Faith & Works: Coexistence or Contradiction

Are faith and works in direct conflict, or do they actually work together to produce real life change? In this episode of Kingdom Chaos, hosts Troy and Amy dive into an unscripted, honest conversation about one of the most debated topics in Christian theology. Together, they unpack how Paul’s teaching on salvation by grace through faith in Romans pairs with James’s call to show active faith through good deeds, bringing clarity to how grace and actions coexist in everyday Christian living.

Throughout the episode, Troy and Amy address the common struggle of church burnout, exploring why active volunteers often experience exhaustion when serving stems from obligation rather than a healthy, intimate relationship with God. They also tackle difficult questions around the assurance of salvation, wrestling with personal doubts, and learning to trust in the true, unconditional character of God. From understanding spiritual growth as an ongoing process of sanctification to learning how to extend loving accountability within community, this conversation offers grounded, practical insights for anyone looking to move beyond a checklist faith and experience true heart transformation.

Transcript

Faith, Works, And Real Change

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I do believe there should be a life change though. I mean I think that we can't as human beings judge another person in the way of going to heaven or hell. Right. I mean, God knows, like you said, God knows all that, God knows their heart, God does, but at the same time, I do believe we can we can see a life changed or not. Before we jump in, if you like Kingdom Chaos, hit that like button, subscribe, and you see that bell, hit it so you don't miss any episodes. Be a part of our community, jump in the comments, be a part of the conversation. Let's get into it. Hey everybody, welcome back to Kingdom Chaos. My name is Troy. Amy is here with me. How you doing, Amy?

SPEAKER_00 0:35

I'm doing great.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Awesome. This is fantastic. Uh, for you guys that don't know, we're actually on YouTube with video now, so go watch us on YouTube, and you know, I don't know who wants to see our faces, but hey, whoever, whoever wants to, great. Um, so today we're gonna talk about faith and works, and uh this is somewhat different than what we typically do. Sometimes we do weird different things, and this was this is one of them because we don't have notes, like we didn't um prepare any notes or a script or you know, I don't know, whatever. We're just gonna kind of talk about faith and works and we're gonna see how this goes, and there might be a lot of editing to this, but we will see what happens. Uh, somebody uh we I I had posted something on Instagram a couple of weeks ago, whatever, just asking for different ideas to talk about. What do you want to hear about? And one of them was faith and works. Uh, and I know that's something that some people struggle with, depending on even what denomination that you're in. Um, whether you're Catholic or Baptist, non-denominational, you have different ideas on faith and works and how that works in our lives, so we just want to talk about it. So uh to get started, Amy, do you have any insight or any comments up front about faith and works?

When Serving Turns Into Burnout

SPEAKER_00 1:55

I would say I understand faith and works, but I think it's easy as you become a Christian to kind of get caught up in works. Um so I can see how a lot of Christians What do you what do you classify as works?

SPEAKER_01 2:11

So we have a good definition of what we're talking about. So I know you we use works, deeds, actions, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

So whenever you come to Christ, I think at the very beginning, you're like a sponge, right? You're reading his word, you're praying, you're really developing that personal relationship. But then whenever you start getting more involved in your church over time, you can slowly fall into kind of serving too much or serving for the wrong reasons, even. I think a lot of churches struggle with volunteers, so it's the same volunteers that usually are asked to um volunteer in different areas, and so you can kind of get caught up in so much serving that then the personal relationship or the heart behind the serving um kind of gets lost.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Yeah, and I think that that's where the burnout comes in whenever you serve so much, and you're right, you kind of get blinded by what what you're doing, and you get off track and lost focus, and it's like, where why did we start doing this to begin with? And people sometimes even stop going to church altogether, much less change churches.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Because they're tired.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Yeah, yeah, and it's tough. And and I think the statistic is um 20% of the people do 80% of the work in a church, and so it is the same, same people over and over and over. So a lot of times when we go to church, it's it's more consuming than it is giving. You know, we we just want to go and consume, or we want to check off a box, and um, so those that are serving, they um get caught up in the works that they're doing, and yeah, they lose that personal relationship. Maybe their quiet time suffers, or um, you know, their their prayer time, that connection with the Lord is kind of gone. So um what's your personal feeling on faith and works and God's grace and salvation and kind of all that put together?

Saved By Faith And Life Change

SPEAKER_01 4:13

What are what are your personal feelings on that?

