Latest / Relish: a Christian podcast / Unveiling Faith Through Trials

Transcript

Unveiling Faith Through Trials · Relish: a Christian podcast

• 0:00
  Music.
• 0:05
  To flavor, to be pleased or gratified by, enjoy.
• 0:09
  We are hoping that what we bring to your table today might add some spice to your life.
• 0:16
  Good morning, everyone. Good morning, Don. How's it going? So far, so good.
• 0:21
  You have a good Christmas? Christmas is over. Yeah. We're able to talk to all
• 0:25
  the children and all the grandchildren.
• 0:27
  Life is good. Got around to everybody. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And all the tasty treats, too.
• 0:33
  All right. I mean, that's really what Christmas is all about at my age,
• 0:37
  you know, it's tasty treats. Yep.
• 0:39
  Family food. Family food. We go by family feud and we go to family food.
• 0:45
  Yeah. Yeah. It's good stuff. All right. We'll hop right in.
• 0:49
  Okay. First question was, Satan demanded to have Peter before Peter denied Jesus three times.
• 0:58
  And does God let Satan have us?
• 1:02
  Oh. Oh, you're talking about when Jesus is talking to Peter right before he
• 1:08
  says he's going to deny him three times. Yeah.
• 1:10
  I have ESV and it was right.
• 1:14
  Yeah. That is a provocative piece.
• 1:19
  You want to read it? Yeah. I'm missing the part. Are you in Luke or Matthew?
• 1:23
  Oh, here. I'm in Luke 22, 31. Okay.
• 1:28
  Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like
• 1:32
  wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.
• 1:36
  And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.
• 1:38
  Peter said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.
• 1:42
  Jesus said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you
• 1:46
  deny three times that you know me. Yeah.
• 1:50
  Sort of spicy stuff, isn't it? To think that, well, in one way or another,
• 1:54
  we have to realize that our life is one way like Job.
• 2:02
  Satan is the accuser. He's always wanting to get us at the bad spot.
• 2:07
  And if he can get us at the bad spot and cause us to trip, that's what Satan wants to do.
• 2:13
  And so Jesus just makes it very graphic right here that this is what Satan's trying to do.
• 2:20
  And the sifting of Peter, well, even what he does to Judas, is evidence of how
• 2:31
  powerful Satan can be in the here and now.
• 2:34
  And I think Jesus makes this very clear to Peter so that Peter understands this
• 2:42
  battle, if you will, that goes on between Peter.
• 2:47
  That tries to get in the way of us getting to God. And so he says, he's asked to sift you.
• 2:55
  And that really sounds like Job. I mean, basically, Satan was saying to Job,
• 3:01
  well, or to God that, hey, Job has no problems. So why doesn't he have faith in you?
• 3:06
  He should have faith. He's got everything. You've got everything.
• 3:10
  So God gives permission, if you will, for Satan to do what Satan does in Job's life.
• 3:18
  In the same way, Satan knows that at the cross of Jesus Christ,
• 3:24
  everything is going to change.
• 3:26
  I mean, as far as demonic influence, everything changes at the cross of Jesus Christ.
• 3:33
  And Satan was wanting Simon because he knew that he was going to be an outspoken
• 3:40
  voice for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• 3:44
  So he asked for that opportunity.
• 3:48
  Jesus is making sure that Peter knows this is coming up.
• 3:54
  Now, for some reason, I haven't been able to find that. Pray that you will not. Okay.
• 3:59
  2231. There we go. Usually those things in my Bible are highlighted.
• 4:06
  It's a sift you as wheat. Yeah. And I don't know whether you understand that
• 4:11
  imagery, but wheat not only has the outer shell as it goes and grows,
• 4:20
  but it has a little tight shell around the chaff. Chaff is what it becomes.
• 4:28
  And so in order for wheat to be pure and able to be ground for flour,
• 4:33
  then that has to all go away.
• 4:35
  Okay. And so, the sifting is to get to the pure stuff.
• 4:42
  Peter's denial illuminates the fact, illustrates the fact that Peter is human.
• 4:50
  And like many of us in a tight spot, he denies Christ at a very critical time.
• 4:57
  In fact, three critical times.
• 4:59
  And people, oh, I know you're Galilean. I can tell by your accent.
• 5:03
  That kind of thing. They knew who he was, but he would deny that he had been with Jesus.
• 5:08
  What we don't have here is in John's gospel in chapter 21, Jesus and Peter go
• 5:16
  through a dialogue where Peter is reinstated, if you will, after this happens.
• 5:23
  Now, did I miss the other part of that question?
• 5:27
  Well, I'll ask a follow-up question, but like, so the, God will let Satan like
• 5:34
  have us or mess with us for our own like strengthening in our faith?
• 5:39
  Like he knows that through what Satan does, it'll make us stronger in the end?
