Latest / The Living Waters Podcast / Context in Scripture. Common Sense. Conscience Shaped by Truth. - Highlight Episode 324

Transcript

Context in Scripture. Common Sense. Conscience Shaped by Truth. - Highlight Episode 324 · The Living Waters Podcast

• 1:04
  Speaker 1: We're talking about over-spiritualizing everyday life.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: I think that it begins with the pulpit, and what I mean by that is because our shepherds are not teaching the sheep how not to over-spiritualize the text, and so people sit inside of a group, they read a verse and then they go around and they say what does it mean to you?
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: What does it mean to you?
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Now, what does it mean to you?
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: No, no, no.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: There's one thing that you can extract from that when you put it in its proper historical context.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Now, there could be different applications perhaps, but when we approach the Word of God, what did the original author intend for the original audience whom the letter was written?
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: So, if they hear thunder from the pulpit, this is what it teaches, this is what the scripture means.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: We have to grab a hold of a text, put it in its proper context, lest it become a pretext with everything out of context.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: I don't know who said it and I don't even know if I worded that correctly, you just said it I did just say it.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: My name is Mark Anthony Spence.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: So it starts with the pulpit that you must convince your people, you must continually share with your people when you open up the Word of God.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: We are going to try to extrapolate from the Word of God what it actually says, and that is called exegeting the text.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: And what we don't want to do is the opposite, which is eisegeting the text, and that is putting into the text that which we hope it says.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: And people do this all the time just one-on-one where we are going from person to person to try to find somebody who's going to agree with me, as opposed to somebody who's just going to give me the Word of God and challenge me.
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: according to the text, so it starts with the pulpit.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: That's so important, mark.
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: I think that's an excellent place to start, because I think, like you're saying, a lot of over-spiritualizing begins with a misunderstanding of what the Word is teaching and what the Word is saying, and so people will take certain texts and then just start to extrapolate from there that this is what that means, and so they get this, like you know, sense about them.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: Where everything is, man, it's got to be, you know, talked about like this it's got to be approached like this it's gotta be.
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: approached like this it's gotta be.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: And it makes them weird.
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: I don't know, how else to put it I?
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: remember hearing this analogy, this whatever you wanna call it by a pastor, and he was like you've probably heard it before.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: It's like there's this great flood that comes and this guy gets up on top of his roof and he's up there, he's praying God save me, god save me.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: And passes by a guy in a canoe and he's like, hey, get in, I'll save you.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: And he goes, no, no, no, I'm waiting for God to save me.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: And so he prays again God save me, god save me.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: And a guy in a boat comes by hey, grab on, we're here to save you.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: And he's like, no, I'm trusting the Lord, the Lord is going to save me, the Lord is going to save me.
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: He ends up drowning and dying.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: And the point is, the Lord goes before God and he says to him God, I prayed for you to save me.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Why didn't you save me?
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: And he says I sent a canoe, I sent a boat, I sent a helicopter.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: And so the point that you're making here, EZ, is that the Lord, through the common grace of modern medicine, through the common grace of tools and resources in our lives, provides ways for us to heal, to grow, to mature, to provide.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Those are all common grace gifts that the Lord gives to us.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: That's the thing about not over-spiritualizing in the sense that people cast aside common means that God has given us to discover His will in certain ways.
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: So it's like, no, no, I just pray and I need to hear God tell me what to do.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: Versus like God surrounded you with wise people.
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: God has given you a brain to research.
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: Is this good?
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: Is this not God's given you common sense to say, if I get this job and move to this area, will I be away from the church family?
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: that I think, is more important for me, so that's really key.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: There's a saying that Justin Peters came up with if you want God to speak to you, read his word.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: If you want God to speak to you out loud, well, then read his word out loud.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Right, you don't need to over-spiritualize what's going on.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: You don't need a word from the Lord to do the simple things of life.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Love God.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: It was reported like this Love God and do whatever you want to do.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: There's the caveat right, are you loving God?
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Right, should I go to Disneyland?
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Are you loving God?
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Right, should I go to Disneyland?
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Are you loving God?
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Are you doing what you should?
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, go to Disneyland.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: You know you're going to get hate mail for that.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: You know because you're talking about Disneyland.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: But there's just the idea of if you're loving on God, you're loving your family, you're a hard worker, you're providing and God's just enriching in His blessing.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Listen, what do you want to do?
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: You know, don't overthink.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Now, there's nothing wrong with committing a lot of things to the Lord.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: I mean we should commit all things to the Lord, that we should be in continual contemplative prayer before the Lord as we do different things before God.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: But if you're asking, should I put on this shirt or this shirt?
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: What about?
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: this shirt, or what is this shirt?
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, the shirt is there stripes?
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: What if I come?
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: across somebody who doesn't like stripes on a shirt.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah Boy, listen, there is freedom for you, brother.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: There is liberty for you.
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Unless it's overtly sinful.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Listen, things don't have to make sense in order to be God's will.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: I remember fighting for certain things, whether it be at this job or different places, and going this only makes sense to do this?
