Episode 1 - Damn, Jesus I'm Thirsty!

Transcript

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Welcome to guilt-free faith with your host, jimmy James Johnson.

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Alright, let's start out with a lesson today and we can talk about it.

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Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them.

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Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.

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He led them in a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in Psalms 107, 5-7.

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Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

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Matthew 5, 6.

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But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.

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The water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

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John 4, 14.

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Water for the heart to quench a deep spiritual thirst.

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Your body needs water.

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Your body needs water, the same way a tire needs air.

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Let your fluid level grow low and watch the signals flare.

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Dry mouth, thick tongue, headaches, weak responses.

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Deprive your body of necessary fluid and your body will tell you.

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Deprive your soul of spiritual water and your soul will tell you.

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Dehydrated hearts send desperate messages.

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Snarling tempers, waves of worry, episodes of guilt and fear, hopelessness, sleeplessness, loneliness, resentment, irritability, insecurity these are warning symptoms of a dryness within.

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Treat your soul as you treat your thirst.

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Take a gulp.

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Flood your heart with a good swallow of water.

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Where do you find water for the soul?

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Jesus gave an answer.

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One October day in Jerusalem, people had packed the streets for the annual reenactment of the rock-giving water miracle of Moses.

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In honor of their nomadic ancestors, they slept in tents.

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In tribute to the desert stream, they poured out water.

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Each morning, a priest filled a golden pitcher with water from the springs and carried it down a people-lined path to the temple, announced by trumpets, the priest encircled the altar with a libation of liquid.

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He did this every day, once a day, for seven days.

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Then, on the last day, the priest gave the altar a Jericho loop, seven circles, dousing it with seven vessels of water.

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On that last day, the great day of the feast, jesus stood up and cried out saying If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

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He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

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John 7, verses 37 to 38, new King James Version.

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The people knew him.

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Some had heard him preach in the Hebrew Hills, others in the city streets.

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Two and a half years had passed since he had been baptized in the Jordan waters.

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The crowd had seen this carpenter before, but they had not seen him this intense.

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He stood and shouted.

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The traditional rabbinic teaching posture was sitting and speaking, but Jesus stood up and shouted the sinking.

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Peter shouted begging for help.

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Matthew 14, verses 29 to 30.

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And the demon-possessed man shouted pleading for mercy.

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Mark 5, verses 2 through 7.

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John uses the same Greek verb to portray the volume of Jesus' voice.

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Forget a kind of clearing of the throat.

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God was pounding his gavel on heaven's bench.

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Christ demanded attention.

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He shouted because his time was short.

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The sand in the neck of his hourglass was down to measurable grains.

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In six months he would be dragging across through the streets and the people.

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The people thirsted.

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They needed water, not for their throats but for their hearts.

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Only Jesus can properly lubricate your heart, because the flow of this living water works in partnership with the Holy Spirit.

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The thirst related to our heart may be even more significant than the thirst designed to aid our throats.

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As a heart longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for thee, o God.

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My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

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Psalms 42, verses 1 through 2.

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The woman said to him Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst.

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John 4, verse 15.

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For I was hungry and you gave me food.

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I was thirsty and you gave me drink.

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I was a stranger and you welcomed me.

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Matthew 25, verse 35.

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So let's talk about thirst.

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I'm actually pretty thirsty at the moment, but I left my water in the other room and I don't want to break up my recording here by stopping, so I'm just going to plow on ahead.

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As always, I'm interested in your comments in terms of what this makes you think of when you think of spiritual thirst.

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Where do you fall on that spectrum?

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Do you feel full of the Holy Spirit?

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Do you feel full of faith and hope and optimism and trust and charity and love and forgiveness?

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Or perhaps you're parched, even dangerously dehydrated in your spirit, and you feel frustrated, confused, pissed off, mad at the world, mad at everyone, mad at God, mad at your boss, mad at your partner, mad at your friends.

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Maybe you feel disappointed and let down.

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I feel let down by people and God all the time.

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Is that something you can relate to?

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Have you lost your sense of charity?

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Have you been screwed over too many times lately to cut other people a brick?

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This reminds me of a time recently when I was trying to sell something that I was getting rid of, that I didn't need anymore.

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I went to sell it and I thought it was all taken care of, but it turned into a big hassle.

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It was an online thing and then it turned into a big dispute and then it drug out forever.

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The long story short of it is I got really pissed off for a long time, but my hands were tied.

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There was nothing I could do.

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I got screwed out of some money unnecessarily and none of it was my fault.

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In terms of my side of it, I had done everything.

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I checked all the boxes properly and I still got screwed over.

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The next time, a situation came up where I was not happy about something I paid for and they wanted to give me a partial refund, and I was like no, I'm not taking a partial refund, I'm taking a full refund.

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Now, why did I do that?

