hey God, what the heck am I doing?
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visit briggs-reilly.com. Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Christ with Coffee on Ice. I am your host, Allie Yost, and it is a joy and honor to be here with you guys today. Happy Friday, everybody. We have our coffee on ice, and we have our Christ. I feel it on my heart to pray for y'all.

Can I do that? If it's been a while since anyone has prayed for you, I felt this from the Father. This is just the kindness of his heart and this is his love. I felt I was supposed to just pray for you guys and bless you before we even get into this episode. And so, yeah, I just want to lift up

any burdens or worry or anxiety in Jesus name and I just I want to just bless y'all and to help you feel just seen by God because I really believe that's the only reason I feel prompted is by him he's the one telling me to do it and so

God, I just thank you for every listener on the other side of whatever device they are consuming this pod through. God, I thank you for them. I thank you for their life, Lord. Lord, I thank you that you carefully and intentionally knitted them together in their mother's womb and that...

You spent so much time making them because it was your joy that you actually found joy in creating them and you found satisfaction when you were done. So Lord, I just lift up any insecurities in Jesus' name.

God, I lift up any lies from the enemy that might be trying to tell them that they are not enough, that they are not doing enough, that they don't feel like they're enough. They don't feel like they'll ever be able to be enough or do enough.

God, I just rebuke those lies now in Jesus' name. And I ask you, God, by your supernatural hand and by your power, that you just take those burdens off of them. That that is not a burden that they are supposed to carry. That those are not lies that are supposed to be on their shoulders. But those are lies that you have...

God, you have abolished them. You have destroyed them through your blood and through your resurrection, Jesus, that you have overcome death, sin, guilt, any lies that the enemy could be using against us through our minds and our hearts, God, that you have already overcome all of it.

And so, Lord, I ask right now that you just rid them from my brothers' and sisters' hearts and minds right now. In Jesus' name, God, I pray for a lightness right now, God. I pray for just a feeling of lightness that all of these burdens are being now taken off of their shoulders and they will no longer feel the heaviness of these lies that are sent from the pits of hell. And I also demand them to go

back to the pits of hell where they belong, that they will not prosper today in Jesus' name, that today will be a good day. Today will be a day filled with joy and happiness, God. Today is going to be a day filled with faith in you, that you are the one who is fighting our battles and that we must only be still and you will fight for us, God. That you tell us to just, you know, face the hardships of the day, but you are actually our strength and you are the one who is fighting for us while we stand strong with you.

God, I also lift up just any sorrow or anything that feels heavy, anything that feels like it's burdening their hearts, God, whether it's loss, whether they're mourning something, whether they have felt that their expectations were in something and it hasn't worked out. Like, God, whatever that looks like, whatever is feeling heavy in their heart,

God, I just pray that you extend your hand of grace to them right now, Lord, and that they feel your compassion for them. That many times I feel it's hard for us to remember that the Lord actually has compassion and that he weeps with us when we are weeping and when we are tired, that he actually has such a compassionate heart towards us.

And so, Lord, I ask that you just reveal that compassion to them and you allow them to actually feel it right now, that if there's anything that's coming in between them and just feeling your love and compassion, would you just break that down now in Jesus' name? God, I pray for a softening of all of our hearts.

and receiving hearts, that you are always willing to give love and compassion and grace, but it also comes down to being able to receive it. And so Lord, I ask right now that you just allow my brothers and sisters to receive that love right now, to receive that grace and that compassion.

And I just ask for a good day for them or a good night, whatever time of the day that they are listening and however much time they have left in their day. Lord, I pray that it's good. And I pray that it is filled with blessings. I pray that it is filled with peace, no matter the storms, no matter the waves. Lord, I just pray for peace over my brothers and sisters right now. In Jesus' name, amen.

All right, y'all. I'm about to enter this episode taking a nap. I feel the peace of the Lord. I feel the peace of the Lord. And yeah, it was my joy and honor to do that for you guys. So I really hope that it helped whatever burdens or anxieties that you might be feeling in this moment. The Lord sees you. He loves you. He has compassion for you. He is not abandoning you in this.

Whatever it is, He has not left you and He will literally be the most consistent person in your life until the minute you die. And that is just something that we have to remember right now and believe that He is never leaving us. No matter the other people who have left us, no matter the opportunities that have left us, no matter the money that has left us, no matter what it is that we have seen come and go in our life, God is the only thing that will forever and infinitely stay consistent in our lives

into infinity and beyond. It's just him. We have him, it's a promise he's made. He's also a promise keeper and he promises that he has made to us. He has never broken a single one of them. And so that is the truth that he will never leave you. Even when we feel far from him, he's not actually ever far from us.