• 5:43
  He does. And he illustrates, James talks about that in chapter one,
• 5:46
  verses two through four, consider it pure joy, my brothers,
• 5:50
  when you endure trials of many kinds, because you know, the testing of your
• 5:54
  faith develops perseverance and perseverance when it's finished its work,
• 5:58
  leaves you mature and complete, not lacking anything.
• 6:01
  Paul would use more or less the same terminology in Romans 5,
• 6:05
  so that while he doesn't speak of it being Satan doing it,
• 6:11
  the process of going through tests and trials is a way of developing faith.
• 6:17
  So in Romans 5, verses 1 through 5, it says, Therefore, since we've been justified
• 6:22
  through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
• 6:26
  through whom we've gained access by faith into the grace in which we now stand,
• 6:32
  and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
• 6:36
  Not only so, but we rejoice in our sufferings. Have you ever done that? I mean, really?
• 6:42
  When things go rotten, do we go out and rejoice in our sufferings?
• 6:47
  But this is what Paul's talking about, because we know that suffering produces
• 6:52
  perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope.
• 6:56
  And hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out his love into our
• 7:01
  hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us.
• 7:05
  So while Jesus was telling Peter that he had been given, that Satan had asked
• 7:13
  for him so that he might be sifted.
• 7:16
  In reality, we're all in those tests and trials and suffering to see what's our hope made up.
• 7:24
  I mean, what's the reality of what gets you through from this day to the next?
• 7:29
  I mean, say you're in a situation where you lose your job, there's illness in
• 7:34
  your family, your car breaks down, your home's being repossessed.
• 7:40
  What gets you through a trial like that.
• 7:43
  There has to be something out there that gets you through to the next moment. And that's hope.
• 7:51
  So this, I guess you could boil it down, if you really want to boil it down,
• 7:56
  you could say Satan's desire is to take away our hope, any hope we have.
• 8:04
  And if he can destroy our hope, especially the hope we put in Jesus Christ.
• 8:10
  He's won and we just that's one of the reasons why we as christians spend time in our devotions,
• 8:20
  our bible reading those activities that make us solid in our hope because that
• 8:29
  that's and that's where satan wanted to get simon he wanted to destroy simon's
• 8:34
  hope what better night to do it than on the night of the betrayal?
• 8:39
  Well, he could maybe say, well, Judas was the one that he betrayed.
• 8:43
  I mean, in reality, he did too, three times.
• 8:47
  So that's a really good question. It kind of swings right into the next one. Okay. What a swing?
• 8:54
  When Satan plays with us, we can give in.
• 9:00
  And if that happens, then there's like a stronghold in our life, right?
• 9:06
  So how do we prevent strongholds and how do we prevent Satan having that control in our life?
• 9:16
  Oh boy, you outlined that quite well.
• 9:19
  Yes. Any decision we make can give leeway for a stronghold for Satan to hold us.
• 9:28
  And he wants those hooks in us so that he can pull us away from God.
• 9:35
  But we have to acknowledge the fact that we're always exposed to them,
• 9:39
  and we're exposed to them in places sometimes we don't even realize.
• 9:44
  I, first of all, recognize and confess that whatever it is that's trying to
• 9:52
  influence us is getting some of the job done.
• 9:57
  1 John 1, 9 says, confess your sins, and he is faithful and just and will forgive
• 10:03
  us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
• 10:06
  And I think we always stick that way up here and say, well, that's for these
• 10:09
  great big sins that we do.
• 10:11
  And I would say, even if I look at a picture I shouldn't be looking at,
• 10:16
  I need to confess that. I need to put that before God.
• 10:19
  If I have a hateful thought towards a brother. I need to confess that and put that before God.
• 10:25
  Because what's interesting about Satan, and he knows us way too well,
• 10:31
  is he'll take that little litty thing and wind it up into some major unforgiveness.
• 10:38
  Unforgiveness. So somebody cuts in front of us in traffic,
• 10:44
  And we allow it to ruin our whole
• 10:45
  day? I mean, really, it's our choice to allow it to ruin our whole day.
• 10:51
  So those little strongholds, we have to constantly confess and move beyond them.
• 10:58
  I practice what I've been learning in deeper walk is the fact.
• 11:02
  So I confess, I bind it as if it's a major demon in my life.
• 11:10
  I command it to the cross of Christ for Christ to deal with as he will.
• 11:16
  And then I take time to recalculate my life as to where I'm,
• 11:21
  what do I want to do with either this time or this situation or whether whatever
• 11:26
  exposed me to that kind of stronghold so that I don't take hold of it in the future again.
• 11:33
  Minimize. I mean, we could minimize our exposure. I mean, we could minimize
• 11:38
  our exposure and live in little houses, on little streets,
• 11:43
  off the beaten path, all to ourselves, you know, but in reality,
• 11:47
  we will encounter as much exposure to sin anywhere we're at,
• 11:55
  because we can do that even within our own mind. Yeah.
