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The Cute Fox That Ate Your Devotion · The Reality Is

0:00
SPEAKER_02: I'll never forget, and I've shared this before.
0:03
SPEAKER_02: My first time at the beach.
0:04
SPEAKER_02: I'd never been to the beach before.
0:06
SPEAKER_02: I didn't know there was this thing, you know, the waves that actually move you.
0:09
SPEAKER_02: So I set my stuff.
0:11
SPEAKER_02: I run to the water because I'm young and dumb, and I just jump in the water, and I'm just having the time of my life for an hour.
0:19
SPEAKER_02: I'm just in the water, enjoying myself, jumping waves, doing all this stuff.
0:24
SPEAKER_02: I walk straight out of the water, and I swore somebody stole my stuff.
0:29
SPEAKER_02: I was upset.
0:30
SPEAKER_02: I could not find myself.
0:32
SPEAKER_02: I didn't know any better.
0:33
SPEAKER_02: And I think that is a spiritual place where a lot of people are when they're drifty.
0:39
SPEAKER_02: You don't even realize you're drifting.
0:40
SPEAKER_02: No, you do not.
0:41
SPEAKER_02: And then you try to get back on your straight and narrow path, and you can't find it because you have drifted so far from it.
0:47
SPEAKER_03: The reality.
1:02
SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the reality is podcast, where we're here talking about real life and real faith.
1:07
SPEAKER_02: My name is Joey.
1:08
SPEAKER_02: This is Richard.
1:09
SPEAKER_02: And before we even get into this topic, I'm going to ask you guys to do us a favor.
1:12
SPEAKER_02: Would you like, subscribe, share this with your friends, and ring the bell.
1:16
SPEAKER_02: That way you never miss another episode of what's going to be taking place here on the Reality Is Podcast.
1:22
SPEAKER_02: Because as we were talking about last week, this is a five-week series that you definitely don't want to miss out on.
1:28
SPEAKER_02: And here we are in the second one, and we were talking about little foxes and how little foxes get in and they spoil the things.
1:35
SPEAKER_02: This is what we talked about last week from Songs of Solomon.
1:38
SPEAKER_02: So can you kind of set us up for what it even means catching little foxes?
1:44
SPEAKER_01: Well, when we when we stop and we talk about that, uh you're you're talking about again the little foxes.
1:49
SPEAKER_01: Little foxes come in, they chew the bottom of the vine, they they they'll literally kill your grape vineyard, okay?
1:55
SPEAKER_01: And so what happens is we talked about how sin enters your life, right?
2:00
SPEAKER_01: It rarely barges through the front door.
2:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
2:03
SPEAKER_01: All right, it comes through the cracked window.
2:04
SPEAKER_01: Yes, it does.
2:05
SPEAKER_01: We're going to take that one step further today when Solomon says in Solomon 2.15, catch the little foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines.
2:13
SPEAKER_01: All right.
2:14
SPEAKER_01: Now I want you to catch what he doesn't say.
2:16
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't say that it was lions that spoiled the vine.
2:19
SPEAKER_01: Okay, because we'd all run from the lion.
2:21
SPEAKER_01: Of course.
2:21
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
2:22
SPEAKER_01: Of course.
2:22
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't say it's bears, right?
2:24
SPEAKER_01: We'd all run from the bear.
2:26
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't say it's a wildfire, right?
2:28
SPEAKER_01: What does he say?
2:29
SPEAKER_01: It's a cute little thing.
2:30
SPEAKER_01: It's a cute fox.
2:32
SPEAKER_01: Oh, look at that.
2:32
SPEAKER_01: Can't hurt anything.
2:34
SPEAKER_01: And he says that becomes the danger.
2:37
SPEAKER_01: The small things, things that don't seem dangerous.
2:41
SPEAKER_01: That's what gets us.
2:43
SPEAKER_01: And that's what we introduced last week.
2:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
2:45
SPEAKER_01: And this week we just want to capitalize on the idea.
2:48
SPEAKER_01: It's those small things, Joey.
2:50
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
2:50
SPEAKER_02: And sometimes, as you say, when they're small and they're cute.
2:53
SPEAKER_02: We talked about this one before when we were talking about pet sins.
2:56
SPEAKER_02: Oh, it's so cute.
2:56
SPEAKER_02: I can I can pet this one because it's cute, it's fluffy, and and it's not bothering me yet.
3:04
SPEAKER_02: I would like to throw in the word.
3:06
SPEAKER_02: It's not bothering you yet.
3:08
SPEAKER_02: But if you keep on, like we talked about the fib last week, oh look, at some point it becomes uncontrollable and you can't do a thing about it.
3:16
SPEAKER_01: Well, I want you to think about it.
3:18
SPEAKER_01: You know, very few Christians wake up one morning and say, I'm finished with God.
3:22
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
3:23
SPEAKER_01: Very true.
3:23
SPEAKER_01: It's a drift.
3:24
SPEAKER_01: All right.
3:25
SPEAKER_01: Think about it.
3:26
SPEAKER_01: One neglected morning devotion.
3:27
SPEAKER_01: What's it gonna hurt?
3:28
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm running late this morning, I'm tired.
3:31
SPEAKER_01: One compromised conviction.
3:34
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
3:35
SPEAKER_01: I mean, really, uh we're all adults here, right?
3:40
SPEAKER_01: One un underestimated temptation.
3:43
SPEAKER_01: It's that flirtatious relationship that that just goes a little bit at a time, not over days, but over weeks, months, sometimes years.
3:56
SPEAKER_02: Right?
3:57
SPEAKER_02: And that's the one that catches people off guard.
3:59
SPEAKER_02: It's like, oh, we were friends at work, and then we just started talking to each other.
4:04
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, okay.
4:05
SPEAKER_02: Now we find ourselves eating lunch together.
4:07
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
4:08
SPEAKER_02: And now we're talking to each other about personal things.
4:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
4:12
SPEAKER_01: One Sunday missed, you know.
4:15
SPEAKER_01: Well, you just stepped on the lot of toes.
4:18
SPEAKER_01: It's a beautiful day.
4:19
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you know, it's just it's just one Sunday.
4:23
SPEAKER_01: Well, let me tell you, one Sunday is easily turned into two Sundays.