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Because, generally speaking, or at least sometimes, I would just forgive, give the person a break, maybe just give them a benefit of doubt or whatever.

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But because I'm so wound up, I'm so disappointed and angry and bottled up because I can't get revenge on that last situation that's now carrying over into this situation.

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So basically, I'm just like you know, go fuck yourself.

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I'm looking out for me this time looking out for numero uno, and you know I'm sure many of you can relate to that.

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I think one of the things that makes it even worse is when you have or have had forces in your life that always pressured you to restrain your anger, restrain your disappointment, even if the criticism was legitimate, even if the anger was legitimate, even if you were legitimately wounded in some way.

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See, when I was growing up, that was my dad.

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My dad would never just let you be angry, no matter what happened.

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If you came to him and was like, oh man, you know, I'm so mad, like you didn't have to even be swearing or something I mean.

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So that's not why he was saying that you could just be a kid and just, oh man, I'm so mad, this person bullied me.

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Or I'm so mad that I got sick when I wanted to go see my friend this weekend.

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Or I was so mad when someone stole my ski gloves from school and I know who did it and the school won't do anything about it, which is a true story.

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I know who did it to this day.

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This happened when I was in middle school.

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This kid stole them out of my locker and I told the school.

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Everybody knew who it was and they didn't do anything about it.

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And I mean honestly, to this day I'm just like dude what the fuck is going on.

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And it really pissed me off because this dude was like a big thug at school, middle school he was a bully, partly because he was bigger than everyone else, probably because the goofy bastard got held back, so he's probably older than us, you know, and he had come from a shitty area and whatnot, and of course the area I was coming from wasn't tons better, but basically he would do anything he could get away with.

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And he knew I had these really hard new ski gloves or snowboarding gloves.

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Probably saw me coming to school with them or who knows, maybe somebody was chatting about it or something, I don't know and I put them in my locker for a minute I guess I didn't get a chance to lock it yet or something and the motherfucker stole them and people told me who it was.

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Other students were like dog, I saw.

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I'm not even going to say his name right now, but I know who that motherfucker is.

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They're like no, I saw, you know so it's who take it.

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So I tried to confront him, which was scary and not very successful because what could I really do about it?

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I mean, he was like twice my size and then I thought surely this won't be trouble for the administration or for the principal, right, because it's not like a mystery.

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I don't have to like file a report that says somebody stole my gloves and I have no idea why, launch you know an investigation, dust my locker for fingerprints and my dog everybody knows who has them.

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Just go check his locker or his bag or whatever.

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Go confront him Like he's not like a maniacal genius, like we're just in medical school.

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Put a little pressure on him and he'll fess up or just call the cops and just be like, hey, somebody stole something.

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People are, you know, this is the name that's coming up, check it out.

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So anyway, none of that happened, right.

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So obviously I was justifiably upset.

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They were expensive.

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You know my parents have bought them for me.

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I'm really good about taking care of things, I don't take things for granted.

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So when they bought me these nice gloves, like I was really going to enjoy them and take care of them and in fact I used them for?

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Well, no, I had.

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I replaced a pair eventually and I used them for many years until they wore out.

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But so, yeah, so you know.

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So that's just, you know, one of a trillion examples, right?

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And so then you know if I would see my dad, or if he would be picking me up from school or something, or he would get home from work and be like, hey, you know what's going on, or whatever.

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And you know I'm angry about something like that and I'd be like man, you know, this kid, you know, stole my gloves and the school wouldn't do anything about it.

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And you know I'm pissed off and who knows, maybe I was wishing the guy harm or whatever.

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Like I said, the guy was bullying people.

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I mean, he was not a nice kid.

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You know what I mean.

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We don't need to get into.

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You know he's just being a product of whatever.

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Like who gives a shit.

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The fact is, I don't think you should barely get away with it.

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You know what I'm saying, but anyway.

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So in the midst of you like expressing any type of anger, my dad would always get on this Jesus shit with you, like he wouldn't be like oh yeah, whoa man, like what happened?

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Or like, tell me what's up, or you know, let's see what we can do about it, or whatever he would immediately fast forward to.

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Well, you know Jesus would want you to forgive him.

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You know, you know Jesus.

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You know God wants you to let that go.

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I mean you've done stuff for people like you know.

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Just, you know God will straighten everything out and I'm thinking like fuck all that shit.

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I wish I could beat his ass, you know, I mean I wish I could straighten it out.

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What the hell do I want God to straighten it out?

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For you know what I'm saying Be part of the equation of getting it straightened out.

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And you know I'm not a violent person and I wasn't, you know, a fighter or anything.

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But I'm just saying this is how you feel right when you're wrong, you know, especially if it's like you can't, you know, kind of stand up for yourself successfully, because you know whatever you're afraid, or the person's bully, or they're violent, which is person was.

