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How Sin Sneaks In · The Reality Is

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: The reality.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: With a real light, it's real fun.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: The reality.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome back to the reality is podcast where we are here talking about real life and real faith.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_02: And we just went through the summer and what a what a great summer.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: I gotta say what a hot summer here because I ain't used to it.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_02: But here's what I want to find out from you.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_02: What's the most interesting thing that has happened to you this summer?
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: Huh.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I know I put you on the spot.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: You weren't even thinking about that, but give it before we even start this, because I think this alone is interesting, what we're going to talk about today.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: But give me an interesting something to happen to you.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly, I've had a non-eventful summer.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: I wish I could say I had some uh huge event or something, but it's just been non-eventful, just uh a lot of things going on, just trying to keep up with everything.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm looking forward to a better fall.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: Well, that's really when you take your trips and you get to see all the colors and all that stuff.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: I wish I could give you some big event that took it.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you don't really travel or do anything in the summer.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: No, as you said, it's been hot.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: Really, really hot.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna tell you something that interested me.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: So by the time this comes out, I'm gonna say it's a few weeks back.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: But a few weeks back, we did this thing at our church called the Life Group Restart Party.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: So we go through this whole party, right?
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_02: And we like to provide food.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: And then we tell the people, hey guys, I want you to bring a side dish.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_02: Side dish.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: And this was the most interesting thing to make.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I shared this with you because it was funny, but I got to share it with you guys because I'm not used to this, like I don't know, Baptist, like get together thing, right?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: So we serve burgers, which is great.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: So we've got burgers for everybody, and we tell you guys bring aside.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: Every side dish was a dessert, like every single one, like it was a table full of desserts, and then a second table full of a different type of dessert, and people were still coming in with desserts.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm going, oh my goodness, all these people eat are desserts around here.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_02: If you love Jesus, what can I say?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_02: That's the that's the way it goes.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I was very shocked by that.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: When I tell you shocked, I literally I took a picture and I was like, I I've got to hold this one in my memory because Well, it it is funny when you see people with one plate with a hamburger and chips on it, and another plate that it takes wheels to roll the dessert to the table.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, nothing.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, no other side dish.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's literally all desserts.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I was just like, man, this is this one's shocking to me.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: Normally you see like mac and cheese, potato salad, something.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_02: Nope, not here.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: It was all desserts.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: But in full disclosure, dude, we had some high-quality desserts on that table.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you, I'm not saying they don't know how to do dessert.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: I was just, I was just and then there were my store bought cookies.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: But other than that, uh, that's good.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: That's good.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_02: Well, again, a summer off.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: We had a wonderful summer.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: I'm really looking forward to getting back into this with you guys, and especially with you, because you always come back at the beginning and you say, Man, Joey, I'd love to talk about this.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I always go, Whoa, you're like about to punch him in the face with this one.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_02: Spiritually.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: Spiritually, punch him in the face.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: But but why don't you tell the people what you wanted to talk about when we just jumped off into this new season?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, what I want to do is kick off the next five weeks with a series, honestly, beginning today with ways that sin sneaks into our life and then developing that idea of how we allow sin in.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: But I certainly don't want to leave us at the end of five weeks with going, okay, so we know how it gets here.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: What do we do with it?
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, great.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so we want to take three basic weeks and talking about the real dangers in our life, and then kind of wrap the last two weeks up by saying, okay, that this is how we identify it and this is how we get rid of it.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_02: And so this week we're going to be starting off with ways that sin can actually sneak into your life.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I love that you use the word sneak because sin is not one of those things that just says, hey, look, I'm sin.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sin.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_02: Why don't you like enter into me and take me?
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: That's not how sin works.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: It creeps in.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, if you really stop and think about it, okay.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: How many people wake up one morning and go, you know, my goal today is to completely destroy my life with some horrendous sin?
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: Not at all.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: It it's something that does creep into our life.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's something we allow.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, think about it this way: you you leave your house and you you walk through and you make sure every door is locked, okay?
