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Things Jesus Never Said: "Just Be A Good Person" · Main Thing Podcast

0:02
SPEAKER_00: Main Thing Podcast with Pastor Steve, equipping you to respond and thrive in the world we live in today.
0:08
SPEAKER_00: Keep the main thing the main thing has been a saying that Pastor Steve has told for decades.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: It means no matter what is happening around us, Jesus is what we need to have front and center in our lives.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: There couldn't be a more powerful reminder for us to recall in today's divisive and dark culture.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: From foundational truths and scripture to the hot topics of today's culture, allow this podcast to inspire and motivate you on your faith journey.
0:33
SPEAKER_04: Hi, well, welcome back to the Main Thing Podcast as we continue our series on things Jesus did not say.
0:40
SPEAKER_04: And so today, uh, Pastor Steve, we're going to be talking about three different things Jesus never said.
0:45
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
0:46
SPEAKER_04: But we love to say in our society.
0:48
SPEAKER_04: So let's start with this one.
0:50
SPEAKER_04: God helps those who help themselves.
0:52
SPEAKER_04: Why do we believe this so strongly, you think?
0:56
SPEAKER_01: Well, I think in America we have a natural work ethic, or we have had historically a natural work ethic, uh, where we believe a person gets up and they go to work and they take care of their obligations and their family and they do the right thing.
1:14
SPEAKER_01: And certainly that's good and just.
1:16
SPEAKER_01: I think it's correct thinking.
1:19
SPEAKER_01: But to impose that over that God helps those who help themselves, I think in our society is us saying that you make your own way.
1:29
SPEAKER_01: Uh you make your own luck, if you will, your your own outcome.
1:34
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and while there is some truth to that in a lot of ways, uh, there's nowhere in scripture is it found that God helps those who help themselves.
1:44
SPEAKER_01: Now he gave us gifts and talents and skills, and uh, we certainly should use those to be honoring to the Lord.
1:54
SPEAKER_01: Um, but but that that saying is not found anywhere in Scripture.
1:59
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you know, it reminds me when you say there's some some good in that statement.
2:04
SPEAKER_04: There is one of the things we talk about in New Member Class, is all the things we try to uh make what is going to give us satisfaction.
2:12
SPEAKER_04: Like I we put it this way.
2:15
SPEAKER_04: Uh, how would you answer, how would you finish the sentence, I would be happy if.
2:19
SPEAKER_04: You know?
2:19
SPEAKER_04: We talk about things like if I had the right house, I'd be happy.
2:22
SPEAKER_04: If I had enough money, I'd be happy.
2:24
SPEAKER_04: And a lot of those things we answer that question with are good things.
2:29
SPEAKER_04: You know, I tell them, hey, you know, my kids for some crazy reason, they like to eat every single day.
2:34
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
2:35
SPEAKER_04: You know, and they want to know what they're gonna eat tomorrow.
2:37
SPEAKER_04: So we gotta have money, we gotta have those things.
2:39
SPEAKER_04: But it's when you try to replace Jesus with those things, you think that's gonna be the end all and the same thing.
2:45
SPEAKER_04: Uh, you know, we don't want to just sit around and do nothing.
2:47
SPEAKER_04: Uh but that's right.
2:49
SPEAKER_04: But that's not gonna be the end all to be all.
2:51
SPEAKER_04: Uh so the verse I want to highlight today is Romans uh 3, 10 through 12.
2:56
SPEAKER_04: And uh here's what Paul says in this.
2:57
SPEAKER_04: He actually quotes the Old Testament.
2:59
SPEAKER_04: He says, as it is written, there's no one righteous, not even one.
3:04
SPEAKER_04: There's no one who understands, there's no one who seeks God.
3:07
SPEAKER_04: All have turned away, all alike have become worthless.
3:11
SPEAKER_04: There's no one who does what is good, not even one.
3:14
SPEAKER_04: You know, I read that verse and I can't imagine how many people out there are going, how how could they say that?
3:19
SPEAKER_04: That's terrible.
3:20
SPEAKER_04: Why do you think people so vehemently disagree with this?
3:24
SPEAKER_01: Well, because we for some reason have come to all believe that we're good people.
