Pastor to Pastor
This podcast is dedicated to iron sharpening iron, current events, and culture trends. You will hear pastors perspectives on a variety of topics including leadership development, evangelism, outreach and so much more.
Pastor to Pastor
The Difference Between Good and GOD
The episode explores the distinction between what is perceived as 'good' and what aligns with God's will, urging listeners to rethink their pursuits and priorities. Through biblical narratives and practical applications, we challenge the audience to understand the consequences of chasing what seems good without seeking divine guidance.
• Differentiating good from God
• The significance of a father's perspective
• The pursuit of fulfillment vs. spiritual calling
• Proverbs 14:12 as a guiding principle
• Renewing the mind for deeper understanding
• The temptation and deception of the enemy
• The danger of distractions in spiritual life
• Finding blessings amidst what we lack
May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you His favor and give you peace.
it's another episode of pastor the pastor I wasn't sure who was gonna open it.
Speaker 2:This time we didn't even talk about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, you were just gonna do it. It's gonna happen.
Speaker 2:It's somebody gonna grab this thing and drive it then I'll tell you, bro, welcome to another episode of pastor the pastor and I didn't throw any any, any crazy no crazy words, it was just I was trying to figure it out.
Speaker 1:But you know, it's kind of funny, though we're talking about, talking about how we open up. Man, when I open up service today, you should have seen people's faces, because what we do here at cross point is I, like you know, it talks about it, um, in the old testament, talks about how they would stand for the reading of the word, and so that's what we do here. So whenever I open up service, we do worship, we do announcements, we do all these different things, and then people are kind of sitting while we dismiss kids at children's church doing those things. And then, whenever we get ready to read the word, I'm like all right, stand with me, let's turn here. So today we went back to Matthew 4, 18 through 22, where we talk about Jesus calling them off the boat and I was talking about the dad's perspective.
Speaker 1:But anyway, whenever we got done reading that scripture Matthew 4, 18 through 22, I said now look at your neighbor and say good ain't God? Oh, watch out now. And they were, bro. You should have seen the confusion that came across. People, I said only like a couple of people. They were like good ain't God.
Speaker 2:Hold on now.
Speaker 1:Pastor, hold on, and we know God is good all the time and all the time God is good.
Speaker 2:That's right, but he's the only thing that's good. That's a sign if somebody has been churched their whole life.
Speaker 1:They know that God is good all the time saying I've seen that that, uh, that meme of uh talking about how you find a pentecostal and when they're hiding in a house, are you do a?
Speaker 2:shout, god is good. And they'll say all the time gotcha, hide and seek gotcha. That's what I need to do, yeah, but uh.
Speaker 1:So when I I said that we're trying to open up here, man, when I opened up service this morning, this look came across people's faces like that's hilarious. What is he saying?
Speaker 2:right now. Keep them on their toes. Don't let them ever know what your next step is.
Speaker 1:You know that's what you do. I mean, god led them by a cloud during the day and a pillar of fire by night. That's right.
Speaker 2:So they had to follow him. They didn't know where he was going or when he was going to.
Speaker 1:But you know, hey, anyway, you know, you just got to follow, you just got to go. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 1:Anyway, let's move on to this thing, man.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about your message today and let's hear what you share with people. You just heard how it started. That's what we're getting to.
Speaker 1:That's where I was headed, there, I know.
Speaker 2:I was, you know, starting to to change.
Speaker 1:All right, man, let's dig into it. So we did obviously really what it was the difference between good and god, like. Like, we have this, this horrible perception, man, of what is good for us, and so that's really honestly, kind of what the meat of the sermon was today. I went back over that scripture in Matthew because, you know, I just preached on that exact same scripture, just preached on that last week, when we were talking about God calling the disciples off the boats and they would leave their nets. And they left the boat and they left their father. And I said, you know, it's interesting. And they left the boat and they left their father. And I said, you know it's interesting, we get excited thinking about leaving nets, leaving the boat, leaving their father.