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then you make sure all the windows are locked.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: But you have a window in the back of the house that no one ever sees.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: And in fact, it's covered up with tall bushes.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so you want to leave the house to air a little bit.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: So you just leave that crack just a little bit and you think everything's safe because it's hidden by the bushes, no one sees it.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: There's a fence back there, no one should even be back there, right?
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: But as a former law enforcement officer, guess where the thief's going in?
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: He's going in that window that you said no one would see, because if no one sees it, that means no one can see him.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: And that's kind of the idea here is a good way to look at it.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: We we we leave this crack.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: We secure everything everyone can see, but we leave this cracked window.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where the enemy, who is the thief, is coming in.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_02: And and you're talking spiritually, this cracked window in your life that you think nobody really knows about, but that's the key.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: You're going, oh, nobody knows about this, but the enemy does know.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: It says, that's what I'm going to use.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the interest.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: And he comes in there, and when he comes in, you're trapped.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so now we have to figure out how to identify him and how to get him out.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_02: Because I, as well as you, we sit and we counsel with people, and they come at the end of their robes, and you're usually hearing them say, and I don't know how I got here.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and then you start peeling the onion, you show them exactly how they got there.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: And and the the sad part is, is it's easy to sit, uh, for instance, as we would say, on this side of the table and be able to dissect that.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: But when you're in the middle of it, you you really allow these little things.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what we really want people to understand over the next five weeks.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's these little things, okay?
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: And these little things become major things in our life.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: But they don't just rarely is it one step.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I think you used a key word, allow.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's how a lot of people allow things that they think, ah, it's not such a big deal, it's not such a big deal.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_02: But uh you keep taking these little things, little things, little things, little things, and they just keep building up.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_02: I I always like to use the example of a feather.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_02: Like a feather's real light, like you don't notice it.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_02: You don't notice a feather.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: But what's the difference between a thousand pounds of feathers and a thousand pounds of balls?
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_02: It's the same, right?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_02: It just takes a lot more feathers.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I I think the key is is and and kind of what we need to think about the next five weeks is our choices matter.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, we've said so many times our choices have consequences, and and our choices matter.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh our good choices lead to good consequences, our bad choices lead to bad consequences.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so as as we think about that, it's the same thing Christ told us in Galatians 5.16.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: I say then walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's a choice.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'll walk in the spirit, but I cannot walk in the spirit and fulfill the flesh at the same time.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: Can't happen.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm one or the other.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: I make that choice every day of my life.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely, man.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_02: That's good stuff.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: So let's let's just sort of break it down.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: Let's say, okay, I I there's three primary ways I think that we can say that sin's going to get in, and we're going to develop it.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm sure you narrowed that down to three because I know you.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, you you would have 17 or 18 ways.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: I started with 104 ways.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: Of course do you?
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: And and then then I said, I'll take 104, make them three, but still 104.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the first thing that happens, and and I really do believe, Joey, that sin sneaks into our life through what we tolerate.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Ephesians 4 7 27 says, uh, nor give place to the devil.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: Now, yeah, when when we talk about tolerate, it it's the it's the word the world loves, right?