3:29
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we know the Bible teaches us, and more you read it there, but in more than one place, the Bible teaches us that we're not good people.
3:39
SPEAKER_01: We have a sin nature, we live in a fallen state.
3:43
SPEAKER_01: And here's the way I like to say it to people uh when I hear something about somebody, a lot of times my first thought is there's no way they did that.
3:54
SPEAKER_01: There's no way they did that.
3:56
SPEAKER_01: But I always have a little check in my spirit because uh I believe humans put in the wrong situation at the wrong time are capable of anything.
4:10
SPEAKER_01: I don't care who they are.
4:12
SPEAKER_01: Uh and and so uh we know if we're honest, we're not good people.
4:19
SPEAKER_01: Uh our nature is not to be good.
4:22
SPEAKER_01: And what I mean by that is our nature is to be selfish.
4:26
SPEAKER_01: That that's who we really are.
4:28
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
4:28
SPEAKER_01: And um, so yeah, I think we've we've uh fooled ourselves is what we've done.
4:35
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
4:35
SPEAKER_04: You know, that reminds me of uh Charles Spurgeon, very famous preacher back in the late 1800s.
4:41
SPEAKER_04: Uh one time uh one of his famous quotes is there but for the grace of God go I.
4:46
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
4:46
SPEAKER_04: And that was when he was walking through a prison.
4:48
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, he's telling himself, There but for the grace of God, go I.
4:52
SPEAKER_04: The way another preacher in Homer would put it is, uh, today's going well, but I got skills.
4:57
SPEAKER_01: I got skills.
4:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
4:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I can mess it up any moment.
5:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
5:01
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
5:01
SPEAKER_04: And I think I think that's where we mess up, right?
5:03
SPEAKER_04: Is when we think we can't mess it up.
5:05
SPEAKER_04: That's right.
5:05
SPEAKER_04: Is when we're most vulnerable.
5:07
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
5:07
SPEAKER_01: An unguarded strength.
5:09
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
5:09
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
5:10
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
5:10
SPEAKER_04: So that brings me to my next verse, Romans 5, 6.
5:14
SPEAKER_04: While we are still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.
5:19
SPEAKER_04: Talk about that that first part of that.
5:21
SPEAKER_04: Why do we need to know that we're helpless?
5:24
SPEAKER_01: Well, I think it's natural with a human being to want to be self-sufficient.
5:30
SPEAKER_01: I think that's part of the whole fall narrative is that we we want to believe we take care of ourselves, we handle our own business, we we accomplish things in our own um power, our own abilities.
5:48
SPEAKER_01: And the reality is uh there's very little we do in this life on our own.
5:54
SPEAKER_01: Uh, there are a lot of people from most everybody that have invested in them, tutored them, mentored them, helped them uh in their life's journey.
6:08
SPEAKER_01: And so um, you know, it's easy to think that that you got it all together, but the truth is uh I I hadn't met anybody that has just accomplished great things in life all by themselves.
6:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's not a reality.
6:25
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, same thing back in Deuteronomy.
6:27
SPEAKER_04: Moses is giving his last address to the Israelites.
6:30
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
6:31
SPEAKER_04: He says, you know, you you said your hand brought all this to you.
6:34
SPEAKER_04: But never forget God gave you the ability to work and the ability to earn what you did.
6:39
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
6:40
SPEAKER_04: And so many of us cannot acknowledge that.
6:42
SPEAKER_01: We have trouble acknowledging that.
6:44
SPEAKER_01: That's why a lot of people never tithe anything uh to ministry.
6:49
SPEAKER_01: I've had them say it to me.
6:50
SPEAKER_01: That's my money.
6:52
SPEAKER_01: I did that, you know.
6:54
SPEAKER_01: And when they do that, they're ignoring the very reality that God's given them breath in their lungs and good health and the blessing of uh a good avenue, whether they work a great job or own their own company or whatever.
7:08
SPEAKER_01: Uh they they think they've done all that.
7:11
SPEAKER_04: The physical skill comes from God, the intelligence comes from God.
7:14
SPEAKER_04: That's right.
7:15
SPEAKER_04: I think back to uh just when I was young, so many seemingly random things came together to bring me to this career.
7:24
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you know, nothing I did.
7:26
SPEAKER_04: You know, I I think back to how that happened.
