Ever grappled with the intricate teachings of Galatians? Want to discover what it truly means to live under Christ's new covenant? In this culminating episode, I, alongside Pastor Ryan Brown and my wife, Selena Cruz work through Paul's closing comments in his letter to the Galatian church.
Dive deeper into the realm of Galatians as we confront head-on the restoration of sinners, the role of accountability in personal growth, and the need to bear each other's burdens - both physically and spiritually. We spotlight the formidable work of Set Free Church, a beacon of hope dedicated to planting churches in the most challenging communities. Hear the uplifting stories that blessed me, of individuals who have been delivered from some of the darkest regions of our society - a testament to the transformative power of faith.
As we journey through the final chapter of Galatians, we delve into the prudent stewardship of financial resources, the impact of generous giving on the kingdom of God, and Paul's teachings on the importance of the new creation in Christ. Our hope is to leave you with a profound understanding of Galatians, a greater insight into biblical teachings, and an appreciation of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Prepare for an enlightening dialogue that promises to challenge your perspectives and foster spiritual 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
Ever grappled with the intricate teachings of Galatians? Want to discover what it truly means to live under Christ's new covenant? In this culminating episode, I, alongside Pastor Ryan Brown and my wife, Selena Cruz work through Paul's closing comments in his letter to the Galatian church.
Dive deeper into the realm of Galatians as we confront head-on the restoration of sinners, the role of accountability in personal growth, and the need to bear each other's burdens - both physically and spiritually. We spotlight the formidable work of Set Free Church, a beacon of hope dedicated to planting churches in the most challenging communities. Hear the uplifting stories that blessed me, of individuals who have been delivered from some of the darkest regions of our society - a testament to the transformative power of faith.
As we journey through the final chapter of Galatians, we delve into the prudent stewardship of financial resources, the impact of generous giving on the kingdom of God, and Paul's teachings on the importance of the new creation in Christ. Our hope is to leave you with a profound understanding of Galatians, a greater insight into biblical teachings, and an appreciation of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Prepare for an enlightening dialogue that promises to challenge your perspectives and foster spiritual 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
Can you pray us
Imran:Can you pray us in?
Ryan:Sure. Lord, I just wanna say thank you for this opportunity this time.
Ryan:thank you for the privilege to participate in your work, lord we ask that this is your work, that we stay focused on you, that we keep it on you and not about us. Lord, we hope that the sacrifice we give in terms of time, energy, everything that we offer here today, is a pleasing sacrifice to you, lord. I ask that, lord, we have a platform that reaches and, lord, we ask that you use us as just vessels to reach those, to disciple those who names we don't even know, faces we don't even know, but you don't want them, lord. So we ask that you, being fully reliant on your spirit, speak to them in their situation, even though we have no nothing about them. Lord, let us walk in your spirit tonight. Let us speak truth unapologetically, but with grace and mercy and gentleness, lord, and give us wisdom and discernment that we know when to speak and what to speak and when to stay silent. Pray this in your heavenly name, amen.
Imran:Amen, Amen. 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 grown to love. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Real Bible Stories. I'm sitting here with my chamomile tea.
Imran:Surrounded by my two lovely friends and my wife, friend and wife. So this is your host, imran Ward. We're joined by Pastor Ryan Brown, Hello and my wife, selina Cruz. Hey, yeah, so we ditched coffee a few weeks ago. Well, I've ditched coffee, selina's mostly ditched coffee.
Ryan:I'm fully in my sin.
Imran:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, if I take it away, you can become a whole different person.
Ryan:Yeah, I'm sure there's something there that's absolutely correct. There's something in the longer. I'm gonna talk about that tonight actually Absolutely so.
Imran:If you've been following along, we've been on an absolute journey through the book of Galatians over the last couple months and this episode will be the culmination of all of that. So if you have, this is your first episode of Real Bible Stories you're welcome to push through Galatians 6 with us. But if things are coming up that you're like I have no idea what you're talking about, I have no idea what they're referencing right now. Well, good thing for you, there's about 10 to 15 other episodes that you can dive through and get the deep study of the book of Galatians.
Imran:Probably more like seven, but yeah, I think it's like it's definitely easy 15 is a long, it would be.
Imran:You're right, it's a lot, but it's a lot, it's so many hours, yeah, so if you're loving this episode and you're loving this show, then there is so much content there for you to get this deep, in-depth Bible study provided by our very own Pastor, ryan Brown. All right so, but this week we're closing out the Galatians series, going through chapter six. You have any tie-ins? Oh, I guess. Yeah, next week we'll have Pastor David back. Pastor David Squires jump in into a new series with him. The story behind the story. So we'll get excited.
Ryan:Which is really just the concept of Real Bible Stories to begin with.
Imran:Yeah, get back to the roots on that front as well. So it's always a fun deep dive and journey through the Bible over here. So with that, ryan, how are we jumping into this All?
Ryan:right. So I wanna because it's gonna be the last week kind of the conclusion, not kind of it is the conclusion Just wanna do a recap right, just to kind of get everybody centered on, you know, the crux of the book and how it's going to ultimately feed into our ending here. So you know the primary. I guess problem right is that you have teachers coming in behind Paul teaching a gospel of circumcision that if you are going to be part of why?
Selena:You all right, Sorry. Yeah, I was just laughing. Sorry, it's okay.
Ryan:So we were. She finds circumcision hilarious, apparently.
Imran:Oh my God, that is a funny thing to learn, sorry that's a full time.
Selena:sorry, my mind is somewhere else All right.
Imran:Tune in Gospel of circumcision.
Ryan:Come on, selena, focus All right so, but these teachers are teaching this gospel of circumcision, saying that if you're gonna be part of Abraham's family, you still need to abide by some portions of the law, circumcision being a big one, which is really playing into a lot of the sensitivities right of that time that the Jews had an exemption from Rome to practice they didn't have to worship all the Roman gods. Christian Gentiles are now, and their view, converting into Judaism, as they view it, because they have accepted Christ as Messiah. But there's nothing about them that looks Jewish right. They're not falling Torah, they're not.
Imran:They're not pregnant in size.
Ryan:They're not dressed like a Jew, they're not right. So the Jewish authority, who are not believers, are concerned that this is going to lead to persecution of Rome and them rescinding that Jewish exemption, right. So they think the natural conclusion to this is hey, go get circumcised, so you'll do something Jewish, something very.
Ryan:Jewish that they won't question your commitment to this faith, and that will help alleviate a lot of the tension. And, of course, paul comes in and says well, if you're still under the law and you have to get circumcised, that means you need to follow all of the law and therefore you're really not free. Christ has not ushered in something new and you're still in your sin. Right, so that's one. So he rebukes these teachers, right, and he kind of starts off.
Ryan:He reflects on his years of ministry many years of ministry preaching the gospel, and preaching his gospel to those who had received Christ, and which had been affirmed by Peter and James. So it wasn't right. He starts like hey, the message, the gospel of grace that I preach, you knew about way back then, when I had brought Greeks who were uncircumcised to you. You had even not only affirmed me in my message, but you also affirmed me in my community that, just as Peter had gone to the Jews, I was sent to the Gentiles as an apostle to the Gentiles, and the only thing you said is don't forget the poor right. So he starts there. He then reflects that those Gentile believers that he had brought to Jerusalem had no issue. Then he then turns to the Galatian church themselves, because some of them were getting circumcised. In adopting this gospel of circumcision after Paul had left right, who it took.
Ryan:Paul and Barnabas, when they showed up, were in a really bad physical state. This cost Paul to bring the gospel to them, right? So he then asks like questions like did you receive the spirit before or after you did the things of the flesh, right? So he's really trying to focus on as circumcision was a mark for Jews, the spirit is now the mark of those who belong to Abraham's family, right? So therefore, if the spirit is the mark of who belonged to Abraham's family, then instead of getting circumcised, you need to walk in the spirit, right? That is really what he's been kind of leading this all to right, yeah, absolutely.
Ryan:So it leads to this culmination, really at the end of chapter four, where he pretty much tells the Galatian church you need to remove these teachers from your presence, you need to cut them out. Right, he does that. There's that whole series of puns right. Cut them out, circumcise them away. You know, I wish they would go all the way and just completely emasculate them, right?
Ryan:He does that whole series of puns to pretty much say you need to remove them from your ranks because they are polluting you. Right, they are robbing you of the grace and the freedom to which you live. But then there's like natural questions that come from that. Well, if we're not under the law, what keeps us out of sin? And that's why he kind of gets into the whole walking by the spirit. He warns them don't use your new freedom in Christ to indulge in the flesh, but instead walk in the spirit. Right.
Imran:And then we talk about how to measure that you are walking in the spirit Right.
Ryan:so then he does the comparison of acts of the flesh and then where we left off last week or last episode, right? It was fruits of the spirit. So what I wanna do is because this is all the fruit good.
Ryan:This is actually funny, so last episode we went in the whole thing. It's not fruit to the spirit, it's fruit, it's singular in the Greek. I said it's in line with the book of Revelation, it's singular, it's not the book of Revelations. And then later in the episode I was given it ran a hard time because I was like, hey, then you said Revelations later in the episode and then I just said I see, see, I love it.
Ryan:Anyways, but this all belongs in this conclusion. Is this set right? So now he's saying if you're walking in the spirit, you will not be doing the acts of the flesh and being in sin. If you're not walking in the spirit, then yeah, you are gonna go in the right. So he was soft. Here's the fruit of the spirit and it goes into this very in this conclusion of what we're gonna talk about tonight, this very practical way of everything he's talked about, not just in terms of removing leaders and dealing with sin in the church and living free. But how does that look practically in some very practical situations in that church? This is what remember what the fruit of the spirit is. Now apply it to these situations now.