So I bless y'all. I bless you in Jesus name. What a great day. What a good day. Today is going to be a good day. And if the enemy has had you these last few days and maybe he's been able to distract you with all the things that have been going on and we can feel sorrow so in this way and we can feel, you know, burdened and defeated in other ways. We're not feeling that today. We're not feeling that today. And we have that choice.

We're making that choice right now. We are choosing to have faith in God. We are choosing to believe in his word. And we are not going to let the enemy keep us down and steal another one of our days. Like he's stealing our days and our time. And we're not allowing that today. We're putting our foot down. We're having a good day. We're choosing to have faith and hope in God. And we're choosing to have a little coffee with ice on the side, okay? Or matcha, whatever you prefer.

gorgeous i have my creamer back i have my creamer back so hallelujah y'all i don't know about you guys but sometimes i just need a good old reminder of what the gospel is

And I was reminded of that this morning. Isn't that funny that we should be at least eating, sleeping, breathing, just living for Jesus. But why do we forget the gospel so many times? Like the genuine like gospel, like why? I don't know. Maybe I should just be speaking for myself. Maybe everyone else listening right now is like, no, I know the gospel. You

God sent his one and only son. He died on the cross for all of our sins and shame. And then he was resurrected back to life, overcoming death and all of evil. So then we can also die to our sins and be brought to life and be, you know, made new through the spirit. Yeah, I know that. I know the gospel, but it's like,

Sometimes I just, I forget. I forget the gospel. Sometimes I feel shame again and again about my sin and also about how I am imperfect. Does anyone else feel shame about how they are imperfect? I just sometimes forget.

that there's grace and that the Lord doesn't ask us to be perfect. He just asks us to have faith. That it's actually the thing that makes us righteous is the faith. Like God is happier with our faith

more so than us striving to be perfect. That's not what he asks of us. That obviously we are supposed to obey the law and we are supposed to obey the commandments and the things that the Lord tells us to do, but more so he actually really just loves our faith.

And we have to have faith in who he is. And we have to believe that he is a good God and that he is a forgiving God and that there isn't an amount of forgiveness that has ever run out. Is that something to be abused? Of course not. But he's a forgiving and loving God. And this is going to feel like something that we've

already talked about on the pod, probably. We've talked about his forgiveness, his goodness, how it never runs out, you know, the shame of our sins, like the Lord has covered all of that, sin and shame. He's covered it all, guilt that comes with sin. And you know what? That might just be a thing that happens here on the pod where we talk about the same things over and

I needed to hear it again. And so I was just feeling a little down bad this morning with the Lord. And I was like, God, I just really need your water. I need your living water. I am parched. I am thirsty. I have neglected time with you. I have not read the word in days. Like that's just me being honest.

I have truly let busyness get the best of me these last couple of days. And I just was like, I need you, God. I need a reminder of who you are. I need a reminder of what the freak I'm doing here. Like, what am I doing? Sometimes I feel like, you know, I have such a like focus, like pinpoint laser beaming focus on what I'm doing.

for God and then sometimes I'm like, what am I doing? Like I just, I get so discouraged just like that, which is why it's so dangerous for us to stay out of our word. It's so dangerous for us to stay out of the presence of God and it's really dangerous to not make time for him because that is when the enemy is able to come in and throw these daggers of doubt and make us like honestly become like really doomsdale, like, oh my gosh, woe is me. What am I doing with my life? Like anxious, freaking out, you know?

We really need to stay awake and stay on the path with the Lord, which is a narrow path for a reason. Like it's, it's, the Lord says that it's narrow for a reason.

I want to share with you guys the same reminder that the Lord shared with me this morning. And I was like, God, I don't even know where to start in the Bible right now. I don't even know what I'm supposed to be reading. I finished the last book that I read and I just like, I didn't know where else to go in the Bible. Okay. And so I just randomly opened it and I

This is like one of my favorite things to do is just sit with the Lord and ask him and say, all right, God, I ask that wherever I open this Bible right now, that it is of your will. And it is a word that you want me to hear. And I opened to Romans 2. And I don't know if we've read Romans on the pod. I kind of feel like we have because it's a really good book. If you ever need a reminder of God's heart and the gospel,

But like God's heart, y'all better go to Romans. You better just go to Romans because it'll wake you up. It'll snap you right out of all those lies from the enemy. But I started in Romans 2. That's where I had opened. And I would love to read this with you guys if you can see from here. I mean, I basically just highlighted the whole book. Are you for real for joking? No, I'm not.

