Latest / Beliefs, Ballots, And BullDawgs / September 4, 2026
Transcript
- Greg: Good morning and happy Friday to all of you fine people tuning in right now. I'm so glad you're here. And I couldn't be more excited about this weekend. It is finally here. We've got some football and we've got Georgia football. Tomorrow afternoon, the dogs are finally back between the hedges. And I don't know about you, but I'm ready to stop talking about football and start watching some darn football. Obviously, with Tennessee State coming to Athens, we we all agree on one thing that if If we're in any way sweating this game in the second half, then something is clearly wrong and this is not the program we think it of. So I'm not gonna sit here and try to pretend like this weekend's matchup is some great mystery we're trying to solve. Instead, I'm gonna put it all out on you guys and I wanna know what you guys think the final score is gonna be. Don't come at me and change it Saturday morning, because we're gonna remember, we're gonna put this in the comments, we're gonna we're gonna follow back up with this and see who knows what they're talking about. If ⁓ if you tell me Georgia 52, Tennessee State 7, that's your number, and we'll see if you're right. If you tell me Georgia 35, Tennessee State 17, all right, well, that's your number, and I got some questions for you. And if somebody out there tells me that it's Tennessee State 27, Georgia 24, first of all, I respect the commitment to chaos. Second of all, seek help. You need it. Me personally, I'm gonna go 45-10. I think Georgia 45, Tennessee State 10. I think this is a typical Kirby game. I think he gets the start of some work, gets everybody out healthy, and then tries to spend the entire second half doing what Kirby loves to do. Make sure everybody knows where the water coolers are. That's mine. Georgia 45, Tennessee State 10. I want yours. Drop your prediction, drop your whole score in the comments. Georgia, Tennessee State. Don't tell me you think Georgia wins by a lot. We all know that. Give me an actual number because come Saturday night, we're gonna come back around to this and we're gonna see who knows what they're talking about. And who needs to turn in their prediction card and go home? And I'm ready to get this thing started. Now look, now that that's out of the way, I'm as excited about football as anybody, and I love engaging with with each of you guys about our dogs. But that wasn't, isn't, and won't ever be the main purpose of me doing this every day. I I am working daily on my walk with God. And truly, I just want to continue to share that process in the in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, My process and my thoughts can can help somebody else through something along the way. Look, if that sounds like I've got delusions of grandeur, I get it. I've been accused of that before. If you're listening to me and thinking, why would this guy think anybody cares? I get it. I've heard that before. Tune out. This ain't for you. I believe that my thought process, I believe that the way I can communicate some of these things might help somebody along the way. And that's all I care about. So today we're gonna ask a hard question, really hard question that I think all of us, if we're honest, can really relate to. Have you ever done something that you thought you were done with? Not something you casually decided you might want to stop. I'm talking about something you genuinely took to God. You prayed about it, you've confessed it, you have fought it, you've made changes. Maybe you went weeks without it, months without it. You could have even gone years. And somewhere you probably start feeling pretty confident. Hey, I think I've beaten this thing. Whatever it is, I think I've beaten it. And then lo and behold, out of the blue, you do it again. And the worst part probably isn't even that you did it. It's what happens after you do it. It's that little voice in your head that goes, seriously, after all of this, I thought you were past this. Maybe you haven't changed at all. That's where I want to spend some time today. ⁓ because if you're trying to follow Jesus, there's something we all need to understand about failure. A relapse doesn't automatically mean that your repentance was fake. Sometimes it just means that you're still fighting. And there's a massive difference between those two things. I think sometimes we have this picture of Christian growth, and and in our minds it looks like a straight line: sin, repentance, victory. And then we're done. Wouldn't that be nice? But most of us know better. Sometimes sanctification feels less like a straight straight line and more like a fist fight. You make a little progress, you stumble, you get knocked down, you get back up, you make some more progress, you get knocked down, you stumble, you learn something, you make some progress. And then something happens. You find yourself standing in a place that you thought you left behind. And we all know this feeling. You're devastated. But here's what I need you to hear. I need everyone to hear this. Don't confuse a fall or a stumble with full surrender. There is a big difference between I've sinned. And I've decided I just don't care anymore. Those things are not the same. The Apostle Paul knew this fight as well as anybody. And one of the reasons I love the Bible is because it simply doesn't sanitize people. ⁓ Paul, Paul is brutally honest with us in his words in Romans chapter seven. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep doing. All right. That's Paul, the Apostle Paul. The guy that we put on stained glass windows, we call him a saint, the guy that wrote half of the New Testament. And he's saying, he's admitting to us, there are things that I don't want to do. And yet I keep doing them. It's not Paul celebrating sin. That is Paul describing the war that is happening inside of him. And look, we've all experienced this war. You should know what to do. And you know what you don't want to do. But yet somehow that thing you promised yourself you weren't going to go back to, you do it again and again. And after time, that that makes all of us wonder, man, have I ever really changed? But notice something here. Paul doesn't respond in this by saying, Well, I guess I'm hopeless. He cries out, Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? And then immediately, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's it. That is the gospel. The answer to your repeated failure isn't try harder to become impressive enough for God. The answer is Christ. We can't let shame from one sin become another sin. And this is where I think it gets really important. And this is kind of the heart of the story. You sin, you feel ashamed, and then that shame tells you to hide. Don't pray. Don't open your Bible. You don't deserve to talk to God right now. That's backwards. Totally and completely backwards. Because when you have fallen is 100% when you need him the most. First John 1:9 tells us if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Notice the order. You confess, he forgives, he cleanses. You don't clean yourself up and then go to God. You go to God because you need him to help you clean up. So if you screwed things up last night, don't spend three days avoiding God because you're embarrassed. Get on your knees right now, telling exactly what happened. No excuses, no negotiations, not, well, technically, I didn't know. God doesn't need your legal defense. He wants your repentance. Just go to him. Be honest. God, I did it again. That's a prayer. And look, it's a much better prayer than God, I'm not coming to you because I'm ashamed that I did it again. Now, look, here's where I want to push us. Because we cannot turn this into the idea of, well, don't worry about sin because God forgives you. That's cheap grace and none of us buy that. ⁓ Biblical repentance doesn't just mean feeling terrible. It's turning around and going in the opposite direction. If you keep falling into the same hole, maybe repentance needs to include, why do I keep walking down this path? It's got holes in it. That's where we have to get honest because we have to know and we have to identify for ourselves what happened before the fall. What were you feeling? Were you lonely? Were you angry, bored, rejected? Were you tired? Were you stressed? What were you looking for? What what lie were you believing? What environment were you in? Who was around you? What made you give yourself permission to do it? Because sometimes we're praying, God, please take this temptation away. While keep while keeping that temptation right there on our speed dial. We know exactly what triggers us, we know exactly where the line is, and then we walk. right up to that line, stand on it, balance on it, and then we act surprised if we happen to fall over. But maybe part of repentance is saying, you know what, I'm just not going back to that neighborhood. I also think the that Peter gives us something incredibly important here. Peter told Jesus, even if I must die with you, I will not deny you. And then he denied him three times. Peter didn't stumble into some tiny mistake. He publicly denied knowing Jesus after promising that he wouldn't. And then afterward, he went out and he wept bitterly. But Jesus wasn't finished with Peter. After the resurrection, Jesus intentionally goes looking for him. And in John 21, Jesus restores him. He doesn't pretend that Peter didn't fall. He doesn't say, hey, Peter, it's okay. That wasn't that big a deal. It wasn't important. He deals with it. But he doesn't define Peter by his worst moments on that night. Jesus doesn't pretend like Peter didn't fail. He shows Peter that failing isn't the end of the story. And it doesn't have to be for us either. That's the most important part. That's the distinction we need because some of us have turned that repeated failure into an identity. I'm an addict. I'm a liar. I'm an angry person. I'm just broken. I'm just a person who can't control myself. And look, maybe, maybe you've done that. Maybe you've taken something that you did. And you've allowed it to turn yourself into something that you think you are. Scripture gives us a completely different identity. You are somebody that Christ is still sanctifying, still working on, still calling, still correcting, still loving. And here's something else