4:27
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
4:27
SPEAKER_01: And before long, it's yeah, I go to church when there's nothing else to do.
4:33
SPEAKER_01: And and and it's just a drift, though.
4:35
SPEAKER_01: It's not where you start, it's one small excuse at a time.
4:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
4:40
SPEAKER_01: And and before long, it's the little foxes that are literally destroying our venue.
4:45
SPEAKER_02: Yes, they do.
4:46
SPEAKER_02: That's crazy.
4:47
SPEAKER_02: And you know, it's funny as you talk about just miss, oh, it's I just missed it.
4:50
SPEAKER_02: Because they'll come up with that.
4:51
SPEAKER_02: Oh, they'll understand because it bothers me, and you can really shut me down.
4:59
SPEAKER_02: But I feel like people put so many other things in front of God, or God will understand, God's a forgiving God, God gets it, and and you've just missed out on who we are coming to worship on a Sunday morning as a collected gather people.
5:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
5:24
SPEAKER_02: So I'm going through Nehemiah right now, and and I'm I'm towards the end of Nehemiah where he says, All they did after they finished this wall was read the word of God and how from sunrise till noon, right?
5:41
SPEAKER_02: So you think an hour and a half in church, it's like, ah, from sunrise to noon, all they did was read the word of God.
5:47
SPEAKER_02: And with that, they fell down, they raised their hands, they worshiped, they did it all because they realized the importance of who it was.
5:55
SPEAKER_02: And I think when you give that out to anybody and tell them, oh yeah, it's just a sign.
6:00
SPEAKER_02: The church will get it, the pastor understands.
6:02
SPEAKER_02: It's just, you know, you're missing out on who we're serving and who we're worshiping.
6:08
SPEAKER_02: At least for me.
6:08
SPEAKER_02: It it bothers me to use any excuse like that.
6:11
SPEAKER_01: No, absolutely.
6:12
SPEAKER_01: And and you know, it's it's it's it's simply called a drift, okay?
6:16
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you you move with the current of society, all right?
6:20
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I love to fish and go down to the river, and I like to take you for a boat ride every time.
6:25
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
6:26
SPEAKER_01: I love the boat ride.
6:27
SPEAKER_01: I give you a fishing rod, and but it's a boat ride.
6:30
SPEAKER_01: And you know, sometimes when I catch a fish, I I forget to lock the trolling motor.
6:36
SPEAKER_01: And and so the current does what I'm not doing, right?
6:40
SPEAKER_01: It moves us down the river.
6:42
SPEAKER_01: It sure does.
6:43
SPEAKER_01: I'm not doing it, you're not doing it, we're not meaning to do it.
6:47
SPEAKER_01: And as a matter of fact, you don't even recognize it.
6:50
SPEAKER_01: You're just drifting because the current does it.
6:54
SPEAKER_01: Just take you, right?
6:55
SPEAKER_01: And and so that's what that's what society does to us, that's what sin does to us.
6:59
SPEAKER_01: Nobody plans to become spiritually cold.
7:02
SPEAKER_01: You you move into it.
7:04
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 2 1 says, Therefore, we must give the mo more earnest heed to the things we've heard, lest we drift away.
7:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I think the problem with drifting away is you don't realize you're drifting.
7:18
SPEAKER_02: No.
7:18
SPEAKER_02: I'll I'll never forget, and I've shared this before, my first time at the beach.
7:23
SPEAKER_02: I'd never been to the beach before.
7:25
SPEAKER_02: I didn't know there was this thing, you know, the waves that actually move you.
7:28
SPEAKER_02: So I set my stuff.
7:30
SPEAKER_02: I run to the water because I'm young and dumb, and I just jump in the water, and I'm just having the time of my life for an hour.
7:38
SPEAKER_02: I'm just in the water, enjoying myself, jumping waves doing all this stuff.
7:42
SPEAKER_02: I walk straight out of the water, and I swore somebody stole my stuff.
7:48
SPEAKER_02: I was up, I could not find myself.
7:50
SPEAKER_02: I didn't know any better.
7:51
SPEAKER_02: And I think that is a spiritual place where a lot of people are when they're drifting.
7:58
SPEAKER_02: You don't even realize you're drifting.
7:59
SPEAKER_02: No, you do not.
8:00
SPEAKER_02: And then you try to get back on your straight and narrow path, and you can't find it because you have drifted so far from it.
8:06
SPEAKER_01: Well, and and it becomes a process, you know.
8:09
SPEAKER_01: Spiritual drift begins with neglect, and and we just neglect the things we know to do.
8:15
SPEAKER_01: We neglect our devotion, we neglect our fellowship, we neglect our gathering together with others, we neglect being allowed, allowing ourselves to be held accountable.
8:25
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
8:25
SPEAKER_01: It's just neglect.
8:27
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews doesn't warn us about rejecting the truth.
8:31
SPEAKER_01: Okay, it warns us about neglecting the truth.
8:35
SPEAKER_01: So the writer of Hebrews doesn't make the assumption that you don't know the truth, he just makes the assumption you're just not going to do the truth.
8:42
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
8:42
SPEAKER_01: All right.
8:43
SPEAKER_01: And so that's what spiritual drift is.
8:45
SPEAKER_01: Drift is not knowing better, it's allowing it to happen.
8:50
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
8:51
SPEAKER_01: And and so it begins with our neglect.
8:53
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
8:54
SPEAKER_02: Didn't even see it that way.
8:55
SPEAKER_02: Then you just open like, wow, that's a good one.
8:58
SPEAKER_02: We are choosing Wow.
9:01
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
9:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
9:02
SPEAKER_02: You're making a choice.
9:03
SPEAKER_02: I've chosen to neglect.
9:05
SPEAKER_02: But as you say, but I know the truth.
9:07
SPEAKER_02: Like I know the truth.
9:09
SPEAKER_02: But I've chosen to say no.
9:12
SPEAKER_02: Just not gonna do the truth right now.
9:14
SPEAKER_01: Why would I say I'll read my Bible later if I didn't know I should read it now?
9:20
SPEAKER_01: You know?
9:21
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because a lot of us get there though.
9:23
SPEAKER_02: Like a lot of us, a lot of us do that.