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So you know, but you're mad, you're like shit, I wish somebody would fuck him up.

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Or you know, won't they send him the juvie or whatever.

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Like this dude is a delinquent.

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Like this is just one in a very long line of things, like he's always in trouble and you know I don't give a shit about whatever his parents are doing or not doing or whatever, like he, just you know what I mean.

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He's, he's, you know he's a nuisance, you know I'm saying, but my dad won't let you express that, he won't let you get that out, and so that would really kind of bottle you up because it, you know.

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First of all, I think people need to get their anger out and you can tell me, hey, you know what?

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What?

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What waves do you think are legitimate or not?

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You know, many people I grew up with got their anger out through violence.

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Other people got their anger out verbally by, like you know, attacking people verbally or insulting them or, you know, ripping on them, you know, trying to tear them down somehow because that was like the only weapon they had.

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You know, some people try to use the law, like, whether that's, you know, through criminal law, getting people in trouble or through civil law.

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But you know, growing up in the hood, like I, you know I'm not a snitch like that.

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So you know I'm not really, I'm not really into all that.

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So I'm definitely not trying to get involved, you know, criminally with the law.

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I mean I would sue someone if I needed to, but you know, but anyway, what would you do or not do and why?

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And what do you think you know the Christian perspective on it is?

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I would tell my dad, I'm like dad, like just saying you forgive somebody.

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That's just like a facade right, Like that's just on the surface, like I can tell you that yeah, dad, I forgive them, yeah, you're right, that's what Jesus would have me do.

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But it seems to me like if Jesus was really concerned about us, you know, forgiving people, that would have to be like down to the heart level, like to feel forgiveness, to have that anger, you know whatever, either expelled and, you know, extracted and exported so you no longer feel it, or somehow you know it's replaced, or you know your feelings of anger or disappointment or whatever are, you know, transformed into forgiveness and understanding and patience, and which no doubt would be healthier.

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And maybe you know that's why God was recommending it, because it's healthier.

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But I'm like, hey, man, like you know, fuck that shit.

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Like you know, really, you're just kind of.

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You know you're teaching me to suppress my natural emotions, like you're not validating them, you're not respecting them, like any human being who has something that is then stolen from them is going to feel some negative emotions about that, does not make them a bad person, that does not make them a bad Christian, that does not make them less of a Christian or less of a, you know, like we're not saints, and even if we were saints, I don't know that people you know attain, I'm not Catholic, so I don't know, I don't know if somebody you know can, somebody that's been declared a saint, you know, does that mean they've never had angry thoughts or vengeful thoughts or whatever, or does that mean that they, you know, went on to forgive and espouse and live that out?

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I don't know, but I'm just saying human beings experience anger.

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Anger is obviously one of the ways that, as you know, living organisms we.

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It means obviously something given to us right, it's part of our survival mechanism.

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You know, we get angry.

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That's a sign that somehow we're being trampled on or disrespected or our needs aren't being met.

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And I think a lot of people feel angry and I think there are a lot of reasons for that For some people.

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For some people, the reason is that their faith is told them, you know, or their church or whomever has told them that they're not quote supposed to be angry, they're supposed to forgive.

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You know, forgive and forget.

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And it's like, well, you know, I don't know how to do that Like just in a literal sense, like how do I get my mind or heart or emotions in line with that?

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Like it seems more realistic to me that you know some people go and exercise it out.

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You know they'll go and exercise or go box or something like that.

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Go for a run.

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You know some people yell and scream just to themselves or sometimes they take it out on other people.

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You know they get home From work it's been a shitty day and you know they're just yelling at whomever's you know around.

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You know a lot of people try to suppress or turn that anger inward.

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You know which they say.

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Some people say that's one.

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You know definition of depression.

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You know anger turned inward, I don't know.

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In some cases I can see that.

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In other cases I'm not sure.

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Some people just use substances right, drinking or drugs or sex or whatever to not feel that anger.

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If there's nothing like productive, they can do with it.

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One thing I've tried to do is I've, you know, gotten older is use that anger as a motivation.

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So, like for me, like I said, I'm not a violent person and I'm not somebody that wants to be in trouble with the law and I'm not an assassin or something like that.

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I don't have any organized crime connections, right.

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So for me, that isn't.

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You know, I'm going to hone my skills like Liam Neeson and go kill these people or I'm going to, you know, hire somebody to go.

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You know, fuck somebody up or whatever.

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Like.

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Those aren't the ways I'm going.

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So you know, I need to put that, put that energy into something else.

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So for me, that could be writing, or that could be sharing some ideas with you, or that could be, you know, motivating myself in terms of who I don't want to be or who I want to be in the future, or how I can prevent myself from being victimized in the future.

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You know what are, you know legal and ethical ways and you know just wise ways that I can keep myself from being in a position where that I end up angry or disappointed or, you know, somehow cheated.

