Why give God or Jesus or grace a second thought in your day? Because living+grace > living! This one is for those that are curious, but wonder why they would give Jesus another look or a trial run. If you ever heard about all YOU need to do to clean-up for God? Turns out, that just is not the message. You will bear amazing "fruit" connected to God... don't let religion- or yourself- decide what fruit tree you should be!
Longer, thought-provoking content lives at the Sinner's Pulpit.
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Why give God or Jesus or grace a second thought in your day? Because living+grace > living! This one is for those that are curious, but wonder why they would give Jesus another look or a trial run. If you ever heard about all YOU need to do to clean-up for God? Turns out, that just is not the message. You will bear amazing "fruit" connected to God... don't let religion- or yourself- decide what fruit tree you should be!
Longer, thought-provoking content lives at the Sinner's Pulpit.
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we've always broken God's law. And, you know, Abraham was 400 years before Moses. So people get hung up on the Ten Commandments. And but we as humans have always broken the law of God, meaning that that's his instructions. And that's the whole message of grace, is that Christ has fulfilled all of his law. And which brings me to a what does that look like in a human as a practical application? Right. I'm definitely over here thinking about how this is practical. I agree. And we hit we hit on that a little bit. At some point. We actually talked about. Don't go to the heaven and hell. The part that I can't see like, what does this look like today? Do you think people are going up and down the road actually hung up on any of this or you and me hung up on this? Like I'm I don't think my friends think about did they break God's laws today or whether it's ten of them or 613 like they don't I don't think people are thinking about that until cancer hits you in the face or something dire hits you and you and you call out or you start wondering about your spirituality or your. Finality, I suppose. But, you know, like myself included, I get to the end of many days. I didn't like I didn't try to size up whether or not I did those things. And some of that's because I'm now on the other side of grace. But you know what I mean? Like, are people actually going up and down the road worrying about this? Well, it brings us I don't think God wants us driving down the road worrying about it. Which brings me to what is the practical application in the word connection. I mean, what is your citizenship give you in America? It gives you access to protection and support and it taxes it. It's true source subject right now, but it links you. Who wouldn't want to be connected with this amazing divinity? Okay, so we're still human. We still do our human thing. We still have our human temptation. But the difference is and the practical application is that we have this connection. No matter what we do. He's with us. Whether we we get drunk, whether we we sin. He is with us. And that's the message. So for me, the practical application is that there's basically two types of people. You're you're connected with the divine or you're not, and you don't have to run up and down the road worried about it. His promise is that I'm going to be with you. And now in the past, the law was what people thought connected them, and if they had kept it, they would have been connected to God. But see, we broke it. So now the message of Christ is that I've done all of this. And I mean, let's talk about. Okay, you get up and go to work this morning. He's with you. How on earth do we. How do we describe that to someone? The only way I know to describe it is share our own story. Yeah. I get why, if you say it like that, like if you could if you could stand at the toll booth, if they still use those, which they don't, but if you could stay there one by one, ask people like if you could be a part of this club connected to a superior being, like, wouldn't you want to be in that club? And by the way, it's the tryouts are super easy. Like you actually don't have to do anything except say you accept a gift. I feel like people would be like, Yeah, of course I would do that. Like to even give a shit about practical application. You'd have to. You'd actually have to have an interest in that, you know what I mean? And that's what I'm saying. Practically speaking, day by day in my daily life, are people even looking for it? Scripture tells us that no one comes to God unless he first calls them. So we have an innate void. Scripture says, Now, whether you feel it or whatever. Scripture tells us that he is going to woo you. He's going to present himself to you. He's going to knock at the door. And I think everyone. Everyone has. That before them in some. Some practical sense that that they either in their quiet time at night so and. That's and that's that's helpful. So we won't have an answer today. It's ultimately rhetorical but that was helpful to hear like you're probably right. And for people listening, like whether it's in your quiet time at night, driving up and down the road, something terrible happened to you today, or you feel like a pretty bad person because you don't know you flipped someone off in traffic and then you yelled at your kid like you're thinking about things that you did at some point. You actually probably, probably