Today, my wife, Selena Cruz (freshly returned from Spain) and I join forces with Pastor Ryan Brown, to offer an understanding on what sin is if we are no longer under the law. We will continue our journey through Galatians, drawing wisdom from as we define the specific Greek terms Paul uses to describe Works of the Flesh. We delve into the practical ramifications of our actions, emphasizing the importance of seeking God’s kingdom and walking in the Spirit.
From the concept of living under grace to the profound difference between chastity and purity, we explore it all. We lay bare the stark realities of sexual immorality and how our outward presentation can influence our spiritual journey. With a deep dive into the complex relationship between witchcraft, sorcery, drugs, and religious sin. We unpack the importance of unity within the church, the damaging effect of discord, and strategies to nurture unity amidst diversity. We don't shy away from addressing our passions, worldly distractions, and personal choices, which can either boost or hamper our spiritual growth.
To wrap things up, we evaluate the repercussions of envy and the dark underbelly of societal sins. We unravel the dangers of alcohol overconsumption, and the temptation to squander time, money, and our identities on things that don't glorify God. We're here to encourage you to be on guard, not give Satan or sin a foothold, and remember that your actions don't go unnoticed. Prepare for a heart check! Tune in, and let us guide you on this journey of understanding, reflection, and growth.
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Notes: https://sermons.church/archives?church=PalmsBaptistBibleStudy&id=126
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Check us out on these Streaming Platforms: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1912582/share
Today, my wife, Selena Cruz (freshly returned from Spain) and I join forces with Pastor Ryan Brown, to offer an understanding on what sin is if we are no longer under the law. We will continue our journey through Galatians, drawing wisdom from as we define the specific Greek terms Paul uses to describe Works of the Flesh. We delve into the practical ramifications of our actions, emphasizing the importance of seeking God’s kingdom and walking in the Spirit.
From the concept of living under grace to the profound difference between chastity and purity, we explore it all. We lay bare the stark realities of sexual immorality and how our outward presentation can influence our spiritual journey. With a deep dive into the complex relationship between witchcraft, sorcery, drugs, and religious sin. We unpack the importance of unity within the church, the damaging effect of discord, and strategies to nurture unity amidst diversity. We don't shy away from addressing our passions, worldly distractions, and personal choices, which can either boost or hamper our spiritual growth.
To wrap things up, we evaluate the repercussions of envy and the dark underbelly of societal sins. We unravel the dangers of alcohol overconsumption, and the temptation to squander time, money, and our identities on things that don't glorify God. We're here to encourage you to be on guard, not give Satan or sin a foothold, and remember that your actions don't go unnoticed. Prepare for a heart check! Tune in, and let us guide you on this journey of understanding, reflection, and growth.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RealBibleStories
Notes: https://sermons.church/archives?church=PalmsBaptistBibleStudy&id=126
Website: https://real-bible-stories.square.site
Check us out on these Streaming Platforms: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1912582/share
Hello and welcome to Real Bible Stories. Join us as we deep dive into the historic, religious, cultural, political and emotional context surrounding the real lives of real people in the Bible and the stories we've all run to life. Hello and welcome back to Real Bible Stories. I'm your host, emron Ward, and we are joined by Pastor Ryan Brown. Hello, and now freshly back from Spain, my wife Selena Cruz.
Speaker 2:Hello, how was it? It was good, I enjoyed being with family.
Speaker 1:What was the biggest difference between Spain and the United States?
Speaker 2:Customer service. Oh yeah, I've heard about that like for so many years and to experience it I was like oh, this is so worse.
Speaker 3:Was it better? I'm not sure it gets much worse.
Speaker 1:No, oh my gosh, you live in a country where people are expected to smile and take care of themselves. No, I'm just saying customer service and business has been since COVID.
Speaker 3:It's like everything's COVID's fault.
Speaker 1:You know like what does that?
Speaker 3:have to do with you keeping me on hold for two hours.
Speaker 1:Oh no, you're talking about like the service in, like restaurant service and stuff. Yeah, what was it like?
Speaker 2:So like like here you're trained to like really smile at people and like have your day and like be all nice, upfront and stuff like that. Versus in Spain, it's like what do?
Speaker 1:you want. We don't serve that here.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:They don't go to bar, did you?
Speaker 2:come here for my food or for my smile. What do you want? Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:What do you want? I remember telling me about.
Speaker 1:She was at a bar or club with your cousins and you were like, oh, can I get this drink? And they were like, we don't serve that here. This is what we serve. These three things, pick one. Yeah, there was no like, oh, what's in it? I can try and make something. They don't care. They don't care, I love that. I'm glad that that's what you brought up. So I told her beforehand. You know it's like, be ready, I'm going to ask you a question. And she didn't know what the question was going to be. So nice, off the cuff answer.
Speaker 2:Nice to be back, though, yeah.
Speaker 1:It's nice to have that third party. I was wondering we're doing it, just the two of us? I was like man, when do I say stuff? If I say something stupid, I'll have Selena to giggle and make me seem like I'm smarter than I am, or something. It's just silence, Silence, yeah.
Speaker 3:And Randall can over me with his eyes.
Speaker 2:I'm not your wife and I'm not going to give you any affirmation. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:And it's like, oh, I'll Google for you, ryan, that's why, alrighty, but we are back in our Galician study. We are a few months into it now and we're getting close and closer to the end, but we do have a few more weeks in us here, right? So I've said this every week in New York, I'm going to say it to you all again in cases your first time tuning in. This is a very, very deep and well structured Bible study that we've been going through, so we're going to be bringing up concepts and topics here that we've kind of explored in depth in other subjects Tonight's actually going to be pretty, pretty simple.
Speaker 3:You're going to miss, I guess maybe contextually where why this sits where it sits. But really today's going to be just one big heart check. That's good, that's good.
Speaker 1:But as always, I recommend you start at the beginning of this year.
Speaker 3:I recommend that as well.
Speaker 1:Yes, Because if this is going to be a heart check, it'll be even more so when you understand a little bit more about how Paul writes the way that he does and the church in Galatian, what's unique about them and how that all ties together. So this podcast is for those that are looking for that deeper, more in depth understanding of their faith and not just getting Ryan's perspective on it. But what Ryan's doing is trying to really tease out well, what was Paul thinking at the time in that day, what was going on culturally at the time in that day, and why was the Bible written the way that it was at the time? And then, how does that carry forward into how we should be living and orienting our lives today? So that's the goal of our podcast here and with that let's jump into it.
Speaker 3:Sure. So we spend a lot of weeks and write the proper way to think. Here's the way to think about coming into Abraham's family, the way circumcision is required for you. You are part of Abraham's family mainly because you have received the Holy Spirit. That is your guarantee right. And Paul asked earlier did you receive the Spirit before or after circumcision? Did you see great works among you before or after you got circumcised? So the first portion of that is how to think really about the problem. He's gotten past that. He's led them to what he wants them to do, which is kick those teachers really out of their congregation and say they don't need to be with you.
Speaker 3:So now he's moving into, though, the practical living portion of living in the Spirit. Now to go again back to last week right, the danger is that, well, if Torah was acting as a guardrail, the training wheels to keep us from falling over too much into sin, and you remove that, what keeps you from falling over deep into sin?
Speaker 1:if the guardrails aren't there, or really what defines what is sin anymore? Because if sin is being outside of God's intent or God's rules, but then you say, the law that was given doesn't apply anymore, well, that's actually what.
Speaker 3:Paul's going to answer tonight.
Speaker 1:So that's a great segue. We didn't rehearse this, I promise.
Speaker 3:So that's exactly what he's going to hit tonight, because these are the natural questions that you ask, right? And it's no different in Paul's day, right? So he says you remove the guardrails, how do you combat sin, then, without babysitter?
Speaker 1:How do I still get the strike?
Speaker 3:You walk in the Spirit. Well, what does that mean? So he's talking we're leading into all these things of what walking in the Spirit is and what it isn't. So, to kind of give an analogy, this whole study has been structured around who belongs to Abraham's family. Are the Gentiles part of Abraham's family or not? So if you think about coming into somebody's family, right, Like growing up in my family, we did foster care.
Speaker 2:So we had a lot of different foster kids who would come in oh yeah, I remember you.
Speaker 3:Some would be with us for years. A couple would be with us just a couple months.
Speaker 1:Is that how your parents ended up adopting your brother?
Speaker 3:That's right, yeah, so we picked him up when he was two days old and obviously had him ever son, so he had always been with us. But there was a few foster kids that we would have come into the family and part of our kind of goal as a family was they are not our family, but we wanted them to feel as much a part of our family as possible right, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3:So part of that is that you'd get them and you'd make them feel comfortable and they would start, you know, over time realizing, like you know, I'm brought in, I'm a part of this family, at least for the time that I'm here. But part of that is that when you're being brought in and into a new family, right, just as the Gentiles are being brought into this new family of Abraham, there's also house rules. Right, you don't get to play by the same rules of the environment you came from. You are playing by the family rules. Right, there's rules of the home and everybody has different rules for their home, right? Some people, you know you take your shoes off when you walk in. You know, other people, it's fine to be jumping around on the couch. Others are like you, the couch is for sitting and sitting only, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, every family has a different. Or you don't use the couch and it's covered in plastic.
Speaker 3:Right yeah.
Speaker 1:Is it the couch you're looking at? Yeah, that's decoration. That's not practical thing, right?
Speaker 3:So every house, you know, every family has its own house rules, and essentially what Paul is going to lay down here is that all right, I've established that you are legitimately a part of this family. You've been brought in. It is made known to you by the fact that you've received the spirit. So now you go walk in the spirit. And walking in the spirit means playing by certain rules, and if you want to be a part of this family and you want to be for the kingdom, then there are rules that you need to live by, right?
Speaker 3:So, he to your you know, earlier, though, is that he's also addressing. Then, well, okay, well, the law kind of defined what sin was for us Gentiles. Don't have that context, and he's like, okay, well, if you're walking in the spirit, it's obvious and that's what. That's one of the first points he's making. Actually I would say, if you were to like, you could probably just title, you know, this entire study stating the obvious.
Speaker 1:This is also interesting too, because you know, jesus talks about how those that are under grace go above and beyond the law. This is like an example of that. It's like you're no longer under the law, but in order to really be in line with these fruits and to not be falling into the acts of the flesh, like we talked about last week you're going to have to do so much more than just what the law required. It's going to be so much more of an expectation than what the law required.
Speaker 3:So grace always demands more right Exactly so it's a whole.
Speaker 1:It's another example of that that same logic, which is huge. You know.
Speaker 3:The law said don't commit adultery. Jesus said do not lust.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Right, the law says do not murder. Jesus says do not be angry. Right, because, of course, if I'm loving my neighbor as myself, is there any room for hate, anger, murder. Can you even get to that point? Exactly, right.
Speaker 1:So there's not going to be any theft if you're loving your neighbor as yourself. There's not going to be any of those things.
Speaker 3:That's why that's why the conclusion of last week's that was the highest command, right?
Speaker 1:He said love your God and then love your neighbor as yourself. Exactly.
Speaker 3:And Jesus says the highest command. And that's where we left off last week, right when he left it with a positive. It's not about what you don't do, it's about what you need to do, and what you need to do to walk in the spirit is to serve people, go, love people.
Speaker 3:It's a positive thing, as a correction, as a remedy to some of those battles, right? So what we're going to get into today, then, is really I just like to call it like a massive heart check, because I had a hard to swallow pill drink.
Speaker 1:service today with being careful with your mouth. Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:And this is going to be a little bit more addition to that, because he's going to essentially list out a series of acts of the flesh right but to your point like well, what's sin? Then right? And if you're walking in the spirit, how do you know right and that's?
Speaker 1:kind of answering that question.