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But anyway, my dad won't let you do that, he won't let you be angry.

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It doesn't mean that he never got angry, but his way of relating with you was you weren't allowed to be angry and, as you can imagine, that doesn't really facilitate.

00:28:44.640 --> 00:28:47.845
You know great lines of communication.

00:28:47.845 --> 00:28:56.804
When you can't communicate with your parent, you know you're communicating with a parent.

00:28:56.804 --> 00:29:03.733
You know just honestly about just fundamentally obvious, honest things, right, there's nothing to disagree about.

00:29:03.733 --> 00:29:05.913
I had some shit.

00:29:05.913 --> 00:29:07.354
My mother fucker stole it.

00:29:07.354 --> 00:29:09.394
I knew who it was.

00:29:09.394 --> 00:29:11.715
Nobody could do, nobody did nothing about it.

00:29:11.715 --> 00:29:22.040
Like there's nothing controversial about that, right, it's not like a biblical issue where I quote, shouldn't be upset about it or something, right?

00:29:22.040 --> 00:29:36.519
So anyway, the things like that hurt your relationships when people don't let you express your natural feelings and validate that and be in those emotions with you and support you.

00:29:36.519 --> 00:29:51.155
But getting back to the main point of this lesson is it's much more difficult to overcome anger.

00:29:51.155 --> 00:29:55.413
It's much more difficult to let a slight go.

00:29:58.617 --> 00:30:17.579
When you're spiritually dehydrated, when you're full of the spirit, when you feel blessed or you feel God's looking after you or you feel he's answering prayers or you know you've experienced the healing or a deliverance for yourself or a loved one or a friend.

00:30:17.579 --> 00:30:29.141
You feel like you're getting a glimpse into God and God's power and friendship and companionship.

00:30:29.141 --> 00:30:36.019
You can be much more charitable and generous and forgiving.

00:30:36.019 --> 00:30:42.442
That's when you're full of the holy water, right?

00:30:42.442 --> 00:30:50.212
That's when you've really like your cup runneth over, when you've been fully satiated.

00:30:50.212 --> 00:30:56.451
You know, you see the fruits of the spirit, right, like that's.

00:30:56.932 --> 00:31:13.996
I think part of the one of the ways of gauging whether you're spiritually dehydrated is if you're able to I don't even want to say able to, because that's again like, that's like a work, right, I want to put work aside.

00:31:13.996 --> 00:31:21.423
I want to like talk about genuine, you know, authenticity in your heart.

00:31:21.423 --> 00:31:28.555
I'm not talking about forcing something because, like I said, I don't think you can force yourself to forgive someone.

00:31:28.555 --> 00:31:32.696
You can force yourself, maybe, to take a different action.

00:31:32.696 --> 00:31:39.891
You could say, oh, I'm not turning that person in, or I'm not going to, you know, tell the principal.

00:31:39.891 --> 00:31:54.255
Or I'm not going to tell the boss or whatever, because I'm going to let that go, not because I'm not mad, but because that's like my principal, or that's what I'm shooting for, or whatever, or that's the type of person I want to be.

00:31:58.650 --> 00:32:18.602
But that doesn't just magically change your heart and I think that's one of the mistakes of the way, like the word is preached, right, because ultimately we are depending.

00:32:18.602 --> 00:32:34.557
To me, it seems like, ultimately, we're depending on the finished work of Christ on the cross, uns, forgiven and wiped out, including whatever, whatever anger or unforgiveness or whatever.

00:32:34.557 --> 00:32:42.066
I don't think us being, you know, christians.

00:32:42.066 --> 00:33:08.281
I don't think you know preaching to us and trying to persecute the human being's natural emotions is reasonable, effective or godly.

00:33:08.281 --> 00:33:16.769
I think it just creates hypocrites out of us because we can't live to that standard.

00:33:16.769 --> 00:33:37.211
Like to me, like you know, christ's example of forgiveness is an aspirational example, like that's not us, right, that's something that we're witnessing, that we're aspiring towards or we're hoping that.

00:33:37.211 --> 00:33:45.769
You know, as we're filled with the spirit, as we drink, like of the living water, that we take on more and more of that character.

00:33:48.140 --> 00:33:54.682
But for someone to be in the pulpit and be like you know hey, you know you holding on to anger.

00:33:54.682 --> 00:33:57.008
You know God doesn't want you holding on to anger.

00:33:57.008 --> 00:33:58.471
God will be angry with you.

00:33:58.471 --> 00:34:01.188
You don't want God holding on to his anger with you.

00:34:01.188 --> 00:34:02.442
So, don't you know?

00:34:02.442 --> 00:34:07.462
It's like yeah, dude, like okay, like best case scenario.

