Latest / #Faith4TodayPodcast / John 8: Jesus the Liberating Light — Freedom from Sin & Shame

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John 8: Jesus the Liberating Light — Freedom from Sin & Shame · #Faith4TodayPodcast

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  Like you can't disciple a demon and you can't cast out the flesh
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  or laziness. Just like you can kind of trap
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  light or block light from going certain places.
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  There is a way in which we allow shadows to keep looming larger
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  and larger in the soul and in our hearts.
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  So anywhere we are kind of refracting light where we take
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  light and we refract it or redirect it maybe is the better
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  way and and we're not allowing the light to fully come into our
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  heart and soul. We diffuse it, it can create, it
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  can create shadows. And I think that for us, the
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  light might be shining, but there are areas of our secrecy,
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  of our habits, of our unwillingness to walk fully in
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  the light that we kind of block or redirect the light and it
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  casts a shadow in places of our soul.
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  And welcome to another episode of the Faith for Today podcast.
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  Today, episode 36. Our hope and our desire is to
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  help you feel inspired in the message, but integrate those
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  truths into a life of faith. Even on a Thursday.
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  What we're going to do, we're going to, we're going to tackle
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  a recap from a recent message. We're going to jump into some
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  bonus content kind of telling you a little bit more about the
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  subject and the message, kind of diving a little bit deeper.
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  And then I'm going to take some time and respond to some
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  questions. If you're just joining in, man,
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  thanks for for watching, Thanks for being here.
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  Thanks for finding your way here.
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  We put this resource out as really a a supplement to your
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  own discipleship. We really, truly want to help
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  you follow Jesus faithfully, living with an embodied loyalty
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  and trust in him. And so we want to help you have
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  faith for today. Well, today in the episode,
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  we're going to look at John chapter 8.
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  And this is where Jesus meets a woman who is caught in adultery.
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  We saw how Jesus revealed Himself as the liberating light
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  of the world in this chapter. Now the crowd came ready to
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  condemn her, weaponizing her sin while ignoring their own Jesus.
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  Instead of joining in their double standard, He levels the
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  playing field with a quiet with a quiet strength.
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  He rode in the dirt, slowed the moment down, and gave dignity to
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  a woman who was just drowning in shame.
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  He didn't label her by her worst failure.
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  He spoke with compassion, showing that the one who could
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  have condemned her chose instead to bear her condemnation
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  himself. I think that's at the heart of
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  the gospel. The echoing truth of the gospel
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  is this, that Jesus liberates us from shame, not by excusing sin,
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  but by meeting us with the truth and liberating us from our
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  shame. But Jesus doesn't just free us
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  from shame, he also frees us from sin and deception.
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  The scripture reminds us that sin isn't just a bad behavior,
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  quote UN quote. It's a power that enslaves.
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  It's a, it's a decision that we cooperate with.
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  It's a contagion that spreads like a broken virus in our
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  world. And and Jesus, the light of the
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  world, exposes what's hidden in the dark.
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  His light doesn't exaggerate our sin, nor does it minimize it.
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  It shows it for what it is. And then he brings healing
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  through confession and forgiveness.
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  At the same time, Jesus exposes the lies of the enemy, the
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  accusations that tell us that we're worthless.
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  And in Christ there is no condemnation, that the truth
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  sets us free and the Spirit seals us.
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  The water of baptism reminds us that our shame is washed away.
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  The call for us is really simple, but yet really profound.
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  Believe in Jesus as the righteous judge and merciful
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  mediator and let His light shine into the dark corners of our
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  life. Without Jesus, sin and shame
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  have the last word in our life. But with Jesus, we step into
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  freedom, a freedom from sins penalty, a freedom from the lies
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  that hold us captive and a freedom to walk in joy as
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  beloved children of God. And that's the power and the
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  beauty of what we saw this and and discovered in John chapter
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  in John chapter 8. And let's get into some bonus
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  content. What the first thing I want to
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  mention is that in this scripture, when you're reading
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  in John chapter 8, you'll notice that it says that some of the
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  earliest manuscripts kind of has that in parentheses, a
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  parenthetical note state stating that the earliest manuscripts
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  don't have this section included in their copies, but they do
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  show up in later manuscripts. I love that the Bible is just
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  honest about this, that hey, we've got a ton of copies of
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  this and some of the earliest ones don't include this.
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  Some of the later ones do include this.
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  And so we're going to let you read it and see it and let you
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  know that hey, it it's not in some, but it is in some of the
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  others. And so just heads up on that.
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  I, I love that there's just some honesty around that.
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  I, I doesn't mean that the Bible has errors or it's has
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  discrepancies. And, and I know there are some
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  people out there who have written on this, but there's a
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  whole host of scholars and a scholarly work, even even
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  scientific work known as contextual criticism in other
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  areas where where they've really come to to identify that the
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  Bible, especially the New Testament, has such valid
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  standing. In other words, that the copies
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  that we have far outnumber the copies of any other ancient
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  texts. And the dating period of when
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  they were written are much shorter or sooner after the
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  events themselves than any other historical document than what we
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  really have more than some of the things that we read in Rome
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  and history and in other contexts.
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  And so it's really important from a from a scholarly
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  standpoint, the Bible itself is a trustworthy resource.
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  Now, whether or not you believe what's written in the Bible,
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  whether you like what's written in the Bible, whether or not you
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  submit to what is written in the Bible, that's a different
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  subject, a different topic. But scholars who understand how
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  ancient text came to be have a lot to say about the validity of
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  the text themselves, the trustworthy nature of what is
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  written in these in these texts. And guys like Wes Huff, who are
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  all over the Internet these days, does a ton of great
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  research and teaching and resource about ancient texts and
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  how we can trust them. And so if you're interested in
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  that, go, go look there. But because it is mentioned kind
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  of in a footnote or a forenote in the Scriptures, I wanted to
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  mention it here. And the next thing I wanted to
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  say, kind of talking about the, the message a little bit more
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  is, is to highlight the fact that judgment is such a key
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  theme in the entirety of the chapter, right?
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  You have judges and defendants and accusers and laws that need
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  to be interpreted and they're sentencing that is being waiting
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  for in this interchange with Jesus and the Pharisees and this
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  woman caught in, in this adulterous act.
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  There are witnesses that should be present and, and Jesus
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  himself after the, the, these, these first 10 verses.
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  In fact, the 1st 11 verses kind of illustrate the truths that
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  Jesus would later teach and stayed in the rest of John
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  chapter 8 where he talks about judgement and condemnation of
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  sin and shame and reliable witnesses and how he sets us
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  free from shame and sin and death and, and, and how he's a
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  reliable witness and his testimony is trustworthy, true
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  and reliable. And, and he's our witness, which
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  is great because when we confess him before man God, Jesus said
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  that he would confess us before God in heaven.
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  And so when we witness of him, he's witness of us and he
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  witnesses us us man. His testimony is trustworthy and
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  and reliable and and Jesus is a trustworthy, reliable witness to
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  the things of God, to the reality of heaven, and to the
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  the will of God on the earth. In fact, so much of the book of
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  John is indeed a written so that we might believe in God who is
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  Jesus, that we might believe in Jesus.
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  And Jesus himself in the beginning of John said that he
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  is the one who reveals the Father to us and and shows us.
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  And if we've seen Jesus, then we've seen the Father in heaven.
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  And so Jesus is a trustworthy, reliable witness.
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  And that's a good news for you and me.
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  One, we can trust what He says. And two, we know that He's a
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  witness on our behalf as our mediator in heaven, as Scripture
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  kind of talks about. And so if his witness is
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  trustworthy, if it is true, if it's reliable within, then what
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  he is advocating for us when he is mediating on our behalf, when
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  he is presenting to the Father things on our behalf,
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  intercession for us. Well, that's a trustworthy and
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  reliable, reliable thing. One of the things that I hit
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  real quick in the kind of top part of the message was talking
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  about numbers Chapter 5, where there is a way in which the law
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  should be kind of executed or justice gone about in terms of
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  the trial around of jealousy. So if there were not 2 witnesses
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  present to bring a valid case against someone who had
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  committed, you know, adultery in this case, then there was a
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  provision in the law in which if there was suspicion and the
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  spouse wanted who was suspicious of his wife or her bringing them
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  before the the, the Pharisees, before the priest rather.
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  And there was a whole ceremony that involved kind of a bitter
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  drink from dirt and holy water mixed together that there was
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  something interesting that occurred that, that that's how
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  you could determine whether somebody was guilty or innocent.
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  And even when there was suspicion of something coming
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  about. And so I, I want to read to you
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  a little bit more on this. In fact, in the book, God is on
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  your side, the author. It's been a great kind of
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  companion for, for me in this. It's been a great study resource
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  as we study the book of John. It kind of has has come about
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  for us. And in the book God is on Your
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  Side, it says this of this kind of trial of jealousy.
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  It says in the Old Testament the trial of jealousy was for
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  assessing a spouse a spouses suspected suspected of adultery
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  when No2 witnesses were present to provide hard evidence.
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  Now check out the parallels he says between John A passage and
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  the Numbers 5 account. It says this the suspect was
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  brought before the priest at the temple, or similar to how this
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  woman was brought before Jesus, who is presented like a priest
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  in the surrounding passage in the temple courts.
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  Then the priest swept dirt from the ground into an earthen cup
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  filled with holy water and wrote down the curses of the law
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  against the suspect, similar to how Jesus here writes in the
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  dirt presumably against the Old Testament backdrop regarding the
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  accusations against against the woman.
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  Now the curses were then mixed into the holy water in the
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  earthen vessels, similar how Jesus had just been depicted as
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  the earthen vessel containing living water from the true
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  temple. And then next a grain offering
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  of barley was was burnt on the altar similar to how Jesus was
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  just had just been depicted through a miracle with barley
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  bread as the bread of life who offers himself sacrificially for
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  wayward and needy people. Finally the accused would then
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  drink the bitter water and it would surface in their guilt or
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  it would surface their guilt or innocence.
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  If they were guilty, their belly would swell and thigh would fall
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  away quote UN quote in bitter pain.
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  If innocent they would go free to be fruitful.
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  Jesus does surface the woman's guilt, telling her to go and sin
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  no more, yet doesn't condemn her.