Speaker 3:So it acts as like a heart check in a certain regard. It just kind of it brings certain things, I think, that are sin to the forefront of our mind to remind us right. A lot of it is like nothing new. People will probably hurt a lot. You know, they're aware of this, but they haven't thought about it for a long time.
Speaker 1:They're like ah I forgot.
Speaker 3:That is not the way I should be living, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so they don't think about the impacts of their sin. It's like, oh well, it's like people with porn. They'll be like well, I'm not hurting anybody. And it's like, well, you're supporting an industry that is hurting people, so, by proxy, you are hurting people, so think about it the larger picture.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think the other thing this list is going to do too, it's going to remind us of the things that mar Christian identity right so one of the things that Jesus came to do was to completely reshape and reform our identity, and we're going in this actually in our youth on Sundays. Right now, we're breaking it down one a week. There's different identity factors that make up one's identity, all working kind of in cohesion and synthesis with each other.
Speaker 1:That's inside out. Those are emotions.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I know we're talking, but the idea, though, being is that you know, when we talk about that, the image of God, that we were image bearers and was marred in sin. Part of that image that's marred is our identity. Our identity was marred, and we have we derive our identity from so many wrong places, right? Yeah, and here to correct it to really say who you think you are is not who you are. So where you find your identity is not where your identity comes from right.
Speaker 1:Much of.
Speaker 3:Jesus' ministry is about that. So it's going to remind us of the things that restrict and mar, are distinctive, or our identity in Christ. But I would also say, on the positive end, it can also show as a list, if you want to think of this more positively. Right, here's a list of things that walking in the spirit can defeat. Right, because there's certain battles I think people are in where, like I just can't, I can't win or.
Speaker 3:I feel like I'm so deep into it that I can't ever beat this right. And this gives us a list of no. But if you walk in the spirit, here's what you can find victories over right Like you can almost even act as like signposts or reminders for some people of like I forgot that that used to be my battle and I've defeated that battle by walking in the spirit. Right Like you know, like when we leave base, right you see all the signs of all the Marine Corps battles right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And it has, you know, going all the way back to you know Bellawood and you know Okinawa, and then you get to Fallujah you know right? Yeah, definitely, and it has all these signs kind of commemorating, you know, these famous battles that the Marine Corps had fought in and were victorious in right.
Speaker 3:You can almost look at it as that as well. Where it's? Hey, here's a list of things, maybe for the more mature believer too. Don't forget the things that you've actually overcome by walking in the spirit. Remember these things that you used to be enslaved to. Are you still enslaved to them anymore? You're like man. I used to be enslaved to that, but I've actually had victory, you know. You think about the fact and think about some of the victories you've had right. So it plays multiple different roles. I think, if anything, it is a very clear cut list of what sin is right A little bit.
Speaker 3:So with that, I guess, if we want to go ahead and what, what?
Speaker 1:what version of the Bible are you reading from Selena?
Speaker 2:English standard version.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think, yeah, yeah, I see it on the back ESV, all right.
Speaker 2:And again we're in Galatians, chapter five. We're going through verses 19, 19 to 21. Now the works of the flesh are evident Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, vibraries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, and those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Speaker 3:So what we're really going to be doing is, for the majority of this, is kind of just doing one big word study for each one of those, each one of those words in Greek have certain connotations with them, right, that are a little bit deeper than what our English kind of translates it as. But the first thing, and if there's nothing else to get from this little piece of text here, get this one thing, okay. Notice how he says that the acts of the flesh are what Clearly evident. Obvious right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, everything In an amplified Bible. It says clearly, evident, clearly evident. And it's italicized Like. So like when he said it he was, like it's clearly evident, yes, and I love that. No confusion here, obvious right, so what?
Speaker 3:we're talking about are things that for particularly the believer who possesses the spirit, these things are obvious. It's not like he's clearing up a debate Like hey, is adultery really bad or is premarital sex really bad? He's not like trying to clear up a debate.
Speaker 1:It doesn't even really tie it back to like if you have the spirit.
Speaker 3:Well, not yet, because this goes into pairing with the fruit of the spirit. So you first hit the acts of the flesh, but we'll do. Next is the fruits of the spirit.
Speaker 1:But oh no, I guess, sorry, literally the verse before he says but if you are guided and led by the spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now, the practice of the sinful? Yeah, he does tie back the spirit, literally one verse before.
Speaker 3:This is right in that set, yeah, so but the biggest thing to get, though, is that what he's about to talk about. They should be obvious, right, and the question is for some, if it's not obvious, why Right? Because if you're living in the spirit and you're living for the spirit, right, you're walking with the spirit, then why aren't maybe some of these so obvious?
Speaker 3:And the truth is is, I think, a lot of it. It used to be obvious and you've deceived yourself because you didn't like it. You didn't like what the spirit was telling you that, hey, that you know that's not honoring Christ, but I really like doing it. So what we do, is we like to do this relative ethics right, like we say, nice, I don't like. You know the fact that this is saying that. So I'm going to find some weird way to twist and twist theology, or twist what the text is saying.
Speaker 1:I've affectionately heard it called as putting God in a box.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you put it but you twist things to mean something that they're not right. That is not as obvious as it is, like Paul clearly states here. This is obvious. In fact, the sense he gives is like guys, acts of the flesh is so obvious Do I really need to tell you what they are? Yeah, so this is just goes through an example. Right At the end of this he actually says he gives a whole list and he says and the like.
Speaker 1:So this isn't like an example, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. This isn't like the all exhaustive list of what sin is?
Speaker 3:He's saying here? Just a bunch of examples right Of. They're obvious. Right, and the like, right. So there's more to this than what's included here. His whole point is that acts of the flesh are very, very obvious to people. If they're not obvious, then you're deceiving yourself. Some of it may be you're somewhat new in the faith and the spirit just hasn't come to address that with you yet. Right, like it, god paces. Right, and he's like, hey, I'm going to deal with you and your mess and I'm going to. He prioritizes it in a way that is for our best benefit, right? So some people they're, like you know, pretty like immature believers. Right, like you hear them cussing. You know, like you know more mature believers like, hey, you shouldn't be cussing. Right, but behind the scenes you're not realizing the fact that this person has had an ongoing affair. They just got saved and now the spirits really working on them of how to end the affair and get back into a biblically honoring marriage.
Speaker 3:Right, so you don't see that battle. All you hear is them cuss right and then people come in like, no, you need to. In all the while there's, like this massive, monumental hill, they're fighting Right. So the spirit again walking with the spirit being led by the spirit, they address things in due time, right, but just don't cross over the fact that it is obvious.
Speaker 1:It's also not our place to just judge others. That's leave that judgment up to God. You teach, you advise, you guide, especially when asked. You know just running people's lives and be like you should live this way when they're not asking you that question. But yeah, you should support and be there.
Speaker 3:No, I'm saying, though there's a real thing about accountability though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:If you hear something like hey, you know, we represent the same Lord and you shouldn't be speaking that way, because the way you speak also represents me, right, Like.
Speaker 1:So there's a natural thing of like, hey, we're doing, but not from a I would say from a Lording over someone perspective. It has to be from that place of love, like you're giving a loving correction I mean, we had a whole episode on that a loving correction on the book of it's a dude. Finally, man, thank you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, and then when we get curious on how to effectively give a correction. There's an episode on that, but we'll get it next week the fruit of the spirit to win says love, kindness, patience for parents, right Like there's a whole.
Speaker 3:So we'll get that next week. But the other thing I wanted to point out here, kind of as a preamble, is notice how he calls it acts of the flesh. So Paul kind of falls in line with what Jesus did when it came to sin, as he didn't identify people by their sin. Right, so you are not an adulterer, but you have sinned with adultery. Right, there's the act of adultery. You are committing acts of adultery, but you are not an adulterer. That is not your identity, that is not who you are. Right, so he falls in line with like these are acts of the flesh, but you are not defined by that flesh anymore, you are not defined by the spirit. You rest safely under the grace of Jesus Christ. Right.
Speaker 1:Have we talked in one of the private? So it's about the results of sin, like the results of the acts, and I feel like we did.
Speaker 3:We talk about a lot.
Speaker 1:I think I mean yeah, Okay, I'm like oh man, this is going through like a list of the acts of the flesh, but it's like the reason why their sins is because of the ramifications of those actions and the effect that it has on your relationships with people around you, and all that and how it dishonors your relationship with God too, which is a whole deeper conversation of itself. Right.
Speaker 3:So the other thing in verse 21 it says I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. So one just noticed that Paul gave a warning before. This isn't his first time giving them this warning.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Right Now we don't know if that was verbal, if it was another letter, but he had given them this warning before. Like he's, like this isn't the first time you're hearing this Interesting we already had sex.
Speaker 3:We already had this talk we already had this talk, right, but let me remind you of that talk right. But the set, the tense in which the Greek tense that Paul uses here is one of continuation. So it's not. He's not saying that if you've done one of these things, you're out. You will not inherit the kingdom of God. What he says is that if you continue to do these things, being aware that it's wrong and rejecting and essentially you suppressing the Holy Spirit in your life, then you won't inherit the kingdom of God. Right? That means that your heart is not for the kingdom, your heart's for the world, right?
Speaker 1:So what do you say to the person? Then was like but but I'm saved.
Speaker 3:Saved to what.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's saved. I know I was saved, though.
Speaker 3:Saved to what? That's what I would say. What are you saved to?
Speaker 1:I'm saved from my sin, so why is it a such a problem?
Speaker 3:Are you saved from your sin If you continue and are enslaved by the sin? And are you saved from your sin If you are still having a heart of wanting to go conduct that same sin? Right? There's a difference between falling into sin like I, I like I try not to do this and then you know I fall short sometimes, right.
Speaker 3:That's one thing, but you're in active combat against it, right, that's one thing. There's another thing where you just essentially hand over, surrender yourself over to a sin, saying, yeah, this is just too hard or I like it too much, right, so I'm going to indulge in this sin, not really combat it or fight it. That's what he's talking about a continuation of a heart towards that sin, knowing the fact that it's in, right. I would say another way like this is essentially explaining what the kingdom of heaven is not right.
Speaker 3:So if you are now a citizen of heaven, again, house rules, you're part of Abraham's family, here's, here's the rules of the family, right? And you're like, yeah, I don't want to really live by those rules. It's like, well then, you don't really want to be a part of this family. You don't want to be a part of, like there's certain things that We'll get to it in a bit, but if it bothers you, this list is essentially a list of what is not going to be in Jesus's reign. When Jesus comes back and heaven and earth are united together, the wicked are destroyed. What is that world?
Speaker 1:going to look like? What are the rules?
Speaker 3:What is the system of how Jesus?
Speaker 1:will reign.
Speaker 3:The question is is that if I tell like, for example, there's not going to be porn in the kingdom of heaven?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Now, does that excite you or disappoint you? Right Like.
Speaker 1:I would say the excitement is more like not having the desire to even want it. That's more what I'm excited for I think I talked about that in a prior episode of like not having my sinful desire is what I'm passionately looking forward to.
Speaker 3:I guess what I'm saying, though, is that for some people, though or if I were to say, hey, there's not going to be drunken revelry in the kingdom of heaven For some people they're like well, that's what I look forward to on a Friday night.
Speaker 1:Right. Is it disappointing? I've got that in the budget Right.
Speaker 3:Does that disappoint you, that that's not what's going to happen, right? And if the answer is like no, I'm very disappointed, I don't like that, then what that is exposing to you within yourself, where your heart is right, and so the idea is that then you, you're not going to inherit the kingdom of God because simply you don't want it. Right? If, if it makes you upset or you don't like the fact that those things won't be there, then you don't really want the kingdom of heaven, you want the worldly kingdom that you're a part of now.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So if you don't want it, you're not going to inherit it, right, you know? To put it plainly, right, no, I like that.
Speaker 1:Because then you can go through every single one of these and and check yourself essentially Well that's what we're about to do.
