father, you know, if we're obedient to our parents, then they reward us. If we're disobedient to our parents, they they're the judge. That's right. They make the determination uh how many licks you're gonna get with that belt, right? So why would why would we treat God any different? That's right. As obedient children.

SPEAKER_04 32:03

So Sunday you preached on holy, holy, holy. Right? Holy, holy, holy equals something, equals God. God is the scale. Holy, holy, holy. And that's where He wants us to be, is in that holiness, right? Um and if I heard you correctly, you the what you preached on, and I believe it's true for sure, um, holiness is something that we pursue, right? It's not something that you're gonna grab a hold of and get from the beginning and stay in, right? But holiness is something that once you realize that you've kind of been on autopilot and living a certain way, and you have slipped back into former lust, coming out of that former lust, you know, things that you have going on in your life that isn't right, um, once you realize it that that is something that you're not needing to be a part of, that's a step closer to holiness.

SPEAKER_00 33:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:07

Exactly. It's almost like you take the three holies, it's almost like the first holy that you got past, you know. Yeah. All right, what's the second one? What what what just the action you take, you know?

SPEAKER_00 33:17

It's pretty cool. Um, but yeah, uh, I think everybody understands, all right, we have a holy, holy, holy God, and he does call us to be holies. He is holy. You've got to preface what you're fixing to say about trying to pursue holiness and live a life that's pleasing, acceptable, glorifying unto God. You almost always have to preface that by saying, Look, we've we've been made right in the eyes of God. So if you're a child of God and you've been washed the blood of Jesus, then God sees you through the blood of his son now. He doesn't see you sin because sin cannot exist in the presence of a holy God. So that was the problem. It had to be made right. Well, he made that right by sending his only begotten son to die for us to wash us of those sins. Therefore, in the eyes of God, we are holy now. Right? But that that doesn't um, what's the word, eliminate us from the obligation to live a life that's pleasing and acceptable unto God now, which is Romans 12, be not conformed to this world. This is your reasonable service, be ye holy as I'm holy. So it's that pursuit. But you almost got to say, all right, you're never gonna attain holiness, but you're gonna stand before God one day holy, but the only way you're gonna be able to do that is if you've been washed, redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Right. So that goes back to your question. What do you what have you done with Jesus? You better get that determined right.

SPEAKER_04 34:47

Well, our our Bible, the NLT version of it, our Bible, you know what I'm saying. Uh uses the words don't slip back. You know, don't slip back into the former. And you made the statement Sunday, you know, the pursuit of holiness is realizing when something is wrong. Realizing when something is wrong. That's simple. Or not right. Or not right. Yeah. And don't do that.

SPEAKER_02 35:10

Uh-huh. I was going to say, what does holy look like? God. Jesus. Whatever is what you're supposed to be doing. What does it look like? Whatever.

SPEAKER_04 35:21

I go back to that word that we used earlier before the podcast even started, released. You know, it looks released. Brother Dave is going to explain it this week, I'm sure, Sunday morning, uh, what the word released or washed means. You know, you said it means not necessarily bathed or washed, but loosened. You know, dirt has been loosened off, and then we come up with this word released. Loose.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

Yes. Free. Released.

SPEAKER_04 35:49

So holy is being released, I believe, of course.

SPEAKER_00 35:53

Well, and another way that I put it was you got a bobcat in a trap. And you don't want the bobcat. You're trying to catch a coon. Well, you go up and try to release the bobcat. When you release the bobcat, you release him back into his life. And that sun gun is. So whenever we've been released by Jesus, by the blood of Jesus, unto something. And it's the rest of the life that we have to live on this earth. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 36:16

So how many times are we released? And I'm I'm I'm going old time here. I'm thinking gunsmoke or something like this, you know, the man or Andy Griffith show. You know, you walk up there and he takes those keys and unlocks the jail, cracks the door, and walks out. Like, hey, you've been released. Maybe the door's been wide open, and that guy walks back up there and grabs the uh gate and pulls it back shut. You know, that's how we are when we go back to sin. When we slip back into it. Very much.

SPEAKER_00 36:45

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 36:45

You're just enclosing yourself back in the jail cell. Very, very good. You know, he's released you from it. Why are you going back to it? You know? And we're all guilty of that. You know? You know why?

SPEAKER_02 36:56

Because it's easy.

SPEAKER_04 36:57

Well, that, and I believe someone said it might have been a preacher a while back. It was him, because it's beautiful to us. It feels good. You know, it it's natural. It's natural, maybe. You know, it's just, man, I don't want to let go of that. I don't want to be released from that.

