If we aren't careful, our inner legalist can twist our motivation to obey God. We either do it so appear righteous to others, make ourselves feel better about ourselves, or even to earn God's favor so He will give us what we desire. Not only are those the wrong reasons to obey God, they are sinful! Self-righteousness, pride, & greed square off directly in the face of what God desires in our hearts. So are we not to obey? As Paul would say, God forbid! We shouldn't see blessings and obedience as a divine currency exchanged between us and God. If it were, we'd be bankrupt! A unique characteristic of love is that it causes you to find joy in the joy of the person you love. When I do something for my kids that makes them happy, I don't do it to make myself feel like a good dad. I do it because seeing them happy brings me joy! But bringing myself joy isn't the motivation for doing it, but it goes hand in hand with bringing them joy. When we pursue the things that make God happy out of our love for Him, blessings follow, because our obedience to Him is the blessings itself!
God can do anything He wants. Literally anything. We can't even comprehend His power, let alone match it. But when it comes to the things most important to us, for some reason we try to limit His power. Yes, He can create the universe, raise the dead, multiply fish and bread, but what is that to us?! We think this one thing in our life is the one thing God can't handle. We trust ourselves to step up and handle a problem that we think is too big for Almighty God. It really is comically stupid. Chapters (00:00:02) - God's Love for Us(00:00:55) - Jack's Jams and Jellies(00:03:38) - Keep Your Testimony(00:06:43) - Jesus' Mercy for Mary(00:09:41) - Sub-Points of the Bible(00:14:02) - Jesus on the Crucifixion(00:17:35) - Wonders of the World(00:21:10) - How Much Wine Would Have Been Needed for the Disciples?(00:24:04) - Wonders of the World(00:26:25) - God's Will for You(00:29:41) - Burden of Eternal Trust(00:33:44) - Blessed People: How Dependent Are They on God?(00:38:00) - How to Be Less Prideful(00:40:27) - How to Fight PRIDE(00:43:12) - "My Mother in Law Is a Blackey Blank"(00:43:52) - It's Just Too Important to Let God Handle(00:46:44) - Real Prayers For The Lord(00:49:33) - Gabe's Love Letter To His Parents(00:52:46) - Gabe's Attempt to Earn 17 Million GTA Points(00:55:38) - Mariah Carey on Smartphones(00:59:40) - Amelia in the Amber Alert(01:01:51) - Moses and Aaron in the Desert(01:05:13) - Jesus at the End of His Own Life(01:06:20) - Why Did God Tell Moses To assemble the congregation and speak to the(01:07:36) - PODCAST: Chick Fil-A
We are naturally bent towards comparing ourselves to others. How skilled are we at certain tasks? How kind are we towards others? How much have we been blessed? Looking only at ourselves doesn't tell us much. We need to know the answers to these questions for other people to know how we measure up. Very little can come out of this. We either find ways to be jealous of others or find ways to feel superior to them. But when we compare ourselves to Jesus, there's no room for either. He holds all the power, all the glory, all the knowledge, and all the love. We will never "out know" Him, or be able to "out power" Him, and we most certainly will never be able to "out love" Him. He is the only standard worth chasing. Chapters (00:00:02) - How to Build a Personal Pride(00:00:48) - How to Prepare for a Hurricane in New York(00:04:52) - Hurricane Florence's path through the mountains(00:07:49) - Hurricane Florence: Taking a boat to the beach(00:09:18) - Chick Fil A In The Elevator(00:11:36) - "Oh, That's Pretty!"(00:12:03) - Christian Karma(00:16:38) - Getting It Out of the Cash(00:17:17) - Karma and the consequences of actions(00:20:12) - Respondent: Consequences of Our Actions(00:23:31) - Consequence and Result(00:25:53) - Can Christians Still Live in Sin?(00:26:15) - Will Christians Sin?(00:30:02) - How to Deal with Homeless People(00:30:09) - What About the Sins That You're Still Doing?(00:33:04) - Can I Do X and Be a Christian?(00:37:02) - 7 Deadly Sins of the Christian People(00:41:12) - Sin begins in the mind(00:44:19) - Can I Do This and Be a Christian?(00:47:07) - The standard is Christ(00:48:37) - John 2:1 Through 10(00:50:54) - Eternal Heaven and New Earth(00:53:49) - Isaac on the New Heaven and New Earth(00:57:44) - Hurricanes and the Rotation(00:59:19) - God Isn't a Cosmic Killjoy(01:03:16) - In the Elevator With Dr. Phil(01:03:57) - There Are 8 Million Stories in A Naked City
Sometimes we give our best effort, and things don't work out. Other times they don't work out because we don't give them our best effort. I've honestly never known which was harder to deal with. On one hand, you have to deal with regret when you know you could have tried harder. But on the other, when your best wasn't good enough, it's a downright humiliating thing to have to accept. Both are hard to live with, but neither can outrun God's grace. God's grace far exceeds our best efforts or our failures. More than our effort, God desires our hearts, to put our faith in Him and know that His best efforts always work out.
