Pastor to Pastor
Maintaining The Image of God in a Counterfeit World
Embark on a profound exploration with Pastor Jason and myself, Pastor Seth, as we unravel the true essence of living authentically as Christians in a world saturated with shallow portrayals of piety. Grapple with the question of how to genuinely express God's image, delving into the heart of what it means to reflect His compassion, love, and grace. Our conversation ventures beyond the superficial, challenging you to embody the divine qualities that truly signify being made in His likeness.
Our fervent dialogue takes a sharp turn into the heart of Christian identity, scrutinizing the hazards of casually attaching 'Christian' to behaviors that clash with scriptural values. Amidst my reflections on forthcoming missionary endeavors, Pastor Jason and I confront the necessity of spiritual rebirth and the imperative for a deep-rooted transformation that resonates with the teachings of the Bible. This conversation is a wake-up call for believers, particularly church leaders, to foster transformative change that is evident through contact with God, steering away from the temptation to merely accessorize our lives with the label of faith.
Finally, we dissect the daily interactions that fortify our testimony for Christ. Stressing the importance of a steadfast relationship with God, we challenge you to scrutinize whether your actions genuinely mirror His image. The episode crescendos with the exciting announcement of our upcoming relationship series, "I Choose You," wrapping up with a blessing for all our listeners. Tune in to this enlightening journey as we seek to embody our faith with authenticity, transforming into the likeness of Jesus in every thought, word, and deed.
Embark on a profound exploration with Pastor Jason and myself, Pastor Seth, as we unravel the true essence of living authentically as Christians in a world saturated with shallow portrayals of piety. Grapple with the question of how to genuinely express God's image, delving into the heart of what it means to reflect His compassion, love, and grace. Our conversation ventures beyond the superficial, challenging you to embody the divine qualities that truly signify being made in His likeness.
Our fervent dialogue takes a sharp turn into the heart of Christian identity, scrutinizing the hazards of casually attaching 'Christian' to behaviors that clash with scriptural values. Amidst my reflections on forthcoming missionary endeavors, Pastor Jason and I confront the necessity of spiritual rebirth and the imperative for a deep-rooted transformation that resonates with the teachings of the Bible. This conversation is a wake-up call for believers, particularly church leaders, to foster transformative change that is evident through contact with God, steering away from the temptation to merely accessorize our lives with the label of faith.
Finally, we dissect the daily interactions that fortify our testimony for Christ. Stressing the importance of a steadfast relationship with God, we challenge you to scrutinize whether your actions genuinely mirror His image. The episode crescendos with the exciting announcement of our upcoming relationship series, "I Choose You," wrapping up with a blessing for all our listeners. Tune in to this enlightening journey as we seek to embody our faith with authenticity, transforming into the likeness of Jesus in every thought, word, and deed.
Hey everybody, it is Pastor Jason and Pastor Seth here for another episode of Pastor to Pastor.
Speaker 2:Pastor Seth, how you doing, man. I'm feeling great, excited about today's topic, excited to be in the room with you, man. Greatness is in here.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I hear you. It's all about the beard. It's all about the beard. The thing is getting out of control man, I wasn.
Speaker 2:I wasn't gonna say anything, but you might need to brush that thing ready to get twigs and berries and all kind of bees and things.
Speaker 1:Hey, you know, we're gonna get through it. We're gonna get through it. I'm I'm well past my haircut date, man, I'm well I wasn't gonna say anything about it, it's okay you don't have to. Hey, I will. I will point out my flaws, I will boast in my weakness.
Speaker 2:I'll boast in my flaws. Come on somebody. I'm telling you one thing You're on your way to heaven.
Speaker 1:Man, I tell you what. What I've got to do is get this thing taken care of, because we're recording this a little early, but I'm going to Peru shortly to minister. Bro, I'm excited. We jump on a boat, travel down the Amazon River, preach the gospel I am excited. And you guys are going to India in the fall.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:We got True Christ Life operating in a national evangelistic ministry Extending our reach man. I love it, bro, Expanding the kingdom man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what it's about.