Well, I am for real, but I'm not for joking. Look at that. I just, it's gold. Like every word. I'm like, how can I not highlight everyone?

Okay. Do you see this? It's just the best. Okay. So let's read Romans. I want to start where the Lord had me open to this morning, which is Romans three. So we're going to start there at the top of Romans three. And just as a reminder, I am reading the NLT translation of the Holy Bible.

God remains faithful. Then what's the advantage of being a Jew? Is there any value in the ceremony of circumcision? Yes, there are great benefits. First of all, the Jews were entrusted with the whole revelation of God. True, some of them were unfaithful, but just because they were unfaithful, does that mean God will be unfaithful? Of course not.

Even if everyone else is a liar, God is true. As the scriptures say about him, you will be proved right in what you say and you will win your case in court. But some might say our sinfulness serves a good purpose for it helps people see how righteous God is. Isn't it unfair then for him to punish us?

This is merely a human point of view, but of course not. If God were not entirely fair, how would he be qualified to judge the world? But if someone might still argue, how can God condemn me as a sinner if my dishonesty highlights his truthfulness and brings him more glory?

And some people even slander us by claiming that we say, quote, the more we sin, the better it is. Those who say such things deserve to be condemned.

Well then, should we conclude that we Jews are better than others? No, not at all. For we have already shown that all people, whether Jews or Gentiles, are under the power of sin. As the scriptures say, No one is righteous, not even one. No one is truly wise. No one is seeking God. All have turned away. All have became useless. No one does good, not a single one.

Their talk is foul like the stench from an open grave. Their tongues are filled with lies. Snake venom drips from their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. They rush to commit murder. Destruction and misery always follow them. They don't know where to find peace. They have no fear of God at all.

Obviously, the law applies to those whom it was given for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.

Okay, now I just want to go back to some commentary to kind of fully understand what was just said in some parts of this scripture, right? So I want to go back to Romans 3, 5, right?

And read a little commentary about this. So Paul brings the counter argument of an opponent. If my unrighteousness will demonstrate God's righteousness, how can God judge me? My sin ultimately serves to bring him more glory and that is good.

In theory, the most dramatic example of someone who might ask this question is Judas. Can you hear Judas make his case? Lord, I know that I betrayed Jesus, but you used it for good. In fact, if I hadn't done what I did, Jesus wouldn't have gone to the cross at all.

all. What I did even fulfilled the scriptures. How can you judge me at all? The answer to Judas might go like this. Yes, God used your wickedness, but it was still your wickedness. There was no good or pure motive in your heart at all. It is no credit to you that God brought good out of your evil. You stand guilty before God.

Yeah, so that is really humbling, I think, for a lot of people who might try to justify their sin and their evil. And I think using Judas is a great example, you know, like Judas could argue that and say, well, listen, I mean, how can you really judge me on...

on the wickedness and the evilness that I did because ultimately my evilness is what brought Jesus to the cross, which is what saved the world. And it's like, the thing is, is that God will always make good out of evil. What was used for evil, the Lord will turn to good.

And he will always receive his glory through that. But that's not something for us to take credit in. That's for sure. Because God's goodness is, that's his. But the wickedness and the thing that was centered in our heart through doing that thing, we fully deserve judgment for. It is no credit to Judas that God brought good out of his evil. He still stands guilty before God because there was no good or pure motive in his heart at all.

I feel like that's one of those moments where humans try to outsmart the Lord and like uno reverse when he's like, you forget that I made you. And also that's not how this works. That's sure. Yeah. Maybe things happen that yes, it is. It is a very good observation. And it's actually quite factual that anything evil the Lord will use for good. And so sometimes evil things quote had to happen because

for fruit, like good things to come from it. But that's actually only just because of the grace of God. That's only because of the kindness of his heart and his goodness and his sovereignty. That's not any credit that should be going to anyone who performed those evil deeds because at the root of it all, they had the evilness in their heart. They had the wickedness in their heart to do it. It's all comes down to heart posture and where the motive comes from with the things that we do.

It is true that God will use even the unrighteousness of man to accomplish his work and bring praise to his name. Judas' betrayal of Jesus is a perfect example. Nevertheless, part of the way God glorifies himself in man's sin is by righteously judging that unrighteousness.

Paul understood that God would judge the world, both Jew and Gentile. Many of the Jews of Paul's day figured that God would condemn the Gentile for his sin, but save the Jew despite his sin. If God will glorify himself through my lie, how can he judge me since I seem to indirectly increase his glory?