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: Toleration.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: We tolerate tolerate.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so what happens is rarely, again, does does sin just suddenly grab us.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: It enters through those little areas that we tolerate in our life.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: We tolerate someone in our life that is is is racist and use racials racial slurs.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: We tolerate in our life someone who constantly uses profanity.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: And before long, we're using profanity.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: We start saying the same words.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: We tolerate someone in our life that gossips all the time.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: And before long, we're gossiping.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: And on I could go.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's not that I just wake up one day and spend all my time talking about Joey.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's that slowly but surely I allow people in my life that want to talk about Joey.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and here's the thing it's like, you know it's wrong, but you also know, well, this is such a good person.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't want, I don't want to stop hanging out with this person.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want to offend that person and let them know how wrong they are.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_02: I like them.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: They like, we're cool, we're good.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_02: I know what you're doing is wrong, but I'll still hang out with you.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: Well, think about it.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: What you tolerate gains excess.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: Now, just a few quick examples.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: Eve first listened to the serpent before she ate the fruit.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: There you go.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: So she tolerated the conversation with the serpent.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: Then she ate the fruit.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: David first stayed home at the time when kings go to war.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Before he committed adultery and murder, and and Judas first became greedy, then he became a betrayer.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's that what we tolerate and and we allow these little things into our life that on its surface, in and of itself, is not a bad thing.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: But slowly but surely they dominate.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_02: Especially when you know better.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_02: And we know better.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I think a lot of people out there listening know better.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I I bet you right now, if I just say, hey, think of a person, I bet you they can start thinking of a person who they allowed in their life, and they just keep hanging out with that person.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: They know that this person is doing wrong things.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: They're doing things they shouldn't do.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_02: And you believe, man, I'm strong enough to not get into that.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_02: But what's your favorite verse that you always use?
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_02: Uh good morals?
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: They're corrupted by the people who you hang out with.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: Bad company corrupts good morals.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_02: It's not the other way around.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: No, and and and again, we will excuse it.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: And we'll talk a lot about that, about how we excuse stuff like that, you know.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so what we tolerate creeps in, but the other side of that is Joey, what we tolerate becomes normal.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, sure does.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: And and so the first time someone uses a string of profanity with me, okay?
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully that'll cause me to bristle.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: But but I hang hang out with this person and I hang out with this person, and before long, I don't even hear it anymore.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: There you go.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: It and and or I watch this movie and and and it starts out and and there it is.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, just this string of profanity.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: And somehow or another I find a way to make it normal.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I find a way to make it okay.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: By the time I'm 10 minutes into the movie, I'm I'm not even hearing it anymore.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you literally have become numb to it.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Isaiah 5.20, woe to them that call evil good and good evil.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so what happens is I tolerate this till it just becomes normal.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm desensitized to it.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: I don't pay it attention anymore.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: We find ourselves, and especially with entertainment, we find ourselves with bringing that up.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_02: You look at a certain TV show, and I'm not going to put any TV shows on blast, but here's the pattern that I have found with the majority of TV shows.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, look, it's good.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, great.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: We can bring our kids in to watch it.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, look, okay, it's happening.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, oh, that was bad.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: We should probably stop it right there.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_02: But, oh, it was a one-time thing.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's okay.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, well, now it's just this continual thing.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_02: And you go, okay, but but, and then as you're watching the show over and over and over, you have desensitized yourself to what you know should not be happening, and you justify going, it's okay, because it's just entertainment and I won't allow myself to go there.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_02: You and I have talked about this before.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: I've said it on the podcast before.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: I used to watch a particular show that had a lot of cursing in it.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: Me, I don't curse.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: I don't even think of curse words.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_02: Like they don't come to me like naturally.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_02: Like I have been so far removed from cursing.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_02: So for me, I'm going, it's okay.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't bother me.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_02: Until something happened one day when I got upset.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: And what did I use?
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: A curse word that I hadn't said since I was like 17 years old.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: Because I've allowed it to infiltrate me thinking, ah, it doesn't matter.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_02: It's not really doing anything.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's doing something to you.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's it's the way the world operates, okay?
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's it's the same as I I watched uh a series that used to be a network series.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: Uh under network TV.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's a whole they couldn't use profanity, they couldn't use right.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: And then the last series, the last season, okay, was a non-network.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: Well, dude.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: I know exactly the show you're talking about because I was watching the show.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't even get to finish it.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_02: I was about to say I know exactly what you're talking about because I watched it, I loved it.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: It was action-filled, it was great.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_02: There was a whole lot of action in this, right?