00:34:07.563 --> 00:34:30.588
I understand what you're saying, but like there's people sitting there in the pews who have some things to be angry about, even if they're things they're angry at God about which like would just step it up to another level of being a no-no.

00:34:30.588 --> 00:34:33.206
Right, like surely you can't be angry at God?

00:34:33.206 --> 00:34:36.985
Why won't you be angry at God?

00:34:36.985 --> 00:34:59.610
I mean, if you're trusting God and you feel let down or whatever and you're hurt, you very well may get some anger out of that, but nobody will give you permission to be angry.

00:34:59.610 --> 00:35:09.329
Or let me not say nobody, say it's uncommon, right, like in the Christian world of the Christian mainstream.

00:35:09.389 --> 00:35:28.945
Right, like the Christian party line, I never heard somebody get up and preach a sermon and be like, hey, I want everybody just to take today and be angry and know that God isn't angry with you, because I don't think God is angry with us or I don't think.

00:35:28.945 --> 00:35:32.601
I don't think.

00:35:32.601 --> 00:35:39.614
I mean it's hard to call something the good news, gospel, if it's bad news.

00:35:39.614 --> 00:35:42.949
It would be bad news if God were mad at us.

00:35:42.949 --> 00:35:44.224
Right, his own creation.

00:35:44.224 --> 00:35:47.349
You know we can't really do any better.

00:35:47.349 --> 00:35:49.664
Right, we're doing our best, like just to get by.

00:35:49.664 --> 00:35:54.563
We would like to be doing better.

00:35:54.563 --> 00:36:03.163
We ask God, you know, to do better, to be better, but we're not See.

00:36:03.202 --> 00:36:11.905
Some people say it's by through the works, though, that you have to show that Like that you're going to be performing for God.

00:36:11.905 --> 00:36:18.916
I don't subscribe to that because I don't think one.

00:36:18.916 --> 00:36:22.748
Like I said, I don't think you could force your heart a certain way.

00:36:22.748 --> 00:36:27.088
If God's all knowing, he's going to know what your heart is right.

00:36:27.088 --> 00:36:39.969
So it's not like, oh, I'm just going to be, like, okay, I'll just tell God I'm not mad, and then I forgive them and I'll just say those magic words and then God won't be mad at me, or then it won't be a sin or whatever.

00:36:40.099 --> 00:36:41.704
It's like dude, that's absurd.

00:36:41.704 --> 00:36:44.583
God knows you're mad.

00:36:44.583 --> 00:36:46.905
He knows if you're mad at him.

00:36:46.905 --> 00:36:57.681
He knows if you're mad at you know anyone in your life or stranger or no organization, it doesn't matter, right, like there's.

00:36:57.681 --> 00:37:11.465
If it's God, god has to be omniscient, right, he has to be all knowing, and that's what people are afraid of, right?

00:37:11.465 --> 00:37:38.748
And if he is all knowing and you are angry, or you take out your anger or you don't forgive someone that he knows that, and then that's a quote sin, and then that will be punished and like wow, like talk about condemning the crowd.

00:37:42.940 --> 00:37:48.489
You know everybody stand up who hasn't felt angry this week?

00:37:48.489 --> 00:37:56.411
You know you guys that are so close with God that you haven't even been angry this week.

00:37:56.411 --> 00:37:58.445
You just kind of forgiven everything.

00:37:58.445 --> 00:38:02.121
Everything's rolled off your back From the God's kingdom.

00:38:02.121 --> 00:38:08.873
Like, truth be told, that would leave a lot of people sitting down.

00:38:08.873 --> 00:38:13.309
They leave a lot of people seated, right.

00:38:13.309 --> 00:38:17.367
I personally would argue it should leave everyone seated.

00:38:18.820 --> 00:38:30.623
But some people will stand up because they want to be seen, as you know, following the law, right, Because they want to show that off.

00:38:30.623 --> 00:38:47.871
And you know they can be on a whole spectrum, from just totally self-deluded and not even seeing themselves accurately in terms of how angry they are or have been or whatever.

00:38:47.871 --> 00:38:59.143
Or they could be doing it literally just for show, you know, for fellow congregants or to the pastor or whatever.

00:38:59.143 --> 00:39:08.273
Or, you know, most goofily, like a show for God, as if God's going to be like, oh, they stood up.

00:39:08.273 --> 00:39:10.527
That must mean they're like obeying my commandments.

00:39:10.527 --> 00:39:11.402
That's awesome.

00:39:11.402 --> 00:39:20.721
Like God wouldn't be the one, the one most in the know about where your heart really has been right.

00:39:26.340 --> 00:39:43.820
But when we're full of the Spirit and we've had a really a chance to drink down, you know the figuratively the holy water To me.

00:39:43.820 --> 00:39:51.304
When I think of that, I think of like my spirit being filled, it being hydrated, it being at peace.