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  More on that in a moment. Interestingly, he says Jesus's
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  test also brings hidden guilt to light the guilt of her accusers
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  as he walks through the law of Moses to expose them before it's
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  before it's elevated bar. In other words, Jesus had
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  elevated the bar of what is and isn't a sin, what is and isn't
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  in the law and kind of was walking those things out in
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  them. And so this this parallel
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  between the the trial of jealousy and what it which is
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  found in numbers chapter 5, a really interesting ceremony and
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  what Jesus does in the dirt with this woman is just really,
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  really remarkable. I, I love the idea that Jesus
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  while on the cross took a cup, a bitter cup, drank this wine that
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  had been sour and bitter and just turning of his stomach
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  again, I believe representing a physical embodiment moment on
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  the cross where Jesus took all of our shame, the bitterness and
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  the souring that happens in our soul when we feel shame and
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  guilt. Jesus took physically and drank
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  a bitter cup, taking our shame and our guilt on the cross.
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  And see, Jesus broke the power of the law not by lowering its
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  demands, but by raising them and fulfilling them himself.
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  I think this is really important.
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  Jesus doesn't dismiss or lower the demands of God.
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  He elevates what they are, puts grace over us and allows us to
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  walk in the fullness of the Spirit, allows all of us to be
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  recipients of his mercy, to be recipients of of people that
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  could have their shame, wash their guilt, remove the their
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  their conscience, cleanse that Jesus made that possible for us,
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  that Jesus does that for us. And I love that picture, that
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  complete picture. And I think it's important.
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  There's a lot of times where we think like, well, Jesus doesn't
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  condemn people and Jesus doesn't think a big note, sin is sin is
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  sin. It fractures, it hurts, it
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  breaks. It's it's the language that
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  Scripture uses to talk about the toxic reality of our world and
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  what is broken in humanity and in our midst.
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  And so I think it's important to to note that Jesus doesn't
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  dismiss or diminish or over exaggerate sin and, and, and
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  that the evil in our world, but rather he recognizes it holds
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  the standard high and gives us the strength of the Spirit to
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  walk towards him into newness of, of life.
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  That there's something beautiful that God invites us into.
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  And and I'm so, so thankful for that.
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  Again, we this whole passage has a lot to do with judgement.
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  Where, where we where, where we're judging here.
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  They were trying to judge her and and Jesus was not letting
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  them deal with the plank or the speck in her eye, making them
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  deal with the plank in their own eye before they did that.
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  Talking about this is kind of a, a visual, a living example of
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  the teaching where Jesus kind of applies the his own teachings
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  to, to, to matters like this. And in the Bible, you know, it
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  talks about judge not lest you be judged, right.
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  We hear that quoted a lot. Most of the time we hear it
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  quoted when people feel judged by other people, then they toss
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  it back on them often times to ease their guilt.
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  It's not that when we say I don't judge me, you don't get to
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  judge me. Only God gets to judge me Often
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  what we're saying is don't point out my sin.
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  I don't even want to look at my sin.
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  I don't want to talk about my sin.
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  I'm trying to ignore my sin and that's not the proper
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  interpretation or application of the truth.
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  Judge not, lest you be judged. In the Bible, the again, the
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  Scripture that we have, it's Hebrew, Aramaic, it's Greek, all
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  transliterated into English. And so words that maybe we have
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  one word for, they have multiple words for.
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  And so there are different types of judgment, different words
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  used for judgment. And so when Jesus tells us not
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  to judge, but then to judge there, there seems to be a, a
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  duplicitousness to that, but there isn't.
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  So when you look a little bit deeper and you understand that,
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  that there are different words used for judge our English word
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  judgment in the New Testament, you begin to see that there is a
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  difference between, I'm going to use these English words between
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  being judgey and having judgment.
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  There's a difference between sentencing and deciding
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  something, and that in essence is the difference between the
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  types of judgment in Scripture. Now there are more applications
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  and more nuance to it, but those are the big ideas as it relates
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  to the distinctions between judgment.
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  So when Jesus tells us not to judge others, he's not saying
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  don't use discernment to decide whether something is good or
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  bad. That's not what he's saying to
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  to decide whether something is sinful or unsinful.
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  What he's saying is don't judge or sentence and condemn other
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  people. We ought not write people off
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  because of their sinful behavior in In other words, we don't get
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  to determine what God will do with someone.
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  Only God gets to determine what he's going to do with someone.
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  That doesn't mean we don't get to determine, decide, or
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  distinguish between good behavior and wrong behavior,
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  between constructive behavior and destructive behavior.
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  No, we have to be able to discern and decide and use
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  judgment to right and wrong, use judgment in determining whether
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  or not that's beneficial for society or not beneficial for
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  society, whether that relates to flourishing versus to lead to a
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  flourishing life that's going to do damage to family versus
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  that's going to promote healthy family.
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  Like, no, no, we still make those judgments.
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  But what we don't do is wholesale condemn somebody.
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  We don't damn a people to hell. We don't sentence them in the
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  sense of eternal sentencing. There is a distinction there
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  between judgment and judgment, judginess and judgment.
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  Sentencing or condemning and deciding and determining, they
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  are different and one we aren't supposed to do because that's
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  God's job, and one we are supposed to do because that's
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  wisdom. And I think it's important for
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  us to know the difference. There's also a difference
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  between conviction and condemnation, guilt and shame.
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  In fact, conviction and guilt, hear me, are from God.
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  They are gifts from God. They are warnings and alert
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  systems to us that what we are doing is detrimental to our
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  soul. Much like this, the nervous
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  systems in your body where you touch something hot, it throws
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  signals to your brain to let you know, don't keep doing that pain
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  will ensue. That's what guilt is for, and
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  that's what conviction is for. They are gifts of God to us
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  through His Spirit to keep us from doing things that are
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  detrimental to ourselves, to society, and to others around
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  us. Conviction, like guilt, is an
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  invitation into a deeper, richer, more true connection
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  with God. Can I say it again?
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  Conviction is an invitation into deeper, richer, more true
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  connection with God. Condemnation are things that
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  Satan brings to us to convince us that God doesn't want us or
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  love us or is unwilling to accept us.
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  Condemnation is a distorted lie of the conviction that God wants
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  to bring. Remember John?
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  John 8 tells us Jesus was teaching.
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  He says the enemy is the liar. Every time he opens his mouth,
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  he says he is speaking his native tongue, which is to tell
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  a lie. He, he, he is the father of
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  lies. God is the father of truth.
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  Everything that God creates, Satan counterfeits.
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  Satan distorts, Satan deceives. Satan manipulates.
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  Satan twists. Satan tries to convince us is is
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  is something that it's not. It's a false substitute, and so
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  where God would come and convict us of sin so that we would
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  connect back with him, Satan will come and condemn us through
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  lies and distortions and twist, convincing us that we aren't
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  accepted by God. One draws us away from God while
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  the other invites us closer to God.
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  So conviction and condemnation are not the same.
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  Guilt and shame are not the same.
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  Guilt, like conviction, is a gift and an invitation from God
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  into deeper connection. Condemnation and shame are tools
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  of the enemy that distort us and keep us isolated and detraction.
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  And it takes us away from rich connection with God.
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  We talked a little bit about shame in the message and I and I
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  want to reread to you a definition of a shame cycle.
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  So many people that I know, myself included, have wrestled
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  with or walk through and have to deal with shame cycles now.
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  A shame cycle is the repeated pattern in which a person after
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  sin, failure, or perceived inadequacy, internalizes guilt
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  as an identity or shame. Like I am bad rather than I did
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  something that was wrong. This distorted belief, also
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  known as a lie, it leads to hiding, self condemnation,
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  destructive coping behaviors which in turn reinforce the
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  sense of unworthiness and it drives the person further from
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  God and drives us further from healthy community.
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  Now psychology would describe the shame cycle as a self
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  reinforcing loop failure, shame, withdrawal, withdrawal and
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  defensiveness, unhealthy coping, and then more failure and shame
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  as a result. Let me give you some maybe some
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  examples of how these shame cycles play out in in real life,
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  in real time. Let's take substance or
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  addictions, habitual sins. Someone gets triggered, a person
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  feels stressed, they feel lonely, they feel like a
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  failure. So what do they do?
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  They turn to alcohol, pornography, needless shopping
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  or another coping mechanism to numb the pain.
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  Then they feel shame afterwards, they feel guilty and they
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  condemn themselves. I'm disgusting.
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  I'll never change. This always happens and they
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  hide it from other people and the cycle continues.
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  The secrecy and isolation only increase their loneliness and
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  stress, driving them back to the same behavior and action.
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  Romans 7 verse 19 says for I do not do the things or the good
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  that I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on on
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  doing. In other words, we keep
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  repeating these sin cycles because of shame.
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  It just cycles back through. Let me give you another example.
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  A student or a parent or an employee sets, sets really
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  impossible sets some really high standards.
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  They inevitably don't live up to those standards and they fall
• 25:58
  short. And instead of seeing it as a
• 26:01
  learning process, they begin to internalize the failure,
• 26:04
  thinking I'm not good enough, I'm not wanted, I'm not
• 26:09
  successful. And then the cycle to escape the
• 26:12
  shame, they double down, they overwork, they people please,
• 26:16
  they create codependent relationships and they over
• 26:20
  exert themselves, always saying yes and never saying no, having
• 26:24
  0 boundaries. And eventually it leads them to
• 26:27
  burnout and more failure, reinforcing the lie of
• 26:32
  unworthiness. This is why Galatians talks
• 26:35
  about at the beginning, you started by the spirit, but now
• 26:39
  you're finishing by the flesh. You just keep in this
• 26:43
  performance based identity perfectionism cycle.
• 26:47
  Or let's see, here's a here's a third example.
• 26:50
  We have a relational withdrawal and isolation.
• 26:55
  Here's the trigger. Someone acts or experiences
• 26:59
  rejection. They they encounter conflict or
• 27:03
  they're betrayed. Here's the action.
• 27:05
  They withdraw emotionally and physically to avoid being hurt
• 27:09
  again. And then the shame shows up.