Speaker 1:I said, but we covered the disciples' perspective, we covered Jesus' perspective of calling them off the boat, but we didn't cover the father's perspective. And I said, you know the father, I'm a dad, right, and I know when I was raised by my dad, you stayed until the work was done and you didn't go nowhere. And if work wasn't done, guess what, you weren't done either, and so that's what we did. We worked, and so I talked about the fathers on the boat wondering and Scripture doesn't tell us this, so it was more kind of subjective conversation was could you imagine dads being on the boat watching their sons go follow this guy named jesus and all they know? I would assume god has already done at this point in time, jesus has already done some works in the area of galilee, and so that I'd imagine dad being up on the boat, them leaving the boat. They literally left the work, they left the boat, left the fight, their their left the boat, left their earthly father's business, left their fathers on the boat.
Speaker 1:I could just imagine being dad standing there looking at all these nets that now he's there by himself. He had some sons working with him and then now he's the one who's got to mend the nets and he's the one who's got to do all the fishing and he's got to be wondering what are they chasing after? He was like I don't know when are you going, but these nets ain't going to mend themselves, that's right, yeah. And then I just asked the question how many times have we chased after things? Now, obviously we know that they chased after the right thing. We know that on this side of it, but in the moment. I just asked him the question how many times have we chased after things that weren't God?
Speaker 2:but we thought were good.
Speaker 1:And so I just kind of placed myself and the Father in those Zibbity's shoes right, and Peter and Andrew, and I just kind of placed myself in their Father's position, just like man. Here they go again chasing after something. And so I wondered I just submitted that question how many times have we chased after things that weren't God but we thought were good? And then could it be possible that they chased after some other things at some point that brought them back to the boat when they realized that it failed? Almost like the prodigal. In reverse, it's like the prodigal went chasing after a good time and at the end of the good time it wasn't good, no more. What he thought was good, what he wanted, brought him right back to where he tried to run from. And so that's what I shared about us man, about, look, understanding that there's nothing else to chase after. God is the reward, God is our blessing, our portion, and so if we're chasing after anything other than God, it's not good. That's right. And so that's really kind of what I opened it up, man, I said, uh, in proverbs, hold on, let me hit him real quick, come on back to bible we had to put him on the bible right so we looked
Speaker 1:at uh proverbs 14, 12. It says there's a way that seems right to a man. It seems right. There's a way that seems right to a man. It seems right. There's a way that seems right, it seems good, come on now. But its end is the way of death. You talking right, and so how many times right? In the midst of most of the time, we don't even seek God's counsel for situations. We don't ask him for anything, we just move forward, doing whatever it is that we want to do, and we ask God to bless yeah, bless our mess right, yeah, that's right. Lord, I know you didn't get me here, but meanwhile the Word of God is telling us something, the complete opposite, and it's really. I hit on that as well. I'm like how many of us are in relationships right now because we didn't want to be lonely and we're putting up with mess that we wouldn't normally put up with because we're not trusting God? And there's so many.
Speaker 1:That's just one of so many different areas of our lives where we chase after something we think is good, but it's not God. And so the moment we made a decision to follow Jesus, to ask him to be Lord over our life and master over our life, was the moment we said you know what? I realize that my ways are erred, they're flawed, they're not good, and you're taking up Christ's ways in the scripture and how he tells us to live our lives. But a lot of times we want God to have the key to the house, but we don't let him in the house. Oh, that's right, the key to certain rooms yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:We'll let you in the nice rooms.
Speaker 2:Not the closet.
Speaker 1:We shoved everything in Right before you got there, yeah, and so really trying to make that difference between what is good in our flesh and what is right with God. Romans 12, 1 through 2 says Paul talks about the renewing of your mind, and I broke this word down down, I'll share it with you. Says I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of god, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable to the god, which is your reasonable service. Verse two says and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God, like that becoming a Christian. Is that renewing of your mind that the sanctification of the saints is realizing that the old way that I used to think of things the money, the relationships, the houses, the cars, all those things that I thought were the American dream man is a nightmare. Really is, is a is a nightmare.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Really honestly compared to God Like our. Our goal isn't to obtain more property, is to obtain more God. That that should be. Our goal as Christians is. You know what you could fill a bank account. All you want, at the end of the day, Two things. One is getting rich. Don't fix a spinning habit, right, no? And two, you can't take it with you when you leave.
