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From Sunday Faith to Monday Life: Walking in Your True Identity · The Father's Business Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: The Father's Business was founded by Sylvia Gunter to encourage people to a deeper relationship with God.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: I'm Elizabeth Gunter Powell.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: And I am Kimberly Roddy.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Father's Business podcast.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: We are so glad that you've joined us.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Welcome back everyone to this podcast.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I am so excited that Kimberly has returned.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Welcome back, kimberly, thank you.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: I am so excited that Kimberly has returned.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Welcome back, kimberly, thank you.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: I'm back.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: She's among the living again and we are so grateful.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: While Kimberly was away, I spent some time unpacking.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: What does it mean to live as a covenant child of God?
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: And a few of you have written in some questions.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: So, before we kind of jump into this week's podcast, kimberly and I want to take a minute to kind of cover some of those.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: We always love it when you email us with your questions, so please feel free to email us at info at thefathersbusinesscom at any time if you ever have a question about what we're talking about.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: So one of the questions I got asked is what do you mean by being a covenant child and not really understanding the idea of covenant?
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: The concept of covenant is something that we see throughout Scripture, from Genesis all the way through the New Testament, where covenants are made with Noah and Abram and David and Moses, and there's lots of Scriptures about God saying I will make a covenant with my people.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Then, as we get to the New Testament, jesus comes to be a fulfillment of the promise of a covenant relationship with God, and it says in Luke 22, 20,.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Likewise, he also took the cup after supper, saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: And so Jesus came not to destroy the covenant but to fulfill it.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: And so this idea of us being in a covenant relationship with God runs throughout scripture.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: But that does not mean as the question that was asked to me is well, does that mean that I don't need my own personal relationship with Jesus?
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Obviously, we each need to make our own personal decision to enter into that relationship with Him.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: The idea of covenant is that we are chosen and we are loved and we are set apart by God in a covenant and a promise with Him, so that we can have a relationship with Him that cannot be destroyed.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: What I think is really key to remember in all of this conversation is that Jesus is the guarantee of the better covenant.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: Hebrews 9.15 tells us that he is the mediator of the new covenant Because of his death that took place for the redemption of our transgressions that were committed under the first covenant.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Those who have been called may receive the promise of internal inheritance.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: So that means that in practical terms, we are brought into relationship with God by His grace, through His promises, not because of anything we've done, and that's, I think, what makes the concept so incredibly powerful.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: And I know that there are a lot of different theologies and doctrines and denominations out there that may talk about covenant.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: We just want to say, for the sake of this podcast, we are not representing any of that.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: We're not representing the hermeneutic of covenant theology.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: We're not representing any denomination or scope here.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: We are just generally talking about what Scripture says.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: As far as we are covenant children of God, based on the Scriptures that speak to that.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: What that should do for us is give us such a sense of security that we have this covenant relationship with God.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: That is a bond that cannot be broken.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: There's other covenant relationships you can think about.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: When you enter into a covenant of marriage, that's something very sacred that's supposed to last for a lifetime.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: But we see all around us almost 50% of marriages fail and end in divorce, and so that doesn't give us a lot of security in that idea of covenant.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: But God's covenant is eternal.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: It's forever Once you are a part of his family.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Does he want us to live a holy life?
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, but will we be excluded from the family of God because we've disappointed him one too many times?
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Absolutely not.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: He is the perfect father.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: That is the power and the encouragement that we should take from the fact that he is covenantially bound to us, that he will be there for us, that he is always near for us, whether we feel it or not.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: That's why I love this idea of declaring that we are covenant children of God.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: There was a kind of a similar question that kind of came at the same idea of okay, if you're talking about us being a covenant child of God, then do I have to have my own personal relationship with God?
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Another question came in after I had talked about the verse in Job that talks about God has knit us together in our mother's womb and he's been watching over our spirit ever since sense, and so someone also asked the question so if God's been watching over my spirit since I was put in the mother's womb, are you saying I've always had this relationship with God and I don't have to enter into a personal relationship through Jesus?