Speaker 3:So he, from here he starts giving us a big list, right, and these are kind of split into four different categories. He kind of has this list of sensual sins, he has a list of religious sins, he has a list of, like relational or social sins. So he kind of breaks this out right and puts them in these different categories so we'll hit the sensual first, because that's what he hits. So he says sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, Um, I think modern right today we see a lot of the sexual sin as kind of even more obvious than I think they did.
Speaker 3:Um, and what I mean is is that in Paul's day, the way they viewed a lot of the sexual sin wasn't really a sin, it was just a deviancy, Right. So it was something that it was like this isn't necessarily normal or this isn't necessarily something proper, but it's not wrong. It's just it's a deviancy, right, they looked at most things sex that way, right? So sex outside of marriage or polygamy or, um, homosexuality or anything the thing like that that they viewed that as a deviancy, but not necessarily wrong.
Speaker 3:So one thing Paul's doing right here um you know if this if this list is going to make people feel uncomfortable now, I could promise you that, to the Gentiles at least, who were coming out of that culture, this list is a huge gut check to them, because they're like, because the where the culture they came from, this stuff was acceptable it wasn't even frowned upon, right.
Speaker 1:Why is that? Cause they had that. They had in the law to not do those things.
Speaker 3:The Gentiles didn't.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're talking about the Gentiles. I'm sorry.
Speaker 3:The Gentile believers who were coming in from that culture.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so like, even for like an unbeliever, now right, like if you're in a marriage. And I came back and I told my wife that and she's like hey, so what did you and the boys do? Like, oh, you know, we went to a brothel and we all hired a bunch of guys. We had hookers and you know, had a great night.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know what I mean. Like even the unbeliever now would say that is wrong. Right and their day it wasn't necessarily so. Um, there there was. It was like hey, that's not normal, but it's not right. There was like certain rules around certain things. It was kind of weird, right. So what I want to do that's kind of hit, do it a. It's what you'd call etymology For some of these, which is what is like kind of the history of a word of language and how it progresses.
Speaker 3:what did that word mean to Paul on his day? And what is he communicating, right? Oh, wow. So the first thing, um translated at least in the English for me, is sexual immorality. So the word there, this is this is hilarious, by the way. People always say well, it's porn, really bad. I mean, the Bible doesn't talk about porn, right? First off, again to Paul's point. The acts of the flesh are obvious.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, so that's the only thing that you're asking the question that you already don't take Would you watch?
Speaker 3:porn in front of Jesus. Could you ever imagine Jesus watching?
Speaker 1:porn.
Speaker 3:Right, it's obvious, right. But the second thing here, if it was funny, is that the very word porn that comes from the Greek fear for sexual immorality is the Greek word pornia. Right, that's the, even though I would say what the current acts of like watching porn is, but actually fall in a different category, which we'll get to in a second. But so pornia, you know, it's to Jews, right? You cannot separate pornia from marriage. Anything that was sexual outside of marriage was adultery. That's the way the Jewish people viewed it, right? Yeah, the Roman Greek mindset was a little different. So here he's using, you know, a Greek loaded concept from their mindset, and it speaks to more of like sexual misconduct in a very broad sense, right? So I'm talking about premarital sex. It includes adultery, you know, acts of bestiality.
Speaker 3:I know that seems kind of really weird, but in their day there was a cult of a Dianatris and the sadders.
Speaker 1:The sadders.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so this was another. You know we've talked about this before. We talked about the, the galley priests right.
Speaker 1:It's like they take it some act that's out of the ordinary and they associate a God to it. Exactly.
Speaker 3:So in this particular case, how do you worship?
Speaker 2:that God.
Speaker 1:Bestiality Right, so sexual acts of bestiality right, so really like worshiping sex in the weirdest ways.
Speaker 3:That's a pedophilia, homosexuality, those things all under the the Roman Greek understanding of pornia existed in that category. Yeah Right, so again to them these were you know deviancies, but not necessarily wrong.
Speaker 1:So pornia is the the Greek word that means sexual immorality in this translation today.
Speaker 3:So pornia is not an equivocal to porn in the way that like it's more, it's more sex to sexual acts, but yeah the acts of sexual immorality as we understand them today sex outside of marriage under this word pornea in the Greek.
Speaker 3:Exactly yeah, so that would fall under the pornea right, yeah. But the next one? It says impurity. So you got sexual immorality or pornia, now you got impurity. Now, I've said this before. I'm horrible at pronouncing Greek, so I will do my best, but this one is a cartharcia, and a cartharcia that is translated as impurity. Here that means the opposite of purity, or uncleannliness, or, if I put it this way, we're talking about sexually impure acts that don't involve intercourse. So, porn would fall under this.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, so you're not having. So sexual morality was everything you brought up was specifically tied to something related to penetration. Actual intercourse, right, actual intercourse, yeah.
Speaker 3:This is referring to things that is not actual intercourse, but it's obviously sexually impure, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And this is actually an interesting one in the sense that, well, I'm just gonna kind of give you examples, right? So we're talking about porn. What would fall under this is vulgar or suggestive language, what you could I mean. I guess you could say cussing, but it's more like sexually vulgar right it's like sexually vulgar jokes, right? That that is impurity, that's impure stuff, right? That would fall under there.
Speaker 1:It's like you wouldn't really expect Jesus to make a lewd comment. You know, so I would Right.
Speaker 3:So I think it was under this category, not considered sexual intercourse. But it's sexually impure, right, it is an impure sexual act. Masturbation that falls under this as well. And what's? I think many, particularly young believers, I think, kind of fall into this mindset of all, right, I'm gonna do all I can to keep my. They'll use the word purity. Right, I'm gonna remain a virgin until I'm married. But then they do all these other acts kind of as like fillers until you get there right.
Speaker 3:Like foreplay and then things like that, to say that they're saving their purity. But by biblical, in this Greek definition, you can actually hold to your virginity but still be impure sexually if you've done these acts of impurity, right that.
Speaker 1:Well, I guess. But culturally with that, let's see, like they talked about when, when the woman was brought before Jesus like this one, was caught in adultery and all this stuff like caught in the very act, would, if a woman outside of marriage has never been married or anything like that, was, was or man was caught doing something impure, would that have the same ramifications like under the law where you know you got stoned? Is that your impure? But you're still a virgin?
Speaker 3:so I'm trying to think, when you go back to Leviticus, it does address some of those impure actions and there are, I think, different recourses for each one and I don't I don't know what those are for each one of these. Okay, so I was wondering I want to be able to give you a specific answer on that one. That's a good question, but but like the kind of point, though, is that I think, again, many younger Christians though, they'll keep their chastity until marriage, but they won't keep their purity until marriage.
Speaker 1:It's interesting, we're describing it.
Speaker 3:And the just to be clear that the biblical expectation is that you keep both right.
Speaker 1:I've never heard purity and chastity separated like that, though If you thought, just maintaining chastity was really difficult in this culture as a Christian well it just up the ante a bit. Yep, like I said, under grace, the standard is higher because then you even take it a step further and then, like lust, there's not even a physical contact at all. It associated with lust. But then you're still.
Speaker 3:But the reason why Jesus addresses lust, because lust is what leads to each one of these.
Speaker 1:Exactly, yeah, you can have one without the other. Yeah, so at least you can have the latter without the former.
Speaker 3:Next one debauchery or lewdness. This is the Greek word acelgia, and it essentially means ready to sin at any time. It's like over the top, outrageous. It's acting without restraint. It is something that is entirely indulgent on the flesh right. So think about, you know a context of, maybe, if you've never been a part of it or at least witnessed it. But when somebody or a group of people drink so heavily that, like in their minds, anything goes, and then they just go over the top.
Speaker 1:It's like when people talk about like drinking Jaeger, that's what comes to mind. Like you're on, jaeger is just oh yeah, like the term.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it's like you're essentially flaunting your immorality. Yeah, you see this with Marines all the time, right like you gotta be very careful because, as a believer right within the Marine Corps culture, because you go out with the boys in Vegas and you start off with just having dinner and a few drinks, well, that turns into everybody getting hammered, which turns into everybody then going to the strip club, which then turns into right strip club going under, probably the impurity.
Speaker 3:So it's almost like putting this is an act of the flesh is, and when you put yourself in a position to sin like intentionally not acts of well, debauchery and lewdness, but the word of style GIA here means literally, means like ready to sin at any time, but yeah so it's like getting yourself in a state or in a position where you're ready to sin at any time.
Speaker 1:Right, it's just like any given time, like you know or being in that state, because some people are just in that state. Hey, everyone, go to the bar with me.
Speaker 3:I'm down. When are we going? Let's go, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna get you know crunk tonight right, like you're like man ready at any time right. So, and I think one of the things with like lewdness, interesting debauchery is to find a style. Style GIA right is that it can almost form an identity for a lot of people right you're the fun person to go drink with, right.
Speaker 3:Because, yeah, why is he so fun? Because he's lewd. He leads the debauchery, the life of the party we call him right. Yeah, well, really we were just talking about as somebody who is so over the top and ready to sin at any time that you know they quote-unquote make it fun right yeah, that's what you're talking about.
Speaker 1:You're talking about just over the top. I have a question about the word lewd. So I've heard the word lewd specifically associated to like types of clothing. So is can it be tied to your appearance as well that you're making yourself in a way that you appear ready to sin?
Speaker 3:So it's actually really funny. I just taught this this morning to youth for the identity factors. Yeah, and we said in the title you are your body and the idea is that your body is an extension, it's the manifestation of your internal collective identity.
Speaker 1:Right, so your whole identity is not just your body, but you can do nothing separated from your body there are very few ways that we can express ourselves externally and it's kind of pastor actually talked about the mouth, right- so the mouth is one of the obvious ones, if you pour out, pouring of the heart. It comes from your mouth, your body is another way you can display your internal thoughts, feelings and right and how you dress and how you carry yourself and like that's interesting and what I had told them is.
Speaker 1:You know, a lot of people look at what has your priests on similar things, even tattoos for?
Speaker 3:example. You know, culturally or generationally at least, tattoos were always viewed in a certain light, right, if you had a tattoo. Depending where you are in the world, they still are. Yeah, that's true, but it's just like in our culture, right, like the West. You know, for the longest time if you had a tattoo, you know people kind of made certain judgments or made certain leaps about you right, and that's because you know it's different from generation to generation, but your body has an extension of your identity.
Speaker 3:You know people aren't judging you when they, when you come, you know walking in and your booty shorts right and people like oh that stay away from that girl, right?
Speaker 3:like I tell my sons, you stay away from that girl, right? Like, oh well, why is he being so judgy? You're not judgy, you're not making a judgment on them. What is all I'm doing is interpreting what you are communicating, because your body is what you use primarily to communicate to the world yeah, and communicate your identity to the world, right. So in terms of dressing, lewd, right, that's dressing in a way that you are communicating to something about what's going on inside of your head, not just of your identity, but what you're about right you're saying hey, I'm dressed this way for a reason, right?
Speaker 3:if you look at a prostitute right on the street corner, they're dressed woodly, they're ready to sin at any time. You come up, you pay in the money, they're ready to go sin with you, right? That's lewdness, that's debauchery. I say debauchery, lewdness that's fascinating, just.
Speaker 3:I have to make this because I forgot I have it separated here. Different translations will say something different. Here one will say debauchery, the other one will say lewdness. That's why I separated them about that sensuality yours is what sensuality, that's interesting, but the word there's acelgia, right, or acelgia which is ready to sin at any time.
Speaker 1:So I'm sorry, go ahead oh, I was gonna give a brief example about kind of the ramifications of your, of your how you carry yourself and how you present your body. So we had a marine. So I teach the schoolhouse. I moved from just teaching the lieutenants and now I'm kind of over a large swath of kind of the enlisted training as well. It's one of the Marines that was in the enlisted training side. She ended up getting a sleeve tattoo that had a lot of graphically sexual content on the tattoo, and so we do have a new tattoo policy in the Marine Corps where you can have the sleeve tattoos but they're still guidelines for what you can have in the tattoo. So she, I guess in the form of self identity right, had these kind of graphic in appropriate things on this like tattoo. But because now her identity was in conflict, the way she had her body presented was now in conflict with the Marine Corps identity, she actually got processed out of the.
