So, What About Grace? - Episode 19

God's
Riches
At
Christ's
Expense. 

“Grace is the dimension of divine activity that enables God to confront human indifference and rebellion with an inexhaustible capacity to forgive and to bless.” 
 
By Grace, you are saved.  By believing and walking not by sight (feelings, emotions) but by faith, you have exactly what you need at all times to get to where you want to go.  It is God’s favor in your life. Understanding Grace changes how you think, how you feel, and how you treat yourself and other people.  

It is God’s ultimate and divine plan to change your life and to save those who are Lost.

Transcript

Episode 19 - So, What About Grace?

[00:00:00] Justin: Hi everyone, this is Justin Olbrantz and this is Don Schaefer. 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.

[00:00:32] Justin: So Don, what 

[00:00:33] Don: are we going to talk about today? Well, I think we got ourselves an interesting one here, Justin. We're going to be talking about understanding grace. Understanding grace. Yes. Okay, there's a lot to understand there. There really is. There really is. Yeah, , this is an area here I, you know, I'm hoping that we can open up a little bit because this is an element here that is, it's free for us.

[00:00:52] Don: Yeah. 

[00:00:52] Justin: Yeah. 

[00:00:53] Don: And, , God is willing to Give it to us and place it in our life and what it actually because I usually use the like [00:01:00] the acronyms You know, uh grace is god's riches at christ's expense. Oh, wow. I like that Yeah, you know and so he paid the price 

[00:01:07] Justin: riches at christ's expense. Yeah, 

[00:01:10] Don: you know, so, , He paid the price for the opportunity of grace being poured in our life And a lot of times people don't realize the importance of having grace Grace and be able because grace is is much like and that's the way I like to explain it much like having favor God's favor on your life You know, so when you have grace working in your life It allows you to be blessed in many areas of life and sometimes you don't realize you know how and why but But, you know, you need to come into an understanding, and I think the Bible talks a lot about this in the fact that, you know, our, um, response to God, our, uh, reaching out to Him, our faith in God.

[00:01:53] Don: You know, like the, the day we first believed, how that song goes, Amazing Grace. Yeah, yeah. The day we first [00:02:00] believed how that grace comes into our life and all of a sudden everything starts to take. How 

[00:02:04] Justin: sweet the sound. How sweet the sound. That's right. 

[00:02:07] Don: Yeah. Because it changes everything. It changes everything.

[00:02:10] Don: Because you can see, you know, I mean, even you go through troublesome times, it doesn't matter what the situation is, you've got God's grace working in your life. And that's where to have that understanding, especially as a Christian, it's a non Christian. you don't realize what's going on. It's there. And, and it's all there.

[00:02:27] Don: I mean, God has got it and he's wanting to give it to all mankind, but it's our relationship and our opening our lives up to him that allows him to do 

[00:02:36] Justin: that. And 

[00:02:37] Don: that's why it's so 

[00:02:38] Justin: important. Yeah. Grace, I think is often one of those things that's kind of like misinterpreted, but sometimes it is hard to understand.

[00:02:45] Justin: And that was kind of the meaning behind the title here is how to fully understand it. I think, you know, understanding. You broke it down a little bit in talking about Jesus and his death. But to expand on that, I think that in understanding grace, one of the [00:03:00] first things to get out of the way and to understand first is the gospel, 

[00:03:04] both: because 

[00:03:05] Justin: the gospel is like a channel to God's grace, right?

[00:03:08] Justin: It is. You have to know one to know the other. That's right. And to be a believer really is to understand the gospel. To be a believer is to really understand what grace is and how it works in your life. That's right. And how God has already afforded it to you through the gospel. So I guess, how would you explain the gospel?

[00:03:26] Justin: If you were to break it down to somebody who's, who's lost, right? Who doesn't understand this 

[00:03:30] Don: kind of 

[00:03:30] Justin: stuff? 

[00:03:30] Don: I could do that, Justin. I could do that. See the gospel itself, the word means good news. And it, you know, and Jesus himself came into this world bringing the good news. So not 

[00:03:41] Justin: fake news, good news.