00:39:51.304 --> 00:40:11.702
It's not desperate, it's not reactive, it's not grasping, it's not, you know, ventral, it's not impatient, it's not thinking the worst.

00:40:11.702 --> 00:40:27.550
You know, we all like to be in that place and my understanding and my take would be that's the place that God wants us to be.

00:40:27.550 --> 00:40:45.414
God wants us to be hydrated, god wants us to be full of the Spirit, god wants us to be able to walk without weariness.

00:40:48.623 --> 00:40:56.724
Now, obviously, you know to do that is impossible, right to like, reach some state of perfection with it, at least on this earth.

00:40:56.724 --> 00:41:01.288
But I mean, again, it's aspirational, right.

00:41:01.288 --> 00:41:03.025
God's offering it to us.

00:41:03.025 --> 00:41:05.344
He's saying drink of this water.

00:41:05.344 --> 00:41:08.489
You know as much as you can.

00:41:08.489 --> 00:41:28.728
You know, let me, you know, my yoke is light, right, you know, it seems from the word he's trying to lighten our burdens, not heavy them or increase their weight through guilt or through, you know, reapplication of the law.

00:41:31.253 --> 00:41:32.034
You can't do this.

00:41:32.034 --> 00:41:36.269
You can't be mad, you can't, you know, take any action.

00:41:36.269 --> 00:41:39.023
You can't, you know, just turn the other cheek.

00:41:39.023 --> 00:41:51.711
And you know, you know, all that talk really did not help my relationship with my dad.

00:41:51.711 --> 00:42:03.384
It did not make me a better Christian, because when you deny the anger, it just festers, it just multiplies.

00:42:03.384 --> 00:42:12.514
It doesn't just magically disappear because somebody tried to coerce you into it or coerce you away from it.

00:42:12.514 --> 00:42:13.885
It just doesn't work that way.

00:42:13.885 --> 00:42:15.021
That's the opposite.

00:42:17.539 --> 00:42:30.289
So I think when we're telling people, you know to forgive, we need to give them some kind of grace to go along with that.

00:42:30.289 --> 00:42:35.789
First, we need to tell them that the Christ has already forgiven them.

00:42:35.789 --> 00:42:43.132
So this isn't a matter of forgiveness, so isn't a sin thing, or you're in debt to God, or now God's going to punish you.

00:42:43.132 --> 00:42:48.389
You know, some comes around, goes around, things going to happen to you, or something like that.

00:42:48.389 --> 00:42:53.023
First we just have to give people a break.

00:42:53.023 --> 00:43:04.963
And then, you know, listen to them, help them, don't look down on them, be honest, like you haven't felt that way yourself.

00:43:09.460 --> 00:43:33.242
To me, like that's like would be the useful fellowship you could share with somebody, instead of, you know, trying to be holier than now and come swooping in with a bunch of you know, a bunch of scripture about how what they're feeling is illegitimate and against God.

00:43:33.242 --> 00:43:44.081
You know, god made me, god knows what I'm going through, god knows how I feel.

00:43:44.081 --> 00:43:55.429
You know I mean and two, like what a small version of God that is.

00:43:55.429 --> 00:44:09.708
You know, because when people say that it's almost like when people criticize people for being angry or not being forgiving enough or whatever, whatever that means to them.

00:44:09.708 --> 00:44:14.965
I'm thinking what a small version of God like you're acting.

00:44:14.965 --> 00:44:26.987
Like God's like never seen this before, like he finds it upsetting, like you know, like one day he's watching you and your, your mind or your heart, and he's like, oh wow, man, look how upset he is.

00:44:26.987 --> 00:44:32.733
Man, that's like really, just you know I, you know, wow, my, my limits.

00:44:32.733 --> 00:44:44.048
You know it's such a pearl clutcher, like I'm clutching my pearls because I'm just shocked and I'm offended and and I'm like that's you really think God's like that flimsy?

00:44:44.048 --> 00:44:52.568
You think God's that weak, that easily offended?

00:44:52.568 --> 00:44:56.585
Like that's absurd.

00:44:56.585 --> 00:45:08.876
I mean talk about, you know, putting God in a small little box, like here God is saying 3.

00:45:08.956 --> 00:45:16.047
Salvation is available to everyone.

00:45:16.047 --> 00:45:26.306
That includes people who have done a whole lot more than just get angry about something.

00:45:26.306 --> 00:45:27.869
It doesn't have any restrictions.

00:45:27.869 --> 00:45:37.657
As far as I'm aware, that means it includes every type of angry or evil or revengeful thing that you can think of that people have done.

00:45:37.657 --> 00:45:45.963
So that includes, you know, serial colors.

00:45:45.963 --> 00:46:21.050
It includes mass murderers or you know whatever you think are the most evil things and, of course, some of those things I think are equally bad but are more subtle or more accepted right, like what about the you know the boss that's discriminating or cheating people out of their work or their pay, or not giving people an opportunity to earn because of something in their heart?