SPEAKER_00 4:17

So I sh I know what it is, but putting it in practice in your everyday life, I think sometimes can be challenging. So I do feel like Paul is correct in Romans where salvation is by faith alone, right? And I wrestle with that sometimes because I feel like I prayed the prayer, right? Um, in eighth grade. Yet I didn't have a true un I I knew what Jesus had done and I believed who he was and what he had done, but I didn't understand how that applied to my life. And so I do believe I was saved in eighth grade. Now, if I would have died in high school, I don't know how God would have dealt with me because I definitely wasn't living the Christian life, right? Right. So I don't know how God handles that. And that's the that's the confusing part because then in my 30s, when I truly became a follower of Jesus and started living my life the way he wanted, not to say that it's perfect by any means. I still fell every day, but I didn't there's a noticeable difference.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Like you can see my faith from the outside. Um, there are times where between eighth grade and whenever I started living the Christian life, um, where I felt the Holy Spirit, like I know the Holy Spirit was with me and he was convicting me, but I chose in that moment to rebel. Sometimes I would obey, but 90% of the time I would rebel. I would be more obedient to my flesh and not pay attention to the Holy Spirit. So that's why I kind of wrestle with I do think I was saved in eighth grade, but then I do fully believe at what James says, where true, genuine faith should be seen in your actions.

Grace For Kids And Hard Cases

SPEAKER_01 6:21

Do you think age plays a part in any of this? Like, you know, I mean, like what happens to a one-year-old? Like they don't have the capacity to be able to accept Christ. I mean, their brain isn't functioning to where they understand even what's going on. So, or a five-year-old, or an eight-year-old, or a 12-year-old, or somebody with special needs. Like, I mean, what what are your thoughts in like how to do you think that plays a factor in anything? I mean, I you can't explain how God works.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

And I think that's where God's grace comes in, right? Because He knows, He knows every detail of our life. He knows our heart, He knows the challenges we're in, He knows what has been revealed to us, what has not been revealed to us. So I think that's a part of God that we as humans can't comprehend. But absolutely, God loves everyone and He wants everyone to be with Him and to experience His relationship and His love. So absolutely, like I believe all babies are in heaven with Jesus. That's just He created them, He absolutely loves them. Um same with special needs. Um I mean, if you don't have the ability to comprehend or make that judge, you know, make that that true choice, right? God gives us free will. So we at some point a child even knows that a lie is wrong. Right. Right? They they have that conviction. Now they're choosing to lie. Um, and so I think that's where sanctification comes in, right? Throughout our entire life, the Holy Spirit is teaching us, nope, that wasn't right, try again. Yeah, you know?

SPEAKER_01 8:10

And I think you're right because uh I mean even in scripture kind of backs this up some. And I I don't want to make it, I don't want to paint the pictures as if there is a hard cutoff line for age or anything like that. But when we read about the Israelites going through the desert and uh then they mess up and God's like, nope, you're not going, you're gonna roam around for 40 years. Uh he says there's a generation that will not see the the promised land, but everybody under the age of 20 gets to to go, right? There's an there's an age cutoff there, so I think it's something that like again, I don't think 20 years old is the age cutoff, but there is a factor in there where God's grace does play a part in this and says, you know what, yeah, you know, you're still developing, you're still trying to understand, there's still a lot of grace for kids or whatever you're going through in that in that stage of life. So I I do believe that. And I do believe there should be a life change, though. I mean, I think that we can't, as human beings, judge another person in the way of going to heaven or hell. Right. I mean, God knows, like you said, God knows all that, God knows their heart, God does, but at the same time, I do believe we can we can see a life changed or not. Um now we shouldn't judge that person on that, but at the same time, if you say that I am a Christian, but I don't see any life change in you, it's my responsibility as a Christian to step into that role and judge you in the fact of, hey, why aren't you doing X, Y, Z, or why are you still sleeping around, or why are you still going to bars every night and getting drunk? Or why are you still because the Bible does tell me to judge in that way, to to um for the Holy Spirit to use me to convict that person to go in the right way.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

And I think there's a way to do that in a loving way, right? Because I think that's also how we treat others as Christians. I think that's how a lot of people are turned off by Christians or church, right? Because if we are rude or unloving or um we shouldn't be convicting or holding unbelievers to the same um convictions, right.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 10:27

But I think unbelievers l are watching, they're watching people in the church and what we call Christians to say, oh, if that's what Jesus is about, I don't want to be any part. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Yeah, I know I uh we there's a podcast we listen to, it's called Baymot, and uh Marty Solomon talks about this early on in his uh podcast about you know the big question is if if Jewish people know the Bible so well, how come they can't see Jesus? And that's one of the things he says. Well, if that's your Jesus, I don't want to know that Jesus because that's not the Jesus the God I know from the Bible. So yeah, that's a good that's a good point. So um I have a question along the same lines, and this is something we didn't prepare for for, so I'm gonna put me on the spot.

