Misplaced Faith - Episode 8

You are misplacing your faith...and you don't even realize it.

It's more important now than ever that we put our trust in the right places, the right people, and the right things. 

Where have you been putting your faith?? 

What really is faith?? 

In this episode, we are going to look into recognizing and reclaiming our faith the right way.  Don shares personal anecdotes of transformation through faith, illustrating how changes in our beliefs lead to profound changes in our behavior and attitude.  Justin explains ways we can leverage faith when navigating all of life's challenges and offers a new perspective for anyone led down the wrong path. 

Transcript

[00:00:00] Justin: Hi Everyone! This is Justin Olbrantz

[00:00:33] Don:, and this is Don Schaefer, 

[00:00:36] Justin: and you are listening to The Wise and the Wandering Podcast. For those who know the way, and for those who are led astray. And if you feel like you fall into either of those categories, Then you're in the right place. So let's dive in.

[00:00:51] Justin: So Don, what are we gonna talk 

[00:00:53] Don: about today? Well, Justin, I think we'll talk about misplaced faith. 

[00:00:59] Justin: Yeah, I think [00:01:00] that sounds good. And what do you mean by 

[00:01:01] Don: misplaced faith? Well, I think faith is an element that people have in their life And a lot of times people are lacking it and it affects us in so many different ways I mean we can go on the spiritual side, which I think we'll talk a lot about here In this podcast, but there's an element of faith that's needed in a person's life for everything they do as far as their work, as far as their activities, everything that they're involved in.

[00:01:28] Don: It requires some type of faith and confidence in themselves, and a lot of times we live life and we're lacking it. Our faith is just not where it needs to be, and we struggle because it affects all areas of our life. So I'm hoping today to be able to discuss a little bit about what it is and how we can acquire it in our life and what it can bless our life to be if we can allow it to do that.

[00:01:54] Don: Yeah, 

[00:01:55] Justin: and I think that when I came up with the concept with this, it was that I feel like [00:02:00] the notion is that faith is misplaced. So people are putting their faith. And not always, it's not always the case, but I feel like there's a lot of places that people are putting their faith to get , a certain desired outcome, and they're not getting it 

[00:02:17] Justin: they're not having the right faith, or they're not doing it the right way. Because I think you can't even come to God to begin with without having faith. Right, right. I think that's the beginning of your faith. Faith is, in my opinion, it's seeing in the spirit.

[00:02:33] Justin: Mm hmm. In the spiritual realm, yep, yep. And it says in the Bible that faith is the substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things unseen, you know, faith is the medium by which the power of God is made visible to 

[00:02:49] Don: us. Yes. Yeah. And that's where I know faith itself is such a delicate part in our life.

[00:02:56] Don: I always tell people the belief process, the faith [00:03:00] process, this stuff here, we live in a world a lot of times that destroys that faith, or we never developed it in different areas. Because I know the Bible talks a little bit about faith coming by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And a lot of our, uh, faith in God and the things of God comes from hearing people talk about the Word of God and explaining it and us getting to a point where we believe it.

[00:03:22] Don: And this is something that should start at an early age in a person's life. But a lot of times people are lacking in this because nobody's ever taken the time to really explain what God is all about and what he wants to do in our lives. So it's hard for people to believe in something that they can't see, but yet people say it's supposed to be there.

[00:03:42] Don: But if we can develop that faith, we can develop that belief, and I always mention that it has to be protected, because there's so much doubt that gets cast into a person's life, and that destroys everything for a person. A lot of times it's even The natural careers, abilities, whatever, [00:04:00] it's always doubt that slips in.

[00:04:01] Don: You can be so excited one day and wake up the next morning. Sometimes I've said this, Justin, that eight hours does something to a person because I've already experienced people that were so believing in something and you give them eight hours and they wake up and all of a sudden they don't believe it anymore.

[00:04:18] Don: What happened during those eight hours? You know, they were all pumped up at one time. Yeah, what happened, 

[00:04:24] Justin: right? And I think that, I think, when it comes to kind of having faith is don't just believe in it, but believe it in Oh, yeah, so believe it in.

[00:04:36] Justin: That's good, right? And I think you know faith is another way of saying like trust It's like a personal confidence that you have in the Lord and his ways even in the dark times Yes, which is tough to say The Bible talks about faith as being a mustard seed. Right. And, and just having little faith. Yeah, it gets bigger.

[00:04:56] Justin: When, when you have little faith in things, and you are [00:05:00] faithful, I believe that God will trust you in a larger way, to have a larger responsibility. Yeah. And, and will entrust you, to do more. And, uh, as long as you're obedient, right? That's right. And I think that A good question I would want to ask you, Don, because I often wonder this with people.

[00:05:22] Justin: Does God exist for us, or do we exist for 

[00:05:27] Don: God? Okay, I, I believe that, um, we exist for God. You know, uh, God, I believe that is the case as well. I, yeah, I think God created all of us to love Him and, He has a whole whole bunch that he wants to give us and do in our lives, but he uses an element, a pathway, and it is faith.