This was a perversion of Paul's doctrine of justification by faith and an extension of the objection of his imaginary questioner. If you take the thinking of Paul's adversary far enough, you end up saying, let's sin as much as we can so God can be glorified even more. This shows us that one way to examine a teaching is to extend its meaning and consequences and see where you end up.

Most Christian preaching is so far from the true gospel of free grace that Paul preached that there is no way anyone could even slanderously report that they taught, let us do evil, that good may come.

If we find ourselves sometimes accused of preaching a gospel that is, quote, too opened and too centered on faith and grace and God's work, then we find ourselves in good company with Paul. Paul will not even answer such an absurd twisting of his gospel. He simply says of those who would teach such things or accuse Paul of teaching them, their condemnation is just.

God rightly condemns anyone who teaches or believes such a thing. Twisting the glorious free gift of God in Jesus into a supposed license to sin is perhaps the peak of man's depravity. It takes the most beautiful gift of God and perverts it and mocks it.

This twisting is so sinful, Paul saves it for last because it is beyond the depravity of the pagan, beyond the hypocrisy of the moralist, and beyond the false confidence of the Jew. All right, y'all. So now this is the part where we start to really be reminded of Jesus, the gospel, and what he had done.

So we're in Romans 3.21 now. But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned. We all fall short of God's glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace...

freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past.

for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in the present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus. Can we boast then that

that we have done anything to be accepted by God. No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith and not obeying the law. Y'all, I didn't know what acquittal meant. So if that confused you too, I just looked it up. And the definition of acquittal is a judgment that a person is not guilty of the crime with which the person has been charged.

So because of our acquittal, it is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law. After all, is God the God of the Jews only? Isn't he also the God of the Gentiles? Of course he is. There's only one God and he makes people right with himself only by faith.

whether they are Jews or Gentiles. Well then, if we emphasize faith, does this mean that we can forget about the law? Of course not. In fact, only when we have faith do we truly fulfill the law. All right, let's look at that. We're in Romans 3, 27.

I'm going back to my commentary here because I really want to bring more clarity to this verse where it says that we are made right with God through faith and not obeying the law. So apart from the deeds of the law, doesn't James contradict this in passages like James 2, 14 through 26? How can we say that it is faith alone that saves us?

apart from the deeds of the law. It is true faith alone saves, but true faith, saving faith, has a distinct character. It is not just agreeing with certain facts, but it is directing the mind and will in agreement with God.

The whole purpose of the book of James is to describe the character of this saving faith. What James says, that man is not justified by faith alone, but also by works, does not at all militate against the preceding view or justification by faith alone.

For the question with him is not how men attain righteousness before God, but how they prove it to others that they are justified. For his object was to confute hypocrites who vainly boasted that they had faith. James meant no more than that man is not made or proved to be just by a dead faith and that he must prove his righteousness by his works."

Okay, I want to skip to Romans 4, 13. This is really good, y'all.

Clearly, God's promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was based not on his obedience to God's law, but on a right relationship with God that comes by faith. If God's promise is only for those who obey the law, then faith is not necessary and the promise is pointless. For the law always brings punishment on those who try to obey it. The only way to avoid breaking the law is to have no law to break.

So the promise is received by faith. It is given as a free gift, and we are all certain to receive it. Whether or not we live according to the law of Moses, we have faith like Abraham's. For Abraham is the father of all who believe. Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping, believing that he would become the father of many nations.

For God had said to him, that's how many descendants you will have. And Abraham's faith did not weaken, even though at about a hundred years of age, he figured his body was as good as dead. And so was Sarah's womb. Abraham never wavered in believing God's promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger. And in this, he brought glory to God. He was fully convinced that

that God is able to do whatever he promises. And because of Abraham's faith, God counted him as righteous.

And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn't just for Abraham's benefit. It was recorded for our benefit too. Assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him. The one who raised Jesus, our Lord from the dead. He was handed over to die because of our sins and was raised to life to make us right with God.

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Now we are in Romans 5. Faith brings joy. Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory.

We can rejoice too when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.

And this hope will not lead to disappointment, for we know how dearly God loves us because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.

Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person. Wait, y'all, this is a really good scripture. I need you to open your ears. If you've been kind of like washing your dishes to this or doing your laundry, I like I'm not judging you. But this part, this part, this is Romans 5, 7. All right. Our ears are like wide open. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person.

Though some might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were sinners. And since we have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God's condemnation.

For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his son, while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.