Selena:Does that make sense? So what we're?
Ryan:gonna do is we're gonna start all the way back, we're gonna reread through the fruit of the spirit, but we're gonna continue on all the way through the end of chapter six and the reading, because it belongs to that set. It's not a. You can't parse that out treat it separately.
Imran:The chapters and verses were added later. It was all one letter.
Ryan:Right, this all flows into what we're gonna talk to tonight.
Selena:So, selena, yeah so I apologize, we don't have Brandon here to read us into it. So you get me. We are chapter five.
Imran:You don't wanna talk about your thoughts until last week's episode.
Selena:Yes, for sure, verse 22. And you want me to go ahead to chapter six? Yep, I'll read it.
Selena:Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the spirit should restore the person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load. Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the Word should share all good things with their instructor. Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked.
Selena:A man reaps what he sows. Whatever sows to please their flesh from the flesh will reap destruction. Whoever sows to please the Spirit from the Spirit, will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. See what large letters I use as a right to you with my own hand.
Selena:Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised, the only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised. That they might boast about your circumcision in the flesh. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified. To me and I to the world, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. What counts is a new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, to the Israel of God. From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sister, amen.
Ryan:Amen. So I know it seems like there is a lot. Obviously there is a lot and we could probably reconstruct a lot of that more than what we're going to do tonight. But really those kind of belong, if you guys remember, like in the very first couple episodes I mean we went chapter one kind of through two- right. Because, ideally, now that we've gone through all of Galatians right.
Ryan:These sets should start flowing pretty easily for us, right, yeah, so really okay, we start with the fruit of the Spirit. Right, it was a good reminder. What is it? Love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Really, you know, we did the whole word studies last week.
Imran:Right, we're really talking meekness strength under control, right.
Ryan:So remember what those actual fruits are as we kind of go through this, Because the first thing he starts off here in chapter six he says Now, brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you, who live by the Spirit, should restore that person gently, right. So gentleness, meekness right.
Imran:The word there is the same.
Ryan:You should restore them with meekness right, so you have a strength right.
Imran:In the Amplified Bible. It actually says in a spirit of gentleness, not with a sense of superiority or self-righteousness.
Ryan:Right. The idea being is that you're going to find people in the church who are not doing what they should be doing and you're going to know it. You're going to know your position is right and you would be able to come down with a full extent of biblical law. Right? He says keep that sword sheathed, be gentle with them. You want them to be restored back right Now. What's actually interesting is the I think you were said it too, but if someone is caught in a sin, the Greek there is actually the word overcome. So if somebody is overcome with sin, the idea is somebody who is losing a sin battle, so somebody who's kind of caught in. To be caught right Means that they're in the snare of sin, that they may not want to be there but they just cannot get themselves out of this. Right, that's what you're kind of talking about Somebody who is battling sin, but they're losing battles right.
Ryan:His point is that you don't come at those people.
Imran:I think that that's a Interesting point in it of itself, because we don't often think about sin and it's like addictive quality. We just get mad at people for doing the wrong thing or being in sin. But sin has addictive qualities to it, like drug addiction, porn addiction, coffee addiction and the same coffee as sin. But it's an addiction. It's a physical dependency. Your body physically desires it, and it's the same thing with sin. Your body physically desires this thing and wants to be dependent on it and you have to do a lot of work to turn away from your flesh. And we don't think about that.
Ryan:And he's kind of setting this up.
Ryan:He's like you need to be very meek and gentle with people in their sin especially when they're losing battles, because and we're going to talk about it in the next set here Because you have your sins and your battles, you're losing too, yeah Right. So remember everything. When it comes to walking in the spirit and presenting fruit of the spirit, or to have fruit, the spirit manifest in our life, requires really two things Humility Right, so that's a humility to understand, one that you are not capable of saving yourself. You never have been right. You're under grace.
Ryan:So, you need humility to can maintain a constant awareness of the grace you're under. The second you start becoming prideful in yourself, as he says later here, or thinking you're something you're not, then that's the less grace you feel you're covered under or you need Right. You start boasting in yourself. So we'll get to that in due time. But the one thing I just wanted to kind of hit before we move on to that is one is we're talking about people who are losing sin battles. But notice that right after the fruits of the spirit right, he says now you want to restore them. The goal is to restore them. The goal is not to destroy somebody who is in their sin.
Imran:Yeah.
Ryan:Right it is to keep beating them down when you are in a particular here saying the addictive quality right Of sin that you're like. I already feel I'm trapped, I'm a slave to something. The last thing you need is somebody else coming in to be another master to you, whipping you while you're caught in that snare.
Imran:Yeah Right, we're coming over the top with the. Why don't you just stop? Because it's not the thing that they're trying to do.
Ryan:Just shame the new and just like why don't you just stop? And there's a real thing with accountability, Right.
Imran:Being addicted to whatever.
Ryan:But how you do that matters right. So it doesn't say the fruit of the spirit is not that you come in and destroy that person, right, but it also doesn't say that you ignore it. The fruit of the spirit is not one that ignores people's sin. The fruit of the spirit is not one where you become very good at finding excuses for sin.
Imran:Yeah.
Ryan:And it says one of the fruit of the spirit. One of the elements of that is peace, right, the idea is not that you find peace with sin, right, hey, you can become completely fulfilled in your sin or accepting of other people's sin. That is not the fruit of the spirit, but the fruit of the spirit is one to which you go. Then goal is to restore them, not to prove that you're right not to prove that. They're wrong not to show any sort of superiority or domineering. I am more mature than you.
Ryan:But, one that is hey, my goal, as it always is, is to restore you.
Imran:And it's really interesting, I'm sorry, I kind of, because I was just going to say.
Ryan:We're in a lot of one-on-one pastoral meetings with people in the church when it comes to particularly confronting sin with people, and every single one of them, like almost without fail, every single one of them they're brought into a meeting and it'll be either with the pastors, or sometimes we'll have the deacons there, or not all of them, but some deacons and representatives which is good.
Ryan:You want godly men with wisdom in rooms, particularly when you're having to adjudicate a conflict between people, right, but they all treat it as if they're being called to the principal's office every single time. That's what they feel like.
Ryan:They really feel like they're coming up to be reprimanded, and it's unfortunate, because the goal is always our goal here is not to embarrass you, to shame you. Our goal is to restore you right To restore this in this particular conflict between people. We want to restore your relationship. If you're in a sin that is hindering your relationship with the church, we want to restore that relationship to the church. If it is just an internal sin within yourself, we're trying to restore you back under God's grace right. So it's always about restoration.
Imran:Yeah, because the pastor is not higher than the person being a pastor. Of course, not Absolutely not we're all at the same level, working through this life together, dealing with different sin, working our way towards sanctification.
Ryan:But the sad thing is and it happens a lot people will leave that meeting after having what they thought was going to be a trip to the principal's office where you get reprimanded, to realize, oh, there was a lot of actual grace that was offered on this and they walked relieved and almost in a sense refreshed. But the sad thing is for a lot of those I mean a good portion won't even show up to the meeting To them, they would just rather leave and go find a different church who does not know of the situation.
Imran:Oh, wow.
Ryan:Because, they are so afraid either of the reprimand or the accountability. But part of that is that they also then miss out on the actual restoration. And so much growth happens for people when you actually have those confrontations, when you have a sin, confrontation in a godly gentle way, and then they in themselves mature much because they, you know, what I'm saying.
Ryan:Like they learn so much about what the church should be and they just rob themselves because they cower in what they think. And, to be fair, you do have churches or Christian organizations where, if you show up into that office, you are going to be right.
Imran:You know what I mean.
Ryan:They don't handle that the right way, and maybe they've even had experiences of that in the past, which is really unfortunate.
Imran:Was it Matthew 18 that talks about how to do that right?
Ryan:But even in Matthew 18, that gives you that model right. There's a process for that. But even that, the goal is restoration. Yeah, you know, it's not disciplined in the sense of.
Imran:Well, I was in applying that those other churches were doing it right.
Ryan:I was saying that no, no, I know, I that's. What I'm saying, though, is that many people even read Matthew 18 in the form of it's discipline, but it's like well it's discipline, yes, but it's Correction. The goal of discipline should always be to restore. It's a gentle discipline of restoration.
Imran:The goal of putting some even in like a legal context. The goal of putting someone in prison is not just to punish them. It's ultimately to restore them back to society eventually. All right, like obviously, of the capital punishment, life in prison, stuff like that. But most of the time people are in prison for a limited amount of time and prisons have a lot of services. They're supposed to either help you gain a skill, find faith because churches are go to prisons, and all that so that hopefully, when you come out of the prison, you don't then fall back into the same bad habits that led to you going to prison in the first place. Like it, even something like that is ultimately the goal is restoration. I don't think we do it as well when it's in the legal system, but it's a similar intent, if that makes sense.
Ryan:And you also get you know a lot of. We hear it a lot. Hey, why didn't you come to the meeting? Well, I don't think that the church is in any place to judge me. Only God can judge me.
Selena:Oh right, so what's funny? Is that what Paul?
Ryan:is about to get into, though, is answering one from a leadership perspective of how you approach that, but also checking the hearts of those who may have to get corrected. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, you're right. We're not here to judge you. We're here to restore you. Yeah, but we should be growing, we should be moving forward, but if we're all, walking in the spirit, then there should be unity in this.
Imran:Right.
Ryan:So you're either saying that I possess the full spirit of God and all these, you know, the church leadership that's above me is not in the spirit, but I possess all the spirit, which is a very arrogant position to make Right. That's why at the end, chapter five, right, let us move forward and not conceded right, but with humility, Right.