7:29
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
7:29
SPEAKER_04: And you can see how God worked in that way.
7:33
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, one of the things me and me being 5'7, um, I I I go ahead and admit my problem to start with.
7:41
SPEAKER_01: You get these people that are 6'5, 6'6, 6'7, and and and more times than not, they're very arrogant uh about their height, you know, who they are.
7:53
SPEAKER_01: And I love to ask them when they go to talking about, so tell me how how did you accomplish that?
7:59
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
8:01
SPEAKER_01: How did you how did you become 6'6?
8:03
SPEAKER_01: How did you do that?
8:05
SPEAKER_01: Because the reality is you didn't do anything.
8:08
SPEAKER_01: Your mama and your daddy passed on some teens, and that's how you ended up 6'6.
8:13
SPEAKER_01: God bless you, proud for you.
8:16
SPEAKER_01: But let's be honest, you didn't accomplish that, you know.
8:20
SPEAKER_01: Now naturally they say, Well, you just mad, you're not 6'6.
8:24
SPEAKER_01: Well, they're right.
8:26
SPEAKER_01: I I am.
8:28
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but that's why I'm quick to remind them they didn't do that on their own.
8:32
SPEAKER_01: Right.
8:32
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
8:33
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
8:33
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
8:34
SPEAKER_04: Well, you know, if we can get past that, that it's all uh it's all us, if we can acknowledge our helplessness, I think the next kind of saying that that we we would say that Jesus never said is everything happens for a reason.
8:47
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
8:47
SPEAKER_04: Okay, that would be the next one.
8:49
SPEAKER_04: And you know what?
8:50
SPEAKER_04: Just like you said with the just like you said with the first one, there's some truth to that, you know?
8:56
SPEAKER_04: There are things that happen that God orchestrates, uh that that God causes to happen.
9:01
SPEAKER_04: But let's talk about Romans 8 28.
9:03
SPEAKER_04: And I think this is a verse that that can be easily misunderstood.
9:07
SPEAKER_04: Uh, but hopefully we can talk about it and bring some clarity.
9:11
SPEAKER_04: It says, We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God and who have been called according to his purpose.
9:18
SPEAKER_04: What does this verse say about everything happening for a reason?
9:22
SPEAKER_01: Well, we love to take scripture and apply it the way we want to apply it.
9:31
SPEAKER_01: You gotta be honest with what the scripture says.
9:35
SPEAKER_01: What it says is that everything works together for a reason.
9:42
SPEAKER_01: So, number one, that doesn't mean everything happens good.
9:47
SPEAKER_01: Uh, it doesn't mean everything happens the way you think it ought to happen.
9:51
SPEAKER_01: Uh, it doesn't mean you always get the answer to your prayers or your ambitions that you want, but that God will take whatever is in your life and and bring something positive, something good out of that situation.
10:09
SPEAKER_01: Um and there's a clarifier for his children.
10:14
SPEAKER_01: Right.
10:15
SPEAKER_01: For his children.
10:17
SPEAKER_01: Everything does not work out to the good for everybody.
10:21
SPEAKER_01: So people who have no relationship with holy God that might quote that verse are fooling themselves.
10:29
SPEAKER_01: Scripture doesn't promise that for you.
10:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
10:33
SPEAKER_04: You know, all of us here who've done funerals, we've probably heard so many different attempts by people to make sense of a tragedy.
10:42
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
10:43
SPEAKER_04: You know, I uh one of the ones that will always stick out in my mind is probably 20 years ago now I did a funeral uh for a teenage boy.
10:52
SPEAKER_04: And uh we're there at the funeral, they had just told me he had passed away.
10:58
SPEAKER_04: And one of their relatives came to me and says, Now, do you know how he passed away?
11:02
SPEAKER_04: And I said, No, I don't.
11:04
SPEAKER_04: So, well, he he uh he committed suicide.
11:07
SPEAKER_04: And I thought, that would have been some good information to have before I got up there to start uh doing a service.
11:13
SPEAKER_04: But he said, I you know, I think uh God just knew that's what he needed.
11:17
SPEAKER_04: So it was something stupid like that, you know?