[00:03:42] Justin: Not 

[00:03:42] Don: fake news, good news. And talking about the beauty of what a kingdom would be like and life inside the kingdom. And he realized that we would need lots of help. And I know when we first believe in Jesus Christ, it's a belief process. It opens us up for his grace in us. our life. [00:04:00] And the Bible says that we are saved by grace.

[00:04:03] Don: You know, it's, it's grace that helps us overcome our faults and areas and issues in life. A lot of times people will have issues and faults. They will try to overcome these things on their own and they will be fighting a battle. But when God's grace comes in, God gives the ability for a change in a person's life.

[00:04:23] Don: And once you start to realize that, you know, so many times. You see great athletes, you know, they score a touchdown or whatever, and they're pointing up in, up into the heavens and saying, it was him. It was him. You know, and I know in the Bible it says, , by the grace of God, I am what I am. That's what Paul in the Bible is saying.

[00:04:41] Don: You know, the good things that happen in life. They give glory unto God because when you do that more grace comes, you know, so it's not foolish It's not foolish to give glory to God Even some of these interviews I hear of people where they bring up Jesus Christ and saying that you know how much? , he has done in their life and in directing [00:05:00] their life and all this This is the stuff that opens up avenues for the grace of God to flow into their lives And it's a 

[00:05:06] Justin: free gift.

[00:05:06] Don: It's a free gift 

[00:05:07] Justin: really free that we're giving. Yeah, that's what we're saying You for, for salvation and for being saved. 

[00:05:12] Don: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And 

[00:05:13] Justin: I think in terms of salvation, right, that's being, that's to liberate somebody, that's to be saved, to be free, but it's called good news because it's the announcement of being free or being set free.

[00:05:27] Justin: Is good news to people who know they are enslaved. Yes, and once you know, you're enslaved you can then understand when you're set free Yeah, right, but you have to be enslaved first. Yeah. So when jesus said he's come to set the captives free 

[00:05:40] Don: That's right He 

[00:05:40] Justin: came In leading in all truth and everything that he was saying and doing in all truth to set people free Right of the lies the deception some of the stuff that we talked about before yeah, but getting into the gospel in terms of how jesus came to the world and how he came How God sent him to the world to save [00:06:00] his creation, to die on the cross, the way he did, , in the way that he did to fulfill the, the laws and the scriptures and everything else.

[00:06:08] Justin: That all comes at the cost of receiving grace. And we now have that grace as believers. It's 

[00:06:16] Don: beautiful. 

[00:06:17] Justin: Right, where we are being, we're forgiven for the sins that we make. Yes. We're not guilty, right? We're not held guilty. That's not, 

[00:06:24] Don: not accountable anymore. 

[00:06:25] Justin: And, and we can also, we can also use that to, to set aside our, , our, our flesh, like emotions, like selfishness and stuff like that. Those diseases we've talked about before because we have grace, right? So that's a power that we can have. And we have within us as a Christian, as a believer, you have that power because of what Jesus did.

[00:06:46] Justin: I think a lot of the times this stuff's kind of hard to understand because people understand Jesus and they understand a little bit of what he did, but not understanding everything. that came as a result of that. Not really fully understanding the [00:07:00] gospel. So we really need to help people understand the gospel so they can understand grace.

[00:07:06] Justin: So, so getting back into the gospel, right? I guess, how exactly did we receive grace? 

[00:07:13] Don: Okay, well it starts with a belief as we're talking about and um, you know, good answer and what you brought brought in there You brought in selfishness and selfishness is a killer. You know, it's it's an element because you get a flow You know when you start to get into a place where you reach out to God and just to back up a little bit Jesus didn't come into this world to condemn us.

[00:07:35] Don: He came into this world to give us an avenue and it was all he's done in love. And that's where he talked about a kingdom. He talked about a grace and talked about a period of time where we can be changed. And the beauty of all that is, you know, I know one time a while back, a gentleman came up, he says, well, if I come to God, do I have to give up my drinking and my smokes and, you know, my gambling and he was going on and on a whole list of stuff.