Selena:So that all feeds into that.
Ryan:But so that kind of hits the destroy part, but I don't want to skim over it, right. But it's also not to ignore or excuse it, and I think a lot of people believe walking in the spirit is walking a line of being in complete acceptance or excuse of sin. Yeah Right. So what Paul's about to talk about is hey, everybody deals with sin. So you're in there like, hey, I mean, I'm dealing with my own sin. Who am I to go hold emran accountable for his sin?
Ryan:Because, I know what I'm doing, I know I'm in sin right, but so that's what Paul's about to talk about.
Imran:I was like, just like we have different talents, we have different things we struggle with, which is why we should be leaning on each other. You know the things that I struggle with. I don't struggle with depression and anxiety and things like Selena deals with, but Selena doesn't suffer from like a porn addiction. So we have to compliment and lean on each other to work through this and like that's part of the marriage, the stuff that we do with on that front. But like, even from a wider sense in the body, the church should be helping you with that Right. Like every week pastor calls people up to come to the altar pray for what your needs are. But no, just come to the altar. Also, like, find people in the church you can confess to. That can help you through the process.
Imran:I think, like the very first conversation we ever had was hi, my marriage is about to fall apart and I'm addicted to pornography. Please help me. I was sent to you Like that's how I met Ryan.
Ryan:That's a completely humble state. It's been great.
Imran:You know, and I was like I'm so broken right now, Please help me.
Ryan:So Pastor David preached today on a hard passage out of James, and what I loved about what he did today was it would have been very easy just to keep on point of what James says, right Like, hey, your money isn't yours, your life isn't yours, you're like. You know, we think that we have ownership of all the things that we do not have ownership of Right.
Imran:Yeah.
Ryan:Out of James, chapter four, going into chapter five. But what I like what he did is at the end he went through and said but don't miss the blessings in this teaching. And just as the church has a diversity of talent right, we have a diversity of gifts that the spirit gives that we should all be sharing with each other, to each other's mutual benefit. Yeah, there's also a diversity of sin, and you know the diversity of sin piece which can make church very frustrating sometimes. You could also maybe create a sense sometimes of man. I just feel like we're losing All right Because you just see all the diversity of sin in a congregation. But you know what, the blessing I think what you should see in that, and I think what's going to be part of Paul's point here in a second, is is we're not part of his point but a derivative of his point.
Imran:Is that?
Ryan:if you, when you see the vast diversity of sin, you also then see the diversity of God's grace applied to it.
Imran:Yeah.
Ryan:So the blessing should be man. You know, his grace is enough to cover Imran's sin, which I'm not dealing with Imran's sin. I'm not dealing with Salinas, I'm dealing with my sin. But his grace is big enough for their sin. So it's big enough for mine. Or because God's grace is big enough to cover my sin, man, it's also big enough to cover all those that I'm not dealing with.
Imran:Yeah.
Ryan:And what people tend to do again because we get arrogant and conceited which is what Paul's about to talk about is that we like to compare ourselves to other people and we start thinking highly of ourselves in our sin, like, yeah, man, I deal with pride, but what man doesn't? Every man deals with pride, but you know what Homosexuality that one you know.
Imran:I'm gonna struggle with that one.
Ryan:I struggle with lust, but I mean not that lust.
Imran:That's a worse kind of lust. You know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely.
Ryan:And we get in this comparison mode. I was like oh so you're saying that their sin is of a a worse degree than your own sin right. And you get into that where we should really be looking at man. God's grace is big enough to cover the diversity of sin right. There is a.
Imran:And all he asks is for you to come and make yourself to him.
Ryan:Gosh, I'm trying to remember now. I think it was. Her name was Joanne of Norwich. She is the first female to ever publish a book in English at least. Oh, I'm sorry, yeah, joanne of Norwich. So she wrote she was dying of the Black Plague. This was back in Norwich, england, during the Black Plague, and she was dying, she. The last thing she remembers is kind of fading to black as the priest was giving her, her, her last rights. And as she kind of fades to black, she essentially has a series of 16 visions and then she wakes up and she's healed, like she made it through and it was over, oh wow.
Ryan:But these 16, you know revelations that she had, you know, she had a bunch of you know and she wrote her book it was the book of 16 revelations or something but and it's horribly written, like if you if you read it like and even in the English it's like you could just, and I'm not. It's not because I don't think she was a woman. It was just, I think, the general how was it?
Imran:She was an education. She was at like the university.
Ryan:Yeah, just horribly written the English like she. It's very phonetic, Like there's no vowels, Like it's really interesting, Like if you try to read it purely, it drove me crazy. But one of her points I thought was amazing was she said all sin because this is how big God's grace is all sin gets turned into worship. And I was like that concept. I was like hey, that sounds. Because initially you're like that's kind of sounds offensive. Right, Sin offends God. So how is sin turned into worship? It gets turned into worship because in your sin, once you become, you recognize God's grace over your sin. That instills a heart, a deeper heart of worship within you and saying, man, I dealt with this, but God's grace covered me, so I'm going to worship God for his character and who he is no longer, for who I am.
Imran:I truly see that in the set free charts.
Selena:Yeah, we thought of the same thing yeah.
Imran:So I had two points I wanted to highlight there, the one being that, like set free is a pretty large organization I actually learned and talked talking with the pastor yesterday but their whole thing is to go out to the most trying parts of our communities and of our societies and plant churches there to reach out to people and the, the pastor's brother that's actually at the set free church here in Wonder Valley.
Imran:Like he talks openly, like he dealt with drug addiction, he dealt with an adultery issue that caused his marriage to fall apart and he ended up going to prison for some time and but while there he was saved and like rededicated himself to his faith. He came out and didn't know what was going to happen to his life and God pointed him out here to the middle of nowhere place and he ended up finding his wife and and his and son, who was born while he was in prison, and Reconnecting, rekindling with his his marriage over the course of several years and now they've remarried since then. Like an insane Journey over the last couple years. But his story is not unique, like the entire population.
Imran:The set free church is, that is these insane life stories of people brought out of the most dangerous and homelessness, drug addiction, violent situations, and being saved, through God's grace, out of those situations and and their passion, yes, and their worship is green yeah unlike
Imran:and it's like yeah, I was raised in a middle-income American home. I didn't Like. 2008 was pretty bad. My dad lost his job or retired from his one job and then couldn't get another one for a while and Food was kind of scarce. But it was nothing like the extreme stuff that they talk about, and their worship is as extreme as the situations that they were saved from that's right it is. It is so Awesome to be a part of. So like that. That's exactly what I could totally see that the sin becomes worship.
Ryan:Yeah, that's how. That's how good God is, Right he? Can even take sin and turn it into worship. And so when we keep reading here, because, right, he says, if anybody gets caught or is it being overcome, you need to live by the spirit. Okay, so everything we just read the fruit of the spirit. You need to live by that and restore them gently, right? And then he says but watch yourselves or you also may be tempted, right?
Ryan:because when you start thinking that, oh, I'm mature enough to start being a judge, in a sense, right.
Imran:Then you're not mature anymore.
Ryan:You'll be tempted yourself because that and itself is a sin, because you now enter a sense, a realm of pride right.
Imran:I did want to also note that it was another thing that the pastor set free brought up to me that that danger of keeping a watchful eye on yourself because the nature of their churches is they plant in really crazy environments and they were planting a church in Vegas and the pastor that was there ended up falling into sin I'm where he said back into sin while he was, while he was there, and that kind of derailed the whole church plant and and so like. There's so much risk associated to Not keeping a watchful eye.
Selena:I didn't want to clarify that. The first person that you're talking about, I believe, is Pastor's brother.
Imran:Yes, I said yeah, okay, okay.
Selena:Apologies, I just wanted to make sure that was, you know, the passage brother to your point right.
Ryan:Watch yourselves, though, or you will also be tempted. Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves right. So don't start thinking, just because you are called to Christian accountability and to Restoration of people who are falling or losing battles of sin, that you are now something. You are not right. You're not judge, christ's judge. There's a judgment day for that. Don't start thinking you're something that you are not For. If you do, you deceive yourself. Each one should test their own actions, and they can take pride in themselves alone without comparing themselves to someone else. Like we were just talking about right, we get in this habit of trying to compare, you know, one sin against another right because you're maybe in a position to, to, to go after, you know, and dress somebody else's sin or to restore them.
Ryan:That does not mean that you yourself are, you know, hunky dory, for each one should carry their own load. So, you know, paul continues as kind of this whole motif of how to handle your own sin, of which is by serving others, yeah, right. So he says, if you see someone restore them, go, go after them, right, because again, if you're dealing with your own sin remember we talked about this what is the remedy? It's a positive action. It's not stop doing a bunch of things, it's rather start doing these things. And the number one thing he said, remember in Galatians 5.
Ryan:Yeah, start serving people Right, and that includes restoring people in their sin. Right, when you start restoring others in their sin, you in a sense almost start restoring yourself in your own Right, because again, your outward, because sin is very inward focus. If you, even when it comes to ministry and restoring others, you're outward of yourself and you're working internally at the same time, yeah, even though you don't even realize that you're doing it right. But the thing is is that I think one of the problems I see in church Is that you do see a lot of people who are willing to serve others. Is those people are unwilling to receive it or even ask for the help Interesting right, because, again to the same, if I can see people like that, sin is embarrassing right.
Ryan:Sin is embarrassing. It should be embarrassing, right. So it takes a lot of humility and it is a little scary, right like going to talk to the pastor or To somebody else saying hey, like I know I seem good, but I'm not good, right. I, I have an alcohol problem right Once we get done with this worship night.