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: And that's not what I'm saying.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Because, as you'll hear if you go and you listen to our journey studies or listen to our podcast, god knits us together spirit, soul and body in our mother's womb and that is awesome and wonderful and to be celebrated that he has done that for us.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: But there still is that place where we have to come into a personal relationship with Jesus, where our spirit, soul and body are surrendered to Father, son and Holy Spirit, because everyone who is walking on this earth has a human spirit.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: But the difference is is when I surrender my spirit, soul and body to Father, son and Holy Spirit, I enter into a relationship with Him.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: That's very different than someone who is not a follower of God.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: They still have a spirit.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: It's just not connected to the power of who God is.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: But we're knit together in our mother's womb, right, but our brain is not online and our body's not fully functioned, and even when we come out of the womb we don't have the mental reasoning to be able to choose to become a follower of God till much later.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: So I do believe that God is far more actively involved in the lives of both believers and non-believers than we can imagine, and somewhere in the otherness of God that I did not fully understand.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Job has to be true that he's been watching over my spirit.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Before I even understood I had one, and before I even understood that I needed him, he was there, because I think he does intervene on behalf of both those that are followers of God, and not all the time, whether we see the results of that with our natural eyes or not.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, how many people who don't follow Jesus safely got from point A to point B and didn't have a car accident on the way home?
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: I think there is providence of God in all of those things.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Now, it does not mean that simply because I'm a follower of God, I'm not going to have bad things happen to me, but there is this tenderness that I feel, knowing that, before I even knew who he was, he knew who I was and he was personally caring for, looking out, tending for, as a shepherd looks after its flock for each of our spirits, before we even understood what it meant to have a relationship with him.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: You may be having, as you've listened to the last two podcasts that we've done, and if you haven't listened to those episodes, definitely go check those out, because today we want to continue to unpack kind of what does this look like in everyday life?
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: I think the thread running through all of this is the idea that covenant and our spirit being in us and connected to God's spirit and all these things, it's all rooted in the fact and the truth that God is faithful, the character of his faithfulness.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: From Genesis to Revelation, we see God making and keeping covenant with his people.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: I wasn't on the podcast with you so forgive me if I don't totally remember, but I think somewhere on there and it may have been a conversation I thought about afterwards but that's the idea that we are heirs of God and therefore co-heirs with Christ.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Yes, Right, and so that is that covenant relationship.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: That's the idea there.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: So how do we live in light of that identity?
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: Like it can't just be this simple truth that's out there.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: It has to impact and shape our everyday lives.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: What's that identity really mean of living as a covenant child, when we're at work, when we're at home, when we're going through our daily routines, when we're going through our life?
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's the fun part, kimberly, because it's real easy to listen to this podcast or go to your Bible study or your local church.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: And, yes, I affirm the truth that I'm co-heir with Christ and I'm seated with him in heavenly places and I'm the beloved of God.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: And then Monday morning hits, which I find myself on Sunday nights trying to stay up as late as possible, because as long as I stay up, it's not Monday yet right.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: Possible because as long as I stay up, it's not Monday yet right, because the grind is waiting and it can feel very disconnected between who I want to be and know I am in Christ, versus what my Monday morning looks like.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: So that's a really important question, because the Bible doesn't just tell us who we are, it calls us to walk in a manner worthy of that calling.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Ephesians 4.1 says I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: So our identity in Christ leads to a distinct way of living.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: If we are called to live according to scripture, to a new way of life, then we have to connect that back to the promise.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: So the covenant always includes a promise, but then there must be a response.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: So think about Deuteronomy 7.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: God tells Israel it was not because you were more in number, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath he swore to your fathers.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: And in response they were called to obey, to love and to walk in His ways and His statutes.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: That's the pattern, the pattern of His promise and our response.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: God initiates, we respond.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: That response is not to earn His love.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: That's what we have to remember.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: It is just because we already have it.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: And it's like John 14 and 15 says If you love me, you'll keep my commandments.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: So obedience I mean this is a key to everyday life for all of us.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: Obedience flows from love, not legalism.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: It's not I have to, it's love I get to.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but that's really hard to hold on to because my mindset often goes to I have to do things to earn God's love and favor, versus living from that place of grace.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: And so that leads to this question what does it practically look like to live as a covenant child?