everybody does give it even like a second of thought they feel separated or they feel not enough or they feel like they did things that they wish they could take back or repent. Now, why would they why would they feel Exactly. That's what I'm saying. So so in fact, that kind of to me, it's like a natural. I can't prove that. But at least maybe they did have an absent or void of like they wanted to. They want to be more connected than they are at that moment. It's interesting you bring up what causes people. Is it is it a crisis that causes people to come? Because this past week I was presented with, a dear friend who has stage four cancer and is, you know, moving towards hospice, someone who he had never had anything to do with God. Now he's somewhat asking questions about it because I think our finality is part of our humanness. I mean, everyone we're one for one man. we're batting a thousand, we're all going to die. And at some point, most now, there's always an exception. Of course, some people feel like I'm just going to die and go to nothing. Well, Scripture says when you die, you're going to you're going to go into some type of eternity. Either heaven or hell is what Scripture tells us. Christ has freed us from all of that. So back to the practical application. When do we when do people think about and is that an obstacle? Because when things are going good, you know, you and I, we've learned to praise him and thank him for that. But at the same time, bad stuff happens to us and we're like, Damn, where's God in this? And he didn't promise it wouldn't happen. He promised he'd be with us. And and that's the whole message of Christ is that God now spiritually moves into the human. And that's the practical. Application of it doesn't mean you're not going to sin. It means he's there with you. But then what does that look like? So I'm standing here in front of this microphone today. I'm absolutely saved by Jesus Christ in his grace. What makes me look so different? Whether it's look or feel or whatever. So that that to me is like. And that's not better or worse. Right? But to someone that's not standing up and saying what I just said, what does what does it look like for me day to day? Versus if I hadn't said that, if I wasn't there in my heart. You'd have to answer that for yourself. Well, exactly. But maybe what's what's like a baseline? Yeah. So practical application. You know, Christ told Nicodemus that you have to be born again, born anew. And the Greek for that means born from above. Once we again, we have to give God some credit. When we accept him by faith, which means trust. He promised to come in and live. So now what? What does a dead human. Look like with Christ living in them. And what happens is we grow up just as an infant grows up and we start he renews our mind, he renews our heart. We don't try to do this work or that work. We allow him to live through us and you yourself will see a difference. The way you used to look at temptation, the way you used to. You know? Andrew Farley says it best. You know you're saved when sin bothers you. Yeah, but does sin bother an unsaved person? I don't know. They'd have to answer that. But, you know, to answer your question, what does it look like? You're going to start to see the renewing of your mind. You're going to start to live differently. People are going to see you're going to lose some friends. They're going to say, How come you don't do this anymore? You used to love doing this. We used to like this or that. And you'll see a change. The world will see a change. If this message is true and God comes to live in the human, you're going to see God's mind. You're going to see God's work. You're going to see him manifest himself through your living. That sounds good. But that could be that could be rough for some people that hear this because. If they do believe in Jesus. And some of those things aren't changing at the pace they would have expected or they are still slave to where they feel like they're slave to alcohol, drugs, pills, I don't know, like pick sex, whatever. I've seen people that say they accept Jesus Christ, but they still have those problems here on earth. You're not looking different. You're not your friends aren't changing like things aren't changing. The way that I would have expected. It became and lived in me. But I said, he lives in me. Right back to him. We're not saved because of now what we do. We're saved because of what he did. And he promises to be with us. And, you know, Scripture, Jesus said, whatever you give. To be a master, you got to be a slave to it now. But his message is deeper and let me share my own story. I was addicted to a lot of things that most people are addicted to. I mean, I could list them here for you, but. We're human. The things that we were addicted to will change over time. And, you know, Paul talks about it as we grow up like an infant. We grow up as a young reed. We grow up. And what if they never change and I die? No, but they will. The promise is you cannot have God living in you, in the person of Christ. The Spirit, the Holy Spirit and not see fruit from that. Now what happens is we become fruit inspectors. Oh, he's this. He's that. He's this. No. Now, here's. Here's what I want to say. Are we also fruit selectors? I don't mean I'm not trying to be, like funny about it, but I'm thinking I start to choose the fruit I would like to see bear that's works it it's works. But it's also even back to this practical thing. That's