11:19
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and talk about that, like you know, there are there are times I think people will say, well, you know, God this for God did this for good, but sometimes uh evil happens in the world.
11:32
SPEAKER_04: You know, and and how does God, I guess, work through the evil even though he doesn't come.
11:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we reach in our minds to the depths beyond where we even realize we can go to make sense of things, you know.
11:49
SPEAKER_01: Um it it's you see it played out in somebody lose a loved one.
11:54
SPEAKER_01: Well, the Lord's got another angel.
11:56
SPEAKER_01: Well, we know that people who pass on don't become angels.
12:00
SPEAKER_01: Angels are a created order, uh, they're not former human beings, right?
12:05
SPEAKER_01: But that gives that individual a sense of comfort to believe that their child became an angel or something like that.
12:15
SPEAKER_01: Um, the same thing, especially with something as terrible as suicide.
12:21
SPEAKER_01: Um a family will reach great depths to try to make sense of it.
12:26
SPEAKER_01: Uh and then just simple things like, well, he's happy now, he's finally got peace, uh, things like that.
12:34
SPEAKER_01: That makes them feel better.
12:35
SPEAKER_01: It's coping mechanisms for them, um, but it really doesn't address what happened at all.
12:45
unknown: Yeah.
12:45
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
12:46
SPEAKER_04: So so how do we work through these things where it is seemingly events with no no rhyme or reason to them?
12:53
SPEAKER_04: How how do we how do we keep our faith in that?
12:56
SPEAKER_04: You know, what do you tell somebody who's dealt with with something terrible like that?
12:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, you know, Jan and I uh buried one of our children with cancer um about thirty-eight, thirty thirty-seven, thirty-eight years ago now.
13:10
SPEAKER_01: Um and uh I sometimes I'm too simple to be a pastor.
13:19
SPEAKER_01: Um you know, we we took a month off and we went down to a friend's place and I think a seaside down around Panama City, and we spent a month down there, and uh, we came back and I went back to church to pick up where we had left off.
13:38
SPEAKER_01: We needed the time to grieve and and mourn and deal with everything, and we struggled like everyone else.
13:47
SPEAKER_01: We asked all the hard questions, we pounded the walls, we screamed at God.
13:53
SPEAKER_01: But at the end of the day, um, I believe he really is the Messiah, he really is on the throne, and and I knew I could trust him.
14:03
SPEAKER_01: And so I was so offended, I I got up and preached that Sunday, and I had several people come to me after church thanking me because they were afraid I was gonna resign that day.
14:19
SPEAKER_01: Now that tells you volumes if you think about it.
14:23
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we experienced about as bad of a tragedy as a human being can experience.
14:31
SPEAKER_01: And it was hard for us.
14:33
SPEAKER_01: I'm not sugarcoating it in any way.
14:36
SPEAKER_01: It's hard for everybody that goes through that.
14:39
SPEAKER_01: But they believed that our faith was not adequate to take us through that fire, which tells me that they probably did not have that.
14:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'd quit.
14:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's what I'd do.
14:58
SPEAKER_01: I I'd go bag groceries or something, you know.
15:01
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I was so offended by that.
15:05
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, the very essence of going in the ministry, I've told a lot of people over the years, is the call is to go.
15:14
SPEAKER_01: Now, sometimes God doesn't require you to go, but the call is still to go if God calls you to do so.
15:21
SPEAKER_01: And we have always just tried to trust the Lord wherever he's sent us, whatever he's asked us to do.
15:28
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we've always been willing to go to do it.
15:32
SPEAKER_01: And so did we understand all of it?
15:35
SPEAKER_01: Did we like it?
15:37
SPEAKER_01: Uh no, not at all.
15:40
SPEAKER_01: But we still believe God was on his throne.
15:44
SPEAKER_01: And it goes back to what you asked earlier.
15:47
SPEAKER_01: Okay, we we signed on to follow him.
15:50
SPEAKER_01: Does that change because the road gets rocky?
15:55
SPEAKER_04: You know, Chet and I talked about that in the last episode.
15:58
SPEAKER_04: Uh, because a lot of a lot of people still fall into what I guess what the philosophers philosophers would call moral therapeutic deism.
16:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
16:07
SPEAKER_04: I'm working hard to live a good life.