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: So I mean, there's a lot of things that, kimberly, you and I are going to talk about today, but one thing I'm thinking about is holiness, and not in that stiff, self-righteous.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: I have to earn my right to be considered a child of God kind of way.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: But because of what you're just saying is because I have received so much for him, it is joyful for me to be his follower and to be obedient and to be holy.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: 1 Peter 1.16 says be holy, for I am holy.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: That's covenant language.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: God set us apart and we're called to live in a way that reflects his character.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: It's not be holy so I'll love you.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: It's.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: This is who I am.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: I have put who I am inside you.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: So therefore, you need to respond in the same type of holiness to me and when we do that, hopefully take some of the pressure off because, as I talked about in last week's podcast, sometimes your prayer life can turn into.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: You got to feel like you got to pray just the right thing or beg God for things, or he should only answer my prayers if I've been obedient and done enough good things for him.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: And that is religion versus a relationship, and what we're talking about is a covenant relationship with God.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: And I think that's the difference.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: When you know, sometimes we expect unbelievers, nonbelievers, we expect people who aren't covenant children to act like they are.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and we really need to not do that, because if they don't have Christ abiding within them, then they're not expected to live under that.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: Be holy, for I am holy, that is a command to a covenant child, and so that's where God's character is going to always set the tone.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: We're an overflow of that, so we know who he is, and then, because of knowing who he is, we live out of that.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: We need to be who we're called to be.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: That's where holiness flows from.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: It flows from knowing who he is and then who we are.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: So I think about this phrase identity drives behavior.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: So if I'm a covenant child, if I'm loved, if I'm secured by god's promises, then that gives me a whole new foundation to live from.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, my identity is should and I hate the word should, but I don't mean that in a I'm shooting this on you, I'm putting this on you.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: I mean that in a way of the truth of my identity gets to drive my behavior, and I would be so much more free and so much more living in abundance if I understood that.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: So it's not the striving to earn his approval, it's living in response, like you just said, to his grace.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, as you're talking, I'm thinking about a friend of ours who had young boys about the time that Lion King was coming out, the original.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: I know we've done like three remakes of that, but the original Disney cartoon movie that came out, which I think was like 30 years ago or something.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: I don't do that to me.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: No, no, no, that was just 10 years ago, kimberly, but yeah, I think we are celebrating the 30th anniversary of something that I remember when it came out and that just hurts my feelings, but anyway, the point of it is there was a phrase in that movie that kept echoing through to Simba's mind, which was remember who you are.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: And it's that whole idea of let your identity drive your behavior.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: I love that phrase that you just used just let your identity drive your behavior.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: And a friend of ours who had young boys that were turning into teenagers and college students, whenever they left to go out, they would not give them okay, now do this, don't do that.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: There was no list of rules of how their behavior should be.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: They would simply say to them now remember who you are and then let that dictate the types of choices you're going to make tonight.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: And I think that is such honestly, a much more convicting way to do it.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Because I mean, kimberly, we know teenagers are quite creative and if you tell them five things they can't do, they'll come up with six through 10 and do those instead.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: But also such beautiful freedom of.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: I trust you to remember who we've raised you to be and who you are and where you come from, and you're going to reflect that in your behavior as you go out in the world, and so I think it just changes everything, not only how we train up our children, but also how I handle pressure at work or home, how I respond to criticism.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: Now, I say all this as if I'm doing it perfectly.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: I am not.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: More times than not, I fail at this, I fail at this, but I wish that it could impact.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: You know, whenever someone, something goes wrong, or I get criticized, or I get treated unfairly, or whatever the thing might be, that instead of reacting in the moment with all of my hurts and my wounds and all of the things I believe about myself that are not true, if I could respond from the fullness of my identity and allow my identity to drive my behavior, that is what the beautiful picture of what it looks like to be anchored in who God says I am, and then able to respond in a situation versus react.