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, I think we're talking about the same show.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_02: And then it literally switched on you.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_02: And it was on you could only watch it on a certain streaming channel and you're watching it going, okay, I've watched it forever.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_02: And then they said a word, and I went, oh and it wasn't just a word.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, right.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and I remember my wife and I said, We have gotta stop watching this.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: I could not believe it.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: And and so that's what it does.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: You you take, I mean, you know, I'm a I'm a pagan, I'm a country music fan.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: And but let me tell you, it it happens, man.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: You're riding down the road and you're singing, and and you just sing the profanity right along with it, right?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: And you go, well, it's just a four-letter word.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: You're an adult.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't belong.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_02: Which is shocking because country music is the most Jesus-loving music I know outside of Christian music.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: It old country.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: But but anyway, my my point being, and and I think we both agree, you you've got to control what's in your life.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: I want you to think about the progression, okay?
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: We notice the sin.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: So otherwise we identify it.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: We tolerate it, then we make an excuse for it.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: Then we practice it, which leaves us defending it.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's going to happen every time.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's only a TV show, Joey.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: What are you making such a big deal about it for?
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: It's okay.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's a four-letter word.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: You're an adult.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: We know it's not true.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: We're just watching it for the sake of entertainment.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_02: Really?
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_02: That's what entertains you.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: I get so tired of hearing the the we're an adult.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: We should know better.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, the danger is not only that we commit the sin, but we stop being bothered by it.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: And and there, there comes the issue, okay?
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't bother us anymore.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: It's upset.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: And you follow the progression, okay?
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: What you tolerate grows stronger.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: James chapter 1, verses 14 and 15.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: Then when desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin when it is full grown, brings forth death.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: What we tolerate grows stronger.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's just that simple.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it is.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I'd love to say that this is for all the new Christians out there who are struggling with and and oh, if you've never accepted Christ, these are some of the things you struggle with.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_02: No, we're talking about some people who have been walking with the Lord for years.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_02: Seasoned Christians are still struggling with these moments right here.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I think you said the word that really hurts my feelings.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, like deeply my feelings.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_02: Tolerate.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: You tolerate it.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_02: You know it.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_02: You go, oh, that's but I'm gonna tolerate it.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: And that's where I think you get into trouble.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: It it absolutely is.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, you th you think about a tolerated thought becomes a desire.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: A desire becomes a sin because a desire leads to an action, an action becomes a sin, a sin becomes death.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's what he lays out for you.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: Where I can kill sin is in the thought stage.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: For me to have a thought is not sin.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: For me to allow that thought to become action, whether it remains in my mind, action, or whether it becomes a physical action, doesn't matter.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's when I the thought comes, I can confess that, say, God, remove that, right?
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: Or I can start fantasizing about whatever it is, and and then and then from there it leads to death.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's what James tells us.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: He just walks right through it.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_02: And that's scary because it's too easy to happen.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: And like I said earlier, you and I have watched so many people come in and say, I don't know how I ended up like this.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's because you and you've said the word, you tolerated it from here when it was a little thing and it grew big.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I, you know, because I have so many kids and I've watched Veggie Tales a lot, there was this little thing called the fib.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_02: Like I can't even remember the name of the Veggie Tale episodes, but it was about a fib.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: And the fib was this cute little ball.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_02: And it just kept enticing him to say, Oh, it's just a little fib, it's just a little fib.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_02: But every time he said a little fib, the fib got bigger until it turned into king conk size and he couldn't control his little fib anymore.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's exactly what you're talking about on the tolerating.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_02: You tolerate it because it's little and it's cute, but what you don't realize is you're feeding it and it's growing bigger and bigger and bigger, and now you can't control it anymore.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: No, exactly.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: And and you know, when when I was in law enforcement, I had friends that were in the the white collar uh division, and of course I worked organized and and stuff.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: So but these guys would tell me and and they would talk about embezzlement, for instance.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: No one embezzles a million dollars first first time out.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: It starts with I I just need lunch money and and and I'm gonna get a little out of petty cash.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna put it back when I get back.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I'll put it back.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: No harm, no foul.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: I I went to the bank on the way back, I dropped the ten dollars back in the case, and okay, you know what?