Speaker 1:Marine Corps. She was kicked out because you know you got this crazy tattoo. It's like you can't be in uniform and also be displaying this stuff. You can't be in PT gear and we see this stuff on your arm. You are now incompatible with the Marine Corps identity and she was removed from the Marine Corps.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so interesting well, you think about how much more so the expectation is from Christ and what I told them was one question right with this is the way you dress, the way you present yourself physically with your body. What message are you sending the world? And, primarily, with how you dress and all that, are you glorifying yourself? Are you trying to glorify your body? Are you trying to glorify Christ? Are you speaking a message of the gospel in the way you? You dress, right? Or you speaking a different message, a different invitation? Right, and that's ludeness, right. That's just saying I am ready to sin, I'm down whenever you are right, and it's really more talking to the, I guess, the more probably seductive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, way of dressing right, but because the body is one aspect of this overall concept, because you're talking about the.
Speaker 3:This is why we're taking two months state.
Speaker 1:But I think that that's awesome, that that's a, I think, a better way of having that conversation or at least helps back up some of the claims, because they've heard in the past. You know people say it's like, oh, you know, mind how you dress on all the stuff. It's like, well, why does God care how I dress X, y and C? It's like well, it's how you are presenting yourself as a citizen of the kingdom is that something that Jesus would wear? Do you expect that to Jesus? If you?
Speaker 1:knew that you were going to get a new suit, so we move on to. That was the first category.
Speaker 3:Right so your sensual or sexual sin, right so, pretty much within that you got pernita, which is your sexual acts. You got impurity, which are not not actual sexual acts, but well, they're impure sexual acts without they're actually being so we're not looking for the penetration or the sexual, the sex itself, intercourse.
Speaker 3:There we go, I'm thinking yeah, but then you got the botry of ludeness, which is also communicating your willingness to participate in either one of those, right, yeah. So now we move on to the next category, religious sins, and this is verse 20, first one that states is idolatry. So this one's pretty self-explanatory, right. The Greek word idol or Latria. It means to worship, the worship of things or images. Right, we've talked about this many times in this podcast, so I'm not gonna try to reteach all that, right.
Speaker 3:But just kind of ties back to that concept idolatry idols, is anything that removes or replaces God's rifle place in your life, god's design, god's purpose or God's identity for you, right? So anything that exists that you serps God's rifle place that you know we're talking about. Identity, right that? The problem with the current culture, in this whole idea of how do you self identify? There's a couple problems with that, because identity, you know, a lot of identity is given, right so you are given an identity that you had no choice in, a matter I didn't get. I did not choose my skin color, I did not choose my eye color, right, I didn't choose, you know, those physical characteristics, characteristics that identity was given to me and then choose my gender, unlike what many think.
Speaker 3:Now, right, I didn't choose that. There are things that are given and those identities that were given to us by our creator, our identities that we are meant to mature into right so yeah, when my son was born, I'm holding him. It's not just I had this burden as a father that have to take care of this human being.
Speaker 3:I have this responsibility to turn this little baby boy into a godly man yeah there's an identity that he was given and assigned that I have to help him mature into right. Yeah, so the one. The problem with self identity is that it allows no room for growth, because if that's interesting, because if I just identify, as this is who I am, this how I identify. Well, what are you maturing into there's?
Speaker 1:no expectation to grow to move into right.
Speaker 3:So that's one piece. But the second part of your identity is chosen, right. You choose your clothes. You choose. You know there's things about your idea, you do choose, but the second piece the more offense.
Speaker 1:It's also, people will be like, well, that's just who I am. And it's like, well, now you can't move forward, you can't grow. You know, I'm just a drunk, I'm just a XYZ.
Speaker 3:Moses at the burning bush asked who, should I say, sent me? God says I am who I am. God is the only one who's been able to self identify. Because he is the only one, because he's the definition of all things. Right, yeah, the rest of us were created, we were defined, it was defined for us, right? God says I am who I am. You are not who you are. You can change. Right? God's the unchanging, everlasting one, right? So, but, and that kind of goes into this next point here is that the other thing about that whole self identify, your gender kind of nonsense is that it also usurps God's rifle role in defining you so you're not just, you're not just robbing God of his identity as your creator, you're ultimately robbing yourself of the identity he created you to right and, in a sense, that now becomes an idol.
Speaker 3:And it's very interesting to me that identity has always. Satan has always attacked identity. Right, you go all the way back to the garden. Why did Satan go after even not Adam? You know, and a very interesting piece of that is that Adam was named by God. Adam was given a name, given a definition by God. Before the fall right, what we call the fall Genesis 3, eve was given her identity by Adam. He typed, he named her woman, for she came out of man right. So I Eve, had a very weak identity. Her identity was really tied to Adam's identity. Does?
Speaker 2:that make sense.
Speaker 3:Saint went after Eve. It's not until after right, god comes in, he gives the curse, but also the promise to Eve as we've been there before right, that the seed, the promised seed, yeah, it's gonna come out of you. Then she is renamed to, given a new identity to Eve, which means the mother of all the living. Oh right, so she's. I did not notice that, yeah. So my point with this is that Eve had a very weak identity, weeding in. That's who saint went after, it was after, and then God gives her a promise, and that's when Adam says you have your own unique identity, right so she's given a for itself based off of what someone is saying, that you are, then that is a weak identity.
Speaker 1:You need to figure out how.
Speaker 3:God says you are, you got as you are promise and said Eve would be, is the mother of all the living. Now, that's so interesting because you.
Speaker 1:I want to even expand it slightly further because with the youth to like, kids will pursue stuff because their parents say so. Kids will be like why just want to make mom proud, I just want to make dad proud, and that can end up like destroying you as a person.
Speaker 3:Well, everybody finds I mean so you only get identity in relation to other people right. I don't want to make this a thing about identity. It's just it's on the forefront of my mind, obviously, but it's also a good element, right, because what I was gonna say is that what I find identity has always been an issue.
Speaker 3:Saint has always attacked those with weak identity if you have a weak identity in Christ, satan's gonna wreak havoc with you right and part of the Christian problem right now in the West, of all the things that make up Christian identity, most only identified to one of those factors, which is what we call future destiny, that Christ saved me from hell. I get, I have everlasting life.
Speaker 3:Right, my destiny is set with God right the future and that's a very important thing, and for many believers that's been enough to completely reformulate a lot of their decisions and behaviors in life. But there's, like nine, other factors that form identity that they don't even identify to in the Christian sense. So they're looking to the world to define that for that a knowledge problem like a immaturity problem.
Speaker 3:I would say it's the way we've structured it. We've just we've reduced Christianity down to just this one form of identity. And just imagine if Christians dove in and really submitted every one of those forms of identity over to Christ. If you feel like your life is blessed and full now with that one identity and one of those factors, yeah, imagine if you brought all the other nine in. Imagine if you submitted your commitments over you, submitted your body over you, submitted your mind over you, submitted your boundaries over you know I'm saying so identity has always been a problem.
Speaker 3:Saints always attacked it. What's interesting about what's going on in the culture right now, though because it ties back to the idolatry here is that it almost seems that gender now has been is playing a proxy idol. It's very yeah, odd to me, because now it's essentially saying what used to always and we've always accepted, has been defined gender right something I didn't choose.
Speaker 3:You didn't choose. God chose right. But now that's even being challenged and it's saying no, no, no, no. God doesn't define who you are, even the things that were always defined for you. No, no, no, god doesn't define that for you. You define that for yourself. God doesn't decide who you are. You get to decide who you are because you're the God of your own life.
Speaker 1:That's another. That's another idol now, but that's another version of the same problem that any what kind of guy who looked at himself in the mirror and just like things. A p-word, just so absorbed with yourself and that's it.
Speaker 2:Like narcissism.
Speaker 1:Narcissism. It's not a P word, unless anyway, but yeah. But it's like it's another form of that same kind of argument where you're putting yourself above others, like it doesn't matter what God says I am, it doesn't matter what Christ has blessed me with, it's like it only matters what I say I am. It doesn't matter what Selena says I am, what Ryan says I am, or what my parents say I am, or anything about the world. It's like all that matters is what I think, period above all. And it's like it kind of goes back to where you say that kind of limits your growth and development If you're not open to growing, you're idolizing yourself.
Speaker 1:To say that my self identity is more important than what society, what my faith, what Christ, what God says that I am, then you're just epitome of narcissism right there, which is idolatry right, it's idolatry. Yeah, it's also improper misplaced worship, but other things besides gender, have like fed that same thing, and that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 3:Anything misplaced worship is idolatry right. It's not that money itself is bad right.
Speaker 3:It's the love of money, it's the worship of money that is bad Because ultimately, we become like whatever we worship, like that is a reality, right? So if I'm not worshiping God, I'm not going to become like God. If I'm worshiping money, I'm going to become like the peddlers of money. Right, and whatever it takes, right, it's going to be my supreme value. I could be in terms of certain convictions of oh, I want to be nice to people, I want to take care of people, but not at the expense of costing me money. Right, because that is the thing I worship and that's what I'm becoming more like.
Speaker 3:You know the Bible's very clear. You know going back to, you know Exodus, when God makes it very clear with the Ten Commandments. I am a jealous God, right, if I could just maybe do a couple lists here that I had, I just pinned some down. But God cares that you cannot go anywhere without your phone, but you're perfectly content showing up at church on Sunday without your Bible. He cares, yeah, right, why is your phone such a non-detachable part of you? You wouldn't show up to church without your phone, but you have no problem showing up to church without your Bible. Now, granted, I understand many people have their Bibles on their phones.
Speaker 1:I would take that one step further. You may you're going to go an entire church service without opening your phone. Probably not, but you might go an entire church service without opening your Bible, even if you physically had it, or a week, or a week or a month, yeah, or a year.
Speaker 3:Right, God cares that. The first thing you do when you wake up in the morning, instead of praying and thanking Him for another gracious day of life, the first thing you check is Instagram.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Are you?
Speaker 1:going to say check your phone, and I was so ready to be like, well, I have to turn the alarm off before I, you know, give my prayer and thanks to God.
Speaker 3:No but you get on social media right. You spend the first waking hours, your first morning breath of this life that God has given you and you use that time to go on social media right.
Speaker 1:Is Instagram and itself wrong? Just put yourself in a bad mental state because no one ever comes off of social media.
Speaker 2:It's like I feel so rejuvenated after sitting on Instagram and swiping but but yeah, it's not like that, Like social media is wrong in itself right.
Speaker 3:But if that's the first thing, right, that's the thing right. Yeah, he cares that you will spend hours surfing Pinterest. Right, you will spend hours.
Speaker 1:That's so funny. You know, going over home design, I'm going to wake up and not give thanks for what I have. I'm going to wake up immediately, swipe through things that I may buy eventually and it's like well.
Speaker 3:I'm just saying like people will go through Pinterest getting all these ideas of how can I design my home different and not pay two thoughts to how blog is designing his kingdom and how you get to participate. That today, yeah Right, he cares. He cares that you possess more passion and emotion to call of duty or your you know sports team. Right, Football just started this week. I haven't been able to watch a single football game.
Speaker 3:right, Because we've been doing ministry and it's been driving me crazy, but I have priorities right, but he cares, though, that you carry more passion and emotion to call of duty than you do for things of God. Imagine if, on a given Sunday morning, people celebrated a baptism the way they celebrate a touchdown later in the day.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that, I love that.
Speaker 3:Right. Why is you know?