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: And I think it's important to note, because we always talk about how we have people listening to our podcast that come from different stories.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: This is not God misusing or abusing.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: You better behave this way right, Like it's not a remember who you are, in a sense of like I'm bullying you right.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: Like it's not from a place of a vindictive nature, and so that's where I think you use the word trust a minute ago.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: Trust has to come in, and so that's where I think you used the word trust a minute ago.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: Trust has to come in when we live as a covenant child.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: It shows that we trust God's faithfulness.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: That's what we said all this flows from.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: It flows from His character, and so, even when things are uncertain, we trust His faithfulness.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: Listen, go back and pick a podcast, and I'm sure you'll hear us talk about how we wrestle with trusting.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: God how we wrestle when things are uncertain.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: Think about Abraham, Genesis 15.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: God made a covenant with him, and though the promises took time to unfold, Abraham believed that didn't mean he didn't wrestle.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: He did wrestle.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: He went and did some other things to show his wrestling.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: That's where we get not just Israel but Ishmael right.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: But it was that belief was also counted, that faith was counted to him as righteous.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: We see that in the New Testament when they look back at his life.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: And so it's about trust, and we will be the first to like raise our hands if you can see us and go, I get it.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: It is hard to trust, it is it is hard to trust.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: It is because I'm only able to see what I can see with my eyes and believe what I believe through the lens of my story.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: And there are times where people who said I will be there for you have not been and there are as great as my parents were, they weren't perfect and they let me down and there's wounds there and there's hurts there, and so even hearing God is a loving father.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you've got to take that through the lens of your story and go okay, what I think of the father as an earthly father whether it's my own or other stories, I've heard of other people's fathers that's not the real definition of what God as Father means, and the whole reason why we did the whole series on Safe in the Father's Heart is this is so at the core of understanding who he is and who we are in Him.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: So it's also living out of our identity.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: Means that not only we trust who God is, but we trust His promises, even when we don't see the results right away.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: And, kimberly, I mean your story and mine are full of times where we felt like God broke a promise or didn't come through for us.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: But it's walking by faith and not by sight, and it's reminding us that everything we have is from Him and that he is far greater than we can imagine and that he is involved in the details of our lives, even if things don't turn out the way that I want them to.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: And that is the hard one to believe sometimes, because I mean Kimberly, your story is you thought your dad was gonna be healed on this earth and he was not.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: And that's a hard one, because God had the power to do it.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: Other people have been healed.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Why not your dad?
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: Similar for my dad.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: Why did my dad have to suffer through Alzheimer's for so many years?
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: Other people didn't have to deal with that.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: They kept all their faculties and they lived to the ripe old age of 95.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: They just went to sleep one night and didn't wake up the next morning and they were in the arms of Jesus.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: So why wasn't that our story?
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: And so it's trusting that he is being good and kind and faithful, even in situations that do not feel that way.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: It's allowing ourselves to walk by faith and with intentional gratitude for what God is allowing to happen in our lives, because we have decided to trust in our covenant relationship with Him more so than what we see with our own eyes.
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: As you talk about.
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: You know my dad's story for me, I think, about how much I prayed and how much I asked and pleaded with God on my just on my end, right, right, and I mean that shaped me for a long time in a negative way, like I didn't.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: It took me years and still wrestle with it at times of am I going to pray for anything personal?
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: Because it was a hard blow, right, right.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: And I was having a conversation with someone earlier this week and someone had prayed for them to be well.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: They were not well and someone was praying that they would be well and kind of declaring God to heal this person from the top of their head to the soles of their feet.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: And this person said to me, can they really pray that over me?
