Insecure Cwistians

What if the enemy doesn’t have to destroy your life, just your identity?

In this episode, we discuss Pastor Jared’s new series with an honest conversation about how knowing who you are in Christ changes everything. We talk about the daily battle between flesh and spirit, how lies and self-condemnation can block your calling, and why personal growth is the foundation for real church growth.

You’ll hear practical tools like building rhythms of prayer and fasting, learning to “pray first” before reacting, and replacing anxious "am I" thoughts with steady "I am" thoughts. 

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Transcript

Welcome, Hosts, And Comfort Foods

SPEAKER_04 1:44

What's up, everyone? Welcome to Kids in a Calling Podcast. Where none of us are kids, but we all have a calling, which is to point people to Jesus. I'm your host, Audrey O'Joe. With me is Hudson Walton.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Hey guys.

SPEAKER_04 1:53

Andrea Crater. Hi. Ramsey Pavlou. Hey. And Lincoln Socier.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Hey guys.

SPEAKER_04 1:57

We're super excited for this next season.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Yes!

SPEAKER_04 2:01

Yes! Yes! Yeah, um, as you can tell, they are too. Um so what is your favorite comfort food?

SPEAKER_06 2:10

Cheese. Wow, 100%. I love cheese.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

That's a really good one.

SPEAKER_06 2:14

Okay, so we get the little baby bell packs. And it's like the individual cheese that's in the wax, but it's like the red one, so it's the plain one. And then it might be mozzarella, I really don't know. But then you take it off and you eat it, and it's so good. So that's your favorite? Cool story. I love cheese.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

When I was really young, uh Bishop's wife, Sister Pavlo, used to get those for us, and I used to eat them with the wax. Nah, nah. I thought that was part of it. I was like, I don't understand why they taste it like that. But I was like, well, dude, dude, it's so soft, you could just bite through it. I was like, you're supposed to eat it with the bigger.

SPEAKER_03 2:46

There's no way you're real for that.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

I did it like three times at least.

SPEAKER_03 2:49

No, the best cheese she bought was the little three mozzarella ball things.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

We still have some of those. I say Cheez-Its are my comfort food. A nice bag of extra toasted Cheez-Its.

SPEAKER_04 2:59

You know what?

SPEAKER_01 3:00

That's exactly what I was thinking about.

SPEAKER_04 3:01

He said Audrey's have the extra, like the extra toasted ones. I don't get that. They're so good. They don't taste burnt, they taste amazing.

SPEAKER_03 3:09

No, they are good.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Yeah, I agree with y'all. Yeah. Cheez-Its.

SPEAKER_03 3:12

Mine's low-key kind of cereal because I just can't think of anything else. And like, it's easy, quick, delicious.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 3:19

I'm not a big fan of cereal.

SPEAKER_03 3:20

I don't like milk. I know a lot of people. What?

SPEAKER_00 3:22

Milk. I don't like milk.

SPEAKER_03 3:23

I could just drink milk from the glass. So that's what most people do, actually.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

I'm not just gonna drink milk.

SPEAKER_03 3:29

I don't like store-bought milk. Oh, whatever. I have cows. I don't like store-bought milk. I'm so much better than you guys.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

I have cows and I drink it straight from the cow. Straight from the udder. Straight from the cow.

SPEAKER_06 3:40

So I do have a cow. Her name's Honey. And yes, she's a milk cow. And we do drink her milk. But we put it in the fridge first. So that makes it seem milk or milk.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

Disclaimer. The cow itself does not go in the fridge.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

Well, at one point, it's like it probably does end up in the freezer.

SPEAKER_03 3:57

Yeah, but not at honey.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Not at this point.

SPEAKER_03 4:01

No, not the milk cows.

SPEAKER_04 4:03

He said cheez-its. Oh, my bad. Mine is a chip bowl. So, like, that's so I do such an Audrey thing. I do popcorn, baked lays, Cheez-Its, and Funyans. You just have all that at your house at one time. Literally. Have they not been in my pantry? They have eight bags of every triping to me. We were talking about our pantry today, and Griffin was like, You guys have the best pantry.

SPEAKER_03 4:25

They do have the best pantry. I know. I just go in there and eat their almonds all the time. She does.

Launching Pastor Jared’s Identity Series

unknown 4:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:30

Anyway, so now let's get to the good stuff. What did you guys think about Pastor Jared's sermon two weeks ago? The simple question. Starting in front of the series. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 4:40

I thought it was really good. I really, really loved it. I loved how we opened it up because he said, Have you ever met anyone who is steady in every situation, confident in the unknown and common chaos? Yeah. They never seemed to waver even in the face of unexpected storms. And then he stopped and he looked around and he was like, That person should be you.

SPEAKER_03 4:59

And I was like, Oh, and like part of me kind of wanted to lie to myself and say that I am that person, but it's just so not true. It's insane. I get sick to my stomach by literally just doing anything.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

That really hit. Like I pointed at myself and I was like, Me?

SPEAKER_06 5:12

Whenever he said that, I looked at Lillian and I was like, that's not me.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

I heard Andrew behind me say, Oh uh, I'm feeling called out here.

SPEAKER_05 5:21

Yeah, I did say that.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

I really like it. I really like the uh how it's themed around our identity and who God says we are. Because I think that's really powerful. Um, he really emphasized the point that God's trying to grow us individually and as our church, point church, and how for God to grow us, we need to be secure in our identity.

SPEAKER_03 5:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

I thought it was really good.

SPEAKER_03 5:42

Well, I also like that he said that is our church can't grow without the people growing. So, like how we all need to focus on ourselves growing so our church can grow as well.

SPEAKER_04 5:52

Yeah. Yeah, that's good. Because like he was a point that he had said was that a church cannot walk in its calling when the people are still confused in who they are in Christ. That so it really like ties together that like you know, before you can start working and being a like unit, you have to know who you are in Christ to have that foundation.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

I just really think God's design for growth assumes that people know who they are.