[00:05:46] Don: It is something where someone believes. It's amazing sometimes, because I don't know where everybody's at, but, you know, I can go back to times where I believed. where I heard something and I believed it. And it seemed to [00:06:00] change my whole outlook because it's amazing the tool the element God uses with faith because all of a sudden he gets you to hear different, he gets you to see different, he gets you to experience things different.

[00:06:11] Don: Everything kind of takes a whole new life. Because faith is the avenue that God uses to be able to bring things to us and develop things in our life. And like I say, there's so much doubt in this world right now because we have a, a worldly wisdom. We believe in science. We believe in a lot of things, but we don't believe in the principles of God and what God would want to do.

[00:06:34] Don: And I've said this from the very beginning that, if God doesn't exist, this is insanity. Because everybody's born into this world. And everybody has to die. So what's the purpose? You know, what's the reason behind all that? But God I do believe has an avenue and it's believing and trusting in him and , he's given all of us an opportunity to hear about this and to be able to bring it into our lives and [00:07:00] and Prove it real.

[00:07:01] Don: Prove it real in what you do in your life. Because I know so many times, um, people get, I've talked about this before, people build their faith into the yellow pages. This is going back a ways, but we used to have telephone books with yellow pages. So whenever I had a problem, I didn't have to worry about taking anything to God.

[00:07:21] Don: I just take it to the yellow pages. So I figured that man always had an answer to solve my issues and problems, but the Bible says we need to take this stuff to him and have faith in him. And this is a whole new avenue, but it's an eternal pathway that God has given us because he really does love each and every one of us.

[00:07:41] Don: He wants to do great things, but we have to develop a faith to be able to reach that point in him. Yeah, 

[00:07:46] Justin: we definitely have to, there is a point of development, and I think, with the notion of misplaced faith, I think you've, you see this in like, religious expressions as well, there's kind of a vacuum there. [00:08:00] Because we have people that really believe in spirituality.

[00:08:06] Justin: They believe in everything now. There's so many, you can go, you can go to topics, you can go to genre of spirituality, and There's so much there that people are just believing in everything now, but There's a vacuum there because their their faith is not in the right place Yeah, their faith is not behind the right source.

[00:08:24] Justin: Like we've talked about before This is true So we think we can trust in the presence of something While paying no attention to what God is actually calling us to do and I don't want to harp on people But we're placing faith in our actions Rather than being obedient to what God is calling us to do.

[00:08:44] Justin: Yeah, we think that because and I think there's there's a vacuum right there It at least creates a vacuum because by nature Especially with you know in terms of the wandering we were rebellious people We're [00:09:00] disobedient and we're lost.

[00:09:01] Justin: Yes, and when you keep misplacing your faith in certain programs or people or music TV shows, etc The result is that it keeps you in your current state because you are not being made new right, right so your subconscious mind starts to take in whatever you are putting your faith into and Because there is only one true source where your faith can be founded You remain stuck and wandering right because I think to be completely honest with you don I think that we were made to worship.

[00:09:37] Justin: We were created to worship Yeah, god made us in the image to worship him. Yep And instead I think there's so many things out there now because of this vacuum. There's so many things That people do worship, and they might not consider it worshiping, but people really do worship artists, and musicians, and actors, and movies.

[00:09:59] Justin: I don't even like the [00:10:00] term worship music sometimes. Because worship music, it seems like All other music besides worship music is also worship music.

[00:10:09] Justin: Are you, is that not what you're doing when you're listening to these bands and you have, you know, you have their tattoos on you and you have, you have like the, the names on t shirts and sweatshirts and things in your room? Is that, I feel like you kind of are worshiping in a sense. 

[00:10:25] Don: Something. 

[00:10:26] Justin: Right. And we're putting our faith into certain things.

[00:10:29] Justin: When we're going to go watch a certain program or we're going to go on Netflix and go watch a certain show, we're putting faith into that because we want us, we want an expected outcome. We know if I watch this, this is how I want to feel afterward. And I feel like because of that, that misplaced faith, we're never, Getting enough in return because we're not putting our faith in the right things.

[00:10:50] Justin: Yeah, it's not producing fruit that's just kind of keeping us in this in this cycle in this repetition and of and I would say It gets lost [00:11:00] because there's almost too many choices We live in a world full of choices, which makes it so easy to get lost Yeah, 

[00:11:07] Don: and that's where I know too, you know, because the bible says that without faith it's impossible to please god And so he's created us in such a way where it takes faith to please him And when you talked about wandering a minute or two ago You know, it kind of brings my thought back to the israel when they came out of egypt And they came across they opened up the red sea.

[00:11:30] Don: They got you know Past all that, and God was about to bring them into a promised land, flowing with milk and honey, everything they would ever want, and he sent out some spies, some spies there, and there was, like, ten of them, and they came back, and only two of them, Joshua and Caleb, Believed that God could do this and the rest of them cast doubt upon all of them And there was possibly two or three million Israelites out in that wilderness But there was enough doubt [00:12:00]to be shared by everyone and it was only Joshua and Caleb that entered into that promised land God got rid of all of them in the wilderness because it required one element in a Required faith and that's where in our life, you know, we live in a society today that because Bible says faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God So the Word of God has got to be spoken and like Justin had mentioned it isn't the works we do It's the faith we have, you know in James it says you show me your faith by your works I will show you My faith by the things that I do and we have to realize we walk in faith And I know myself i've experienced a number of individuals That came and crossed the word of god and changed everything And the beauty of a faith in god is the fact that all of a sudden you have peace you have joy you have assurance You know, God does something inside you, but it is something that has to be grown.

