Speaker 1: What's up everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. Thanks for
Speaker 1: being here, Thanks for listening on whatever platform you're listing on.
Speaker 1: I am super loose with this podcast. I treat it
Speaker 1: kind of like we're sitting in the cab of a
Speaker 1: truck and we're driving down the road and we're just
Speaker 1: having a discussion. I don't have a table full of notes.
Speaker 1: I only have your questions, which you have emailed me
Speaker 1: podcast at grangersmith dot com. If you haven't asked a
Speaker 1: question yet, you could feel free to do that email
Speaker 1: podcast at grangersmith dot com. Ant Man, my producer, who
Speaker 1: a lot of you know, will get that email and
Speaker 1: put it into the queue. So once again, podcast at
Speaker 1: grangersmith dot com. Ask me anything. I'm sitting here with
Speaker 1: a list of questions that ant Man has put together
Speaker 1: from that I have not even glanced at them. Sometimes
Speaker 1: I'll sneak a peek and see what I'm about to
Speaker 1: talk about. I know nothing about what this is about
Speaker 1: to what I'm about to get into with these questions.
Speaker 1: So we'll do that. And before we get into that,
Speaker 1: I want to address something that has been talked about
Speaker 1: quite a bit on social media. Maybe you've seen it,
Speaker 1: maybe you haven't depending on your algorithm, but it is
Speaker 1: Pope Francis. Pope Francis made a comment, a public comment,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people have kind of engaged with this.
Speaker 1: And I don't plan on getting into the weeds with
Speaker 1: this at all, but I think it's important. I want
Speaker 1: to use it maybe unlike a lot of other people have.
Speaker 1: I want to use it as a maybe like a
Speaker 1: teaching tool. We'll put it that way. This came through
Speaker 1: one week ago from when I'm reading it. Yeah, six
Speaker 1: days from when I'm reading it. It says this. It
Speaker 1: says Pope Francis to children and say, quote, all religions
Speaker 1: are paths to reach God. They are to make a comparison,
Speaker 1: like different languages, different dialects to get there. But God
Speaker 1: is God for everyone. If you start to fight saying
Speaker 1: my religion is more important than yours. Mine is true
Speaker 1: and yours isn't, where will that lead us? There is
Speaker 1: only one God, and each of us has a language
Speaker 1: to arrive at God. Some are Sheikh, Muslim, Hindu, Christians.
Speaker 1: They are all different ways to God. So, like I said,
Speaker 1: a lot of people have engaged with this comment, which
Speaker 1: is not Christian to say that it's not orthodox, it's
Speaker 1: not classic theism in any way. It's never been taught
Speaker 1: that way. Ever. That is very much an outside of
Speaker 1: orthodox thought for the Catholic Church, for anybody that's ever
Speaker 1: claimed themselves to be Christians. They have never said that
Speaker 1: all religions lead to God. And the reason they have
Speaker 1: never said that is because the Bible never says that,
Speaker 1: and Jesus specifically never said it something I want to do.
Speaker 1: Of course, we all think John fourteen six, when Jesus
Speaker 1: says I am the Way, the Truth, and the life.
Speaker 1: No one comes to the Father except by me. That's
Speaker 1: one of the many exclusive passages that Jesus talks about
Speaker 1: in the Bible. There are many, and one of the
Speaker 1: teaching tools I want to say, and what I want
Speaker 1: to present to you as you're listening to this is
Speaker 1: for you to find more of the exclusivity of Christ,
Speaker 1: as it's sometimes talked about Christ in many ways, as
Speaker 1: we read his words, is very exclusive, and it's not
Speaker 1: just John fourteen six. The only way Jesus taught is
Speaker 1: that He's the only way, and there is never what
Speaker 1: Pope Francis is speaking here about universalism. There is never
Speaker 1: any kind of universeism in Jesus. Now, the call of
Speaker 1: the Gospel from Jesus goes out to all, the call
Speaker 1: from the disciples, and still the call that we as
Speaker 1: evangelicals preach and teach today goes to all people, of
Speaker 1: all tribes, of all tongues. It is indiscriminate to all people.
Speaker 1: The call is available. The offer is available for freedom,
Speaker 1: for redemption, for forgiveness, for healing, for hope, for adoption
Speaker 1: as sons to the King of Kings. That offer is
Speaker 1: goes out to the ends of the earth, to all
Speaker 1: people indiscriminately. But the exclusivity of Christ means that there
Speaker 1: is only one way to God. And so God loved
Speaker 1: the world enough to give us his son so that
Speaker 1: we would have a way to him. But he didn't
Speaker 1: provide a bunch of ways. Now that opens up a
Speaker 1: whole can of worms of many, many, many other discussions.
Speaker 1: And it's even the thought of that opens up all
Speaker 1: these other ideas like, well, what happens to the so
Speaker 1: and so, what happens to this person of here, And
Speaker 1: there's a couple of ways to think about that, and
Speaker 1: once again, another podcast another time we can get into it.