There's a scene from an old baseball movie called Moneyball. In the scene, a player hits a ball deep into the outfield and immediately runs as fast as he can towards first base with no regard for the ball. As he rounds first, he trips over the bag into an embarrassing 15-foot barrel roll. Crawling frantically back towards first base, he looks up to opposing players and his own coaches' playful laughter at his expense. More embarrassing than his fall, was that he hadn't even realized that he'd hit the ball 60 feet over the fence. It's easy to get so caught up in our search for God's will that we forget that, by accepting His salvation, His will for our life is already fulfilled, and we've received His ultimate gift. Our search should now be for how we respond to the grace He has shown us. Contentment isn't about being satisfied with what God has given us. It's about realizing that He has already given us the only thing that matters. The more we wrap our hearts around this concept, the less we see value in anything but Him and Him alone, and the more we rest in Him calling the shots from here.
What did Paul mean when he said "to live is Christ"? Charlie Kirk knew. Very few people exemplify Christlikeness as well as Charlie did. He spoke the truth with more grace and love than most can manage these days. He stood firm teaching the word of God courageously, never alarmed by the many opponents to his purpose. He worked fearlessly, and patiently, to try to unify a crooked and perverse generation. He didn’t lay down his life voluntarily, but he was obedient to the point of death. We lost a bright light in a dark world yesterday, but his life didn’t end. Charlie’s life was eternal from the moment he surrendered it to Jesus. Our loss was his ultimate gain, and I am grateful for his faithful service to the Gospel. Chapters (00:00:02) - Living on a Privete(00:02:44) - I Didn't Read The Flashpoint(00:03:54) - How Do We Live As Christ?(00:07:20) - Corinthians, Galatians and Ephesians(00:09:28) - Too Good to Be True(00:12:25) - Tongues tied in the seminary(00:14:12) - Reverend Kenny on Communion(00:16:32) - When You Can't Plan Your Life(00:18:53) - What's Your Lesson for Today?(00:20:59) - The Too Good to Be True(00:24:02) - Jesus on Personal Responsibility(00:26:21) - John 11:1-2(00:31:14) - Bradley on God and the Creationist(00:38:10) - God's Truth in One Verse(00:40:29) - The Man Who Missed Ben's Sermon(00:43:38) - Good Samaritans on Facebook(00:47:36) - If God Were One of Us(00:51:51) - Paul's attitude toward Philippians 2(00:52:31) - Being Nice to Non-Believers(00:54:40) - John 8: Don't Forget How Much He Loves You(00:57:42) - There's Still Plenty of God's Beauty in Your Neighborhood(00:59:27) - A Lesson on the Nones(01:05:05) - Deception of the Good News(01:08:46) - How Much of the Country attends Church on a Regular basis(01:12:50) - Creeper Creep in Southern Baptist Church(01:18:38) - Protecting the Fabric(01:20:23) - Contentment in Psalm 18:1-3(01:23:24) - In the Elevator With Grading Homework
There's a subtle, but huge difference, between knowing about God, and having a personal relationship with Him. You can know that God is all powerful and all knowing, without experiencing the peace that comes from trusting Him. You can know that God forgives sin, without experiencing the grace of His forgiveness for the worst thing you've ever done. You can know that God wants you to have joy, without experiencing the patience He shows while you fight His plans to provide it. You can know that Jesus paid for your access to this relationship, without feeling the love that compelled Him to pay such a price. Knowing