So the reason I feel that scripture is so important for us to hear is because this just shows the difference of God's mercy, his love that is so endless compared to us humans. Because the scripture is basically saying, now most people would be willing to die for an upright person, though some might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. Meaning like it's not often that a person is one willing to die for anyone.

perhaps somebody would die for another person who was like, especially a good person. Like you look at that person and you're like, no, I would die for them because they are such a good person. But the contrast that the Lord wants us to see in this is that God actually showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners, stillborn.

So we were sinners. We were dirty. We were unholy. We did things that the Lord told us absolutely not to do. We were literally enemies to the Lord.

Not because that's what he wanted, but because we were so unholy and he was anything that is of filth and not holy because God has made perfect. He is perfect. Like he can't, he can't be near anything like that. Like anything unholy and impure, God physically, he can't.

And we can't be near him because of his holiness. We would literally perish and disintegrate because of his how perfect and radiant he is. But God showed his great love for us by sending his one and only son to die for our sins. And since we have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God's condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his son, while we were still his enemies,

We will certainly be saved through the life of his son. I think God wants us to see how unbelievably gracious he is. That is.

yeah, maybe a human being would be willing to die for somebody who was like, especially a good person, but it's the way that Lord, the Lord's love, it was through God's love that he gave his one and only son to die and be the physical sacrifice for our sins so that we could be a friend to God. And we could draw near to him even with our sin, because before it was like,

with our sin and our dirtiness, like there was no way we could ever come close to the Lord. He was way too holy. But it was the way that Jesus tore that veil from top to bottom. And he was that sacrifice that he died for all of our sins so we could have a relationship with the Lord so that we could be, our friendship was restored with God.

Y'all, it gets better. Listen to this. Listen to this. So when Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Okay. So now we're going back to Genesis. When Adam sinned, that's when sin was introduced into the world. Adam's sin brought death. So death spread to everyone for everyone sinned. Yes, people sinned even before the law was given, but it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break.

So now God is bringing clarity to like our question where we say, okay, but before Moses wrote the 10 commandments on stone, right? He went up to the mountaintop, received that from the Lord before the law was written. Yes, people were sinning, but there was no law to bring light to that, to like bring awareness to that, if that makes sense. So it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break, right?

Still, everyone died from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even those who did not disobey any explicit commandment of God as Adam did. Now, Adam is a symbol, a representation of Christ who was yet to come. But there is a great difference between Adam's sin and God's gracious gift for the sin of

of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. Listen, y'all, I'm going to read that one more time. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many, but even greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. And the result of God's gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man's sin.

For Adam's sin led to condemnation, but God's free gift led to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many.

But even greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ. Yes, Adam's one sin brought condemnation for everyone, but Christ's one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone.

Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous. God's law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were.

But as people sinned more and more, God's wonderful grace became more abundant. So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God's wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Okay, are we understanding that? Are we understanding that? I think ultimately if Alios were to just sum that all up is yes, it really shows the gravity of how one person's sin can really be a domino effect. Like the sin...

of Adam, he introduced sin to the world. And it actually, it then introduced death to the world and so many other people. Like the minute that Adam partook in sin, okay, introduced all this sin to the world, it caused so much destruction. One simple decision to go against God

what the Lord had warned him not to do out of God's love. He was like, don't do this because it will literally lead to death. Adam did not listen or Eve. It started with Eve. Then she brought it to Adam and he said, okay. Because of that one decision, it caused so much destruction to the world. And so I think what the Lord wants us to see in the scripture is that yes, it was a very heavy, and this wasn't just an Adam thing. This wasn't just an Adam and Eve thing. Like our sin a

affects other people. And we see that in the world today. We see the way that people, because of their poor decisions and their selfish decisions and their decisions that are rooted in a place of selfishness, which is evil.

You know, it's rooted in evil. Our sin is evil and it is the nature of who we are as humans. Unfortunately, that's just the downside of us is that our nature is sinful without Jesus. Like our nature...

without the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us and without the Spirit leading us is sin and evil. That's a hard pill to swallow because I think a lot of us like to think that we're good people and it doesn't necessarily mean you have to be an ax murderer to be a bad person, but like in the root of our humanity, and I wanna get to this other piece of scripture in Romans that's really important where it's like,

We don't want to do the things we do, but we do them and we don't know why. It's like our souls, who we are on the inside, aside from this, it's like, we don't want to do bad things and we don't want to go against the word of God, but we do. And we don't know why we do it, but we, and we don't want to do it, but we still do it. And that's because it is the nature of humans. Like we just, we just make bad decisions without God.