[00:07:59] Don: And I says, no, [00:08:00] I said, God isn't asking you to give up none of that. He's asking you to come to Him. And what you're saying there, what grace does, it opens up your eyes to things. You start to see things differently. You started to see, see the worldliness and things like this. And you, and you get yourself in a position where you realize how important it is to stay connected because grace is a continual flow.

[00:08:20] Don: It's much like, , when you get back into, uh, you know, Israel, When they were in the wilderness every morning, they had manna from heaven that came down and fed them physically. 

[00:08:31] both: Yeah. Well 

[00:08:32] Don: see, grace is something that spiritually feeds us and keeps us strong so that we can live the life we should be living and can be living and have the beauties of life and we find favor, , with the grace of God.

[00:08:44] both: Yeah, 

[00:08:45] Don: and I don't know if I can tell stories or not if you want me to talk a little bit. Go, go ahead. Go ahead. Okay. So I know like the Bible talks a little bit about Noah. Yeah. 

[00:08:52] both: You 

[00:08:52] Don: know, it says Noah, he found grace in the eyes of the Lord. So what he did is he was seeking after God and he was seeking after [00:09:00] doing things in the right way.

[00:09:01] Don: Back in Noah's day, there was a group of people that was all about parties and worldliness and, and all this sort of thing. And God did not like that one bit. And, uh, he had. Noah built an ark, and Noah had enough faith in God. See, Noah wasn't an ark builder because there was no rain. There was no water that you even needed a boat for at that time.

[00:09:22] Don: And, uh, so Noah built the ark. He was faithful to God. And because of that, the Bible says eight souls were saved by water. His whole family. It was because Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. But it's an avenue that we can reach after. You know, if we hunger and seek after him, he will allow that same grace.

[00:09:39] Don: That same favor to be upon us because it's a favor. It isn't something we have to work for It isn't how much work we do here and what work we do there It's our trust in him and reaching out to him and then he does things in our life And opens us up and gives grace on a daily basis 

[00:09:58] Justin: Yeah and everything that we [00:10:00] do and all that we do and understanding that and I read this.

[00:10:03] Justin: Uh, You I read this somewhere actually. And it said that grace depends for its exercise upon the inability of its objects. I thought that was interesting. Grace depends for its exercise upon the inability of its objects. So it's, it's working out. , it's exercising in your life.

[00:10:26] Justin: It's working out its effectiveness through your own inability. 

[00:10:30] Don: Yeah. 

[00:10:31] Justin: Oh yeah. So it's not something you possess. It's something that was given to you. It is a free gift given to you. Yep. And then it goes on to say that grace is the dimension of divine activity. That enables God to confront human indifference and rebellion with an inexhaustible capacity to forgive and to bless.

[00:10:52] Justin: Yes. 

[00:10:53] Don: Yeah. 

[00:10:53] Justin: Just beautiful, right? That 

[00:10:54] Don: is beautiful. It is beautiful. You know, in, in, you know In that, what you're saying there, in the [00:11:00] Bible it talks a lot of examples. That's the beauty of the Bible, because it's got stories in there. And, uh, one I wanted to bring up here, if I could, is Daniel. You know, Daniel in the Bible, and this is That's my, uh, gonna be my future son's name.

[00:11:11] Don: There you go, that's a good name. But he, uh, he loved the Lord, you know, the Bible says that he went to the Lord three times a day in prayer, seeking after God, he trusts in God. You know, and he had a King Nebuchadnezzar that was over the top of him, and they made a decree that anyone that had any request, they couldn't be praying to God that they should bring it before the king.

[00:11:32] Don: Well they Of 

[00:11:32] Justin: Babylon, right. Pardon 

[00:11:34] Don: me. Of Babylon. Right. The Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. And, uh, so, yeah, they right away, right away were looking at Daniel because they knew Daniel prayed to God himself, you know, every three times a day. So they grabbed him and the king loved him. The king loved him. He hated to do it, but he had a decree and he had to follow whatever the law said.