SPEAKER_04 6:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Like, and that's another thing he emphasized that for God to use you and for you to be used in your calling, how God wants you to be used, you have to be secure in your identity in Christ. I can't be used by Christ if I don't know that I'm a child of Christ. And if that identity is shaky, you're you're just gonna be all wishy-washy. Exactly. You're not gonna be who you were meant to be.

SPEAKER_03 6:36

Yeah. I think it's kind of easy to almost try and build your own identity. Like, I wanna like you have a persona you want to be and fill, and so you'll try and change yourself to be that when we really should just be focusing on who God has made us to be and find our identity in him in that relationship with him.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

Because he um Pastor Jared, he emphasized that the number one thing holding believers back isn't the devil himself, and that kind of hit me at first because you're as a Christian, you're like, What?

SPEAKER_03 7:00

Obviously, the devil is devil's devil.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

That's my enemy. Yeah, like of course he's holding me back, but no, it's our identity. Or our the devil doesn't have to attack you at all if he can convince you or get you to convince yourself that you're not who God says you are. Exactly.

SPEAKER_06 7:14

I love whenever he said piggybacking off of Hudson is the thing that's stopping your potential the most is the lie that you're believing about who you are. I thought I was just like, wow, that's actually crazy. Yeah. That kind of piggybacks off of um our youth service that we just had, where brother Jordan Mata he came and he preached, and one of his quotes that he said was, we condemn ourselves more often than God convicts us. And I was like, wow, that's so true. And that goes back to the lies because we'll we'll condemn ourselves and we'll think lies about ourselves more often than things that God or the enemy has ever told us. We just we do it to ourselves.

SPEAKER_04 7:50

Yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

Isn't isn't it crazy that someone outside of our church, our section leader, Jordan Motto, comes and gives us a message that goes along perfectly with what's been being preached by our pastor.

SPEAKER_06 8:00

He literally is, yeah, literally. It was so good.

SPEAKER_04 8:03

Yeah, I liked whenever he was talking about the reason that people and ourselves can be so miserable is because we don't listen to what God is calling us to do. We try to figure it out and control it ourselves. And I was like, that's a really good one because it's it's just like we try to take things into our own hands thinking we got this, like we'll protect us best, but it's not like we're doing it on purpose because we don't think God can do it. A lot of times we do it not consciously, and so but he was talking about that if you would just listen to Jesus and to listen to what he's telling you, you'll be strong and stable and it yeah, it will get better.

SPEAKER_03 8:34

You'll bless and honor your obedience to what he has told you to do. Yeah, exactly. But I also he another thing he had said was that it's also really easy to just kind of not listen. Like if you don't want to do anything, like you don't have to, you don't have to carry that not weight, but like that calling. You don't have to hold the responsibility of being called to that higher place, but and like it'll be easier to not do it.

SPEAKER_06 8:59

But then you'll be miserable whenever you don't do it, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:01

But then, like, and like your might your life may even seem great for like a little bit. You're like, oh wow, I feel so free and so like stuffed and like all that, and you feel fine,

Why Personal Growth Fuels Church Growth

SPEAKER_03 9:10

but then you realize that that's all just like a hoax because you you can really only get true joy and freedom from Jesus, so nothing will ever feel that other than him.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

Yeah, because that's a that's a direct point that he talked about that you can give yourself temporary security, but at the end of the day, that's something that you built yourself, and yeah, it's never gonna last. The only true security that you'll get is from God and walking in your identity in God.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

Yeah, I think that's why it's so important to make sure you have that boundary between the flesh and the spirit. And Pastor Jared he talks on that uh in that message. Yeah. Um when you talk about the flesh, you're like, well, what do you mean? Like, how do I kill my flesh, as Paul said? Um, when we talk about killing your flesh, there's multiple ways you can do it. Um, praying, fasting is a big one, fasting for sure. Um, fasting for those of you who don't know, it's you're going, you're you're fully submitting your flesh to your spirit by denying anything your flesh actually needs in order to to like work. So most of the time it's most of the time it's food. Um, I know some people do social media and other stuff like that, but most of the time it's food. And so by doing that, you're literally you're putting your flesh in check, and it's very important that us as Christians are doing that pretty all regularly.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

Yeah. On that point, like for me, um, I gotta say, some of the best like fast and the closest that I've felt to God is was literally just a social media or just entertainment fast, period. I I would cut all that out for like a week and because it takes up a lot of time. A lot of time. You really see things more clearly when you step away from everything that's distracting you from God.

SPEAKER_07 10:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

But yeah, Pastor Jared did really hash on like the battle of flesh versus the battle of spirit.

SPEAKER_07 10:52

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Because that's a whole nother aspect to your uh identity crisis um in God.

SPEAKER_06 10:58

I love whenever Pastor Jared said most of the things that we blame on circumstances is just an identity crisis. And I was like, that is actually so good because whenever your identity is unsettled in Christ, it's gonna feel like you're fighting every single day. But whenever your identity, your identity is settled, you're you don't you're not movable.

SPEAKER_03 11:19

Does that make sense? Yeah, it's more stable, you won't be shaken up by by the things the world will throw at you. Yeah you'll be you'll be able to have your identity firmly planted in Jesus, so he'll help you through it.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

Yeah, I want to go back to um flesh versus spirit because I feel like that was a that was a big part of the message that Pastor Jared talked about because that's real. Every single day is a battle of flesh versus versus spirit. Um Galatians 5 and 17, it states this point by saying the sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the spirit wants. We all have that sinful nature within us because we're human. Yeah, and so that battle is always taking place as a child of God because we have the spirit side which wants to do the things of God, and then we have our our man, our our human that wants to do the things of this world, and we have to be conscious of that, and like Lincoln just stated with fasting, um, fasting, praying, all those things, those help you fight in the spiritual battle. Um but sometimes we we have things that we don't want to let go, and those things can take control of us. Um, David K. Bernard one time said that if you have something that you can't fast, you're a slave to it. Yeah, yeah. And like you don't think that in the moment, like you may think that like social media, we've talked about that before. You may think that that's just something that you do that you can let go of it, but you'll try to fast it and you'll start going back onto it within a few hours. And so you don't ever consciously think that this is a real battle, a real struggle that I'm in. Yeah, and I'm a slave to social media. So I think that's something that we need to keep in mind.