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: And like, declare God to heal me, kind of thing.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: And I said, well, I have tension with that.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: I'll just be honest.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: I have tension with, like, praying for healing because of my own story, but also because I and I don't, and because of the conversation, of taking that out of context.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: I don't think this person was taking out of context, but here's what I think when we're talking about this idea of living as a covenant people.
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: If we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, then we do get to exercise the authority that Christ gave us, and that's one of the benefits of being a covenant child, right?
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: And I think that also, when we talk about living with intentional gratitude, I don't want to shrink back and not recognize I'm a co-heir with Christ, like I want to be genuinely grateful for that and recognize what that really means.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: Like you said, I get to be genuinely grateful for that and recognize what that really means.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: Like you said, I get to walk by faith.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: Okay, well, walking by faith means I don't like I wrestle with this as I say it, but it's true, I want to pray for the cancer person to be healed.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: I want to pray for the person with Alzheimer's to be healed.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: Now, I got to recognize I submit every bit of that to Jesus.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, right, like his will be done, not mine, right.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: But at the same time, as a co-heir with Christ, I have the authority to pray for that.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: I have the authority to ask my father for that.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: I mean, we're getting ready to celebrate Easter and, father, let this cup pass from me, right yeah, and it didn't, and thank God it didn't.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: Right, we're on the other side of that, yeah, and we can't often be on the other side.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: And yet there's a peace that comes with living this way.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: There's a peace that comes with knowing I can walk by faith and I can trust in God's promises and God's faithfulness.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: But it's hard.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: It's everything hard.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I just that example you're giving.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: If anyone ever deserved for God to answer his prayer, I think it would be Jesus, you know.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: I mean he is fully God, fully man.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: He's been obedient to do everything his father's asked him to do.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: He's, you know, I only do what my father tells me to do, like he has been obedient every step of the way.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: And so if anyone has the right if we're talking about my righteousness allows God to answer certain prayers.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: If anyone had the right to ask and also receive, it would be him.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: And yet God knew, for the greater glory and for the greater good, that he did answer it.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: The answer was no.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: And for the greater good that he did answer it, the answer was no.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: And I love the second part of that, where Jesus immediately goes but not my will, but your will be done.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: And that, I think, is that tension you're talking about, kimberly, that I think we should ask.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: I think we should boldly ask as co-heirs, but understanding that there is the surrender as well, and I know that for me, that's how I had to pray for my dad through all of this, which was God.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: I don't want to do this and I don't like this situation, I don't like what's going on and I want you to change it and I would beg him to do whatever he could to fix the situation.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: But at the same time I would fall to my knees and go but if this is what today is supposed to be, is another day of taking care of my dad with Alzheimer's, then I'm going to do it to the glory of God, and it's going to be hard and it's going to be messy, and I'm not always going to respond well and I'm not going to.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: I mean, please do not see me with like a halo and angel wings over there helping taking care of them.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: There was a lot of grace, but there was also times where I just couldn't take it anymore and I was human and I had a human reaction in the moment.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: But it's always coming back to we have the right to ask because of our position in Him, and I think that's my heartbeat is.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of people out there that don't think they have the right to ask, that they've believed a lie, that they are not as good as or they don't.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: You know, god doesn't come through for me.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: God answers everyone else's prayers, but mine, like.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: There's so many people out there that are living under the lie that you've disqualified yourself by your behavior.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Therefore, you don't even have the right to.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: How dare you ask him for anything after what you did last week?
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: And so to remove the shame of it all and go?
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: No, your identity whether you're living up to your identity or not, your identity does not change because of your behavior.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: But much like a parent longs for their children to follow after the things that are good and right, god desires for us to be holy because he is holy, but when I fail at that, it doesn't change my identity.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: It can cause a rift in my relationship and there needs to be an ask for forgiveness and there needs to be some repair work done there and some repentance and a choice to choose to behave differently, going forward.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: But it never changes at the core that I am a covenant child of God.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: I think another aspect of living as a covenant child means that we're also like we don't do this alone, right.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: The word covenant has the connotation of relationship, right, and we're not just in relationship with God and with Jesus, we're not just in a like.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: He saved me as an individual human and I'm in a private relationship with God.