[00:11:54] Don: So they had a lion's den and, uh, and yeah, he had a Daniel in the [00:12:00] lion's den with the lions. And Daniel went in that lion's den and he says, well, you don't follow the law. If the lions eat me up, so be it. So be it. I'm trusting in my God. But God had favor and it says that the lions, they sat with Daniel all night long.

[00:12:14] Don: Never heard him one bit. Said the king laid awake all night long because he was worried about what happened. Next morning he went out there and here's Daniel sitting with the lions, you know, and he says, I know and he realized. That's crazy, isn't it? You realize that there was great favor on Daniel. So what he did is the guys that Set this up to have Daniel put in the lions den.

[00:12:34] Don: He cast them in there and the bible says before they hit the ground The lions had them in their mouths, you know, they were gone They were gone, but there was grace see that's where Daniel he worked at this You know, he prayed if you get you see more of daniel God showed him all the kingdoms, all the Gentile kingdoms of the world.

[00:12:53] Don: He, he even in the, , at the end of, uh, the book of Daniel, Daniel wanted to know it all. He wanted to know it [00:13:00] all. And God says, you know, the books are going to be closed until the times of the end. He says in times at the end, the books are going to be open. Open it and all Knowledge is on its increase and that's where daniel knew the different times of the gentile races God showed him all that but it was the grace of god that showed him and then at the end He described what our world is going to be today I I look at that and i'm saying man if the books aren't open if knowledge isn't on the increase right now I don't know when it ever was, you know, but daniel It was the grace of God.

[00:13:32] Don: And this is what the grace of God can do in each and every one of our lives. Yeah, God can show us things. 

[00:13:38] Justin: Yeah, and he even I think prophesied the collapse of the Babylon empire. Oh, yeah Yeah, and Nebuchadnezzar went kind of deranged at the time because of that. Yeah Because he was hearing directly from God.

[00:13:49] Justin: Daniel was. That's 

[00:13:50] Don: right. That's 

[00:13:51] Justin: right. Yeah, so going back though to the good news, because I just want to not skip over this at all, the good news, the [00:14:00] gospel, explaining the gospel about there was going to be good news that was going to be granted to the sick, to the poor, whether that's relating to material wealth or being poor in spirit.

[00:14:16] Justin: It was good news for the poor, for the sick, for the afflicted. 

[00:14:20] Don: Yes, it was. 

[00:14:21] Justin: So, what, , what exactly, can you break down? What that good news was I'm just trying to break down the gospel so people can understand because sometimes, you know, you talk about the books Mark Luke John yeah, these books of the gospel, right, right But it gets all kind of jumbled together.

[00:14:41] Justin: Sometimes it's hard to understand exactly what it is I guess breaking down that good news So for people who are new believers for people that might not fully understand any of this stuff, right? You What is the good news? 

[00:14:52] Don: Well, I'm going to share a little bit here and I'm going to use Jesus as an example.

[00:14:57] Justin: Okay. 

[00:14:57] Don: Because, you know, Jesus himself, he was [00:15:00] born and I believe that he had to be potty trained. I believe everything that, you know, man has to go through, he had to learn how to walk. He was fully human. Yeah, he's fully human as a child. And, but yet he was, , one that, Reached out to God he prayed he trusted in his father.

[00:15:16] Don: He had a connection with with God, you know He even said he fasted for 40 days He went through everything that we need to do as far as having a connection with God So god's grace god's favor was greatly on jesus christ, you know and to the point where he could preach that message , to the poor, to the sick, all this stuff, you know, and that's the beauty of life.