• 27:11
  In the isolation. They begin to believe lies like
• 27:14
  I'm unlovable, no one really wants me, no one would miss me
• 27:19
  if I'm gone. These lies begin to shout shame
• 27:23
  and then the cycle shows up. They withdraw and it prevents
• 27:27
  them from building the very connections they could and
• 27:30
  disprove those lies, deepening loneliness and shame.
• 27:35
  They continue to hide like they did in the garden.
• 27:38
  They were afraid, therefore they hid.
• 27:42
  All of these examples are examples of how the shame cycle
• 27:46
  shows up in our lives and it keeps us repeating patterns and
• 27:50
  getting stuck in our in our sin. This is why Jesus says that he's
• 27:57
  the light of the world and that he is truth.
• 28:02
  The light illuminates what is what is true, and these lies
• 28:07
  that often show up in our shame cycle reinforce the behavior
• 28:12
  that we want to escape. Sometimes the behavior isn't
• 28:16
  even bad. Lies have a tendency to trap us
• 28:20
  into patterns of living that are less than what we desire or less
• 28:25
  than even what God would would desire.
• 28:28
  In fact, in my own life, I have found myself feeling stuck, not
• 28:36
  progressing in my faith. Not because of a sin, but rather
• 28:41
  because of a lie that I've agreed with something that I've
• 28:45
  in deep in my core, believed to be true about me and it has
• 28:50
  hindered the flourishing life of God from growing in me.
• 28:56
  I've had to deal with some lies in my own life around
• 28:59
  insecurity, around rejection. I've had to deal with some
• 29:04
  things around performance, trying to to earn approval and
• 29:08
  being enough. I've had to deal with those.
• 29:11
  The Lord has exposed those lies that I've agreed with and it's
• 29:15
  caused me once I've dealt with them and I brought them into
• 29:17
  light and I saw the truth of what Jesus has said or with the
• 29:21
  truth even in my own life, all of a sudden I have a new way to
• 29:25
  move, move forward and and God is so good to illuminate that
• 29:31
  truth. Just the other day I was talking
• 29:33
  with somebody and they were expressing how they really want
• 29:38
  to pray and, and they've been wanting to, to get time with the
• 29:41
  Lord and just be with God. And for whatever reason, they
• 29:45
  just can't seem to, to build that into, into their life.
• 29:49
  And as we were having some just honest conversation and some
• 29:53
  exploration that we, we eventually discovered that there
• 29:58
  is something underneath that's kind of hindering them.
• 30:00
  They, they keep wanting to spend time in prayer, but they just
• 30:03
  never can. It just feels like a ceiling, if
• 30:05
  you will, that they just can't breakthrough.
• 30:08
  And we, as we were talking it, they, they began to realize and
• 30:12
  discover the, the Holy Spirit just began to illuminate in the
• 30:15
  conversation that one of the reasons they have trouble coming
• 30:20
  into the presence of God or just coming to sit with the Lord in
• 30:23
  prayer is simply because they, they live with this subtle
• 30:29
  belief, the subtle lie that that God is disappointed with them,
• 30:35
  that they're disappointed that it's taken them so long to come
• 30:38
  and sit. Well, it's about time you showed
• 30:40
  up is kind of the narrative in their mind.
• 30:43
  It's about time you called. It's about time you, you came.
• 30:46
  It's about time that you came to see me and talk with me about
• 30:49
  that. Like as if that's God's attitude
• 30:52
  towards, towards them. And that's not true.
• 30:55
  The the truth is that God delights in being with us, not
• 31:00
  God is disappointed that we haven't gotten there sooner.
• 31:04
  God is not disappointed when whenever it is that we showed
• 31:08
  up. And so here's this lie that was
• 31:09
  keeping them and kind of motivating them incorrectly and
• 31:14
  hindering their life from moving forward.
• 31:16
  It wasn't a sinful thing. It wasn't.
• 31:19
  It was just something that was limiting the life of God from
• 31:22
  flowing fully in and around them.
• 31:25
  And these lies show up in our lives.
• 31:27
  And so when Jesus says it's the truth that you know it's going
• 31:31
  to set you free. And there are areas and so many
• 31:34
  people's lives where we are bound because we have made an
• 31:39
  agreement, we have bought into we we believe something that
• 31:44
  isn't true. And Jesus came to be the light
• 31:50
  of the world and the truth that sets us free.
• 31:55
  In the Old Testament there is in the temple there were these
• 32:01
  candelabras that would burn continually.
• 32:04
  And the candelabras in the temple were to remind the Jewish
• 32:09
  people about the fire, the pillar of fire by which God
• 32:13
  guided and protected the the Israelites during the wandering
• 32:18
  in the wilderness after escaping the bondage in Egypt.
• 32:22
  Now, when Jesus comes on the scene and says I am the light of
• 32:27
  the world, he's throwing back to that pillar of fire in the
• 32:34
  wilderness and reminding them that he is in that temple, that
• 32:39
  he is the light of the world meant to protect and guide them
• 32:43
  out of utter darkness. And when Jesus said he was the
• 32:47
  light of the world, he was letting them know that Jesus
• 32:50
  came to shine not only for the Jews, but also for the Gentiles.
• 32:55
  And as the light of life, which he says, I think in verse 12, he
• 33:00
  illuminates the way. He illuminates the way out of
• 33:04
  the path of darkness and and darkness is a biblical symbol of
• 33:08
  death, by the way, to the ultimate promise of eternal
• 33:13
  life, the full life of God, the light of life.
• 33:19
  And this is one of the ways Jesus is showing up in the Old
• 33:23
  Testament and revealing himself in the New Testament, helping
• 33:27
  them see what is true. And what I love is that the
• 33:32
  light of Jesus is something that lights our life, and we get to
• 33:37
  shine the light of Jesus for others live too.
• 33:42
  And one of the ways that I think we can shine the light of life
• 33:48
  for others is by being people who can hear confession and
• 33:54
  pronounce forgiveness to other people.
• 33:58
  In fact, Jesus says that if you forgive the sins of others, they
• 34:03
  are forgiven. If you retain the sins of
• 34:05
  others, they are retained. Jesus said he gave us the
• 34:07
  authority to pronounce people forgiven.
• 34:11
  But in his name, like all through the New Testament, this
• 34:14
  is what Jesus, Jesus said it multiple times that he's given
• 34:17
  us that authority. So, so when we forgive, when we
• 34:21
  say to somebody you are a son of God, you are a daughter of God,
• 34:26
  you are forgiven and loved by him.
• 34:30
  Those words wash over the darkness someone is experiencing
• 34:35
  from their shame and regret and it frees them into the live in
• 34:41
  the light of of life. I want to challenge you and
• 34:46
  encourage you to be the kind of person a that that for that
• 34:50
  confesses your own sin and brings it into the light, not
• 34:53
  just to the Lord, but to trusted friends.
• 34:57
  And to be the kind of person that isn't shocked or has a
• 35:01
  weird reaction when other people acknowledge where they misstep,
• 35:06
  where they sinned, where they missed the mark.
• 35:09
  I think it's important that we become trustworthy to hear other
• 35:14
  people's confession and to respond in a trusting, loving,
• 35:19
  compassionate manner. Not to be shocked, not to, not
• 35:23
  to start to put them in a category, not to begin to think
• 35:26
  less of them, whatever it is, whether they lied, whether they
• 35:29
  had a wrong motive, whether they got upset at one of their kids,
• 35:33
  whether they looked at pornography, whether or not they
• 35:37
  had had done some, stole some money.
• 35:40
  What like, like where, where we can help them walk into
• 35:43
  restoration. We want to do that.
• 35:45
  Where, where they need to walk towards reparation.
• 35:47
  We want to help people to do that.
• 35:49
  But at the end of the day, when people talk and they say no,
• 35:52
  I've just been really arrogant and prideful lately.
• 35:54
  I've really had the sin of, of greed and jealousy just rising
• 35:59
  in my heart lately. Or man, I've, I've really, I've
• 36:02
  recognized that I've just been withholding joy and compliments
• 36:08
  and kindness from people. And I don't know why I've been
• 36:11
  doing it. I've just been in a grouchy mood
• 36:13
  lately. And, and they're making these
• 36:15
  confessions. We just need to, to respond and
• 36:18
  say and thank you for making that confession.
• 36:21
  God hears you, God sees you and God has made a decision to love
• 36:25
  you. And, and in your confession, I
• 36:28
  believe that Jesus is faithful and he is forgiving you.
• 36:31
  You are a son and daughter and you are loved by God.
• 36:36
  Man, Can you imagine hearing those words from a friend?
• 36:38
  It just washes over your eyes, your ears.
• 36:42
  It it pours the light and love of Jesus into somebody's soul.
• 36:47
  We need to be people committed to living in the light and
• 36:54
  giving the light of Christ to others.
• 36:58
  We bring that confession into to Jesus.
• 37:02
  One of the last things that I want to say in this bonus
• 37:05
  section is to echo the words of Jesus.
• 37:10
  He says in verse 24. He says, therefore I tell you
• 37:16
  that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I
• 37:20
  am he, that I'm the light of the world, that that I'm the truth,
• 37:25
  then you will die in your sins. I find it really interesting the
• 37:32
  language he's using here, because Jesus wants to heal us
• 37:39
  from the sin that we are in. The sin that we are in is both a
• 37:47
  corporate understanding the sin in our world, the dominion and
• 37:52
  the contagion, and it's the sin that we are living out in the
• 37:57
  decisions that we are making. It's all of the above and Jesus
• 38:03
  wants to heal us from our sin, a sickness within.
• 38:07
  And he says this, he says, and the way that it happens is
• 38:11
  ultimately in in belief. I have a bit of a personal
• 38:17
  theory that every sin we would commit could be traced back to
• 38:23
  one key sin and it's the sin of unbelief.
• 38:29
  This ultimately was the sin committed in the garden where
• 38:34
  they chose to live based on the belief of their own knowledge of
• 38:39
  good and evil versus believing or holding on to the belief of
• 38:46
  of God's knowledge of what God said.
• 38:48
  So it was really an issue of belief be and rebellion of
• 38:54
  unbelief. In fact, in Hebrews it says that
• 38:58
  there are many Israelites who did not enter the rest or the
• 39:01
  promise of the Lord because of their sin of unbelief.