9:26
SPEAKER_02: Good, well-intentioned Christians.
9:28
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
9:28
SPEAKER_02: And and I I can speak for myself.
9:31
SPEAKER_02: We had talked about this before, like four years ago, because you know, I just don't wake up early.
9:37
SPEAKER_02: You actually called me the other day.
9:39
SPEAKER_02: You're like, how are you still sleeping?
9:41
SPEAKER_02: It is 7:30 in the morning.
9:43
SPEAKER_02: What do you mean, how am I still sleeping?
9:45
SPEAKER_02: Anyway, that's different.
9:46
SPEAKER_02: I was eating lunch.
9:49
SPEAKER_02: The point being is like I always have these excuses.
9:51
SPEAKER_02: I'll get to it later, I'll get to it later.
9:53
SPEAKER_02: I'm a nighttime person.
9:54
SPEAKER_02: Well, I'll just I'll read my Bible at night.
9:56
SPEAKER_02: How many things get into your path?
9:58
SPEAKER_02: It wasn't till I I went away on a cruise and I started waking up early, and there was nothing to do but to read my bath.
10:05
SPEAKER_02: Because again, you're away from everything.
10:06
SPEAKER_02: There's no phone, there's no because I don't get the internet plan.
10:10
SPEAKER_02: Now I'm reading my now.
10:12
SPEAKER_02: I cannot go a morning without saying, I've got to get into my word.
10:16
SPEAKER_02: I've got to do this.
10:18
SPEAKER_02: Don't put it off, man.
10:19
SPEAKER_02: Just wake up.
10:20
SPEAKER_02: Let that be the first thing.
10:21
SPEAKER_02: And when that becomes, at least for me, when it became a pattern in my life, now I can't do it without it.
10:29
SPEAKER_02: I cannot do the day without doing that.
10:32
SPEAKER_01: You know, I think one of the most dangerous statements that uh came into the Christian vocabulary, and I don't know, it's been several years, three or four years maybe.
10:41
SPEAKER_01: It's a season of life.
10:43
SPEAKER_01: Right.
10:43
SPEAKER_01: And so what we did, we we started saying it's a season of life, not a way of life.
10:49
SPEAKER_01: And so we we found a way to justify so many things in our life.
10:53
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's a season of life.
10:54
SPEAKER_01: I I mean, life's just real busy right now.
10:57
SPEAKER_01: I'll get my devotion started back.
10:59
SPEAKER_01: Life's real busy right now, I'll get back on track, right?
11:03
SPEAKER_02: And people have used that biblically because they'll quote Ecclesiastes and say, Well, it's a season.
11:10
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
11:11
SPEAKER_02: Um, just because you pull that one word out of a Bible of how many millions of words, no, that doesn't give you the right to say it's seasons have a way of becoming a lifestyle.
11:20
SPEAKER_01: That's exactly what it becomes.
11:22
SPEAKER_01: And and so we we find our their selves there.
11:25
SPEAKER_01: The danger of becoming comfortable, it it always gets us in trouble, all right?
11:29
SPEAKER_01: And and so when we begin to drift, we become very comfortable with that drift.
11:34
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, kind of going back to my my fishing analogy, okay, they they actually make drift funnels, right?
11:43
SPEAKER_01: To where you can throw the funnel out and and it actually slows they're like a parachute in the water and it kind of controls your drift.
11:51
SPEAKER_01: And I would argue that we do that with sin.
11:54
SPEAKER_01: We we think we're controlling it.
11:56
SPEAKER_01: We we throw the drift panel out, right?
11:58
SPEAKER_01: And and we argue that it's controlling us, but all we're doing is becoming comfortable with the drift.
12:04
SPEAKER_01: And and we're just accepting it as something we can do nothing about.
12:09
SPEAKER_02: Well, last week you had mentioned a statement about purposing in your heart to do certain things.
12:16
SPEAKER_02: And if you don't purpose to do it, I think this little parachute that you're talking about, I have no idea how that works.
12:22
SPEAKER_02: But spiritually, I understand what you mean.
12:24
SPEAKER_02: You throw it out there and go, Yeah, I'll be fine, I'll be fine, I'll be fine.
12:27
SPEAKER_02: But if you don't purpose in your heart to do something, like my wife and I years ago, we said, because we'd like to just put on what we call mindless TV at night, just something to relax to and put on mindless TV.
12:38
SPEAKER_02: And we started doing that, and then we got to the point where we started saying, you know what?
12:42
SPEAKER_02: We aren't going to put on any mindless TV until we actually do a devotion together and pray together.
12:48
SPEAKER_02: After we do our devotion and pray, then we'll put on mindless TV.
12:52
SPEAKER_02: And now, guess what?
12:53
SPEAKER_02: Now we are in a pattern of doing something that you just go, and am I saying we do it every night?
12:58
SPEAKER_02: No, some nights we we accidentally skip, but we notice when we skip.
13:02
SPEAKER_02: You see what I'm saying?
13:03
SPEAKER_02: Like this exactly.
13:04
SPEAKER_01: You've got a purpose in your heart to do these things.
13:06
SPEAKER_01: Well, it if you look at the way Paul writes 1 Timothy 4, and and he talks about in the end times, and then he begins to give us a series of events, right?
13:18
SPEAKER_01: The progression is simple.
13:20
SPEAKER_01: People don't abandon overnight.
13:22
SPEAKER_01: No, they don't, right?
13:23
SPEAKER_01: And and it becomes a process and and it's a step-by-step.
13:29
SPEAKER_01: And and it's subtle, and that's why it's so dangerous.
13:32
SPEAKER_01: If if we're on the river and we're at full full tide pull, okay.
13:39
SPEAKER_01: If you're on the river at full tide pull, I'm telling you, it'll pull you as fast as the engine will.
13:44
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so your motor is not going to go any faster, hardly, you know, your trolling motor, right?
13:48
SPEAKER_01: But it's that slow drift.
13:50
SPEAKER_01: It's it's when you're coming near the end of the tide, and and it's so subtle, it's so slow.
13:55
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm telling you, you won't even catch it.
13:58
SPEAKER_01: And and it's the progression, it's what comes into our life.
14:02
SPEAKER_01: Samson's a great example of that.