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: We also get to be a part of the covenant family, the covenant people of God, and that has huge implications.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: What we were just talking about was when we're wrestling with what.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: Do I have the authority to pray?
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: What do I get to pray?
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: How do I get to live?
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: We can ask those questions in our, in our covenant communities, and I know for some of us here we are again like we, we've got stories where we don't know if we can trust our, the people around us, and so I would say, like Elizabeth, you and I have been friends for a long time and we know that there's an established trust, like I know I can pick up the phone and call Elizabeth and she's going to give me truth and she's going to wrestle with me.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: You know you can do that with me.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: Find, if you don't have a large community, start somewhere.
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: Find that covenant, that other person who you know is a part of God's covenant community with you, and you can encourage one another, and that's what we encourage people to do through our Ruach conferences, like when you start to understand what it means to live spirit, soul and body, find people you can have those conversations with.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: The idea here is that we're brought into his family and that there are huge implications also for how we treat one another, and that is a high calling, especially when I look at what's going on in the world around us all the time.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: Right, yeah, I mean I think of Galatians 6.10 that says Let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: So we're called to bear one another's burdens, to serve, to forgive, to love like Christ.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: And when I think of how I treat other people, it means I'm called to love them, to forgive them and serve them, not because they earned it, which is always my favorite metric of how I treat people but because God's grace flows through me.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: And there is so much that has been written in Scripture about one another and what we're supposed to do love one another, share each other's burdens.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: I mean there's so much in Scripture that's trying to teach us how we're supposed to do.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: You know, love one another, share each other's burdens.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: I mean there's so much in scripture that's trying to teach us how we're supposed to treat other people.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: Because it's not easy, because at our core let's just be honest we're all quite selfish or self-protecting, or whatever word you want to use there.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: I find it interesting that one of the greatest commands is that you love your neighbor as you love yourself.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: I think God knows at our core I'm going to look out for me, and so he's trying to get us to understand we're supposed to love those around us in the same way.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: And you're right, kimberly, it's not just us versus the world.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: Within church culture we are not doing a good job of loving one another.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: And as a friend it's a friend of mine who's a pastor told me many years ago he's like the problem is with sheep is that they bite each other.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, they do, and some of my most painful times of being hurt have not been by a non-believer coming at my faith, but it's been within this family, where we're supposed to be loving each other and forgiving each other and being the body of Christ to each other, where that betrayal has happened and it is quite painful.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: It is quite painful and yet I mean one of my favorite messages to stand on, because I'm very community oriented, one of my favorite hopes to stand on.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: People say you can live without water for a certain amount of time, live without food.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: You can't live without hope, kind of thing.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: Right, yes?
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: And so there's a part of me that has to hope that one day and it will happen one day, one day sooner, I hope that those of us as believers, as God's covenant kids, that we will really figure out how to treat one another, including covenant kids and non-covenant kids Like I cling to that hope so hard.
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: I so desperately want to see the church pave the way in that.
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: And it's not going to come without work.
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: It's not going to come without obedience.
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: It's not going to come without trust in truly knowing who God is and His character and abiding in that, abiding in his faithfulness, living out of that and I'm going to wrestle with it.
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: You're going to wrestle with it till the day we die, but I just I hope and I pray that God's people can really figure out how to do this better.
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: It's always my hope and my prayer.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm right there with you, kimberly.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: I would love for the body of Christ whether that's the local body or just the universal body of Christ that people would look at it and go, wow, I just I mean the way they treat each other, the way they love each other, the way they love others that are coming to them outside of their community.