We just make dumb decisions without Jesus. We make dumb decisions without God and we make dumb decisions when we try to do them on our own without bringing it to the Father first. Like if Adam and Eve had just brought that to God first before making that decision, they wouldn't have done it because they would have been like, you know what? I'm actually going to bring this to God quick because I don't know if this is right. But they didn't do that. They just made a decision without bringing it to the Lord, which...

literally invited so much evil into the world. And so the heaviness of the scripture is like, that is such a consequence of our sin. It's like, it's not just a decision we're making for ourselves. It's a decision that we're making that will affect other people. It just will. Whether we recognize it in the moment or not, our sin hurts God completely.

It hurts us and it hurts other people. There's just no way for us to sin and like it just affects us. Sin is a rippling effect. It's a domino effect. There are consequences outside of ourselves that sin does.

And so God is showing us that like because of that one decision that Adam made, it introduced death into the world. That's heavy. But there's good news because what God is telling us in this is that God's gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man's sin. For Adam's sin led to condemnation, but God's free gift led to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins.

For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. Yes, that's heavy. We need to understand the consequences of that. But the good news is even greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness.

for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ. So it's really cool to show the contrast of like where it all started with Adam and then where it all ends with Jesus Christ because of this one man, so much evil was introduced into the world, but because of this one man, Jesus Christ, all of it was overcome and God's righteousness and grace and forgiveness overcame all of that anyway.

There's this interesting parallel of like the tree of life and death, like the tree of good and evil that Adam and Eve ate from. It's just interesting that it all started with a tree and it all ended on a tree. That Jesus died on a cross that was made from a tree, wood. If you look at the details of everything that the Lord has done, there's probably so much more that humankind, like we just have not even looked, we haven't even seen yet.

But that doesn't feel like a coincidence. That the very thing that we did, the very thing that humans did, that Adam introduced into the world through a tree, was killed on a tree. It was nailed to a tree. It was nailed to wood that was made from that tree. And it was reversed. That Jesus reversed all of that and overcame all of that and made it all right.

That what was made wrong in the Garden of Eden was made right on the mountain of Calvary. Like,

It took one man, but then it took one man. That's God's love. Like he could have let us just fall to our sin and like rot away in our wickedness, but he didn't. It was actually the grace of God that he brought one man to make it all right again. So we're forgiven and made new and we are made, our relationship with God has now been restored. Our friendship with the Lord has been restored because of what Jesus did.

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I want to read that scripture that I was just bringing up to y'all about struggling with sin. And we do the things that we don't want to do, but we do them. We don't understand why we do it. Okay, so we're going to skip to Romans 7, 14. So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good.

So now Paul is shedding light. It's like, listen, the law isn't the problem here. Like the law was never a problem because it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don't really understand myself for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it.

Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this does show that I agree with the law and it is good. So that part of scripture I really love too because it does reveal like where our hearts lie. You know, that if you feel like you don't understand yourself or you want to do what is right but you don't, instead you do what you hate. But if you know that what you are doing is wrong, this shows that you do agree that the law is good.

So I am not the one doing wrong. It is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me. That is in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can't. I want to do what is good, but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don't want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong. It is sin living in me that does it.

I have discovered this principle of life, that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God's law with all my heart, but there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am. Who

Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God. The answer is in Jesus Christ, our Lord. So you see how it is. In my mind, I really want to obey God's law, but because of my sinful nature, I am a slave to sin.

So what's being said in the scripture is that we cannot obey God's law out of our own power. This is also why Jesus Christ had to be introduced to the world because we could not, even if

if in our mind we're like I love God's law so much like with all of my heart and in my mind I really want to obey God's law but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin so what God is showing us in this is that Jesus also there was such a purpose to him because we couldn't do it out of our own power like we were sinning even after the law was introduced to the world so listen

There was a time before Moses, right? We just read that. There was a time before the law was introduced into the world. So yes, people were sinning, but they didn't really know because they didn't have anything to compare it to. They didn't have something that brought awareness like, oh, so what I've been doing, God doesn't approve of. Oh, okay. So we know that we're doing wrong because it goes against the law. It goes against the word of God. It goes against the 10 commandments. Okay. Okay.

Step one. So then God brings the law and he says, okay, so Moses, I need you to introduce the law to people. This is what will help people understand that what they're doing is sinful. Okay. So then the law is introduced into the world. People fall in love with the law. They love it. They're like, God, wow, you're so good. I see your heart in this. You're telling us to not do evil and to hurt others or ourselves or you love that.

people still couldn't stop sinning because they didn't have the power within themselves to do it because of their sinful nature. So what is being said in this is like, okay, yeah, I love God's law with all my heart, but there is another power within me that is at war in my mind. And that power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. I'm a miserable person. So then people

They're feeling that misery and that like control over their sinful nature that's embedded in them. And they don't know how to become free from it because they just they don't have the power within themselves to free themselves. So what's being said here is I know what I'm doing is wrong. And this shows that I agree that the law is good, but I keep doing it.