14:05
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
14:06
SPEAKER_01: Samson didn't think it could happen to him.
14:08
SPEAKER_01: He didn't lose his strength in one day.
14:11
SPEAKER_01: No, he didn't.
14:12
SPEAKER_01: But Judges 16, 20 records some of the saddest words in scripture when it says, but he didn't know the Lord had departed from him.
14:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
14:20
SPEAKER_01: Right?
14:21
SPEAKER_01: And and think about what Samson did.
14:24
SPEAKER_01: It was he started by eating the honey.
14:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
14:29
SPEAKER_01: Just a little honey.
14:31
SPEAKER_02: I'm glad you went all the way back.
14:34
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
14:34
SPEAKER_02: To the what like because he knew he wasn't supposed to do it, so he didn't even tell his parents.
14:39
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
14:40
SPEAKER_02: He did it.
14:40
SPEAKER_02: Right.
14:40
SPEAKER_02: So he already started compromising way back.
14:43
SPEAKER_01: And while he was on his way to see a woman he shouldn't see, he stopped and ate the honey.
14:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there you go.
14:49
SPEAKER_01: Right?
14:49
SPEAKER_01: And and so you see the progression, right?
14:52
SPEAKER_01: And and when we start thinking, and then it got to the point that he finally flirted with sin until he told her the strengths in my hair.
15:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
15:02
SPEAKER_01: She cut it off.
15:03
SPEAKER_01: And he thought it would be like every other time before.
15:06
SPEAKER_01: She would say, Samson, the Philistines are here, and he would just shake up and shake them off.
15:10
SPEAKER_01: And go on by the business.
15:12
SPEAKER_01: But now he didn't even know the Lord had departed.
15:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
15:15
SPEAKER_01: That's the drift to where we don't even know the Lord has departed.
15:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
15:19
SPEAKER_01: We've accepted it for so long and lived in it for so long, it becomes part of.
15:24
SPEAKER_02: I'm glad you mentioned Samson because from the outside looking in, we read this story about Samson, and all of us, especially a lot of men, go, Well, that's the most foolish thing we've ever heard of.
15:37
SPEAKER_02: Like I cannot believe he let that happen.
15:41
SPEAKER_02: Well, guess what?
15:43
SPEAKER_02: Somebody on the outside in looking at your life could say the same exact thing.
15:50
SPEAKER_02: How could that possibly happen?
15:52
SPEAKER_02: How did you let that happen?
15:55
SPEAKER_02: Didn't you see it from No, it sneaks in like that because you, I think personally, you give way to it.
16:03
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
16:04
SPEAKER_01: And if you go back and just look at Samson, you know, why why would he tell her that the strength was in his hair?
16:11
SPEAKER_01: And if you really break it down, it it just boils down to where and he didn't know the Lord had departed.
16:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
16:16
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
16:17
SPEAKER_01: He had become so confident in himself, yeah, that it's it's as if he didn't even believe the strength was in his hair.
16:25
SPEAKER_01: It was Samson.
16:26
SPEAKER_01: And and so it it just becomes a reality.
16:29
SPEAKER_01: And and and we find another great example in in the New Testament, in Revelation chapter 2, the church at Ephesus.
16:37
SPEAKER_01: And it says that they thought they were great, they thought they were something, and the Lord never says they're not.
16:46
SPEAKER_01: But here's what he says about them I have this against you.
16:49
SPEAKER_01: You have left your first love.
16:52
SPEAKER_01: They were still serving, they were still a pillar of the community.
16:57
SPEAKER_01: Yes, they were, but they left their first love.
16:59
SPEAKER_02: And how many people in ministry, in the church, say, Well, I'm doing this for God, I'm doing what God, not what God called you to do, but what the Bible says I should do.
17:15
SPEAKER_02: And so you're doing all these things while neglecting the thing you're supposed to truly be doing.
17:22
SPEAKER_02: And look, I I say that to ministers, I've said it to myself plenty of times.
17:28
SPEAKER_02: Lost the first love.
17:29
SPEAKER_02: Do you remember that excitement when you first gave your left, you you gave your life over to Jesus, you you threw everything else out, and you said, I love the Lord, and I'm gonna I'm doing this for God.
17:42
SPEAKER_02: And then the years go, and that love, I'm not gonna say I don't love Jesus anymore, but that excitement I had is different.
17:50
SPEAKER_02: And now I'm gonna start doing these things that the Lord didn't even call me to do.
17:54
SPEAKER_02: And I can, uh oh, we're gonna go back to the one you say, I can miss a Sunday because I'm doing good works for the Lord.
18:03
SPEAKER_02: Did the Lord call you to do that?
18:04
SPEAKER_02: Did the Lord ask you to do that?
18:06
SPEAKER_02: What was the first thing the Lord said for you to do?
18:10
SPEAKER_02: Get together with your people, go to church, worship together, be you know, encourage one another daily while it's still the day, lest your heart's out.
18:17
SPEAKER_02: So so you know what you're supposed to be doing in the gathering of the fellowship of the people, but you decided I'm gonna go let's just pick something good.
18:27
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna go feed the homeless.
18:29
SPEAKER_02: That's a great thing to do.
18:30
SPEAKER_02: I love that you're doing that.
18:31
SPEAKER_02: Did God tell you to do that?
18:33
SPEAKER_02: No, but you look good doing it, don't you?
18:36
SPEAKER_02: So guess who's really getting the glory?
18:38
SPEAKER_02: You're getting right?
18:40
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so now I'm getting the glory for looking good to do a good thing, because that's what it says.
18:44
SPEAKER_02: From the outside, they looked healthy, didn't it?
18:46
SPEAKER_02: They looked real good on the outside.
18:48
SPEAKER_02: You can look real good on the outside and not be doing the things God called you to do or asked you to do, therefore, you're completely doing the wrong thing.
18:57
SPEAKER_02: Sin will creep into your life because of it, and then you're gonna still wonder, but God, I was doing all these things for you.
19:05
SPEAKER_02: How is this possible?
19:06
SPEAKER_01: Because God didn't ask you to do any of that.
19:08
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
19:09
SPEAKER_01: And you know, Satan rarely asks a believer to commit shocking sins.
19:12
SPEAKER_01: There you go.