practically how I think about this as a, you know, a human, unfortunately. So like what you just said. I get it. And yet I get why someone else would say. Okay. So I do truly believe in Jesus. I want to stop using cigarettes. Okay. And so the fruit, the fruit I would like to bear is the fruit of not smoking cigarettes, but I keep smoking cigarettes. So do I really believe in Jesus? I swear, I really do. It's in my heart. But I'm not. I'm not showing the fruit that I wanted to. I'm showing some other fruit. And that's like, darn it. Here's the problem. You're looking at yourself to stop. I can I can tell you my own story. I could not quit nicotine. I couldn't for years and years. I fought. I tried. I wouldn't go to the store. I'd do this. I threw it away. And I said, Lord, I can't do it If I'm going to do this, you'll do it. And over time, all of a sudden, somehow I stopped thinking about Stop wanting. He took my desire away for it because that's his mind. I allowed him. If if I'm going to do this, you have to do it. It's the same with pornography. It's the same with alcohol. And then you know what? You don't say, I'm never going to drink again. You'll fail. Go to the bar and sit down and have a drink and say, Lord, I don't think this is what you want from me, but I can't stop. So if you want me to stop and it may take 3 or 4 years, you may die drunk and that's you'll die with. And that's. And so this the reason this fits like the practical thread for me is, man, that's a struggle. And people would think. There. I thought that I'm not and don't even mean to get into works or that I'm quitting, but I'm expecting if I've taken on Jesus in my body, I'll stop and I would estimate it should take about six months and. Right. And it's just so freaking frustrating. It might take 16 years or 60. Or you might die with it. And that's. Absolutely. If you're there and that's the story it's okay you be in this club and okay, you'll start to bear fruit. Uh, but the thing is, you'll bear fruit on God's timeline. You might die with that. So you might not actually get any practical outcome. You might still get you might still be smoking, you might still be drinking, smoking. You might still be addicted. All these things you. Might start to love people that you hated, right? You may start to do give money out of your pocket that ten years ago you were like, I would never give that. So you may. Bear the fruit that you not that fruit. God's fruit. See? See, You've never seen an apple tree grunting to produce an apple. And if we rest in Christ and allow him and remember his promises that I'll come and live. And if you allow me to live through you. Well, how do we allow him? We stop fighting stuff and let him. Right? So. And I'm sticking with the fruit thing, not only like we've been fruit inspectors as well as fruit selectors. So you're kind of saying you want to be a lemon tree, but if you take a step back and look, he made you an orange tree. Yes. And there's oranges blooming everywhere. But you're going, Well, I wanted that lemon aka stop smoking cigarettes. You might die smoking cigarettes, but you started shedding oranges everywhere. And that could be loving people you hated that could be volunteering, helping people that you never would have helped before. So you just have to zoom out and look at. But what are the legalistic people do? He doesn't do this. He doesn't give any money to this. He doesn't adopt children in South America. And he doesn't he doesn't work the church on Sunday. He doesn't even go to church. But here meanwhile, you're over here producing oranges and they want you to produce watermelons or whatever. So it comes down to the practical application of what Jesus said is if you just allow me in, open the door and allow me now. To live in and through you and rest in my promise, you're going to start producing his fruit. Your mind is going to change. Your heart's going to change. And. And each of us, any Christian alive, will tell you that if they just rested in it, they started to see it themselves way easier now. Really easy rebuttal. I'm out there listening. I'm interested. I'm not bought in. Dude already produced fruit. I help people all the time. I don't do any of this stupid addiction things you said because they're foolish, well-educated, and I spend 30% of my money, you know, overseas to do good things. So I see fruit. Bill Gates. I see a whole pile of fruit. Bill Gates. I mean, I don't even call out specific names because I don't. Call them because he's a great philanthropist. But do you know that he doesn't? Yes, he is. He's a scientist. He says, you know. A lot of scientists believe in God. Right. But only 2% say 98% say, okay, fine, I believe in the higher. So we. Know that. So for this, I don't have to edit this because we know he is not a Jesus believer. I know that he has said that he. He doesn't believe in this God of the Bible. All right. Okay. So but here's the here's what's missing. He spends a billions of dollars being a philanthropist, which is a good thing in and of itself. But remember the practical application. He has no connection to God. He's doing a great things as a human, but he's not connected. God may be using him as an unbeliever to build hospitals and churches and this and that and the other. And he's missing out on. Again, we go back to the finality. Look at how many people on their deathbed say, you know what, man? And Jesus's message is you can do good work. An atheist can do good work, but you're doing