God, vs. knowing about God, is a distinction that makes all the difference. Chapters (00:00:02) - Swimming in the Pool(00:03:08) - TRAVEL: Adventures along the Mississippi(00:04:11) - Strengthening Yourself in the Lord(00:05:09) - Lost Phone(00:06:02) - Strengthening Yourself in the Lord(00:12:01) - Trusting God(00:16:18) - Heavenly Wait: Praying For Changes(00:19:45) - How to Strengthen Our Souls in the Lord(00:26:24) - Part 3 of Humility(00:31:57) - Knowing About God and Knowing God(00:36:37) - Getting Away From the World(00:41:45) - Quiet Time on Vacation(00:46:08) - Pray Without Ceasing for the Lord(00:48:16) - Another homework assignment for Philippians(00:48:33) - Philippians 1:21: To Live Is Christ(00:52:16) - Andy Griffith on His Face
As I grow closer to the Lord, the more I am marveled by His creation around us. I love to point out nice sunsets to the kids, or find a good place to go for a walk away from the man made stuff. But it can be easy to forget that of all of God's creation, we are His most precious. He created the world around us to show us His power, but He created us to show us His love. How can we be a light that points others to His love the same way the sun points us to His power? Chapters (00:00:02) - Hong Kong Phooey(00:03:23) - Dukes of Hazzard(00:05:41) - Andy Griffith on His Color Episodes(00:08:52) - Southern People Driving On Highway 401(00:11:43) - God Seeing Me As Righteous(00:15:31) - God Isn't Here for Me, but I Am(00:20:29) - How Can a Holy God Love Me?(00:23:31) - John 1: Truth in Our Hearts(00:28:44) - Labor Day is the earliest it can be(00:33:07) - Does Flood Insurance Work?(00:34:51) - Prayer: To glorify God(00:40:00) - Blowhard on His Condition(00:41:14) - Brain Task: Judas Never Had a Spiritual Interest in Jesus(00:46:37) - Separation of Judas and Jesus(00:50:17) - Pride is the Biggest Sin(00:53:14) - David at his lowest point(00:57:03) - Judea on Judas in the Bible(01:01:09) - Saved From Other People's Sins(01:04:46) - North Carolina History
Serving God isn't an obligation. It's a priviledge, one given by Him and Him alone. God doesn't take church attendance. He doesn't count Hail Mary's. We aren't credited with righteousness based on mission trips or Sunday school. We are credited by grace alone, through faith alone. We are natually born scorekeepers. We appreciate that Jesus wiped out the bad that we've done. But we still want Him to credit us for the good He's done through us. He doesn't need us. He can do anything, any way He chooses. And He chooses, above all else, to have a relationship with us. He paid all He possibly could to offer us this gift, and we expect a pat on the back for accepting it. Chapters (00:00:02) - Benjamin on Confessions(00:00:57) - Daniel Had A Funeral(00:03:35) - Sausage in the City(00:06:05) - Birthday Gifts for Kids(00:09:09) - Swimmer's Swim Cap(00:12:31) - A Good Guy's Gift(00:14:03) - Brandon Gets A Birthday Gift(00:15:28) - Ben's 55th Birthday(00:18:05) - Kenny Westbrook on His Birthday Present(00:18:29) - God's Love For Crazies(00:22:03) - Don't Worry About Relationships at 25(00:25:37) - Don't Worry About Tomorrow(00:29:39) - God's Love for Us(00:34:11) - Walking by the Spirit(00:37:18) - Golf Lessons For Amateur Swimmers(00:39:15) - God's Weight on Us(00:42:07) - Daniel 9: In Jesus Name(00:45:17) - The Lord's Prayer(00:49:31) - He Uses The Sip Club at Panera(00:52:39) - How To Get Out of a Racket(00:54:14) - Daniel 9: The End of Man in One(00:57:49) - Patriotism in the South(01:03:24) - Understanding the Infinite Love of God(01:05:39) - How to Love Your Mother(01:08:40) - How to Pray for Your Own Life(01:12:18) - Ben's Car Gets Passed Inspection(01:14:12) - The 6 P's of Bible Study(01:18:43) - Reasons We Had A Pool