[00:12:52] Don: Faith, as Justin had mentioned, is a lot like a mustard seed. It starts off very small, but it has to be exercised, and it has to be [00:13:00] grown, and it gets stronger and stronger. And the stronger we have our faith in Him, the more peace we have, the more we realize that God really is in control. God really does have a plan for each and every one of us, but it takes our faith in God to get God involved in the game.

[00:13:18] Don: God doesn't sit there and mess around and, and get involved in games until we first believe. And that's where one, a spoken word is so powerful because it's seeds of truth. It gets planted in a person. A person believes that, you know, and the Bible even talks about. People come into God as a child, children are believers, you know, when they're young, they believe everything that's told to them.

[00:13:42] Don: And I, I tell people a lot of times, be careful what you tell me, cause I'm a believer, you know, don't tell me any lies because I might believe you in this. But you know, and that's where it's very, we live in a world right now with a lot of lies and it's interesting if you get into the Bible, you realize that God has created [00:14:00] himself into a position where He can only tell the truth.

[00:14:04] Don: God can't lie. He has gotten himself to the point where he is all truth. Jesus says I am the truth the life and the way there is no lies But then he goes on and says our devil the satan is the father of all lies So I myself live in a world if I can find lies and I know where it's coming from, but I look forward to the Word of God and the things of God because this is where truth comes from.

[00:14:30] Don: And this is something that builds us and something that opens up our lives so that we can be blessed in so many ways. And we need to realize that God really does want to bless us. You know, and the Bible even talks about, like in the book of Jude, talks about praying. It talks about praying in the Holy Ghost, that our faith might be strong, that we might be able to build up our faith.

[00:14:52] Don: And, I know myself, I tell people, faith, ideas, all this stuff, a lot of times it's got a life [00:15:00] expectancy. It doesn't last forever, it's got to be nurtured, it's got to be fed. Because if it isn't, it's very easily destroyed and so many people could be in such great spots in this life right now if they could have only developed a good, strong, and solid faith.

[00:15:17] Don: And I know myself, any Person has been raised in a family that they've been taught the things of God, you know The things of God have been shared with them. They developed a faith from early on what a blessing that is But I do know that if a person has not heard anything about God that God can tap into that And you just take a word of truth and you start believing and you start talking to God And asking God to build your faith That God can do miraculous things in your life and can completely change how you see life and how you experience life and give you tremendous hope in life.

[00:15:55] Justin: Yeah. And he can move mountains with that faith. He can move mountains and develop that [00:16:00] faith. And the reason I asked you that question before, just kind of going back to does God exist for us or do we exist for God, is because again, when it comes to the notion of misplaced faith, I feel sometimes like.

[00:16:12] Justin: People think that God just exists for us. I feel like , as a society, we've become a lot less religious, but , way more spiritual. And I think that people are looking all over the place to try to fill that gap with whatever they can to give them that understanding, , to try to find that truth.

[00:16:36] Justin: They're looking, you know, we've talked about this before. They're looking on all the wrong places for the truth and the way. Yeah. Not finding the source, the person who told them he's the truth, the way and the life. Yeah. And they're they're putting their faith while they're doing this and all these places trying to find the truth, trying to find. The meaning of life, trying to find their purpose, right? Yeah. But [00:17:00] I feel like God has become, not to say we're a godless society, but I feel like God has become kind of like a cheerleader to us. You know, 

[00:17:09] Justin: I feel like sometimes. Yeah. Yeah, but we feel that we can just call upon him as necessary That he's duty bound whenever we need him And that's why I feel like I'm saying like almost like he exists for us and not the other way around You know, we like to have I was saying about this before about you know, but we like to have just a little bit of religion in our lives We think he's pleased with the once a week ritual Yeah, and I think that's another way that our faith is misplaced because we're not being obedient We're not we're not having a personal confidence in him We're not giving him trust in all of our circumstances and all of our situations And that's why it's not, it's not developing us the way that I believe that.

[00:17:56] Justin: We should be developing as believers in a sense 

[00:17:59] Don: [00:18:00] that is true And I know in the Bible it says trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on to your own Understanding and all your ways acknowledge him and he will set your path straight That's what I'm saying in all your ways all your ways, you know, and that's we're trusting in the Lord with all your heart Okay, what does anybody do with all their heart, you know, I think this is you know to have hope in life To have hope for the future, to have hope in everything in dealing with life, one has to have a faith in God, and to be able to trust God, and develop a relationship with Him, to know that the Bible calls Him our Heavenly Father, the one that would father us, the one that would nurture us, the one that knows our needs.

[00:18:44] Don: You know, a lot of times in life without God, it becomes hopeless, and a lot of times people will struggle with Depression and anxieties and all this sort of thing and I know that having a life Seeking after God and developing a faith [00:19:00] in God Changes everything we can walk in life. We don't have to struggle in life and that's where we gain our wisdom In God and I know even Jesus when he was on this earth with his disciples He used to say all the time Oh ye of little faith, you know All of a sudden the storms would come up and he'd calm the sea or whatever it was or you know He'd be sure he'd be saying oh ye of little faith You know, develop a faith and trust in me because I care for you.