Speaker 1:That's what it's all about. Super excited to be doing that, but anyway, back to the point. I actually remembered what I'm supposed to be saying now, right?
Speaker 2:Oh, it's a miracle, it's a miracle.
Speaker 1:I've actually got to get my hair cut, got to get some things situated before we go down there, for sure, so I can be ready. But anyway, man, we've got a great topic for today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm excited about it yeah maintaining the image of God in a counterfeit world. Man, this goes kind of really along with what we've talked about in the past, I think. I think it's going right along with that same thread. There's a lot of counterfeits out there, especially when you're talking about the image of God. So let me ask you this man what would you consider? You said we're made in the image of God. What?
Speaker 2:would you be considered the image of God? Yeah, and I want you to know that when you think about God as the creator, you know, in genesis it says he created the heavens and the earth. He created everything, you see you can see god's image in it. Uh, it even said that when you see a carpenter's work or you see a painter's work, you can see god in it, because through his creation and humanity and all the things, he's involved to some extent right um.
Speaker 2:And he said that it was good, including humanity. And so, when you look at the image of God, what we need to understand first and foremost, pastor Jay, is that we're not talking about God in a physical form, right Like I remember growing up I don't know about you, but I was young and dumb- and I was silly, you were still.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm sorry I was going to say you're not young, but go ahead. I'm joking with you, brother, go ahead, you know.
Speaker 2:I remember making jokes about people who were not easy on the eyes. They're like I know they ain't in the image of God.
Speaker 1:Like I know, God ain't looking like this.
Speaker 2:That was me back in the day. Now, now I've been purified, amen. I'm a lawyer righteous now. But yeah, you, and it's not a physical thing. It has nothing to do with that, because what the Bible says is that God is a spirit.
Speaker 1:right, that's right, he's not a man.
Speaker 2:John 4, 24 says God is a spirit. Those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. He's not a man. And so when we look at the image of God, let's realize that we're not talking about physical appearances. We're actually talking about the persona. God is a God of compassion, he, the persona, the. You know. God is a God of compassion, he's a God of love, he's a God of grace. God is love, and when we are his image, we are bearing his image here on earth for him, right, how we represent him. Yeah, and so also, when you look at like a painter, okay, let's just throw a painter out there. Okay, you know, you said this earlier.
Speaker 2:When you think of Mozart, you think of his music. When you think of God, what do you think about in his people? When you look at a painter, he takes what's in his mind, in his heart, and he creates something on a canvas and he puts his name on it, he stamps it with it, and any time you see his creation, you see his name on it. My question is this is how many of us can look at our lives and see that God's name has been stamped on our heart Absolutely, by the way we act the way we represent him in the world? Do we live a life, pastor Jay, that says I belong to this man?
Speaker 1:this God and when people look at his handiwork, when they look at your life, do you represent him? That's right, or are you representing a counterfeit? And I love exactly how you use that man, because it just came to mind, I was just thinking about it says that you can look at the creation and know that there was a creator, so that even when you see the stars, when you see the sun, when you see the earth and when you see these things that were created, it leaves no doubt. You are without excuse for not believing and having some kind of faith in God, because you wake up in the morning and you're seeing these cosmic signs right the sun, the moon, the stars, you're seeing the grass, I mean, you're seeing everything. It leaves you without excuse that there is not, that there is something you can't say, there's not a creator behind everything yeah, I remember.
Speaker 2:Years ago my brother was in the military and he was stationed in idaho right, ain't nothing there.
Speaker 1:I would not tell you to go but I remember we were young.