Have you ever gone out to eat and filled up so much on the bread that you didn't have room for the entree? How frustrating is that!? Load up so much on the free bread that you only have room for 3 bites of the main course. Worst of all, the bread only lasts about 2 hours. Then you're hungry again and settling for a $40 microwaved steak. The same thing can happen in our spiritual lives. In our haste to be satisfied, we fill up on the carb loaded junk, leaving no room for God to truly satisfy us. More often than I want to admit, I'm asking how I can seek God so He will give me what I think I need, forgetting that seeking God is all that I need. Chapters (00:00:02) - Biblical Questions for the Week(00:03:09) - Ticket to Heaven(00:06:06) - Easter Crosses on a Bank Sign(00:08:07) - God's Help For Hair!(00:10:17) - Mark 5: Legion and the Message(00:12:01) - MacArthur Study Bible: The Miracles of Jesus(00:16:27) - Luke 11: The Spiritual Healing(00:20:51) - Life is Not Equally Fair(00:26:26) - What She's Got and Don't Compare(00:27:05) - Ecclesiastes 9: The Prosperity Gospel(00:27:57) - The Secret to Living a Rich Life(00:31:03) - Scott Scheffler on Renewing His Mind(00:35:09) - PGA Champion Brandon Lee on the Trophy(00:38:50) - God's Love Is Not Promised(00:41:21) - How to Write a Good Sermon(00:44:32) - Pastor's Prayer for Saturday Night(00:48:07) - Colossians 3: The Most Important Part for Teens(00:52:49) - Demon Possession in the Gospel(00:57:20) - Pierce on the Spiritual Stuff(01:01:32) - Non-Baptists and Islam(01:07:22) - How to Convert a Muslim(01:10:25) - Are All The Religions Anti-Christ?(01:12:54) - Starting the Series on John 1(01:14:12) - God's Plan for Luke 12(01:17:28) - Pl polo
I'm the world's worst for keeping my car on empty. My theory is that I get better gas milage by keeping my fuel load light. $10 bucks at a time, every day or so, that's my game plan. But apparently the shelf life on a 4-runner's fuel sensor is about 213,000 miles. So I recently started playing the old odometer game. Fill up, reset the odometer, and keep the odometer below 400. Now I'm not quite so confident in my splash-and-go stategy. I check the odometer more often than I check my mirrors, and if it hits triple digits I start second guessing if I remembered to reset it. We can do the same thing with our spiritual tank. If we're not careful, we start relying on the fuel light to tell us when we're getting low. But God didn't create us to run on fumes. His desire is to fill us with the Spirit so we can fully enjoy the fellowship with Him! Chapters (00:00:02) - Prayer: Taking the scenic route(00:00:47) - Who Really Owns the Church?(00:03:27) - Seniors Get Confused By Birthday Texts(00:06:12) - Happy Birthday!(00:08:55) - How to grow a fig tree(00:11:31) - Big vines grow wild in Montana(00:11:48) - Israel Was Scattered For 2,000 Years(00:17:57) - Separation of Jew and Christian(00:23:07) - Adam Levine on Jews and Christianity(00:28:47) - Biblical parallels between today and the Bible(00:33:49) - How do you prove God is real?(00:36:50) - Is Doubt Just as Serious as Idolatry?(00:41:17) - Doubt in the Life of God(00:45:54) - Daniel the Man of Prayer(00:49:32) - Moses and the Prayers(00:54:06) - Praying for a Distressed Person(00:57:02) - Prayer for the World(01:03:25) - Reclaiming the Promises of God(01:08:16) - Taking the Longer Route(01:13:56) - Deacon's List
