Latest / The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal / 1 Peter 3:8-16 - How Do You Pray for Enemies When You REALLY Don't Want To?
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: Life Audio. Well, howdy and good morning, friends and faithful listeners.
- 0:13Speaker 1: And thank you for tuning in on this Thursday morning
- 0:16Speaker 1: to the Bible Explained podcast. Let's go ahead and get
- 0:19Speaker 1: into scripture today. I'm going to be reading from 1
- 0:21Speaker 1: Peter 3. But of course, before I do read 1
- 0:25Speaker 1: Peter 3, I'm going to jump to a quick advertisement
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- 1:12Speaker 1: All right, let's go ahead and read 1 Peter 3,
- 1:16Speaker 1: 8 through 16. I'll be reading as usual from the WEB. Finally,
- 1:23Speaker 1: all of you be like-minded, compassionate, loving as brothers, tenderhearted, courteous,
- 1:28Speaker 1: not rendering evil for evil or insult for insult, but
- 1:31Speaker 1: instead blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that
- 1:35Speaker 1: you may inherit a blessing. For he who would love
- 1:38Speaker 1: life and see good days, let him keep his tongue
- 1:41Speaker 1: from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him
- 1:44Speaker 1: turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek
- 1:47Speaker 1: peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord
- 1:49Speaker 1: are on the righteous and his ears are open to
- 1:52Speaker 1: their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against
- 1:55Speaker 1: those who do evil. Now, who will harm you if
- 1:57Speaker 1: you become imitators of that which is good? But even
- 2:00Speaker 1: if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you are blessed.
- 2:03Speaker 1: Don't fear what they fear, neither be troubled. But sanctify
- 2:07Speaker 1: the Lord God in your hearts. Always be ready to
- 2:09Speaker 1: give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason
- 2:12Speaker 1: concerning the hope that is in you with humility and fear.
- 2:15Speaker 1: having a good conscience. Thus, while you are spoken against
- 2:19Speaker 1: as evildoers, they may be disappointed who curse your good
- 2:22Speaker 1: way of life in Christ. So as you guys recall,
- 2:26Speaker 1: the last two weeks, we've been talking about the concept
- 2:29Speaker 1: of submission, submitting to God by submitting to other people
- 2:34Speaker 1: that God calls you to submit to, for example, leaders
- 2:38Speaker 1: in government. Or if you were a slave back in
- 2:42Speaker 1: the days of Peter, submission to your earthly master, submission
- 2:46Speaker 1: to your husband, if you were a wife. And in
- 2:49Speaker 1: the case of husbands, submission to God by treating your
- 2:54Speaker 1: wife with the respect and honor that is due to her.
- 2:58Speaker 1: And so now Peter summarizes all of it in verses
- 3:01Speaker 1: eight and nine. He says, finally, all of you. Remember,
- 3:05Speaker 1: he's talking to the Christians. the ones who are supposed
- 3:09Speaker 1: to be submitting, all of you be like-minded, so unified, compassionate,
- 3:16Speaker 1: loving as brothers. So loving your fellow Christians as if
- 3:20Speaker 1: they are truly your family members, because that is kind
- 3:24Speaker 1: of what Christians are. If you think about it, we
- 3:27Speaker 1: are of the family of God. And someday we really
- 3:30Speaker 1: are going to be brothers and sisters with each other.
- 3:33Speaker 1: So love your fellow Christian as you would love a
- 3:37Speaker 1: sibling of yours. Being tenderhearted and courteous, not rendering evil
- 3:43Speaker 1: for evil or insult for insult, but instead blessing. Knowing
- 3:49Speaker 1: that you were called to this, that you may inherit
- 3:51Speaker 1: a blessing. So we are to be kind to our
- 3:55Speaker 1: fellow Christians. Because Jesus was kind to us. He literally
- 3:59Speaker 1: called us to do this. That's what it says right here.
- 4:02Speaker 1: Knowing that you were called to this, that you may
- 4:04Speaker 1: inherit a blessing. When you become a Christian and when
- 4:08Speaker 1: you place your faith in Christ, you make a commitment
- 4:13Speaker 1: to become more like Jesus. And by making that commitment,
- 4:18Speaker 1: you now have to at least do your best to
- 4:21Speaker 1: follow the path of Jesus. We're always going to fail, obviously,
- 4:25Speaker 1: because we are human beings. I fail every single day,
- 4:29Speaker 1: as do I'm sure all of you guys listening in here.