[00:15:38] Don: So his 

[00:15:38] Justin: message that he's preaching though is that the kingdom is coming. A different kind of kingdom, right? Everyone only knew of, like you were saying before, and these things that they had. earthly Kings, you know the the rank and file the typical kingdom right 

[00:15:54] Don: a different kingdom different kingdom That's where there were shocks at the beginning because they didn't realize even the [00:16:00] disciples at at the end Didn't really realize what was happening because his kingdom was different than that, you know Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

[00:16:12] Don: So he's talking about a heavenly kingdom coming down and living inside of each and every one of us. You know, and this is what the favor of God does. This is what the grace of God does. He allows his kingdom to be, you know, righteousness, peace, and joy. You know, it's it that's what the kingdom is all about and that's the message he preached and it wasn't until After he passed away when the Spirit of God because he said throughout the Gospels.

[00:16:37] Don: He said I'm sending a helper I'm sending a comforter. I'm sending Favor your way. That's going to help you in all, no matter what they do to you. No matter what the circumstances might be, you're going to be able to make it because my grace is sufficient. Whatever your needs might be, you know, and that's what he was preaching to these people.

[00:16:55] Don: And it was a good news. And the, you know, he, it was, 

[00:16:59] Justin: the good news is [00:17:00] that you're going to be saved. You're going to be free. Yeah. That's essentially the good news. That is, 

[00:17:04] Don: that is good news of, of yourself saving you from yourself. Yeah. You know, because ourselves are what gets us into trouble. Yeah, that's important to know.

[00:17:12] Don: Oh, yeah. Yeah Yeah, we have to get over ourselves and , and let the spirit of trusting in the spirit of god And it doesn't matter how much money you have doesn't matter where you live Actually, you know even going through sickness and suffering having the understanding of the grace of god He will take you through those times.

[00:17:29] Don: He will be that comfort for you And that's the beauty of the grace of God and that was the type of message he was preaching and it was popular I mean he had big rallies back in his day. 

[00:17:39] Justin: Yeah, you know, yeah, he did have big rallies. So Yeah, so that's important to note because you said That , it all starts with belief And I really do think it all starts with belief.

[00:17:50] Justin: So all of this stuff is available to you, 

[00:17:52] Don: right? The grace 

[00:17:53] Justin: is available for you The gospel is there for you. It already happened. Jesus already did the [00:18:00] work, right? He came to already preach that good news of the kingdom. Yeah, but then he went and fulfilled the Scriptures the laws everything right and died the way that he did So that you were saying the encourager the holy spirit I think it's even the paraclete could come to us to be able to give us that grace, that power to fulfill the same things that he was doing while he was on the earth.

[00:18:28] Justin: That's why God essentially came in person as a human to show us that , we can embody exactly what Jesus did as a human, just as he did and carry on his will, because his will Was that of the father, right? Because he was the son of God. He was God. His will was God's will Yeah, so when we submit like you're saying away from ourselves Against ourselves, you know, we're gonna fight against ourselves because it's no longer [00:19:00] our will it's his will That's what I Jesus said.

[00:19:02] Justin: I only do what the father tells me to do I only go here if the father tells me to go there. 

[00:19:08] both: Yeah, 

[00:19:09] Justin: so that's an understanding the correlation between What we are And what we can become, and what Jesus already did for us, and what we already have in us. 

[00:19:20] Don: That's right. Oh, yeah, that's for sure. That's for sure.

[00:19:22] Don: And that's where today is. It's hard for people to grab that message, Justin, because in today's technical life right now, that message is way too simple. You know, I mean, just to believe in Jesus is, I mean, we've got to make this thing a little bit more complicated. You know, we have to put labels on every disease and make everything really complicated and different reasons why 

[00:19:42] Justin: we're gonna add bunnies and yeah And eggs and candies.

[00:19:46] Justin: Yeah, we make 

[00:19:47] Don: a lot of stuff But you know Jesus really came with a simple message and the beauty of it was we need to take advantage of this And I, I guess the good news is, is that it's there, you know, the grace of God [00:20:00] is there and I know, , you know, a lot of people struggle in life. A lot of people have a lot of issues in life and, and I can understand all that, but it's the grace of God that takes them through.

[00:20:09] Don: And I know like back, and we've talked about this already in podcasts, you know, even in the slave culture many years ago, you know, they, they had a relationship. Because they were in a hard, hard moment, but they understood what grace did to them. They understood, a lot of their songs, Reaching Out to God, a lot of the Christian songs came from areas where people were not treated well.