SPEAKER_04 12:55

Yeah, I agree 100%. I really liked like the spirit versus flesh version. I mean, not version of a section of his sermon. Yeah. Because it's because he was talking about how like you were saying, the spirit is willing, but flesh is weak. And I think that it's a big thing. This kind of ties into the identity or like knowing who we are in Christ, because while our spirit side can be like, yes, I'm I'm gonna pray every day, I'm gonna read my Bible, I'm gonna do good, but then our flesh is weak, so we fall and we sin, which is human nature. But if you don't, or if you're not grounded in Christ and you don't know like it's okay because I'm God's child, He will forgive me, I can get back up again. It's so easy. And for me too, I do this all the time. It's so easy just to get stuck in the same pattern of sin because you think you're just so down it can't even get up from here right now.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

And I think that we need to mention that this is uh Pastor Jared said this that no matter how spiritual you are, like I just said, you're going to be hit by sin, you're going to be attacked, and you will fall. And no greater example than that is Jesus himself in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was praying. The man of him was praying, please, if there is a way, let this cup pass for me.

SPEAKER_07 13:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

The man side of him did not want to go and be crucified. And there's no greater example than that. Even he, his man side wanted to not do that. Yeah. Like, of course, I wouldn't want to be crucified. Yeah, I want to die. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:11

Personally, no thank you.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

So, like, if even Jesus himself is going to have that spirit versus flesh struggle where the flesh wants to not go through the will

Lies, Condemnation, And Identity Drift

SPEAKER_01 14:20

of God, but his spirit knows it has to happen and wants it, all of us are gonna go through it. It's unavoidable.

SPEAKER_03 14:26

Exactly. I also think it's kind of weird, but not kind of weird, but just like a straight fact that the human nature, I guess, in us is always drawn to what's we're doing wrong. Like we always end up focusing on the things that our flesh wants and the the things that we're denying instead of focusing on God. Like it's just like a human nature thing that we have.

SPEAKER_06 14:45

That we dwell on like the negative versus positive.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Because that's what uh that's what Paul says, and I forget what verse it is, but he says, I do the things that I don't want to do, and the things I know I should be doing, I don't have to do them. Yeah, because it's that's still that constant battle of flesh and spirit.

SPEAKER_03 15:02

And that's when you get caught in that cycle of just keep falling, because that's the only thing on your mind. And if that's the only thing on your mind, it's gonna be the only thing you think of.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

And I really like the the point that Pastor Jared talked about how the enemy will use guerrilla warfare. He'll attack you, especially a church, because he was talking about in the context of a a church. Uh the enemy can attack in a place that no one's expecting, and the saints at the front of the line holding the line, they'll go and deal with the problem. And now you've lost you've lost ground.

SPEAKER_06 15:32

Yeah. Yeah. Pastor Jared said that the enemy will go beyond the front line and into the camp. And so you have to be ready to fight the enemy no matter where he is, because you'll think he go he's in one place, but he knows that you know that he's there. Yeah, or was gonna be there. And so he's like, nah. And so he moves and he goes somewhere completely different, and then the next thing you know, he's in your house.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

Yeah, and I think like thinking about it like on a less abstract level, like as a Christian, you know you're always looking out for the big things. Like, I'm not gonna fall for idolatry, I'm not gonna fall for lust. Um, like you're watching for the for the big bads. Uh-huh. Um, you're praying every day, you're fasting, and you think you have it all together, but the enemy slips his way in in the way that you judge someone at church for what they wear to church on a random Wednesday. It could be in the small things, and it can it can be the smallest thing, but you don't expect it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:25

But I love when he he followed that up with if you start running and it starts attacking, the enemy will flee. Like it's it's he can't win. We're not sitting here and taking it. We're it's not that's not the main point of why we're saying doormat. Because the battle's already won. Like you you literally can't lose with God on your side, it's not even possible.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

Yeah, yeah. I think that's why it's so important to know the word. Yeah, because Jesus himself, after he got baptized, he went into the wilderness and the devil attacked him, and he attacked him back with the word. He said, It is written, yeah, man shall not live by bread alone. And so if Jesus himself is attacking the devil with his word, I'm pretty sure we're gonna have to do the same thing.

SPEAKER_06 17:02

Yeah, oh 100%, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

And I'd like to bring up some uh some ways to tell if the flesh is winning the battle in your life straight from the message itself. Pastor Jared said that it's it's easy to identify when the flesh is winning, and he gave some specific examples like you want blessings in your life, but you don't want to bless others. Uh you want truth for yourself and your situations, but you live in lies all the time. Like you're telling lies, or you want mercy. You want you expect mercy from God, but you don't give mercy to the people around you. Yeah. And he brought up the point that you may think that those are like random failures that just happen, it's a one-off thing. But if it's if it's happening constantly, it actually will reveal what's driving you internally. That it may be that your flesh is driving what you feel and how you act towards others.

SPEAKER_03 17:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:52

So that's something that you have to watch out for.

SPEAKER_03 17:54

That's really dangerous when your emotions start taking over what your actions are.