And so who is our savior in that? Who is our rescuer in that? Who is the one that can help us with that? Because we can't do it alone. Okay. The law has been introduced into the world. That's all good, but I am still sinning and I can't, I don't want to, but I can't stop. And so the answer is in Jesus Christ, our Lord. So you see how it is in my mind. I really want to obey God's law, but because of my sinful nature, I am a slave to sin because

but life is in the spirit okay so now we go to Romans 8 so now there is no condemnation for those who belong in Christ Jesus and because you belong to him the power of the life-giving spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death

The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the wickedness of our sinful nature. So the law alone could not save us. That's what was being demonstrated in mankind at this time between the law being introduced and Jesus Christ coming to the world and dying for our sins. During that time, it was like people were still sinning. And so it was clear that the sin before the law was introduced and the sin...

after the law was introduced, was still happening. That people alone could not withhold themselves from sinning, even though the law was introduced. So now we do have this awareness, like, okay, I shouldn't be doing these things, but I'm still doing it. So the law alone could not save people from their sinful nature.

And that sin still leads them to death. Okay. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the wickedness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body, God declared an end to sin's control over us by giving his son as a sacrifice for our sins. Okay.

So the other strategy of God giving his one and only son is I feel it was very intentional that the Lord brought Jesus not by like just a spirit or a cloud or an angel or something that could just kind of be like in a physical body. He brought his son, Jesus Christ. He sent his own son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. I feel there's such intentionality in that, that he brought Jesus himself.

In a physical body, just as we live in our physical bodies. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us who no longer follow our sinful nature, but instead follow the spirit. So the law wasn't powerful enough.

We obviously in nature need to follow something, whether it's sin and evil or something better, which is the spirit of God. And so now the spirit, the Holy Spirit, life is actually in the spirit. That is what we follow instead of sin.

Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about the things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death, but letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God.

It never did obey God's law and it never will. That's why those who are still under control of their sinful nature can never please God.

But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the spirit if you have the spirit of God living in you. And remember that those who do not have the spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all. And Christ lives within you. So even though your body will die because of sin, the spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you.

That sentence alone is insane. So insane we need to read it again. The spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. It lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by the same spirit that lives within you. Life is found through the spirit and nothing else. God has now also given us an option of freedom.

He's given us an option of freedom. That option had not been yet introduced into the world yet. That the only option people had was to follow the law, but that still wasn't enough. God has actually given us a better option now. He's like, all right, I will send my one and only son and I will give you my spirit through him to follow that actually gives you true freedom in life.

That we don't receive freedom through the law, we receive freedom through the Spirit of God that was introduced through Christ Jesus, who's the cornerstone. He's the thing. He's the communicator. He's the one that connects us to our Heavenly Father, right? The law is very purposeful and it was important and there was strategy with that. Like the Lord was like, "No, we need to know." The law is very important, but it's with truth and spirit.

It's with the law, but it's also we receive freedom and life through the spirit. They're both very important, but it's through the spirit that we are made new and we've received freedom. Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do.

For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit, you will put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God's Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him Abba Father.

For his spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ, we are heirs of God's glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering. Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. Let me read that slower. That's really good, y'all.

Romans 8, 18. This is really good. I want all of us to soak in this last sentence from our dad that says, yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. So yes, we are to share his glory. We also must share in his suffering.

So God is also revealing to us that just because we are Christian doesn't mean we won't endure suffering. And on that note of just talking about suffering and...

How I feel the Lord is really showing us in that scripture is that there's so much glory and there's so much joy. There's so much reward with being a Christian, you know, and having the Holy Spirit and believing in Jesus and just following him. There's just so much treasure in that.

But we also share in his suffering. And so even with the hardships that we face, obviously it is nothing compared to the glory that the Lord will reveal to us at the end of our lives. Like it will all be worth it. You know, sometimes when we're in it, it feels like really hard and it feels really heavy. But God does not shy away from the honest truth of that there is suffering with being a Christian.

that there's so much glory and goodness and oh my gosh is it rewarding but there's also a lot of sacrifice and suffering that can come with it as well you know as we share in jesus's glory we also share in his suffering and i just want to share a short story time about a conversation that i had with a woman on a flight a few weeks ago you know we got to this conversation kind of at random i didn't even know she was a believer it just happened by chance we just started to talk about jesus

And I was just telling her about how much faith I have in this generation that there's genuinely going to be a revival that's going to bubble up like it's happening right now in these younger generations. And I really believe that what happened in the 70s is going to happen again, but bigger. Like, I just have so much faith for that, guys.

