Bible, Bros & Brew
Bible, Bros, & Brew is all about helping you navigate your relationship with God in practical, real-life ways. Hosts David and Phil dig into scripture—'chopping up the word'—and bring it to life with insights you can actually use every day. And while they’re at it, they share their favorite 'brews'—don’t worry, it’s not booze! Just a solid lineup of classic coffees and teas to keep the conversations flowing.
Bible, Bros & Brew
Walking in the Spirit: How the Works of the Flesh Sabotage Your Faith | Bible, Bros, & Brew
In Galatians 5:19-21, Paul lays out a list of actions and spiritual conditions known as the "works of the flesh". While it's easy to just skim over these lists in the scriptures (Paul outlined several of them in the various letters he wrote), there's a danger in doing so, because being able to recognize these destructive behaviors when they try to rear their ugly head is essential to maintaining positive spiritual momentum. In this latest installment of our series called "Walking in the Spirit", David & Phil tackle some more items on this list, with a focus on explaining how detrimental they can be to your faith life, as well as how to keep them from derailing your spiritual progress.
gotbrew@biblebros.net
Last week we kicked off a deep dive into the works of the flesh, and starting with the ones that deal with sexual immorality. And let's just say Paul did not hold back in what he meant behind so many of those first couple of words that tell us a little bit about not only what was going on in Galatia, but what God expects for how we ought to live. So now we're going to dig in a little bit about not only what was going on in Galatia, but what God expects for how we ought to live. So now we're going to dig in a little further. We're going to go everywhere, from idolatry over to envying, over to wild parties, and we're going to dig out the rest, or we're going to at least attempt to dig out the rest of the works of the flesh. And I think it's going to be real, it's going to be convincing and, most importantly, it's going to point us back to Jesus and point us back to what the Father has for us. So grab your Bibles and a cup of coffee, your notebooks, and we'll get on with Bible Bros and Brew.
Speaker 1:Hey, everybody, and welcome to Bible Bros and Brew. I am David. With me tonight or today are Philip? He's right over here and right below me is John, and right over in that weird corner right there is the one and only Ryan Holderman. We're glad you guys have joined us tonight. How's everybody doing, guys?
Speaker 2:Doing well.
Speaker 1:Good, good, good. Tonight we're going to be digging in more into Galatians, chapter 5. We've been talking about what it means to walk in the Spirit, and so we've got some good stuff. We've been learning that the man who walks in the spirit won't fulfill the lust of the flesh, but then we begin to learn what some of the lust of the flesh are, and we're going to just dig in more into that here in just a minute. But before we do, as usual, we're going to dig into these cups and find out what's in the cup. So, phillip, I'll start with you this time what's in your cup?
Speaker 3:Awesome. This week I've gone back to what I call Old Faithful, which is Peregrine's Brazil coffee. It has notes of milk chocolate, almond, biscotti and dried apricot, and this is just. It's smooth, it's chocolatey, it's all the stuff that I appreciate in a nice coffee. Goes great with any kind of pie or cake as well.
Speaker 1:I'll go ahead and tell you that too. And now we find the magic of the coffee. It's pie or cake, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, All right. How about you Ryan? All right, how about you Ryan?
Speaker 2:I've got a single origin blend called Wash Guatemala from Old World Coffee Roasters. It's got a flavor profile of orange, chocolate and cream and it is oh, that sounds good man.
Speaker 1:It is. That's good. Sounds really nice. How about you, john? No?
Speaker 2:he didn't. Oh, yes, he did oh wow. Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:Oh, yes, he did. Oh wow, oh gee.
Speaker 2:Flexed on him.
Speaker 3:Okay, I gotta say, john, we can't overlook the mug situation that you're yes, handle it, philip, handle it dude, yeah, mug drop, yes. Dude, yeah, mug drop, yes. I think we need a merch situation happening soon where we can offer the mug. Because I would be the first in line. I'll put it that way yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Tonight I have created a monster coffee. It's really not a monster. I've just decided that I was going to try something and I've been doing this lately and I don't know why, but I bought good old Jim's organic double chocolate to the table.
Speaker 3:Ooh, that sounds awesome already.
Speaker 1:But I did something extra. I dropped in a scoop of caramel, I've got a caramel coffee from Red Barn. So I dropped that in with my double chocolate. And let me tell you, we can talk all night. We can talk all night. We can talk all night. The weather here is fine, ladies and gentlemen, it's very good. That sounds good, man it is, gentlemen, glad to be with you all tonight.
Speaker 3:I think the mug game's pretty strong guys. I don't know. Yeah, game's pretty strong guys.