SPEAKER_06 17:57

And your emotions determine what how like how you're living, how you're acting, what you're saying, and all that other stuff. Because the Bible says that your heart is the most deceitful thing. And so if you're just going off of what you're feeling, then trouble it's not gonna be good.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

Yeah, so you have to be you have to be mindful for the flesh at all points and bringing it back to the battle standpoint, you have to constantly recognize that it is a battle and you have to constantly be fighting. Yeah, you can't just coast. And like we said earlier, God's on your side. You can't lose if God's on your side. But I also want to say that if you just say that, but you don't do anything, yeah, you're not gonna win because you have to be on God's side. He can't He's on our side, but you also have to be on God's side. So you can't just be like, God's on my side, I'll be good. I can just keep doing this, it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_03 18:51

Yeah, you have to put action behind what you're saying.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

You two have to be on the same side. God's on your side, but are you on his? Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 18:58

And Pastor said that everyone, everyone lives with a question in their flesh that is driving them subconsciously. Like if you know it or not, there are he said there are seven questions that will one of them will be your primal question. Yeah, that's okay. Your most primary question that will be driving your every action. And so he listed them for us. He said, These are the seven questions. Number one, am I safe? Two, am I secure? Am I loved? Am I wanted? Am I successful? Am I good enough? And do I have purpose? And

Flesh Versus Spirit: Practices That Strengthen

SPEAKER_06 19:30

he said that we live at our very bret best whenever our primal question is secure in God.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

Yeah, and he uh rehashed that when we don't have one of those questions answered, uh, because he was saying, like you just said, Andrea, that even if we're not conscious of it, at the core, we'll have at least one of those that are driving us at the very core. So for a lot of people, it's probably am I loved? If you don't have that security. In who you are in Christ, you're gonna make rash decisions. You're gonna make foolish decisions trying to answer that question for yourself without God. You'll go and find you'll go and find love in places that you shouldn't be finding it. You'll seek it out wherever you can get it. And it won't be fulfilling love. But like we stated earlier, you may feel loved for a season and you may answer the question for a season of your life.

SPEAKER_04 20:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

But it's still not the fulfilling love of God.

SPEAKER_04 20:30

Yeah. Yeah, because like if the devil the devil doesn't have to destroy you if he could get you to wonder like exactly your identity in Christ. Because he could have had so many things that he used to attack Jesus, but he attacked his identity by saying, like, if you are who you say you are, so and so, you know? Yeah. And so we are the son of God. Yeah, he goes for identity.

SPEAKER_07 20:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:50

Yeah, because if you can crumble your identity in Christ, then it's you're done.

SPEAKER_04 20:55

Yeah. And he's already in. If you know your identity in him, you won't question it. You'll say, I am. This is who I am.

SPEAKER_03 21:02

So yeah, speaking of the I am is a lot of us could be living in the am I or in in the uh am I or I am state of like mind is like am I loved enough for this? Am I loved? Am I strong enough for this? Instead, and like and instead we need to be living in the I am because because we get our strength from God, so we know that I am strong enough because of God, or I am loved because God's love is sufficient and so great. Or the what other one did I say? I forgot. Good enough? Good enough, but I am good enough because God has called me to be good enough. Like yeah, we need to step out of that that part of the am I and start living in the I am.

SPEAKER_06 21:41

Yeah, yeah. Whenever we start saying am I, like whenever we're questioning it, it denotes that our identity is unstable and it's finicky. And whenever we start declaring I am, it denotes that we have an identity rooted in Jesus. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:57

Yeah, because your identity is your security. And the devil, he doesn't need to destroy you. It's a lot easier for him to just get you to question who you are. Yeah, yeah. Because if you, like you just said, if you aren't secure in that identity, the smallest little flick can throw you off course because you're not on staple ground.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

Yeah, if he can just get you to doubt, he's wondering. Because the opposite of faith is doubting. So as long as he's just getting you to doubt, that's where he he wants you, he has you where he wants you.

SPEAKER_03 22:38

Yeah. Um, when Andrea had brought up Jordan, brother, I don't know what to call him, brother Jordan Mata's message. So from Pulse last night, he had made the point that really stuck with me is that you may not think you are enough for the calling that has God has given you because of your past mistakes and for who you know you are. Yeah. But then he was like, but God called you after all those past mistakes. Like, you don't have to keep questioning the am I because God called you after those mistakes you made. So you know you already are.

SPEAKER_06 23:08

God knows what you did and he still chose. Yeah. And God knows everything you're gonna do before you even do it. And he still chose to call you with knowing everything that you're ever gonna do. He's still like, Audrey, I'm still gonna call you for XYZ, even though I know I make a few mistakes along the way. I'm not picking on yours in front of me.

SPEAKER_03 23:28

Yeah, okay. He knows we'll all make mistakes because we're all human, but he's gonna call us anyways because it's not about us, it's about trying our best and giving the glory to God and following it. That's good.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

Tying in with that in the message, Pastor Jared said that a lot of times we lie to ourselves about our calling, and there's no greater example than Moses in Exodus um four chapters, Exodus four, ten through twelve.

SPEAKER_07 23:54

Four chapters.

SPEAKER_01 23:55

Moses was like pleading with the Lord because uh God was telling him, Go free my people. But Moses was like, Oh Lord, I'm not very good with words.

SPEAKER_03 24:04

Like, I don't talk good. Excuse me.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

And so the Lord basically sunned him, if you want to see it like that. And he was like, Who makes a person's mouth? Like, you're gonna complain about that? I made your mouth, I called you.

SPEAKER_05 24:17

Yeah, like so.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

Sometimes we just we lie to ourselves, we try to tell ourselves that we're not good enough because we don't have a certain skill set, or like Moses said, He he spoke with a lisp, but God isn't calling you because you have perfect speech or you have a perfect skill set. He's calling you because you can do what he's calling you for.

SPEAKER_03 24:35

If you can talk, you can spread the word, and if you can't, you can sign language the word. Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:41

And because we're right, his strength is made perfect in weakness.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

But tying into that, it can be easy for us to say those lies. Um, and they may sound good to us, they sound convincing, like I don't have the skill set, or I'm just not comfortable with that yet. But oftentimes what it can really mean is I just don't want to give the time and effort.