- 4:32Speaker 1: We fail, but we do our best to maintain that
- 4:35Speaker 1: commitment to Christ by being more Christ-like in the way
- 4:39Speaker 1: that we treat other people, by loving them. even if
- 4:43Speaker 1: they are cruel to us, even if they are evil
- 4:46Speaker 1: to us, even if they insult us or talk bad
- 4:50Speaker 1: about us behind our backs, instead of insulting them back
- 4:53Speaker 1: or trying to do something in retaliation to them, you know,
- 4:57Speaker 1: like taking vengeance out on the person that hurt you. Instead,
- 5:01Speaker 1: you leave it up to God blessing these people. Now,
- 5:05Speaker 1: what does it mean to bless them? This does not
- 5:07Speaker 1: mean that you have to give them every single thing
- 5:09Speaker 1: that you own. This does not mean that you have
- 5:11Speaker 1: to hang out with them or be a doormat, but
- 5:14Speaker 1: rather the idea of blessing means to pray for them,
- 5:18Speaker 1: because that's exactly what Jesus did when he was up
- 5:21Speaker 1: on the cross. While all those people were insulting him
- 5:24Speaker 1: and spitting on him and torturing him and crucifying him,
- 5:28Speaker 1: he was up on that cross blessing his enemy's to
- 5:32Speaker 1: God saying, Father, forgive them because they don't know what
- 5:36Speaker 1: they're doing. As Jesus did that to his enemies, we
- 5:39Speaker 1: are called to do a similar thing to our enemies.
- 5:42Speaker 1: And hopefully our enemies are not Christians, which unfortunately that
- 5:46Speaker 1: is oftentimes the case. I'd say persecution sometimes comes from
- 5:51Speaker 1: other Christians more often than it comes from non-Christians sometimes.
- 5:55Speaker 1: I mean, even look at Jesus and the apostles. They
- 5:59Speaker 1: were far more persecuted by religious leaders of their days
- 6:04Speaker 1: than they were by the Roman government. So hopefully persecution
- 6:08Speaker 1: does not come from believers because, you know, believers are
- 6:12Speaker 1: supposed to be doing this list right here. But unfortunately,
- 6:16Speaker 1: people who are believers or call themselves Christians or go
- 6:21Speaker 1: to church oftentimes don't read the Bible. Or if they do,
- 6:25Speaker 1: they don't apply it to their own lives and they
- 6:27Speaker 1: never really grow in Jesus. So sometimes that persecution can
- 6:32Speaker 1: definitely come from our fellow Christians. But regardless, whether it's
- 6:36Speaker 1: a Christian or a non-Christian that's persecuting us, we are
- 6:39Speaker 1: still to treat them with a modicum of respect by
- 6:43Speaker 1: praying for them in our daily prayer lives. So how
- 6:46Speaker 1: do we pray for our enemies? I think Jesus gives
- 6:51Speaker 1: the best example, of course, with how he handled his
- 6:55Speaker 1: enemies up on the cross. He blessed his enemies by
- 6:59Speaker 1: again saying to God, Father, forgive them for they do
- 7:01Speaker 1: not know what they're doing. That was Jesus blessing those
- 7:05Speaker 1: enemies because he was asking for their forgiveness to God
- 7:09Speaker 1: the Father. And in a way, he was speaking well
- 7:13Speaker 1: of his enemies because he was saying, God, they really
- 7:16Speaker 1: don't know what they are doing right now. They don't
- 7:18Speaker 1: understand the spiritual ramifications of persecuting and mistreating and killing
- 7:25Speaker 1: the Messiah. They don't get it, but they are in
- 7:28Speaker 1: for serious hurt if you do not forgive them from
- 7:33Speaker 1: this terrible sin that they are committing. So in that way,
- 7:36Speaker 1: Jesus blessed his enemies. But we can also go through
- 7:40Speaker 1: the Psalms and look at how David prayed to God.