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but then suddenly now I keep it over the weekend.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: And and I'm gonna drop it back.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: And and I'm the only one that counts petty cash, you just have to account for it once a month.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'm gonna I'm gonna take an advance, and before long, the person's$25,000 into embezzlement, right?
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: Joey, that's sin.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: We we we just take a little bit, no harm, no foul.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm I'm not hurting anybody with this, nobody even knows, and and before long that thought that we toy with in our mind becomes a full-blown affair or a full-blown embezzlement or a full-blown lie.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: And here we are.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_02: And then you're constantly trying to cover for it now because as you say, now I've got to uh justify what I did.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you you think about just a few things I jotted down here.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: We tolerate bitterness that grows into resentment.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: We we tolerate lust, which grows into immorality.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: We tolerate pride and it turns into rebellion.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: We tolerate dishonesty, it grows into deception.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: We tolerate neglect and it grows into spiritual coldness.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: You just think about the small toleration and where it can lead to.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: And and and again, there you are.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: It it becomes what we tolerate, what we allow in, and and then there it goes.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: We just we just had our our flower beds here at the church, right?
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: Completely redone and had paid a company to come in, clean them up for us.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: A few weeds at a time, and before long we had beautiful beds of weeds.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, right?
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: Beautiful weeds.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: We had some of the best weeds anybody in the county had.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: But the majority of the people coming onto the property every week didn't even notice it.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: Why?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: Because you see it a little bit at a time, and before long you just assume that's a flower.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's just true.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's the truth.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: Wildflowers, look at that.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: And and and that's how sin does.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: We see it, we see it, we see it, and and before long we just assume it's normal.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um everybody, I mean, there was Was a time 20 years ago, give or take, where pastors started using profanity in the pulpit.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: And their argument was well, I I this is what the world hears, and I need to resonate with them.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: Well, how about doing a better standard?
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: How about showing them the way they should live instead of being where they do live?
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: And we tolerate things until we are absolutely accepting of everything.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: Now we realize and understand that we're not talking about legalism here, or we're not we're not talking about I I don't like the way you tie your shoe and therefore I'm going to that's not what we're talking about here, okay?
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: What we're talking about are those things that we allow in our life that that you have to become almost violent to defend because you know good well it doesn't belong there.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_02: When you know it's a sin and you sit there and say, Oh, I'll tolerate this because it's not hurting anyone, right?
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_02: It really doesn't matter.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, who is it really affecting?
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_02: And then by the time it has affected a whole bunch of people around you, including yourself, you have become so in love with it that now you're defending it and you're arguing with it.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: And you've justified it to the point.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: And we see that with with probably bitterness as much as anything.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, gosh, but yeah.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know what?
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's not me that's the problem, it's what they did to me.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: You can't hold me responsible for my feelings toward that person.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know what they did to me?
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: And and at the end of the day, it's just bitterness that has grown into this resentment, and we've tolerated it for so long.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter what, nothing can blow it out of our life at that point.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: We we see it with lust.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: We we see it with with people that unfortunately it used to be only men.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: Now they say it's almost 40% of women that that the pornography trend we have.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well, again, nobody goes full-blown credit card maxed out looking at porn.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: It starts with those small areas we tolerate, right?
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_02: And it's here, it's here what you see on the billboards, at least where I was living for a time.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you could not drive down the 95 and not see an inappropriate billboard.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_02: But it but problem is it just becomes the natural thing to see.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_02: And then you go to the beaches and you see that natural thing, and you start thinking it's okay.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because that's just the way people dress here.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_02: So it's okay.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_02: Because I'm in this.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_02: My wife and I got into this the other day.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's the culture.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, so you're you're saying just because it's the culture, and even though that culture is sinning, you're you're allowed to just let it be that way and you accept it because it's sin?
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_02: Ooh.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we got to a good one about that.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and the question has to be is whose culture do I want?
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: Dang it.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's just what she said.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: Just what she said.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: She's a smart woman.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I know she is.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: I know she is.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: Do I want the world's culture or do I want God's culture?