• 39:07
  I think unbelief is rejecting the truth of Jesus.
• 39:12
  And so to reject the truth of Jesus is the damnable sin that
• 39:17
  we are. We reject the work of the Spirit
• 39:20
  and we reject the work and person of Jesus and live with a
• 39:25
  different belief system than the belief of Jesus himself.
• 39:31
  And I believe unbelief is the repeated sin throughout all of
• 39:35
  human history. Think about it.
• 39:39
  Let's take, let's take sexual sins for a minute.
• 39:43
  That was the context here of the adultery.
• 39:47
  So rather than living with the belief that satisfaction and
• 39:52
  intimacy not only belongs to the married bed, between one man and
• 39:56
  one woman in marriage and that intimacy is for them and in
• 40:01
  them, and that is the satisfaction that we need, the
• 40:04
  belief was I can, I'm not satisfied there.
• 40:08
  I'll be more satisfied by following my sexual drive and
• 40:12
  urges. And meet my needs based on my
• 40:16
  interpretation of what I want and what will meet my needs
• 40:19
  versus the thing that God says it will meet my needs and he's
• 40:24
  given as a gift to help in that area of, of sexuality, the
• 40:29
  proper expression of it. It comes down to an issue of
• 40:32
  belief unbelief or or belief. Why don't I trust God with my
• 40:38
  finances? It's, it's not an issue of it's
• 40:42
  because at the end of the day, there's an area of unbelief in
• 40:46
  me that is causing me to live a certain way with my, with my
• 40:50
  money, treating it as my own, treating it as I can't trust
• 40:53
  God, treating it as as one thing or the other.
• 40:56
  It, it really comes down everything in our life when it
• 40:59
  comes to the, the distinction between whether or not we're
• 41:02
  connecting with God or disconnecting with God comes
• 41:04
  back to belief and unbelief. And there is an ultimate sin of
• 41:09
  unbelief, which began in the garden, which has put a whole
• 41:12
  world in sin itself. But I think that we've got to,
• 41:16
  to narrow it down to look at it and see it.
• 41:19
  In fact, I'll, I'll talk about this in, in some of the
• 41:21
  questions and response. But in first John chapter 5,
• 41:24
  John says there is a sin that leads to death and there is sin
• 41:30
  that does not lead to death. And I think he's talking about
• 41:34
  imminent immediate kind of death or even ultimate death.
• 41:38
  And according to Jesus in John 824, the sin that leads to to
• 41:44
  remaining in death because death was reigning in the earth in
• 41:48
  world, which is what Jesus came to reverse and take the legal
• 41:52
  parameters back from death and help he came to take those back.
• 41:58
  Jesus said, if you can hear his words, therefore I told you that
• 42:03
  you will die in your sin. For if you do not believe that I
• 42:08
  am he, you will die in your sins.
• 42:11
  There is sin that leads to death and there's sin that doesn't
• 42:14
  lead to death. And I think what John is
• 42:16
  pointing at is that the sin of unbelief, the the transgression
• 42:22
  of unbelief itself, will lead you to a life enslaved by death
• 42:28
  and will lead you away from God. But belief in Jesus as the
• 42:34
  illuminating light of the world heals and brings wholeness and
• 42:40
  exposes and and and brings light and freedom to our very souls,
• 42:47
  spirits, and our bodies. Jesus is the light.
• 42:50
  He liberates us. He heals us.
• 42:52
  He frees us from shame, from sin, and from the deceptive lies
• 42:58
  that keep us in unbelief. All right, let's take some time
• 43:04
  and answer or respond to a few questions that we had come in
• 43:09
  every every week there's a team of people that kind of get a
• 43:13
  link and they, they submit questions.
• 43:15
  And if you're out there listening and you'd ever like to
• 43:18
  submit a question, there's a spot in the sermon notes that we
• 43:23
  have online digitally every week.
• 43:25
  Our sermon notes are online. There's a, there's a link there
• 43:28
  where you can click submit a question and you can send a
• 43:32
  question into us and, and we will respond to it either here
• 43:36
  on the podcast or directly in e-mail if we can.
• 43:41
  So that's kind of where the questions come from.
• 43:43
  Let's get into these questions for this week.
• 43:47
  Here we go. The first question is this in
• 43:49
  John chapter 8, Jesus forgives the adulterous.
• 43:53
  How do we embody that type of forgiveness when people have
• 43:56
  sinned against us or the sin that happens kind of around us?
• 44:02
  There are levels of accountability within believers,
• 44:04
  but there is also a proper response to sin that Jesus
• 44:08
  demonstrates. Can can you walk us through this
• 44:11
  a little more? So this is a really great
• 44:14
  question and obviously this could go in a lot of lot of
• 44:16
  directions, but I want to kind of answer it in in this manner.
• 44:21
  First, God brings elements of justice through laws and civil
• 44:27
  order, right? So where there is sin that is
• 44:31
  happening around us, there are people being murdered, people
• 44:37
  kidnapping children, trafficking children.
• 44:40
  There are people who are embezzling money.
• 44:43
  There are a ways in which through systems and justices and
• 44:47
  civil order that justice can be done, that there there can be
• 44:52
  things that that are that are remedied and rectified.
• 44:55
  So think about this scenario in John Aid as kind of again, a
• 45:01
  legal courtroom scene. Jesus wasn't universally or
• 45:05
  unilaterally just dismissing or forgiving someone who wasn't
• 45:10
  wanting the forgiveness, who hadn't demonstrated remorse or
• 45:13
  guilt. Like he isn't arbitrarily just
• 45:17
  dismissing A transgression. So I think a lot of times we we
• 45:19
  read John 8 and we're like, well, Jesus just didn't condemn
• 45:23
  her. He gave her grace and truth.
• 45:24
  He told her it was a sin and then said go sin no more.
• 45:26
  And as if it was like just let her off the hook and, and I'm
• 45:30
  not sure that that's maybe the the best.
• 45:33
  I think it's a simplified reduction of what is happening.
• 45:38
  Again, we, we looked at a couple of the Old Testament parallels
• 45:41
  to what Jesus was doing. The, the, the way in which there
• 45:44
  should have been witnesses coming forward to, to make an
• 45:47
  accusation, a, a civil ordered way that the law could be
• 45:52
  followed, but they weren't following the law.
• 45:55
  It was actually an unjust thing that was happening.
• 45:59
  It's kind of like a, I'll say it this way, it would be similar to
• 46:04
  a judge throwing out a court case, not because the person was
• 46:10
  innocent, but because there was tampering of evidence, there was
• 46:16
  witness tampering. There were other things that now
• 46:21
  caused the case itself to be thrown out.
• 46:24
  That is what Jesus was doing in this case.
• 46:27
  He wasn't declaring her, you didn't do this anymore, blah,
• 46:30
  blah, blah. No, it was a sin.
• 46:32
  Don't sin anymore. This is your warning.
• 46:35
  This is your probation kind of a thing.
• 46:37
  We are tossing this case out on a technicality.
• 46:41
  We're tossing it out because the prosecutor has done unscrupulous
• 46:46
  things in order to try to bring a conviction.
• 46:50
  That's what Jesus is doing in this process.
• 46:54
  I think any time a judge even in our case when he's looking at
• 46:58
  civil matters at he can look and see this this person is
• 47:03
  reformed. This person has repentant.
• 47:05
  This person has made reparations.
• 47:07
  This person and the judge can in his within the law parameters,
• 47:13
  can help reduce a sentence, can move somebody to mercy, can let
• 47:18
  them go with a warning. Like all of those things are in
• 47:21
  the purview of the one and in the authority.
• 47:26
  Jesus is acting within that purview.
• 47:27
  What he's not doing is saying this isn't a big deal.
• 47:30
  You don't need to do this and just go.
• 47:32
  And so I think a lot of times when we think about sin
• 47:34
  happening around us or sin happening to us, what we think
• 47:37
  is like, well, Jesus says we should just let it go like it's
• 47:41
  some frozen song. That's not actually what Jesus
• 47:43
  is doing. Jesus isn't just arbitrarily
• 47:46
  letting it go, it's actually following a due process within
• 47:50
  their legal system where the case is actually needed to be
• 47:54
  tossed out. And again, they were really
• 47:57
  trying to use it to get a conviction that would get Jesus
• 48:00
  in trouble because the punishment is stoning.
• 48:03
  But under Roman law, they weren't allowed to take matters
• 48:07
  in into their own hands. Only Rome could execute such a
• 48:11
  thing. Citizens, Judean citizens
• 48:13
  couldn't do that. So the, the, the Pharisees
• 48:16
  thought this is a win win either.
• 48:17
  Jesus is going to be he's going to say that adultery is OK,
• 48:22
  which isn't what he did. And that's what they were hoping
• 48:25
  or he was going to say. Yep, well, here's the stones.
• 48:28
  Let's start throwing them guys. And then he'd get in trouble by
• 48:31
  Rome. Neither of those things
• 48:33
  happened. And so their their intention to
• 48:35
  entrap Jesus didn't, it didn't work.
• 48:40
  One of the things that I think it's important for us to know as
• 48:43
  we think about sins happening around us in our world that
• 48:47
  impacts society, impacts us, that grieves us, is that mercy
• 48:53
  is always God's prerogative. God, God can show mercy to whom
• 48:57
  he shows mercy on, and he can require justice or payment from
• 49:02
  those he chooses to require justice and payment.
• 49:05
  Now, Scripture reveals the will of God around those things,
• 49:08
  God's desire and intent around those things.
• 49:11
  So we have some understanding of what God's prerogative is.
• 49:15
  But let's not take it away that God and Jesus himself are the
• 49:19
  judge and they have the authority to dismiss a case, to
• 49:24
  throw something out, to say reparations are needed.
• 49:27
  They, they have that authority. If we, we can just keep using
• 49:31
  our human kind of systems to help understand conceptually
• 49:36
  what was happening. I think that when sin happens
• 49:40
  around us, I think it's proper that we lament it, that we
• 49:45
  recognize it, that we acknowledge it.