- 7:43Speaker 1: You know, the Psalms are there for our benefit. In fact,
- 7:46Speaker 1: Peter mentions a Psalm right after this. The Psalms are
- 7:50Speaker 1: there as like a guidebook of essentially how to praise
- 7:54Speaker 1: God and how to pray. And there are a lot
- 7:56Speaker 1: of imprecatory Psalms. The imprecatory Psalms being the ones that
- 8:00Speaker 1: are like, God, break their arm or break their teeth
- 8:05Speaker 1: or something like that. You know, ones where they ask
- 8:08Speaker 1: God to call judgment down on the people that are
- 8:11Speaker 1: hurting them. But when you go through the imprecatory Psalms
- 8:15Speaker 1: and really look at them, more often than not, the
- 8:18Speaker 1: author is asking God mostly to just foil the plans
- 8:22Speaker 1: of the wicked person that is trying to hurt them.
- 8:26Speaker 1: in whatever way that might be. And I don't think
- 8:29Speaker 1: there's anything wrong with asking God to do that. With
- 8:32Speaker 1: asking God, don't allow the plans of this person who
- 8:36Speaker 1: is trying to hurt me succeed. Because God, I am
- 8:39Speaker 1: your child and I'm trying to hold to the truth,
- 8:42Speaker 1: whereas these people are not holding to the truth and
- 8:45Speaker 1: they're not glorifying your name or whatever the situation might be.
- 8:49Speaker 1: So I don't think there's anything wrong with praying imprecatory
- 8:52Speaker 1: prayers sometimes. as long as we also bless the enemies
- 8:58Speaker 1: that are hurting us the way that Jesus so lovingly
- 9:02Speaker 1: did up on the cross. But now Peter in verse
- 9:05Speaker 1: 10 goes into a Psalm, and this is actually one
- 9:08Speaker 1: of my favorite Psalms other than Psalm 40, which is
- 9:11Speaker 1: Psalm 34. And Peter almost quotes verses, what was it?
- 9:16Speaker 1: Verses 12 through 16 of Psalm 34, word for word.
- 9:21Speaker 1: He says, He who would love life and see good days,
- 9:25Speaker 1: let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips
- 9:28Speaker 1: from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and
- 9:31Speaker 1: do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. For
- 9:34Speaker 1: the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and
- 9:36Speaker 1: his ears are open to their prayer. But the face
- 9:39Speaker 1: of the Lord is against those who do evil. And
- 9:42Speaker 1: the reason Peter mentions this psalm is because of this
- 9:46Speaker 1: next verse, which says, Now who will harm you if
- 9:48Speaker 1: you become imitators of that which is good? But even
- 9:52Speaker 1: if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you are blessed.
- 9:56Speaker 1: Don't fear what they fear, neither be troubled, but sanctify
- 9:59Speaker 1: the Lord. Lord God in your hearts. So essentially God
- 10:03Speaker 1: is going to bless you if you keep him the
- 10:05Speaker 1: center of your life. Remember what Peter was just talking about.
- 10:10Speaker 1: He was talking about submitting to people, who may not
- 10:14Speaker 1: necessarily be Christian, who may not necessarily be good, who
- 10:18Speaker 1: might be treating you with no respect whatsoever, even hurting
- 10:21Speaker 1: you at times. Yet Peter said it is better to
- 10:24Speaker 1: submit to these people because your good conduct and your
- 10:28Speaker 1: behavior as a Christian might eventually propel them to become
- 10:33Speaker 1: a Christian themselves. So he was talking about personal discomfort
- 10:38Speaker 1: for the sake of another person's soul. And that is
- 10:42Speaker 1: exactly what Jesus did. And in a lot of ways, again,
- 10:45Speaker 1: as Peter said, we are called to at times put
- 10:49Speaker 1: ourselves through uncomfortable situations for the spiritual health of another person.