Ryan:You know, I'm going home and I'm opening up that bottle of Jack Daniels and I'm gonna down the whole bottle you know I'm drinking it until I fall asleep, right, yeah, I keep it clean all the way up until I hit my ministry obligations or you know whatever. But but then when that's good, I kick it back right like that. That's scary to do and takes a lot of humility to do that?
Ryan:Yeah, it does absolutely people try to just keep it and I want me handle it myself. And then, even if they're open about it, the idea of like, okay, hey, well, next time that happens, instead of like, give me a Call, I don't care if it's a two in the morning. And then you start getting that inclination. It's like, oh, you know, ryan told me that if I started feeling this, I could give him a call, but it's two in the morning, like I'm not gonna wake him up. He has kids, he has a wife, he has a job.
Selena:You know what I mean.
Ryan:I'm not gonna inconvenience him and they don't want to ask, even though these people are like, hey, I am willing to help, right, so it's twofold, right? So one, you need to be willing to serve and then do that, but you also need to be willing to ask for it. If you're in that position. Absolutely right, so that sometimes we're you know people that you know that that's where you need to muster the courage to say I need to ask for help right, and then that's.
Imran:That's true of so many things the well, I've said this in some prior episodes too that is like that's something I know that I struggle with is Going to Selena and actually telling her. It's like, hey, I'm struggling with x, y and z thing and and Every single time like I talk myself into thinking that she's gonna like blow up and have like a whole, the whole cow of a response, and and every single time she just shows grace and love and Just care, and it's just every single time it's impressive and I don't know how, after like what, we've been married with five years, now Six years six years six years of marriage and knowing each other like 15 years or something crazy that I am still like surprised by, or I'm even more surprised that I still Lie to myself, like I know your character and I still lie to myself.
Ryan:Think about how true that is of Selena, right? Yeah, how much more true that of God. All right but like I mean, there's times where I'm like, oh man, I messed up and I feel like, oh, I just I just completely crushed my witness at work because I lost my temper or, you know, I was not walking in the spirit in that meeting. You know, I did not reflect the light of Christ in that work meeting and Like well, it's shot with my co-workers, it's done Okay.
Ryan:I can't be effective to them ever. You know I mean. Yeah, and then you just but you just feel like the God comes in with so much Grace. You know, man, why did I like? Because his character is so much better, right. Why did I think that I was somehow now outside His purview or outside of his strength in that, or outside of his forgiveness?
Selena:and yeah, you know.
Ryan:I mean we do that because, to your point, we do that with people, right, good people and good character people, yeah, much more so the perfect character of God. And how we do that you know definitely, but I also. So we're gonna get to the care each other's burdens here in a second, so, but I wanted to kind of get to. But if anyone thinks they are something when they are not right, that is your Definition of biblical hypocrisy people thinking they are something they are not.
Ryan:Oh, that's verse three right, yeah and I Think a lot of people because there's a claim for Christians. I go there, hypocrites and what they mean? Right and hypocrisy, or a hypocrite and itself in the Greek is the name of an actor. Right, the idea that you know I'm putting a face on, I'm a hypocrite. That that's what they called. You know, back in the Greek, it's the name of an actor. It's and what they would have is these different masks because they didn't have like Hollywood right.
Ryan:So it's like you would have one actor play multiple roles, so they would have these masks. So when they're playing one of the characters, they put that mask on.
Imran:Right, they go play that. Oh yeah, yeah, they put it down. I'm gonna do something like that as a kid, yeah.
Ryan:Yeah, so that that's a hypocrite right and in terms of like what it meant. Yeah, so to call somebody hypocrite. The idea is that you know when I, when I'm at work, I got this mask on.
Selena:But then when I?
Ryan:go to church, I take that mask off and I put this mask on and then, when I'm around my family.
Ryan:I take that mask and I put this mask on. Right, you're being different people in different environments, and in one sense that's. But as applied here, he's talking about sin and I think many people kind of look at Christians and say, well, they're hypocrites because they'll say, I believe, and they probably do believe, that sex before marriage is wrong. And yet I see them out at the bar trying to hook up with people. Right, they say that you know you should be in control of your mouth and shouldn't be cursing this is. But then I man, I hear him cuss. You know what I mean. They're a hypocrite and that's not what.
Ryan:That's not really what biblical hypocrisy is here with Paul, right, it's not that you're dealing with things that you don't agree with, because that that is just the paradox of sin and in the simple nature within us, right, okay, I do the things I don't want to do and I don't do the things I do want to do. Right, he's Paul's not saying we're all hypocrites. What he's saying is actually the kind of inverse of that is, pretending that you're not dealing with the things you're dealing with. Right, it's not that I, I, I think pornography is absolutely destructive to marriage and to the the valuation of women To. You know it's destructive to the, for young men particularly, maybe before even like teenagers.
Imran:I think the valuation of men too, valuation of human beings, is masculinity, is being right, but it's just across the board, right like there's all these things that you look at it You're say you know, oh, the sex trafficking, it's feeding the sex trafficking.
Ryan:You know there's all these things like I hate it and then yet you watch it, right. That doesn't make you a hypocrite. That makes you battling sin, right? What makes you a hip makes you an addict.
Imran:There's like there's drug addicts that hate doing drugs. They hate that it destroys everything about their life. It doesn't make them a hypocrite that you forget to eat, they forget to drink water, they forget to pay their bills, and then they end up on the streets. But all they can think about is I want more of this drug and I hate the fact that all they want is more of that drug.
Ryan:What Paul says is the true. Hypocrisy, though, is not that you're dealing with it, even though you disagree with it, because that's the paradox of sinful nature and sanctification. What is hypocrisy is to be dealing with sin but pretending like you're not dealing with sin. Yeah right trying to take some superior position, particularly as you're trying to restore people in their sin, that somehow you are not struggling with sin yourself.
Ryan:Yeah you know what I mean. And people get that way. People get. They get into a position where they may be right in the position of someone else's sin, but they're wrong in their position because they're not even Able to recollect their own sin. That they're battling. Go ask here's a good thing. Go go ask somebody just randomly hey, what sin are you battling in your life right now?
Imran:Yeah.
Ryan:And if they can't answer you, then they're in a position that, hey, you have not been spending enough Time and prayer and you're not fighting a battle, which means you have made peace With sin in your life, yeah somewhere. Yeah, because if you're, you're telling me that you've made it, that you embody, you're 100% sanctified and, yeah, been renewed in the image of Christ. 100% yeah, absolutely not you're the second coming.
Imran:You know, I'm saying made it, it's like no.
Ryan:So if you can't tell me what sin you're dealing with, then what does that say? Right like? And then I get it like, I call it a problem could be a listening problem.
Imran:Probably is a listening problem.
Ryan:For some people you know you, you get so busy in life that it's like I just go from one thing to the next. I can't even you don't sit down to reflect right, I'm like man. Where am I at like, what should I be battling right now? What, where? Where is God trying?
Imran:to even even something as simple as Taking a moment to think, because this hits me all the time at work. Like was the conversation that I had, god honoring and I'll say, generally speaking from my conversation with my junior Marines are very, are very good, but it's when I get around my peers and the other captains and it's just us and it's like I leave the conversation. I'm like my, my, my cussing came out there, my potty mouth came out there wasn't good. That conversation was a very Christ honoring, like that's that's where I, but it beats me up. But um, that that Do you have to take that time to reflect and actually think about it, because if you don't, then you're just gonna rush to the next thing and never, never grow. And then those that are watching you and seeing your witness they're not seeing you grow and change in the spirit, right.
Ryan:And when they do see the change, then you have somewhere to point the glory.
Ryan:Yeah, absolutely, because the sin becomes worship but I am One of the most we're talking about, kind of like some of those confrontations that I've had, one of the most effective things that we did one time, you know, they came in and they were very combative, like you could tell that they were like oh, this is a principle, but I'm gonna defend my position, right, mm-hmm? And I saw, really I kind of saw the spirit from the very beginning of like this person, this individual, like they're being very Defensive because they thought it was gonna be that reprimand, right, and I said, hey, before we go further, I Just want you to know, right now I am struggling severely with pride At work. I feel you know I started kind of in confessing where I'm at right and then one of the other deacons there was like yeah, well, right now I'm struggling with lust. Pornography is a problem for me. I had beaten it but it started to manifest itself back and I'm in active battle with it right now.
Ryan:Yeah, actually Ryan, over here, he's been praying with me, you know what I mean? Yeah, so we kind of went around and we all kind of confessed our sins as a group, mm-hmm. And this person was kind of like, oh okay. And my point to him I said, hey, that's what we're struggling with, all right, so don't get offended that we're talking about what you're struggling with, because I have struggles too. All right, that's not what this is about. And the spirit completely changed you.
Ryan:And I mean I Thought that was something was so I guess a good piece of advice for anybody who's about to have a confrontation like that. Maybe start with your own admission. Yeah this is where I'm at. Can you pray for me with this? Mm-hmm and this is where you're at right and I want to pray for you with this and what's worked together right. Carry each other's burdens.
Selena:That's what he's talking about.
Ryan:We need to carry the burden that each of us carry. I was gonna talk more about that in a second. Yeah, but I just wanted to write so. If you're ever finding yourself in a position where You're pretending like you are not dealing with things to other people, now you're a hypocrite.
Imran:Yeah cuz.
Imran:Now you're pretending to be something you're not you're also not only hurting yourself, you're hurting others, because there is no way people aren't seeing it in some way. There are very few people that can just completely hide their sin or completely hide the thing that they're struggling with. There are very few occasions where when that's like people, there are gonna be the superficial people that only see you on Sunday, only see you at work and they're like oh, I never would have thought, but like your wife or your husband or your kids, like they're gonna, there are cracks in your facade that they are gonna see and that's that that really hurts your witness.