16:08
SPEAKER_04: God, you owe me a good life.
16:10
SPEAKER_04: You owe me.
16:11
SPEAKER_04: You owe me because of my my good behavior.
16:14
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
16:14
SPEAKER_04: And so uh I think so many people deep down, whether they'd say it or not, live with that belief.
16:21
SPEAKER_04: And I can think of times in my life where things didn't go right, and I was angry at God because it didn't go the way I thought it should.
16:26
SPEAKER_04: You know?
16:27
SPEAKER_04: And so we do find that because we think deep down we're good people going back to the first one.
16:31
SPEAKER_04: God helps us.
16:32
SPEAKER_01: We don't deserve how many times have you heard they don't deserve that?
16:37
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
16:38
SPEAKER_01: No, the truth is we deserve far worse than what we get.
16:45
SPEAKER_04: And man, I forget which theologian said this, but uh, it was a question, you know, he said it's not why do bad things happen to good people.
16:55
SPEAKER_04: The question really should be why do good things happen to bad people.
16:58
SPEAKER_04: That's right.
16:59
SPEAKER_04: You know, that's right.
17:00
SPEAKER_04: Why does God lavish the grace on us?
17:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, why does he give us this grace?
17:04
SPEAKER_01: Uh we are so blessed uh beyond measure.
17:09
SPEAKER_01: And um the nature of a fallen state, we don't see it.
17:14
SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
17:15
SPEAKER_04: And and we we have no perspective on just what kind of life we live, especially in this country.
17:21
SPEAKER_04: Yes, you know, yes, and so that brings us to the last thing Jesus never said, you need to be a good person.
17:27
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you know, yeah.
17:28
SPEAKER_04: So what's the danger?
17:30
SPEAKER_04: And we kind of already touched on it, but what's the danger of believing you're a good person?
17:34
SPEAKER_01: Well, you you live in a false reality.
17:38
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, when he was called good, asked him, why do you call me good?
17:41
SPEAKER_01: No one's good but God alone.
17:43
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, and so uh we get this false moral narrative.
17:50
SPEAKER_01: We line up, we justify who we are by believing we're good people.
17:55
SPEAKER_01: Uh what you were just saying, we believe we have a right to health and a good living and a nice home and good cars, and and it's amazing how it always comes back mostly to materialism.
18:09
SPEAKER_01: Uh we we have a right to be happy, we have a right to have things uh because we're a good person.
18:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
18:18
SPEAKER_01: And uh with the, you know, we got you and I both know God doesn't have a sin scale.
18:24
SPEAKER_01: Uh sin is sin.
18:26
SPEAKER_01: Anything that's disobedient to the Father is sin.
18:30
SPEAKER_01: And um the only one that I see in scripture that I think he qualified was when he says that uh if you harm one of these little ones, you'd be better to put a millstone around your neck than jump in, jump in the lake.
18:45
SPEAKER_01: Uh I think there's probably some serious punishment uh reserved for those who would hurt children and their innocence.
18:53
SPEAKER_01: But beyond that, what we like to do as humans is put a score on sin.
19:00
SPEAKER_01: You know, stealing is is bad, but it's not as bad as rape.
19:05
SPEAKER_01: And rape is horrible, but it's not as bad as murder.
19:09
SPEAKER_01: And that's the way we rationalize.
19:12
SPEAKER_01: You know, well, I don't beat my wife, I don't kick my dog, I don't cheat on my taxes.
19:18
SPEAKER_01: Don't know why God would have a problem with me.
19:20
SPEAKER_01: I'm a good dude.
19:21
SPEAKER_04: Well, not even that, but it, you know, today in the culture we live in, I never thought we'd come to a place, though, where even rape and murder and all those things are rationalized the way they are.
19:32
SPEAKER_01: It's it's just been in the news.
19:34
SPEAKER_01: It's unbelievable.
19:35
SPEAKER_04: You know?
19:36
SPEAKER_01: It's unbelievable.
19:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
19:38
SPEAKER_04: And so I I think we're coming to that point.
19:40
SPEAKER_04: We so believe that deep down we're good.
19:44
SPEAKER_04: That we have to rationalize even the the things that most people would look at and say, that's incredibly evil.
19:50
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
19:51
SPEAKER_04: You know?
19:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
19:52
SPEAKER_01: Well, and this is what the psychological community has done for us.
19:57
SPEAKER_01: Nobody sins anymore.
20:00
SPEAKER_01: Everybody's sick, everybody has a dysfunction, everybody has an illness, everybody has a disease.
20:09
SPEAKER_01: Just in my generation, um, no one would have called alcoholism a disease.
20:16
SPEAKER_01: Okay, it was a choice.
20:18
SPEAKER_01: And and we know that alcohol um has a genetic dispensation to or a disposition.
20:29
SPEAKER_01: Uh, certain people it grabs differently than other people.
20:32
SPEAKER_01: We know that medically.
20:34
SPEAKER_01: We get that.
20:35
SPEAKER_01: Um, but you you still make a choice before you become an alcoholic to start drinking or not.
20:44
SPEAKER_01: You know, but we don't want to acknowledge that.
20:46
SPEAKER_01: It's it's uh it's a disease.
20:48
SPEAKER_01: They can't help themselves.
20:50
SPEAKER_04: Well, and not only that, now uh you probably heard this, you know, the the word pedophile is going out of style.
20:56
SPEAKER_04: Now it's minor attracted person.
20:58
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I had not heard that.
21:00
SPEAKER_04: So that's it's like you're trying to make it seem legitimate.
21:05
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure that came from the NAMBLA organization.
21:08
SPEAKER_04: I'm sure it did, yeah.
21:09
SPEAKER_01: Uh North American Man-Boy Association, Love Association, yeah.
21:13
SPEAKER_01: Uh, which most people don't know is uh a group of sick uh homosexual individuals that are trying to push legislation all the time to normalize relationships with minor children.
21:29
unknown: Yeah.
21:29
SPEAKER_04: Once again, to that point, things that the vast majority of people look at and go, Oh my gosh.
21:34
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
21:35
SPEAKER_03: They're like, oh no.
21:36
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's it's normalized.
21:38
SPEAKER_04: Normalized.
21:39
SPEAKER_04: Because we think deep down we're good.
21:41
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
21:41
SPEAKER_04: Uh so that brings us to the verse, uh, Ephesians 2 8 and 10.
21:45
SPEAKER_04: Uh, for you're saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves.
21:49
SPEAKER_04: It's God's gift, not from works, so that no one can boast.
21:53
SPEAKER_04: For we are as workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.
22:00
SPEAKER_04: And it this first always brings back the memory of uh the first guy I ever had opportunity uh to lead to the Lord here in Homa.
22:08
SPEAKER_04: His name was Eddie, and he had been a college football player.
22:11
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
22:11
SPEAKER_04: And when I was, you know, sharing the gospel with him, I remember asking the question, what do you think it takes to have eternal life?
22:17
SPEAKER_04: He says, Well, I think you, you know, you have to be uh a pretty good person.
22:21
SPEAKER_04: And before I could say a word, he he said, but he said, How do you know when you've been good enough?
22:26
SPEAKER_04: And that's a question, right?
22:28
SPEAKER_04: You you can't.
22:28
SPEAKER_04: You can't.
22:29
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, he answered his own question.
22:31
SPEAKER_04: He didn't, and it was it was uh from that point, he he was ready to accept Christ because he had asked the right question.
22:38
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
22:39
SPEAKER_01: That's right, because you can't ever be good enough.
22:43
SPEAKER_01: Um that illustration I love to use about heaven being a perfect ten, um, and none of us are a perfect ten.
22:53
SPEAKER_01: So we come up short.
22:55
SPEAKER_01: Even people like Billy Graham and Mother Teresa, they're not a perfect ten.
23:00
SPEAKER_01: No human is.
23:01
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
23:02
SPEAKER_01: Um you know, so we need God's mercy and grace.
23:06
SPEAKER_01: And here's why I believe it's the way it is.
23:11
SPEAKER_01: The Bible tells us God is a jealous God.
23:16
SPEAKER_01: He demands adoration, respect, worship from us.
23:22
SPEAKER_01: And if we could do it on our own, we would worship ourselves, we would adore ourselves, we would respect ourselves.
23:31
SPEAKER_01: In fact, we do that to some to some extent now, and we're not perfect, right?