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: I've thought about this through a million different ways.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: I've sought counsel, I've played devil's advocate in the midst of this.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: There has to come a point when people perhaps are in charge of you that make decisions over you.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Just trust the process, Allow people to be people, and then you'll look back and go wow, God was actually in control of that situation.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: Even though it didn't make sense at the time, it makes sense now and let me just say I mean we're joking about getting hate mail about Disneyland and stuff.
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: I do want to say on this note this is where it's important to recognize too, like that latitude within our liberties, like there may be some people in their conscience.
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: They can't do Disneyland or watch Disney movies.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: Obviously, we know that Disney has gone extreme on different things, right.
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: So you have that liberty and you need to take it fully and freely.
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: What we're saying is don't now encroach on others, because I'll assure you of this, if you're going to be a stickler and be dogmatic and legalistic with other people on that, they can find a hundred things in your life that are not consistent with that, because you may not, you may not go there, but you may shop at Target.
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: Do you know what Target is supporting?
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: Do you know what they're funding?
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: Do you know what you know?
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: Someone else may say you know, I, I, I just it's something about Target and people going to the women's bathroom.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: Man, I just can't do it, okay, but I'm fine to go to Disneyland, you know, it doesn't bother me, whatever it doesn't always make sense.
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: So I have a little term.
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: It's simple Leave people alone man.
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: Leave people alone.
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: Man Like just walk with God.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: I think it starts back, way back, actually, with speaking of over-spiritualizing, with the Roman Catholic view of secular work versus sacred work.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: So, the Roman Catholics, what they did is they created a divide.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: They would have people come into church and they say you see all the work the priest is doing, the liturgy, the baptisms, the preaching of the gospel, that is sacred.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: They are doing the Lord's work.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: And everything that you're doing out there, all of the shoemaking, all of the woodworking, that's secular work, that is not of the Lord.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: And the only way you can participate in sacred work is through your tithes and offerings to support our sacred work.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: One of the things the reformers meant to do in the reformation was to redeem a view of work.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: It was a famous.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: There's this famous story and it's debated as to whether it's true or not.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: Whether it's true or not doesn't actually matter, because it summarizes Luther's view of work.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: The story is that a shoemaker one day sends him a letter and he's like hey, I just got saved by one of your tracks.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: What do I do now, you know?
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: Should I quit my job and go into the ministry?
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: Should I put a cross in every single one of my shoes?
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: Should I put a tract inside of every single one.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: What do I do?
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: And Luther's response is said simply make excellent shoes.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: The reality is that all work is sacred work.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: Why do we know that is that all work is sacred work?
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: Why do we know that?
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: Because work was assigned to Adam in the garden before the fall, to name the animals to care for the garden.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: Why did God give Adam a job?
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: Because God himself is a worker.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: He is the one that created the world for his glory.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: In other words, work is beautiful and it is good.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: There's no denying that it has thorns and thistles.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: That's a part of the fall.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: We experience work in painstaking ways, but we got to recognize that there is something beautiful about good work to God's glory.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: And so to your point, like to think to yourself I think some people over-spiritualize this version of life Like I need to be in Bible study all the time, I need to leave my job and go into ministry.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: But, the Lord means to do sacred things through your everyday life.
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: And this is the thing you have to ask yourself Okay, if they stopped cussing, are they gonna be saved?
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: You don't wanna give them a misconception.
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: You know, what I love is there's times when I've had unbelievers like I can tell they're trying to tiptoe around me and then they slip and they go.
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: Oh man, I'm so sorry.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: I go, man don't worry about that.
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: And you can feel they're like, relieved, like oh, because what you're ultimately going to do is get to the gospel with them at some point, hopefully if it's relational, and the Lord's going to take care of all that stuff when they get saved.
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: Another example in that regard is that you never say anything, you never shut them down hey, are you cussing whatever?
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: But they begin to notice you don't.
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: Do you know how many testimonies I've heard of people saying dude, why don't you cuss Like teenage friends or guys at work or on the construction field?
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: Dude, I know you never cuss, bro, what's up with that?
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: Well and then that's a gospel opportunity right there.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: All right, friends, boy, I was edified by that man.
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: So good, and I hope you were as well.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: Friends, be encouraged and talk about this.
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: Look, sit down with your husband, your wife, your parents, your friends and just maybe ask them hey, do you feel that maybe I do some of this or not?
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: How do I come across?
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: Do you feel like I alienate the unbelievers in our lives?
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: Do you think I make brothers and sisters feel like they don't really want to be around me because I come across as super spiritual or condemning or whatever?
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: It's really important and man, look, if that's where you're at, god's grace is sufficient.
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: Cry out to him and allow him to mercifully guide you through it.
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: He sympathizes with your weaknesses, even in that area.
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: Thank you for tuning in to this week's highlights from the Living Waters podcast.
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: Friends, we value your time, so we've created a bite-sized version of our podcast for listeners who want to get equipped, without the jokes and fellowship.
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: Be sure to check out the full episode every Thursday, where we dive deeper into the topic.
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: Until then, you can watch the full podcast episode available now on livingwaterstv.