Speaker 2:I was young, I was in my early teens, and we went where all the the mountains and the canyons are and there's like this um, a river that came through it and I didn't know where my dad was and he was just off and he was just weeping. He was just weeping, he was just weeping and we got to talking. I was like why are you a wreck right now? What happened? And it was just looking at the beauty of God's creation. Like how can you look at these things and think that it was not divinely created by God? I mean, it just don't happen out of nowhere. And you're right, you can just see it. Just open your eyes and you can see God's creation. It just don't happen out of nowhere, and you're right, you can just see it.
Speaker 2:Just open your eyes and you can see God's creation, not just in humanity but, just as the flowers bloom and the trees come up, you know, and all those beautiful things. And so when you think of the image of God, let's just talk about the humanity portion of it, because this is a part that's going to challenge us. I make this statement because I believe it's 100% true is that all Christians outwardly look different, but they should all act the same, absolutely. If we're all bearing the same image, we're all reading the same book and we're all representing the same God, then why are we acting differently?
Speaker 1:Well, that's a very good question, Because that's what we're supposed to the same God. Then why are we acting differently? Well, that's a very good question.
Speaker 2:Because that's what we're supposed to bear. The image right, we're all the same, we're one church, one body in union, in unity. But why? Why are we different?
Speaker 1:Well, there's a lot of counterfeits, and it's something that we talked about. You know you can match up a painting of Mona Lisa with a fake Mona Lisa and some of them will look really good. It's the same thing, really, in law enforcement, where, with money, there's some printed money, man, that if you didn't know what you were looking for, you would miss it. You would be taken for a loop if you grabbed a hold of the wrong $100 bill. Right, and so if you're trying to match to it, but when you put them together you know what you're looking for, you can see the difference. There are a lot of counterfeits out in the world, in the Christian community.
Speaker 2:You know, and when you're exposed to counterfeit Christians. And what we mean by that is people who, let's say, post about God show up to Sunday service, but during the week it was like me. God show up to Sunday service, but during the week it was like me. I was one of those. I was a Sunday Christian and I was a great weekday sinner. I was wanting to please my parents, and then I was also wanting to please my friends, and I was double-minded and unstable in all of my ways.
Speaker 2:And that's an easy way to point out someone who's a counterfeit Christian, someone who's not maintaining the image of God in a pure place. And what we've got to be sure to do, jay, is when we see these counterfeit Christians, is we don't push them off and we don't curse them and we don't create them as enemies. That's why the Bible says this in James 3, 9. It says with it, talking about the tongue, we bless our God and our Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the likeness of God. And so we have got to learn to view people the way God views people. And when it comes to the image of God, I don't know about you, but I get frustrated with people who claim something and they act completely differently.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And we are quick to throw titles on things and call it Christian, but though it's not Christian. I mean, you know where I stand, I'm Bible. Hold on, hold on, come on back to life.
Speaker 2:Let them know, let them know.
Speaker 1:Look, I'm all about the Bible, man, look. And the Bible does not agree with our flesh oftentimes, and our flesh don't agree with our Bible. That's right. Here's the thing, talking about being created in the image of God. If you go back to those three basic principles, when you look at the image of God and how we're creating those images, we're created in the image of God through spirit, body and mind or soul. And right, so some people will throw on, we talk about being born, but when you're born because of the fall of man, you're born dead spiritually and so you have to. That's why Jesus told Nicodemus you must be born again, right.
Speaker 1:And so when we I'm getting all this kind of like a big circle to say, look, you can't throw a title in front of Christian and be what God calls an abomination and then turn around and be what God calls good, that's right. When he created man, you can't. There is no gay Christian, there is no adultering Christian. You cannot be that way and then use the title of something that God calls his church. So there are counterfeit. We're trying to make God into our image instead of us being made into his. That's right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you can't. You know, pastor Jay, god is who he is. His image doesn't change, it's been set, it's written. You can't change based off an emotion, based off a feeling, based off a chain. You can't break yourself away from, you just can't. You just can't think that you can add to the image of god. You don't add to it, you become it. That's right. You become the image of god and what's happening is and we talked a little bit about this within the, within the church is how we're pacifying feelings and diluting truth in order to grow ministries.