Speaker 1: But ultimately, the way we think about it is well,
Speaker 1: I better get out there and tell as many people
Speaker 1: about the good news as I possibly can. That should
Speaker 1: instead of instead of driving us to look inward and say, ugh,
Speaker 1: that sounds really exclusive. Instead it should drive us outward
Speaker 1: and say, I better get out and tell people about this,
Speaker 1: because there are people that don't know about him yet,
Speaker 1: they don't know about the only one way, the one
Speaker 1: way to God, and I need to tell him. And
Speaker 1: it's not based on how well I tell him or
Speaker 1: how pretty my words are to come out. The word
Speaker 1: is given to us with the Bible. We already have
Speaker 1: the Gospel. We already have the word of God that
Speaker 1: goes out sharper than any two edged sword, piercing to
Speaker 1: the division of soul and of spirit. And we know
Speaker 1: that that word goes out and pierces for us. So
Speaker 1: all we do is proclaim it and tell people to
Speaker 1: believe and repent, turn from themselves and believe in the
Speaker 1: only one way to God, which is Jesus. So that's
Speaker 1: one way to look at it. The other the other
Speaker 1: way to look at it is God is just. God
Speaker 1: is holy, and God is loving and God will miss none.
Speaker 1: So when we start, we have a tendency sometimes to
Speaker 1: think that God is gonna God is unjust and he's
Speaker 1: gonna miss a bunch of people because he only provided
Speaker 1: this one exclusive way. And to that, I say, who
Speaker 1: knows the mind of God God word? His word goes
Speaker 1: out and does not return empty. It will succeed in
Speaker 1: the very purpose by which he sent it. There is
Speaker 1: no unsuccessful peace of God. Whatever he's doing and whatever
Speaker 1: he purposes will happen the way that he wants it
Speaker 1: to happen. His word will go out. And so let's
Speaker 1: let that the exclusivity of Christ inspire us to have
Speaker 1: an urgency to tell people that don't know about Christ.
Speaker 1: Let's tell them about him. And the people that do know,
Speaker 1: let's reinforce more of who he is so that they
Speaker 1: could they could then go outward and find that urgency
Speaker 1: for the lost. That's what we should do. Here's the
Speaker 1: final thought. Once again, my homework assignment for you is
Speaker 1: to go beyond John fourteen six and look at all
Speaker 1: the other exclusive claims, not just of what Jesus says
Speaker 1: written in the red letters, as some Bibles have, but
Speaker 1: what the all sixty six books of the Bible say
Speaker 1: pointing towards the exclusivity of the Messiah. All of it
Speaker 1: points towards that, and even if Jesus didn't say it,
Speaker 1: it's still the word of God. And Jesus is the
Speaker 1: second member of the Trinity, so Jesus is God. So
Speaker 1: just because Jesus didn't say it, remember that Jesus said
Speaker 1: himself that Moses was talking about him, the prophets were
Speaker 1: talking about him. So every word in the Bible essentially
Speaker 1: is God's word, which is Jesus's word, not just the
Speaker 1: red letters. That's why I'm kind of against red letter Bibles,
Speaker 1: by the way. But here's the final thought. This is
Speaker 1: actually the first thought I had when I read this,
Speaker 1: because the exclusivity of Christ is obvious, it's very clear
Speaker 1: in scripture. But the first thing I thought of is
Speaker 1: that the pope says he makes a huge mistake here,
Speaker 1: because the pope says God is God for everyone, and
Speaker 1: then he says there is only one God, and each
Speaker 1: of us has a language to arrive at God. And
Speaker 1: then he goes to name a few random religions, one
Speaker 1: of them being Hindu. Hindus don't believe there's one God.
Speaker 1: They don't believe that, so that's an insult to the
Speaker 1: Hindu religion. You see, like Pope Francis in his effort
Speaker 1: to be universal, is self corrupting. In his offer to
Speaker 1: be universal, he's condemning the Hindus because they believe in many,
Speaker 1: many gods. So to tell them that it's okay, whatever
Speaker 1: you believe will lead to the one God. And to them,
Speaker 1: they're going, I have many gods. That's an insult to
Speaker 1: me for you to tell me that there's only one God.
Speaker 1: So the Pope, in his way to be like ever loving,
Speaker 1: which is not the definition of love at all, he's
Speaker 1: actually deeply offending people of the Hindu faith. It's interesting.
Speaker 1: That's all I wanted to talk about and talk about.
Speaker 1: With that, I wanted to address it quickly, but I
Speaker 1: think we should get into some questions. And the first
Speaker 1: one comes from Anonymous. It says once again the podcast
Speaker 1: is podcast at grangersmith dot com. And the first question
Speaker 1: from Anonymous says, Hey, Granger, I appreciate everything you stand
Speaker 1: for and I love listening to the podcast for godly advice.
Speaker 1: My question is how do I encourage my friend to
Speaker 1: stop having sex with her boyfriend until they get married.
Speaker 1: They are both Christians and my friend wanted to save
Speaker 1: herself for marriage, but I recently found out that she didn't.
Speaker 1: I have been married for two years. My husband and
Speaker 1: I saved ourself for marriage, and I know how hard
Speaker 1: that was. They both want to get married but won't
Speaker 1: for a couple of years. They are nineteen and eighteen.
Speaker 1: I care about them, and I want God's will and
Speaker 1: blessing for their lives. I've been seeking the Lord and
Speaker 1: searching his word for encouragement I could pass along. Should
Speaker 1: I just mind my own business? Please let me know
Speaker 1: your opinion. Thanks so much. Okay, let's dive into this. Anonymous.
Speaker 1: Thank you for emailing. I don't think you said your age,
Speaker 1: but you sound you're probably pretty young as well. And
Speaker 1: then you have this couple. They're friends of yours, and
Speaker 1: specifically the girl you want her to stop having sex
Speaker 1: with her boyfriend until they get married, and saying that
Speaker 1: she wanted to save herself. So the first thing to
Speaker 1: be careful with, as I read it, is the first thing.