Speaker 1:Patrick, the hall is throwing it and hollering, jumping out of your seat with all that passion and emotion right.
Speaker 3:But then somebody gets saved for eternity and we do the little golf clap.
Speaker 1:You know, the first time that I saw that level of energy coming out of a Christian man was the Midos motorcycle group. Set free.
Speaker 2:Oh, that was cool yeah.
Speaker 1:So I hope they listen to our podcast. I hope they interact with us more as a church. But there. So in 29 Palms here or in the Morongo Valley area, there's this motorcycle group called set free.
Speaker 2:In Wonder Valley.
Speaker 1:In Wonder Valley and their, their, their whole thing is that they're a Christ based, godly motorcycle group. They've got a pastor and all that and they do these rides out and they'll do. They'll ride out to someplace, they'll set up a tent and they'll, they'll worship Christ and then you ride back and that's kind of their. One of the big things that they do as their motorcycle organization, but also one of the things that they're known for, is their zeal and their vigorous worship of Christ. They just crying out, you scream in the name of Christ with the same energy as that people, that people got at those football games. That's what you want to see.
Speaker 1:And they're falling over each other getting to the altar to confess, to ask for forgiveness, and it's the most amazing thing. It's not beautiful in the way that like oh man, it's so lovely to like, like when Jamie sings on Sunday, it's like that's a beautiful thing. When they're up there, it's like that's awesome. That is the childlike faith that Christ talks about and I love it.
Speaker 3:And they're looking and seeing in and worshiping with man, how great is God.
Speaker 1:Right Like and God.
Speaker 3:I think that's pleasing to God, right, but he also is looking at those who don't have that and he's like I care. I am a jealous God, right. Or here's another one for you, Imran. Are you as disciplined with your spiritual disciplines of Bible study, reading your Bible praying, as you are with your gym discipline?
Speaker 1:That's about the same right now, right Because.
Speaker 2:I've been spending so much time at church that my gym life sucks, but you know what I'm saying, though it hurts.
Speaker 3:God cares that you are more disciplined.
Speaker 1:You just punched him in the stomach, right yeah, I was like oh, God, I literally, oh my God, that week, that first week, selena was gone. I didn't go to the gym because I spent every night at church prepping for the worship night. But you know, in general definitely.
Speaker 3:And the gym is good. Right Like you need good holistic.
Speaker 1:You know all through college all through a lot of my time in the Marine Corps as well, and something I realized once I started kind of reevaluating my life is that a lot of my purpose was tied into how I physically presented myself and I worked out not just for me or not just for Selena from family, but like so that others would see me. And so basically with that conviction where I was kind of holding the narcissism, essentially I was holding myself up to that level. Once that was gone, I found it very difficult to like well now, why do I work out?
Speaker 1:You know, and I do still want to work out, but I don't have the same like driving factor of like well, I'm working out, so other people can see me, and so that's something I've actually been praying about too is like to get that renewed motivation to actually like work out the way to be healthy, right, and that's like the thing is not like working out wrong, right. But it was the same thing.
Speaker 3:You better have worship.
Speaker 1:Like I would be asking to go on stage to perform so that people could be like man, you played the drums, real nice, and it's like, and it took a long time, like to get back, to get to a place where it didn't matter, right, and it's not for them, it's for Christ, because it's idolatry, right yeah it is idolatry, anything could become an idol, even if it may be good in itself right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so moving on though, to the next one, it's depending on your translation. We'll see either witchcraft or sorcery. What is yours, selena?
Speaker 2:Sorcery, sorcery.
Speaker 3:Thanks for saying it for me too. So here's the Greek word for this one ready, and you're going to hear what we're really talking about. Because isn't this a little odd, right? People are like, well, why is that under the religious sin category, right?
Speaker 3:So, here's the word, the Greek word. You're going to hear what witchcraft and sorcery was actually referring to. But the Greek word is pharmakea, pharmaceuticals, like drugs. There you go. So whenever you see witchcraft and sorcery, it's really referring to drugs, doing drugs. And here's why Because you know like when I hear witchcraft, sorcery, I'm thinking Harry Potter, hocus Pocus you know, because you have those people too, like I can tell you the future.
Speaker 2:Sign here yeah.
Speaker 3:Find out how you die.
Speaker 1:Yeah, your song $500 to find out how you die, how you die.
Speaker 3:Right, well, so what it's really referring to biblically? And again it gets back to Roman cults, right?
Speaker 3:And religious practices. But if I am worshiping a bunch of gods that don't exist, how do I create spiritual experiences to gods that don't exist? And that's why the priests and the priestesses that were committed to each god would have their sorcery and their witchcraft right. They would essentially, you know, know, like if I take different natural elements generally associated to some god, mix them together in this concoction in a certain way, like pharmaceuticals do with drugs, that I put them together in a certain way, you drink it, you know, you ride the lightning and you enjoy that high, but it's not a high, it is you're having a spiritual experience with that God right Wow.
Speaker 3:So when you're seeing that it's really drug use on the basic level, but it's, it's, but it was always tied to the worship of you know paganism right.
Speaker 1:So if you're, if you're doing, if you're doing drugs for the experience of like an I guess, a connection with a idolatry of some sort, because it doesn't have to be associated to some God, it's like the God is whatever you're idolizing. So if you're doing, or maybe you're idolizing the drugs themselves, and that's what it's really tying back to, because there's people that it's not medicine, we're not talking about medication, we're talking about, like psychedelics we're talking about.
Speaker 3:I mean, so there was really three major categories that they would use witchcraft for right and you read this like an axe emphasis was a was like this massive hub for witchcraft, like they had like the big library of all the potions, essentially when you hear potion, right Of the ingredients, the, the recipes for a lot of this stuff. That's why it's later. I want to say it's axe chapter. I want to say 20, maybe a little bit of no, 18. I think it's actually 18. But there's a story where a bunch of the witches and sorcerers essentially get saved and they take all their scrolls right, cause this was a hub for it. They took all their scrolls, put it in the middle of the street and burned it.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:They say we belong to Christ. Now we don't need these anymore. And they burned the scrolls. They said it was worth about 50,000 drachma, which is a lot of money You're talking like many people's year's worth of salary, of what these scrolls were worth right. Cause what it's tied to, but the three main things was having a spiritual experience with the God.
Speaker 3:It was also to ward off evil spirits, so you would get high to ward off the evil spirits. And the third was just to help with chronic illness, right? So, like you know, just again, like I'm, I'm in pain, so give me some, some potion to help me with my chronic illness, right? So the thing with it is that which is the whole opioid epidemic. Now, when you fast forward, that's something that we're struggling with now, where people are like well, I'm open ended.
Speaker 1:I'm in pain with no underlying disease or cause and people prescribe pain medication and that become a dependency as well.
Speaker 3:Pharmachea, pharmaceuticals. Yeah, he say acts of the flesh are obvious. Satan has always used drugs and people go oh, you know, the Bible doesn't talk about drugs. It sure does Anytime you see, witchcraft, sorcery, that's what it's referring to is drug use right? So those are really your two religious sins that he list Next category.
Speaker 1:We're getting into the relational Okay, that's what it's like so funny, because it's like well, you're telling me, christ doesn't like street magicians, it's like no dog, that's not what we're talking about. Yeah, yeah, talk about drugs.
Speaker 3:I always had this conviction as a child, because I would watch like you know, Chris Angel and like you know some of the magicians and they're like you think the whole spirit's behind you just wagging its finger.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Like I'm, I'm, I shouldn't be doing this. That is a really cool trick, right? Yeah, yeah, Um, but you know, to that point though, there are certain, I guess, magicians that will associate their illusions to darker powers, or you know what I'm saying yeah, as opposed to just like.
Speaker 3:They're giving glory to dark elements and forces of the world. To where well now, I mean that falls into the same acts of the flesh or obvious right yeah. If you are doing something and making a show and glorifying um what is not Christ, then it's obvious that's an act of the flesh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, don't indulge in it.
Speaker 3:But um, all right. Next, relational sins. Next, Hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, uh, dissension and factions. Okay, so these are what you'd call relational sins, because they all deal with you and other people, and I want you just to note how many are listed there for relational. This just shows how important the relationship element is to God.
Speaker 1:So you said hostility, so I guess an implied this is hostility, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, disputes, dissensions and factions. Well, let's take each one of them.
Speaker 3:Ready, All right. Hatred or an uh enmity, Gosh Hatred. We'll just go with hatred.
Speaker 1:But that's the Greek word. Hostility is what they've got in an amplified Bible.
Speaker 3:Okay, so hostility Greek is extra Uh, it means to be hostile or aggressive to the point of alienation or the removal of fellowship. He said it's extra. Extra, extra.
Speaker 1:Extra, but with an X man you're being so extra. Oh my gosh, I'm using that forever. That's hatred right.
Speaker 3:But the idea, though, is that it's not just like oh, I don't like that person, right, it is. I don't like them to the point that I'm going to alienate them and remove myself from fellowship with them, right? So when you? That's why we talk about racism, for example is extra, right.
Speaker 1:Why is it extra?
Speaker 3:Because you're saying um or or, you know, Jim Crow era segregation, that was hatred. Why? Because you're literally saying because of the color of this other person's skin, I will not maintain fellowship with them, I'm going to alienate, we're going to alienate ourselves from each other Because of that factor. That's me. That, that, that's extra Right.
Speaker 1:So everybody was extra that is acts of the flesh.
Speaker 3:Obviously, we all know hatred is the opposite of love, right.
Speaker 1:So I always I was not always, but more recently heard that a hatred, true hatred, can only come from a place of love, like there has to be some offense to, either to the person that you love or to something that you love or something like that. You can't just have like hatred on its own. This has to be tied back to something.
Speaker 2:That can also be learned.
Speaker 1:What do you mean? Because I how do you tie an emotion to it? Like because hate takes effort, he takes real effort.
Speaker 3:I think there, there, there is a racism can be learned as a just. This is a comment like yeah, we all believe this right, no, oh no, no, kidding, yeah, no, that not it, right, but it's not out of the hatred of themselves, it's just something that they were taught. Right, you got. You know you can have institutional, systemic racism which is like, hey, there are certain things that are in place, or at least have a history of being brought into that, because of racism.
Speaker 3:Right, but you're having second, third or effects of that. But then there's like racism, racism which is hatred.
Speaker 1:Right, like I, I, I, you string somebody up and hang them like that's a whole.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I do not like you because of the color of your skin, yeah, and in fact, I can't even be in the same room with you. We're not using the same toilet, right, that is extra. Right, that is hatred. And again, that's an act of the flesh, the opposite of this being obviously fruit of the spirit. Love, right, and you cannot be walking in the spirit and then be walking in extra at the same time.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Right, if you're living life in extra, then you're not walking in the spirit, right, if? If there's something that you're like, I am alienating myself from you, and I think people try to tend to be very forgiving and gentle on themselves with this. That's what it is Human nature, Because there's people that I know that they're like oh, I can't hang out with them because they're a Democrat.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Oh, really. So you're going to, you're going to ruin Thanksgiving for this, you're going to cut off fellowship with this human being, somebody who was created in God's image. Right, you're going to remove yourself from fellowship with them because they're political affiliation. That's hatred.
Speaker 1:That's extra. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that's literally extra.
Speaker 3:But but but that's not. You know, I'm not, that's not like Ku Klux Klan hatred, that's just. I don't like liberals. You know the oh, the libtards, right? No, that's that's extra. You are removing fellowship with somebody because of that Right. That's extra. You're not walking in the spirit with that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know.
Speaker 3:So we tend to be very kind of ourselves. But I think if you actually start looking at, who have I removed fellowship from and we're not talking about specific situations where there's this proven toxicity of no, when I, when I've engaged in that person, like it's just you know what I mean it's unproductive, it is dangerous, it is whatever. We're just talking generality of that group of people or persons, simply by this one thing Nothing personally they've done to me, just their association. Right, that's extra, yeah, or extra Right.