Speaker 2:But we're also trying to—we are defacing the image of God in the world today because we think that we can slap blank Christian and we're okay, right, like, as long as you throw Christian in the mix, then you're fine. But that's not how it's supposed to be. It's been set, the standard is set, the image is set. You don't change it, you become it. And we, as leaders, we've got to stand firm. You talk about being back at the Bible. Like every Christian should stand on the word. That's it. How can you be a Christian and be okay with just overlooking certain passages and not preaching certain passages?
Speaker 1:Well, because, let's be honest, it's being led from the pulpit in most churches and most congregations by most leaders. That it's okay. Like we've talked about before, we'll just slap grace all over it.
Speaker 2:He loves you.
Speaker 1:You don't have to come as you are. They will blast you with grace Now, which is kind of what we talked about earlier with accepting people. But look, I'm going to be honest with you, man, and this is something I'm actually studying now to preach on soon. There is a difference with how Jesus treated sinners and how Jesus treated saints or so-called religious people, so-called saints.
Speaker 2:I preached that two weeks ago.
Speaker 1:Well see, I need you to quit drinking my Kool-Aid man it's so good. But there is a difference between how Jesus treated people who should have known better and people who don't know better. Jesus treated them very differently. One was with compassion and one was with correction.
Speaker 1:That's right and that's right. But we don't want to correct anybody anymore. We want them to feel like it's okay to live in your sin. No, you need to come out of your sin. It's not okay to stay in sin. You've been freed from it. Quit living in it. You can't sleep with sin on the weekend or throughout the weekend and go to try to jump in bed with Jesus on Sunday.
Speaker 2:He ain't here for that. Jesus loves you the way that you are, but he loves you enough to not let you stay in that condition. That's the acceptance that we're talking about. He accepts you with your mess. That's why, yet, while you were still sinners, he died for you. So he accepts who you are right now. But there's no way you can come in contact with the presence of God and leave completely the same. You leave changed. You leave changed. You lay these titles and these labels that you've been carrying of sin, and God takes them away. You can't have—it's like Hinduism. You know, one of the things we battle in India, jay, is that they think they can just add Jesus to one of their gods.
Speaker 1:A little Jesus would be like any other god.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're just adding him to the millions of gods they have. And they can just add him. No, no, no. It's either God by himself or God's nowhere Right. And we were doing this with our sin. Well, god loves me, so I can have his image, I can have his fruit, I can have his blessings while still getting the spoils of this life. And it's not how scripture lays it out for us as Christians. He actually says if you do these things, you will not inherit the kingdom of God, but if you do these things, you will inherit the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1:I feel the Lord.
Speaker 2:Why are we not preaching Galatians 5 in churches and wonder why the image of God is so defaced and distorted in the communities Right?
Speaker 1:And it's happening through leadership, because leadership is allowing it. We are defacing what it means to be a Christian.
Speaker 2:You produce who you are bro.
Speaker 1:It's clear, man. It says and I just preached on this in matthew 5, jesus sermon on the mount. He's like you're going to be persecuted for righteousness. Yeah, who was being persecuted anymore? Who was standing up for truth? Not that we're bashing people, not that we're beating people, but there is a standard and it's called the word of god that we're supposed to live up to, and but that's not popular anymore, so it's not preached anymore. That's right. And listen, that's the whole thing we talked about before, with people using sugar to cure instead of salt to cure.
Speaker 1:In order to be a city on a hill, in order to be a beacon of light, you've got to be different, that's right. But nobody's trying to be different anymore. We're just trying to apply a little bit of jesus to everything and call ourselves something christian, something christian. But there is a difference between just holding the banner of christian and actually being a christian. That's right. It is picking up your cross, it is putting down whatever your desires. Putting down your flesh is putting all those things down and picking up jesus and carrying jesus with you everywhere you go, because we are ambassadors, meaning we represent Jesus, we represent the Father, and there's a lot of poor representations going on in the world today in the Christian community.