Once Saved Always Saved?

SPEAKER_01 11:13

Put you on the spot here. So uh along these lines, what do you what is your opinion of um once saved, always saved?

SPEAKER_00 11:24

I think once you are genuinely saved, yes, you are always saved. The question comes in is if you were truly, genuinely saved.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

Yeah, you're real if you surrendered, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

And what I mean by that is if you're praying a prayer just as a free ticket into heaven, just just in case I die tomorrow, let's just go ahead and pray the prayer so that I can be with Jesus in heaven. That's not genuine faith. It's all about why you are praying the prayer, right? And if you truly are accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior. So, and I can't answer that for anyone, right? I don't know people's heart. Um, so yes, I believe once you are truly saved, you're always saved.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

Yeah, I think that's the that is absolutely the question. That the question people always ask, you know, is you know, once you're saved, always saved. Do you believe that? And I I think that's the wrong question. You're absolutely right. The question is, did you give your heart to Christ? Did you really surrender? Yeah. I mean, is this is this real from your side, not from God's side? Because that's we've got it. Yeah. Like we understand that from the Bible that He is faithful when we are faithless. Where is our faith at? Who do we have our faith in? And so, yeah, I I truly believe the same thing that once we truly surrender, it's it's written in you know the book of life, and it won't be erased from that. So um, so yeah, I think that uh from my standpoint too, going back to faith in actions or faith in works and faith in deeds, I believe what Paul said, we're saved by grace. The grace is what saves us. Our faith in that grace, our faith in what God did, our faith in what Jesus did on the cross, um, that's what we are saved by. Uh, and then there should be a changed life. There should be not right, yeah. There should be fruit coming from that. There not a perfect life, not everything in your world or your life is gonna be different, but there should be a change. You should be able to see a pattern start to form that start to emulate Christ. And that's the sanctification you talked about, where the Holy Spirit starts a work in you, and it's a daily process of something that takes time, and honestly, we'll never get to that point, this side of heaven. I I really don't know what heaven will look like. I mean, I you know, or or how everything will work out, or uh, I do believe that things won't look so different. Uh, you know, I think heaven will come down to earth and there are gonna be some similarities, but um we don't know what's what it's gonna look like, but I do believe that um on this earth that there should be a work in you by the Holy Spirit and it should be noticeable by people. Uh and it doesn't necessarily have to, oh, you know, yesterday you're one way and today you're an X, but last week you're one way, and and this month, you're I mean, I can I can see you changing. Like I I can you have no more desire to do these things that you did before where your flesh flesh is in contrary to the fruits of the spirit, where in Galatians 5 it talks about. And Paul lists those things that are immoral, like sexual morality, and but he also lists the fruits of the spirit, and they are in direct conflict with each other. And there should be a change, there should be something that you're not desired to do your flesh anymore. You you start to desire what God wants, and we talk about that whether it be tithing, you're a joyful giver. It's not something you feel obligated to do, it's something you want to do, you feel joy in doing it because you see the fruits from the church, you see the fruits from what God does through his people. So, yeah, I agree

Assurance, God’s Character, Motives

SPEAKER_01 15:04

with that. Um, anything else you have on faith and works and salvation and um what people can kind of come away with this feeling better about themselves, even if somebody's asking themselves, maybe, um, how do I know I'm saved? Like maybe that's the question people have of okay, like you're talking about, yeah, if you're truly saved, well, how do I know I'm truly saved? I I I said the prayer, but like that's just words. I mean, that's confession with your mouth. The the Bible says we need to confess with our mouth. But what uh what how do we know? What what what's your opinion on telling somebody, how do I know I'm really saved?