Speaker 3:I think it's kind of funny is because modern culture tries to make hatred illegal. Right the. The nonsense of cancel culture is like you will love or we're going to cancel you.
Speaker 1:It's just like yeah, but that's a form of hatred, because they're quickly running to hating someone before there's even who's not loving what they love Right.
Speaker 1:That was the CVV Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantamania, the bad guy that was on there. He basically he almost lost his job with Disney because his girlfriend accused him of physically assaulting him and he was able to. He presented a bunch of evidence to the contrary. But there was a few months there, even up to yesterday, when I was talking to to one of our other sound techs, where he's like man, I really like this guy, but he abuses women and it's like, well, you're jumping to conclusions here. He actually presented a bunch of evidence to the contrary and he probably didn't do that.
Speaker 3:The case is still upcoming, but it's like you just jumped straight to hate him. The Johnny Depp stories.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly Johnny Depp. They dragged his career through the mud for three years before it all went on on TV. And then Amber Heard got found basically to be probably insane, honestly, at this point. But but we jumped to hate, we destroyed his career, we canceled right Right, without actually going through the judicial process. That's why we have a judicial process, so this is not supposed to happen.
Speaker 3:But, but I think the larger point, though, is that you can't regulate love and hatred in society. You can't arrest somebody's heart.
Speaker 1:You can't cancel. What a cute sentence. You cannot. You cannot cancel somebody's heart. Yeah Right, you can't arrest my heart.
Speaker 3:Right, you can't, you can. You can maybe cancel me professionally, but you cannot cancel my heart.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:So you could try to make everybody walk around acting a certain way, but that doesn't. That's not a true reflection necessarily who they are Right. So next one Discord.
Speaker 1:This is Eris. I gotta remember to put that in description description somewhere. Can't cancel you, can't cancel my heart, yeah. You can't arrest my heart. That's what it was. That sounds like a 1980s love song. Yeah, it does.
Speaker 2:You can't arrest my heart baby.
Speaker 3:It's just like that that BC Audi Colt.
Speaker 1:That, oh my gosh. That sounds like the name of like some you know rock band, Rock band from the 80s? Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3:Anyways, all right. Next one Discord Greek word Eris. It means being contentious, coralsome or always in the middle of fights. Okay, it literally means to be in love with fighting or arguing. So you, you know, we all know, I literally have said that before that I really enjoy arguing.
Speaker 1:I haven't said it recently, but that was literally something that I used to say. That is an act of the flesh there I totally get it.
Speaker 3:You're creating discord within and remember the whole. I guess larger concept of Galatians here is Paul's vastly concerned of unity, Whoa, Unity in the church, right, Unity in the church. If you are somebody who's an act of discord, how is that helping unity in the church If you're always wanting to argue, debate, oppose, challenge any and everything? That's ever right? Yeah, You'll notice this in church and I've noticed this too. It's a very interesting concept. We were talking Darrell Lackey he is the president of the Inland Empire missions for California and we had a problem with somebody in the church that person or personality who was essentially discord, always fighting, always fighting right, and we were having this problem, we were getting his wisdom on it.
Speaker 3:He's like well, one thing you're going to notice about scripture and I thought this was amazing insight he said because he was putting on some conference. I don't know if it was like a marriage conference, I don't know what it was but he was essentially saying there's no really such thing as conflict resolution in the Bible. There is how to deal with conflict to people, how to deal with people in discord.
Speaker 3:He said, one of the things you'll notice is that, and all the little arguments and fights you have in church, there's generally always one constant there's somebody who's always at the center, right, so you may have four personalities in any given argument or fight, but generally one of those people is going to be the same person from fight to fight to fight.
Speaker 3:And the discord people drag people into their fights, drag people into their arguing and you're like man, you're right, and he says but the scripture deals with is how to handle those people, Because if you removed the discord from that person, those other three people who are involved in this fight probably wouldn't be fighting. There wouldn't be disunity here. Discord is a big deal, especially for like church unity, right. But for those who are in love with fighting, he's saying the spirit is not in love with fighting and arguing. The spirit is one of unity, right. So you can't be walking in the spirit, then you're walking in discord at the same time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I know I mentioned at the beginning of Ryan's point with this, this was definitely something that I didn't even know. I was struggling with that, and struggling is like a strong term because, like it's one of those like oh man, I didn't even know, that was like something I wasn't should have been doing All right, like I was someone who lived for arguments, who lived, and Selena knows it.
Speaker 1:Like what you'd Selena like, I'm married to a boy where Selena's like I don't even care what you choose, Just make a decision. And I would just be like, no, but I love this discussion and I would, and it's like, but we were just like arguing for the sake of argument. I loved arguing for the sake of arguing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I was like I wouldn't even bring things up to you, because whenever I would just start a conversation, you wanted to be like but this is what I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like, it's like honey, I just want you to listen and. I didn't have that as like a concept in my head yet. Like it took like a year counseling where I just enjoyed arguing with the counselor before I started listening to her too.
Speaker 3:It was a whole point we talked about, you know, discord for church unity, but yeah, marriage discord in a marriage just for the sake of it and it's exhausting, but yeah so.
Speaker 1:But what I was thinking was that and I mean Selena, you might say that you completely disagree, but I feel like I've grown since then that I haven't really argued for the sake of arguing.
Speaker 2:And I talked about like I'm arguing for the sake of arguing and then you just kind of like suck the energy out of people like me. Yeah, but I didn't really think about it that way, but now it's like.
Speaker 1:it's almost like it went away as I've tried to point more towards Christ.
Speaker 3:It's one of the things that I've been like we said in the beginning about the signs, as you're weaving base right. This is a a victory or a battle that you're like oh.
Speaker 1:I didn't even know I was hurting people like that. That was me, but now it's not me.
Speaker 3:And yeah, I have victory Like walking in the spirit. I have victory here now.
Speaker 1:It's like it's an identity. I had that I. I was straight up. I was like Christ, that was a God thing, cause I didn't even really work to solve that specific thing. Christ just made it happen so that I could do other things.
Speaker 3:So remember again this is a good example of when we talked about last week. We're Paul. Paul talks in the positive. Well, how do I not live in the flesh and live in? He says, go live in the spirit, right. Because if you're living in the spirit, then you're not going right, Gosh right, and you don't even realize. That's why he's saying it. It's a positive thing that you need to start doing this instead of just instead of just saying okay, I need to stop being, you know, so argumentative with people, so we make the negative right.
Speaker 3:I'm going to stop doing this and you don't stop doing it. That's why Paul says it's not about what you stop doing, it's what you need to start doing.
Speaker 1:The acts of the flesh are already incompatible with the spirit. So if you are pursuing spirit, then it's boom.
Speaker 3:Yeah, m ran is already compatible with the acts of the flesh. Ryan's already compatible with the acts of the flesh, but but what he's saying is that so if you want to get over the acts of the flesh, you start walking in the spirit and being more compatible with the spirit as you walk and grow with the spirit, or that becomes more about what you're compatible with. You're less compatible with that right, because you can't have both.
Speaker 1:You literally can't, so that's that's, that's awesome. That's a thank you for sharing that, because that's. I think that's a good personal example right, Like yeah, I'm here just like fireworks going off, so like holy moly.
Speaker 3:So we got more. We still got plenty. We got. We were able to poke Imran's right, his surprise.
Speaker 1:We're going to get to.
Speaker 3:Selena yeah, that's what I'm wondering. So, the next one here is jealousy, or zeal, depending on your translation. The Greek word is literally zealous. It means like literally.
Speaker 1:That's a better way of saying that Why'd we zealous? Zealous sounds cooler than zealous Such an awesome language.
Speaker 3:So anyways zealous, what we would call zeal. Well, what is the whole? Because you hear people hey, he's really zealous, you know, for Christ, or Paul says that he was zealous for the law, Like what do?
Speaker 3:we mean by zealous? Well, the etymology of the word it means to literally boil over. So if I'm saying that I'm zealous for Jesus, what it means is that the love and the passion and the you know, all those things that I have for Christ, I just can't contain within me. It boils out from me. I have a zeal for scripture, meaning there's a lot of people, I think, who are able to read their Bible and have some really cool takeaways that help and disciple them right and they keep it to themselves. I'm a guy when I learn something cool, I'm calling somebody.
Speaker 1:I like that Pastor talks about some people like that and his yeah, I mean, I go back and forth all the time.
Speaker 3:It's like hey, want to know what I just learned, right, Like I can't hold it, and maybe for a Bible study or, you know, a sermon. I'm like I cannot wait to share this. I can't keep this to myself until then. Right, Selena talks about that on Thursdays.
Speaker 1:It's fast, You'll be like you know what I just learned, and like we'll pull her away from like working on the programs and stuff to like walk her through something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know, I know he's going to preach in like three weeks out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because he's like super ahead of schedule with planning his sermons and Selena's like all right. So in like a month past he's going to talk about this and that he just cannot contain it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a zeal right you have this zeal for scripture.
Speaker 3:So the word here is zeal. So what Paul is using is it's not that zeal. Zeal is bad in itself. The context makes it negative or positive. What he's talking about in a negative sense is when we have a zeal for things that are really just a zeal for idols, right? Or you have this. The reason why he says jealousy is the sense of I see somebody else with something I don't have and I have a zeal for that thing or that person or whatever, but I can't contain that within me. It boils over right and to pursuing it Like. You could almost put even you know lust in a sense into that same category of it's not just that you like, oh, I find that person attractive, but there's a zeal. It starts boiling over to restart pursuing that person Right, because you have a zeal for that thing. That is not of the spirit, right.
Speaker 2:I like that word better than my translation, which has jealousy, because when I think of the definition of jealousy, I think of like something that is rightfully yours, which is why we say God is a jealous God, because we belong to him.
Speaker 3:So but this is this is more saying.
Speaker 1:I don't think that that's not what I get from jealousy at all.
Speaker 3:What he's saying is that God is zealous for you, god has a passion for you, that his affection for you boils over, right? It's almost like the affection God has for us boils over within his own character, out to us, right.
Speaker 1:You know, man I have something you know how you say. You don't like that song. Reckless love because of the word reckless.
Speaker 3:I never said. I said I would have probably chose a different word, but I like the song, but when they so I listened to a commentary on the song.
Speaker 1:This is recently when the artist who wrote the song describes why he called it reckless love. He describes it with zealous, because God's love for us is zealous. He's pursuing us, even when we don't want him, even when it doesn't make any sense. It's pouring over, boiling over himself, right, exactly, boiling pot of water that starts, and so us looking at God, do that, we would look at that and call it reckless is why he called the song with love.
Speaker 3:But yeah so, and then that's a positive sense, right, that's a positive zeal. Where he's talking about the native, it's probably more a good way to say it If you will get somebody like, say, who holds grudges, they can't let things go, but they try to hold it in and it just boils over within them, right, kind of like you know, pastor David was preaching on a day about your words right, when you hold things, in like it has to have an outlet. It's what do you call it? A weakie heart.
Speaker 1:He actually used that phrase today.
Speaker 3:Yeah, as I'm saying that's what he's so a weakie heart. It's like I keeping these stuff, this stuff in unaddressed and it starts leaking out in my mouth right, eventually, that's essentially what Paul was saying here the weakie heart. It is a negative zeal.
Speaker 3:It is you're keeping things and it boils over outside of you in an improper way, right, so zeal. Next one fits of rage, right, this is easy, straight forward, right? Boom, it's thumos that's a great word. Like so, like thanos, right, but thumos, nice. It means fits of rage, outbursts of wrath or passion, right, literally means losing your temper. Yeah, so I don't think I have to spend a whole lot of time on this one, other than saying that this idea is the inverse of being in control of emotion.