• 49:48
  That's sinful. Again, there's a difference
• 49:51
  between judgy and judgment. There's a difference between
• 49:55
  sentencing and condemning and discerning, determining and
• 50:01
  deciding something, or identifying something as right,
• 50:05
  wrong or indifferent. So when sin is occurring, we
• 50:11
  lament it, we lament the sin itself, we lament the pain that
• 50:15
  it's going to 'cause we we lament the fact that
• 50:17
  consequences will likely incur or be be incurred.
• 50:22
  We lament and we pray that God would continue to intervene.
• 50:25
  I think those are proper ways we respond to sin.
• 50:29
  Not even sin done directly to us or directly by us, but but when
• 50:32
  it does happen to us, when someone does sin against us,
• 50:35
  well, that's that's the thing. Well, I think we always, we want
• 50:39
  to move towards holiness individually and we want to
• 50:42
  practice the life of Jesus. Sin that is unrepented is
• 50:48
  mourned and consequences tend to occur both naturally and
• 50:52
  spiritually. Repentance, though, puts us at
• 50:56
  the feet of Jesus who is merciful now when it comes to
• 51:02
  forgiving others. And you know this, this pain.
• 51:06
  First, let's talk about this. While the case may have been
• 51:09
  dismissed by Jesus, in the case of the adultery, she still had
• 51:15
  to go home. She still had to deal with the
• 51:18
  people in her community. So it wasn't like full
• 51:21
  restoration and everything was gone.
• 51:23
  There was still some things to walk through if this woman was
• 51:27
  married. If it wasn't, maybe the adultery
• 51:29
  was the fact that the man was married, but she wasn't married.
• 51:32
  We don't know those details of this story.
• 51:35
  The the reality is there was something of a process that she
• 51:39
  was going to have to walk through beyond the moment of
• 51:41
  Jesus declaring her go and sin no more.
• 51:44
  Your your sins, your sins are free.
• 51:47
  I'm not condemning you. Go, go sin.
• 51:48
  Go sin no more more. Healing and restoration are
• 51:54
  different than forgiveness and reconciliation.
• 51:58
  I'll say it again, Healing and restoration are different than
• 52:03
  forgiveness and reconciliation. The woman's transgression may
• 52:10
  not have been counted against her anymore, but she still had
• 52:13
  to deal with the restoration, either with her husband, with
• 52:16
  the community, but she was not going to be labeled or needed to
• 52:22
  be labeled as unredeemable. She didn't need a bear scarlet
• 52:26
  letter. She didn't need to always deal
• 52:30
  with the sneers and the jeers and the gossip and the whispers.
• 52:33
  That's not helpful. That's not what we do.
• 52:36
  That's not the way of Jesus. The word forgiveness means to
• 52:41
  release. What do we release?
• 52:44
  We're releasing a debt that we're owed and we're releasing
• 52:48
  sentencing, carrying out judgment to God, said again, we
• 52:54
  release a debt and we release the sentencing, the carrying out
• 52:59
  of the judgment to God. We're releasing it to God.
• 53:03
  We are not saying it's OK. We're not saying it wasn't sin.
• 53:07
  Forgiveness isn't saying that it didn't hurt and it didn't have
• 53:10
  an impact. No, all those things we name and
• 53:14
  yet we release it to God, we give it to God.
• 53:19
  I think that's important to note about forgiveness.
• 53:21
  Just because forgiveness or something is released, it
• 53:24
  doesn't mean that we go and restore the relationship doesn't
• 53:28
  mean relationship is trust is rebuilt overnight.
• 53:32
  It doesn't. What it does mean is that
• 53:34
  there's, there's a, a releasing and so I'm not holding this
• 53:38
  against you anymore, but that doesn't mean that we're going to
• 53:41
  become best friends tomorrow. There's that doesn't, that's not
• 53:45
  necessary there. There are things that have been
• 53:48
  done to me that I have chosen not to hold account.
• 53:52
  I'm not holding the Ledger of their debt.
• 53:55
  I, I don't own the note of that debt anymore.
• 53:59
  I have forgiven my debtors as I'm asking God to forgive my own
• 54:03
  debts. That's the prayer that Lord
• 54:05
  taught us to pray. So I'm giving that to the Lord.
• 54:07
  But just because I gave it to the Lord and released it, it
• 54:10
  doesn't mean that I'm healed, doesn't mean that I'm restored,
• 54:13
  and it doesn't mean our relationship is healed or
• 54:16
  restored, but it does mean that it's been reconciled.
• 54:19
  All of the accounting has been taken care of, and at the end of
• 54:22
  the day, I'm not the one doing the accounting.
• 54:24
  God is now doing the accounting. Additionally, I think one of the
• 54:29
  things that's really important to remember is that justice is
• 54:34
  still coming for all the unrepentant sins and all the
• 54:40
  unrepentant people who are walking in unbelief, who are
• 54:44
  continuing to live out this contagion, that are continuing
• 54:49
  to be complicit in the life of sin and those that are still
• 54:52
  under the power of sin, which then perpetuates sin itself more
• 54:57
  and more. I think it's important to
• 54:59
  remember that those things that that's still coming, in fact,
• 55:03
  one of the ways that sentencing from God will occur in the end
• 55:08
  at the final judgement is why hell exists.
• 55:13
  The lake of fire is talked about in the Scripture, while while
• 55:17
  that's coming, GK Chesterton once said hell is God's great
• 55:22
  complement to the reality of human freedom and the dignity of
• 55:27
  human choice. The punishment is legitimately
• 55:31
  eternal because sin doesn't stop when people die it it continues
• 55:35
  its ongoing punishment for ongoing sin going on on forever.
• 55:41
  We don't really like to talk about sin or hell or punishment,
• 55:44
  but the reality is those are truths that we need to see and
• 55:48
  when we understand those truths that it illuminates light to us
• 55:52
  in in a revelatory, helpful manner and can bring life when
• 55:57
  when received and believed properly.
• 56:01
  DA Carson said it like this. They're consigned.
• 56:05
  They're talking of hell first and foremost because they defy
• 56:08
  their Maker and want to be at the center of the universe.
• 56:12
  Hell is not filled with people who have already repented, only
• 56:16
  God, only that God isn't gentle enough or good enough to let
• 56:19
  them out. Hell is filled with people who
• 56:22
  for all eternity still want to be the center of the universe.
• 56:26
  What is God to do? If he says it doesn't matter to
• 56:29
  him, then God is no longer a God to be admired.
• 56:33
  For him. To act in any other way in the
• 56:36
  face of such blatant defiance would be to reduce God himself.
• 56:43
  So they're kind of. These two quotes are helping
• 56:45
  build a case for the reason, the rationale and the understanding
• 56:49
  behind behind hell. I think that one of the
• 56:52
  realities that I can release judgment and forgive sins that
• 56:58
  others are committing, why I can release that to God rather than
• 57:02
  hold on to it, have grudges, wish harm on them, wait for God
• 57:07
  to to work. One of the reasons why I can
• 57:09
  just trust God with it is because I know God is just God
• 57:13
  is able and justice will come about and, and at the end of
• 57:18
  time where there is unrepentance and a lack of relenting from
• 57:23
  sin, a turning from sinfulness of of perpetuating the, the
• 57:27
  sinfulness in in our midst and in our world.
• 57:30
  Well, God will rectify and remedy that ultimately and the
• 57:35
  consequences and the the punishment of sin.
• 57:38
  This, this forever separation from God and the goodness of God
• 57:42
  exiled forever. And yes, I recognize hell and
• 57:46
  hates are in the original language.
• 57:49
  Are somebody on TikTok talk about this the other day comment
• 57:52
  on one of my posts. Yes, I recognize those words
• 57:55
  what they really literally meant in terms of like the place of of
• 57:59
  the dead or disembodied dead or the underworld.
• 58:01
  That's what hell and hates represent.
• 58:04
  But the way the biblical writers use those specific words is to
• 58:08
  talk about exile, punishment, fire, these apocalyptic language
• 58:16
  around punishment, justice, and removal from the midst of God's
• 58:22
  goodness in God's presence. And so in the end, Revelation
• 58:26
  says that hell and haze will burn in the lake of fire with
• 58:30
  Satan and all those doomed to be there.
• 58:33
  In other words, there's a there's coming, a final burning
• 58:35
  that will consume and eradicate evil from our world and evil
• 58:41
  from God's restored world forever.
• 58:45
  And part of the reality is the sin done around us, sin done to
• 58:50
  us that we aren't complicit in, but we are impacted by.
• 58:54
  We give back to God and let God be the judge of those things.
• 59:00
  It doesn't mean we reconcile. It doesn't or it doesn't mean we
• 59:03
  restore the relationship, doesn't mean we live without
• 59:06
  boundaries. It doesn't mean that we're
• 59:07
  healed automatically, that there isn't a process to walk through,
• 59:11
  wholeness to be found. All of those things are still
• 59:14
  true. Yet God is gracious and in his
• 59:17
  light and love leads us into healing, and part of that
• 59:22
  healing does come to come from releasing it to Him rather than
• 59:28
  holding the accounting on our own.
• 59:32
  There's another question says what if you struggle feeling
• 59:36
  free from old sins, ways of life, etcetera, even if you've
• 59:40
  given your life to Jesus and confessed your sins?
• 59:43
  Yeah, I think there's a lot of people who can relate to this.
• 59:47
  I know there's been times where I've related to this, where I've
• 59:51
  even been tempted to adopt an improper view of God based on an
• 59:56
  improper view of myself or my sin or where shame was filtering
• 1:00:02
  how I was seeing God. I think it's important to know,
• 1:00:06
  number one, your feelings aren't facts.
• 1:00:09
  Feelings are emotions that point us to something, and sometimes
• 1:00:13
  our emotions are telling us something that isn't really
• 1:00:16
  true. So I think it's important to
• 1:00:19
  remember the feeling isn't always truthful or ultimate
• 1:00:23
  truth. It's it's telling us something
• 1:00:24
  that we're believing, but what we're believing might not be
• 1:00:27
  true. I think it's important to know
• 1:00:31
  if you've confessed to God, but you still feel a little trapped
• 1:00:34
  and you're still struggling and you're not really finding full
• 1:00:38
  freedom or healing from it. You're still kind of under a
• 1:00:41
  cloud. Then you need to confess sin to
• 1:00:44
  brothers and sisters in Christ because in confessing to one
• 1:00:48
  another, that's when we actually begin to experience wholeness
• 1:00:51
  and healing that comes from living in the light.