- 10:54Speaker 1: But that's not the end of the story. God blesses
- 10:58Speaker 1: us when we do that. That's why he mentions this
- 11:02Speaker 1: Psalm right here, that God in verse 12, his eyes
- 11:07Speaker 1: are on the righteous and his ears are open to
- 11:10Speaker 1: their prayer. but the face of the Lord is against
- 11:13Speaker 1: those who do evil. So if you are obeying God
- 11:17Speaker 1: by being submissive to somebody who is mistreating you, but
- 11:21Speaker 1: you are doing that for Jesus, you are being patient,
- 11:25Speaker 1: you are loving this person as best as you possibly can,
- 11:28Speaker 1: but they are still mistreating you. God is looking at you.
- 11:33Speaker 1: He's actually looking at you. It says, and his ears
- 11:36Speaker 1: are open to your prayers. but the face of the
- 11:39Speaker 1: Lord is against the one who is mistreating you. So
- 11:44Speaker 1: what you're doing is not without reward. God is going
- 11:48Speaker 1: to reward you, but he doesn't always reward us here
- 11:52Speaker 1: on earth. But the reward that we get in heaven
- 11:55Speaker 1: is going to be so much greater than I can
- 11:57Speaker 1: even imagine. I can't describe it to you guys. I
- 11:59Speaker 1: don't know, but I do know and believe very strongly
- 12:03Speaker 1: what scripture says. that Jesus is going to reward us
- 12:07Speaker 1: and he's going to wipe every single tear from our
- 12:09Speaker 1: eyes and there's not going to be any more suffering,
- 12:11Speaker 1: no more pain, no more misery, no more death, and
- 12:15Speaker 1: we'll get some kind of reward, whatever this might be.
- 12:19Speaker 1: You know, God never does tell us exactly what the
- 12:22Speaker 1: reward is other than eternal life with him. But there's
- 12:27Speaker 1: something else on top of that. And isn't that amazing
- 12:31Speaker 1: that he's willing to bless us even more than the
- 12:35Speaker 1: eternal life that we're already so blessed with when we
- 12:39Speaker 1: believe in Jesus. So suffering for the sake of another person,
- 12:44Speaker 1: and he is seeing that. And when you do that,
- 12:46Speaker 1: you are becoming so much like Jesus. So if there
- 12:50Speaker 1: is somebody that is hurting you these days or mistreating you,
- 12:55Speaker 1: then pray for them. Pray a blessing over them. Be
- 12:59Speaker 1: genuinely concerned for their souls. knowing that they are going
- 13:03Speaker 1: off the wrong path and that God's face is completely
- 13:06Speaker 1: against that person who is mistreating you. So Peter says
- 13:10Speaker 1: right here in verse 14, even if you should suffer
- 13:14Speaker 1: for righteousness sake, you are blessed. Don't fear what they fear,
- 13:17Speaker 1: neither be troubled, but sanctify the Lord God in your
- 13:21Speaker 1: hearts and always be ready to give an answer to
- 13:24Speaker 1: everyone who So when you're able to suffer well, Peter
- 13:36Speaker 1: says people are going to notice that. And they're going
- 13:39Speaker 1: to notice this joy that you have in spite of
- 13:43Speaker 1: suffering and this hope that you have in spite of
- 13:46Speaker 1: suffering when you are truly following Jesus. And Peter says,
- 13:51Speaker 1: Be ready to give an answer to anybody that asks
- 13:54Speaker 1: you about this. So basically, be ready to evangelize. Be
- 13:58Speaker 1: ready to share the gospel message because people will ask you.
- 14:02Speaker 1: It's amazing how God will just open you up to
- 14:07Speaker 1: evangelize in some of the craziest situations. I talked about
- 14:11Speaker 1: this just recently, I think over on the Psalms. And
- 14:14Speaker 1: I talked about how when I first started the podcast...
- 14:17Speaker 1: And you know, my faith was really starting to blossom
- 14:21Speaker 1: into something I think a lot more beautiful than it
- 14:23Speaker 1: used to be. I took a trip with my friend
- 14:27Speaker 1: who is also a devout Christian. And we went to
- 14:29Speaker 1: Kentucky to look at all the caves and everything like
- 14:32Speaker 1: the Mammoth Cave. So we stopped at this Cracker Barrel
- 14:35Speaker 1: somewhere in Kentucky to eat dinner for the night. And
- 14:40Speaker 1: we got there pretty late. So they were closing up soon.