Speaker 1: The first thing we want to do in this kind
Speaker 1: of situation is judge and compare. Now, obviously, sex outside
Speaker 1: of the covenant of marriage, a godly marriage. Sex outside
Speaker 1: of that is a sin and the first thought we
Speaker 1: want to do is go I didn't do that. I
Speaker 1: saved myself and it was really hard, and now they're
Speaker 1: doing it. Instead. We should, as Jesus would teach, we
Speaker 1: should look at the log in her own eye before
Speaker 1: we start messing with a speck in her friend's eye.
Speaker 1: And so we should look. We should look at our
Speaker 1: own sin. It's interesting that earlier about Poste Francis, I
Speaker 1: talked about where it should make us look outward, But
Speaker 1: when we see sin, it should make us look inward,
Speaker 1: in fact, looking at the cross itself of Jesus and
Speaker 1: what he did to die for sin to be able
Speaker 1: to forgive us with the blood of the son of God.
Speaker 1: And that's what he did on the cross became the
Speaker 1: substitute for us, taking on the sin of the world,
Speaker 1: the sins of the world, being separated from God, taking
Speaker 1: on the sins of the world upon his own body,
Speaker 1: that we might be redeemed. When we look at that,
Speaker 1: that should make us opposite of pote francis. That should
Speaker 1: make us look inward at our own sin and hate
Speaker 1: it and think, oh I am that sin that put
Speaker 1: Jesus on the cross. So when you look at your
Speaker 1: friend you go, Yeah, she's having sex with her boyfriend.
Speaker 1: Shame on her, which is a sin. You're right, but
Speaker 1: we should we should first look inward and go. And
Speaker 1: that's the same sin I struggle with. I didn't, I
Speaker 1: didn't act on it in the same way. It didn't
Speaker 1: manifest in my marriage like this. But I have many
Speaker 1: other sins that have manifested, maybe other sins that my
Speaker 1: friend doesn't struggle with that I do. And Lord, please
Speaker 1: forgive me this by your blood of the cross. I
Speaker 1: look to you, by your sacrifice. You know, we should.
Speaker 1: We should direct our gaze at Jesus, knowing that he's
Speaker 1: the forgiver of sins, knowing that he was sent to
Speaker 1: sent to earth to save sinners, not to save the
Speaker 1: righteous people. He came to save sinners, like my friend
Speaker 1: and like me. So always include yourself that that protects
Speaker 1: you from becoming unnecessarily judgmental. Now we should judge according
Speaker 1: to how we we need to be judged. Right, But
Speaker 1: but if you, if you are without, then throw a stone,
Speaker 1: you know, And I don't think that's you, and it's
Speaker 1: definitely not me. So what do we do with this?
Speaker 1: What do we do? You're like, Okay, Granger. Well, my
Speaker 1: friend's obviously in sin, and sin when it's fully matured,
Speaker 1: leads to death, and I see death all over my friend.
Speaker 1: What do I do. You're saying, be careful not to
Speaker 1: judge her, because you're full of sin too. Okay, So
Speaker 1: I say this without saying this out loud. It's interesting
Speaker 1: that you say they're both Christians because because being reborn
Speaker 1: a Christian, not a cultural Christian, but a believer. When
Speaker 1: I was traveling in Israel here just a few weeks ago,
Speaker 1: it was interesting that a lot of people, one percent
Speaker 1: of the population, not a lot one percent of the population,
Speaker 1: call themselves Christians. But I noticed that in that one
Speaker 1: percent of the Christians in Israel, most of them aren't.
Speaker 1: It's just cultural. They're not Muslim, and they're not jew
Speaker 1: and they're the ones that you know, do the cross thing,
Speaker 1: the Virgin Mary thing. So they're not really Christians. That's
Speaker 1: just their culture. Very few of them, and they use
Speaker 1: the word believer. Very few of them are believers, meaning
Speaker 1: they're born again. Like according to John three, when Jesus says, truly, truly,
Speaker 1: I say to you, unless one is born again, he
Speaker 1: cannot see the kingdom. So I'm talking about born again believers.
Speaker 1: If that's who your friends are, then the sin of
Speaker 1: having sexual relations outside of marriage will start eating at
Speaker 1: them and they will turn in repentance back to God
Speaker 1: and say, well, we got to stop this because I
Speaker 1: just it just creeps me out. I know, I know
Speaker 1: it's not right, and I love you, and we need
Speaker 1: to get married as soon as possible, because having the
Speaker 1: sexual relations with each other, this lustful relationship, is outside
Speaker 1: of God's promise and God hates that. It's sin. And
Speaker 1: so because God hates that, I hate it too, and
Speaker 1: it creeps me out. I can't sleep at night knowing
Speaker 1: that I'm not right with God. So I want to repent.
Speaker 1: I want to turn to him. That's what repentance means
Speaker 1: and stop this so that that's that's how a Christian feels,
Speaker 1: That's how a Christian thinks. That's what drives a Christian.
Speaker 1: You say, how do you what do you mean drives
Speaker 1: a Christian? I mean these are things that that self
Speaker 1: conscious feeling of I'm in sin right now starts to
Speaker 1: just erode your mind and you have to you have
Speaker 1: to turn away from it. Now. The what accelerates repentance
Speaker 1: actually really what initiates the repentance is God through his word,
Speaker 1: and so this could mean that they are believers, but
Speaker 1: they are so poorly discipled. The word of God is
Speaker 1: not being poured into them. They're not in a healthy church,
Speaker 1: and no one is preaching God's word to them, So
Speaker 1: it hasn't it hasn't kicked in this repentance. They would
Speaker 1: listen to a passage like Ephesians four seventeen through thirty two.