Imran:You know, and it's just because you want to admit it to yourself one of the most true hypocrisy.
Ryan:I feel like one of the most Impact. I don't, I mean I don't want to. I Say most impactful sermons I ever preached was just because of the response I got. But is it was actually the day I was ordained, when I just really just gave my testimony?
Imran:And one of the things was. I think it was very shocking and the honesty that the truth there is just well, but and I think, yeah, and I think that all had things within itself.
Ryan:But I think for many people who had been in the church for a while around me, what I didn't realize and you know, one of the one of the deacon wives was very I appreciate it. She said this Because it was very encouraging what she told me, like the whole conversation. But you know, one of the things she said is, like you know, a lot of people kind of put you and Tricia, you know your wife, on account of this pedestal, like they think, like this is where they're at in life and they're, they're just not at your level, right, and by confessing all that and being honest with all that, it kind of brought me down to theirs. Yeah, okay, so he, he's not and I didn't know.
Ryan:People had that impression. Yeah right, which is almost kind of concern me, of like man am I putting up? It might not be as honest on a daily basis I should be.
Imran:I don't think that, that I think it's more the the station. We have this expectation of our pastors and of our deacons, and that's why it's so shocking when, like you, find out a pastor like may suffer with pornography or adult, or has an affair or something like that. It is so much more shocking than just finding that you're that like a federal Christian to be clear, they should have high expectations, yeah, but that's but that's why it's like that's gonna always follow you, cuz, like it's.
Imran:It's the same thing with officers like my Marines will look at, look at me, and but officers also hold themselves to that extremely high standards.
Ryan:Because of that, you're like a representative.
Imran:Represents the officer getting a DUI compared to a once a couple right exactly, even though they have the same amount of time of service.
Ryan:But one of the things I wanted to To kind of hit here, though, was so notice in verse two it says that we are to all carry each other's burdens, right, but then in verse five, oh sorry.
Imran:I did want to close up by saying it is important to Share those things so that you become oh yeah, exactly was my point right, was that?
Ryan:when you do that, it you know to be honest with it and people are more receptive than to what you're saying.
Ryan:So, if you're saying something that's like man, that's really hard, or you know. Quote-unquote can be judgy right mm-hmm. Which is really just discipleship. It actually kind of sets the baseline level like well, this is also somebody who has this history or is struggling with you what I mean. Yeah so that they're not. This isn't something that's just a blanket of you wagging your finger at them and pointing at them but you know what I mean that, hey, I think it's both two, right.
Ryan:But so verse two it says now we are all to carry each other's burdens. But then in verse five it then he kind of switches his, but each should carry their own mode. You notice that?
Selena:yeah, yeah.
Ryan:So that's not a contradiction. I actually think this is a very. You could apply this to so many things. Let's first apply it to what I think Paul is talking about. Paul was talking about when we talk about carrying each other's burdens, right?
Ryan:mm-hmm contextually and go back to the very first episode when we kind of did the, the intro right with the context. But you know, this is wrapped up in a, in a bunch of things, of Carrying the burden, each other's burdens, of sin. So as you struggle with sin, that struggle should be my struggle with you, right, and my sin Should be your struggle too, right, we carry each other's burdens. The second thing is I think we're also talking financially and Paul is about to start talking money here in a second, naturally following in there because, economically, as you start struggling, it's like, hey, you all need to be carrying each other's burdens to be faithful to Christ, particularly in this context. Here it meant it was going to cost you and that means you may not have the provision that you but otherwise have. So when somebody is being faithful to Christ and that's costing them something, you should be encouraging and supportive and saying, hey, I got you in my excess, right, so we are to carry.
Ryan:When one of the things that sin does also is that it creates burdens on people that they were never intended or created to carry, right. So if you think about you know, because I do youth, right. If you think about a teenager who is having to work a job to help pay bills because they're in a single parent home. Reason they're in a single parent home is because one of those parents In their sin was so into themselves that they didn't want to be a parent, or that they maybe had a drug or alcohol addiction, or that they you know I'm saying or violence, or anything.
Ryan:They were struggling with lust and had an affair, but it's all consequence of sin.
Imran:Yeah, right. Or just sex outside of marriage that led to a child? Sure, right, they just always. But it's all a consequence of sin, right?
Ryan:so in this consequence of sin, now you have this single mother, sometimes single father, but by and large, statistically 80%, it's all single mothers who are now having to carry that burden. Yeah right, so what God designed is that the burden of parenthood should be shared between two people. Now one is having to carry that extra load. Yeah right, now you throw on top of that, you know the consequences of all this other sin that's happening, even their own.
Ryan:It's just packing down this backpack that you're like. You are carrying a load you are not intended to carry right as a marine right. You have loadouts right you actually you work your way up for certain homes, right to say hey, you should be able to as a hike, for yeah, yes, you should be able to carry 115 pounds, x amount of distance, right that's the expectation.
Ryan:Obviously, training work up to it. But now imagine if this happens on hikes. Right, I remember it drove. It drives people crazy. This is my fist. Fights break out when you take a break and you're like hey, take your shoes off, change your socks. And you're like why are people brawling in the middle? The reason is because you got people who carrying their own load can't carry their own Load, which means I now, carrying my load, have to start carrying your load. Yeah, because you can't carry your radio. I have to now carry your radio and all your batteries and because, you can't carry your machine gun.
Imran:I know you're a barrel or you carry your right or something like that.
Ryan:I'm carrying more than I was not intended to carry you know what I'm saying. But that's how life is is that people start carrying more than they were intended to carry? Mm-hmm and you carry it long enough.
Imran:There's no safety fix in combat right.
Ryan:But if you bet, the point is in life. If you start carrying that load that you weren't intended to carry for long enough, you're not gonna walk at the pace you should be walking at, you're not gonna be as effective and going the distance into the places you should and you're gonna start compromising down or you start dropping things out of that pack to lighten the load.
Imran:Yeah, things that you probably need later were intended to carry.
Ryan:Right. So those are what should say. There were responsibilities. Right, there are responsibilities you are intended to carry in life. But when you start having more than you were intended, you start dropping things to make the pack lighter and Paul's like, hey, it's like being on that company hike and as somebody starts carrying a load more than they intended to carry, you should all be taking that gear, dispersing it across the rest of the unit as a church to help carry to get to where we need to go right.
Selena:Yeah.
Ryan:But he doesn't alleviate them of the responsibility that you do need to carry your own load, though.
Imran:Yeah, you still gotta carry your own load right A lot of people just expect God, like I did my prayer of intervention.
Ryan:Lord, you know, I got this porn addiction and I just I hate it, but it's where I'm at. So just miraculously intervene, remove the desire and until that happens I'm just gonna go down this path. Right? He's like no, you have a load to carry with this to your things. You have to do Actively to combat this yeah you have to take action too, and so, like, that's like in terms of like sin, right, but you know financially the same same way, right, yeah you know you got people caring relationally, you get access.
Ryan:I mean man, like when he talked to you even today about money we're gonna talk about money here in a second but he's like hey, maybe the the financial blessing God gave you wasn't for you, but it was meant to go through you. Mm-hmm and that hit me hard because I just started this new job with this phenomenal raise.
Ryan:Yeah, right, like huge raise the biggest raise I've ever had in my life. And you know me, my wife, we're kind of going through like well, cool, like we got this More than we had. You know two months ago.
Ryan:So we're looking to mine property this like front property for us to go camping on and you know, we're looking at getting an RV or we were looking at a the, the new kind of vacations we get to have, right and Bob, and that really struck me today because I was like you know, maybe God gave me that, that excess, not really for me.
Ryan:Yeah but to work through me, to help, and at the same time I'm just saying like at the same time two of the kids who are in our youth Are talking about having to move Because they can't afford to live here anymore. They're not making ends meet and I'm like, well, I have this excess now that you know Sam, I'm saying yeah, and I don't want to go too much further down on that, no, that's. I mean that I'm just saying that it's, it's a thing. But I also think this is a good economic model right, because everybody gets so, like when we talk about biblical economics.
Ryan:Like oh, the government bailing people out or welfare or things like that right. Yeah, of course he's talking context of church, but just understand the expectation is the expectation that the church was supposed to do it.
Imran:So the but because the church doesn't do it now the government has to do it because God's church isn't doing it.
Ryan:But the idea being, though, is that, yeah, we'll come in and we will help you carry that burden when you're struggling, but you also have to be working.
Ryan:Yeah, that's the whole concept of benevolence and that's what, and this is just a good, I think, example, right, like, don't get upset when we offer help to people, right, but also don't get upset when people get upset that we're giving that help to people who aren't doing anything for themselves. You are to carry your own load, right. You should be doing something, actively working, trying to not just contribute to the society and community.
Ryan:Yeah but to help your own situation and when you're falling short, will come in and share that burden with you. All right, but we're also not one who's just gonna mooch off us and have us just Sustain you for the rest of you know what I'm saying? Yeah, so it's a good biblical model. I think you know when you look at the comparison of those two. But Okay, do you want here? So, nevertheless, the one who receives instruction and the word should share all good things with their instructor. So now we're gonna talk very uncomfortably. This idea of money how much pastors should make, you know, giving to the church versus that verse six.
Ryan:The one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor. Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh from the flesh will reap destruction. Whoever sows to please the spirit from the spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary and doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let's do good to all people, especially those who belong to the family of believers.