• 1:00:55
  Living in right relationship with God happens in our
• 1:00:58
  confession to him. But when we live and embodied
• 1:01:02
  right relationship with other people, that happens because we
• 1:01:05
  make confession to them. So part of the reality is, you
• 1:01:11
  know, internally you're forgiven, but externally it
• 1:01:14
  doesn't seem like you're forgiven.
• 1:01:16
  Part of the reason is you haven't taken the external steps
• 1:01:22
  to embody, embrace and experience the outward working
• 1:01:27
  of that feeling or emotions. So in other words, I said it
• 1:01:31
  earlier in the podcast, but when someone confesses a sin to to
• 1:01:35
  you or even to me, I've had where I will look them in the
• 1:01:39
  eye with eyes of love and compassion as much as I can and
• 1:01:43
  I will remind them, according to Jesus in your confession, you
• 1:01:48
  are forgiven, His blood was enough, his sacrifice
• 1:01:51
  sufficient. You are forgiven.
• 1:01:53
  You are a son and daughter of God and you are loved.
• 1:01:56
  You are loved. People need to hear that, you
• 1:01:59
  need to hear that and you need to hear that not just from words
• 1:02:02
  on the page in Scripture, but from a physical representation
• 1:02:06
  of the body of Christ at large. So the confessing one to another
• 1:02:11
  allows the embodied body of Christ, the Incarnate, that the
• 1:02:16
  representation of Jesus himself on the earth with the followers
• 1:02:20
  of Jesus the church to speak blessing and life over you and
• 1:02:24
  to you. And that is something that we
• 1:02:26
  need. And often it's missing in our
• 1:02:28
  evangelical Protestant practice of our faith.
• 1:02:32
  And we need to reclaim it because it's biblical.
• 1:02:34
  It's our in heritage, and it's one of the ways we get to
• 1:02:37
  silence shame in each other's lives.
• 1:02:39
  We get to play a role in being the voice of Jesus, in the light
• 1:02:42
  of Jesus and silence and shame in one another.
• 1:02:45
  I think if you've made confession and you're still kind
• 1:02:49
  of feeling an attachment or a pull from the old way of life, I
• 1:02:52
  think you need to not hide. I think you need to tell your
• 1:02:55
  story of God's redemption. And a lot of times we're like,
• 1:02:58
  well, I don't want to tell my story because what if I fall and
• 1:03:01
  screw up again? Then you fall and you screw up
• 1:03:03
  again. And the Bible says a righteous
• 1:03:05
  person picks themselves up and and is picked up by Jesus and is
• 1:03:08
  forgiven again and continues to walk the path of righteousness
• 1:03:12
  even though they might stumble again.
• 1:03:15
  I think communion is another great moment to remind us,
• 1:03:20
  Jesus, I'm taking the bread and the juice today.
• 1:03:23
  And I thank you that you've forgiven me of my past.
• 1:03:26
  And sometimes it's important to name what the past is rather
• 1:03:30
  than just generalizing our sin. We need to specify our sin.
• 1:03:37
  And when you get specific in your confession, in the moment
• 1:03:40
  of examination, as you're coming to the table of Lord to remember
• 1:03:43
  what he did, you need to remember to forget specifically
• 1:03:49
  what you did. Don't just remember what he did
• 1:03:52
  in general terms. Remember what he did in specific
• 1:03:55
  terms. Sometimes you have to go back
• 1:03:57
  through and you have to name it out loud.
• 1:03:59
  Jesus, thank you that you forgave me for being a liar.
• 1:04:03
  Jesus thank you that your blood for cleanses me from the sexual
• 1:04:08
  addiction. Jesus, thank you that your sin,
• 1:04:12
  your your blood rather forgives the sin of my judgmental
• 1:04:16
  criticism, of my gossip, of my slant, of my drunkenness, of my
• 1:04:20
  you just of my materialism, of my jealousy, of my anger, of my
• 1:04:24
  wrath, of my self righteousness, of my pride.
• 1:04:28
  Like sometimes you need to get specific instead of general.
• 1:04:32
  Another element to I think moving beyond our past and and
• 1:04:37
  remembering that we've been forgiven and freed is to
• 1:04:42
  memorize scripture that replace lies with the identity of who
• 1:04:46
  Jesus has set us to be. I'm loved, I'm adopted, I'm a
• 1:04:50
  son, I'm a daughter. I'm memorizing the scripture
• 1:04:53
  renews your mind because it's not that you aren't forgiven in
• 1:04:58
  reality, it's that you haven't really embrace your new identity
• 1:05:03
  and your imagination yet. And so you need to renew your
• 1:05:06
  mind according to the word of God and continue to take
• 1:05:12
  embodied actions to move in the opposite direction of the life
• 1:05:16
  of sin that you've left behind. Those things help us move
• 1:05:20
  towards holiness and wholeness in allowing the love of Jesus to
• 1:05:25
  fill us. And one of the things that I
• 1:05:28
  think is important is I mentioned it in this, the first
• 1:05:31
  service is to sit and ask Jesus to, to, to bring to your mind
• 1:05:39
  what it is that God has done and is doing.
• 1:05:43
  Bring to your mind the loving eyes of your Savior.
• 1:05:47
  Like the woman who looked in the eyes of Jesus and saw no more
• 1:05:51
  condemnation. You can look in the eyes of your
• 1:05:54
  Savior and see no more condemnation.
• 1:05:57
  His eyes and the way he looks at you, It's different and it's and
• 1:06:01
  it's changed. And that's one way I think that
• 1:06:03
  we can move beyond being stuck in the muck of our past.
• 1:06:09
  That kind of lurks in the shadows of those things.
• 1:06:13
  If things are lurking in your shadows, they're not really
• 1:06:16
  there. They're they're a cast of the
• 1:06:19
  light. Just shine more light on those
• 1:06:21
  things. All right, let's get to the next
• 1:06:23
  question. This is what it says, if you are
• 1:06:26
  saved, doesn't God see us through the blood of Jesus?
• 1:06:30
  And if so, does he only see us as righteous?
• 1:06:33
  I'm not dismissing our sin, but Jesus is our intercessor and
• 1:06:38
  mediator, making us clean before God.
• 1:06:41
  This may be a deeper thought that I'm actually able to fully
• 1:06:44
  express here. Can you help out?
• 1:06:48
  So a few things that I'll say that there are a lot of maybe
• 1:06:53
  some points or ways we could go with this because we're talking
• 1:06:57
  about the legality of justification, positional
• 1:07:01
  righteousness. There's a little bit of is it
• 1:07:04
  corporate things where, where the, the the power of sin is
• 1:07:08
  dismissed in the world where, where it's stripped of its
• 1:07:10
  power, but yet its presence is still here, kind of the now, but
• 1:07:13
  not yet element of this. Like if, if Jesus has already
• 1:07:18
  forgiven sin, does that mean is that forgiven sin in terms of
• 1:07:22
  its totality or sin in terms of its specificity in terms of like
• 1:07:27
  my personal transgressions, things of long those what, what,
• 1:07:31
  what is it we're delivered from, say from it's kind of getting
• 1:07:35
  into all of that. And so so it is a bit of a, a
• 1:07:38
  nuanced thing. Let me let me say this.
• 1:07:41
  Remember, we talked about sin in in three kind of frameworks,
• 1:07:46
  dominion, sin is decisions and sin is a contagion.
• 1:07:51
  The Bible talks about sin in a multifaceted view because there
• 1:07:56
  are multifacets to it. There's a a myriad of ways of
• 1:08:02
  looking at it and and each angle that you look at sin from helps
• 1:08:06
  us understand components and the full picture of what scripture
• 1:08:11
  and the truth is trying to unveil.
• 1:08:13
  It's not just one dimension, it's a multidimensional
• 1:08:17
  understanding. So when we talk about the
• 1:08:19
  dominion, right, Christ came and he paid the price.
• 1:08:24
  And because his blood was sufficient, he paid a price.
• 1:08:27
  Now He was able to take back the keys of the Kingdom.
• 1:08:30
  He was able. Scripture talks about him, him
• 1:08:32
  demonstrating to the powers that he is the risen Son of God,
• 1:08:37
  therefore he is the rightful owner and heir.
• 1:08:40
  He properly redeemed and overcame sin, death and grave.
• 1:08:46
  So there's a dominion that that we've we've been set free from
• 1:08:49
  the power and the influence of the enemy has been stripped.
• 1:08:53
  Well, there are still daily decisions the the moment by
• 1:08:56
  moment, the conscious unconscious, the attachments,
• 1:08:59
  the the gross sins. These are the decisions and
• 1:09:02
  those are personal impacts, ways in which we personally
• 1:09:06
  contribute, carry on and deal with or kind of interact or
• 1:09:13
  distort even our communion with with God.
• 1:09:17
  Remember what sin disrupted through unbelief and the
• 1:09:20
  rebellion in the garden was unbroken union and communion
• 1:09:26
  with God. It was God and man together in
• 1:09:29
  unison. So that sin that came in, that
• 1:09:32
  broke it separated and it fractured the message and the
• 1:09:37
  the reality of what what God wanted in in the earth.
• 1:09:41
  When you think about what Jesus did on the cross, it's again
• 1:09:46
  even thinking about redemption and atonement.
• 1:09:48
  There are a myriad or a multifaceted dimension to
• 1:09:52
  understanding what he did on the cross and it's full and the
• 1:09:55
  Bible talks about it in different ways to help paint
• 1:09:59
  different components of the picture of what it is that he
• 1:10:03
  was doing. So it's not just singular or,
• 1:10:06
  nor can we act reductive in when we're talking about the
• 1:10:10
  redemption and the atonement of Jesus.
• 1:10:12
  But one thing that I think is important to note is Peter talks
• 1:10:16
  about how it's more the blood of Jesus is more precious than
• 1:10:20
  gold. In other words, things that gold
• 1:10:23
  or, or, or a mere payment of something.