it apart from me and you're going to miss out on that joy. You're going to miss out on that peace. You're going to work yourself to death and you're going to end up in that great divide, which now it's starting to sound a little preachy, but the practical application is the message of Christ, not mine, is that you can be connected with the Almighty God of the universe. And Scripture tells us, and we stand on that, that Christ is the way to do it. It's not good works. It's not because we can never be perfect. So what a way to the only way I can think of it, since I'm not that atheist or that person that's not bought in like everything I am doing in the fruit I'm bearing is with him. So I only see it a certain way now. But like what you just said, if I had someone that goes, Dude, don't have the addictions I'm giving, I see. I see buckets of fruit with my retort be then. Now imagine if you plugged in to the most highest power. Biggest. So you're already doing that stuff. Imagine if you were re-upping it and connected to that. That's good. I didn't think of that. That's the only way I can think to to argue it, because otherwise it is like I know people. But I just look at some I do, I'm like, man, they are philanthropic. They don't have addiction problems. They are crazy successful in their career. They're having fun and generally good, innocent fun. Outwardly, yeah. But I'm like, I'm like, that actually is impressive. And they seem day in and day out, unless they're completely lying to me, they're pretty pleased with their life and what they're doing. So the only I guess that's the only argument I could give them is like, yeah, you should see it if you. Yeah. Tied in. I like that. And you know we always say here sinners pulpit that. You know it no matter what you're doing. If you could, man, if you could add that amazing intelligence. In grace. To that. And if we go back to the root word of grace, remember we talked about it's not just to get out of hell. Free card, which it is. But the word implies that you also get divine. Influence in your life now is that if that's not practical. But what happens is people try to get legalistic. They get saved and then they try to get legalistic for maintenance. So the practical application, if I could leave anyone with it, is trust it. Try it. Call on him. Look, God loves us and God is good. I know those two things. And if you call on him. This promise is true. Saying. So that's what it would look like. It'd be that simple. But I never once in that just try it. Did I say, By the way, I need you to leave your sin at the door? I didn't say you needed to actually stop hating people. I think you will. Yeah, but I didn't even tell you to leave any of that stuff behind. I actually told you to come with. At no point in that, I just said, just try it. I didn't say just try it, but leave this stuff at the door. So if that's the answer, why does that happen? Where do people get that? They have to like set it at a door? Well, because the pious and religious people say repent and be baptized. Baptized, repent means to change your mind. Jesus said in Romans five eight. I don't know if that's fair. One of the greatest. No. Okay. Let me back up. A lot of religious. A lot of people think the religious the message of Christ is that you got to clean yourself up to come to Christ. Do you think they've heard it? Is what without without putting it on some particular. Absolutely. You think that's. The general brand out there for Christianity is you're going to have to settle this stuff out of door to get on the airplane. You're going to have to repent, repent, repent. We got billboard signs. Repent. Repent means the changing of the mind. Okay. So when you change your mind from being I'm going to do everything myself and that maybe there is a is something greater than me. See, your mind starts to change. And Jesus, Jesus said. That we show forth our love to you while you were yet sinners. I died for you. So people think that they have to clean themselves up when. No, you just need to come as you are. And Christ says. I'll come and live in you and you're going to change and it's going to be me. Now that changes your mind, not you working or whatever, but it all comes back to give God some credit it's the same and it echoes almost every cast we've done. And I think we'll continue to do this isn't. We don't save you. We don't get you saved. The try it part is like this is. This is food for thought, food for thought, whatever this is so that you can decide to just try it. And that has to be on your heart anyway. So I'm not going to get to see it. I'm not going to know who does. So that's always what we say. So the practical application for anyone that hasn't is to genuinely go try it. That's all you can leave them with. So that's for me, it's not profound because we can't do the rest. All we're doing is talking about why maybe you should give it a shot. So the practical applications. Give it a shot. So then super practical. Your fruit basket. Look like mine. Yeah. No. No way. You're going to have your own fruit basket. But the connection is for me, the connection is the practical application is that you are connected. Whether you didn't like the way you lived today or yesterday or tomorrow, you have connection with the Almighty God of the universe. That's His promise. That's the Scriptures. And what I'm saying to you is I'm sharing. We're sharing our message that, man, this thing is good. And that's the practical application.