- 14:43Speaker 1: So we ordered really fast and our waitress came out
- 14:47Speaker 1: and she had, you know, all these tattoos on her arms.
- 14:51Speaker 1: And my friend who likes tattoos and has a couple
- 14:54Speaker 1: of her own started asking her about her tattoos. So
- 14:58Speaker 1: she was explaining them all to us. And she got
- 15:00Speaker 1: to this one that was like on her upper arm.
- 15:02Speaker 1: And she's like, actually, this tattoo means, you know, essentially
- 15:06Speaker 1: the circle of life. And she's like, interesting story. I
- 15:11Speaker 1: got this tattoo from my tattoo artist. And he actually
- 15:14Speaker 1: told me that I should not get that tattoo because
- 15:17Speaker 1: it's wrong and demonic, essentially. And she's like, and he
- 15:22Speaker 1: actually went and gave me his Bible. And she's like,
- 15:25Speaker 1: he still gave me the tattoo, but he told me,
- 15:27Speaker 1: he said, someday in the future, I believe that this
- 15:30Speaker 1: tattoo will mean something very different to you than it
- 15:33Speaker 1: does now. And I'm not even joking. She looked directly
- 15:37Speaker 1: at me and she's like, what do you think about that?
- 15:42Speaker 1: And so my friend and I, ended up staying well
- 15:45Speaker 1: past closing to talk to this waitress about the gospel, who,
- 15:48Speaker 1: by the way, her name was also Jennifer. And I
- 15:51Speaker 1: don't remember her last name, but yeah, that was a
- 15:55Speaker 1: crazy story because God will open you up to really
- 16:00Speaker 1: interesting opportunities to evangelize when you become open to that,
- 16:06Speaker 1: I believe. So Peter tells you right here, be open
- 16:09Speaker 1: to that because you never know who is going to
- 16:13Speaker 1: ask you So be ready with an answer concerning the
- 16:17Speaker 1: hope that is in you with humility and fear, having
- 16:21Speaker 1: a good conscience. So we're supposed to treat God's word
- 16:25Speaker 1: with respect, evangelizing essentially with humility and fear. Why humility? Well,
- 16:32Speaker 1: because we did nothing ourselves to gain salvation, right? There
- 16:38Speaker 1: is nothing that we can say, oh yes, I gained
- 16:41Speaker 1: my own salvation. Absolutely not. it is God alone who
- 16:46Speaker 1: gives us salvation. Now, this could also mean not being
- 16:49Speaker 1: a know-it-all as well and not mistreating another person, not
- 16:54Speaker 1: acting as if they are the scum of the earth
- 16:57Speaker 1: because they don't know the gospel the same way as
- 17:00Speaker 1: we do or mistreating them for any other reason. You
- 17:04Speaker 1: are to obviously show kindness and love to every single
- 17:08Speaker 1: person that you present the gospel to, but you're supposed
- 17:11Speaker 1: to speak the truth. It says in scripture to speak
- 17:14Speaker 1: the truth in love. So it would have been a sin,
- 17:17Speaker 1: I believe, for me to tell Jennifer at Cracker Barrel
- 17:21Speaker 1: that her tattoo was absolutely fine, but then still give
- 17:25Speaker 1: a gospel message. That would have been wrong. So we're
- 17:27Speaker 1: supposed to have humility when we present the gospel, but
- 17:30Speaker 1: also fear as well. fear because we know that God
- 17:36Speaker 1: is watching us and how we are presenting the gospel.
- 17:39Speaker 1: He sees everything. And we don't want to carry God's
- 17:43Speaker 1: name incorrectly. We do not want to violate the Ten Commandments,
- 17:47Speaker 1: which says, do not take the name of the Lord
- 17:49Speaker 1: thy God in vain, which some people translate that as
- 17:53Speaker 1: do not carry the name of the Lord thy God
- 17:56Speaker 1: in vain. You are to carry God's name well with
- 18:01Speaker 1: the way that you are acting and presenting yourself as
- 18:04Speaker 1: you share the gospel message. So we are to have
- 18:08Speaker 1: respect for the gospel and respect and fear of God
- 18:12Speaker 1: as well. So when we present the gospel message, well,
- 18:15Speaker 1: we will have a good conscience. And Peter ends this
- 18:18Speaker 1: sentence in verse 16 by saying, thus, while you are
- 18:22Speaker 1: spoken against as evildoers, they may be disappointed who curse
- 18:26Speaker 1: your good way of life in Christ. Scripture is clear
- 18:30Speaker 1: that there are going to be people who dislike you
- 18:33Speaker 1: for the sole reason that you are a Christian. You
- 18:36Speaker 1: could be the nicest person on the planet. There are
- 18:39Speaker 1: still going to be people who dislike you because they
- 18:41Speaker 1: don't like Jesus. Jesus said, if they persecute me, they're
- 18:46Speaker 1: going to persecute you as well because the servant is
- 18:50Speaker 1: not greater than the master. Jesus being the master is hated.