SPEAKER_00 37:14

You know. But if you are a blood-bought child of God, genuinely blood-bought child of God, then there's gonna be something in you that says differently. Yeah. It's gonna make you different. Yeah. That thought. Which is the Spirit of God. And not just the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit of God.

SPEAKER_04 37:31

Well, you take someone dealing with addiction, you know. We we talked about that a few weeks ago. Are they the one holding a jail gate? You know, that they've been released from it. And I know it's a little different because, you know, with addiction, you're you're drawn back to it, drawn back to it. But are you holding that gate point back shut every time he's opening it up? No. You know.

SPEAKER_01 37:54

I think too, you're gonna be able to tell it. You're gonna be able to you're gonna be able to tell when you're released from something. Or when you're washed from something, you know. You know, you're exactly right. You know it. You're gonna know it. I mean, all right, so I take this for example, because we go over to White River quite a bit during the winter and hunt and everything. And when the river's high up, you know, you s it's it's high up anyway. What I'm saying is when it comes back down, you're able to tell where that water was because of all the dirt that's been washed away. You're able to tell it, you know, through all the corrosion of the of the mud and everything else, the mud slides and everything else, you're able to tell it and you see it and you know it. Yep. If even if if even if I hadn't been over here when the water was up, you know, and I go over there first day of the year, whatever, I'm able to tell, man, that's where the flood was this year, because that's where the water's washed away, that dirt. You know, you're able to tell it.

SPEAKER_00 38:46

How are you able to how do you know this? We're all married men here. How do y'all know that it's just not right if you'd have a relationship with another woman? You just know it. How do you know it then?

SPEAKER_02 38:59

Yeah, scared to death.

SPEAKER_00 39:00

What you what do we call my wife? What do we call marriage? What do we call marriage? Holy master. You know it's the same. Why do we reference it as holy? Because it's God designed it. That's exactly right. It's God's institution, it's God's doing. We make say holy living. Be holy as I'm holy. Because anytime you bring on the word holy there, it means different, set apart, sanctified. That's right. And anything other than what God says is not right. It's not okay. And we can't compromise and we can't justify it. We can't make it right. So holy matrimony, the way God says, we just know. So how do we all just know that it's not, it was not, it is not God's plan for two men to be married. How do we know that?

SPEAKER_04 39:50

It tells us in God's word.

SPEAKER_00 39:53

Is it holy? Holy matrimony? Negatory. But you know you know what's right and what's wrong. So these individuals that uh continue to live in sin, let's say those who are living together, they have not been married and they will not submit to or commit to holy matrimony for whatever reason. There's gonna be selfish, whatever it is. Does that individual know God? Do they know? Like we all know, because we're God's children. Well, obviously they don't because they're not getting it right.

SPEAKER_04 40:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:28

They're they're choosing to live in habitual sin, therefore they don't see any wrong in it. They know the wrong. If they don't, they may not know it's wrong. They obviously don't know what's wrong because they're not getting it right.

SPEAKER_01 40:42

I just I or they don't fear the Lord. So on the case. They might not live like it. Nothing's happening on earth. Probably.

SPEAKER_00 40:49

You take a you take a person and say, Yeah, I know I'm forgiven, I know I see Jesus Christ as my savior, but you know, I'm I'm married to an I'm a woman married to another woman.

SPEAKER_04 40:59

So I brought up this question.

SPEAKER_00 41:01

Are they saved?

SPEAKER_04 41:03

I brought up this question a while ago while you were at while they're gonna lead you into this, preacher. Hold on, give me a sec. Conversion. Does conversion just take place once or does it take place throughout your whole sound your whole life after Jesus?

SPEAKER_00 41:18

You gotta define conversion.

SPEAKER_04 41:19

Well, so you brought it up a few weeks ago with Peter. He said once you I don't I can't remember exactly how it said it, but when you're converted, strengthen your brothers.

SPEAKER_00 41:29

Strengthen your brothers. But the word converted there is means repent. Repent. Turn from.

SPEAKER_04 41:35

So you're you're constantly in your walk with Jesus, always turning from something. Once you realize this ain't right, I don't want to slip back into it, so you're turning away from it. You're having to turn away from it.

SPEAKER_00 41:48

You choose to turn away.

SPEAKER_04 41:50

So as people are growing in Christ, they're constantly realizing, okay, that's a former lust. That's right. That ain't right. That's right. You know, and you get it right. So you take that couple that may be saved, child of God, and have been saved since nine years old, but slipped back into former lust, and here they are 35 years old living together, not married. There's gonna be a day through the scriptures they realize if it's through preaching or just reading the scriptures, man, we've been doing this wrong.