Speaker 1: They would listen to a block of scripture like that,
Speaker 1: or in the Book of Hebrews when you hear the
Speaker 1: warning passages or any of the sexual sin passages. There's
Speaker 1: hundreds thousands. Maybe they would hear that and go, uh oh,
Speaker 1: that's me. I better get out of this. Oh man,
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry God, I have Psalm fifty one failed you.
Speaker 1: So that could be, But I don't think that's the
Speaker 1: story here. I think because the more common thing is
Speaker 1: they're just actually not born again believes. They just they're
Speaker 1: cultural Christians and it's unfortunate. But so what do I
Speaker 1: still have told you what to do? Because you're like, well,
Speaker 1: grandear what I do? Especially if they're cultural Christians. The
Speaker 1: thing that you can't do is go to them and say, hey,
Speaker 1: y'all shouldn't be having sex right now, because that that
Speaker 1: doesn't really change anything. Like at that point, you just
Speaker 1: sound like a mom or a dad. I don't know
Speaker 1: who you are because you're anonymous, but you kind of
Speaker 1: sound like a mom or dad. Instead, you want to
Speaker 1: get the word of God in front of them. You
Speaker 1: want to tell them the gospel. You want to tell
Speaker 1: them about what Jesus did on the cross to die
Speaker 1: for sin. And once they get a grasp of what
Speaker 1: that means, that Jesus died for sin so that we
Speaker 1: could live free, so we could be forgiven. Once they
Speaker 1: get a grasp of that, and they realize they're sinning
Speaker 1: the very sin that put Jesus on the cross, that
Speaker 1: the sin that he freed them from, they're going back
Speaker 1: to it like like an old pair of clothes that
Speaker 1: they've moved on from that, and they're going and they're
Speaker 1: putting them on this this old, dirty garment again that
Speaker 1: Jesus died for that. You would say, Jesus died for
Speaker 1: what you're doing. Nails driven through his hands and his
Speaker 1: feet hung on that cross, and he died for what
Speaker 1: you're doing right now. You want to keep doing that.
Speaker 1: The Word of God will convict them in that way,
Speaker 1: not you, And so you want to get them in
Speaker 1: a church, a solid Bible teaching church that teaches expositionally,
Speaker 1: that walks through scripture, not topics, not man made and
Speaker 1: I hope, I hope you feel better about yourself topics.
Speaker 1: But we're gonna we're gonna pick up where we left
Speaker 1: off last week in the in the book of wherever
Speaker 1: you are in the Bible, and the preacher walks through
Speaker 1: a block of scripture and then applies it to the
Speaker 1: lives of the people listening. So here's here's what the
Speaker 1: the original author meant, and here's how we could take
Speaker 1: that truth and apply it to our modern lives today
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four. And you do that Sunday after
Speaker 1: Sunday and you're meeting with people in the church and
Speaker 1: they go, how's your week going, And then you start thinking,
Speaker 1: I had sex with my girlfriend last night. I don't
Speaker 1: want to tell anybody, but it's really starting to bother me.
Speaker 1: This is this is how it begins to happen without
Speaker 1: you even saying it, without you saying, hey, you stop
Speaker 1: sleeping with your girlfriend. Let the word of God convict them.
Speaker 1: Put the Gospel on full display in front of them.
Speaker 1: Let it do it, Let it do its work, and
Speaker 1: repentance will come. So a yeee. Apparel. Life before Shopify
Speaker 1: was pretty clunky, I guess, to say the least, it
Speaker 1: would take a long time for you to go in
Speaker 1: and enter your credit card number and go to the
Speaker 1: checkout and do all that stuff on our website just
Speaker 1: to buy a hat or a sticker. You know, That's
Speaker 1: that's crazy. Shopify comes in and they are the mechanics
Speaker 1: in the checkout. They go in, they great into your website,
Speaker 1: and they become the easiest checkout ever, and they actually
Speaker 1: turn browsers into buyers. But it's not just us that
Speaker 1: uses it. There are millions of companies that use Shopify
Speaker 1: all over the world. It's so easy for us now
Speaker 1: just to focus eeee on the creative side of it,
Speaker 1: on these new launches, like the fall launch that we
Speaker 1: just had. Instead of worrying about all the mechanics and
Speaker 1: all the algorithms that go into what Shopify does at
Speaker 1: the checkout stage, we get to worry about the front
Speaker 1: part that you see, the pictures, how we price it,
Speaker 1: how we market it, the videos that we do to
Speaker 1: promote it. We don't have to worry about all the
Speaker 1: other stuff. That's what Shopify does and that's what they
Speaker 1: can do for you too. So if you have a
Speaker 1: business like ours at ee, upgrade that business and get
Speaker 1: the same checkout that we use with Shopify. Sign up
Speaker 1: for your one dollar per month trial period at shopify
Speaker 1: dot com slash granger all lowercase. Go to shopify dot
Speaker 1: com slash granger to upgrade your selling today shopify dot
Speaker 1: com slash granger. And if you want to get a
Speaker 1: hold of me, go to Cameo dot com slash granger Smith.
Speaker 1: Quick way for me to send you a video message,
Speaker 1: an update, happy birthday, congratulations, send it to someone else,
Speaker 1: whatever it might be. I'll just pull out my phone
Speaker 1: and record something, record a video for whatever you want
Speaker 1: me to say. Again, that's Cameo dot com slash granger Smith.
Speaker 1: Our next question comes from Joe once again all I
Speaker 1: haven't read these at all. This is all on the
Speaker 1: fly this episode completely. Joe says, Hey, good evening, Granger.