Imran:So you know something just before you, just my overall, just listening to you read that, I'm like that's basically what the early Church did in terms like the pastor lived with the people in the congregation, like Paul just lived with people that were a part of the church. We actually talked about in one of the episodes what we did with Pastor David, because we already started recording some of them. But, um, it's like Jesus in all the Gospels he's going like from home to home to home and he's staying with people and they're and they're feeding him.
Ryan:They're feeding his disciples, they're taking care of him, yeah, and he tells his disciples when he sends them out, and this is in Luke, chapter 9. He says, hey, go out to all the communities, only take enough with you just to last a day.
Selena:Wow, oh wow the villages.
Ryan:If they will receive you. They will receive you if they do not wipe the dust off your feet. Go to the next town. The whole idea is that you're walking by faith as a teacher.
Selena:Wow.
Ryan:Hmm, is that you are?
Selena:dependent on the charity of the people that you're ministering to.
Ryan:Wow so, and I think, because you can't escape this at all, he's talking about money. Okay, he's talking about provision and the idea and the expectation, and this is for anybody listening right and for us in this room, if somebody is ministering to you you are actively being ministered to. You are showing up to church on Sunday, receiving the blessing and the teaching of people who are ministering to you. Yeah, your expectation is that you should also be providing them with provision.
Ryan:Yeah right and I think what was happening in this church. I think, but I think, and this is just an opinion- we say this church is talking about the church.
Ryan:Paul's writing to yes and in Galatia is that, and this is just an inference, but the fact that he includes it here within the context, yeah, and it's just opinion. But I think what was happening is he's kind of addressing of how they got into the situation to begin with. How was it that this teacher Was able to come in and undercut his gospel? Because they didn't have any stable teacher there Remaining their, discipling them. So the only one who was funded by church in Jerusalem, who had all the money because everybody was giving To the church in Jerusalem, right, he came with provision so he was able to do ministry there act right, but those who were the preachers of the gospel of grace were not, probably because they weren't able to stay there, because they weren't being provided for.
Ryan:Does that make sense?
Ryan:No it particularly as that other one comes in and they're actively there and there's so in those seeds. Now you have this competing teacher, so now you got this tension. But now, well, who are you gonna give to you? I mean, like, so it was very confusing for them. I don't think that was happening. Any one of the things he I think he's saying here and understand what he is saying, okay, but you give people get so caught up about money in the church. It's like what do you think keeps the lights on? You know?
Ryan:what I mean I tell people you know like, and in our church, right, I'm like hey, you feel that, especially out here in the desert right Feel that breeze pushing down your neck, that cool breeze.
Imran:I don't like to complain about if it's not there. Yeah, that's not. That's not the Holy Spirit breathing on you.
Ryan:That is the air conditioning and that costs money right, yeah and the idea is this is that if your heart is fully focused on the kingdom of God and the gospel of Christ, you're going to give money to that yeah that's the most important thing to you, right?
Ryan:Your personal instruction, you getting ministered to. And you're like, hey, I want to be sanctified, I want to be discipled. I need teachers and instructors to do that. Well, if, how important is that to you? Well, it's important enough for me to make sure that they are here and they're able to do that effectively, but they need provision to do that, because if you don't provide for them, what are they doing? They're having to go work. Paul was a tent maker.
Imran:Yeah right.
Ryan:So they're having to go do a vocation to provide for themselves, which means that's less time studying. They're committed to studying and preparing and doing ministry for you.
Selena:Right.
Ryan:So if you're like, hey, this is the most valuable thing to me, then you're going to give to that you need to, and also money speaks.
Imran:So you are giving. You're always giving to the most valuable thing to you, yeah, so if you look at your life right now and right now you're feeling convicted it's like, oh well, I shouldn't. Why would I give to my church X Y Z? They should be able to do X Y Z thing to sustain themselves. Like, hey, you're always giving to the thing that is most important to you. I am always putting my money towards the thing that is most important to me, because why would I do anything other than that? Why would anyone do anything other than that you worked for that money?
Ryan:So really think about it before you want to make some comment about and why that bothers people is because what it costs them as the Alternative, because people look at, well, if I give opportunity cost, that's business term. Yeah, if this gives me, if I give this much money to the church, well I could take that same amount of money and go to TJ Max.
Imran:You know what I mean. You can get another shirt. Yeah, I can get all these things and have my nose car, get my with that.
Ryan:But you got to think about that read it again the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor. Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked Right. He says I know what's valuable to you.
Imran:Mm-hmm.
Ryan:And you're not gonna mock me by showing up and saying that Christ is the most important thing in your life. You're here to receive instruction about it. Then you're not, but then you're going to Keep all the blessings you've been given to go buy nicer clothes for yourself.
Selena:What he?
Ryan:says a man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh from the flesh will reap that destruction. But whoever sows to please the spirit from the spirit will reap eternal life. That's walking in the spirit is the most important thing to you, you're going to invest in things that will help you walk in the spirit. Yeah, if the flesh is more important to you, you're going to invest in things that Feed the flesh.
Imran:I feel like that is absolutely Irrefutable fact, like just by, like a human nature, fact of life, like I don't, if you're, if you're listening right now, and you're like, well, I think that I should just be able to go to church, and you know just you're just seeing yourself exactly.
Imran:You're deceiving because you are always going to spend your money on the thing you care about. So if you're gonna say that you care about your eternal life and you care about your walk in your faith and you care about your witness and all that stuff, then You're not caring till your money is saying that you're caring. That's just a fact. That's just how we, that's how this society thing works.
Ryan:Yeah, share all good things with your instructor, with your teacher, right? So, with that said, we are opening a go fund me for real.
Selena:Could you imagine?
Ryan:that the holy we're Ponds Baptist Church makes make sure that, yeah, we're we have a good church of givers, so you, that was a total joke, but. But what I would say, though, is but notice what it says, but let us not become weary, and doing good throughout the proper time will reap a harvest when you give your church. You're not just like Paying a salary for your pastor, or you know those who do ministry full-time in your church, yeah, but you're investing in the kingdom of God for them to go out and do good for others, right? I, there's, there's so many ministries in a church that are that are changing lives, right, and what people have a hard time with, I think, sometimes with this, is that they know the church is doing good things and they know that they need money right, they don't really dispute that, and they don't have a problem with that, but it's hard for them because there's not like this. You given faith in the sense that you're not given automatic gratification.
Ryan:Right, because when I do a transaction if I go to TJ max like well, I just spent $50 on this shirt, I know the very next day I can wear that shirt, yeah you know what I? Mean like I see immediately what my money bought true. But the kingdom of God doesn't work that way, right? Because everybody's kind of given into that pot. That pot is being dispersed out through ministry to bless a bunch of people, whether it's children it's men's ministry, women's ministry, it's benevolence, it's to the poor, it's feeding hungry people, right?
Ryan:It's just it's being spewed out of that kind of that one central pot of everybody's given right.
Imran:Oh, I would so.
Ryan:So the idea is kind of like you should really look at when you're giving, understanding that, oh like my money helped do that. And what we also don't see is the the alternative to not give right. So some people look at that well, I'm not giving now you go look at COVID times.
Ryan:Every see that everything seems to be working fine, right, like I'm not giving now, like they seem to be doing fine to it, am I really gonna make an impact? Well, you're not seeing the alternative, though, that if everybody who thought, like you did give, how much more could you so? Hey, yeah, you got this homeless ministry that fed a hundred people this weekend.
Ryan:Yeah they're doing good, right, but if everybody who thought like you actually gave, well, you cannot only be, you won't be feeding a hundred people, you could be, you know, feeding a thousand people.
Imran:Yeah, you know, I'm saying like give them in excess.
Ryan:We could house some of them possible, but it also kind of comes back to this whole idea that build little the blessing you get, and particularly money, isn't yours to begin with, exactly belong to Christ. Everything is surrendered over to Christ. Right your body Um. Sexually it's surrendered over your eyes or ears. Everything is surrendered over. That includes your checkbook right. Your bank account is surrendered over as well.
Imran:I would I didn't get your checkbook fully signed over, that'll really open, because that's probably the hardest thing to consistently Get signed over and and and following Christ in the way that you spend your money. Because in order to fall, in order to follow Christ in the way you spend your money, you probably are gonna have to buy different stuff. You might need to buy some different outfits. You might need to go to some different places Out in town and spend your money at not those audacious clubs or those odd or those audacious bars and stuff like that you may lead to legitimately Go to different places and spend your money in different ways, not just in the and this is talking outside of the tie, they're talking about the other 90%. The other 90% is still supposed to be spent in a godly manner. All right, all right. So like it's, like you just cuz you tie this, I mean you can go drop the next 10% at a strip club like. That's not how that works, parable of the sheep and the goats.
Ryan:God cares how you spend your money. Yeah even the money that you don't give, and so the the thing. So I've been doing this whole thing. I know I've mentioned it before, but we've been going through this series with youth on identity and man it.
Ryan:I'm telling you like this whole thing and just studying it has completely transformed, just Like the way I've understood, I understand things right and and really money the reason people have a hard time giving with money that's because what money ultimately does for an individual is what it provides. What it funds is their identity. So whatever your identity is, your money is going to follow your identity. It's going to prop up that identity and our identity, our-.
Ryan:Christ, dress your haircut, how you look, how you act, what you drive, yeah, completely came to reform our identity and we've been going through all the different factors of it, your body being one of them. So tattoos, clothes, things that are part of your. Your body is a manifestation of your internal identity, your relationships, your commitments, your boundaries, your geography geography feeds a lot into your identity. So all those things that Christ came to reform and said I'm completely reshaping. You're a new creation and new identity. So when we have a hard time giving, that's because there's parts of our identity that are Are in conflict.