Speaker 2:I don't know. Yes, so, david, before we get started, can we have? Um, we probably need to just have a real serious conversation about something. It's like a real come to jesus. Like I don't know if we can, I don't even know if we can continue this podcast, really. Oh, okay, because I'm pretty sure it's caramel and not caramel.
Speaker 3:Oh, the classic debate.
Speaker 1:Well, the paper said C-A-R-A, so I went with my old friend Cara to the mail.
Speaker 2:Driving a care.
Speaker 1:I will say that when you say caramel, it does make it sound like it tastes better.
Speaker 2:Sounds like a what.
Speaker 1:Sounds like it makes it taste better.
Speaker 3:Right, you know what's interesting, ryan, I got to put this out here, dude. Okay, when I talk about like caramel coffee, I'll use caramel. But when I talk about like there's a type of popcorn I love called Garrett's Popcorn and they have the caramel cheese mix, I actually say caramel for the popcorn, but caramel for the coffee Interesting.
Speaker 2:That's all about the context.
Speaker 3:Right, I don't know why.
Speaker 2:I don't know why, dude. Well, just call me consistent, because it's always caramel for me.
Speaker 1:Got it it seems as though we may have saved the podcast in one failed conversation, so thank you, ryan, for putting us all on the same level.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:It's online.
Speaker 2:It's what I'm here for. All right, great theological debates, yes.
Speaker 1:So that's what we're drinking now? Debates yes, so that's what we're drinking now. Let's dig into the Word and let's see what the Spirit of God has to say to us through the Word. Tonight, you know, philip, we've been talking about walking in the Spirit and how walking in the Spirit is the thing that keeps us from fulfilling the lust of the flesh. And we've learned through our scripture, here in Galatians, chapter five, starting in verse 16, that you know, the flesh wars against the spirit and the spirit wars against the flesh. They're contrary to one another, so they're always butting heads up against one another. Yes, sir.
Speaker 1:And I think that means that part of what I think that means is that it's up to us to choose which one we're going to walk in. And you know, we, you know what happens to so many Christians is that live a life where, in general, they walk in spiritual things but there tends to be some fleshy things or fleshy thing or things that still rule and reign in their lives. And so that's where you really see that war. That happens because the Spirit is trying to get all of you to go one way and the flesh is trying to get you to undo any realm of what three to four there in Galatians 5, starting verse, I believe it's 19, which says Now, the works of the flesh are manifest, or another word for manifest is made known. Which are these? Is made known, which are these?
Speaker 1:Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, variance, hatred, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings and such like, of the which I tell you before, as I've also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. So last week we dealt with the first four, which we talked about also that I've been looking at a great commentary that I've been studying, as I've been studying alongside Galatians, and it broke these works of the flesh down into four categories Sins of immorality, and particularly sexual immorality and particularly sexual immorality. Sins of idolatry, sins of animosity and then sins of intemperance. And so we talked about the sins of immorality, which would be adultery, fornication, uncleanness and lasciviousness, last week. Anything stand out to you that we talked about last week or you've been thinking about since then, as it relates to those first four, philip.
Speaker 3:It's just interesting to me that whenever Paul brings these types of well, we talked last week about how Paul had always had a lot of lists in different letters, you know, and there's several places where you can find, like Paul, just start listing out certain things, like in the end of Romans one, there's a list in, I think, second Timothy, uh, there's one in first Corinthians six, and it's always like this list of things that you know believers in Christ should avoid or stay away from. And almost always, no matter which list you refer to, one of the first items tends to be having to do with sexual sin. There's something about the illicit use of your sexual organs that is not kosher with God. There's a principle there, and I think it's because God understands even more than we do the full effects of what sexual intercourse has on the human. And I'm not trying to go deep into all that in detail. I'm not trying to go deep into all that in detail, but I think that a lot of times we don't really get that there is a spiritual component to sex and that God knows that part about it that we don't, and so that a lot of times, people who are involved in illicit sexual activity, which would basically be anything outside of marriage.
Speaker 3:There are soul ties that are created that don't, that you would otherwise not have to deal with. Sometimes there's risk of exposure to diseases and stuff that you wouldn't have to deal with. There's unhealthy bonds created that you know you may not even want to have in your life. Sometimes there there's all kinds of and even if you want to just break it down very simply, a risk of an unwanted pregnancy could be a situation, and God knows all this stuff. And this is part of the reason why he told us to avoid that. He even said in 1 Corinthians 6, I believe it is flee fornication. He said run away from that thing. And he said every other sin that you commit is done kind of independent of the body, but either commits fornication stems against his own body, uh. And he further down in first corinthians 6, reminds us that the body is the temple of the holy spirit. You know, this is not just some kind of thing where it's yours to do with, as you wish, necessarily. Because he says in that same chapter you are bought with a price. You know, don't forget that you've been redeemed and we are to honor God with our bodies. That's part of the deal that we signed up for when we got saved.