[00:19:28] Don: I know the Bible even says, cast your cares upon me for I care for you. And how he wants us to develop a faith in doing that. And a lot of times we struggle with that. And one thing that's really interesting to me, Justin, this is adding a little bit to it, but um, I know the disciples, there was one individual that was sick.

[00:19:47] Don: And the Bible says he had a demon or whatever, you know? And a lot of times we can have , problems and issues. Well, they were praying for this kid and, and it wasn't happening. It just wasn't happening. And all of a sudden Jesus comes along [00:20:00] and he says, you know, in the name of Jesus, be free.

[00:20:02] Don: I'll set you free. And then all the disciples say, what was the matter with us? You know? Yeah. And Jesus says, this kind kind comes up. They're perplexed. Yeah. This kind comes out. through prayer and fasting. So it talks about developing a faith that is developed through prayer, through reaching out to Him.

[00:20:20] Don: And when we talk about daily seeking after God, like you talked about the once a week, uh, you know, spending an hour or so, and then being covered for the next week. But you know, a person Yeah, that was just me venting 

[00:20:32] Justin: a little 

[00:20:32] Don: bit. But a person having faith in God We'll realize that God needs to be a part of their game every day.

[00:20:39] Don: You know, we need to get him a part. Because if I am going to walk and seek after the things of God with my whole heart. This isn't a once in a while type situation. This is something where I hunger. You know, and I, I read stories and I experience things in life too. , you need to develop a hunger for the things of God.

[00:20:58] Don: And I know in the world we live [00:21:00] in today, there's so many things that try to satisfy that hunger in different ways. We've got all kinds of entertainments and foods and you name it, you know, I mean, it's all you have to do is every day figure out what am I going to do? Maybe I'll go to this movie someplace or I'll go to a ball game or something like that.

[00:21:17] Don: A lot of times people struggle in life because they're very hungry, but they don't know what they're hungry for. And Jesus is wanting to be the source. He calls himself the bread that cometh. down from heaven, just like in the natural, in the wilderness, there was a bread of life every day had to be renewed every day.

[00:21:35] Don: They couldn't save it up. It would be spoiled. It was a bread that came down from heaven. Jesus said, I am the bread of life. You know, I've come to nurture you. I've come to give you , water to drink. I come to fill you with every need that you possibly have. But we need the hunger and thirst after the right things.

[00:21:53] Don: And a lot of times people struggle in life. They might have lots of money. They might have fancy cars, houses, [00:22:00] families and everything. But they're lacking. They're lacking one thing and that's a faith in Jesus Christ. And therefore there's a hunger inside them. And they will never know until they tap into that and reach out and say, Hey, Lord, I'm here, and I'm opening up my life to you, and I want you to be a part of me, and I want to be able to live for you.

[00:22:19] Don: And I remember a story, if I can share this, Justin. This goes back into the 1800s. It goes back in the 1800s. It was a man named George Mueller, and uh, he was born in 1805 and he lived to 92 years but he was an evangelist and, but young on, he believed in God. He realized God was real, so he went around and he ministered to people, talking about the love of Jesus, how they needed Jesus in their life.

[00:22:46] Don: And, , he went beyond all that, because he, he realized that a lot of people can say, Yeah, we need Jesus and all that stuff, but he realized there was a lack of faith. And in those days, this was in England, in those days they had orphanages. So [00:23:00] people who were poor and had many kids or whatever, They would give their kids over to orphanages because they couldn't feed them.

[00:23:06] Don: It was very poor in those days. And so he would take on these kids but inside this orphanage he Had a pack with god. He said I will not ask anybody for anything as far as resources So he would pray for everything. He says I am going to prove god I am going to prove that faith in god and prayer is going to fulfill every need for every child in this orphanage And Story goes that there was milk trucks that would drop off, uh, milk and there was bread from, uh, places.

[00:23:39] Don: He didn't Incredible. He had every need, uh, met and I read the history of this guy and the number they gave was 10, 024 orphans went through his orphanage. That's a 

[00:23:50] Justin: pretty specific number. Yes. 

[00:23:51] Don: 024. Wow. But the key to a lot of this is 10, 024 got to experience [00:24:00] what it was to have faith in God, you know, and that's where today, I don't think we have a lot of examples in that.

[00:24:06] Don: I know going on in his life, , he established Christian schools. And they, account him for approximately 120, 000 souls that came to a place where they could place their trust and faith in God. Which I think in our society is lacking. Because if we need milk, we go to the store.

[00:24:26] Don: We, you know, I mean, we, we We find sources and resources, but how many times are there needs that our heavenly father wants to give? I know I read a uh heard a story one time about this guy that died and went to heaven And peter met him at the gate and peter took him on a tour and he took him in an area And he showed them warehouses, and they walked through these warehouses, and they were just packed with stuff.

[00:24:48] Don: I mean, anything you could imagine was in there. Food, goods, everything. And, the guy asked Peter, he says, what's all this for? He says, well, this here's all the things that God has prepared for those who ask [00:25:00] him, who seek after him, who trust and have faith in him. But these warehouses are full because nobody is taking the time to trust in the Lord and seek after the things of God.