Speaker 1: I have read your book Like a River and been
Speaker 1: following your podcast recently and they've really inspired me. A
Speaker 1: question I have though, is about faith. I have a
Speaker 1: good relationship with God and strong faith, yet things seem
Speaker 1: to be harder than ever and only getting harder in
Speaker 1: life in general, and it just doesn't seem like I
Speaker 1: can catch a break. I guess my question is, if
Speaker 1: I have such a good relationship with God, why is
Speaker 1: it so hard? Hey, Joe, thanks for the email. Man great,
Speaker 1: great question, and thank you for reading the book, and
Speaker 1: thank you for thank you for thinking through this, because
Speaker 1: you know what we see in a daily digestion of
Speaker 1: God's word, as we start to see that God doesn't
Speaker 1: necessarily put in front of us a nice, little happy life.
Speaker 1: That's just not his intention. And somehow we've gotten that
Speaker 1: impression that people who love God and God loves them
Speaker 1: and have a good relationship as you say, with God,
Speaker 1: that he provides them with a nice, happy life that's
Speaker 1: full of good meals and low debt and a roof
Speaker 1: over your head and a happy family. And people around
Speaker 1: you aren't getting sick as much as they used to
Speaker 1: whenever you weren't a Christian. People are people are just
Speaker 1: a little bit nicer to you than when you used
Speaker 1: to be an unbeliever. These things just aren't true, and
Speaker 1: you see it clearly in the Bible. A lot of
Speaker 1: times when people in the Bible, like in the Book
Speaker 1: of Acts or any of the letters from the Apostles,
Speaker 1: which is these are the letters that happened after the
Speaker 1: Book of Acts in the Bible, in the New Testament.
Speaker 1: These are letters from different apostles to different people or
Speaker 1: different churches for different reasons. And through those letters you
Speaker 1: see that sometimes people when they became a Christian, life
Speaker 1: actually got harder for them. That still happens to this day.
Speaker 1: Because Jesus says, in this world you will have trouble.
Speaker 1: It's interesting, right, He doesn't say in this world you
Speaker 1: may have trouble. He doesn't say in this world some
Speaker 1: of you could have trouble. He says, in this world
Speaker 1: you will have trouble, trials, tribulation. But then the next
Speaker 1: part of the of the verse is the most important part.
Speaker 1: He says, but take heart, I have overcome the world.
Speaker 1: So in this world you're gonna have trouble. Ah, don't
Speaker 1: worry about it, because I've overcome that. I've already beat that,
Speaker 1: I've defeated that, I have victory over that. You see.
Speaker 1: See that's interesting. He's saying. This game is going to
Speaker 1: be tough. It's like if you're a football player and
Speaker 1: you go into the you go into the season and
Speaker 1: you go, man, we have we have a good team.
Speaker 1: I feel good about this year. And you go into
Speaker 1: a game and you're battling it out right, You're this
Speaker 1: team that you're playing is just crushing. You got guys
Speaker 1: getting injured, you get you know, the weather's bad, you
Speaker 1: can't get good footing because it's raining. Guys are dropping passes,
Speaker 1: people are missing their blocks. You go into the locker
Speaker 1: room at halftime tied, and the coach goes, you're gonna
Speaker 1: win this game, and so there's something about that. It's like, well,
Speaker 1: obviously we're gonna have trouble, but we know we win.
Speaker 1: We know we win in the end. So knowing that,
Speaker 1: do you go into the next game and go, I
Speaker 1: hope this next game is easy. Not necessarily. You know,
Speaker 1: we're probably gonna have trouble, but we know we're gonna win.
Speaker 1: So what if you applied this to your life right
Speaker 1: now and you go, well, I know that according to
Speaker 1: the Bible, following Jesus doesn't make my life more prosperous,
Speaker 1: or or I don't get more money in the account,
Speaker 1: my worries don't just start to fall away just magically
Speaker 1: because I become a believer. Because what if they did right?
Speaker 1: What if they did all this hypothetical What if when
Speaker 1: you became a believer, life suddenly became easier. Imagine the
Speaker 1: way God would set this up. Right. We can't understand
Speaker 1: the mind of God, but let's think about it. Let's
Speaker 1: just contemplate for a second. God sets up the world,
Speaker 1: and if someone becomes a believer, life gets easy for him.
Speaker 1: What happens to the person? Naturally they stop relying on God,
Speaker 1: their prayer, life gets stagnant. They slowly drift away into
Speaker 1: some kind of complacency. That's not what God would want, right,
Speaker 1: But what drives us to God? Let's think about this.
Speaker 1: What makes most people, most of the time turn to
Speaker 1: God and say, God, Please, where are you help me?
Speaker 1: Times of trouble, the trouble that Jesus says, in this
Speaker 1: world you will have trouble, But take heart, I've overcome
Speaker 1: the world sixteen forty four by the way, So most
Speaker 1: people turn to God, they get they feel closer to
Speaker 1: God in the times of chaos, not the good times
Speaker 1: when you're having a really good day and things are
Speaker 1: going great, and everything seems to be falling into place,
Speaker 1: you probably pray less. Right And then when things like
Speaker 1: you said, Joe, when things are piling on in life
Speaker 1: and it seems like you just can't catch a break,
Speaker 1: like you said, things are piling on one after another,
Speaker 1: you get another phone call, it's bad news. You get
Speaker 1: in your truck and there's the check engine light. You
Speaker 1: get home and your wife is mad, and you go,
Speaker 1: I can't catch a break, And you go, God, Please,
Speaker 1: where are you? Please? God? I need you today. I
Speaker 1: realize that I own nothing without you. I'm so weak,
Speaker 1: I'm so frail. I can't even succeed in anything I'm doing,
Speaker 1: can't I can't even get my wife to like me today. Please, God,
Speaker 1: have mercy on me. God, pour your grace unto me.