Speaker 3:So, to fit of rage or losing your temper. It's not just simply that like oh, he's angry, it's that. The bigger deal behind that is that you do not have control over your emotion. You have not mastered and that's another one that's coming up here is mastery, but you haven't mastered self. You have not been able to bring your body, your words, your eyes, your ears, all that stuff, under control.
Speaker 3:So, it's still just kind of free flowing and you have these fits of outward outspilling emotion. That's wrong, right, particularly, as applied to anger, so that one's pretty self-explanatory, right, yeah. Next one selfish ambition. So this Greek word is erythia and it literally the most literal meaning of that word of like. What it translates to is a self-seeking mercenary. If you think about what a mercenary is right there. I do anything for money, right? So?
Speaker 3:you want that person dead Up unto death Right, you want that person dead, I'll go. Oh yeah, I'll take it as long as it's money right. It's the idea that there is no higher ideal than self, right. It's narcissism. It is I am the center of this world.
Speaker 1:That's almost the reverse. So if porneia is that the impurity where you're pursuing that stuff, I actually would say that something like that would be like the only fans side where you're putting yourself out there in these inappropriate ways, ultimately for money, and you're doing more and more dramatic and inappropriate things to try and get money. So it's like, it's like the ultimate there, I would say, like this one would be like mercenaries and something where, like this one would be the same kind of it's like a very common thing.
Speaker 3:That you are doing in pure acts, sexual sin with this selfish ambition. Social sin, right or not social sin, I'm sorry, relational sin. So I'm not just doing something sexually impure, I'm doing it for selfish ambition.
Speaker 1:Yeah, self is what makes me think of like only fans. It's kind of yeah, that's a good example, right, but not the use of only fans. The actual person is putting things up there on only fans.
Speaker 3:Exactly. Yeah, it's just the idea that someone who pursues themselves on that other cost what division, what strife, how many people I hurt? As long as I am serving self and I'm leveling up myself, that's all that matters.
Speaker 1:And I guess I hope that there's no one that's like on here thinking that like only fans was not a sin.
Speaker 3:But okay, that's a lot of acts of the flesh are obvious, people.
Speaker 1:I would say a good chance.
Speaker 3:Used in that way, I guess which is the most common way to be used a way, though I think selfish ambition can manifest itself in church, because church is a interesting thing to navigate, because, particularly people who've been in church for a while or grew up in the church, they know all the right things to say. Right, they know the verbiage that they came and twist. You know, if they're biblically literate, they can twist certain things to where, for some people, they're like he's saying that this is okay by the Bible. I don't think it is, but I can't really debate them on it. Right, like people can be very dangerous that way. But you know, you see people sometimes where yeah, I like to use this example a lot, but I think it's just when I see a lot.
Speaker 3:But you, know, are you serving in that ministry? Because you're serving Christ in the kingdom. Are you serving in that ministry, because that's where the pretty girl is. Yeah, or you're serving that ministry for the accolades right, or the accolades, or yeah, I go feed the hungry for food for life on Saturday, but but that's really just so I can get my community service certificate for my college scholarship, or you know what I mean. That's selfish ambition, just because you're doing good things, the heart by which you do it matters right.
Speaker 3:Christ hits that like that's one of the big central themes of the gospel of Matthew. Christ is hitting at the intention of the heart, the intention right. And if your intention is not for him, then it is selfish ambition right.
Speaker 1:I want to bring up Erythia. I want to bring up something that happened today in service when I was sitting there listening to Pastor Sermon, and his sermon was on the that your mouth is the outpouring of your heart. So if your mouth extends the intention of your heart, right Kind of we talked a little bit about it before and as he was bringing up what the damage, the damage that can be done by you not having control over your words, there was a lot of silence in the room, you know, as people were listening to this, this message, but in that silence I don't know the couple that was sitting behind me, but it was a I believe it was a husband and wife that were sitting behind us and I heard the like. I heard the wife lean over to her husband and just say like I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 2:Oh, I didn't hear that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and her husband said something back to her. I don't remember. I didn't hear exactly what he said, but she was just like. I just wanted to tell you. I'm so sorry.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's great.
Speaker 1:And then after the message, when pastor said you know you can come up to the altar, blah, blah, blah blah. I was in the. I went up to play the drums, looking out to the audience, and they had come up to the altar and she was just laying it out on the altar and he had his hand on her.
Speaker 3:I was like see, this is how Ron I am when when he gave his example of how he would carry around a list a list of everything with Rebecca, so when she was driving him crazy he would read the list and be grateful for her, so right to check his heart right before he would blow up on her. I went and grabbed a pencil and I handed it to my wife and I start writing a list.
Speaker 2:All right, that's how, ron, I am All right.
Speaker 3:Moving on to the next one Descension. This is Dicos Tasia. Now, dicos Tasia is literally means a division that is wrongly, that wrongly separates or places people into pointless groups or factions. Okay, so this is. You're creating groups and factions of people plantlessly. It doesn't need to be that way, but you're doing it and really this is which one Descension, and that's where that whole word like you're creating dissension.
Speaker 3:You're making dissension among people. Well, how are you doing that? Well, I'm putting people in different groups that don't need to be there, right. So racism, right that, like we brought up, earlier was hatred right, but racism is a is dissension right. You are putting people by right, right, I guess every is every every is.
Speaker 1:that's why is there is because you're creating a distinction and a separation Right.
Speaker 3:That is dissension, that that is identity politics is dissension. That is a corporate collective. You know execution of dissension across a nation. That's fascinating Right. Classism is dissension, Sexism is dissension, Ageism is dissension. All that you know when I heard recently ableism like yeah, ableism is a dissent.
Speaker 1:Having a dissent against people that are handicapped.
Speaker 3:for those that haven't heard that word before All of that stuff is, you're essentially creating dissent among people pointlessly by putting them in groups. That that's why in earlier in Galatians, right, there's neither Juno, gentile, miller, female free nor slave, for we are all one in Christ Jesus, yep, right. So unity means being one where he's like to get rid of those pointless dissensions, as I applies to the faith, right. Then we come back and start putting people back in those little categories. He's like that's dissension shouldn't exist in the church. It speaks to communities who work more to divide themselves than unite, right, yeah, and I'm just saying this politically on both ends. Do you see people work harder to keep people divided in those isms or working harder to unite people from them?
Speaker 1:Hey man, depends on the time of year.
Speaker 3:You're saying no, this is pretty much where we're always trying to keep them separated. That's dissension. Yeah, government is actively working dissension. Right and I know that I don't sound like you know some Alex Jones far right winger, but I'm just saying by biblical definition it's like. But also the far right.
Speaker 1:The far right and the far left are trying to dissent against each other instead of any sort of meeting in the middle or trying to figure something out. But and that's even if your ideals are different Jesus never sent or separated himself from like. Jesus was amongst the sinners, teaching them and mentoring to them and and trying to earn them to his side as well, and it's. But it's like the opposite with politics instead of trying to go to the other side, meet and try to share ideals and understanding and grow the, they're actually trying to do the opposite. They're saying you must stay away from the other side because X, y, z, you must isolate yourself, and now you kind of put yourself in this like bubble and then that creates that dissension like you talked about. So it's like I feel that with some of the people in my family where they're not even willing to have a discussion about another perspective, because they're so Well.
Speaker 3:that goes into the very next one I slated, because this next one's kind of very much related to it, which my translation says factions. But what's interesting is the. Greek word, there is heresis, which is the Greek word for heresy oh, interesting. But here it's placed as a relational sin, right? And how do we get heresy or factions from heresy, right?
Speaker 2:What's heresy?
Speaker 3:So generally, when we need to talk about someone who's a heretic or you're in heresy, generally what we think of is, oh, these are wrongful teachings, wrong ideas.
Speaker 1:So you remember, pastor brought up that Marine who was saying that he was having visions and from God. But then, when he actually was explaining like, well, what did God tell you? None of that stuff was in line with the Bible.
Speaker 2:And he was cussing while he was describing all that, but the Marine didn't believe it was heresy. So how do you know?
Speaker 1:Well, that's how you know that you're being a heretic, you guys are jumping far ahead.
Speaker 3:I wasn't able to finish. I'm sorry. That's generally what we think of heresy is wrongful ideas right. If you look at or somebody like somebody who adds something onto Gnosticism, we would always say, oh, that's heresy, because they're twisting the gospel to be something else. Right, Most Christians hold Mormonism to be heresy because they're adding on to the revelation of Christ, essentially saying that Christ's revelation as displayed in the gospels was incomplete and needed a new revelation of Joseph Smith right.
Speaker 1:You could argue that that's also like the Muslim issue as well.
Speaker 3:Mohammed same thing. So that's generally what we think of when we talk about heretics or heresy right. But the actual etymology and meaning of the word and the Greek here isn't just it's a wrongful idea, it's more speaking to having a hardened position over a disagreement to the point that you divide yourself from that person, right. So it's divisively making a choice, or the wrongful dividing over opinions right the wrongful dividing over.
Speaker 1:That's interesting, because earlier in Galatians he said that you must separate yourself from those teachers, because that means that there's a rightful dividing that can take place.
Speaker 3:Well, I would say this is actually Well, yes, he makes that point like you need to kick them out, right? What he's talking about is what's earlier spoken about Angolations, about Peter who would break bread with the Gentiles. Then, when these teachers from Jerusalem show up with their gospel, circumcision it says that he broke away his fellowship from them. That's essentially factionism. He's saying I'm going to be on the factions of the circumcision party, right, these teachers that are doing a gospel, circumcision to the point that I'm dividing myself away from you and fellowship right.
Speaker 1:Because it's that wrongful, it's that wrongful part that's important.
Speaker 3:It's almost like yeah, I mean, it's almost like saying I'm choosing a theological camp, right.
Speaker 1:You hear?
Speaker 3:a lot of. I'm a Calvinist, I'm a Arminian.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So if you're that to the point where you're not even willing to commune and fellowship with other Christians, then that would be factionism.
Speaker 3:Right, I can't go to this church because the pastor's Calvinist or not Calvinist or whatever. Right To bad factionism. That's factionism that creates this unity, that's interesting, and that is what here is really called heresy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, heresy.
Speaker 1:You know, from one of my buddies that just started going to Palms and I asked him, like you know, this was like a couple of few Sundays ago. He asked him like well, how did you enjoy the service? And he was like, how well the church that came came from, the production for the worship was just like so much more, so much grander, and I was just like, oh, that's cool, but how do you like the sermon? It's like, oh, I love the sermon. It's like, well, that's what's important, you know, and we talked a little bit more about like the worship and all that. But I kept tying it back to like, yeah, but the sermon was like clear, concise, Did it make sense? He's like, oh, yeah, I love the pastor, love the pastor, love the sermon. It was really good.
Speaker 3:And the problem with that guy isn't. It's not about the sermon either.
Speaker 1:Well, hold on so fast. Forward a week he comes back. I'm like, oh, you're back. And he's like, oh well, you know, I really enjoyed the teaching. And it's like, oh, the worship isn't what we're used to. But I second, I like the church, I like the people here, and then fast for another week and he comes back again, comes back with his wife sorry, his girlfriend and his girlfriend's mother as well, who's in town and, and it's so it's interesting to see that he didn't allow that different opinion about, like well, how we conduct our service, a little bit different than what he's used to, to separate him from us you know that's good, so you end up falling into that.
Speaker 1:Yeah right, exactly, yeah, that's, that's a good.
Speaker 3:So with that we're getting into our last class here. These are what we'd call social sins. Okay, these are things that you would do out socially. Verse 21, envy Okay. So this is Pithonos. This is bitterness that others have what we don't. Okay, that's what to pin. To envy somebody is to have bitterness that people have something that we don't.
Speaker 1:So it's a little bit more than it's like jealousy, but from a different angle.
Speaker 3:Yeah, this is the, so the Stoics would call it. Grief over someone else is good.
Speaker 1:So it's not.