that I keep thinking about. And if you fall into the same sin again and again, don't waste it. There's something you can learn from it. I I'm not saying the sin is good. It clearly wasn't. But if you've already fallen, don't compound the damage by refusing to learn anything from that fall. Ask yourself, what happened? What was I feeling? What might I have ignored? Where did I compromise? What warning signs were there that I ignored? What do I need to change to keep this from happening again? Maybe the victory isn't simply I I never struggle with this again. Maybe sometimes the victory is that I understand the battle better than I did. Maybe you recognize the temptation just a little bit earlier. Maybe you ask for help just a little bit sooner. You know your triggers. Maybe you just stop isolating to allow those things to happen. Maybe you put a boundary somewhere that you should have done a long time ago. Maybe you just finally tell somebody, I need you to hold me accountable here. Man, that's growth. And and that's a distinction that we need to make. There's a difference between falling into sin And building your life around it. If you hate sin, if you hate that thing you keep doing, confess it, fight it, seek help, keep getting back up. That's different from saying, hey, this is just who I am, and God will forgive me, so I'm not going change anything. One of those is a person fighting, the other is a person trying to make peace with the enemy. I don't want us to confuse grace with permission. Grace doesn't say sin doesn't matter. Grace says sin doesn't have to have the final word. That's a much better sanctification. Let's make this really practical. What do you do the next time you fall into something you thought you had beaten? Step one, stop hiding. Go to God immediately. Step two, the premise of this show, tell the truth. Don't minimize it. Don't try to put the blame on anybody else. Don't try to negotiate why make it okay. Just tell the truth. Three, receive forgiveness. If you have confessed and repented, I believe you're forgiven. I think that's how it works. Step four, figure out what happened. Let's study the failure, figure out how we can possibly avoid doing it again. Step five, make those changes needed. It's not just an emotional phrase to try to figure it out. You're not just gonna make a promise. You need to figure out, hey, Once I have isolated what causes this, I need to make a change to prevent it. Step six, tell somebody if you need help. God never tells us that we have to fight all of our battles alone. You can have an accountability partner. You can have somebody you trust to help you through these struggles. Step seven, get back up. Don't spend the next six months punishing yourself for yesterday's failure. Get back up. There's still a fight to be fought. And maybe this is the one thing I I want somebody out there to hear today. If you fell yesterday, that doesn't mean you're starting over today. You didn't lose every bit of growth that happened before the fall. You didn't erase everything you learned. You didn't undo every victorious moment. You fell. It happens. Get up. ⁓ think about a child learning to walk. They take a few steps and then they fall. And nobody standing there says, Well, I guess you're just not meant to walk, just not for you. No, you pick them up and you get them to try again. And eventually they walk without stumbling. Maybe we have misunderstood what Christian maturity really looks like. Maybe maturity isn't becoming someone who never falls. Maybe maturity is becoming somebody who knows what to do when they fall. You confess, you repent. You get back up and you keep walking. So if there's something you've been fighting, even if it's something you thought you had beaten and you fell back into it, listen to me. Don't run from God, run towards him. Don't let shame convince you that you've somehow disqualified yourself. Don't turn that failure into an identity. Do not allow yourself to say, Well, I blew it, so I guess I might as well just keep blowing it. No, that is the enemy trying to turn your stumble into a surrender. You fell. It's okay. Now get up, confess it, and learn from it. Change something. Ask for help and start walking again. Your Christian life isn't built on the perfect record of your performance. It's built on the finished work of Jesus Christ. And yet, we absolutely should hate our sin. We should fight it. We should take repentance very seriously. We should all be striving to become more like Christ. But when we fall, We can't crawl into a corner and declare the whole thing over. We come back to the Father again and again and again. Because Christian life isn't and won't ever be, I fell once, therefore I'm finished. It's I fell. But Christ isn't finished with me, so I'm going to get back up and keep walking. Maybe tomorrow you'll be tempted by the same thing. Maybe you'll even feel that same old pull. When you do, remember this. You are not fighting for God's love. You're fighting from a place where God's love has already found you. Pretty powerful stuff. Get in your Bibles, say your prayers, tell the truth, love one another, and get back up and keep walking. God bless.