Awesome to have Brandon Goss join us this week. This was a lot of fun and we hope he'll come back whenever he can. (And the Monster diet does seem to work, by the way.) How much fear, worry, and doubt to we carry around with us? These aren't fun, and they aren't what God intends or wants for our life. He wants us to trust in Him completely. When we follow Him with our whole heart, there's nothing to fear, because we know He is with us. There is nothing to worry about, because we know He holds the future. And there's nothing to doubt, because we know He is faithful. It's simple math: fear, worry and doubt show us the part of our heart the Lord doesn't have. Chapters (00:00:02) - How to Lose Weight on a Challenge(00:02:54) - Softball Coach(00:04:57) - Fat Kenny on 'This Morning'(00:07:36) - Brandon on The Fishing Podcast(00:08:46) - Kenny on Cutting My Grass(00:11:36) - How Real Is Podcast Analytics?(00:14:35) - Gardener Takes Over the Yard(00:15:55) - Eminem's "Use This Gospel"(00:20:16) - DJ Khaled on Eminem's 'All In'(00:23:56) - Josh Hamilton(00:30:10) - Josh Hamilton on Social Media and His Christian Calling(00:34:42) - Pastor: Do We Judge Others?(00:40:32) - Kenny on Judgeing People(00:42:26) - Another example of this is with Gabe(00:45:26) - Does God Allow His Anger to Last?(00:48:35) - Daniel the Book of Suffering(00:52:55) - When You Can't Get Down on Your Kids(00:53:25) - North Carolina drivers on the road: Too judgmental(00:57:32) - The Best Places to Live in North Carolina(01:01:13) - Malcolm Phelps on His Training(01:04:14) - Bob Phelps swims for fun(01:05:56) - Getting the Numbers this Week(01:06:24) - Joshua and Caleb: What Set Them Apart?(01:10:18) - Outcasts in Society(01:13:53) - How To Survive In the Heat
God desires truth in our inner most parts. That sure is inconvenient isn't it? None of us want to admit our struggles, maybe even to ourselves. Kenny said people might be shocked to know who I really am, and you might be. So, brace yourself... I cuss a lot. Not as much as I used to, and I'm working on it. But I say a lot of things I'm glad y'all don't hear. I also like Miller Lite more than I probably should. And I'm about two cute blondes in yoga pants away from actually gouging my eyes out. And the pride, oh, the pride. To be fair, I don't say the Lord's name in vain, I'm rarely actually intoxicated, and I've never committed adultery. I mean, technically, according to Romans, well and Matthew....look, I've never cheated, alright?! This leaves me just enough wiggle room to also struggle with self-righteousness. I'm basically the worst parts of the Old Testament masked as a Pharisee. Why admit this? Because in the hidden parts, God shows us wisdom. It's only by admitting the truth that we allow God to start changing it.
I've had a lot of opportunities on this podcast to say some things I'd later regret. But of all of them, I think the line I regret the most came from the very first episode. I said "As long as I know I'm where God wants me, I don't care what the purpose of that is." I don't regret it because it was wrong. Honestly, it sounds pretty righteous to me. I regret it because it turns out it was a lie. To my pastor. In chruch. God reminds me of this pretty much every time I question Him. Sometimes we feel like we're running on a treadmill. No matter how hard we try, nothing we do seems to move us where we are trying to go. Other times, we feel like dust in the wind, blown all over the place with no control at all over where we are heading. But sometimes God wants us to stay put for a while, so He sends us a treadmill to keep us busy. Other times, He knows that we can't get where He wants us on our own, so He sends a gust of wind to help us get there. There's a lot of peace to be found in what I said in the first episode. If you mean it.