Speaker 1: And guess what. Guess what happens. Suddenly you're closer and
Speaker 1: closer to Him, right where you need to be. And
Speaker 1: then that night you pull out your Bible, you knock
Speaker 1: some dust off the top of it, and you open
Speaker 1: it up and you go to a place like John
Speaker 1: one And in the beginning was the Word, and the
Speaker 1: word was with God, and the Word was God, and
Speaker 1: he was in the beginning with God, and you start
Speaker 1: reading more and more in you and and that word,
Speaker 1: you just let that word pour over you, and you pause.
Speaker 1: Every once in a while you pause and go, Lord, Lord,
Speaker 1: you made yourself known. You made yourself known in this world.
Speaker 1: Will you Will you comfort me with the same kind
Speaker 1: of comfort you give these these men and these women
Speaker 1: in this book right here, the same promises that you
Speaker 1: gave them that I know you're a promise keeper. Will you?
Speaker 1: Will you have mercy on me? Will you give me
Speaker 1: these promises? Not that you're going to erase the trouble,
Speaker 1: but I could have the confidence that I know you
Speaker 1: overcame the trouble in this world. I know that you're
Speaker 1: not gonna put out the fire. I'm walking through this
Speaker 1: house and everything's burning, and I know you're not just
Speaker 1: gonna put out the fire, but I know you're gonna
Speaker 1: walk me through it, because I'll be better for walking
Speaker 1: through the fire. I think about it like this a lot.
Speaker 1: If I was an author and I was writing a book,
Speaker 1: a novel, a fictional book, and I wanted you to
Speaker 1: read it, and I left out the bad character. There's
Speaker 1: no bad guy. It's just a good guy. And he
Speaker 1: lives his life and everything's nice. You'd be like, grated,
Speaker 1: this is the worst book I've ever read my life.
Speaker 1: I would say why because there's no trouble, there's no
Speaker 1: bad guy, there's no adversary, there's nothing for the good
Speaker 1: guy to beat. There's nothing for him in the end
Speaker 1: to celebrate victory. And you cry, and you get to
Speaker 1: the last chapter and you go, he did it. Oh,
Speaker 1: everything came back together. The bad guy's defeated. I was
Speaker 1: so worried, and then he pulled it through, and then
Speaker 1: the story's so beautiful. That's what you say about a book,
Speaker 1: That's what you say about a movie. And yet when
Speaker 1: it comes to your life, you say, why can't I
Speaker 1: catch a break? I thought if I had a good
Speaker 1: relationship with God, he would give me a break. You
Speaker 1: see what I'm saying. These are all things to think about.
Speaker 1: Next question comes from anonymous says, Hey Granger, I used
Speaker 1: to be a huge country fan of yours. It's rare
Speaker 1: to find Christian artist anymore, so to see you glorifying
Speaker 1: God in this podcast is great for me. So my
Speaker 1: question is what do I do if some of my
Speaker 1: church leader, if one of my church leaders is operating
Speaker 1: in the Leviathan Jezebel spirits, some or not, but some are.
Speaker 1: This is the problem in the church right now due
Speaker 1: to political reasons in the world, infiltrating the church. How
Speaker 1: do I chase the call of the Lord on my
Speaker 1: life running a church podcast. I'm very frowned upon due
Speaker 1: to having epilepsy. And they will attack me. I know,
Speaker 1: Jesus says I was persecuted, so you will as you
Speaker 1: believe in me. Thanks for your guidance. WHOA, I don't
Speaker 1: know what you're talking about it. Let me read this again.
Speaker 1: You say, what do I do if some of my
Speaker 1: church leadership is operating in the Leviathan Jezebel spirits? Some
Speaker 1: are not, some are. This is the problem in the
Speaker 1: church right now, due to political reasons in the world,
Speaker 1: infiltrating the church. How do I still chase the call
Speaker 1: of the Lord of my life running a church podcast?
Speaker 1: I'm very frowned upon due to having epilepsy. Okay, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I just read. I just read that too fast the
Speaker 1: first time. But I think I'm following you. You run
Speaker 1: the church podcast like you're the guy that's like producing
Speaker 1: it or recording it something like that. That's what I'm
Speaker 1: assuming that you mean, but some of the church leadership
Speaker 1: is operating in the Leviathan Jeesubville spirits. I mean, you
Speaker 1: know that's the devil, right, like a Jezebelle spirit would
Speaker 1: be Satan would be the enemy infiltrating the church leadership.
Speaker 1: And so it just I think we can't overthink this.
Speaker 1: I think you're in the wrong church now. I'm not
Speaker 1: encouraging people to they get a feeling, they get to
Speaker 1: they getta they go off on a whim and just
Speaker 1: leave their church because they have a bad feeling about
Speaker 1: things like this needs to be talked through. But you
Speaker 1: would need to go to one of one of the
Speaker 1: guys in leadership and just be like, hey, I have
Speaker 1: some problems. I'm running this church podcast, and yet I
Speaker 1: see this going on in leadership. And there's nothing wrong.