Speaker 2:Yep, that's right. And you know, we look back at that verse of James 3, 9, where it talks about how we curse and then we bless, even though they're all in the likeness of God. And what James is teaching us here is this reality is that we, we don't curse, uh, people who do not represent the image of God. Well, we, like you said, we are be a beacon, a light, a hope. We ought to try to draw them back unto truth. You see, when Adam was in the garden and uh, you know, you said it this way that God made the decisions for him, yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, and then when they ate the fruit, sin entered in, and now it was up to them to make the decisions.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:It was free choice, which is what we experience now. This is why there are so many counterfeit Christians is because they are not rightly dividing the word and they're reading it with their flesh and their emotions rather than with the spirit that they're carrying. That's why he says, in spirit and in truth right, we represent christ, and so I think I just want to say this for us, it is frustrating.
Speaker 2:You can tell where we get frustrated with people who, especially leaders, yeah who are misleading and misguiding people, and also these people um, I know my wife gets more frustrated than I know of people who talk about God online but outside of social media they're far from him and it gets frustrating at times. But our goal because we know that they were made in the image they just took a stray, they just took a bad turn. Our goal is to draw them back in. It's to lead them back. We're to represent Christ well. Trying to draw them back in it's to lead them back. We're to represent christ well. Trying to get people back in.
Speaker 2:Listen, god is who he says he is. God is who he says. He's a redeemer, he, he's a. He sets the captive free. He has grace.
Speaker 2:The bible says that goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life and people. Just just if we'll quit running from God and just stop, goodness and mercy will hit us, live right in the face, and what I want us to do as Christians is begin to just take this mindset is I can't make a difference if I keep pushing those who need me to represent Christ in front of them away through frustration and through bitterness and through hatred. Being the image of God is representing God well. It's one of the things that we've got to learn to do Even when it's unpopular. Even when it's unpopular, Even if it's with your enemy, it's going to be unpopular. It is Might be a little off topic, but when's the last time you invited somebody you didn't like the church? Jesus sat with enemies. Jesus spent time with people who were sinners and distant from him. That's the image of god yeah because, while we, were yet sinners.
Speaker 1:Christ died, are you?
Speaker 2:spending more time with your little clique? Or are you actually out here being the hands and the feet of jesus, representing him well by being his image right? Or are you actually out here being the hands and the feet of Jesus, representing him well by being his image Right? Or are you too busy talking about people who are on your level of Christianity? Yet you know this holier than thou mentality. And now, because that's our heart, where well, I've made it. I don't need to be a beacon. I've made it. And now we're sending people to hell because we're not being a beacon of light, we're not being a beacon of truth, we're not representing Christ well, being his image here on earth. That's what we're here to do, that's it.
Speaker 2:That's what he said Go into all nations, make disciples Right.
Speaker 1:And you've been bought and paid for by a price that you could have never paid. Exactly temple of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2:This is what we need to understand is this Although Adam was in sin, you brought up Nicodemus. Colossians 3.10 says and we have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. 2 Corinthians 5.17. Behold, all things become new. The old has passed and the new has become. That's the beautiful thing about coming in the image of Christ. I don't know about you, but I'm daily trying to become more and more like Christ, absolutely. There's a song that says uh, holy spirit, made me more like Jesus every day. That's my prayer, jay, made me more like Jesus because I don't know about you, but there's things I still struggle with. That doesn't represent the image.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah there's things that run through my mind. Well, yeah, there's things that run through my mind. I'm like that was not a god thought. Right, absolutely. There's things I started and there's a continual renewal that we're doing and, as christians, I, I would be, I would. When it says fear, fear the lord. This is part of feeling fearing the lord when you, when you fear that you would misrepresent the one who saved your life to the lost right but where's the fear at there?