Sometimes life happens. This episode was recorded just before Christmas. Also 2 days before my computer crashed taking all of my files down with it. Fortunately, the recording was already uploaded to YouTube, so I was able to get my hands back on it. It comes in handy to have some extra episodes laying around when vacations and life keeps us from recording as often. I hope you enjoy the irony, considering we’re about as far away on the calendar from Christmas as we could possibly be. But Jesus is the gift that keeps on giving the whole year!
Every hour of every day, we face the decision of doing things our way, or God’s way. With so many opportunities to make the wrong decision, we are inevitably going to miss a few steps. But the more we practice walking with the Lord, the more instinctive it is to choose His way over ours. His Word teaches us, His Spirit guides us, and when we forget to rely on those, His Grace sustains us.
There’s a great quote from one of my favorite movies: “Good judgement is the result of experience, and a lot of experience comes from bad judgement.”Certainly, God wants us to develop good judgement. But we get frustrated that He allows us to have bad judgement along the way. Free will isn’t always convenient, but it is part of His plan. When we make mistakes, or things just don’t work out the way we hoped, we have a choice in how we can handle it. It’s so easy to fall into blame, regret, and guilt. But when we remember God’s patience, grace, mercy and faithfulness, we can find joy and gratitude in how God will use them for growth.
Jesus bought our freedom with His blood. Before the Cross, we were bound by our sin, but now we have a choice. But it still our choice. We decide how to use this freedom. Unfortunately, part of having freedom is being free to make the wrong choices, too. But we are not free from the earthly consequences of sin. And freedom shouldn’t be mistaken for God's apathy toward our sins. He will still love us, but He will hate our decisions. And out of His love for us, don't be surprised if He goes out of His way to redirect and correct them if they become habits in our lives. When we see our kids in danger, we tend to throw tactful out the window. Sometimes God has to do the same with us. But as His children, we shouldn’t lose sight of the love that He is showing us, even in the harsh corrections.
One of the threats to our walk with God is becoming so hard-headed and rigid that we forget there are two sides of every coin. Work needs to be done, but we also need rest. We show patience and grace to others, but there’s a time for discipline and hard truth. The joy of God’s love should never leave us, but neither should the fear and awe of His power. Sometimes we try so hard to figure out God’s magic formula for our lives that we forget He created all of these concepts and intended for us to have a healthy blend of them. It’s Ecclesiastes 3 in motion. But how do we decide where the line is and exactly how much of each we need, and when? Simple, we don’t. The solution to the magical God formula comes from accepting that He is the only One who knows it. Being humble enough to submit to His will when you don’t know what His will is, that’s peace. Because He doesn’t usually give us the answers the way we want them. He tells us it’s time to rest by taking away our job unexpectedly. He tells us we need to be more patient by sending us people to test it. And if He decides you need a little more humility, well, I’ll be praying for you. But the only way He can truly teach us how to stop leaning on our own understanding is to send us situations beyond our comprehension. That’s how He develops the one thing we can never have too much of: Trust in Him.
We tend to use the fruits of the Spirit as a guide for our own behavior and actions, but they also give us insight into God’s character. His power and perfection can make it easy for us to paint Him as a tyrant in our minds. But if God’s Spirit is manifested by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, then I think it’s a safe bet that those could be used to describe Him. My kids love steak, and I cook a pretty good one. But if they asked me to cook it in the toaster, I’d slap them upside the head with a sirloin and tell them to get out of my kitchen. Our plans probably sound even more insane to God, so He has to lovingly redirect us a lot. But we shouldn’t lose sight of His love and joyful nature through these corrections. We should be grateful that He cares for us enough to not let us settle for our own plans. The Lord has all the power in the world, literally, but He uses it to show us those fruits of His Spirit. I imagine that God is pretty happy and upbeat, probably quick to draw a laugh or smile, and somehow maintains that even when we test His patience and self-control. He doesn’t boss us around to feed His ego. He just loves us too much to want us to do things the wrong way.