Speaker 1: By the way, there's no judgment in that. There's there's
Speaker 1: nothing wrong with sitting down against with church leadership because
Speaker 1: you are in leadership as well. If you're running a
Speaker 1: church podcast, that's absolutely church leadership. So there's nothing wrong
Speaker 1: with you sitting down with fellow members of church leadership
Speaker 1: and saying, look, this is what I see am I
Speaker 1: am I wrong in seeing this, and some of the
Speaker 1: guys might say, wow, I didn't even know that, but yeah,
Speaker 1: we need to get on this. And some of them
Speaker 1: they say, you're crazy. Look the other way, and to
Speaker 1: that you leave the church. I think. I think this
Speaker 1: is if you're hanging on for this podcast, then the
Speaker 1: podcast is completely undermined by bad leadership, then it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: It sounds like you I don't know enough information, but
Speaker 1: it sounds like you probably should leave the church. Next
Speaker 1: question comes from Luke. Hey, mister Smith, my name is Leroy,
Speaker 1: and I just said Luke, so that maybe that's a nickname.
Speaker 1: My name is Leroy. I'm eighteen years old and I
Speaker 1: work for a company that builds chicken and hogbarns. I
Speaker 1: recently have been thinking about my Christian denomination. I was
Speaker 1: raised as a Lutheran, but have started going to a
Speaker 1: Baptist prayer group and cannot decide which denomination to stick with.
Speaker 1: I've been moving towards becoming a Baptist, but would disappoint
Speaker 1: my family if I moved from being a Lutheran. I
Speaker 1: have also met a pretty Baptist girl who I have
Speaker 1: started dating, and I cannot tell if I wanted to
Speaker 1: become a Baptist just so I could marry her, or
Speaker 1: I really believe their teachings. I need advice. I would
Speaker 1: love to hear what you have to say. I thanks
Speaker 1: for your time, Leroy. This is crazy talk. This is
Speaker 1: absolutely insanity. To think that a Lutheran church and a
Speaker 1: Baptist church are against each other is wrong. And there
Speaker 1: are many kinds of Lutherans and many kinds of Baptist.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like saying that I have a friend
Speaker 1: that's from California. That's a bad example that automatically gives
Speaker 1: you a feeling. Let me change it. It's like saying
Speaker 1: I have a friend from Pennsylvania or Illinois, even better Illinois.
Speaker 1: You can't you can't judge that friend from Illinois unless
Speaker 1: you know where he's from. Is he from is he
Speaker 1: from Carbondale or is he from Chicago? Like is he
Speaker 1: a farm boy or is he is he working as
Speaker 1: a lawyer in the in the inner city. So that's
Speaker 1: like saying that's what Baptists are. Baptist are. It's that
Speaker 1: big of a range. It's like Illinois. It's like Texas.
Speaker 1: Are you in West Texas orre you in East Texas.
Speaker 1: Are you from Austin or do you live in a
Speaker 1: high rise in Houston? Baptist means nothing anymore. Lutheran really
Speaker 1: means nothing anymore. There are some kind of ties, you know,
Speaker 1: there's within the Baptist groups, there's the Independent batot Is,
Speaker 1: there's a Northern Babtist or the Southern Baptist. And within
Speaker 1: the Lutherans there's the the Liberal Lutherans, and then there's
Speaker 1: the Conservative Lutherans, and and there's there's some similarities. But
Speaker 1: you got it, buddy, you can Leroy drop it all.
Speaker 1: This is this is ridiculous. To think that to think
Speaker 1: that marrying a Baptist girl in your Lutheran is wrong
Speaker 1: is that's wrong thinking in itself. And to think that
Speaker 1: your parents would have a problem with that is strange. Buddy.
Speaker 1: You got to get with this. I'm serious. Look, I
Speaker 1: just spent about ten days in Israel with a missionary
Speaker 1: team that I'm on, and almost all of us are
Speaker 1: different denominations, but we're all of us are Evangelicals. I
Speaker 1: would consider us conservative Evangelicals, conservative evangelical Christians, and that
Speaker 1: that throws out all denominations because to be a conservative
Speaker 1: Evangelical means that you believe that you believe in the Trinity,
Speaker 1: which God exists as three persons, Father's Son, Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: You believe that Jesus is fully Man and fully God.
Speaker 1: You believe that the Bible is inert, meaning without mistake,
Speaker 1: it is divinely inspired. That you believe that we are
Speaker 1: saved by grace through faith, and that is a gift
Speaker 1: of God. If you believe those things, then you're an evangelical.
Speaker 1: And Lutherans believe those things that I just said. Baptists
Speaker 1: believe those things that I just said. Methodists believe those
Speaker 1: things that I just said. Presbyterians believe those things that
Speaker 1: I just said. When you want to get into the
Speaker 1: nitty gritty of the denominations, we're talking to things like
Speaker 1: the mode of baptism, the way that the Lord's Supper
Speaker 1: is given. You're talking about the way that the band
Speaker 1: is set up in the church. We're talking about chairs
Speaker 1: or hughes, what is the what does the pastor wear like,
Speaker 1: what does the clothes look like? Or do we have
Speaker 1: a pipe organ or we have a piano like. Those
Speaker 1: are the things that separate the denominations. Then there's a
Speaker 1: few other things too, but none of them are first tier.
Speaker 1: The first tier. We have to remember the trinity, the
Speaker 1: deity and humanity of Christ. We're saved by grace to faith,
Speaker 1: and the Bible is in error. We trust the Bible.
Speaker 1: Are Those are the four things you have to know?