Speaker 2:I mean, how many times does Scripture say keep your eye on the unseen, look for the unseen things in this world. Don't pursue the things that you see, because the things you see are what Temporal?
Speaker 1:Right, they rust. They're here today and on tomorrow.
Speaker 2:It's amazing how this American dream has you chasing things that will soon disappear.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dream has you chasing things that will soon disappear. Yeah, it comes, it comes to. What comes to mind for me is we talk about india oftentimes. We go there and we say how um poverty stricken they are.
Speaker 1:According, to the earth according to the world, but how rich they are according to the spirit yeah, um, even though walking miles just to hear the word yeah I mean and and seeing god move and answer prayer and heal and save and do all the things that God does over there, when those people gather together in his name versus those who are and I talk about being overly blessed and I'll kind of get to some of that. But when we talk about this renewing of the mind, in that scripture it says that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. That word prove in there in the Greek. I'm going to see if I can pronounce this again. I butchered it during service.
Speaker 2:You butchered good English.
Speaker 1:Hey, you know, that's just.
Speaker 2:I am who I am.
Speaker 1:But dokimazo is the Hebrew word for prove, and it means that we may test the things that seem good. It means test or discern. So what we're trying to do here, what I was trying to capture in this sermon, was we need to be renewing our mind, getting away from the old self and the old way of life and the way that the culture says we should change things, the way flesh says we should change things, and we should renew our mind to the way Christ says we should be, what he says we should chase how we should live and then, when it comes to a moment because we're horrible at discerning the difference between good and God, when it comes to the moment that we can't discern, we should be seeking God's face. When it comes to the moment that we can't discern, we should be seeking.
Speaker 1:God's face and by the renewing of our mind we will be able to better test and discern moments, the difference between good and God. And then here it says but because what right doesn't always look and good isn't always right. And then we get to 2 Corinthians, 11.3, and Paul's concern for the church in Corinth was, he says but I fear at least somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds will become corrupt from the simplicity that is in Christ. And so even Paul's concern for the Corinthian church was that you're going to be deceived. Someone's going to show up and someone's going to twist some words. Someone's going to show up and going to make you doubt, or someone's going to show up and say something that is contrary to the word of God, and you're going to become deceived.
Speaker 1:And man I talked about this because we have had this conversation before there are people out there who say that you are saved and you just don't know it yet. And there are people who say that you are, that Paul's gospel isn't the right gospel, that Paul got it wrong, but Paul wrote most of the New Testament. I mean, there are people who say that Paul wasn't preaching the same thing that Jesus was preaching and I said you know what? That's? The Antichrist spirit. That is the exact same spirit that deceived Eve in the garden.
Speaker 1:And I said that's what his worry was with the church in Corinth. Was that what you're being told? The simplicity of the gospel? I'm afraid you're going to become contaminated, your mind is going to be corrupted. You're going to listen to some of this nonsense being taught and then you're going to go after these things instead of what Christ tells us to go after and how he says we should live our life. And so that's exactly what happened to Eve. I mean, I said, if you are here, it's like this If someone tells you that Scripture ain't right, there's nothing else we need to talk about. I'm not entertaining a conversation with the enemy, because if you are having that conversation about how scripture's flawed, scripture ain't right or whatever the case is, Eve allowed the serpent to have that conversation with her.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, proverbs says, to argue with a fool makes you one. Well come on somebody.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, look, I don't have time, I'm not going to entertain a conversation with antichrist. Yeah, and when you entertain the conversation, that scripture isn't accurate. That's exactly what you're doing, right, and so that's exactly what happened with eve. Um, that's how she was deceived. The enemy twisted the words of god. In genesis 2, 9 it says and we kind of went into the difference between between good and god some more. But but in Genesis 2, 9, it says and out of the ground, the Lord, god made every tree. Come on, touch your neighbor. Say every tree.
Speaker 2:Every tree hey.