SPEAKER_04 25:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

So we can make it sound really pretty, but at the end of the day, we're just kind of lazy and we don't really want to pursue the calling of God.

SPEAKER_03 25:14

Yeah. And for me, like from like a personal level, is it was almost what's the word, self-condemnation, self-sabotage, is like for singing. Like, who would want to listen to me sing on the platform? But then like I had like I had to keep reminding myself that it's it no, it's not about me. It's all about giving the glory to God and entering his pray his house with worship and praise. So, like, it doesn't matter if you want to hear me sing or not, it's gonna be about you're gonna hear me. Yeah, yeah. I'm making you. No, that's good gramps. Yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_01 25:45

Yeah, because it's it's so easy to say that and be like, um, I just I don't sound good. I shouldn't sing. And then you'll feel justified because you say that and you give yourself a reason. And like Pastor Jared said, it's so much easier to say no one wants to be my friend than it is to make yourself available and be a friendly person.

SPEAKER_02 26:04

Go out and try and talk to people. Preach, preach out, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:07

Yeah. So when you make statements like that, you have

When Small Compromises Reveal The Flesh

SPEAKER_01 26:10

to realize that when you're saying stuff like that, you're protecting your insecurities and the insecurities that are shaking your identity in Christ. You're not protecting the truth of who you are in Christ.

SPEAKER_03 26:20

You're not growing either. You're gonna get stuck in the same spot and never be able to get out of it because you keep trying to make excuses for yourself.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

Not everything's easy, sister. Nah.

SPEAKER_07 26:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:44

Well, we've been talking about, you know, the seven primal questions, and and then yesterday in Pastor Jared's sermon, it was all about the first one, am I safe? So let's talk about that one.

SPEAKER_06 26:56

Let's do it. He started off by describing a what what an am I safe person not looks like, but does. Yeah, their characteristics. So he gave a couple and he said they they replay conversations over and over and over again, trying to see if they made a mistake, or they'll like think ahead about conversations and plan out what they're gonna say. They don't let others help because they only feel safe whenever they're in control of everything. Um they often describe themselves as cautious and not afraid, being very realistic, they're very prepared, over prepared for things that may or may not happen. Um, it's very hard for them to relax. Like he gave the example, they might be on the beach just relaxing and on a vacation, but they can't relax because they have that under the surface low-level anxiety always won't let up.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

And I want to bring up the like the first example he gave, like his intro story about Pastorus Jin, our worship leader, just because I think it's a it's a good example. It's funny, but it's a good example. Um, he gave the example that a few years ago, um Jin, our worship leader, she was driving and she hit a left turn into a turning lane off of what was it, Johnston?

SPEAKER_03 28:20

Yeah, but his coming out of a parking lot. So she turned out.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

Basically, long story short, she turned into the turning lane and some other person came and hit her from behind going down the turning lane, trying to cut to the left.

SPEAKER_03 28:33

Yeah, it was this big truck speeding down the turning lane for some reason.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

And thankfully, everyone was okay. No one got hurt. It told her the other than the car, a car got totaled.

SPEAKER_03 28:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

But long story short, now to this day, she will never make a left turn.

SPEAKER_03 28:46

She won't even let me make a left turn. Oh, for real? Yeah. If she's driving, I can't take a left turn.

SPEAKER_01 28:51

Pastor Jarrett used that as an example to literally show like what an am I safe person is.

SPEAKER_06 28:55

Yeah. They'll go out their way and adapt to traumatic situations that they've had to make sure that they feel safe. Like just like Sister Jen does, she'll take a right turn all the time, go down the road, and then turn around whenever she feels safe. And we do that in real life. Whenever we have traumatic situations, we'll adapt to where we're not gonna let that happen again.

SPEAKER_01 29:20

Yeah, because we may we may hear that story and we may laugh even. And we may we make Ramsay, we may look at your mom and say, That's silly, why would she only ever make right turns? But if we think about it in the spiritual, that can happen to us a lot.

SPEAKER_07 29:34

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 29:34

Yeah, it that can happen. If you if you adopt that am I safe mentality, and that's your driving force, and you don't think you're safe in the spiritual, the turn may be there, and it may be a perfectly good turn that God has placed there for you to take. Yep, but you're so worried about I'm not gonna be safe if I take this turn. Uh I need to keep going the way that I'm used to going. Yeah, you're gonna miss the turn completely. Yeah, and so that's that's a real example of something that happens to people, and you have to stay aware of that and be secure that you are safe in God.

SPEAKER_00 30:07

Yeah, that's a really good point. Uh safety, safety is usually found in being comfortable. Yeah, and unfortunately, whenever God calls you, a lot of the times it brings you out of your comfort zone. Literally, and so walking in your calling to a lot of people, it feels scary. And so you you go from, okay, well, let me find a way that I can still quote unquote walk in my calling, but it feels comfortable to me. When you're yeah, you're beating around the bush, but while you've done that, you've walked away from the will of God.

SPEAKER_03 30:36

Yeah, and you started trying to make your own identity.

SPEAKER_06 30:39

Yep. And that's exactly what Pastor Jared was was saying and said is those people they want to be in control. They need to be in control because that's the only way that they are comfortable and they feel safe. And one of my favorite quotes was whenever we take control from people, we're also taking control from God. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:00

I was like, And I was literally just about to tie into what you just said about how people want to control their safety because that's something else, that's what Pastor Jared talked about. That if you have the question unanswered and you don't feel safe, often you'll try to manufacture your own safety.

SPEAKER_06 31:17

Yeah. In your own place.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

And you try to take it into your own hands because if

The Seven Primal Questions Of The Heart

SPEAKER_01 31:20

you can build a little wall around yourself and feel safe, you feel secure in that because you made that wall, you're controlling your own safety. Yeah, you can find comfort in that. But you're missing the point entirely because you're supposed to be looking upward for your answer to safety, not downward. You can never fully create your own safety. That safety is going to come from God and being secure in God.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

Yeah, we we only make temporary peace and temporary safety, but God He offers you eternal fulfillment. He offers you all kinds of stuff that we ourselves can't create for ourselves.