[00:25:11] Don: So therefore the warehouses of heaven are full of blessings that our God is just waiting to bless mankind. And the individual, the one individual that can Allow their heart to be open to a degree and say, Lord, I believe in you and I trust in you is someone has found life and eternal life because this is something that will open up a whole new experience in that person's life and a lot of times because of the world, you know, because of our adversary, the devil, you see, if I can just back up a little bit, see, we were all created, you know, Because You know, God loves us and God wants us to love Him.

[00:25:51] Don: But we were created to show the greatness of God. So, as we allow our life to be developed, we show how great God is. And how we have [00:26:00] faith in Him. We can, you know, by our peace, by the way we handle ourselves, by our kindness, by a lot of things. Our service for our fellow man, all this stuff. It's God showing Himself in that.

[00:26:12] Don: But our adversary, the devil, he has to manifest himself too. And how does he do that? In bitterness. hate, anger, jealousies, all these ugly things in this life. And you see people that are struggling, people have issues, anxieties, all this stuff. This is not stuff that comes from God. This is another source that's trying to manifest who He is.

[00:26:35] Don: And that's where if we ever realize What has been misplaced in our society and realize that it is a true faith in the things of God, allowing God to work in our lives. We can receive the blessing that God is wanting to give us. You know, and I, my prayer all the time is that, , a lot of times in this world, it looks ugly.

[00:26:56] Don: We see people going through situations. I see the [00:27:00] smash and grab and these, all these young kids doing what they're doing. But you know, they're just, they're, they're looking for something. They are looking for something, and I'm just praying that the avenue of who Jesus is can be opened up to them.

[00:27:13] Don: Because I remember, because I go back into the 60s, 1960s, and they called it the Jesus movement at that time. And this was where, , college kids were seeking after God, and God was just Pouring himself into their life, which is kind of 

[00:27:25] Justin: like what they've been doing recently as well with the revivals. 

[00:27:28] Don: They have been like that That's been popping up.

[00:27:30] Don: They have been you know, so we're seeing that we're seeing another jesus movement Oh, yeah God is still doing it and i'm just praying that this will continue to expand and that many can tap and realize The element that they need and develop a strong faith in their 

[00:27:45] Justin: lord Yeah, because I know last week, I know you said a lot there, but last week we talked about in terms of God being love, you know, kind of, that's the way I was kind of breaking it down, is God can be [00:28:00] synonymous with love.

[00:28:01] Justin: And I think faith expresses itself through love. Yeah. You know, when you, when you, Faith expresses itself from the heart when you have that trust, when you have that hope, when you know something is there without seeing it. I think Jesus even said, blessed are those who have not seen yet they still believe.

[00:28:23] Justin: And that's, I think what it means to completely walk by faith and not sight. Despite your circumstances, you're still going to put your trust in the Lord. That's right. He's going to work it out for your own benefit because he's for you. Yes, he is. You know what the Bible says?

[00:28:38] Justin: If God is for us, who can be against us? That's right. And if he's always for you, well, we know who's against you. And we know, like you're saying, the adversary, the devil. Yeah. The evil one, whatever you want to call him. There is, there is something that's constantly against you, but there's something that's for you.

[00:28:54] Justin: And by having the faith, by putting your, your confidence in him, by putting, you know, there's like a certain, [00:29:00] there's like a certainty. There's like a certainty for people who have faith in God for their lives and in their actions. You see this with people that they they have a certain faith and they become like unstoppable.

[00:29:15] Justin: Yeah Yeah, you see these people spring up they have ideas or businesses or whatever and they just become truly unstoppable More than the world is able to even discern about them. That's right I think it it's because they have that faith that no matter what if If even if they're not trusting in God, maybe they're trusting.

[00:29:31] Justin: They completely bet on themselves. And I think that's something that people need to do more is bet on themselves because God isn't going to bet on you. Yeah, that's true created. He was I mean you're created you're his masterpiece, right? So he's going to go all in for you. He's going to put all his chips on the table And as a matter of fact, he did when he when he won us back.

[00:29:50] Justin: Yeah, and that was quite a gamble, right? That was But he's always going to be there for you. So as long as you I would say, as long as you [00:30:00] bet on yourself, as long as you completely give it your all and put your best effort into it, by having faith that it's going to work out, it is going to work out, and it all starts with what you believe.

[00:30:12] Justin: And we've been talking about this in terms of what you believe in. You got to really make sure that you're allowing the right things in. That's right. That you're taking in the right things. That you're surrounding yourselves. You're surrounding yourself with the right people, the right circle, because that's all going, all going to develop your faith.

[00:30:31] Justin: Your faith starts as a mustard seed, and then it grows. That's right. You have to have the right nurturing system. You have to be in the right ecosystem for that 

[00:30:40] Don: seed to really grow. Yeah, that is true. That's where these podcasts are so powerful because this is seed sowing time, you know You know, and I think God has got it set up in this world You know as we said earlier faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of god I think God has placed the whole process in people, in it's words we speak, in what we [00:31:00] share with people as Christians that reaches people and touches people.