Speaker 1:And made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Speaker 1:Right garden and the tree of knowledge, of good and evil. Right. So there are about. There are over 20 000 trees that are on the earth today that you can eat from, that you can either eat its leaves, its bark or you can eat something from it. There are hundreds and hundreds of trees that actually produce fruit that you can eat from um, you would know that, by the way.
Speaker 1:I like to eat. But the interesting thing is God made these thousands of trees and it says he made every tree that was pleasant in the sight and good and he put them in the garden. And so you're telling me, if God made all those different trees, he made every tree, placed it in the garden and an enemy shows up and says but that one tree.
Speaker 1:There's that one, there's just that one tree, there'd be one, there's thousands. Even though God said in the day that you eat of it, you'll surely die. Enemy shows up and says, but will you really die? And then leaves. That's, all he had to do was plant that seed. That's why I said don't even have a conversation with him, because there's no room for doubt in your fellowship with God. And so anyway, it says the the god said that was the word of god. If you eat you, if you eat from the tree, you're gonna die. And then he shows up and says the opposite.
Speaker 1:And then in then genesis 3, 6, she ends up deceived. It says so when the woman saw the tree was good for food. Now, how is that possible? Because it was just death. The tree was just associated with death. If you eat of it, you'll die. And then now the enemy's got her looking at the tree and oh, the tree's good for food. Right, the tree's pleasant to the eyes, the tree is desirable is how she saw it. To make one wise. All of a sudden, the tree that was going to kill you now becomes a tree that you say is good and desirable and profits you something and makes you like God. And makes you like God, right? She started thinking that, well, maybe God's withholding something from her.
Speaker 2:That's what Satan said. He said if you do, you'll be like God. You'll see what he sees. Yeah, Be like God, you'll see what he sees.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then, all of a sudden, the one tree that represented death now became good and pleasant and desirable to her. What was once death is now something she desired, and so that's what the enemy does. He planted the seed and walked away, and, all of a sudden, all those hundreds, all those thousands of trees that were her blessing, she didn't even see anymore. I would imagine what the—we can only imagine what the garden looked like we can only imagine.
Speaker 1:Anyway, there are these trees, right? Can you imagine being so focused on the one tree that you walk through all the other trees not paying them any attention? And I said that we do that today. We think so much about what we don't have that we're having to move the branches of the blessings that we walk under just to get to the one thing we don't have. I don't know. That's what we covered today, man. We were talking about how poorly we discern the difference between good and God.
Speaker 2:Why do you think we're so easily distracted? It's like we have all we ever need, but it's still not enough. It's like we've got to chase one more thing, one more thing, one more thing, while neglecting the miracles and the blessings that we have every day. We get so distracted, yeah so just did you stop I mean, we just get so distracted.
Speaker 2:Why are we so easily distracted? I mean? I mean it's. It's amazing, now that you break it down like that, you know eve had all these things is, and how easily she got twisted in focusing on one thing that she couldn't have. That's it.
Speaker 1:But how often do we do the same thing? We get so focused on that one thing we don't have, that we don't even see all the blessings. We literally have to move blessings out of the way to chase after what God told us wasn't good for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know, man, that renewal of the mind man keeps us and it's a daily renewal, man, Because he's always going to try to come at your mind, because if he can get your mind, the mind you think. This is what I told before Before someone ends up committing murder, they thought about it. Right, if you can change the way you think, you can change the way you act. And it's a consistently renewing your mind, changing the way you think, and the enemy is going to try to entice us every way we can. That's what Scripture says Don't ever think that the Lord tempted you. It was your own self that enticed you with your flesh. It enticed you. Your flesh enticed you. And who entices your flesh? The enemy. The enemy knows what your flesh desires.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I use this as an example. You know there are a little ditty about jack and diane, right, all these songs are going through my head right now but there you think about the, the, for example, these couples. Right, you start dating somebody and they're interested in whatever the case is, and then you're like you know what, you pay rent and I pay rent. I got netflix. You got your dad's log into hulu I mean you know?
Speaker 1:whatever it is, you know, and so we look at you. Know you, you do. You pay for lights, I pay for lights. You pay water, I pay. Well, you know, we know we're gonna get married. Why don't we just move in together?