• 12:00
  So. We mess with ourselves. We mess with ourselves. Sometimes we're our own
• 12:04
  worst enemy. by the way we think.
• 12:07
  And we have to be aware that not all our thoughts are our own,
• 12:13
  that Satan works with our thinking and starts to nudge us around once in a while and trip us up.
• 12:19
  And so it's all got to come back to the Bible, back to the cross,
• 12:25
  back to who we understand Jesus Christ is our Savior to be.
• 12:29
  And that sounds like a lot of work. I think one of the things that helps me adjust that is worship.
• 12:36
  Definitely, yeah. Yeah, spend part of my day in worship and then focus on who
• 12:40
  God is and who he's calling me to be.
• 12:43
  Yeah. Yeah, those strongholds. Yeah. I think we think of strongholds or footholds
• 12:50
  as being steps, like great big concrete steps.
• 12:53
  And they could just be a toehold, just a little bit, that draws us off.
• 12:59
  Yeah, and like confessing it before, like when it's just something little,
• 13:02
  before it comes a big, yeah, a big thing. Right.
• 13:07
  Yeah, sin, occult, unforgiveness, and lies that we tell ourselves or we believed others have told us.
• 13:17
  Those are four things that can create those soul ties, bonds,
• 13:23
  that pull us away from God. They're actually, if you will, permissions we've given to Satan.
• 13:30
  Those are permissions that we've given to Satan to work. And so we don't want to let him work.
• 13:35
  Take that away from him. Yeah, he don't need that know-how.
• 13:42
  Good question. Good answer. Wow.
• 13:47
  You got a whole lot more like those. I do. Oh, you do? God bless you.
• 13:55
  It's kind of fun coming up with them is okay i can tell you're getting some
• 13:59
  joy out of that see if i can ever fool you stumped on it's always been the game
• 14:05
  to stumped on yeah never have yeah alex is out there rooting for you i can tell i can learn from here.
• 14:13
  Okay so this one is kind of in our history classes we've learned about other
• 14:19
  religions some and other religions stand differently.
• 14:23
  But are we created morally good or morally evil? Yes.
• 14:30
  Well, there...
• 14:33
  If you go back, there's a tendency in our nature, because of the fall,
• 14:39
  there's a tendency in our nature to do evil, to be bad, to be naughty,
• 14:45
  if you will. I don't know what term you want to use.
• 14:48
  And what's interesting is that changed in chapter three of Genesis,
• 14:53
  because we were not originally created that way.
• 14:56
  We were created in God's image.
• 15:00
  We were created to be in fellowship with God.
• 15:05
  But what changed was that even in that close fellowship in the garden,
• 15:11
  God had set up these two trees, the tree of eternal life and the tree of the
• 15:18
  knowledge of good and evil.
• 15:19
  And he said, you just leave those trees be. But yet he created them.
• 15:25
  Because he gave us freedom of choice. We could not eat of those trees,
• 15:30
  enjoy the garden forever and ever. Amen.
• 15:33
  Or like Eve.
• 15:37
  Took some of the fruit, ate of the fruit, and exposed the next generations,
• 15:42
  including our own, to sin.
• 15:46
  It's like it got in our DNA, because when we get to Psalm 51,
• 15:50
  David would talk about the fact that I was born in iniquity from my mother's womb.
• 15:58
  Well, that's pretty early in our life, though. I don't know whether you've watched
• 16:01
  children, but children, oh, they're nice and cuddly and that cute stage goes away.
• 16:09
  And all of a sudden, they're pulling all the dishes out of the cupboard.
• 16:12
  And it's as if you watch them really close, they'll pull those dishes out and
• 16:19
  look at you like, did you see me do that?
• 16:23
  Did you see me do that? And so we begin
• 16:26
  to understand that that nature is somehow biologically trained
• 16:31
  on us in us and yeah so
• 16:34
  there is some nature that we
• 16:38
  can choose to be part of or not be part of but it still goes back to that freedom
• 16:42
  to choose so it's on both and so both yeah yeah sometimes absolutes can get
• 16:50
  you in trouble yeah so if Absolutely go into either camp. That just doesn't. Yeah.
• 16:56
  Doesn't ring well with the Bible either. I mean, a lot of what Jesus was talking
• 17:00
  about, especially in Sermon on the Mount, didn't take it to one end or the other extreme. So, yeah.
• 17:06
  Good question. Did I answer the whole thing? You did. Yeah. Okay.
• 17:10
  Okay. Believe that wraps it up for today's episode. Okay.
• 17:14
  Thanks for your answers, Don. Well, thanks for joining us guys.
• 17:18
  We'll see you next time. Lord willing.
• 17:23
  Thank you for joining us for this podcast feel free to become part of this ministry
• 17:27
  by sharing with others our goal is to help each other grow deeper in our understanding
• 17:31
  of who god is and is calling to us in our daily lives thank you again for joining
• 17:35
  us and may god bless your day.