Speaker 3:That's not a popular thing to say right now. It's definitely not something that is being put into practice in any kind of widespread way. We see, just in the in general, just the way, the way the culture of this world is very loose concerning sexual things. You know, it's not even a big deal. It's all through our music, it's all through our entertainment, it's all through everything that this idea of casual sex has now become popular. Like it's not a big deal. Um, even down to the dating world, folks don't even really care about actually dating anymore. It's. There's all kinds of apps people sign up for and get on that You're really just looking for somebody to have sex with these different dating apps supposedly, but they're actually. Just. Who can I hook up with tonight?
Speaker 1:Isn't that wild.
Speaker 3:It's so weird to me, dude.
Speaker 1:I almost called you the other day because I was, and it had to be maybe Thursday or Wednesday last week and I almost called you and I was gonna. I was gonna say you know what I realized? Music, right, music. And it's not just right now, because if you go back and do an audit, even back in the 80s, uh, you could look at the 70s too. They were suggesting things, but they were putting in little cute. You know, I want to be your rocking chair and it's like you want to do what. And you know, when you're young and you hear that stuff, you're like, oh yeah, rocking chair.
Speaker 3:It goes over your head, dude.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you get older and you're like what were they saying? Right Now, there's not even a question of what are they saying. It's like they're just saying there's no mystery. I want you to do X, I want you to do Y, and you better get it right. Don't be tipping. It's just wild out here it is.
Speaker 3:It's like it is. It's like the lyrics to songs now are like what used to be in the Playboy magazines back in the, you know, 80s and 90s or whatever. It's like the stuff that was considered very like pornographic. Now it's like in the music, like it's no big deal, you know they don't write love songs anymore, just straight up, by love.
Speaker 1:God bless little Ed Sheeran a little bit. He's tried to do a couple of love songs, but everybody's like no, ed, we work it to the left and we work it to the right and we do all that kind of stuff. So yeah, that's wrong.
Speaker 3:You're right, man. It's one of those things like, and again, renewing your mind to the things of the word, you will, you will run up against current culture. You're going to be counter to it, whether you like it or not. You know, if you, if you want to, um, start renewing your mind to to what God says about things, it will eventually clash with the way the current culture goes. And that's what I see with this.
Speaker 3:It's like the Bible is telling us hey, if you're doing these types of things, that's actually from the works of the flesh, that is not something that's honoring to God, but the world's like oh man, you know, quit being a prude. You know what's the big deal, man. You know God wants us to have fun and all kinds of stuff like that and it's like. But you don't know the effects, though, you don't know the after effects of those things and how they can cause damage in your soul, damage in your, your mental health, damage in your life, even sometimes physically, years. Lord knows the statistics coming out of the cdc. You know syphilis at all-time highs, all this kind of crazy stuff going on, just folks out there getting all men are a nasty stuff and I'm sorry I'm being so. You know, I don't know if it's graphic, but just it's like man. You know, there's no such thing as doing these things without some level of after effects that you have to deal with.
Speaker 1:Right yeah.
Speaker 3:Maybe, maybe one or two times. You can get away with it, and you know what it's not like. I'm going to be honest. I'm saying this as a person who loves God and loves the Bible and all that. It's not like I was going to strike you dead. If you have sex with somebody over here on the side or something like that, it's a very slim chance. That'll probably happen. But at the same time God has built into the system there will be some level of consequences for the things that you do Good, bad or ugly, you know but?
Speaker 1:but you know what, phil, you say God won't strike you dead. But you know Proverbs talks about with cheating or you know, sexual sin. There's a spirit of murder connected with that. And you see it, you. You see people get cheated on, and what do they do?
Speaker 3:they kill that person yeah, it's happened over and over again and it's just, it's a.
Speaker 1:It's such a wild thing. We, you're so right when you say we don't think it really matters or means anything, but when we open up those doors we never know what's on the other side of that. That's not only not to mention that, philip, but just the natural Well it's. It's still a spiritual principle. It's the soul ties that you create with that person that you're having sex with. Yeah whereby, becoming sexually connected with somebody, you are knitting your lives together with them.
Speaker 1:And you knit your life together with one, then you knit your life together with another, you knit your life together with another person and you've got 10, 12, 15 people that you've knit your life together with, and then you wonder why you don't know who you are. It's because when you have sex with someone, you are no longer just yourself. Remember the Bible says two become one.