SPEAKER_01 31:52

Yeah. And uh in Proverbs 14 12 says there is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death. So we can create our own path, we can create our own safety, but at the end of the day, it leads to the same place, death.

SPEAKER_03 32:06

Yeah. And I think it's so funny how like you're doing all this so you can have control, but that question, am I safe, is gonna sooner or later start controlling you. Like it's gonna be what's controlling all of your choices that you make. Like you're gonna go out of your way so far because you think you want to be in control and you think you're in control and you think you're handling it, but really that that question is just controlling you.

SPEAKER_01 32:29

Yeah. Because when you when you adopt that mentality and you manufacture your own safety and you're trying to control it, could when you try to control it, what that does is it starts replacing something that should be trust. Your safety should come in your trust in God. But when you take that into your own hands, you start replacing that trust with control. And so now you're controlling or trying to control your safety, and you're no longer relying on God for that safety.

SPEAKER_06 32:56

Exactly. And that is where the enemy goes to work. He that's like his playground to get you not to trust God and in your own self. And Pastor said, This is like that's made me googly, oop, but not really. Actually, I don't know what I did. But he said, He will so the enemy will erode our trust in God while we are building our own empire. And I was like, that is so good.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

Yeah, because we'll we'll confuse the control that we the little control that we have formed around ourselves with security. Yeah, and we'll convince ourselves that we're secure when the only reason we're feeling secure is because we feel we have control.

SPEAKER_06 33:35

Yeah. We build our own false security and safety, just like Hudson said, and we'll think I'm safe, but in reality, we're only safe for a season. And so something comes and it shakes the foundation of your empire that you're building, that you think you have control of. And a lot of the times that's the devil. He'll come and shake it up and then it crumbles to the ground.

SPEAKER_01 33:58

Yeah, because that was that was tying into another one of his main points, Pastor Jerry's main points, um, the enemy's strategy of strategy of making believers self-reliant on their own selves. Because the enemy doesn't have to destroy your faith in God, he doesn't have to uh knock you down. All he really has to do is get you relying on yourself instead of God, like we just said.

SPEAKER_03 34:19

And then all his work is already done.

SPEAKER_06 34:21

Like all the enemy has to do is make sure that there's a distance between you and God, and then your safety and your communication won't be as strong. That's exactly what he did with Adam and Eve in the garden. That's what Pastor talked about. Um so before Adam and Eve ever sinned, perfection, perfect. God walked with them, God was with them, he was God was in every moment, and so they were safe. But then the enemy started to ask him questions, and they started to doubt who God even was. And at the core, the enemy made God sound unreliable. What he was really, like at the core of what he was doing, he was saying, he was making them question, are we really safe if we keep trusting God? And Adam and Eve, they acted so fast, like they didn't even question it, they just ate the fruit and they were like, Oh, God's unreliable. Bye.

SPEAKER_03 35:18

He caused confusion.

SPEAKER_01 35:19

That's literally watching that question in real time. He got them to question their safety. And once they started doubting that safety and questioning, Am I safe, they immediately took it into their own hands. And that's how fast it happens.

SPEAKER_06 35:31

They did, they scrambled, they were like, Oh, I I ca I have to make sure I'm in control.

SPEAKER_01 35:36

I've been searching for that word the entire night because I knew I remembered Pastor David said a specific word.

SPEAKER_06 35:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:41

Yeah. Because you you scramble, and that's how fast it happens. Because as soon as you start doubting, think about it. You don't just sit there when you feel unsafe.

SPEAKER_07 35:48

You want to take action, you want to go with.

SPEAKER_01 35:51

Yeah. So you'll immediately grab onto the closest thing that you feel will make you safe.

SPEAKER_03 35:56

Yep. Um that kind of ties back to the big like the message he did last Sunday where he was like, You you should be that person where in any reactive situation you're not reacting. Yeah. You take the time to realize what's happening and you focus and you don't react so fast.

SPEAKER_01 36:12

Yeah, because at the end goal, if you are already secure in all those areas and you know I am safe because I trust in God, then you're not gonna scramble.

SPEAKER_06 36:20

Yeah. And he said, one of the most faithful things that you can ever do is wait on the Lord whenever you whenever you really want to do is scramble and make yourself feel safe. And so don't make a rush decision concerning the are you safe? Because you just have to sit and wait on God. And he said, if you don't have enough time to invite God into the situation, if you can't delay that much, then you're asking for trouble. In a lot.

SPEAKER_04 36:49

Yeah, because once you

From “Am I?” To “I Am” Confidence

SPEAKER_04 36:50

start doubting and you're like, okay, I gotta hurry up, but like once you get impatient, all of your reason leaves the door. Literally, and you're just sitting there, like, okay, what can I do next to like make it better myself?

SPEAKER_03 36:58

Yeah. Rather than no longer logical.

SPEAKER_04 37:00

God, just as fast as you can, please, but whenever you want, it's on your time.

SPEAKER_01 37:03

And so you'll go and do something stupid, and you may, you know, build something around you, cut off someone, just do something that makes you feel secure in the moment. Safe in the moment, and it's like seasonal safety. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:14

Um, it's man-made, and like man-made things aren't built to last. A man-made diamond is not as good as a real one.

SPEAKER_01 37:20

Just yeah, sofax queen.

SPEAKER_04 37:23

Wait, Diva alert.

SPEAKER_03 37:25

It was just an example. I don't know if that was really like I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 37:46

I think it can be easy to get caught in the cycle of seasonal safeties. Exactly. You feel safe for a season, that starts crumbling because you know it's man-made, like we just said, it's gonna go away, and then you build something new. And like you may feel like I just said secure for a season, but I was reading Luke 12, 19 through 20 earlier, and it made me think it basically says, Yeah, take life easy, eat, drink, and be merry. So obviously that's they're feeling secure, they're feeling they're merry, that's happy.