[00:31:04] Don: I remember one time I had a Bible study, this was probably in the 1990s if I can remember. Go back that far. But, , I had a gentleman that was with the Hell's Angels from out in California. Okay. And, uh, he came to the study and he was related to one of the ladies at our study. And, uh, he had his ankle all wrapped up.

[00:31:24] Don: And he had a mess. What happened was he was in a motorcycle accident, and he wiped out his ankle. He had multiple surgeries and he was still struggling. But he's sitting inside this Bible study and I, you know, I was starting to maybe feel sorry for him. And, but he said, praise God for my ankle. He says, I thank God for this ankle that got messed up with this motorcycle because he says I was Living a life that wasn't too good back then, but he said I dumped my bike I got into the hospital and somebody started sharing the wonderfulness [00:32:00] of Jesus Christ So he says every time I experienced bad things with this ankle I thank God for that because he says I'd probably He's still on my bike right now, running away from the things of God and doing things that are totally ungodly.

[00:32:14] Don: But he says, right now, I found the answer. He says, I found Jesus Christ. And yeah, I deal with an ankle, but I can deal with a future that's going to be a whole lot better than the future I would have had without a knowledge of him. And that's where a lot of the burden right now, I think is on us, you know, as believers, we need to get ourselves in a place.

[00:32:33] Don: We need to get ourselves into prayer. We need to be talking about the things of God, sharing the goodnesses of God, you know, reaching out to people and letting God do the work he does. We need to be. Faithful, full of faith. That is right, you know, and that's when we talk about the things of God. It's seeds going out The Bible says that he is the one that does the fertilizing.

[00:32:53] Don: He's the one that does the watering We are just the ones that cast out seeds and that's where our words are So [00:33:00] important in our lifestyle our examples all this stuff is important in the things of God God has got a tremendous he says go out and And preach the gospel to the whole world. It's the good news.

[00:33:11] Don: A lot of times people talk about the Bible and they say, well, there ain't nothing good in that. It tells me how I need to be. No, the good news is when you get God in your life, you want to be lived differently. You know, if you don't want to live differently, I question your relationship with God because God tries to direct us and tries to perfect our life.

[00:33:30] Don: Yeah. You know 

[00:33:31] Justin: what? I want to touch on that a little bit because you said people like to just live their lives a certain way. And I mentioned before about how some people might, consider God as like a cheerleader in their life, which he is, but it was to drive a point to say that I think that we've almost like invented the God in our mind.

[00:33:51] Justin: Some people, we've invented God to ourselves always as like a nonjudgmental God, right? So we, [00:34:00] I often hear people say like, I don't like to think of God like that. Yeah, it's like well, of course you don't yeah, I don't I don't like to think that God would think that well Yes, because it allows you to just keep living your life carelessly not being obedient not being faithful I think we do have a problem when it comes to obedience I feel like a lot of the times the Lord is speaking to us.

[00:34:28] Justin: He's telling us exactly what to do If we would have faith and do what it is we're being called to do or what we're being told to do, I think it would,, it would produce fruit. It would develop us. It would help us. It would get us out of the, the cycle that we're in in life. The cycle of repetition, because we're, we're constantly just doing the same things.

[00:34:50] Justin: And we're treating the same problems with the same things and we're not finding a definitive cure because we're not like you said We're not looking for the [00:35:00] source right and it takes a certain level of faith to find the source Yes, it does because you have to know that something is you know Something that is greater than you you have to you have to have that trust and I think in a modern day society It's really hard to have trust in certain things.

[00:35:17] Justin: It's really hard to have trust in people It really is whether it's relationships whether it's just Turning on the news and seeing all the bad things that are being talked about every day and seeing the ways that you're being misled I mean you can go in social media flip open your phone and you can find a you know I will never talk politics But you can find a left wing article saying something and then you can go and you can find a right wing article saying the opposite Yeah, so you start to wonder what where do I put my trust?

[00:35:48] Justin: It seems like everything is trying to deceive me, so it's kind of hard to have It's when you're speaking on faith being trust when speaking of worldly things It's hard to have [00:36:00]trust in things in general in modern day society Especially the way things are like I was saying when we have so many decisions to make when we have so many Choices to make there's so many choices and options that we have in this world We have unlimited options of everything unlimited colors and food combinations Whatever it is like you were speaking on before Almost too many options.

[00:36:22] Justin: They make us confused, make us not even know which way to go. We are truly wandering in the sense that we have way too many options to choose from. So it's hard to know exactly, okay, this is the avenue, this is where I need to go to place my faith. Because it didn't work before. And we're exactly where we're at right now because it didn't work.

[00:36:43] Justin: So it comes to a point where the point where your faith starts, it all starts with the word of God. I think you need to digest, you need to ingest the word of God. You need to get it in your life. Because I think when you get that, when you get that word in [00:37:00] you, , it starts to develop something.

[00:37:02] Justin: It starts to, cause you to have different actions. , it starts to cause you to have different beliefs. You know, It starts to cause you to have a different motivation for life a different inspiration and then it causes the spirit to work within you Oh, yeah, and just like the just like the enemy just like the adversary needs a willing vessel to do his work Well god also need the spirit of god needs a willing vessel to do his work And you got to have faith to do that work because when when you truly walk by faith, you know what it is That you need to do you can't see it But, but you know, and I think that, you know, that works in the spirit or in your gut or in your heart, you know, what it is that you need to do or say, maybe to help somebody , or just to get out of your own state of suffering or your own problems.