23:39
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but uh yeah, I think it God designed it the way He did, um, so that we could never claim that we were the one.
23:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
23:51
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and I think that just brings such a clarity to that to understand not just that we're not good enough, but that if we were, there would be disastrous consequences for it.
24:04
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
24:04
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we'd have the sin of pride all over us.
24:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
24:08
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
24:09
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
24:10
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, impossible for us to be perfect.
24:13
SPEAKER_04: So ultimately, you know, with all these these three sayings we've talked about today, the three things Jesus didn't say, um, how does knowing the truth of scripture then free us from these three uh three sayings?
24:25
SPEAKER_04: You know, just be a good person.
24:26
SPEAKER_04: God helps those who help themselves.
24:28
SPEAKER_04: Everything happens for a reason.
24:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
24:30
SPEAKER_01: Well, if you think about it, the word of God actually gives you freedom.
24:35
SPEAKER_01: Uh think about if you believe those things, the pressure that you've applied to your own daily life.
24:45
SPEAKER_01: So if your goal is to please God, you gotta be a good person, but then you have a day where you're not.
24:53
SPEAKER_01: How do you reconcile that?
24:56
SPEAKER_01: I was a good person most of the time, you know.
25:00
SPEAKER_01: Um, God helps those who help themselves.
25:04
SPEAKER_01: Um, but I accepted help at different times.
25:08
SPEAKER_01: I had other people help me succeed at different things.
25:12
SPEAKER_01: I wait a minute, how much do I have to help myself?
25:17
SPEAKER_01: So just like you were talking about the guy you led to the Lord, how do you know when you've done enough?
25:26
SPEAKER_01: And there's a whole segment of Christianity out there that believes their salvation is based on their good works.
25:34
SPEAKER_01: And I've had them say it to me many times.
25:38
SPEAKER_01: You try to be a good person, you work hard, you do all the right things, and you hope at the end of your life you've done enough and God's happy with you.
25:49
SPEAKER_01: What a terrible way to live.
25:51
SPEAKER_04: So I don't want to be on my deathbed hoping.
25:55
SPEAKER_04: Hoping in that moment.
25:56
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
25:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
25:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
25:57
SPEAKER_01: Because the word of God tells us, in particular in 1 John, that we can know that we have salvation in Christ Jesus is not a hope-so, it's a no-so.
26:09
SPEAKER_01: We don't have to wonder about that.
26:12
SPEAKER_04: You know, what I think one of the best illustrations I've ever heard to kind of help me understand this is from one of my favorite authors.
26:19
SPEAKER_04: It's a pastor in Oregon named Randy Alcorn, written a ton of books.
26:23
SPEAKER_04: And he says, you know, so much of us uh as people, we come to the high bar and say, I can't clear that.
26:31
SPEAKER_04: In other words, I can't be good enough for that standard.
26:34
SPEAKER_04: So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna lower it low enough so I can jump over it.
26:38
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
26:39
SPEAKER_04: Not realizing what God wants to do in our life is say, no, you can't, but I can lift you over that standard.
26:45
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I can lift you over the bar.
26:47
SPEAKER_04: And that that picture to me has been so good over the years, understanding uh what you know, trying to be good on your own really means.
26:54
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
26:54
SPEAKER_04: And it's we have we have no choice but to lower the standard.
26:57
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
26:58
SPEAKER_04: Because we know we can't reach God's standard.
26:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
27:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's good.
27:01
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
27:02
SPEAKER_04: Well, any last thoughts on these?
27:04
SPEAKER_01: Well, the reality is it goes back to your salvation is in Christ and Christ alone.
27:10
SPEAKER_01: It's in what he accomplished on the cross that you could not accomplish for yourself.
27:17
SPEAKER_01: And when you accept that and you live in that by faith, you live in freedom.
27:22
SPEAKER_01: You, you, you don't, you don't worry about these other things because they're not the most important thing.
27:28
SPEAKER_04: So we'll end with something Jesus did say you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.
27:34
SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
27:35
SPEAKER_04: Well, guys, that's it for today.
27:37
SPEAKER_04: Thanks so much for listening and uh watching with us.
27:39
SPEAKER_04: We'll hope to see you next time on the main thing podcast.