19:13
SPEAKER_01: All right.
19:14
SPEAKER_01: It's it's listen, he can't, if he can't destroy your faith, he'll be perfectly happy distracting you from what's important.
19:22
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
19:23
SPEAKER_01: You know, I just keep you from doing the work you're supposed to do.
19:25
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
19:26
SPEAKER_01: You know, if I can if he can get me distracted, chasing after as as the teaching pastor here at the church, okay?
19:34
SPEAKER_01: If if he can get me distracted from the role of a teaching elder and and understanding my focus is is to teach, then suddenly I'm neck deep in a thousand different things.
19:47
SPEAKER_01: There you go.
19:48
SPEAKER_01: Am I still doing what people think an elder should do?
19:52
SPEAKER_01: Of course.
19:52
SPEAKER_01: You look good.
19:53
SPEAKER_01: But am I doing what God called me to do?
19:56
SPEAKER_01: And and we gotta be careful, but but he just wants to distract us from things that are good, but they're not best.
20:05
SPEAKER_01: And and so he loves little foxes.
20:07
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
20:08
SPEAKER_01: And you know, so what are some foxes?
20:12
SPEAKER_01: You know, yeah, come on.
20:13
SPEAKER_01: I I think I think I I jotted down five that that I think are worthy to be recognized.
20:19
SPEAKER_01: And think about I'm just gonna joke with you every time you narrowed it down.
20:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
20:23
SPEAKER_01: Because I know you didn't start with five.
20:25
SPEAKER_01: Well, we had I didn't know that.
20:27
SPEAKER_01: We we had a fox pen, and and so I pulled a few out.
20:31
SPEAKER_01: You know, so Fox One, yeah, personal devotion becomes optional instead of essential.
20:38
SPEAKER_01: And there's our fox.
20:40
SPEAKER_01: You still pray, but mostly over meals.
20:44
SPEAKER_01: You you know, when I'm in trouble, prayer becomes an emergency button of a daily relationship.
20:50
SPEAKER_01: There you go.
20:51
SPEAKER_01: You know, it it's not what I do up front, it becomes inconvenient.
20:57
SPEAKER_02: I'm drifting.
20:58
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and that's good because, and I love that you use the praying over the meal.
21:04
SPEAKER_02: Because how many times you're at a restaurant and you see somebody fold their hands and they put their head down and you're looking on, going, man, that's a belief.
21:13
SPEAKER_02: Look at that guy.
21:14
SPEAKER_02: That guy, he's praying over his meal.
21:16
SPEAKER_02: That's a good, godly man.
21:18
SPEAKER_02: Right.
21:18
SPEAKER_02: And that's the only prayer he said all day.
21:19
SPEAKER_01: All day long, right?
21:21
SPEAKER_01: But he looked good.
21:22
SPEAKER_01: And so what we have to do is is, you know, our personal devotional time, our Bible study, our prayer, I would argue our encouragement of other believers.
21:31
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, these are not optional in our life, they are essential.
21:36
SPEAKER_01: And so if I turn it into an optional time of day or an optional thing in my life, I I don't it's a fox.
21:45
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm no longer committed to the things that God tells me to be committed to.
21:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
21:50
SPEAKER_01: Man, that's sad, scary, but so true.
21:54
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely so good.
21:55
SPEAKER_01: And and then the the second fox is God's word becomes information.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Instead of transformation.
22:02
SPEAKER_01: And so when we're talking about information over transformation, James 1 in verse 22 says, But be doers of the word, not hearers, hearers.
22:11
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
22:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
22:13
SPEAKER_01: But if it's information for me, then all that happens with that is I'm taking it in, I'm developing a head knowledge of it, but I have no heart knowledge whatsoever.
22:27
SPEAKER_01: I'm not applying any of it to my life, and it's not changing me.
22:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
22:31
SPEAKER_02: It I was watching this thing the other day about a guy who knows so much about the word, knows so much about the Bible, yet none of that information has gotten from here to here.
22:45
SPEAKER_02: His life not transformed, life not changed, but he could tell you everything that the Bible says about this.
22:53
SPEAKER_02: And not just, oh, I can tell you about no, like knows the Bible, knows it inside and out, yet hasn't said, Yeah, I I want this to transform me and change.
23:05
SPEAKER_01: Oh, exactly.
23:06
SPEAKER_01: When when I was in seminary, they they brought in a leading atheist and and a leading apologist, which is someone who defends the faith, uh, and into the seminary, and and for two hours I watched this debate between between these two, right?
23:23
SPEAKER_01: And yeah, as I was fascinated and just watching and listening to these two.
23:30
SPEAKER_01: The the guy that was the atheist had already forgotten more about scripture than I'll ever know.
23:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
23:38
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
23:38
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
23:39
SPEAKER_01: But it didn't transform him.
23:41
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
23:41
SPEAKER_01: It was information, it was not transformation.
23:45
SPEAKER_01: And so what happens is it becomes a fox when I start using my devotion as my checklist.
23:52
SPEAKER_04: There you go.
23:53
SPEAKER_01: I I accomplished what I'm supposed to accomplish.
23:57
SPEAKER_01: When when I'm able to do the things simply because they're the things I should do instead of they're the things I know to do and I want to do.
24:19
SPEAKER_02: But I've I've had dinner with my wife, I've come home to my wife, I've done all these days.
24:24
SPEAKER_02: But but where's the relationship?
24:27
SPEAKER_02: That relationship will never grow.
24:29
SPEAKER_02: But you're doing all the things that look like a marriage.
24:34
SPEAKER_02: But is that really a marriage?
24:36
SPEAKER_02: No, it's not really a relationship at all because you haven't sought after the one that you love to actually communicate, spend time with, find out more about.
24:50
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm trying still after 23, almost 24 years of marriage, discovering things about my wife.
24:57
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
24:58
SPEAKER_02: Because we choose to communicate with each other.
25:00
SPEAKER_02: And guess what?
25:01
SPEAKER_02: I am in love with my wife more than I was 24 years ago.
25:06
SPEAKER_02: You see what I'm saying?
25:08
SPEAKER_02: That's the relationship.
25:09
SPEAKER_02: But if you aren't doing that with God, if you're just saying, I'm gonna read the word because I was told this is gonna, you know, help me with my life.