• 1:10:26
  Christ's blood is more precious than a mere payment for
• 1:10:29
  something. So, so it's more than just
• 1:10:32
  paying for sin. It is that, but it's so much
• 1:10:34
  more than that. In fact, the Bible Project just
• 1:10:38
  released some resources and some podcasts on this theme of
• 1:10:43
  redemption and atonement. Really, really helpful, nuanced
• 1:10:47
  ideas to understand the the multifaceted work of Jesus.
• 1:10:51
  But I want to say this, when it comes to righteousness,
• 1:10:54
  righteousness is positional. Think sun versus slave household
• 1:11:02
  positions. It's a dignifying reality.
• 1:11:06
  So the righteousness of Jesus doesn't mean we never will sin,
• 1:11:11
  it just means that we have been placed in a position of a son
• 1:11:18
  instead of a slave. Think about it, when the
• 1:11:21
  prodigal son returned, he put on a robe to indicate household
• 1:11:27
  privileges. So righteousness when we are put
• 1:11:31
  on, when we are robed in righteousness, I think Isaiah
• 1:11:34
  talks about we are robed not just in Jesus's we're we're
• 1:11:39
  robed in Jesus's sonship. We are clothed it we are
• 1:11:43
  identified as sons and daughters.
• 1:11:47
  It's a positional statement. In our position as sons and
• 1:11:52
  daughters, we still act in ways that are contrary to our
• 1:11:57
  identity and that does damage to the relationship that we have
• 1:12:01
  with God. So yes, when God looks at us, he
• 1:12:04
  sees the son and daughter of God.
• 1:12:08
  He sees us clothed and robed in righteousness, in an identity,
• 1:12:12
  in a positional authority and placement, proper placement in
• 1:12:17
  the household. As people in the household,
• 1:12:20
  however, we can still act contrary to that identity, to
• 1:12:25
  the will of the owner of the house and contrary or to the
• 1:12:29
  father of the house rather, And we can act contrary to the
• 1:12:32
  identity with which we should operate in.
• 1:12:35
  Those still need to be repented for, confessed and dealt with.
• 1:12:40
  So it's not like you repent one time and then it is done
• 1:12:43
  forever. No, the initial repentance
• 1:12:47
  allows you to be positionally placed where where the work of
• 1:12:50
  what Jesus done is attributed to you, accounted to you as some, I
• 1:12:55
  think it's Hebrews that says it's imputed righteousness to
• 1:12:59
  you. So now you are positionally
• 1:13:02
  right with God, meaning you are no longer a slave to sin, but a
• 1:13:07
  son and a daughter of God. And from that position, as son
• 1:13:10
  and daughter of God, we live in relationship with Him.
• 1:13:13
  And sometimes that relationship needs to be repaired because we
• 1:13:18
  still act incongruent with that position, that place and that
• 1:13:24
  identity. Again, first John 5 says there a
• 1:13:28
  sin that leads to death and there's sin that doesn't lead to
• 1:13:31
  death. And when we make repentance not
• 1:13:33
  just for lying or cheating or stealing, but for living a life
• 1:13:37
  of unbelief, then we are repenting, turning towards God,
• 1:13:42
  thinking correctly now about God and living in union with God.
• 1:13:47
  And so when we do things that are contrary to that nature, to
• 1:13:50
  that character, or to that union with God, we repent, we confess.
• 1:13:55
  It doesn't change our status as sons and daughters, but it does
• 1:14:00
  in fact, make us want to repent and return to right relationship
• 1:14:06
  in in in the position of sons and daughters in the House of
• 1:14:12
  God. I'm kind of mixing a lot of
• 1:14:14
  different biblical scriptures and perspectives to help
• 1:14:17
  articulate this one reality. Now do I believe that you can
• 1:14:24
  choose to no longer be a son or daughter of God will according
• 1:14:28
  to the again, the parable of the prodigal son, that's kind of
• 1:14:31
  what he did. The son said I no longer want to
• 1:14:34
  be a son in your house. I wish you were dead.
• 1:14:38
  Give me my inheritance. I'm going to go live my life
• 1:14:42
  kind of left the family. Well, he also returned to the
• 1:14:46
  family, which is wonderful and beautiful and amazing that God
• 1:14:50
  restores those relational realities.
• 1:14:54
  So I think that's hopefully some thoughts in response to kind of
• 1:14:59
  that, that deeper question. Here's the next question.
• 1:15:02
  Are there any Gray areas, quote UN quote, in what is considered
• 1:15:07
  sin for a Christ follower? Granted, if it's in black and
• 1:15:11
  white in God's Word, then there's no real discussion.
• 1:15:14
  But what about participating in things that are not specifically
• 1:15:17
  mentioned and it doesn't fall under any quote, UN quote
• 1:15:20
  category like idolatry, lying, stealing or any of the other
• 1:15:24
  gross sins, etcetera? Yeah, a really helpful question.
• 1:15:28
  I think, you know, we think in terms of black and white Gray
• 1:15:31
  areas. I think it's better to think in
• 1:15:35
  terms of there are biblical commands and then there are
• 1:15:38
  personal convictions. There are some things that
• 1:15:41
  biblically are commanded not to do.
• 1:15:44
  Those are the black and white things you're talking about.
• 1:15:46
  But then there are issues as it relates to personal conviction
• 1:15:50
  or conscience that deal more with practice or proximity that
• 1:15:55
  we need to think about now. The Pharisees were really good
• 1:15:59
  at building laws or fences around proximity issues.
• 1:16:03
  In other words, they don't want you to get close to a sin.
• 1:16:07
  So they build a rule in place that says if you cross this
• 1:16:10
  boundary, this fence, therefore now you've really sinned, even
• 1:16:14
  though that wasn't a sin. It's what they said was a sin.
• 1:16:17
  So I'll give you one in the kind of modern day, here it is.
• 1:16:23
  There's no scripture that says it is a sin to drink alcohol.
• 1:16:27
  It's not in black and white. The sin specific to the
• 1:16:32
  scriptures is that it is wrong. It is a sin.
• 1:16:34
  It is against the ways of God to become drunk.
• 1:16:38
  Now what is drunk? How many drinks is too many
• 1:16:41
  drinks? Does if if we were a pharisaical
• 1:16:45
  mind or or legalism, we would say to have any drinks would be
• 1:16:49
  sin. Well, that's not what the
• 1:16:51
  Scripture says. So Pharisees and legalism will
• 1:16:55
  come along and say you need extra rules and we're going to
• 1:16:59
  elevate something to a law or a legality or a a sin or a
• 1:17:04
  transgression. Even though it's not what God
• 1:17:06
  said, it's adding to the legality or the ways of God.
• 1:17:11
  And so we don't need to build unnecessary fences to protect
• 1:17:16
  people from getting close to a Gray area or a sin.
• 1:17:22
  There, there, there. There is a real truth to There
• 1:17:27
  are things that are personal convictions that the Lord kind
• 1:17:31
  of gives you as a mark in your life to keep away in proximity
• 1:17:36
  or in practice that aren't helpful for you.
• 1:17:39
  It's this whole idea that there are things that may not be
• 1:17:42
  harmful, but they may not necessarily be helpful.
• 1:17:47
  I think that's some of what Paul is talking about in First
• 1:17:50
  Corinthians, although I do think he's kind of quoting the
• 1:17:53
  Corinthian people and their culture.
• 1:17:55
  They had this phrase and saying, and Paul kind of uses their
• 1:17:58
  phrase to kind of help them understand that there's a
• 1:18:01
  difference between a biblical command and personal
• 1:18:04
  convictions. And when there is personal
• 1:18:06
  convictions, those are personal. There are things that in my life
• 1:18:10
  I have chosen not to do because God has asked me to lay those
• 1:18:15
  aside. That's more of a personal
• 1:18:17
  conviction. It would be wrong for me to take
• 1:18:21
  my personal convictions, elevate them to a biblical command, and
• 1:18:25
  expect every other Christian to abide by those convictions.
• 1:18:29
  They're not biblical commands, they're just personal
• 1:18:31
  convictions. They're practices that keep me
• 1:18:35
  moving in the ways of Jesus. And there are, there are things
• 1:18:38
  of proximity that I will do or will not do because of their
• 1:18:41
  proximity that keep me from God. So it is not sinful.
• 1:18:46
  It's not even sinful adjacent. Could it be a doorway?
• 1:18:50
  Could it be an open opportunity? I once was you know, it used to
• 1:18:54
  be said that like playing cards was evil and sinful and
• 1:18:58
  forbidden in churches because it was one step away from gambling.
• 1:19:02
  Well, you could play old maiden go fish with the same cards that
• 1:19:05
  you're playing, you know, poker with but not gambling right
• 1:19:09
  Well, OK. And again, while gambling, I
• 1:19:11
  don't feel is a wise use of financial funds personally, the
• 1:19:19
  and the Bible does talk about not being wasteful and being a
• 1:19:22
  good steward. And so you could apply some
• 1:19:23
  biblical principles, but there's not an explicit command around
• 1:19:28
  gambling. Do you go to the casino?
• 1:19:30
  Well, if that's how you want to spend your money on
• 1:19:33
  entertainment, that's fine. But if entertainment becomes
• 1:19:35
  your God and becomes an idol, and if you don't have
• 1:19:37
  entertainment, then you don't have comfort and joy in your
• 1:19:39
  life, well, then I think you're using that as a substitute
• 1:19:42
  against God and then it becomes an idol.
• 1:19:44
  So this is a whole host of things.
• 1:19:47
  I think we have to be careful. At the end of the day, biblical,
• 1:19:51
  biblical commands are not the same as personal convictions.
• 1:19:55
  And where you have a personal conviction, live honoring God
• 1:19:59
  with those convictions. But do not judge, criticize,
• 1:20:02
  presume, or try to control other people by treating your
• 1:20:07
  convictions as biblical commands that they aren't the same thing.
• 1:20:11
  So when it comes to Gray areas where we think they're open
• 1:20:15
  doors or adjacent to sin or, or whatever, I think where the
• 1:20:19
  Bible does speak clearly of something not commanded, then
• 1:20:22
  then we need to be careful with that.
• 1:20:26
  I, I, I think there is a, a difference between crossing a
• 1:20:29
  line of transgression and doing things that are unwise.