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: And and and I will tell you, the world's culture is gonna get me in trouble every time, and God's culture is never gonna get me in trouble.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_02: Every time.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: And and so the sin you feed today becomes the sin that controls you tomorrow.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: And and I mean, we we all know the little illustration of two dogs and which dog's strong and which dog's weak, the one I feed.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 25:31
  unknown: Right.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: Which everyone I feed, that's the one that's gonna become strong.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so it it just becomes a reality.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: So finally, whatever you tolerate eventually controls you.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: And Joey, it's not And that's a kind of out of all the statements, that's probably one of the saddest ones you've said.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, okay.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: John 8 and verse 34 whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Christ is real simple.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: You you you tolerate, you tolerate, you tolerate, and now you're enslaved by it.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: We believe that somehow or another I've managed this and I've put boundaries around it, but I'm not controlling it, it's controlling me.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so when you stop and you think about that, and and I know I joke about it, but but it's it's just it's just the truth, okay?
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: I I'm like an Oreo junkie.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and and uh so if I I love to buy the, you know, I the double stuffs, I call them double whooped.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, and so I I go and buy me a bag of double whooped Oreos, and and let me tell you something.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: I walk in the house with them at 11 o'clock, right?
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to bed with one cookie left in that bag.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's just not so bad.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so what happens is I start with a couple and then I just leave it sitting on the counter, and every time I walk by it, I'm grabbing another one.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right?
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and who can eat just one?
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so it we tolerate and and we grab a cookie at a time, and then suddenly the bag's gone, and we're buying new pants because the ones we had don't fit in.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: And there we are.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: It is a reality that we all have to face.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: We tolerate these things in our life, and as we tolerate these things in our life, this is what bites us.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it promises a freedom, it cannot deliver.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I and I think the the real, at least the issue for for most people, and myself included, is at what point do you realize what you have tolerated has allowed you to become enslaved to it, and now that you're a slave to it, you can't do anything about it.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: And and you know, sin sneaks into our life through these compromises, and and I I just think about some of the compromises that that we have to deal with.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, a failure to purpose in your heart ahead of time to do the right thing takes us into spiritual compromise.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: So what we're talking about is okay, this is this is what happens.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: So how do we prevent that?
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: We purpose in our heart up front.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: Daniel 1.8 tells us that Daniel, before he was challenged by the king, okay, before he had to answer for his life, purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: Daniel made a decision before the temptation ever came.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to allow this to happen.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: Can I just say that his friends didn't?
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: No, they did not.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_02: I would have been like, are you you kidding me right now, bro?
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_02: You see the food they got on the table.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_02: Guys, guys, this is wrong and it's going to defoul our bodies, and we shouldn't do it.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I would have been the friend burning at him, but I would have thanked them.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sure somebody said God understands.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_03: So uh, you know.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, we're talking to if if we're not going to allow these things into our life, we got a purpose beforehand.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'm on a purpose beforehand.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to view this stuff.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to purpose beforehand.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: When someone starts gossip with me, I'm going to stop it.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: Gotta stop it.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'm on a purpose beforehand.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: When someone starts pouring their bitterness out to me, I'm going to lead or encourage to walk away from it's a purpose beforehand.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, a failure to purpose in our hearts ahead of time, but also underestimating evil, including the failure to recognize it as temptation.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: First Peter 5:8, be sober, be vigilant.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: Your adversary, the devil, walks about like a warrant roaring lion looking for who he can devour.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I underestimate evil.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: Evil is a lion.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: It is.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: It is.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and have you like I I I love watching like lion hunting shows and stuff like that.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_02: And you know this because you're a hunter yourself, but you've seen how a lion hunts.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I'm just gonna wait for that weakest one over there, and then I'm just gonna go, I'm gonna pounce you.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_02: And when it pounces you, there's no escape.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_02: I all the shows I have watched, when a lion gets on you, sorry, you're done.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: And he cuts the weakest and he cuts the one lagging behind.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: And you're done.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: And you and you're finished.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_01: The other thing we have to look for in in this world is our unchecked desires.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: Again, James 1, 14, you're drawn away by your own desires, right?