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: I want to be a part of that, and sadly, that's not the story in a lot of places right now, and so we do have a lot of work to do in order to rise up into the fullness of our identity as co-heirs with Christ, as covenant children of God, so that the overflow of that can impact those around us.
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: One of the marks of us really buying in and believing and living all of what we're talking about will be when we just start to do this better, when it just starts to look better, of us really loving one another and loving God and caring for creation and caring for the community, caring for the widows and the poor and the orphan.
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: I mean.
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: I think about in Acts.
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: It was like the church gave of what they had to one another so often.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: The church was the center of history, the church was the center of so many towns and they gave, they were sacrificial and they loved and no, it was never perfect.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: But if we could just get back to that, I think it would be wonderful.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: And I think one of the other things that we don't do well that is actually part of living in covenant is choosing to rest.
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: Sabbath is part of living as a covenant child and I think that we forget that resting is part of that.
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: And if you'll go back to podcasts before we call it the rest of your inheritance for a reason Like, listen to the challenge in that podcast.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: So it is not just about choosing to rest physically, but also spiritually, because when we rest, we are acting out of trust in God's covenant care for us.
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: We are acting out of trust in God's covenant care for us.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that one's really hard again, because not only are we living in a culture that praises the hustle and hard work and you know, go, go, go but also internally, even when I lay down on my couch with my cat to take a nap, which is my favorite activity I believe I joke that I'm a recreational napper and if there was an Olympic napping team I would be a gold medalist.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: But even when I'm laying down to physically rest, my mind and heart can be spinning and worrying about so many things that, instead of trusting God is going to fight my battles for me I am a covenant daughter, he is totally responsible for me and he will come through for me.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: Instead of resting in all of those truths as a co-heir with Christ, I find myself spinning, worrying about how all of this is.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: You know what's going to happen with my kids and what's going to happen with my job, and what's going to happen with the world and the politics.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: I mean all the things that you can get so wound up about.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: And so you're right.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: It's not just about physical rest, although I would love to live in a culture where we have a siesta every day.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: That sounds amazing to me.
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: I need to move over to Spain, I believe.
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: But it's the spiritual and emotional rest as well.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: I mean, god modeled that for us when he created the world.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: Did God really need to rest on the seventh day?
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: No, it was about taking time to delight and reflect and enjoy all that he had done.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: And I think that's part of our invitation, as we choose to Sabbath is to take time to enjoy and delight in our relationship with him.
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: So maybe we can end with this thought Living as a covenant child is not about trying to be perfect.
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: It's about living aware of who you are and who God is.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: So think about it this way To live as a covenant child is to live with a gospel-rooted identity, to live with faithful obedience and to live with a deep communion with God and with his people.
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: And from that awareness flows our purpose, our peace, our everything, our joy, our satisfaction.
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: All of it flows from living from that perspective.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: And I think the greatest news in all of that is it's not up to us to do it in our own strength.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: Ezekiel 36 tells us that God put His Spirit within us to cause us to walk in His statutes, and that's the power of being a covenant child.
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: So this week maybe we should all take some time to reflect on this question how is my identity as a child of God shaping my trust, my holiness, my community and my obedience?
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: And allow God to enter in that conversation with you.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: Maybe you don't fully understand how your identity as a covenant child is supposed to shape those things.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: The beautiful thing about God is, if we call on Him, he will answer us, he will show us, he's given us His Holy Spirit as our tutor and our guide.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: So how can more of my trust, my holiness, my community and my obedience be shaped from this starting point of I am a covenant child of God Most High?
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: And then, how do we allow our lives to be filled with His grace and for that grace to flow out of us to others?
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: filled with his grace and for that grace to flow out of us to others.
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: So we pray that you will be blessed this week and that you will know and be able to rest and trust in God's deep, abiding love for you.
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: as his child, I want to thank you for listening to the Father's Business Podcast.
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: This podcast is made possible through donations by people like you.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: To donate, go to wwwTheFathersBusinesscom.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: Be sure to follow us at the Fathers Biz on Instagram and Facebook.