SPEAKER_00 15:49

I think that goes back to um just having that quiet time with God and just truly being honest and real about your heart, right? So God will never shame you, guilt you, anything like that. And so to know if you're truly saved, I don't it's just it's that peace and just knowing and understanding that you don't have to measure up, and I think that's where a lot of people struggle. They want to for some reason they keep thinking that they have to earn God's love. So I would encourage people to to get to know God, know his character because so for me, um I had a lot of issues coming to Christ because of my personal background and things like that. And so it was hard for me to accept an unconditional love that God gives. So I can't rely on my own feelings, I have to get to know who God is. So go so his character.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

That's great. So speak to that. Talk about your personal relationship with God and answer that question from your own standpoint. How did you know you were saved? What at what point did you know? I mean, I know you talked about, yeah, I prayed that prayer in, you know, when I was young, right? But at that point, that young, did you know, oh yeah, yep, I'm saved? Or was it later on in life that you, you know, kind of real realized, yes, back then I did say the prayer and I did mean it and I was saved back then, but back back then I was too young. I really didn't comprehend everything. I really didn't know I was truly saved, but yeah, and when I was 25 or 30 or 35. So what what was that experience?

SPEAKER_00 17:39

Yeah, so I think for me to get there, I had to wrestle a lot with God, right? So because um I came from a broken home, and so my dad lived far away. So me and my dad, we didn't live in the same house, and so I didn't have a close as close of a relationship with my dad, right? And so that played a factor. And then when my brother got old enough to make the decision whether to live with mom or dad, my brother chose to live with my dad, and so then I lost my brother too in that aspect, right? They weren't in my home. Right. And then um I was raised by a single mom who had a lot of trauma from men, right? And so I was taught that you can't really trust men, they would always leave. And so that absolutely affected my relationship with God because if all these earthly men um were far away, then God would be far away too. And so actually, God used you to show me that he can change people and and he is faithful. And so when he started working in your life, and um so let's back up. So I started going to church six months before you, right? Because we were having marriage problems, and so I remember sitting in church thinking and crying that I really wanted God's love.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

So this was before I was going with you, you were going by yourself.

SPEAKER_00 19:14

I was going by myself, and so I would cry all the time, like, God, I really want that kind of love. I want your love, but I didn't feel worthy at that point because from the time I prayed the prayer to then, I had done a lot of bad things, right? And so at that point, I didn't feel worthy, I didn't feel lovable, right? I couldn't accept that kind of love. Um, I didn't, I don't know, I just didn't feel I felt like I had messed up too much to be able to earn God's love, right? Because then I was like, okay, well, if I need to be that kind of person, I'm far from that. And it's just there's in that moment I couldn't see there was a way. And so then God started working in your life, and I saw a dramatic difference very quickly in you. So we've known each other since we were 15, 16, and the way God changed your life so quickly, it helped me say, okay, God, you are your you mean business. Like we are we are done playing around, like we are, we are in this. And so I think that's how God used you to show me that men can change and men can be faithful, and men aren't always going to leave. And so He used you to say, and if you saw that in Troy, I am absolutely a hundred percent way more than that, right?

SPEAKER_01 20:46

And so And I think it's a great point because I think that you know, we we talk in our culture about people can't change, and I think that's true in a way. I don't think I could have changed myself in that way. It was God that changed me. I don't take any credit for that, that God completely did a 180 in my life and and is still working on me. And I think that's the the scripture, apart me from me, you can do nothing. And so apart from God, I I wasn't gonna change myself, and that was him that completely did that and did a work in our family through that. I mean, I you know, that was um incredible. And and I think another point that I heard from you is that um with your uh feeling unworthy, that God doesn't want us to get our lives together to come to him. Uh he wants us to come to him and he'll he'll sort things out, he'll he'll get things together. It's not it's a come as you are, and I love you too much to leave you where you're at. And and we'll we'll get to a better place because of me, and I'm gonna lead you that way. And um, yeah, I think that's so important for people to know that if you're wrestling with am I saved, am I not saved, that the the whole point is not for you to muscle through it. Right. You know, it the point is for you to surrender that to God. That that question that you're wrestling with is not yours to wrestle with. It is to let go and allow God to completely come in and change your life and stop worrying. Am I saved? Am I not saved? And and follow the Spirit. So the things we talk about all the time. You talked about knowing God's character. How do we do that? We have to get close to Him. We have to do, in my opinion, three specific things. We have to read His Word to know who He is. We have to pray to have a connection with Him. And we have to be in community so that we can be guided by people that are already there. Yeah. That are further along than not already there, like they're made went to the finish line. But I mean they're further along than us that can help and guide us and mentor us.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

Yeah. So one thing is when people read God's word, don't look for yourself in the story.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

Absolutely. That's not the point.