25:16
SPEAKER_02: And so now I'm going to church on Sundays because it so you're just you're just hitting these things because this is what the Christian checklist says you're supposed to do, and you aren't changing because you aren't seeking after the God who loves you to find out more about him so that you can love him.
25:32
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
25:33
SPEAKER_02: It's not gonna happen, man.
25:34
SPEAKER_01: Well, again, we become a hearer and and notice how James says this be doers of the word and not hearers only.
25:42
SPEAKER_01: And then what does he say?
25:43
SPEAKER_01: If you're a hearer only, you deceive yourself.
25:46
SPEAKER_01: You know, you're not deceiving everyone else.
25:49
SPEAKER_01: You you can come in and tell me, I do my devotion every day, I do my prayer every day, check, check, check, check, check.
25:56
SPEAKER_01: But let me tell you, if there's no fruit in your life, if there's no evidence in your life of maturity, of growth, of relationship, you're a hearer of the word, right?
26:06
SPEAKER_01: You can be at a church every Sunday, you you can listen to to every podcast coming and going.
26:12
SPEAKER_01: And and but if you're not doing the things that's being instructed, and that's a little fox because we substitute and instead of accepting what God's called us to do.
26:24
SPEAKER_01: Wow, that's good.
26:26
SPEAKER_01: I think another fox is sin stops bothering us.
26:29
SPEAKER_01: We're just not convicted by it anymore.
26:31
SPEAKER_01: Again, James gives us that process.
26:34
SPEAKER_01: We're tempted when we're drawn away by our own desires and enticed.
26:38
SPEAKER_01: And it's very interesting because those words drone away and and enticed, drone away is a fishing term, enticed is a hunting term.
26:49
SPEAKER_01: It was used in in the culture.
26:51
SPEAKER_01: Drone away is like baiting a hook.
26:54
SPEAKER_01: And and so you you bait the hook.
26:56
SPEAKER_01: Well, let me tell you, if you're fishing, you don't just throw an empty hook out there, right?
27:01
SPEAKER_01: You put bait, you don't you don't put bait on there that doesn't resemble anything that fish would eat.
27:07
SPEAKER_01: You put something on there that would be normal for that fish to see, right?
27:12
SPEAKER_01: And then the the idea of of being enticed is like setting a trap for a wild animal.
27:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
27:19
SPEAKER_01: Well, you don't just take a steel trap and throw it in the middle of the highway and hope you catch something, okay?
27:25
SPEAKER_01: You put it where the animal lives, where they're at, and you either hide it or you bait it, but you make it look normal.
27:34
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't bother them that it's there, even though it's deadly.
27:39
SPEAKER_01: And that's what sin becomes in our life.
27:41
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't bother us anymore that it's there, but it's deadly when we bite the hook or we step in the trap.
27:48
SPEAKER_02: I uh actually set a fox trap at my house, and now I know why it didn't work.
27:54
SPEAKER_02: You put it in the highway?
27:55
SPEAKER_02: Well, I just put it right there in the middle of the field.
27:57
SPEAKER_02: And I was going, okay, so now the fox is gonna come in, he's gonna get himself trapped, and I get no.
28:02
SPEAKER_02: Uh Joey, you should actually put something in there the fox wants, or put it like in the woods, or like hide it with some leaves.
28:09
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
28:10
SPEAKER_02: Somebody say, get a fox trap.
28:12
SPEAKER_02: Okay, great.
28:12
SPEAKER_02: I got a fox trap.
28:13
SPEAKER_02: Put a chicken in there.
28:16
SPEAKER_02: I was trying to save my chicken.
28:17
SPEAKER_02: Oh, oh, that's right.
28:19
SPEAKER_02: The whole point was to save the chickens from this stinking fox.
28:23
SPEAKER_01: We we accept so much.
28:26
SPEAKER_01: We do.
28:26
SPEAKER_01: And and and I hate to keep hammering that, but but it's just the truth.
28:31
SPEAKER_01: We we allow these things in, and and we're baited and we're trapped because we don't even recognize it anymore because we've allowed it for so long.
28:43
SPEAKER_01: Very true.
28:44
SPEAKER_01: Very true.
28:46
SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, it kind of leads us to another fox, and that is the world starts looking better than Christ.
28:51
SPEAKER_02: That's a sad statement.
28:53
SPEAKER_01: But but it's so true.
28:54
SPEAKER_01: You know, James 4-4 says, Do you not know that friendship with the world is that enmity with God?
29:00
SPEAKER_01: God.
29:01
SPEAKER_01: Whoever, therefore, uh wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
29:07
SPEAKER_01: Right?
29:08
SPEAKER_01: You can't have it both ways.
29:10
SPEAKER_01: And and yet we find in our world today where we've tried to make it both ways.
29:14
SPEAKER_02: Oh, I'll look, I'll tell you for a fact, in my own life, I've lived out this verse.
29:20
SPEAKER_02: I have tried to be a friend to the world while at the same time being a friend to the church.
29:26
SPEAKER_02: And now, look, I'm I'm a friend to the world, and now I'm serving in the church.
29:32
SPEAKER_02: And look, like legitimately, the world doesn't want you because you like you aren't going all out and doing what they want you to do.
29:42
SPEAKER_02: And church can't really use you because you aren't like committed and doing the things that you should be doing with the church.
29:47
SPEAKER_02: So basically, you are no good to anyone.
29:49
SPEAKER_02: The world doesn't even want you because you're dabbling over here.
29:53
SPEAKER_02: But guess what?
29:53
SPEAKER_02: You can't dabble over here while you're still trying to be friends with the world.
29:58
SPEAKER_02: It just doesn't work.
29:59
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't work.
30:00
SPEAKER_02: But we try so much and we go, oh, but look, look at how entertaining it, look at how what that's why it's temptation.
30:08
SPEAKER_02: That's why the enemy does it.
30:09
SPEAKER_02: Well, he's trying to draw you away from what you're supposed to be doing and what you're called to do.
30:14
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's why 1 John 2 15 tells us, do not love the world, nor the things of the world.
30:19
SPEAKER_01: And and it says, and if you do, he says, if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
30:24
SPEAKER_01: In him, right?