00:46:21.050 --> 00:46:22.659
That's not right.

00:46:22.659 --> 00:46:45.782
Or what about people you know in a big corporation that knows something's harmful and just keep on selling it, no matter how many people it hurts or kills or whatever, even those people Christ has offered salvation to.

00:46:49.755 --> 00:47:04.927
So, like, if you believe that, if you believe what you know Christ was saying, unless you're trying to qualify what he said and be like well, you know, he said he would, he was offering forgiveness, but, like, just up to a point, you know he forgives Jaywalkers.

00:47:04.927 --> 00:47:07.800
He doesn't, you know, forgive murderers or drug dealers.

00:47:07.800 --> 00:47:15.101
You know, like he's like oh yeah, I forget, you know I'm offering forgiveness.

00:47:15.101 --> 00:47:16.864
Psych, psych, no, I'm just playing.

00:47:16.864 --> 00:47:20.342
I can forgive you motherfuckers for all this shit.

00:47:20.342 --> 00:47:21.117
That's crazy.

00:47:24.014 --> 00:47:48.480
So to me, like, if you're going to take the word and say that that salvation is available and Christ not only said that, but he demonstrated that much to the disagreement of people that were obsessed with the law.

00:47:48.480 --> 00:48:03.007
Right, because he was with sinners and people were saying like you know, if you're godly or whatever, why you surround yourself, you know, with sinners and a crisis?

00:48:03.007 --> 00:48:04.878
Like well, because these are the people that need me.

00:48:04.878 --> 00:48:20.563
If you're all holy and purified and perfect, then don't worry, you don't need me to be around you, you don't need any salvation from me, you don't need my blood poured out for the forgiving of your sins.

00:48:20.563 --> 00:48:26.498
Man, you're straight man, you're already good.

00:48:26.498 --> 00:48:31.684
I'm over here where these people really need me.

00:48:31.684 --> 00:48:32.978
Man, they got some sins.

00:48:32.978 --> 00:48:37.119
Man, they got some guilt, they have some anger.

00:48:37.119 --> 00:48:42.358
Man, they have some hatred, they have a lot of ill deeds.

00:48:42.358 --> 00:48:48.963
You know they've been naughty more than they've been nice.

00:48:48.963 --> 00:48:51.418
Man, these are the people I need to speak to.

00:48:56.855 --> 00:49:21.228
And yet for so many people, just regular lay Christian people or even pastors and Christian leadership, don't want to be seen loving on or forgiving the center.

00:49:21.228 --> 00:49:25.737
Pastor, why?

00:49:25.737 --> 00:49:26.077
You?

00:49:26.077 --> 00:49:29.184
You know with those people, you should just be.

00:49:29.184 --> 00:49:31.137
You know with the godly, you know with us.

00:49:31.137 --> 00:49:38.996
You know in our group or our you know, and it's like, well, that's not all.

00:49:38.996 --> 00:49:46.179
The pastor's job is the pastor has to help.

00:49:46.179 --> 00:50:09.197
You know, people get their thirst quenched, the thirst of their spirit, the thirst of their soul, that perhaps they can find and can enjoy peace of mind and forgiveness for themselves and for their enemies.

00:50:09.197 --> 00:50:17.021
The pastor has to be able to preach that, he has to be able to live that out.

00:50:20.094 --> 00:50:34.422
And that may look different than you think it should look, and that's where, you know, some critics of Jesus were saying.

00:50:34.422 --> 00:51:00.485
They're saying, oh well, you know this guy spending time with the, you know the tax man, and you know, you know, basically, you know, people that society at that time had deemed, as you know, unclean, you know unkind, disreputable, dishonest.

00:51:00.485 --> 00:51:21.905
But see, christ wasn't afraid to sup with those people, he wasn't afraid to share the word with them, to comfort them, to love them.

00:51:21.905 --> 00:51:34.563
Now, granted, you know, see, people will say, yeah, but you know, if you're hanging around people, then their you know attributes rub off on you.

00:51:34.563 --> 00:51:54.807
Okay, so in the midst of us extending one another forgiveness and understanding, we won't always be around saints, or people that think, or people that people think are saints.

00:51:54.807 --> 00:51:57.849
Right, which, I would, you know, argue, is that that's the whole point.

00:51:57.849 --> 00:52:06.179
Is we're just, we're all imperfect, right, we all fall short of the glory of God, right, we've been redeemed through him.

00:52:06.179 --> 00:52:11.443
So we embrace that with confidence.

00:52:11.443 --> 00:52:15.782
We don't need to compete on this issue.

00:52:18.655 --> 00:52:23.764
So to me, I'm thinking and I'm interested to hear what you guys do.