Imran:That are in conflict that you're prioritizing more than your faith.
Ryan:And the idea is that if my full identity is now being derived from Christ, then my money is going to flow and feed that identity Right of who you are in. Christ and who you belong to as a community, as you know.
Imran:Yeah, we talked about. I don't know if we talked on here, if this was like at a Bible study or maybe at a sermon, but like, even something as simple as, like your Spotify playlist has to, it's going to be turned over, like you're going to become, and I felt this. I feel this, that convicted in, like the stuff that's in my like old Spotify playlist. Like sometimes the shuffle is just so ridiculous. I'm just like unlike in songs from that I liked when I was the middle school, high school, college and all that. It gets worse with kids. I haven't.
Ryan:There's things now that I didn't even, I wasn't even convicted in, but now I'm driving with the kids and-.
Imran:With the music playing.
Selena:And.
Ryan:I'm like. They're like oh, the dad does has an E on it. That means we can't listen to it. I'm like well, why do I have these songs that have explicit content on it? To where?
Imran:now my kids are like I'm like why do I have so much?
Ryan:Right and I was like wow, like I didn't even realize, like I'm talking things like Blink 182, right, like listening to Blink 182, getting them in. They love it, you know. Like but then I'm like I didn't realize how much like like 182 cussed, like you know what. I mean, like you just got, I got so numb to it Absolutely Over so many years and I feel that I was washing the motorcycles on the truck the other day, just like two days ago.
Imran:And I just had my the shuffle going on Spotify and I was like, oh my gosh, this is so wack. I had to go and I had to like hit the like not allow explicit stuff Because I was like there's no way. I'm just gonna like let this be my witness right now, all this like music playing out of my garage and it's just shows, right, and you're like, wow, that is, I feel like, but before but I think it's like I've watched my Mustang and Blast Music back when I had Mustang three four years ago.
Imran:And I would.
Selena:That was a music I was listening to.
Ryan:It's not even that I didn't care, I didn't even know I didn't even know the depth of the sin I was in.
Imran:That's the most insane thing to look back on myself and not and know that I did not even know the depth of the sin I was in.
Ryan:So one of the things I think people naturally asked from this then, though, was like so are you still required to pay the 10% tithe? Because, if you look at the entire context of Galatians, the rule of 10% belongs to the law. If the law is not there, I don't have to pay 10% tithe, right? And I think Paul's answer I honestly do believe what Paul would answer to you would be no, you're not required to pay 10% tithe. However, if the most important thing to you, right as it should be is the gospel, then are you willing to let the ministers of that gospel fall into poverty, right? Like, are you willing to let the church that ministers to you struggle? Are you okay with the people who minister that gospel to you to worry day, month to month if they're gonna make bills? Yeah, you know what I'm saying, and because and I, pastor David, even said it today but where the law ends, grace always exceeds the law.
Selena:Yep.
Ryan:Right, so you can't.
Imran:It's like oops, the standard is higher now, not lower. It always has been right.
Ryan:You've heard it say do not murder. I tell you, love and pray for your enemies, right? So it's not just don't murder, but pray and love your enemies, right. Grace always exceeds the law.
Imran:And so does that mean? Oh, what does that?
Ryan:mean? Does that mean that if I'm paying only 10%, that I'm not paying enough, right? That's not what it's about. What it's about is that, if that is where your passion and your heart is desired, you're going to love people right.
Ryan:That's why he says what does not become weary and doing good, or the proper time. We will reap the harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people. And then notice what he also says. He kind of prioritizes it, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. We are first supposed to be caring, be caring of our own church community first.
Imran:Oh, interesting.
Ryan:Especially to the family of believers. I have a quote here from Martin Luther. This is from his commentary on Galatians. On this verse he says I do not find much pleasure in explaining these verses, as I appear to be preaching for my own benefit, right? Because?
Selena:he's right, he's a preacher.
Ryan:Yeah, he's like I feel like I'd be preaching for my own benefit, but why do the apostles reiterate this command so often? Because when Satan cannot suppress the preaching of the gospel by force, he tries to suppress it by striking preachers of the gospel with poverty. I thought that's a really good quote. Where Satan cannot suppress by force, he then tries to suppress by poverty. So, in your excess, give, give to God's kingdom. Does that mean your pastor should be in that multimillion dollar home, with driving multiple Lexuses and having a airplane? Absolutely not. That is something completely different. That is absurd.
Ryan:My standard is this, and this is how we kind of approach it. What we said at our church is that we want to remove as much stress as possible, so Pastor David, our senior pastor, can focus on shepherding the pastoral ministry of this church as much as possible. When you start having financial problems, when you're having to deal with the things that poverty brings, that's going to distract him from being effective in our church. Does that mean that we are paying him bonuses so that he's able to go buy that Lexus? Absolutely not. That does mean, though, that we're paying him enough to where he doesn't have to live month to month.
Imran:That he doesn't have to worry about retirement, he doesn't have to worry about his car, he doesn't have to worry about his house.
Ryan:If something catastrophic happens to his house, that we are committed to coming in and saying we will help you with that. So he understands that he is reassured that he is taken care of in the event that those big life things happen, so he can continue to focus on shepherding this church.
Imran:That we want to shepherd it. So last week was pastor appreciation week, month, I guess, day, I don't know.
Ryan:October's pastor appreciation month but it's usually celebrated on the second, which, for those listening, if you have not given your pastor any appreciation, go do so. Better, go do so.
Imran:I was talking to pastor last night and he said he was so thankful for the gift that he got from the church because he has this broken window in his house that's been broken for a while that he couldn't shut, couldn't open, and now he can fix it. He was so thankful just for that, to fix the window, to be able to fix this window in his house that was cracked, and so I'm like man, that's awesome.
Ryan:Yeah, that's so. Yeah, love your pastors. Cause that's what he was worried about. If the gospel important to you, then it should be important to you financially. If discipleship and growing and faith, hope and love and walking in the spirit is your priority, then it should be a financial priority for you too.
Imran:Even in the flip side of that is, you are already going to put your money towards whatever is important to you. So if you're not not putting your money towards your faith and if you're listening to this and you're still like, well, I don't want to put my money towards my faith, then you are answering the ultimate question of what is the most important thing to you. Right then and there.
Ryan:Well, let me just address one last thing, since we're talking about it. There's also two people, there's kind of two frames of thought of how people view this. They're like in terms of church giving or kingdom giving. You hear this a lot. The idea is this is that, well, I pay 10% towards the kingdom, but not necessarily 10% to the church. Essentially, I give money to other Christian charities like World Vision or you know.
Imran:Oh, so they're deciding how God's money is spent.
Ryan:Right they're taking points, they're saying I am giving this much money to these different Christian causes, right.
Imran:Okay.
Ryan:That's what we would. I guess you would call kingdom giving but then there's church giving which is to your local church right.
Imran:People ask that To the church that's ministering and teaching you.
Ryan:Right and people will say well, I give to the kingdom, I just don't pay to the church, and this is my. I think it should be both and this is a bit of gray succeeds right. You should be paying your local church who's ministering to you because they need it, right. But that doesn't just stop there. You should also be giving to kingdom, giving like those organizations, and you should also be waiting for opportunities to bless people and be generous and charitable there too, Just like right.
Ryan:Like that. You're in the back, you know you're at the grocery store and you see somebody struggling to pay their grocery and they're trying to remove things to be able to pay within their budget. You're like, hey, I got it right, Like you should be generous.
Imran:That way too, pastor David said today it's like if you're sitting in line somewhere and or you see someone somewhere and you have that idea in your head, it's like man, somebody ought to do something about this.
Selena:Should someone do something?
Imran:It's like that's probably the Holy Spirit tapping you on the shoulder, saying hey, I put you there for a reason, do something about it, you know. So those moments like think about that, think about those.
Ryan:Yeah. So last piece here, verse 11. Now see what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand. So I know I referenced this in previous episodes. But one there's always this constant thing with Paul's eyes If you remember his when Paul and really his interaction with Christ on the Damascus road and his conversion right bright light. Then he's blinded for a time and he gets healed of that blindness right by another disciple that's sent to him after he's persecuting God's church and they're like do you really?
Imran:want me to go to that.
Ryan:You know Saul, who's personally trying to kill us. All right, it seems that that condition lasted with him. I think it. You know, you see this reference to his eyes over and over particularly in Galatians. You see this reference over and over to his physical, you know state of what he's done for the gospel, but also his eyes right. So now you see, see what large letters.
Selena:I use.
Ryan:Like you can look at that as one of him, like amplifying everything he's writing, cause he's really irritated with the church, if you remember, in the very beginning of the letter, right, he's like I'm at a loss for you, you guys. He's just like I'm fed up with you all, like you guys are driving me crazy, right. So you can maybe think of it as like an exclamation point. I think it's more. You can't see, and usually the way these letters would be written, right, is Paul or Peter or John is writing, but there's a scribe who's actually writing it, he's dictate and then signs writing.
Ryan:But notice what he says, but large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand. He personalized this to them. He's like I'm not even using a scribe for this, I'm writing it with my own hand and see the large letters cause I can't see worth anything because of his sufferings for Christ right.
Ryan:Verse 12,. But those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are really trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. So if you remember again earlier episodes, one of the claims against Paul is the reason he's telling Gentiles they don't need to get circumcised is because he's a people pleaser. Right and remember, we talked about the Psalms of Solomon, not the Psalms right now Psalms, but the Psalms of Solomon. It was a rabbinical literature that was popular in that day. Paul, being a Pharisee, was very well aware of it, and in that there were three groups of people.