30:25
SPEAKER_01: And and so the world starts looking better than Christ.
30:28
SPEAKER_01: And so what happens is I want just enough of Jesus to have my fire insurance, to think I'm secure for eternity, but I don't want enough that's going to change my life.
30:42
SPEAKER_01: And and so that's where we're at.
30:44
SPEAKER_02: That that's a real I'm not not to cut you off, I know you want to jump in, but that's a real scary situation that I think a lot of people listening are in, especially people in the church who have this mindset that says, but I can minister to the world.
30:58
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
30:59
SPEAKER_02: And I can let my light shine in that darkness.
31:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
31:03
SPEAKER_02: Doesn't the Bible say, let your light shine before men so that others can see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven?
31:11
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it is what it says.
31:12
SPEAKER_02: But let me tell you what you're not doing.
31:13
SPEAKER_02: That light ain't shining when you're in that world like that.
31:16
SPEAKER_02: When you're being friends with that world, your light's not shining.
31:20
SPEAKER_02: They're just looking at you going, got another one.
31:22
SPEAKER_02: Told you they were, told you that's father.
31:24
SPEAKER_02: All you need to do is entice them, and they're gonna leave all that church behind because this is so, and it's not, it really isn't.
31:30
SPEAKER_02: And I'm just telling you from personal experience, flee.
31:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, flee.
31:34
SPEAKER_02: Flee from the world.
31:35
SPEAKER_02: What did you say?
31:36
SPEAKER_02: Like, if you love the world, the love of the father is not in you.
31:40
SPEAKER_02: That is such a true statement.
31:42
SPEAKER_02: Love them, pray for them, but man, just get away from that world.
31:47
SPEAKER_02: I I just I don't know how else to say, get away from it, flee.
31:50
SPEAKER_01: Right, exactly.
31:51
SPEAKER_01: And and you know, it it the old saying, misery loves company, right?
31:54
SPEAKER_01: And well, sin loves company too.
31:56
SPEAKER_01: It sure does.
31:57
SPEAKER_01: And and so why in the world would I want what you're presenting to me if you're telling me that nothing has to change in my life, that nothing will change in my life.
32:10
SPEAKER_01: You know, nothing has to change and nothing will change, is the same statement, right?
32:14
SPEAKER_01: It is, it is, and you just you got my mind going on a whole nother thing.
32:18
SPEAKER_01: So I'm spinning out of control.
32:20
SPEAKER_01: Yes, and you're trying to tell me, well, Jesus loves you, nothing has to change in your life, don't you just want to accept Jesus?
32:26
SPEAKER_02: And and I'm like, And that's why it bothers me when stinking churches say we need to look like the world.
32:33
SPEAKER_02: So the world comes.
32:34
SPEAKER_02: No, yeah, don't look like the world.
32:36
SPEAKER_02: The the opposite.
32:37
SPEAKER_02: They aren't coming to you because they already got all that, they aren't coming to you because they have that already and it's empty.
32:43
SPEAKER_02: Oh, don't get me in.
32:44
SPEAKER_02: I'm sorry.
32:45
SPEAKER_02: We'll go for a whole nother 40 minutes on that.
32:47
SPEAKER_02: So you had another point you wanted to make.
32:50
SPEAKER_01: If we go another 40 minutes, Rhett will turn us off.
32:52
SPEAKER_02: No, he sure will.
32:52
SPEAKER_02: He'll just cut it.
32:53
SPEAKER_01: I'll let you make your next point.
32:55
SPEAKER_01: And then finally, the the fifth fox that I think we need to think about, and it kind of progresses into you just lose the joy.
33:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
33:02
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
33:03
SPEAKER_01: You don't lose your salvation, but you lose the joy of your salvation.
33:06
SPEAKER_02: Yes, you do.
33:07
SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't mean anything anymore.
33:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
33:09
SPEAKER_01: You lose the joy of serving, you lose the joy of worship, of reading scripture, of being around God's people.
33:16
SPEAKER_01: Look, when the things of God no longer stir you, you need to find what vine is the little fox eating.
33:23
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm telling you, something's happened.
33:26
SPEAKER_01: And so you just lose your joy.
33:27
SPEAKER_01: Romans 12, 2 tells us, do not be conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of your mind.
33:35
SPEAKER_01: And if you're not doing that, then you're gonna lose the joy of your salvation.
33:40
SPEAKER_01: And and and you're gonna find yourself you made a point a moment ago, and it and it really sums this up because you find yourself you're not happy in church anymore because you know the sin is in your life.
33:54
SPEAKER_01: Okay, and so you can't really enjoy this.
33:58
SPEAKER_01: You can't, you're not happy in the world because conviction is there.
34:02
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
34:03
SPEAKER_01: And so you're just stuck.
34:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
34:06
SPEAKER_01: And that's the reason that John tells us that you know what, the the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, these things have gotta go.
34:15
SPEAKER_01: Gotta, yeah, gotta go.
34:16
SPEAKER_02: And they control us.
34:17
SPEAKER_02: That joy.
34:18
SPEAKER_02: There's a a psalm, and it I think it's 50 or 51, but it it talks about restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.
34:29
SPEAKER_02: Create in me a pure heart.
34:32
SPEAKER_02: Do not cast me from your presence.
34:33
SPEAKER_02: Don't take your Holy Spirit from me.
34:35
SPEAKER_02: Like that, that's the prayer I want to pray over.
34:37
SPEAKER_02: All you guys who are thinking that right now.
34:39
SPEAKER_02: No, just go back and say, Lord, create in me a pure heart.
34:44
SPEAKER_02: Renew a steadfast spirit within me.
34:47
SPEAKER_02: Do not cast me from your presence.
34:48
SPEAKER_02: Do not take your Holy Spirit from me.
34:51
SPEAKER_02: Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, a willing spirit to sustain me.
35:00
SPEAKER_02: Like that's where you've got to be.
35:01
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
35:02
SPEAKER_01: I I don't want to go kicking and screaming.
35:04
SPEAKER_01: I want to go willingly.
35:05
SPEAKER_01: I want I want to walk with God.
35:07
SPEAKER_01: I want uh I want to do the things that God calls me to do.