Speaker 1:yeah, we'll cut down on the expenses and then you know we'll just start saving up together to prepare for our for when we do get married right. And then you, so you perceive that as good, thinking that you're building something. And then you end up in a relationship doing things that only married people should do, and you thought that was good. When god says, fornicators will find themselves in a lake of fire, Come on, they don't want to hear that, bro.
Speaker 2:I know, I know, I know. Here's the thing.
Speaker 1:I'm a holiness preacher.
Speaker 2:I preach holiness. I'm sorry, we just preaching the Bible, preaching the Bible. Get them back to the Bible. Yes, back to the Bible.
Speaker 1:But you see how easily we are swayed by what we think is good, but it's not God.
Speaker 2:And we can convince ourselves. You know, this is good for me. We can talk ourselves into doing sin. Oh, you can talk yourself right into it, Into making bad decisions.
Speaker 1:You ain't even got to have to. You're right, just that scripture you shared. You don't even have to have the devil whisper in your ear.
Speaker 2:It's your own fleshly desires that are enticing you. Exactly, you, exactly. And then you start serving yourself instead of serving god, you start serving your flesh instead of serving the spirit, and so you find yourself cannot satisfy your flesh while trying to be led by the spirit.
Speaker 1:Nope, it's kind. They're contrary to each other, they're always fighting each other and anyway. So that's kind of what we were talking about today. Man, I'm like the ability to discern the difference between good and god is. It's not always as easy and cut and dry, but you have to follow the word of god. That's why. That's why it's what he forgot, she forgot the, she negated and the enemy, she allowed the enemy to do that in her head. She, her mind, was corrupted when she started doubting that what god said in the day you eat of it, you, you will surely die. And then we have to start renewing our minds by reading the Word of God and realizing that God cannot lie. He can't. I don't care how much society wants you to make you think it's good, I don't care how much your flesh thinks you. There are people, and I think we've all at some point in our lives been guilty. Well, I can just ask for forgiveness. It doesn't work that way.
Speaker 2:Grace doesn't cover willful seeking. You can't have the just do it and ask for forgiveness later. Mentality Absolutely not. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so I don't know, man, In fact, it's so hard to discern the difference between good and God. I looked at King Solomon. Whenever God come up to him in a vision, in a dream, and God's like I'll give you whatever you want, and he's like I just want the wisdom to be able to judge rightly between good and evil, how deceived we can be into thinking that something is really good for us, but it's not. It's not what God has planned for us.
Speaker 2:Everything good ain't God.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir. So when they said that, when they realized at the end of what I was talking about, I think everybody finally, got it. They weren't just standing there like with deer in the headlights man, I think it finally made sense.
Speaker 2:I like that. Everything good ain't god, you know. We tell, we tell our people even in our when we're trying to cast vision and things like. We don't want a good idea, we want god's idea. That's it. We don't want a good plan, we want god's plan for our life, and sometimes we can settle for good thinking. It's god. When good gets us complacent, that's right. And uh, it's hard to be complacent when you're pursuing god, because things always change. God's always leading you to grow. You're not growing. You might be living into good things and not the god things of your life.
Speaker 1:That's it and you'll end up if you're not ascending. I think, man, if you're not chasing after god, you're. If you're not being obedient, you're being disobedient. There's no in between for me partial obedience is disobedience if you're not chasing after god man, and so I wrapped up and I was like um so make sure, if you're, if you, if you're leaving the boat, you're leaving it for god that's right not for any, not just another good idea that's right, I love it, man.
Speaker 2:Anyway, brother, that's what we talked about over here at the cross points and uh, I know your people were blessed, bro and a good perspective from the father. Nobody considers the father's perspective of what they're leading for leading for something good or a God thing. And yeah, that's awesome. You ready for me to bless them? Go ahead and bless them, we're going to bless you. We do this every time at the end of our podcast. We believe there's some favor in this passage. Right here it's Numbers, chapter 6, the priestly blessing. May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you his favor and give you peace. Thank you so much for taking time to listen or to watch it. Please share with somebody. Hope this encourage you. We'll see you right here later on this week for another episode.
Speaker 1:God bless you. We'll check you next time.