- 18:56Speaker 1: So anybody who serves the master, is also going to
- 18:59Speaker 1: be hated as well by some people, not everybody. But
- 19:03Speaker 1: there definitely will be people who just don't like you
- 19:06Speaker 1: because you're a Christian and because they might feel convicted
- 19:09Speaker 1: or they think you're a goody two-shoes or something along
- 19:13Speaker 1: those lines. And they might speak these things about you.
- 19:15Speaker 1: They might say, oh, Jen, you know, she's such a
- 19:18Speaker 1: disgusting goody two-shoes. You know, she thinks she's so much
- 19:21Speaker 1: better than everybody else. And if I act that way,
- 19:25Speaker 1: then I'm going to prove them right. So Peter is saying,
- 19:28Speaker 1: don't prove them right. Act in a way that is
- 19:33Speaker 1: fitting of a Jesus follower, essentially. When you are spoken
- 19:37Speaker 1: against as evildoers, they will be disappointed who curse your
- 19:40Speaker 1: good way of life in Christ, because they're going to
- 19:43Speaker 1: see that you aren't anything like what they said, and
- 19:47Speaker 1: they're going to be made out as a liar. And
- 19:50Speaker 1: that's going to obviously disappoint them because they want it
- 19:52Speaker 1: to be right. They wanted you to be an evildoer,
- 19:55Speaker 1: a goody two shoes, a whatever they might be saying
- 19:58Speaker 1: about you. And then the people around them are going
- 20:02Speaker 1: to find out, well, no, actually, they're not like that
- 20:04Speaker 1: at all. They're very kind and they helped me with
- 20:07Speaker 1: this problem or, you know, they've never given me any trouble.
- 20:11Speaker 1: So I don't think you have the right idea about them.
- 20:13Speaker 1: So what we just read is essentially a guidebook of
- 20:18Speaker 1: how Christians live in a world full of people who
- 20:22Speaker 1: dislike Christianity by being kind, by blessing people who hurt you,
- 20:26Speaker 1: by not taking out personal vendettas against people by not
- 20:30Speaker 1: trying to get vengeance for yourself, but leaving things up
- 20:33Speaker 1: to God, by trusting that God sees you and he
- 20:37Speaker 1: sees your suffering, and he's going to bless you for
- 20:40Speaker 1: the suffering that you're doing patiently for him. And all
- 20:44Speaker 1: of these things, hopefully, will let other people who maybe
- 20:49Speaker 1: are on the fence about Christianity, or who maybe are
- 20:53Speaker 1: questioning things in their own life and want to know
- 20:55Speaker 1: more about the Your lifestyle of being patient when people
- 21:00Speaker 1: are crappy to you can potentially spur people to becoming
- 21:04Speaker 1: Christians themselves when they see the life that you lead.
- 21:09Speaker 1: That is why Jesus tells us to be lights in
- 21:12Speaker 1: a dark world, to shine the light of Jesus by
- 21:15Speaker 1: emulating him, by carrying his name well to a fallen world.
- 21:23Speaker 1: All right, faithful listeners, after this quick ad break, I'm
- 21:25Speaker 1: going to close up this episode with a couple last points.
- 21:30Speaker 1: I kind of brushed over verse 14, which gives us
- 21:34Speaker 1: one last way that we can really shine the light
- 21:37Speaker 1: of Jesus in a fallen world. It's by not fearing
- 21:40Speaker 1: what they fear or being troubled by what troubles them.