Speaker 1:ain't no fear in the fear of god? No more man? Not in, not in a majority of the christians, bro, right, look, I think we we have. We have covered this topic, I think, really well in terms of uh, from what we've already talked about, this is just our passion, man, it's just, it's seeing people walking the narrow way. But when we talk about that and I've heard the whole this they ain't talking about.
Speaker 1:Look, I know what destruction is. I understand it. I've read it in the Greek. I know what destruction is, the utter destruction that they're talking about in that scripture of broad is the way, narrow is the way, broad is the gate, or the gate the way that leads to destruction. And then he talks about the gate toward heaven, and few there be that find it.
Speaker 1:Look, our goal at the end of this and I tell my congregation this I want to see you on the other side. Amen, like I want to walk in myself and I want to see you on the other side. Yeah, can you imagine what it would be like for you to get to heaven and walk in the gate, man, and be excited, see Jesus do those things, and someone will walk up and say hey, because you kept it real, because you were the right, the image of God, because you shared truth and wisdom with me, I'm here now. Now, on the other end, could you imagine going to hell and being with a bunch of people who were not only in your own torment, but being surrounded by other people who were tormented because you failed to tell them yeah, for eternity.
Speaker 2:It would be bad to be on your way and somebody say, hey, hey, I saw you every week at the ballpark. Why didn't you share the gospel with me? Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you give me hope? I saw you here, I talked to you. Why would you not share the gospel? That's a tough thing to think about and before we wrap this up, I want to ask you a question. Yeah, what does it look like to maintain the image of God? What are some steps that we can do? We talk about maintaining the image of God in a counterfeit world. As a Christian, how do we make sure we're staying in line to being the image of God here on earth?
Speaker 1:And look well, we didn't practice this right, we didn't talk about this, so you hit me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this question just came to my mind.
Speaker 1:I think it's a broad thing. I think there's all kinds of different ways. You know the pastoral thing is well, make sure you pray, read your Bible, things like that. But I think it's realizing who Jesus was, and that's where I've been at. You talked about where you are, recently man, and I'm in that same way. I just come through COVID for like the 15th time I shouldn't say it, it's more like the fourth time and what I noticed is—.
Speaker 2:You know I've never had COVID because I'm one of God's favorites, but I just want to say you need to get your life right. Yeah, that's probably what needs to happen.
Speaker 1:But no, I noticed how, outside of my routine, it became easy to kind of, you would think, sitting around in your room. That's what I did the whole week. I just sat in my room most of the time because Anna wouldn't let me leave. But I sat in my room, but I was out of a routine, so I had to, in many ways, recondition or discipline myself to spend time with God.
Speaker 1:Now I didn't feel well either and I'm still like not hundred percent in many ways, but anybody that's had COVID understands. But I got up this morning, man, as we're, I'm thinking over this, this topic, and as we're as we're, I'm getting ready to come here and I'm I realized kind of how out of sorts I was and getting it back into a routine. I felt more connected with God and I'm like God, that's not, you're not a routine, and I don't want you to be a routine in my life. I want to know who you really are. That is my goal, and so I think it's understanding who God truly and really is and understanding that we reflect that image on people. Once you understand who God really is, then you can reflect that image rightly. When you are in God's image, when you understand who he really is, I think that's the start is really being in his presence and knowing who he is in order to be able to reflect that.
Speaker 2:And I think too, is we really get our high on these corporate encounters, these Sunday encounters? We look forward to the Sunday encounters, while missing daily encounters? I think that one of the ways that we can bear his image well and make sure we're in line with his word and who he says we should be is to pursue these daily encounters with Christ.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And that we don't look forward just to Sunday. I tell our church this that Sunday should be an overflow or an acceleration of what God has been speaking to you, what God has been doing for you throughout the week, the time you've spent with him. Like this is why we shouldn't, when we come to church on Sunday, we shouldn't have to pump and prime people to want to worship and lift their hands, Like you should be the first one in here lifting your hands and singing aloud as well, because you've spent so much time with God and he's been sharpening you and chiseling you and making you better each and every day of the week, not just one time a week, yeah, so here's what you do Just start walking up to people at random saying, hey, what's God been saying?