Speaker 3:So it's oh man, um Emron, you got a promotion. Or oh man, you got promoted a major like being happy for you. Right Envy is that man like? It seems like Emron is like I'm sad that he's he's doing well in life and he's leveling up and he's getting promoted and I'm not like and and well you know, screw Emron right. Why does he get all the blessing? Why does he get? Right, and it's being bitter over the fact that someone else is doing well, yeah, or has something that you don't, or you're right, but but I feel some of that yeah.
Speaker 1:I feel some of that. It's something that I definitely know that I struggle with personally and also like I think I've definitely grown a lot over the last couple years and kind of identified hey, I have this as an issue and it's and it is making me bitter, it's making me very frustrated. And then now it's like I have one of my co-workers he's awesome, absolutely incredible, um, a guy like when it comes to being a Marine, you know, and because everyone has their personal struggles and he has his but like when it comes to like doing the job that we're called to do as Marines, well, like he is exceptionally good at it, and I used to harbor some bitterness and jealousy for him because of how like much I in some ways like look up to him in this, in this job.
Speaker 3:But now I'm still growing, but it's like I have mature minds, like so. There's difference between admiration, though, and envy. No, no, no, it was envy, it was an admiration.
Speaker 1:You were bitter towards him because of this, yeah, and we're we're we're friends and we're like co-working as good stuff.
Speaker 1:As I wouldn't I wouldn't publicly hold this against him or anything like that but it's something that I knew I was harboring in my heart, but that's been that's been breaking down over the last few months of of just continuing to work with him and interact with him, and I would definitely attribute it to me growing more in my faith too, of like well, he rightfully so is in that place and I'm glad he's in that place because I can now I can lean on him for advice, I can lean on him for his maturity in this, in this work, because he does this so well and he has, on more than one occasion since I've kind of made that transition, he's helped me. He didn't he doesn't know this when I ask him the question, but he helped me kind of like lead better in some other areas with some of my other Marines, because I'll just like present some situation to him and he'll give me some really fantastic advice. But I wouldn't ask a question before because of my frustration?
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, and I would say another way to look at this too it's not just it's, it's not simply that you're grieved over someone else's good, it's also being glad at somebody else's misfortune. That that is a form of envy because it's about the heart. Towards that right they have something I don't. So when they do well, that makes me sad. When they do bad, that makes me happy. Yeah. Because, like remember the GameStop run, remember when they uh oh the GameStop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when their, when the stock just shot up, when everyone shorted it, all the billionaires shorted the stock and everybody's like you know what.
Speaker 3:They all started buying it out and just cost billions towards the billionaires. Yeah, people were doing that and look, I understand one of the greatest wealth redistributions we've had in recent memory. I understand like making a point as a protest, which I think is really a protest which I kind of dig right. That's actually like a very to me a very American rebellious spirit right Like yeah, yeah, Like there's something wrong with this system.
Speaker 3:But at the same time, people were taking a lot of joy in the fact that they were able to cost people billions of dollars. Yeah, why were they so joyful that they cost billionaires, uh, billions of dollars? Because they're envious that they have it and they don't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right. You go ask anybody who will hear people will go all the way and be like they deserve it. They deserve to lose that money.
Speaker 3:It's like, oh my gosh people were honest If you were to ask them who here hates millionaires or billionaires. Raise their hand right, and then you probably ask the same people who here wants to be a millionaire or billionaire?
Speaker 2:if they're honest right.
Speaker 3:That that's envy, that that's, that's an envious spirit.
Speaker 1:Um next, I love it.
Speaker 3:Um, this one's pretty self explanatory. But drunkenness, that's methane.
Speaker 1:Methane what.
Speaker 3:Methane. But it means what it means. Right, it's drinking into impairment. But, um, paul calls this also in Ephesians, chapter five. Um, was it first 18? He calls drunkenness wastefulness. So so let me kind of explain this, uh, because it's an interesting way of looking at it. Right, in Paul's day, alcohol actually had a positive health benefit. Water wasn't as clean. You know, the cooking, you know those things weren't as it's.
Speaker 3:A lot of bacteria would kind of clean water it's hard to get to you Right, and the way food was prepared, right, yeah, so a lot of bacteria would get in your gut, right. So a healthy dose of wine and alcohol would help in terms of, like, essentially, your immune and keeping you healthy, right.
Speaker 3:So that's why he actually encourages them, like, hey, be drinking wine, like be taking care of your body right, um so there's health benefits with alcohol in his day, but, but you don't need to get hammered to accomplish that, yeah, right. So his point is this is to get drunk. There's a few ways that this is wasteful One you're wasting wine, right? Something that plays a positive role of health, particularly in his culture and society. Yeah, some of that is positive role. You're just wasting it, like all that wine you're drinking that could be helping in sustaining you for longer. You're just completely wasting it, right, it's wastefulness. Um, so, in a practical sense, he me, I you know he's speaking to that.
Speaker 3:It's also a waste of money, it's a waste of time and, more importantly, I think, is a waste of your mind, right? So let's, let's go back to the idea. Oh man the identity discussion discussion again right, one of the the factors of identity is you are your mind, how you think, um, but you commit your your mind to right. So if your mind plays a key role in your identity, when you get, you know, slosh drunk, you lose your mind. Yeah, right, you are not literally, right Like so literally.
Speaker 3:You are literally marring the identity that God has given you for that time that you're drunk.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Right. So that part of it is like that's why people do things that they otherwise would not do when they're drunk. Yeah, you are not who you are when you are drunk. Yeah, that is not your identity. You're essentially escaping identity and being something you're completely not, and he says that's a waste. You're wasting your mind, you're wasting the time, you're wasting money, you're wasting the wine itself, but overall, like overall though you're, you're living into an identity that you are not something, something, uh, an interesting kind of point on that of, like, your identity changing when you're intoxicated and, uh, and how that impacts, um, your walk.
Speaker 1:When Selena was in Spain, um, that was probably the longest time I've ever gone without alcohol, right In in a while. In a while, obviously, I went 18, 20, 21 years of alcohol. I didn't drink before I, uh, turned 21 because I was very afraid of losing my scholarship, but, um, that's a whole other separate thing. But, uh, the 10 days of Selena was in Spain, I didn't, I didn't drink. There was no alcohol in the house. I was very tempted to drink, I was very bored at home and I also tried to be out of the house, but I knew that, like, if, if I drank, I'm just I'm, I'm already struggling. So why would I give myself another excuse? Why would I take my ability to control myself away? Cause that's really what alcohol does and being in drunkenness that does is that those walls that you erect, those barriers that you erect, you're basically knocking them down by remembering that inhibition, I don't need to give Satan another opportunity to Exactly.
Speaker 1:It's like so, um, but that's one of those know thyself things, and it's like I am so afraid of damaging my spiritual walk right now that, furthest, furthest time, I'm not even going to drink, cause it's not worth the risk.
Speaker 3:And some people will say, well cause, that's not a waste of time, like that's what I prefer to do, that's how I want to use my time. It's like, no, you want to use your time being conscious of yourself time, because you could otherwise spend that time glorifying God in some way, serving somebody, loving somebody right, reading right Instead of getting growing maturing yourself out of your mind.
Speaker 3:You could be reading something that enhances your mind, right? But besides, the point is, because of time, this last one, which is orgies, and that that is the Greek word comos. Now, this isn't orgies like we think, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cause we already covered it More and earlier.
Speaker 3:This is, remember, we're kind of in the, the realm of social acts of the flesh right, so essentially, what an orgy is, and this in this context, is like essentially uncontrolled partying. Like you, you it's something you do socially with people, it's not me, yeah, just getting drunk on you know, by myself, like you were saying, like, oh you know, if Selena was gone I could you know, if I wanted to get hammered at home by myself. You know, that's not. That's not an orgy, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:The orgy is a communal thing where we are all partying relentlessly, which in the context of Rome would include like a sexual orgy in certain contexts and certainly in certain temples, right, but it is a much more broader term within.
Speaker 1:like Roman Greek, yeah, it kind of ties back to the debauchery as well, or debauchery and the other and lewdness as well. It's that you're, if you're getting in this drunken or orgy state now you've put yourself in a position where you're set up to sin as well.
Speaker 3:Debauchery speaks to the you personally as an individual right. Orgy speaks to you doing this communally? So, yeah, these social sins. Right Is essentially him saying these are things that you generally do socially and you need to stop so when you look at envy, you're like well, how is envy a social thing? Right Because it manifests itself socially right. Orgy is obviously unfettered partying. It's debauchery, except in a collective sense, drunkenness right Same.
Speaker 2:Thing.
Speaker 3:So but yeah, so that's it right, we went down the list. If I could just, you know, say I'm pretty confident that at least one of those hit somebody at least one.
Speaker 1:At least one hits everybody Right. And if none of them hit any of you, then narcissist is the one. So go back to that one. There you go. Yeah, you're the selfish ambition category. Just go ahead and go rewind about 45 minutes when we're talking about you for that one now. Yeah, yeah, start over.
Speaker 3:You fall in that category if you think none of these apply to you. But again, just to reiterate at the very beginning, though, notice how, here, in verse 21,. How does Paul finish it out? Right, so he says and envy, drunkenness, orgies, and how does he finish? And the like yeah, right, there's things beyond this right he brought up like only fans and like all these specific things that people are like. Well, what about this right? Is it wrong to look at a playboy? I mean, is that really pornography? Can you see Jesus looking at a playboy? It is obvious, right, acts of the flesh are obvious. There's more than just what's listed here, right, I think there's like 18 that we just went through, but there's more than just that. He's just giving you a bunch of examples. These are acts of the flesh. Is what I'm talking about? This is what's obvious.
Speaker 3:So, we're going to pause there, because this is in tandem pairing with the fruits of the spirit, right? So one way to look at these is like okay, well, what is the opposite of all these things? What's the opposite of envy? What's the opposite of debauchery?
Speaker 1:What is?
Speaker 3:the opposite of hate. What's the opposite of?
Speaker 2:drunkenness right.
Speaker 3:Now you're going to start getting at the fruits of the spirit, right?
Speaker 1:This is like. This is like fruits of the spirit. Part one works of the flesh.
Speaker 3:Yeah, be the title, yeah, but, like I said, stating the obvious, like that's all Paul is doing. He's. I'm stating the obvious. Yeah, I just want to provide some of the word context behind it, because there's a little bit more loaded behind some of those words that I think we generally associate and the same thing is going to go for the fruits of the spirit. There's more loaded behind, like when he says kindness. Well, there's a certain kind of kindness he's referring to. Yeah, it has certain implications, Not just being being friendzone nice with people.
Speaker 1:It's a little more complex than that, but we'll get to that next week. So, all right, this has been awesome. I'm not even going to give a super long closeout because we're already like closing on two hours, all right. But thank you, ryan. So much for the message today. Selena, thanks for your participation as well, and shout out to listening to the end card.
Speaker 1:But we've got our social media pages. We've got a lot of good posts out there and we always appreciate you all jumping in, sending us messages, asking questions so we can jump in and and have a conversation with you all, because this process is relational. This, this, this environment, this, not this environment, but this time that we spend together to learn more about our God. We're not going to answer every question here, so we'll always enjoy the opportunity to engage with you, all right. So that's our time. This is part one of two. Food to the spirit is finally coming up. I've been waiting months for this. I've literally been waiting months for this. So join us next week as I finally get to hear the Food to the Spirit episode. All right.
Speaker 2:Thank you for tuning in to Real Bible Stories. If you enjoyed this podcast, be sure to leave a review, share and subscribe to be notified each week when we upload new episodes. Real Bible Stories is produced in partnership with Palm Church in 29 Palms, California. If you would like more information or want to check out archive sermons and Bible studies, please check out the church website at palmsbaptistchurchcom or check them out on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube. Real Bible Stories can be found wherever podcasts are found. Thank you again and we will see you next week.