SPEAKER_00 22:52

Yeah. You are not in the story. Right. And so, but look for God's character. Look for his patience. Look for, I mean, there's so many times when I read the Bible where if I was God and thank goodness I'm not, because we are so rebellious and he is so patient. And we're so fickle, we'll change and we'll and so look for God's character and when you're reading his word. Don't look because you'll get frustrated with the people in the Bible because they're like us.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

Yeah. A lot of times when you read the parables, when I used to read the parables early on, I actually put my place in some of those. And it was actually where it was God. God was actually the one that was supposed to be the one that was uh renting the vineyard. And I would put myself or God was the one that was over the the farmer, the planting the seeds, and I was like, oh, this is me. I would put myself in the place of God instead of no, this is God's story. This is not my story. Yeah. This is for me to know who God is, his character. And and um, yeah, I remember early on I was I was so misguided in my own thoughts and where I place myself.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

Yeah. So one of the parables that I that God's really, it's not really my favorite parable, and it's probably why why is the one where he's um the landowner is hiring the workers.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Pays everybody the same wage.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

Oh my goodness. The people that are, you know, showed up to work at six o'clock in the morning, and the people that showed up at five o'clock in the morning, they get paid the same wage, the same daily wage. Yeah. And not only do they get paid the same wage, God, the landowner pays the people that arrived last first. And so one thing that God's showing me about this is He is so generous, and He wants to be so generous to people that don't deserve it. You know, or we don't think that they deserve it, right? We think, oh, well, we've been here kind of like the prodigal son, the older brother, right? I've been doing all the things. I've been going to church, I've been praying, I've been doing it.

SPEAKER_01 25:00

You struggle with that one too, the that parable. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

I mean, because it's my selfishness that that God is showing me. Stop being jealous, stop comparing yourself to others. Everyone's got their own story, their own walk of faith. And so but he's teaching me because I I feel like I'm I'm pretty generous.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

But I think you are too, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 25:24

I think he's trying to take me to the next level, right? And so to be even more compassionate and more generous. Um because whether you're eight years old and you truly accept Christ, or you're on your deathbed and you truly have that repentant heart. And I mean, the thief on the cross, he didn't pray a special prayer. He and and Jesus told him because Jesus knew his heart. And so I think it all goes back to the heart when we're talking about genuine faith and what your life should be producing. It's a heart check. And we have to be honest with ourselves and with God about where our heart is. Are we doing things with the right intention? It's all about the intention behind even the works, right? If I serve, if I do all these great things, it doesn't mean anything if my if I'm doing it for the wrong reasons.

SPEAKER_01 26:25

I'm gonna pad my resume, I'm gonna volunteer, and that's I'm gonna put it on my a piece of paper to give to somebody or whatever. Like even a you know, I've I've been in situations where kids are going to college and they need volunteer hours and you know, um to and some of them already volunteer anyway, and but some of them are doing it just to put on an application. And so what do you what what are your motives behind whatever you're doing? Yeah, you know, and I think that the Bible speaks to that when it talks about don't pray publicly and just babble on and on and on, right? This isn't about you. It's you're putting on a show, and how many verses can you put in a prayer or whatever it is? It's just a honest, open prayer for the person that's sitting in front of you, or for yourself in a closet, or whatever it is, is where your motives are at. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 27:15

So I know one book that really helped me understand God's character, and I hope I get this right. It's by Tony Evans, and it's called God Himself, and that really walks through the attributes of God. And it's so I would encourage listeners to read that, but then go to God's Word and see, okay, where are those attributes showing? Yeah. Because once you know who God is and uh how great in faithfulness He is, then you won't wonder if you're saved or not.

SPEAKER_01 27:48

Yeah, yeah. And I would even take it a step further as we close this out because we're probably getting a little bit uh close to our time limit here, but um that if you're struggling with this, that um that probably means that your heart is in a place of you want to know God. Like if you if because an atheist isn't struggling with this question. No, you know, um somebody that doesn't care is not struggling with this question. Somebody that cares, somebody that truly wants to know God and truly has a desire um to have an intimate relationship with Him, that that's the one that's asking this question. Um so just the fact that you're asking or struggling with this means that you're probably on the right track. I'm not saying that, you know, maybe you haven't accepted Christ yet, but you're trying to, I don't know, you're just wrestling with the whole thing. That's a good thing, you're on the right track. Continue that.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

The wrestling, the wrestling means something. Yeah, the wrestling means something.