• 1:20:34
  Well, I think there are ways to live more wise.
• 1:20:37
  I'll give you an example. I don't believe that it is wise
• 1:20:41
  for a man and a woman to live together while dating or engaged
• 1:20:46
  and not be married. I don't think that is wise.
• 1:20:50
  Not because the Bible says, here's the verse you shall not
• 1:20:54
  live together until you're married, don't cohabitate, not
• 1:20:57
  no, no, no, those things. I just think it's unwise.
• 1:21:00
  It would definitely be unwise for for me if I was single.
• 1:21:02
  Why? Because I know me.
• 1:21:05
  I know my mind, I know my thoughts, I know my, my drive,
• 1:21:09
  right? We know all those.
• 1:21:10
  I just don't find it wise to do that.
• 1:21:14
  There have been many times I've been doing pre marriage coaching
• 1:21:18
  with couples. And I've said this, Listen,
• 1:21:19
  you're living together right now.
• 1:21:21
  You're not married. I'm not going to ask about your
• 1:21:23
  your practices of intimacy, but I'm going to say until now,
• 1:21:27
  until the day you get married, sleep in a different room.
• 1:21:30
  Do whatever it takes in your life to live holy and honoring
• 1:21:34
  God now so that you begin your marriage not in sin, but in
• 1:21:38
  honoring God into the future. Why?
• 1:21:40
  Because that's just wisdom, a heart posture to surrender to
• 1:21:44
  God. And I would say anything we're
• 1:21:46
  unwilling to submit to God would become an idol or become a
• 1:21:52
  tripping point in our lives. There's been times it is not
• 1:21:55
  wrong for me to wake up in the morning and watch Sports Center.
• 1:21:58
  It is not a sin. However, when God asked me to
• 1:22:02
  give up SportsCenter and I didn't want to, it was an issue
• 1:22:06
  of attachment in my life. And so I gave it up.
• 1:22:09
  It wasn't easy, but I gave it up for a period of time.
• 1:22:12
  And when the Lord said, all right, you can begin watching it
• 1:22:14
  again, I was like, thank you, Lord, that's wonderful.
• 1:22:17
  What a blessing it. I had a different relation.
• 1:22:20
  My relationship with SportsCenter changed.
• 1:22:22
  It's just how it just how it works.
• 1:22:25
  I think we need to be careful about categorizing something as
• 1:22:28
  a sin that the Bible doesn't categorize a sin because we're
• 1:22:31
  not trying to legally or try to be legalistic in controlling
• 1:22:35
  other people. But I do think we need to be
• 1:22:38
  clear, there are biblical commands and there are personal
• 1:22:41
  convictions. They're not the same thing.
• 1:22:44
  And our personal convictions are important because they help us
• 1:22:47
  practice living in a holy, holy way, and they keep us in
• 1:22:52
  proximity to the right things and away from the wrong things.
• 1:22:56
  But everyone's personal convictions will be different
• 1:23:00
  based on the things that God is invited into, based on the way
• 1:23:03
  God is leading them and how their relationship with God is
• 1:23:06
  developing. Their strength and their
• 1:23:07
  maturity would be different. So we need to be careful in
• 1:23:11
  those things and not be legalistic building fences where
• 1:23:15
  we don't, where we don't need them.
• 1:23:17
  Great question. Really glad we, we, we got to
• 1:23:20
  talk about that today. Here's the final, final
• 1:23:22
  question. If darkness is the absent of
• 1:23:25
  light, can a person have both light and darkness in their
• 1:23:29
  heart? Meaning can a person have both
• 1:23:32
  the Holy Spirit and an evil spirit dwelling in them?
• 1:23:38
  Man, what a good tough. I wish it was an easier kind of
• 1:23:43
  question. I'm going to say it like this.
• 1:23:53
  Often times the question is phrased can you be possessed by
• 1:23:57
  a demon and be saved? That's most often how that
• 1:24:01
  phrase. So let me use that language for
• 1:24:04
  just a minute. Possession I think indicates
• 1:24:08
  ownership like who you belong to that the family of God or belong
• 1:24:12
  to the devil which which one has your heart.
• 1:24:16
  You can only be one owned by one right?
• 1:24:19
  Either you belong to the Lord or you belong to the ways of the
• 1:24:21
  world you so ownership can you have dual ownership?
• 1:24:26
  No. Of your soul, of your spirit,
• 1:24:29
  No. Can you reject 1 and follow the
• 1:24:32
  other? Yeah, I think you can.
• 1:24:34
  Can you experience oppression from the enemy and from darkness
• 1:24:39
  and be filled and have the light of the spirit living in you?
• 1:24:41
  Yeah, Can you have a stronghold in your life but yet still be
• 1:24:46
  saved and like your allegiance belongs to Jesus?
• 1:24:49
  Yeah, you can have strongholds. Those build up in our mind and
• 1:24:51
  our imagination grow into cemented ways in which we behave
• 1:24:55
  and live our lives. I shared earlier about core
• 1:24:57
  lies. Most often core lies and inner
• 1:25:00
  vows that we make build strongholds that keep us trapped
• 1:25:03
  and bound from maturing and progressing in our faith.
• 1:25:07
  It's possible to have faith in the Lord and be bound by a
• 1:25:11
  stronghold and need to be set free.
• 1:25:14
  Is it possible to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind
• 1:25:17
  and strength and have these dark demonic outside influences
• 1:25:23
  trying to create new imaginations be a plagued by the
• 1:25:27
  spirit of fear? Yeah, I think it is possible.
• 1:25:31
  Does that mean you are possessed in some way, filled with evil?
• 1:25:36
  No, not at all. But you can open the door for
• 1:25:39
  the enemy to have crack holds that have have work in your
• 1:25:42
  life. But I I don't believe that you
• 1:25:44
  can be possessed by a demon and saved in the spirit.
• 1:25:50
  Those two things do not kind of walk, walk together in that way.
• 1:25:56
  But I do know many believers, people who love Jesus, given
• 1:26:00
  their allegiance and loyalty to him, have found themselves going
• 1:26:04
  the way of darkness and just get shrouded and deep and dark and,
• 1:26:10
  and, and the oppressive nature of the enemy is at work and they
• 1:26:13
  still feel bound to something. Well, I think Jesus can set us
• 1:26:18
  free. I think that's part of God
• 1:26:20
  wanting to make us whole, make us new.
• 1:26:25
  I think it was Jack Hayford, Pastor Jack Hayford who is now
• 1:26:30
  in now with the Lord. He said this.
• 1:26:33
  He said you can't disciple a demon and you can't cast out
• 1:26:39
  laziness or you can't cast out the flesh.
• 1:26:43
  The flesh must be disciplined and discipled.
• 1:26:46
  Demonic things need to be cast out and rebuked.
• 1:26:50
  So where there are issues of our flesh, we need discipline.
• 1:26:55
  So let's keep thinking about this phrase of light.
• 1:26:57
  All right, so we've talked about how like you can't disciple a
• 1:27:01
  demon and you can't cast out the flesh or laziness.
• 1:27:05
  Let's let's use this idea of light.
• 1:27:07
  So when I said darkness is the absence of light, it's it
• 1:27:12
  indicates 2 things. One, that light is missing.
• 1:27:15
  And two, light has more power than darkness.
• 1:27:19
  That's that's really where the metaphor needs to stop.
• 1:27:21
  I think we're trying to literally map that onto the idea
• 1:27:25
  of spiritual oppression, demonic activity, trying to articulate
• 1:27:29
  who's saved, who's not saved. And I don't know that while
• 1:27:32
  those are warranted, perhaps explorations in Scripture, I'm
• 1:27:35
  not sure that that they overlay perfectly, but I but I will say
• 1:27:38
  this in, in, in earnest, that just like you can kind of trap
• 1:27:46
  light or block light from going certain places.
• 1:27:51
  We in our actions of surrender, in our willingness to submit our
• 1:27:58
  will to Jesus, in our determination to abide in his
• 1:28:04
  word as Jesus requires of us, as Jesus even instructs us in John
• 1:28:10
  8. If you remain in my words, he
• 1:28:12
  says, then you really are my, my disciples.
• 1:28:15
  There is a way in which we allow shadows to keep looming larger
• 1:28:20
  and larger in the soul and in our hearts.
• 1:28:23
  So anywhere we are kind of, I don't want to say reflecting
• 1:28:28
  light where we're trying to get it where, but maybe the the
• 1:28:31
  right word is refracting light, where we take light and we
• 1:28:33
  refract it or redirect it maybe is the better way.
• 1:28:36
  And we're not allowing the light to fully come into our heart and
• 1:28:41
  soul. We diffuse it, it can create, it
• 1:28:44
  can create shadows. And I think that for us, the
• 1:28:48
  light might be shining, but there are areas of our secrecy,
• 1:28:52
  of our habits, of our unwillingness to walk fully in
• 1:28:55
  the light, that we kind of block or redirect the light.
• 1:28:59
  And it casts a shadow in places of our soul, cast shadow in
• 1:29:03
  places of our heart, cast shadow in our lives to where we are not
• 1:29:07
  living fully in the light. We're having a little bit of a
• 1:29:11
  darkening, dampening of the light rather than letting the
• 1:29:15
  light fully illuminate our hearts, our souls, and our
• 1:29:17
  minds. And I think that's an important,
• 1:29:19
  important thing. But at the end of the day, we,
• 1:29:21
  we either are, are sealed by the Spirit or we're sealed by the
• 1:29:25
  mark of the beast system of our world.
• 1:29:28
  And we want to be people sealed by the Holy Spirit, marked by
• 1:29:31
  him, having heaven in our hearts and allowing our lives to follow
• 1:29:36
  after. Follow after Jesus in earnest.
• 1:29:41
  Friends, thanks for listening and watching today.
• 1:29:45
  It's been a delight to journey with you and to dive a little
• 1:29:49
  bit deeper into the truths that we found in the Scripture.
• 1:29:53
  I hope this episode of the Faith for Today podcast has been
• 1:29:57
  encouraging life giving and has been a helpful resource in your
• 1:30:02
  loyalty and devotion to King Jesus.
• 1:30:06
  I love you. Thanks so much.
• 1:30:07
  We'll see you next week, everybody.