SPEAKER_00 42:20

It's called conviction.

SPEAKER_04 42:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:22

And so if there is no conviction, there's no salvation. That's right.

SPEAKER_04 42:28

But at that moment they realize we either finna get married or we're finna have to separate, you know.

SPEAKER_00 42:34

Well, and I I keep bringing up marriage, but it's with anything, you know, addiction or you know, gambling or whatever you want to say, you know, it's um realizing, well, I've Well people get offended by hearing somebody say something like what you just said because it makes it sound so easy. Yeah. And they would say, well, that's not that easy. Like addiction is not that easy. Or, you know, I may decide, okay, I want to marry this man, but he doesn't want to marry me. So it takes two, you know, to make that right. You take one's saved, one's not saved. There's the dangers of 2 Corinthians where it says do be not unequally yoked. Yep. You need to get out of that. Just to be honest about it. Whatever it takes for you to get right in the eyes of your creator, in the eyes of God, that's what needs to happen.

SPEAKER_04 43:24

Well, what is right? And and you said it, we just said it a while ago. The scale, you said it Sunday morning, the scale is Jesus. He's the standard. He's the standard. Yep. Yep. So if you look at your life right now and say, Well, I wonder if I'm living right.

SPEAKER_00 43:39

I am totally.

SPEAKER_04 43:41

You know, you say, I wonder if I'm living right in this, or I wonder if this adds up. Well, would Jesus do it? You know?

SPEAKER_00 43:48

Well, most people don't know you don't know the truth of the matter is you don't compare yourself to somebody else. Yeah. So well, I may be wrong in this area, but at least I'm not bad at that person. That's exactly right. So we're we're comparing ourselves to somebody else. Well, we should be comparing ourselves to him. That's right. He said be holy as I am holy, not as your neighbor is or as your somebody else is. So he's our our focus point.

SPEAKER_04 44:14

He says. Y'all keep going.

SPEAKER_05 44:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:17

He's our, you know, our goal in life.

SPEAKER_01 44:22

Well, I I was one page over, but I remember when we started talking about, I flipped one page back in Hebrews chapter 10. And uh we went through what year or so, two years, maybe two years ago almost, we went through the whole book of Hebrews. But uh you go back to that habitual sin that you're living through and you know it. If you don't know it, one thing, but if you know it, that's another thing. And he says that in verse 26, for if we sin willfully, if we sin willfully, willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. For willfully sinning, after we've received the knowledge of it, forget Jesus. There's no more sacrifice for our sins for you.

SPEAKER_04 45:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:04

Forget it. You know? To think about that, it's hard to swallow for me. Because one, I have the knowledge of the truth. I know what Jesus has done for me. Therefore, I can't sin the will. I cannot live every day in habitual sin. I can't sin, period. Because that sacrifice has gone away then, if I do. So that that would be a hard thing for me to swallow.

SPEAKER_02 45:28

Go ahead. I was gonna say, would you say one it's one thing that most people struggle with? It's just one and not a bunch. You mean like one particular sin? Yes. I feel like. Yeah, I feel like everybody's got that one thing. Well, I think it's one thing they can't kick.

SPEAKER_01 45:44

Oh, so you're saying per person, like there's one yoga I got y'all.

SPEAKER_03 45:47

Or the one thing that they keep slipping back to.

SPEAKER_04 45:50

I would agree with that a hundred percent because I can I can have sin in my life, and okay, I'd get rid of that. You know, little I call little things. But yeah, there's some things in life that you're like, I can't kick. Yeah, you know, I can't I can't beat this.

SPEAKER_02 46:06

Right. Right. You know.

SPEAKER_04 46:08

And I used the word addiction a while ago, but I want you to know we're all addicted to something. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_02 46:15

And that's what I was getting at. There's all there's that one thing that you can't just keep going back to.

SPEAKER_03 46:20

Well, and that's the thing. We can't kick it without him. Right. That's right. You can't, it's got a hope of you. Yeah. You know, without without Jesus Christ, can't do it alone. That's right. You know. What I think sometimes though, and I I've just got to get this out. You know, it's been on my mind. We've been sitting here talking about it. At what point, you know, Brother David said conviction. If you don't have that conviction and you slip back into that, you barely playing dangerous. You know, playing a dangerous game. You know, at what point at what point does people abuse forgiveness? Right. You know what I mean? Right. At what point say, oh, it'll be alright. I'm forgiven for this. Yeah. And I'm just gonna go and do it anyway. Yeah. Even though I know it's wrong, you know.