SPEAKER_07 38:15

Like they're they're having a party.

SPEAKER_01 38:18

But and it says, But God said, You fool, you will die this very night. So you can make your own safety, you can feel secure and you can have control or control and parentheses of what's around you. Yeah, but if you're not connected to God and that safety isn't coming from God, yeah, yeah, and I think you will die.

SPEAKER_03 38:37

Yeah, and I also think to add on to that is people died.

SPEAKER_01 38:41

All right, that night. I better not hurt that night. But crazy. But that's where you're headed.

SPEAKER_03 38:47

Yeah, well, you could also we could also catch ourselves trying to make almost in this fantasy world of what we think our life is gonna turn out like, what we think our future will look like, because so we'll start trying to make that future happen. But we won't get very far with that. Yeah, um, it's it's just not gonna work out for us how we think it is. But the thing is, if we let God do and handle all that stuff, he'll take you farther than you literally could ever imagine. He'll make your life so much better. It'll be more blessed, it'll be more blessed than you can ever think of, it'll be more sufficient than you could ever think of.

SPEAKER_00 39:21

It'll yeah, it'll just be better. I think Pastor Jarrett he said that God will take you further in one instant than you can take yourself an entire life. Lifetime.

SPEAKER_03 39:30

That was really good because God didn't build us to like do it all ourselves, yeah. He built us to follow him and uh be disciples to him and for so he could bless us in return. You know, exactly. Fair trade off, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_06 39:44

Yeah, yeah, fair trade off. I trust in you, you give me the life and so in Psalms 91, 9 through 13, it says, If you make the Lord your refuge, so if you make the Lord your safety, if you make the most Most high, your shelter. No evil will ever conquer you. No plague will ever come near near your home. For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go. They will hold up their hands so you won't even hurt your foot on a rock. You will trample upon lions and cobras. That's big animals. You will crush fierce lions and serpents. Preaching your feet.

SPEAKER_01 40:26

Preach system.

SPEAKER_05 40:27

That's a lot. Those are really big animals that you'd have to step on.

SPEAKER_01 40:31

I am not stepping on a cobra right now, bro. I'm not stepping on a lion. I am stepping on a lion, which is a good one. Without God behind me, I'm not stepping on a lion, bro.

SPEAKER_03 40:39

And so I'm gonna pull a Samson and rip them apart.

SPEAKER_05 40:42

Like literally, or like a David.

SPEAKER_03 40:43

Yeah, that.

SPEAKER_06 40:44

Yeah. Whenever you have your safety rooted in God, you can walk on some lions, some fierce ones too.

SPEAKER_07 40:52

Yeah. And crush them.

SPEAKER_04 40:54

At the beginning of the verse you read, it did say though, it said, What evil will not conquer you? No evil will conquer you. It didn't say it won't come, but it did say it won't conquer you. When battles come, when the floods start flooding, God's gonna be your raft.

SPEAKER_06 41:09

Oh, amen. And in the verse, in the few verses right before that, one of them, Pastor Jared, quoted in his message. He said, This I declare about the Lord,

Am I Safe: Traits, Triggers, And Control

SPEAKER_06 41:20

he alone is my refuge, my place of safety. He is my God, and I trust him. For he will rescue you from every trap and protect you from deadly disease. He will cover you with his feathers and he will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are your armor and your protection. That's just so cool about God. Like and he doesn't actually have feathers. That's that's just a metaphorical thing. They're trying to make him look like an eagle, I think. I think it's an eagle. Literally, like it's that easy. Yeah, you just trust in God, and trusting God can be hard sometimes. But once you get it figured out, you got this, guys. I believe in you.

SPEAKER_01 42:03

I also think that we can't move on without mentioning that struggling with with your safety, it doesn't make you like less of a person, it doesn't make you less of a Christian. That's just human. It makes you normal. Yeah. I mean, back to Jesus in Hebrews 4 15, it says this high priest understands our weaknesses, for he faced all the same testings that we do. So if Jesus Himself is going to face these testings and be met with the same temptations and weakness that we are, we can't expect that we're just gonna be like the alpha Christian that's never gonna struggle with all these things. We're we're so holy, we're so spiritual that I'm never gonna doubt my safety. My safety comes from God. Yeah, it's human to struggle with safety.

SPEAKER_03 42:48

Yeah. It's gonna happen no matter what, it's it's unavoidable.

SPEAKER_01 42:53

Yeah, so questioning things, it doesn't make you an insecure question.

SPEAKER_05 43:00

Question, no, no, insecure. It does not make you an insecure question.

SPEAKER_01 43:04

It doesn't make you an insecure Quiston. It just makes you a human. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 43:10

Yeah, yeah. That's good.

SPEAKER_01 43:14

Like Pastor Dredd said, struggling with am I saved, it doesn't make you weird, it doesn't make you different, it doesn't make you awkward. It just makes you human, and God isn't surprised by that question. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 43:23

So, like all of that talk about how like no matter what, it's gonna happen. The the good news is there's a way to to help that and fix that. So you really just he so he talked about this in the messages you have to figure out what's causing that questioning. Yeah, why are you trying to feel safe? Like, what are you trying to take control in in your own hands? And then you figure it out, you pray about it, and then you surrender it to God because, like we said before, and like we'll say forever, God can fight your battles. Well, God will help you fight your battles, and with him on your side, you will always win. It's not it's not that complicated. Not at all, it's a little hard to do, uh-huh, but like on paper, it's not that complicated.

SPEAKER_06 44:05

You have to decide who it belongs to. You are God. Who's controlling this ship? You are God, and then you just give it to him and you let Jesus take the wheel.

SPEAKER_05 44:14

Yeah, literally, honestly, not literally, just put if you're in a car and the figure is to let him take the wheel.