35:10
SPEAKER_01: And and the little foxes that we allow in the vineyard are the ones that will chew the vines and and take the joy of our salvation.
35:22
SPEAKER_01: Restore that to me.
35:23
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
35:23
SPEAKER_01: My goodness.
35:24
SPEAKER_01: You know.
35:25
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
35:27
SPEAKER_02: Whew, boy, you got me like heated and excited all at the same time on this one.
35:31
SPEAKER_02: Oh, sorry.
35:33
SPEAKER_02: Man, you have stirred up some passions in me.
35:36
SPEAKER_02: But it's because, and honestly, it's not an anger, it's not an upset, it's just a passion that I have for God's people.
35:43
SPEAKER_02: Right.
35:43
SPEAKER_02: Because a lot of God's people are missing what is there for them.
35:48
SPEAKER_02: And I think you've brought up so many things.
35:50
SPEAKER_02: And the reason why they're missing it, and that's probably what hits it.
35:54
SPEAKER_02: Maybe it hits me so hard because I was one of those people.
35:57
SPEAKER_02: I was one of those people where I watched all these little foxes come into my life and steal all that from me.
36:03
SPEAKER_02: And and and then now here I am saying, Lord, like restore me, restore.
36:07
SPEAKER_02: And he has.
36:08
SPEAKER_02: And the joy that I have because of it, I'm at a whole different level with God now.
36:13
SPEAKER_02: And I think so many people listening right now are missing out because they're letting little things, little things grow into these big things, and it's stopping them from experiencing this joy that you talked about.
36:27
SPEAKER_02: No, 100%.
36:29
SPEAKER_01: Sorry, I know I got heated on that, but I'm sorry.
36:31
SPEAKER_01: No, we're it's it's it's the passion we should have when it comes to the things of God.
36:36
SPEAKER_01: All right, hook me up, man.
36:37
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, as we wind down and and we just say, okay, here's the reality of where we're at.
36:42
SPEAKER_01: Most people think it's only one little so-called compromise.
36:49
SPEAKER_01: It isn't hurting anyone, and then the big one, I can stop whenever I want.
36:54
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
36:55
SPEAKER_01: That's exactly what Satan wants you to believe.
36:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
36:58
SPEAKER_01: Little sin grows, little lies become deception, little bitterness becomes hatred, little lust becomes addiction, little pride becomes rebellion.
37:09
SPEAKER_01: Galatians 6, 7, do not be deceived.
37:12
SPEAKER_01: Whatever a man sows, that he will reap.
37:16
SPEAKER_01: And I I just want to leave them with this.
37:18
SPEAKER_01: We we think about these things, but Psalm 139, 23, and 24 needs to be our daily prayer.
37:24
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I love that one.
37:25
SPEAKER_01: Search me, O God, and know my heart.
37:28
SPEAKER_01: Try me and know my anxieties, and see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way of everlasting.
37:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
37:37
SPEAKER_01: The little fox is not always easy to see.
37:40
SPEAKER_01: No, it's not.
37:41
SPEAKER_01: That's why I need the Holy Spirit to put the spotlight on the fox.
37:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
37:45
SPEAKER_02: And and like you said before, nobody drifts away on purpose.
37:49
SPEAKER_02: No.
37:50
SPEAKER_02: It lets them like like you just get soaked up in what I would call the ocean, you call the river.
37:56
SPEAKER_02: Right.
37:56
SPEAKER_02: Wherever your drifting is happening spiritually, you aren't trying to drift, you're just allowing yourself to be drifted away.
38:04
SPEAKER_02: And then when that happens, you're just you're stuck.
38:08
SPEAKER_02: But please get back to, and and I love where you said devotions, your daily devotions have to be one of those things that you just seek after.
38:18
SPEAKER_02: Don't just come to church on a Sunday and say, I've spent an hour with the Lord, hour and a half, some churches, three.
38:25
SPEAKER_02: I don't care.
38:26
SPEAKER_02: That still ain't enough time.
38:27
SPEAKER_02: No.
38:28
SPEAKER_02: Your daily routine should be seeking after him and desiring after God.
38:35
SPEAKER_02: Right, exactly.
38:36
SPEAKER_02: That's the reality.
38:37
SPEAKER_02: So and you've got three more of these.
38:42
SPEAKER_02: I hate to see what's I promise to not get angry on the next one.
38:48
SPEAKER_02: No, you're making a promise you can't get out.
38:50
SPEAKER_04: You don't know what it is.
38:52
SPEAKER_02: I don't even know what you're gonna be talking about, so I don't know yet.
38:54
SPEAKER_02: But here's the thing I'm so glad that you have started off our season with this because I think a lot of people need to hear the simple little truths.
39:03
SPEAKER_02: The reality is we all struggle with this, and we all have issues with this.
39:09
SPEAKER_02: It's how you're allowing yourself to handle those little foxes.
39:13
SPEAKER_02: Put the trap out and set a bait for them, Joey.
39:15
SPEAKER_02: Don't just leave the trap there and expect them to find it.
39:18
SPEAKER_01: And next week we're gonna come back and we're gonna look talk about guarding the windows.
39:21
SPEAKER_01: Yes, you know, closing the doors that Satan wants to use.
39:25
SPEAKER_01: Uh Proverbs 423 says, keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it springs the issues of life.
39:30
SPEAKER_02: Wonderful.
39:31
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so what we've got to do is we've talked about the windows that he comes in.
39:36
SPEAKER_01: We've talked about the foxes.
39:37
SPEAKER_01: So, how do we guard those windows?
39:39
SPEAKER_01: How do we keep him out?
39:40
SPEAKER_01: The issues of life, the things we allow.
39:43
SPEAKER_02: Man, I love that.
39:43
SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much, man.
39:44
SPEAKER_02: Really appreciate it.
39:45
SPEAKER_02: And thank you guys for tuning in to the reality is podcast, where we are here talking about real life and real faith.
39:51
SPEAKER_02: Do us a favor, like, subscribe, share this with your friends, and be sure to ring that bell because you do not want to miss the episodes that we are going to be talking about in the next three of this series of how to just keep these little foxes out of your life.
40:05
SPEAKER_02: Until then, we'd like to say God bless you, and we will see you next week.
40:09
SPEAKER_02: Goodbye now.