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so what I have to do is constantly in prayer and devotion and seeking God, I have to constantly put unchecked desires before God.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: What what are the things that I'm being pulled away by right now?
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_02: But Richard, this makes me feel so good.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_02: I know it's a false feeling, but but how many people are right now saying, but this makes me feel so good?
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it does.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's the problem with it.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: That's exactly it makes you feel good until it becomes the roaring line and it devours you.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: And and and so, yeah, I mean, look, if sin is not fun for you, you're doing it wrong.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, how many times have you said that?
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_01: We we don't claim it's not fun.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: What we claim is there's a consequence on the other end of that.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_01: That's the key.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_02: All your choices have consequences.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_02: You've said it to your kids, I've said it to my kids.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_02: We constantly say that.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_01: And which brings us to a failure to consider the costly consequences.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_01: There you go.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: Galatians 6, 7, do not be deceived.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: God is not mocked.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever a man sows, that he'll reap.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: So what I do is if I fail to consider up front this costly consequence, I'm toast, man.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_02: Unless you're sowing seeds at my house in my garden, because nothing ever reaps in my backyard.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sowing and it's not reaping.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_02: But spiritually, the fact is, if you sow it, you will reap it.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: And and then through unhealthy relationships.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's key right there.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: 1 Corinthians 15, 33, do not be deceived.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_01: Evil company corrupts good moral.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we kind of said that one earlier, didn't we?
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: And we'll say it a hundred times.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's just like you go to that one because it's so true.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_02: And I always tell people when I say that verse, I cannot find it in the Bible where it says it the other way around.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_02: No, it never.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_02: It does not say it the other way around.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_02: So stop thinking because you're so good, and this person that you're hanging out with trying to minister to, and then they say, Oh, well, why don't you come to the club with us?
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, yeah, I'll go to the club with oh, well, why don't you do this with this?
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_02: Well, okay, I want to be accepted by you guys.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_02: It corrupts you.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, there's no other way to put it.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_01: Every time.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then let me let me just very quickly sin sneaks into your life through what you defend.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: And that kind of brings all of it to a head.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's what we defend.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so how do we defend it?
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, we rename it.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: Sin by any other name is sin, right?
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, but but we rename it.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: So pride becomes self-confident.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not prideful, dude.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: I am self-confident.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: As my wife used to tell me, she said, you are the most conceited human.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'd say, no, I'm convinced.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: Convinced.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: We'll go with that instead.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_01: Conceit, that would be sin.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: Convinced.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um greed becomes ambition.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not greedy, I'm ambitious.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_01: And we in the world support ambition.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_01: And gossip, no, I'm concerned.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_02: Can I pray for you?
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm concerned.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna tell it to my prayer team so that they can pray for you as well.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_02: And in the prayer, all you're doing is gossiping.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm concerned for you, brother.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_01: Be with Joey, he wants to be me.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: I realize, right?
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: And and so it and then our bitterness becomes justified anger.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the Bible says I I there's a righteous anger, and the way he treated me, I have the right to.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_01: And and lust just becomes appreciation for God's creation.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: I have heard those silly arguments.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_02: And I just I'm just appreciating God's creation.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, you are out.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, appreciate a treat.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: He created that too.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_01: And then dishonesty many times just becomes an argument of I'm trying to avoid conflict.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so everything's okay.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't want to speak truth because I'm just avoiding conflict.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_01: Well, changing a sin's name does not change sin's nature.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_01: And and we understand that.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_01: We we defend sin by comparing ourselves to others.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know, well, I'm always going to find somebody that's worse than me.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_01: My problem is I can't.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: So uh, you know, uh really, it's it's like I might have to look longer than most, but I can always find somebody I'm a little better than.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_01: Sure will.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_01: And and you know, at least I'm not saying what they're saying.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_01: At least I'm not doing what they're doing.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_01: Other people have done much worse.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know, or or the standby.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'm still a good person.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_02: Well, no, you're according to what level of good.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um then what about what about what about but Joey, everyone's doing it.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_02: Have you heard that one before?