SPEAKER_01 47:09

Well, it goes back to that verse. You know that what you are doing is wrong. So therefore, do you still have that sacrifice in your life? You know what you are doing is wrong. There's conviction in there. So therefore, you've got to make it right. You've got to be ultimately, you've got to go back to that remembrance of I've been washed by the blood of Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_04 47:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:34

Because I mean, you keep on going through that little thing of Hebrews right there in verse 31. It's a fearful thing to fall in the hands of a living God. Brother Dave, you brought that up verse that verse up all the time. Bring it up all the time. It's a fearful thing.

SPEAKER_00 47:50

Yeah, man. We made that famous years ago. It's a fearful thing to fall in the hands of angry God. It ought to be. We ought to be, we ought to have something to steer us to live a life that is pleasing unto him.

SPEAKER_01 48:10

Yep. Well, we're getting to the end of another week's podcast. Like I said, we got a busy summer coming up, and we want everybody to be involved and stick close to church family. So y'all make sure you help out. Philip, you got anything to encourage us on? Pray. Pray it all up. Pray up. Life is precious. Yep. Watson.

SPEAKER_04 48:38

I'm trying to think of how to put this. Make a joke, get a little bit here. Everything you do, do it intent. For Jesus. Intently. Yep, for Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 48:48

In a tent.

SPEAKER_03 48:50

Zachary. I read this this morning. It's uh if you got the Bible apps, the verse of the day, Philippians 2, talking about having the attitude that Christ Jesus had, starting there in verse 5. You must have the same attitude Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as some as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges, he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth. And this is the part that scared me right here, and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord and to the to the glory of God the Father. Whoo! Even under the earth. At some point in time, every living creature, everything is going to call upon the name of Jesus Christ as Lord.

SPEAKER_00 50:01

Is it my turn? I think I think it's uh Zach, what you say there, the thing thought to come to my mind is this take this serious. Yeah. That's right. You know, they listen to people listen to us on a weekly basis. They come to church on a weekly basis, hear somebody, but they're not serious. Just playing games. You're playing games at the foot of the cross, you're playing games with Jesus, who you just read, every soul will bow before without regard. Man. Just to be serious about it. Let's be serious about our walk with God. Let's be serious about living right, striving to be holy. Because we are to be examples, let somebody see something in us that they desire to have because the devil is trying to destroy. That's right. And he is very, very successful at it. And if we aren't serious about it, then we're gonna be selfish about it. And that's exactly where Satan wants us to be. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 51:04

I'll make this comment, and somebody might on here listening might ask, why how do I, what's the biggest tool to use to live, live holy? And I'm gonna say faith. Using faith that you can do this. Yeah, honestly, it's not easy. But God's gonna use you for a big and mighty way if you use faith. And what I mean by that, and I reason I say that because it's written here on my paper, this you said this years back ago, preacher. Faith is unseen power. Soar like an eagle who waits for thermal air. A bird, an eagle, they don't, they can't see where that thermal air is, but they wait for it.

SPEAKER_00 51:45

Well, it won't come and go to soar.

SPEAKER_01 51:48

It was a few weeks ago. Me and Ryan and Bo and John John were standing there uh back of the uh cafeteria bog springs, and I think it was Bo pointed up, saw a hawk flying. And when that sucker was he's gliding, gliding, and all of a sudden that jerker just dive bomb like 100 miles an hour. Why? Because he was going after that thermal here. Yeah he didn't know it was there, but he knew it. But yeah, by faith he used it. You know, it's unseen power. So just use faith. Use faith. Trust the Lord.

SPEAKER_00 52:17

That's right. He's gonna keep his promises.

SPEAKER_01 52:19

Yep. Amen. So once again, we appreciate everybody joining in, listening in. And uh, if y'all need anything, let us know. Watson, you want to close this out for the day? I'll do it.

SPEAKER_04 52:29

Lord, we love you. God, we come to you, and uh all of us have something on our mind and on our hearts this morning, God. And uh we ultimately want to start the day off with you and want to give you the honor and praise that uh you deserve. And God, whatever's on our on our mind uh and hearts this morning, Lord, we we lift it up to you and and Lord, we pray that your will and way is done in our lives. Lord, we want to thank you for mercy. We want to thank you for grace, love, and and salvation through your son Jesus, Lord. And uh we we ask that the words that we said today, the things that's been on our on our mind that we brought up, God, that uh, Lord, the words that we said of yours wouldn't turn void, Lord, that someone uh will gain um more respect for you and love for you through all this, God. We pray for everyone, pray for safety that you guide and direct them. It's in Jesus' name. Amen.