Ryan:You had the righteous, ie the Jews. You had the sinners, ie the Gentiles. Then you had the people pleasers. These were Jews who were not being good Jews under occupation. They're just kind of existing to please everybody. Their claim to Paul was that you're being a people pleaser, you're in that category because you just don't want the Gentiles being mad at you because they have to go in adulthood and get circumcised right.
Ryan:And Paul's point back is like I'm not the one being the people pleaser. The whole reason you're wanting them to get circumcised is to alleviate the fear of the Jewish authority, so that more persecution doesn't come. And you're really the people pleaser, right? So he kind of concludes it here. The only reason they want you to do this is so they can avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ.
Ryan:They're the people, pleaser. They're the ones who are trying to avoid persecution not me, because he then makes another reference to his physical state here in a second. But not even those who are circumcised keep the law right. He's like the people who are asking you to get circumcised they themselves aren't even keeping the law, and if they were keeping the law, they wouldn't need Jesus to begin with. But the fact that those who are under the law can't keep the law, and those who are not under the law, who also can't keep the law, we're in the same boat, all in the need of a Messiah, right? So if the law could justify you, it would. But it's not. And we talked about.
Ryan:That's not a whole episode right when we talk about what's the function of the law. It's like a rocket ship.
Imran:You remember all that. That reminds me of something that we learned last night. It's like one of the points that the speaker brought up at Set Free was that, like we all know, we need a savior. Like we all, even as kids, we believe in these heroes, whether that be from a show or from Marvel movies or from books that we read. But we latch on to this concept of a hero, Someone who saves and so. But it's only as we grow and we mature that we understand that, yes, we do need a savior and that savior is Jesus Christ, and that's what he should feel, Whether you're Jew or Gentile you do need a savior.
Ryan:If you're able to look at it, most fairy tales is really just the gospel being told, retold in different ways. Oh yeah, I noticed that Most of the most successful Marvel DC comics are the same way, right.
Imran:Captain America is just Jesus Christ repackaged. It's the same kind of his morals, his guiding light. He's like it's the same idea.
Ryan:So he continues, though he says so. Those who are circumcised Because against the things there is the law. Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised, that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh. What he means is it's not like that they're going back to the church of Jerusalem.
Selena:Man, I got seven of them to go.
Ryan:You know, get circumcised, and it's like high fives right what he's saying is they're boasting in it.
Ryan:So they could go boast to the Jewish authority saying, hey, we got them to get circumcised. Like, calm down, don't kick us out of the synagogue. But the Romans know they're getting circumcised, right. That's what he means by boasting. They are boasting in the fact that you got circumcised in the flesh, but then he says but may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord, jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified. To me and I to the world, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything.
Ryan:What counts now? He said this phrase before, if you guys remember. Remember last time he said this circumcised, uncircumcised, it doesn't matter. The only thing that does matter is faith working itself through love. Right now, he's going to say it again Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. What counts is the new creation. If you are still under the law and need to get circumcised, then Christ has done nothing new and he's not your savior right. Then he don't need Jesus. What counts, though, is cause. He is who he says he is. What counts is the new creation, the new identity, the new environment, the new way of doing things, and that does not include circumcision or the law. It includes being covered under the grace of Christ on the cross, verse 16,. So peace and mercy to all of those follow this rule to the Israel of God. That's a very interesting statement there that goes into this whole idea of who is the real Israel. Is God still in a specific covenant with Israel, like?
Selena:the.
Ryan:Jewish people, or has there been this switch to where now the church is really the new Israel? Because, if you think about it, if who belongs to the family of Abraham now is not just simply those who are of Abraham's family, but as Gentiles have been grafted in because it's not ethnic based anymore, it's Messiah based, then would that group of people then be the new Israel?
Selena:Yeah.
Ryan:Right. So there's, and I want you to know, like there is and it was really prevalent, I would say, like in the early 20th century to the mid, even the later 20th century, in terms of theology, many, particularly Protestants, started adopting this idea that the church is the new Israel. Right Now, I'll say me personally, I do not follow that. I think God made very specific covenants and promises to specific people. I think part of those promises include us, right? So I think one of the things that could be offensive and or big to a Jew is the fact that the promise God made to you also applies to me. You just thought it was just for you, right? Is his promises bigger than just you and your people? It's also including me, right, but that doesn't negate the previous promises that he had to the Jewish people, right, in my view? So I think that there are still specific promises and there is a state of Israel, right, there is still a promised land.
Ryan:God made election and choices God's people and one of those elections and choices he made was that my people are gonna be defined by my ultimate elect, who is Christ, the elect of God, jesus Christ, and part of who belonged to him belonged to me right, that was an election. But he also made elections a place right. He carved out Alana Cana and said geographically, this is what I have chosen for my geography right. That doesn't get negated you understand.
Selena:I get confused with that though, though. But if they're denying Jesus Christ as a Messiah, are there really God's people?
Ryan:No, but Paul makes that point too in Romans. So Romans is very Theologically packed. But he also kind of gives a reason why he says because if all Jews were to to accept Christ as Messiah immediately, he would never reach the Gentiles. So in Paul's view, is that they are blinded for a time, so that the gospel could reach its full measure to the Gentile people. And upon completion of that, that veil will be kind of lifted up and they will all see it and they'll see this flooding of Jews accepting Christ as Messiah.
Ryan:To bring the full fold in the full family. Does that make sense?
Imran:Okay, fascinating.
Ryan:Yeah, he talks about that in Romans. So read Romans, because he kind of gives an answer to that. But but notice what he says here. So peace and mercy to all who follow this rule to the Israel of God from now on. But no one caused me trouble. Like he's just so annoyed with this church. I just love it. From now on, let no one cause me more trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. Again, reference to his body again. Yeah, he showed up to this church bruised, a bloody beaten, right after he was probably stoned, him and Barnabas, right. That was one of the things that he talked about in their relationship. So when I showed up to you, I was just in a very desperate sad state. Yeah, and you loved me, right. And then, like he's, he's talking about the way their relationship started, but he's very annoyed at the fact that people are saying, well, you're just doing this to be a people pleaser, to avoid pain.
Selena:Yeah, it's pretty interesting.
Ryan:Yeah, let me tell you about my pain yeah right, I still bear the marks, but I like how he says it's not the marks of the Romans, it's not the marks of the Gentiles, it's not the marks of unbelievers. He says it's the marks of Jesus, because Christ went to the cross. No one's greater than their master. I have to carry my own cross, he's like. So these marks that Jesus suffered for the gospel. I have to suffer for the gospel. So despite that, I still carry the marks of Jesus. So Remember all this has been Subsuming the gospel of grace, right, so he ends it assuming the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, will be with your spirit, brothers and sisters.
Ryan:Amen. Right, he concludes this. All you know this whole thing about. You know gospel, circumcision, gospel of grace in this fights that he had with Peter and James and Kick this person out of your church. Now, acts of the flesh versus, you know, walking in the fruit of the spirit, right, all those things. But it all gets assumed when I think the biggest thing he just wants them to remember Is that you are under the grace of Jesus. Don't forget it.
Imran:Yeah, that's awesome. So for this episode, this is the culmination of all like 7 to 10. The conclusion yeah, the conclusion of everything and this has been absolutely awesome. Thank you so much. You made me wait like three weeks before we got to the spirit, but we got there and that definitely was my favorite episode, even though we had to record it twice.
Ryan:Yeah, record, or three times no, okay, then I listen to it after yes, recorded twice and I'd edit it, so that's the third time.
Imran:Then I listened to the whole thing after, so at least four times and I love it All right. So thank you so much, fine, for going through the book of Galatians with us. I will say this most theologically dense material I've gone through, but I feel so much more aware yeah of my faith now than I did when we wanted to it. And so I truly appreciate it, and whenever we start going through Romans, it's gonna be the six month series.
Imran:We have to carve out an entire year probably. Yeah, that'll be good. We'll both have to quit our jobs and Completely.
Ryan:Yeah, we're just, we're just grinding through Romans.
Imran:All right, but um.
Ryan:I'll say this. You know, pastor David's coming in with a series that's kind of getting back to how we started real Bible stories right, with a lot of the narrative, some some character highlights. When he gets done with that, I have a couple I would like to to do just some fun ones. But one of the things we're doing right now on our Bible study on Tuesday nights as we're going through the seven churches In revelation and that that that will be a fun one to do here.
Imran:Yeah, a little bit. So we're gonna do the full journey through revelation as well. No, no, I'm gonna hit the seven churches, but if you.
Ryan:But One of the premises of a revelation is that it's all anchored on the churches. A lot of people miss that and if, as you go through each church, you start seeing the imagery later in revelation how it's actually Feeding back into the curses the promises that Christ made in the situations that that, that those churches are facing right, and so we have several good series as a trailer, a preview.
Imran:It'll be fun to do. Yes, next week we'll have the story behind the story series with Pastor David, and then we'll have Pastor Ryan back For a couple, stored behind the story episodes, and then we'll go into real Bible stories, story by the stories, actually really just the same premise. That's true, yeah but you gotta give the series some kind of something. So, um, thank you so much for tuning in for this this week's episode of a Bible stories and I hope you have a fantastic week.
Ryan:Hey, if you need help, go ask for help. Go ask somebody. If they need help, go help them.
Imran:Yeah, and if the Holy Spirit's tapping on your shoulders and it's okay, someone ought to, it's probably you. Go walk in the spirit, go walk in grace.
Selena: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 palms Baptist church comm or check them out on Facebook, instagram or YouTube. Real Bible stories can be found wherever the podcast are fun. Thank you again and we will see you next week. You.