- 21:45Speaker 1: If Christians maintain a cool head, understanding that God is
- 21:49Speaker 1: in control and that God is going to take care
- 21:52Speaker 1: of them That is also something that people are going
- 21:56Speaker 1: to take notice of because fear is rampant in this world.
- 22:01Speaker 1: People are scared of so many things. You know, I
- 22:04Speaker 1: go back to the COVID days when my podcast was
- 22:06Speaker 1: first getting started and how everybody was so fearful and
- 22:10Speaker 1: so scared. The world is full of fear. It's like
- 22:14Speaker 1: a darkness, a dark cloud that hurts everybody. And I
- 22:18Speaker 1: really don't think the majority of people want to be fearful.
- 22:22Speaker 1: I think what happens is they're scared of something and
- 22:26Speaker 1: they try to get away from what they're afraid of.
- 22:28Speaker 1: But that actually just makes the fear even worse. Because
- 22:32Speaker 1: you tell yourself, this is something that is so scary,
- 22:35Speaker 1: I must get away from it immediately. And it almost
- 22:38Speaker 1: like solidifies in your brain that is something that is
- 22:42Speaker 1: traumatic and that should not be touched. But then if
- 22:45Speaker 1: somebody accidentally makes you encounter that fear, it turns out
- 22:49Speaker 1: that people have a tendency to lash out because they
- 22:52Speaker 1: don't want to encounter that fear. And they're scared that
- 22:55Speaker 1: somebody else might force them to encounter that fear. We
- 22:59Speaker 1: saw that happening with COVID. But imagine if Christians didn't
- 23:04Speaker 1: feed into that kind of fear. But unfortunately, we did
- 23:09Speaker 1: see a lot of Christians that fed into that fear.
- 23:12Speaker 1: But can you imagine if Christians just kept a cool
- 23:15Speaker 1: head and were kind to people who were afraid and
- 23:19Speaker 1: didn't fall for the fear mongering. I imagine there'd be
- 23:23Speaker 1: some people, probably not everybody, but at least some people
- 23:26Speaker 1: that would look at Christians and be like, huh, I
- 23:29Speaker 1: wonder why they're so bold. Or I wonder why they
- 23:32Speaker 1: don't seem to be reacting the same way as other
- 23:35Speaker 1: people do. So that's another way we can shine the
- 23:39Speaker 1: light of Jesus to the world. By showing the world,
- 23:42Speaker 1: we don't have to fear in the same way because
- 23:45Speaker 1: we Jesus loves us and he's in control and we
- 23:48Speaker 1: trust the plans of Jesus. So yes, today we talked
- 23:52Speaker 1: about many ways that we can shine the light of
- 23:54Speaker 1: Jesus to the people who are around us in a
- 23:58Speaker 1: very dark world. So I hope you guys enjoyed today's episode.
- 24:01Speaker 1: And if you did share it on your social media platforms,
- 24:05Speaker 1: faithful listeners, you guys know on Fridays, I talk about
- 24:08Speaker 1: the Psalms over on the Bible explained on Fridays, but
- 24:11Speaker 1: you guys can't gain access to that unless you are
- 24:13Speaker 1: a member. But you can find out all the information
- 24:16Speaker 1: to become a member by checking out the links in
- 24:19Speaker 1: the description. So I hope to see all of you
- 24:21Speaker 1: guys tomorrow as faithful members. But if I don't, that's okay.
- 24:25Speaker 1: I will see all of you on Monday as we
- 24:28Speaker 1: talk about, oh my gosh, we are already in the
- 24:30Speaker 1: book of Job. We are going to be starting on
- 24:33Speaker 1: Job chapter one on Monday. So I hope to see
- 24:36Speaker 1: you guys then. It's going to be a great episode.
- 24:38Speaker 1: Faithful listeners, happy listening and God bless. I just want
- 24:48Speaker 1: to take a second to thank the team at Life
- 24:50Speaker 1: Audio for their partnership with me on the Bible Explained podcast.
- 24:53Speaker 1: In fact, if you go to lifeaudio.com, you'll find dozens
- 24:56Speaker 1: of other faith-centered podcasts in their network. They've got shows
- 24:59Speaker 1: about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.