SPEAKER_01 28:47

Yeah, and I think that's what we should do. Like we we talk about all the time. Again, I'm gonna go back to Bay Mah. They just continue to say, hey, we're gonna wrestle over God's word. That's what the the rabbis would do. They would wrestle with each other over the word of God. And I think that's I think that God's word is very clear and also mysterious. And I think it's on purpose. I think it's on purpose for us to always have it on our mind, to always be discussing it, to always be wrestling with it, to always have these types of discussions of faith and works. Yeah, it's not that faith and works are in opposition to each other, they work together, they work together, but they're written in such a way in the Bible for us to have these kind of conversations. So in this, God is always on our mind. Even if it seems like this is not what we want to talk about, or it's kind of is kind of weird that it seems like they're in opposition or we're having an argument, or no, we're we're talking about God.

Community, Serving, Prayer, Closing

SPEAKER_00 29:40

And before we close out, like we talked about the people that volunteer in church and kind of get burnt out, right? But then there's the other spectrum, right? There's the people that come to church, come and consume, but then don't get involved. And I would encourage those listeners, man, God's got so much more for you. Um, and it's not about it is about serving God's church, right? But it's also about the connection with those people that you're serving with. Yeah. Because actually you start building those relationships and you start doing life together. And then and church just becomes more of a blessing, right? And so I would encourage those that have never really volunteered or gotten involved in church. Um it's it's a huge eye-opener whenever you start really getting involved.

SPEAKER_01 30:34

Yeah, I think that um it should consume you. Like, I mean, if you if anything in this life consumes you, it should be God's people, it should be serving God, it should be God Himself. In the Bible, so often it says God is our portion. So if you think about going to a restaurant and getting your portion, you're getting your plate, you're getting your everything, everything that you need, everything that you need to eat. God is our portion, God is our everything. God should be the thing that consumes our life. And um, yeah, I'm so grateful that it happened in our lives. I'm so grateful for where we're at right now. I'm so grateful, even though we went through some really difficult, dark times. I'm grateful for them. Uh, because if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't be where we're at right now. We wouldn't uh have the experience to be able to pass on to other people that we can right now. So uh, well, if you guys have made it this far uh through this conversation, so glad that you did. Would love to hear a comment on this type of podcast because this is a different one. Like I said, uh we had no notes other than the only agenda we had was to come in and talk about faith and works and to see where the Holy Spirit led. And I didn't even intend to talk to her about uh you know the you know salvation and once saved, always saved, just kind of came up. But uh if you like it, let us know. If you don't, if you'd rather go back to something different, let us know. But we want to hear from you and and everything. So really appreciate you guys listening. But I'm gonna pray for us and those people that might be struggling for you know with their salvation, their works, their faith, and all that stuff. So let's pray. Uh Lord, I just thank you so much for uh who you are and what you've done in in our lives, and that we can be a testimony to you through the experiences that we had, the the good and bad choices that we made in our lives, but mainly the transformation that that took place because of you and what you did in our lives. I pray for everybody that's struggling with the question of salvation, the question of uh trying to earn your love or earn their spot in heaven, that you are enough. They don't have to replace you with something else, they don't have to replace you with works, um, that you did what needed to be done on the cross, and all you ask is that they accept you as Lord and King of their life. So I pray for those people to let go those earthly works or accomplishments that they're trying to do and just accept what you've done already, accept who you are, and start to get to know you, build a relationship with you, understand who you're what your character is, and how to have that expression outwardly so that they can love people the way you do, they see people the way you do, they have that same grace, mercy, and compassion. And we all need that work in our lives daily, whether we've just accepted you or we're 30 years into our walk with you, we we need that help daily. So uh I lift us all up to you for blessings so we can be a blessing to others. We just thank you so much for who you are. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 33:41

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 33:42

This episode of Kingdom Chaos is brought to you by the Word Candle Company. Daryl Mary started this Christian-based candle company on one simple idea that scent, scripture, and music together can draw you closer to God. Every candle is hand poured in small batches right here in the great state of Texas. Paired with a verse and a song, right on the label, there's a QR code. So you can breathe in the fragrance, read his word, and let the music draw you in. Find them at the wordcandleco.com, the Word Candle Company, where fragrance meets scripture and worship invites his presence.