And so I'm sharing this with her and she was like, no doubt about it. You know, this woman's probably in her like late 60s, early 70s. And she was expressing, you know, during the 70s at that time, she was in college. And so she was sharing this.

It was so cool. I was like, wow, God, this is so incredible that I get like a really personal POV of this woman sharing what it was like during that time. The last time we really saw a true revival in this country. And the thing that she said that they really went wrong in that generation was that everyone was so caught up in the spirit and like the spirit of God was flowing. People were being saved left and right, especially over like campuses and in colleges and stuff. It was like

these young kids were just being saved by the spirit of God. And there was so much Jesus, like all over. It was crazy. It was infectious. And there was so much joy and celebration, which is obviously very much what comes with the gospel. Like,

It's good news, you know? But I think what she was telling me was that they, they got really caught up in the spirit and the feelings and how good it was that they didn't exactly know what they were committing to. And not that it was a bad thing. Like she's like, I'm still faithful to the Lord today, but I faced a lot of hardships. Like

Being a Christian does not give us a fast pass or a pass at all from facing the devastation and just hardships of being here on planet Earth. Like, awful things happen. You know, we have to mourn things.

There's disappointments. There's loss like there's grief You know this woman was also telling me that she had just lost her husband a year ago and she you know in this past year She's she's a mother of five and all her kids are grown up and she has plenty of grandchildren and it's beautiful and great But she now has to like navigate life without her partner she said they didn't know what they were committing to because

They thought that it was kind of like all sunshine, rainbows and butterflies with Jesus, which it is at times, but there is also suffering and there is no like pass that we get. We don't live easier lives than the world. We just have Jesus to give us the strength to endure these things and to make things that were made for evil and turn them to good. Like there's so much glory with following the Lord, but there's still hardship and

And she said, because that wasn't communicated, I feel a lot of people actually ended up falling from their faith because they didn't know what they were committing to. Not that it was a bad thing they were committing to, but they had a misunderstanding that it didn't mean they were going to be living like fluffy lives, you know, that they

Obviously, God makes things better and he gives us strength and he gives us peace to be able to endure it. I would much rather endure hardships with Jesus than without him because no matter what, we're gonna, you know? So it's a matter of like, do you want to do this with the comfort of God or do you want to do this leaning on your own understanding and going through so much more

pain when we also have the gift of surrender. You know, we've talked about this, where we get to just give so much to him rather than carrying it all on our own shoulders, which is life without Jesus, is carrying it ourselves. She said a lot of people probably, whether she witnessed it in her personal life or not, like turned from their faith.

Because they didn't understand. They weren't told the true promise of God, which is like, yeah, I gave you my one and only son to endure suffering and to take on the sins of the world. And through that, we get the gift of sharing his glory and we get to experience his glory. But also there is still suffering. And she said that because of that too, she believed that that was a result of like not knowing the word enough.

Because if people had only known the word, they would have known that. Like we just read that in Romans, that God said that, yes, we will share in his glory, but we also share in his suffering. But even with the suffering, that still doesn't compare to the glory he has at the end of our lives for us. So yes, there's hardship, but there's even good news with that because his glory is like

way bigger than anything we could ever imagine and the suffering is like nothing compared to that and that's what makes it worth it as well. There wasn't enough of this.

There wasn't enough of the Word of God and there wasn't enough of an understanding of this. The Spirit is so, it's easy to get caught up in it and it's exciting. And that's basically what she was telling me that their generation did, but there wasn't enough of this. There wasn't enough understanding of what they were committing to and there wasn't enough understanding of the Word of God.

And for me, that was such an eye-opening thing that I think we really all need to bring to heart, y'all, is that if we want to believe that one, revival will happen in our generation, and two, we will stay strong in our faith, is if we're always, always like word of God.

The word of God and the promises of our Lord is actually the foundation of everything. And we need to stay, we need to stay woke to this. Like the way that I've gone days without reading my Bible, we need to stay awake to the truth and just the word of God.

All right, y'all, that was a successful episode. I really loved that a lot. And I hope that this was fruitful for you guys. And can we do something cool today? Can we show somebody how cool Jesus is? Let's walk more like him. Let's be more like him today. And let's really take what he taught us today to heart. Yeah, I'm just, I'm really proud of y'all. I bless you this weekend and into the rest of your week until I see you next Friday. And I will see you guys next time.

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