[00:20:31] Don: But they found grace in those moments. So you can handle and withstand. Doer. Because there's nothing worse in life than going and suffering and not having any type of comfort at all. And that's the beauty of what God gives us. He gives us hope. He gives us direction. We have something to live for. We realize that this is a purpose.

[00:20:51] Don: Yeah, we, this is only a period of time we're living in. Once this period is over, we enter into a new realm called eternity. Eternity. And [00:21:00] that's where I know the Bible says he's gonna wipe away every tear. He's gonna take care of everything. You know, we're gonna have new bodies. We're gonna, you know, we're gonna be structured completely different.

[00:21:08] Don: We just got to make it there, you know, and that's where it's by the grace of God that we're gonna get there. 

[00:21:12] both: And, 

[00:21:13] Don: and that's where the message that Jesus came was, hey, hey, this is well worth it. You need to seek me for this thing. I will open the doors up. I will give this stuff to you. I will allow my grace, my favor to be upon you.

[00:21:29] Don: You will find faith in me. all that you do and it's 

[00:21:33] Justin: and it's not based on the works that we are doing or that we have to do Because Jesus already did the work. That's right. Yeah, so we we automatically have that grace 

[00:21:42] Don: if we were seeking after God Right, and if we 

[00:21:45] Justin: believe 

[00:21:46] Don: it's a byproduct, you know, it's a byproduct And that's where a lot of times I see people that are very loving very caring You can see the grace of God working in her life.

[00:21:55] Justin: I would say 

[00:21:56] Don: to myself, this guy or this lady must have a relationship with [00:22:00] God. 

[00:22:00] Justin: There's a power there. There is, there is. 

[00:22:02] Don: Because I know there's a lady I seen this morning, you know, big smile on her face, went to the doctor, big smile, receptionist. , but big smile on her face and I told her I says, you know I love that smile, you know that does something for me.

[00:22:15] Don: I'm sure you made her 

[00:22:15] Justin: day 

[00:22:16] Don: Oh, yeah, and you just feel it is just feeling because that's the beauty of God you know what not only because you know Jesus himself said that we're gonna be filled with the Holy Ghost and You know, and then it's going to be like rivers flowing from our belly, you know, wherever we go We're people are going to be touched by what we have.

[00:22:33] Don: So the grace that's in our life Not only does it affect us it affects the people that are around us and that's where I know like Some of the Apostles Paul and everything talks about great grace talks about levels of grace, you know, it's a matter of What we do to seek after it and what we do because I do believe we can lose the grace of God in our life Too if we should we stop seeking after him we stop a [00:23:00] relationship It's much like having a close friend and not seeing them for 10 years You know, there's a distance between you know, we're connected with God.

[00:23:09] Don: It's there every day, you know It's something it's something You know, yeah, you got yourself a brand new boyfriend, a brand new girlfriend. You look for every text. You look for every communication time, every moment you can spend with them. You know, when, once you find out what God can do in your life.

[00:23:24] Don: There's a 

[00:23:25] Justin: relationship that's built there. Yeah. It's 

[00:23:27] Don: the grace of God in operation. 

[00:23:29] Justin: You know, it's 

[00:23:29] Don: a connection. You find favor and he does good things, you know, no matter how bad you might goof things up. He is perfect. 

[00:23:38] Justin: Yeah. You know, we've got a 

[00:23:39] Don: Source that's perfect. 

[00:23:40] Justin: Yeah, and He only does good things. Yes.

[00:23:42] Justin: And I think that the, I like what I was reading about before. About exercising His, , exercising His power through the inability of the objects. Because it's, it's, In something that we don't even think is possible in us. It's something that we don't [00:24:00] think we're capable of doing.