Speaker 2:to you. Oh, I know I do that. Yeah, what's God been saying to you? I especially do that to my leaders. What's?
Speaker 1:God been saying to you this week. And it's a challenge. And I'm like, in case you're like deer in the headlights, you know you ain't been spending time with God, have you? I know you better lie to me. You better not lie.
Speaker 2:But I think it's important. This episode today is really just to hold us as all, not just leaders. I want to encourage you to go listen to last week's podcast if you haven't had a chance, and really just look at the state of the American church, the church as a whole that we've talked about and it takes it the church as a whole that we've talked about and it takes it off the church as a whole. Today's conversation is about the individual Right, Not just about leaders, but Christians overall. How are you bearing witness? What does the scripture say? It says about us being the handiwork, right.
Speaker 2:Right yeah, we have that, read that.
Speaker 1:I don't have enough. Ephesians 2.10 says For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them?
Speaker 2:How are you bearing witness and being the image and being the hands and the feet, being his handiwork here on earth, as a follower and a believer of Christ?
Speaker 1:Are you being a counterfeit? I mean, are you being a counterfeit or are you being the real image of God?
Speaker 2:I mean, is Christian just a mask you put on in certain conversations, at certain tables, in certain rooms, or is it something that you wear in your heart each and every day? Is it who you are?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and look, some of you may feel like this conversation. We were really abrupt. Look, at the end of the day, our slogan is this iron sharpening iron, and that's what it's about. But I know iron sharpening iron ain't always the most fun. Sometimes there's sparks when you start rubbing metal together. That's right, and I get it. You may feel offended, you may feel aggravated, but at the end of the day it's Scripture. What we're telling you is Scripture. And here's the thing, some of what I was trying to get back to earlier when I was talking about the whole gay Christians. Some people will say, well, I was born that way. Say, well, I was born that way, but that's why Jesus said you must be born again.
Speaker 1:It is so important that you realize that, the way you were. Every day we have to get up and make a decision Am I going to follow my flesh or am I going to follow Jesus?
Speaker 2:That's right. Am I going to?
Speaker 1:follow myself or am I going to follow Jesus? And it is important that we make those decisions every single day. Listen, here's the thing we talk about and I hate to keep. It's not like this is the only topic, but it's one that I'm sure is going to probably catch the most flack about. So it's like this. When it comes to same-sex attraction, look, I'm attracted to women, amen, but I have to discipline myself. I'm married to one. Therefore, my eyes are for one, my love is for one, my focus is on one. Yep, it doesn't matter who you're attracted to. It's the decisions that you make. That's right. Paul says some of you shouldn't even be in relationships. That's right. Are you one of those? I mean, you have to make a decision Is it Jesus or is it my flesh? Because you can't be both.
Speaker 2:Yep, that's right.
Speaker 1:Anyway.
Speaker 2:That's it. People need to hear it. It's truth, man, and it's for us, for us, for us all, for sure, even married people. What you said is powerful, it's a choice, it is every single day. Have a choice.
Speaker 1:Hey, when Adam and Eve took of that fruit, man they started making their own decisions.
Speaker 2:I'm going to do a relationship series called I Choose you and it's about our choices in marriage and relationships and stuff. But hey, thank you guys for being a part, listening and sharing and just supporting us the best way you can. I want to bless you and then we'll see you right here next week. For Pastor to Pastor. This blessing is a priestly blessing out of number six. It says the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. Thanks again. Share it with somebody who this can be an encouragement to. We'll see you right here next time.
Speaker 1:God bless you, we love you.