[00:37:51] Justin: You know, you take that accountability, I guess, first, but you, you know, what it is deep down that you need to do. To get out of that 

[00:37:59] Don: [00:38:00] cycle. Yeah, and that's where it is important because we do get stuck sometimes and I know the bible says that for by Grace, you have been saved through faith and this is not of your own It's a gift of god not the results of work so that no one can boast about and say you're doing a lot of work This is a gift from god and grace is if you break it down.

[00:38:19] Don: It's uh, god's riches at christ's expense, you know So by grace, we are saved Through faith. Okay. So a lot of times people throw around that word saved, you know, you come to Jesus and you're saved So what does all that mean? Well it my understanding of this is you're saved from yourself You know a lot of times we are very in a rough spot because we have all kinds of ways about us Habits about us Things we cannot control, and it takes a saving God, it takes God in our life and believing in Him by our faith that He starts changes.

[00:38:57] Don: I remember my life, I'll just share a little bit, [00:39:00] but I remember the first thing that happened in my life was, , back in the early days when I First believed when I first believed that all of a sudden and everybody around me noticed this too. It was my language changed. I used to use four letter words and they weren't like love.

[00:39:19] Don: There were, there were words that were nasty, you know, and so when things would not go right, it would, you know, it would come kind of easily out of, out of my mouth. Some people thought I was a sailor or something, but you know, the first thing that God did in my life. When I first believed in him and trusted and reached out to him, is he started to change.

[00:39:37] Don: You know, whenever I get close to saying a word, I would think about it. After a while, it was just not part of my life. And I remember, , having workers around me saying, Don, what happened to you? What happened to you? Because they knew. What I once was, but I'm not that way anymore. And I was thankful because at the time this happened, I said, what happened to the sailor?

[00:39:58] Don: That's right. At the time this [00:40:00] happened, my children were young, so they never really picked up that language for me. And I know my boy never, he never cussed when he was young. I remember him coming home, getting. Because he wouldn't say certain words, you know, with some of the neighborhood kids and stuff like that, but I was proud of him.

[00:40:16] Don: But this is what God does. He saves us from himself. So when we have faith and trust in him, things start to happen in our life. So the things that are destructive, destructive, Things that will corrupt us, whatever. I had a lot of stories. I got something else that comes to mind here, but I remember being down in Marco Island in Florida and we were with a lady and we were in a traffic jam and there was a convertible with some young guys.

[00:40:42] Don: They had the music cranked up and they were kind of acting wild. And one of the ladies in our car. Yells out, Hey, do you guys believe in Jesus? And one guy says, yeah, we believe in Jesus, but we just hope he's not looking right now. You know, so we had a good laugh over that, but you know, it is something, [00:41:00] you know, that, we have to develop in our life.

[00:41:02] Don: Everybody needs it. It isn't something that's just for certain people, everyone needs a fine. Out who Jesus really is has to place their faith in the things of God because this is our avenue. You know, You know God has given us an avenue To what he calls eternal life and to be able to spend the rest of our times with him And it's only going to be through our faith in him and trusting and seeking to know him And be developed in him that we're ever going to touch upon some of this stuff And I hope you know that we're not too late.

[00:41:34] Don: I know this podcast is great I'm hoping, we're hoping that it reaches a lot of people. We're hoping we're not too late for a multitude of people because I know we all have this need. I know myself. I can't walk away and say that I don't have a need. I do. I, myself, every day, you know, I, I work on things.

[00:41:51] Don: God's still working on me. But I know the avenue. I know it's a faith in Him and a trust in Him and allowing His Spirit to work because the faith is what gives [00:42:00] the opportunity. That's what Jesus was saying to His disciples, you know, O ye of little faith. Because the faith was the element that they had to have for God to be able to open up his hands and work in their lives.

[00:42:12] Don: It's the same thing with us. That's where the gospel, what was preached by Jesus, really was the good news. It was the good news of salvation. which is saving us from ourselves in the areas that we're in. And , I know a lot of times we struggle in life, but this is the answer. You know, this is the only answer that will, you know, you can, you can find medications, you can find doctors, you can find counselors in different sources.

[00:42:37] Don: They'll have all kinds of different ideas. You can get yourself working. You can find yourselves, a lot of people wrap themselves up in projects and work just to get their mind away from things. But that's just an escape. It's just you running from the true source of what you need to have faith in. And until you find that, you will never be satisfied.

[00:42:56] Don: And a lot of times people will find themselves [00:43:00] wandering, as the title of our podcast goes, wandering around in life, never really finding the answer. Yeah, 

[00:43:07] Justin: and we're here to help the wandering I would say and I think Jesus even said if such an individual Loves me he or she will keep my commandments. Yes, and and Jesus sees the actions of the heart And I feel like, I the gospel itself is the gospel of good decision making.

[00:43:27] Justin: In order to make good decisions, you need to have faith behind your actions. You need to have faith behind your words. You need to speak from the heart. You need to think from the heart. You need to act from the heart. And I think that, , are we keeping His commandments? I think that's something that We might have to come to terms with sometimes because I feel like there's more that we can do there's always more that we can do.