SPEAKER_03 44:21

Yeah, and I think I'd rather God do it because he can actually control the wind and seas. So, like literally, even if it starts raining on us and the waves get really strong, he can actually just tell it to stop. Yeah, and it's it's so that's why I think I'd rather him have the wheel.

SPEAKER_01 44:34

Yeah, because I certainly can't do that. Um not Hudson. Nope. If you need the the rain turned off, don't call me, bro.

SPEAKER_03 44:40

Just go inside.

SPEAKER_01 44:41

The rain turned off. I will hang up on you, bro, because I can't do that.

SPEAKER_06 44:45

Another way that we can stay in the I am safe is we practice waiting on God instead of acting quickly. So your your flesh, your your question side is going to want to really just act instead of waiting. But your discipline from God is gonna say, hold up, take a pause, take a breath, ask me first. Like, what does God say first? And Pastor Jared, like he held up a band that he has because he he carries an extra God can band, and this God can band just says, pray first. Whatever you do, pray first. And so no matter what you get yourself into, pray first. Seek wise counsel, Jesus. Amen. What's your opinion?

SPEAKER_03 45:29

That's good.

SPEAKER_01 45:30

Because 99% of the time, you will make a better decision if you pray first.

SPEAKER_03 45:34

Oh, I thought you were about to say 99% of the time you'll make it a better decision than God. Like just like kind of like like period, like you'll probably make a better decision.

SPEAKER_01 45:42

That is not what I was gonna say.

SPEAKER_03 45:44

My bad. Well, so another like thing to add and piggyback off of Andrea is I don't know if this is an exact quote, but he said the question, Am I safe, should not be answered by how much you can see, but by your faith and trust in God. Exactly. It shouldn't, it you won't see, you won't see, you just trust.

SPEAKER_01 46:04

Yeah, because the the enemy will try to get you so focused on judging your security based on the things like you just said, you see and you hear around you.

SPEAKER_03 46:13

Yes, like imagine you know, when you're driving in a like a really heavy rainstorm, oh you can't see more than like five feet ahead of you, but you're trusting that the road's still there.

SPEAKER_04 46:23

Oh, that you know it's you're trusting the car's not gonna disappear in the room. You trust too much.

SPEAKER_03 46:26

The car in front of you has headlights on and you won't run into it.

SPEAKER_05 46:30

And sometimes they don't have their headlights on, and then you're like, Am I in the road?

SPEAKER_03 46:34

Now you really just trust in God to take the exact bug in.

SPEAKER_01 46:37

Like every night you go to sleep, you don't see that you're just gonna keep breathing and your heart's gonna still pump while you're asleep. You can't hear that, you can't physically like grasp that that's happening.

SPEAKER_04 46:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:49

If your heart sounds like that, you need to get that check out cordial. Like, like right now, we need to pray for me.

SPEAKER_05 46:55

If your heart sounds like Ramsey, we'll pray for you.

SPEAKER_01 46:58

Yeah, but but it's like

Manufactured Safety Vs Trust In God

SPEAKER_01 47:00

the same concept, like you don't hear that stuff happening, but you go to sleep every night and you just yeah, you're not promised the next breath.

SPEAKER_03 47:06

You you just you're not gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 47:08

That's not the point I was gonna make. Like, go off. You're so right with that.

SPEAKER_05 47:14

Amen. Just trust that the Lord is still calling Link is not getting another breath.

SPEAKER_06 47:22

And the last thing that Pastor Jared mentioned in staying in the I am safe mentality and lifestyle is replacing your what if questions to even if statements. So even if blank happens, God is still with me. Or even if blank happens, God is still on my side. Yeah, and so you are deciding, whatever, whenever you make those statements, you are deciding. You are not controlling the moment, and you are trusting God with whatever that situation is.

SPEAKER_01 47:57

My favorite one that he said was, even if I never understand why, I was never alone. And if you if you grasp that at the end of the day, like you're secure.

SPEAKER_02 48:06

Yeah, yeah. God got you, God got my back.

SPEAKER_06 48:11

I was about to say that's a song somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 48:13

All right, so we've talked about a lot, and I just want to say we were so excited to finally get back in here and talk about the word uh with you all. So we talked about the series that Pastor Jared has been talking about, and it centers around identity because Pastor Jared believes, I believe, and I know you all believe, that God wants to grow us all, he wants to take us to a new level. Amen. And in preparation for that, he's getting us really focused on who we are in Christ because to move forward, it's just it's been rehashed by Pastor Jared that and by God that we have to be secure in who we are. Yeah, yeah. So you have to be aware of the flesh versus spirit battle that's going on. You have to you have to be secure in who you are, and if you're not, you need to start praying and you need to start seeking after God to give you security and confidence in who you are in Christ because you won't be able to take that next step until you know who you are right now in God. Um, so you need to seek out that secure foundation with God that only comes in knowing who you are. And then we talked about safety, about struggling with personal safety and what to do when you don't feel safe. And what you do is you realize that safety doesn't come from the things around you, it doesn't come from what you can see or what you can do. Yeah, it comes from your simple trust in God, and that will give you the safety that you're searching for.

SPEAKER_06 49:38

So that's good.

SPEAKER_01 49:40

I want all the viewers to really look back. I want you to look back on your life or even the current season that you're on and think, is there anything that's come up? I'll bring back um Sister Jen's dilemma. Has there ever been a turn in your life that you have avoided because you were worried about your safety?

SPEAKER_07 49:59

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:00

Because I know I can think of a few in my life. So I'd like you to reflect on that and really think about it. And just think about what God is trying to reveal to you and how He how secure He wants you to be.

SPEAKER_04 50:13

Yeah, yeah, that's good. It's really good. Well, thank you guys so much for listening today. Um, make sure you follow the podcast on whatever platform you like, whether that's Spotify or Apple Music or whatever. And also follow the Instagram that we have to get updates and things like that. We will see you guys next week for another episode. Please follow us like a bag.