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_02: Joey, everyone's doing it.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_02: You know, everyone in the yeah, because I consider myself a one, and I am not, therefore, everyone is not doing it.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_01: Well, when somebody tells me that, I always go, have you ever read about Noah?
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know, everyone was doing it.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_01: It didn't end well for him.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's a good okay.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_01: And then we defend sin by blaming others.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_01: Genesis 3.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: Adam said, not my fault, it's the woman you gave me.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_01: The woman said, not my fault, it's the serpent, right?
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody wanted to accept personal responsibility.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so what happens is I was not the problem.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_01: If you knew what they did to me, you would say I'm justified in.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's the way they dressed, it's the way they acted.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's the I mean, we we have all these excuses and we blame others instead of saying, you know what?
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_01: I sinned.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, sometimes you just gotta say, my bad.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_02: My bad, bro.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_02: But a lot of people don't get to that point.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_02: They always look at everybody else.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, and then we defend our sin by focusing on our intentions.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_01: Proverbs 16, 2 says, All the ways of a man uh are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the motives.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_01: And and so Joey, I I did this, I did this, but my intentions were.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then I get bit.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_02: You know the one that bothers me the most.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_02: But but my heart was that, dude.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_02: What does the Bible say about the heart?
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_02: You know how much.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_02: Like, uh-uh.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_02: You know what the Bible says about your heart?
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_02: You can't you can't go there with me.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_01: No, and and so, you know, the good news is that we can control it through Christ.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_01: And and we're gonna build on that over the next four weeks, and we're gonna talk about what that looks like.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_01: But first John 1 9, man, and and we just want to leave people with with the understanding that if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_01: And cleanse us.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_01: So we can use all these arguments that we've talked about today, and and we can we can say it's not my fault.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_01: We can say I'm not as bad as the next person, or we can say, if I confess my sin, he is faithful and just amen.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_02: I like that.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_02: Man, as we wrap this up, I know we've been talking about a few things, but we we always want to close with what the reality is.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I know you've been giving us a lot of reality, but just break down, okay, the reality is about what happens when you allow these three, and you just talked about three, and that's enough.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_02: When you allow those things into your life, like what happens?
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well, uh we remember that sin destroys a life, rarely destroys a life all at once.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: It begins with something small, something tolerated, something compromised, something we refuse to confront.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then comes destruction.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so we allow the Lord to search our heart, and and we we say, Lord, I confess, and you will cleanse.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's where we have to remember it it's the small steps that are going to destroy us.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, and absolutely.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_02: And and what's small today absolutely becomes bigger and bigger, but just like I was talking about the the little fib.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and that's kind of exactly what we're gonna get into when we start episode two.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_02: We've got a five-part series, guys, that we're gonna be digging deeper into how to see this, how to expose it, and what to do about it.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_02: That's always key.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you you want to come back and go, okay, great, I've heard all this, but what do I do about it?
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Songs of Solomon talks about those little foxes, and it spoils the vines.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_02: And what we want to start talking about is those little foxes and how they get in, how they destroy, how they do these things.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_02: So, episode two, right?
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_02: Little foxes?
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_02: All right, wonderful.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_02: Well, guys, thank you so much for tuning in to the reality is podcast here talking about real life, real faith.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_02: Would you do us a favor?
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_02: Like, subscribe, share this with your friends, ring the bell, and let them know hey, this is what's happening.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_02: We don't want to miss an episode because we've got some things, at least for the next five weeks I know of, that you are definitely going to listen to, pay attention to, and tune in.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_02: So for now, we'd like to say God bless you.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_02: Have a wonderful day.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_02: We'll see you next week.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: The reality.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: The reality.