00:52:23.764 --> 00:52:58.846
You know, how do you reach people that are you know outside of the fold whether that's you know outside of the fold just like to just do a matter of degree of like, yeah, there are questions, but you know you don't think they're, you know, really seriously trying to follow God, whatever that means to you, or people that are unsaved, or people that are in other religions, or people whatever.

00:52:58.846 --> 00:53:12.115
And, by the way, I just want to say personally that I'm not here to judge anybody.

00:53:12.115 --> 00:53:17.570
It doesn't mean that I don't judge people.

00:53:17.570 --> 00:53:24.831
I can get mad and get judge-pentral and judge people and all that shit, and I know God forgives me for that.

00:53:24.831 --> 00:53:25.969
That's just a human thing.

00:53:25.969 --> 00:53:37.715
By being honest about it, I can receive some ministry right from Christ or from other people and I can share some of that understanding and love with other people.

00:53:37.715 --> 00:53:54.795
By denying it, that's going to disrupt the communication and the relationship between me and God and me and other people that could use my support and whose support I could use.

00:53:58.925 --> 00:54:00.110
But how do you guys feel about that?

00:54:00.110 --> 00:54:04.534
I know a lot of people preach to just be around the godly.

00:54:04.534 --> 00:54:11.773
Again, I don't know how you would determine exactly who the godly are.

00:54:11.773 --> 00:54:21.496
Or do some people have A's and B's and C's, and are we grading on a curve?

00:54:21.496 --> 00:54:23.188
What do we mean by that?

00:54:23.188 --> 00:54:40.320
What do you do you go someplace and preach to the outsiders, the quote centers, and how do you quote?

00:54:40.320 --> 00:54:49.766
Protect yourself or protect your heart from adopting those things, but still be able to love people without judgment?

00:54:49.766 --> 00:55:00.570
You know it's a good question, and I expect everyone has a different answer for it.

00:55:00.570 --> 00:55:08.032
I'm personally cool with whatever your answer is.

00:55:08.032 --> 00:55:10.731
I don't really give a shit what your answer is.

00:55:10.731 --> 00:55:51.376
I think it'd be interesting, though, to know, and for other people to hear, what a spectrum of approaches there really are and that, unless you're like a real law focused Christian Christ has shaped us all in ways to fit into the puzzle of spiritual life with others uniquely.

00:55:54.364 --> 00:56:01.722
There has to be somebody that's willing to talk to the drug dealer.

00:56:01.722 --> 00:56:03.972
There has to be somebody that's willing to talk to the murderer.

00:56:03.972 --> 00:56:22.726
There has to be someone that's willing to talk to the pharmaceutical executive who decided that they should hide the studies on how this drug kills people and go on ahead with it.

00:56:22.726 --> 00:56:31.313
Somebody has to talk to that guy, somebody has to befriend that guy.

00:56:31.313 --> 00:56:38.373
Somebody has to listen to that guy to love that guy, to tell him that Christ loves him.

00:56:38.373 --> 00:56:44.967
Someone has to invite that guy into the fold.

00:56:49.134 --> 00:57:05.054
And of course, when I say guy, guys are girls, you know, men or women, whatever you want to say, I'm not going to get into, you know, trying to use all the different words that people want me to use.

00:57:05.054 --> 00:57:09.612
I'm just going to speak plainly as it occurs to me.

00:57:09.612 --> 00:57:16.110
You can take it and translate it into what resonates with you.

00:57:16.110 --> 00:57:22.628
So people need to.

00:57:22.628 --> 00:57:35.630
And then, you know, not only do each of those people need to be put aside, but every one of us needs that as well, because we can be sitting thinking like, well, shit, I'm not any of those categories.

00:57:35.630 --> 00:57:37.909
I never killed anybody.

00:57:37.909 --> 00:57:45.686
I've never, you know, turned a blind eye, you know, to some major thing that was hurting people.

00:57:45.686 --> 00:58:00.094
Or I've never, whatever think of, whatever you think are like the worst things right For most of us we're like we don't fall into that category at all.

00:58:00.324 --> 00:58:03.150
So like, how is that even a fair question?

00:58:03.150 --> 00:58:21.541
I would say it's a fair question because all sins are equal and you know I'm open here and some countermanding scriptures on that or whatever.

00:58:21.541 --> 00:58:25.771
But I'm just saying that's how I'm taking it, that all sins are equal.

00:58:25.771 --> 00:58:36.030
So there's no way to build this hierarchy of how I'm better than she, is better than he is, better than her, is better than you know.

00:58:36.030 --> 00:58:36.813
I'm not.

00:58:36.813 --> 00:58:38.858
I'm not subscribing to that.

00:58:38.858 --> 00:58:51.094

Episode 1 - Damn, Jesus I'm Thirsty!

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Episode 1 - Damn, Jesus I'm Thirsty!

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