[00:43:54] Justin: I think we live in a again in a world full of Choices and options[00:44:00] there always seems like there is more that we can do but when it comes to Living in salvation. I think salvation is It's the beginning. It's the beginning. That is the mustard seed of your faith. That is the beginning, being saved. But then, you know, keeping the commandments and actually living a life in Christ.

[00:44:22] Justin: You know, the Bible, even Paul talks about presenting your body as a living sacrifice. Okay, me going to church once a week and, you know, listening to some worship music. Is that me presenting my body as a living sacrifice? You know, I think a lot of the times, We have to be honest with ourselves. I think, we are looking for the truth in all the wrong places in some cases, but we're also not being truthful to ourselves.

[00:44:50] Justin: And if we don't have God in our life, if we haven't found Jesus, if we haven't found the truth, then we don't know the truth. So we're constantly, I think we're kind of [00:45:00] lying to ourselves. Yeah. So our standards are a little bit skewed. Right. Where we're going we don't really know. We kind of don't really know where we are or who we are.

[00:45:09] Justin: Yeah. So it, it takes that level of commitment. It takes that level of faith, but it takes, it takes that honesty that we have to be true to ourselves. Mm-Hmm. , we have to be honest. We have to speak from the heart. We gotta think from the heart, because that's what Jesus sees. Yeah. And he's gonna lead you in all paths.

[00:45:28] Justin: Right. Is he gonna lead you in all paths? Is he gonna lead you to the, the narrow way? Right. It's called the narrow way. Yeah. And I think we have to, you know, if we want to really fulfill that, if we really want to truly be obedient, we have to reconsider what it means to be, to present your body as a living sacrifice, to be that willing vessel, To be the, the, the farmer that plants the seeds to be the one that heals, to be the one that moves the [00:46:00] mountains.

[00:46:01] Justin: We need to develop a level of faith that's far beyond what we currently possess, without believing in God, without believing 

[00:46:09] Don: in Jesus. Yeah, this is true. This is true, Justin, and I know what we're discussing here is probably the keys to the kingdom. You know, I remember if you get into the Bible, it talks about Peter giving the keys to the kingdom of God.

[00:46:23] Don: Yeah. And, uh, if you look at Peter, he was the one after the day of Pentecost when the church got its start, he was the one that started preaching, he started preaching Jesus Christ. He was preaching the key to the kingdom, , the area that was going to open up the door for people. And I know in the beginning, if you read in the Book of Acts, there was 3000 people that believed him that day.

[00:46:44] Don: And what happens so many times, a lot of times, you know, which was unique with Jesus because the religious world at that time, they looked at everything as per, everybody needed to be perfect. If they were sinners, , they were labeled and all this sort of thing. With Jesus, [00:47:00]that wasn't the case. No, he went to the downtrodden.

[00:47:02] Don: He says, you know, it doesn't matter what you are, , because without God, that's what you will become in some way or some fashion. But with me, I will help you clean up your life. I've got a kingdom that's there for you, and I'm going to prepare you for it. I am going to help you clean up your life. I know in life.

[00:47:22] Don: There's a lot of excuses. A lot of people say I'm a sinner, but I got a lot of great excuses Lord But there really is no excuse, you know We have to be able to find that source and you know I'd say this with my grandchildren. Maybe I said this on these podcasts I don't know but I want you to say that Jesus said I go to prepare a place for you and that where I am you will be also But I tell my grandchildren, what type of people do you want living in your house?

[00:47:49] Don: You know, what type of attitudes do you want? What type of habits do you want? You know, do you want somebody that's going to be kind, loving, joyful, peaceful, you know, long suffering, all the [00:48:00] fruits of the spirit? Or do you want somebody that's bitter, angry, anxieties, all kinds of issues? They say, well, grandpa, of course we want somebody that's loving.

[00:48:08] Don: See, that's where I think God is trying to prepare us for this, but we need to believe in Him. We need to have faith in Him. That's where faith has been misplaced in a lot of people's lives. They've, they've lost the key. They've lost the key to the kingdom. And that's where I'm hoping and praying that, you know, this through podcasts and various sources that everyone can find that key because it's our only hope.

[00:48:33] Don: It really is. Everything else leads to a dead end. And I think 

[00:48:37] Justin: You know, above all else, it takes discipline. I think it definitely takes discipline. And that's something that we could talk about in a whole nother episode. But with discipline, I mean, there's always something worth gaining at the end of it.

[00:48:51] Justin: Yes, it is. You know, faith is part of that process. But having that discipline, there's always something worth gaining at the end of it. Yep, yep. 

[00:48:58] Don: And he helps us with that discipline. [00:49:00] He helps us to become disciples of his. Discipline in what we do. 

[00:49:06] Justin: Well, I think that wraps it up for today. 

[00:49:08] Don: This was a good one, Justin.

[00:49:10] Justin: I think so too. Hey, we're glad you guys found your way here today, and we hope you can join us again next week for another good word. Until then, 

[00:49:20] Don: stay blessed by the best. See 

[00:49:23] Justin: you guys.