[00:24:01] both: Or 

[00:24:01] Justin: it's a way that we were already saved. Because I think that's God's, , his, Purpose for us as his creation, you know, your creator wants you to be reconciled with him He wants you to reconcile with him. Yeah, so in order to do that, he needs to change your life 

[00:24:19] Don: Yeah, 

[00:24:20] Justin: he needs to change your life. So the salvation, you know, there's these fancy words about this the salvation being saved It's all about Changing your life because once he changes your life, it liberates you from sin, it liberates you from doing things the wrong way, it liberates you from death.

[00:24:40] Justin: In some cases, right? Some people have sicknesses, diseases, whatever. Some people are even Terminally ill and then they are healed. Yes, and when he when he does that he when he changes your life It allows you to be saved so that it can reconcile you back to him Yeah, and I think [00:25:00] that's the all my that's that's the that's the ultimate goal that god has he did that through jesus in a Magnified way right because he allowed That same process to happen so that everybody could be saved.

[00:25:13] Justin: So now all it is is believing the gospel. Believing that God did that and that His mighty work is there, is available, the grace is available for you and understanding that you're Capable of more than you could even imagine Right that you're able to do more than you could even think of right because it's not it's no longer you that's doing that alone Yes, it's the power of the Holy Spirit.

[00:25:39] Justin: It's there's There's grace that's given for you to get through certain situations There's grace that's given so that you don't fall into that selfishness. Yeah, so you don't fall into that conceded You Attitude. Right. That conceit. Yeah. And you can look at people with a mutual servanthood. [00:26:00] And you can understand that there already is a mutual forgiveness.

[00:26:04] Justin: Right. Depending on the situation. That's grace. Yes. Yes. 

[00:26:08] Don: And yeah, that's true. And, and I know just looking at our life right now, Justin, I look at the world, I look at what's out there, and you talk about sin, you talk about the wrong things, and all that. And, like, a lot of the stuff that's written in the Bible, that was written quite a few years ago.

[00:26:24] Don: And, uh, and we joke about this a lot, you know, they probably had two camels in a tent, you know, and they're talking about being tempted, and they're talking about, you know, things being Compared to 

[00:26:33] Justin: what we 

[00:26:33] Don: Compared to what we got The distractions that we have, yeah. We got a tent. You know, and that's where I know the bible says that we're sin abounds grace abounds more, you know So everything we need to survive right now is there but the problem is a lot of people don't have an understanding They don't have an understanding of this grace That's why this podcast is so great Because what we're trying to do is give a little bit of an understanding that god has given us Something here that it doesn't matter how bad things might get [00:27:00] circumstances around it We're We can survive all this because the Bible says that grace strengthens our heart.

[00:27:05] Don: You know, it keeps us strong. It doesn't matter what the conditions are. We might get ill, you know, nobody's guaranteed any of that sort of thing, but God's grace is a guarantee. You know, God, when you seek after him, that's a guarantee. He is going to take you through all that. And he's going to, he's going to help you overcome that.

[00:27:22] Don: You know, you're going to see things for what they really are. You're going to live life the way it's meant to be. Life lived. And you're going to, You're going to have a peace inside of you. There's that 

[00:27:30] Justin: reconciliation back to God. 

[00:27:31] Don: Yeah. It's a peace that surpasses all understanding. The world cannot understand how somebody can be so peaceful when everything is upside down, but grace does all that.

[00:27:41] Don: And that's where this is a message. I think that a lot of people don't hear that, don't have an understanding of this as to what happens when we open up our life and seek after the things of God. 

[00:27:52] Justin: Cause then we realized that we were. Once sinners and we're all sinners and that grace is given to [00:28:00] sinners, right?

[00:28:01] Justin: So that we no longer have to sin. Yes, I think that might be a sometimes that's I think that might even be misinterpreted sometimes or it might just be Taken loosely and people think well if I'm forgiven of everything I could just do whatever I want, right?

[00:28:18] Justin: Right. Well, that's not how you gain favor. That's not how you walk by faith wrong 

[00:28:22] Don: attitude, 

[00:28:23] Justin: right? The wrong attitude doing things the wrong way Why would you want to keep doing things the wrong way when it just kept giving you the wrong results? That's right, right? Oh, yeah, so your your creator your god the one that made you wants to save you he wants to change your life Yes, and he's he's He's done everything he needs to do to change your life.