Speaker 1: And if this girl believes that, marrier, and if you
Speaker 1: want to stay in Lutheran, now you have to discuss
Speaker 1: where you want to raise your kids and what church
Speaker 1: they want to go to. But I would suggest, if
Speaker 1: you're so strongly about Lutheran, she's so strongly about Baptists,
Speaker 1: I would suggest you find another denomination that you both
Speaker 1: an evangelical denomination that you raise your kids in separate
Speaker 1: from both of your parents. There's nothing wrong with that,
Speaker 1: But this this denomination thing's got to go. Here's my
Speaker 1: point about Israel. Didn't even finish that thought. But we're
Speaker 1: in Israel and now all of us came from for denominations,
Speaker 1: and we are preaching the gospel. We're going into homes,
Speaker 1: we're telling him the truth about Jesus. Now doing that.
Speaker 1: Each one of us might disagree on like a mode
Speaker 1: of baptism. We might disagree on a style of music,
Speaker 1: but we come together on the four key points the
Speaker 1: main points of the Gospel. We know that Jesus died
Speaker 1: on the cross for our sins to become a substitute
Speaker 1: for the people that weren't good enough to get to God.
Speaker 1: And so God came to earth as a man to
Speaker 1: redeem sinners, to draw them to himself, and he calls
Speaker 1: for everyone to repent and believe in him. He doesn't
Speaker 1: call Baptist and Lutherans and Presbyterians, the Methodists, we got
Speaker 1: to get off this stuff. And all you non denominational people,
Speaker 1: you got to get off that too, because that's a
Speaker 1: the denomination in itself. Don't hear me and go, I'm
Speaker 1: safe granger, because I'm a non denominational. No, no, not,
Speaker 1: that doesn't exist. As soon as you tell me how
Speaker 1: you baptize people in your church, I'll tell you what
Speaker 1: kind of the nomination you came from. As soon as
Speaker 1: you tell me how you take the Lord' supper, I'll
Speaker 1: tell you where you came from. As soon as you
Speaker 1: tell me how you worship, I'll tell you where you
Speaker 1: came from. So you don't get the hide in the
Speaker 1: corner and go, we're non denomination. Instead you could step
Speaker 1: forward and go, we're one of many evangelical denominations that
Speaker 1: believes in the Trinity, the deity and humanity of Christ.
Speaker 1: The Bible is an errant and we're saved by grace. Amen,
Speaker 1: we're Christians, We're believers, right man. You got me up
Speaker 1: on a soapbox with that coquestion. Hey, Leroy, I appreciate it. Ben.
Speaker 1: I know you're eighteen. I didn't know these things when
Speaker 1: I was eighteen. You're already way ahead of me. But
Speaker 1: I want you to I want you to understand. And
Speaker 1: there's also there's really really bad Baptist church look full transparency.
Speaker 1: I am a Southern Baptist. I am a Southern Baptist seminarian.
Speaker 1: I go to a Baptist church called a Mais in Georgetown, Texas.
Speaker 1: I'm not afraid to say that. But I'm also I
Speaker 1: also tell you that doesn't mean all Baptists are good,
Speaker 1: and so because gray injury as you should follow them.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of really bad ones. I've seen them.
Speaker 1: I've traveled to these churches. They're horrible. I wouldn't recommend
Speaker 1: them to my dog. And I've also like, hey, my
Speaker 1: kids right now that my kids go to a Lutheran school,
Speaker 1: So take that right that's a good example of the
Speaker 1: two things you're talking about. My kids go to the
Speaker 1: Lutheran school, and even that school, I don't go there
Speaker 1: and go, I agree with everything you're saying. I don't
Speaker 1: think that. But that's okay. We don't have to have
Speaker 1: unity in all the things, just the four things that
Speaker 1: I mentioned. We need to be like minded in that.
Speaker 1: And then my kids can go to school there and
Speaker 1: then come they have a few questions about different things,
Speaker 1: and I go, well, this is what this is what
Speaker 1: we believe the Bible says. Let's go to the Bible.
Speaker 1: Here's what the Bible says. But we don't not trust them.
Speaker 1: We don't say, hey, don't marry anybody outside of the
Speaker 1: outside of this. And as parents, I would never tell
Speaker 1: my daughter who's raised in a Southern Baptist home. I
Speaker 1: would never say, don't you dare get around them Presbyterian,
Speaker 1: don't you dare get around them Pentecostals. We might be
Speaker 1: going too far on all this, but uh, I want
Speaker 1: to break down these barriers of denominations. While we still
Speaker 1: keep the walls up, we could still have denominations. I
Speaker 1: think it's great. It represents different personalities. Marv who's on
Speaker 1: this podcast. He's a Mennonite. Me and Marv, we are
Speaker 1: locked on rock solid brothers. We agree on the four pillars,
Speaker 1: the four top tiers. We agree and we will. We
Speaker 1: will take the world by storm together with the Lord
Speaker 1: in strength of the Bible, the inerrancy of it. We
Speaker 1: we are locked solid. But he's a Mennonite and I'm
Speaker 1: a Baptist. Different denominations, same brotherhood. Okay, leroy, I hope,
Speaker 1: I'm I hope, I'm maybe I would I work crazy
Speaker 1: on this question because don't tear down denominations and call
Speaker 1: them non denomination. That's not the answer. And yet you
Speaker 1: could still you could, you could still be united the
Speaker 1: Gospel itself while maintaining denominations. You see. Okay, that's all
Speaker 1: we have time for. Love you guys. We'll see you
Speaker 1: next Monday. Thanks for joining me on the Grangersmith podcast.
Speaker 1: I appreciate all of you. Guys. You could help me
Speaker 1: out by rating this podcast on iTunes. If you're on YouTube,
Speaker 1: subscribe to this channel, hit that little like button and
Speaker 1: notification spell so that you never miss anytime I upload
Speaker 1: a video. Yigi