[00:28:42] Justin: Yes. All you have to do is believe. 

[00:28:44] Don: Right. Yep. Believe and open up your life to him. Because there's a part inside of you the Bible calls the flesh. 

[00:28:52] Justin: Yeah. 

[00:28:52] Don: And the Bible says that it's an enemy of God. There's part of a fleshly side of a person. That's what I like to [00:29:00] say is a real monster you know and it wants to continually be fed and no matter whatever it might be and We need to overcome that and it's only by the grace of God that we can overcome some of this stuff 

[00:29:12] Justin: And 

[00:29:12] Don: it's the 

[00:29:13] Justin: addictions and that's right You know 

[00:29:15] Don: being set free and I know I like I went to my doctor's this morning You don't know 

[00:29:20] Justin: the results by the way.

[00:29:21] Don: Oh, they were good. I want to make it another year But, uh, you know, I was talking to him about a 40 day fast. Jesus went out on a 40 day fast. And he says, well, Don, he said, that was Jesus. But yet the Bible says that is Christ in us our hope of glory? I said, Jesus wants to live in us. So if he's living inside of me, shouldn't I be able to do a 40 day fast?

[00:29:40] Don: He scratched his head. He said, Don, I think you need to start with a 24 hour one. But, but I know there's a gospel 

[00:29:46] Justin: logic. 

[00:29:46] Don: Yeah, but I, but I, I know and I think it's in Psalms 51, it talks about a fast that frees, you know, and it talks about getting ourselves broken to a place where the grace of God can enter [00:30:00] into our life and we can be set free of things, you know, and that's the good news.

[00:30:04] Don: You know, I mean, it's nice to say, you know, I got a bum foot and God can heal it and all that stuff. That's all good. And Jesus did do some of that to show that he had a connection with God. But the main thing is. Being set free so that we can be part of a kingdom can be part of something like that It's bigger than all of us.

[00:30:20] Don: It's bigger than all of us because we ourselves don't realize what's coming at us You know, I mean like All of us have a due date, you know, I mean I I get expiration date on my uh milk and stuff like that We all have an expiration date, you know There's a date that we're going to be taken off the shelf, you know Because they can't sell us no more, you know, and and we're going to be discarded But we're going to be entering into a whole new realm You know, and I was telling my doctor, he said, we better know where we're going.

[00:30:47] Don: We better have a good idea of what it takes to get there. And we better have a good idea of how to get the grace of God working in our lives. Because this is what we need. This is what our society needs right now. Each and every one of us. [00:31:00] God's favor. Where God is, you know, he's got truckloads of this stuff that he wants to pour out.

[00:31:04] Don: But it's, he set a pattern. It's a pattern of seeking after him, you know, reaching out and saying, Lord, I want you in my life. I need you in my life. Having 

[00:31:12] Justin: a real relationship. Like, , in the sense of how you'd have a relationship with anybody else. Yeah. Checking in on them. 

[00:31:19] Don: That's right. Making 

[00:31:20] Justin: sure that both sides are equally reciprocated.

[00:31:23] Justin: I know. I know. Yeah, and that's Basically making sure that you're doing your part. 

[00:31:28] Don: Yes. 

[00:31:28] Justin: Yes. 

[00:31:29] Don: You know, and it becomes a way of life. You know, just like everything else, you know, you do certain things. I brush my teeth at a certain time, I know where the toothpaste is, all that stuff becomes a way of life, you know, and that's where Jesus wants to become a way of our life.

[00:31:42] Don: And those individuals that have this can be very successful, but a lot of people will struggle because they don't allow him to have a hold in their life and pour his favor into their 

[00:31:53] Justin: life. Yeah, that's, that's 100 percent true. And , I would say that helps give people a really good [00:32:00] understanding of how grace works in our lives.

[00:32:02] Justin: Amen. Amen. Well, I think that wraps it up for today. This was a good one, 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, stay blessed by the best. See you guys.