Speaker 1:There you go, so you are joined together with that person and people think that they're like, there go those Christians again all their sex inside of marriage stuff. They're just trying to keep us off from having fun. Look, I'm going to tell you the God's honest truth. Sex is great, it's not. It's not just fun, it's fantastic.
Speaker 1:It's one of the best things that ever happened to me. But doing it inside of marriage, it's blessed. Yes, it is. God is like that, right there. You can take advantage of that as much as you want to. It's designed for you why? Because there's this life exchange.
Speaker 1:There's this spiritual exchange that happens between a man and woman, that draws them nearer to one another, that strengthens the marriage, that strengthens their bond, that strengthens their parenting, that strengthens their lives together. And it's good, and God says it's good. But when you're out here throwing it around to everybody, you're pulling all kinds of stuff in and you don't know what kind of crazy is in their background.
Speaker 3:There you go, but you're knitting yourself together with it.
Speaker 1:It's wild, Phil. It's wild, yes sir.
Speaker 3:Yes, sir, and I know we didn't even plan to go down this trail tonight, no, but it's like I just find it fascinating that it's one of the things that Paul always emphasizes. No matter what list you read in second Timothy, first Corinthians, romans, or even here in Galatians it's almost always the sexual sins that that top the list, and those were the ones, honestly, that, that it seems like God had the most problem with, if you want to put it that way, go ahead, david, I was going to say, even for those of you and this is going to be bad, I'm just going to keep it real, even for those of you you think we're just talking about sexual sin between a man and woman.
Speaker 1:But God had a problem with sexual sin having to do with two men having to do with two women, all around.
Speaker 3:It's no good, no bueno, that's right, yeah, it's no bueno, man, and that's the thing it's like. There is a specific design and purpose for sex and it's meant to happen within a marriage between a man and a woman. That's it purpose for sex, and it's meant to happen within a marriage between a man and a woman. Um, that's, that is the prescribed. Uh, that's what was it called? The prescribed um method, methods for for, uh, for sexual intercourse.
Speaker 1:That's, that's what it was meant for, uh, any, just go one little step further, philip. It's the only way that God finds acceptable. Come on, man so let's don't get stuck there. It's the only way that God finds acceptable within the marriage between a man and a woman. Everything outside of that is outside of the will of God.
Speaker 3:There's no questions to be asked.
Speaker 1:There's no ifs, ands or buts. There's none of that is outside of the will of God. There's no questions to be asked. There's no ifs, ands or buts. There's none of that. There's one way. That's right. One way.
Speaker 3:That's right and it's something we heard many, many times from the pastor we used to sit under. He said if you don't know the purpose for something, abuse is inevitable. And here's the example I thought was great. He said just because an airplane has wheels, that doesn't mean you drive it on the highway.
Speaker 3:Right, you know there is a purpose for these things, and if you don't understand the purpose for it then more than likely you'll abuseation. That's happened in the current culture. It's so easy to think that this stuff doesn't matter anymore, that God's not really all that interested in, and I guess we want to call it sexual purity. You know that somehow God has loosened his standards on these things now, because hey, look, you know, get with the times, man, and all stuff like that. Let me tell you something, man the times ain't ever mattered to God. You know he's the same yesterday, today and forever. So what he established back then is the same thing he believes in now. He has not changed a bit.
Speaker 1:And so that's the good thing about God. One of the ways that you know you can depend on God is that God hasn't changed from the beginning to now.
Speaker 1:He didn't care about the times, he didn't care about what was going on specifically in this era versus that era. He didn't think about anything about. Well, now women are wearing pants too, and any of the trends, any of that stuff none of that has moved God. He's always been exactly who he is and his word has not changed, which means that throughout time, we can always depend on God's word to guide and lead us, and we should get to the same fruitful, good end point by following that word every time, regardless of the season.
Speaker 3:That's good, david, that's good. And you know, as we sit here and say these things, I don't want anyone to think we're coming across like we are above it all or anything like that. David and I deal with the same temptations anybody else deals with, with all you know, with this type of stuff.
Speaker 3:It's not, it's not you know, it's just a thing of we all. But we've gotten enough of God's word in our hearts, in our minds, to where we know what he thinks about it, and so we strive and endeavor to do it how God has prescribed, and that's a way that we try to live, to honor Him with these things, because that's what it's really all about. Man, you can get out here and do all kinds of stuff. Ultimately mean ultimately, your decisions are your decisions. God made us free moral agents.
Speaker 1:We can do whatever we decide to do.
Speaker 3:But that doesn't mean that you're exempt from the consequences of bad choices. And if you got tempted over here with something and maybe you're married and there's some girl on your job who just won't leave you alone, you know, and she's trying to see if she can, you know, get that married man, you know what I mean. That whole situation. If you fall into that temptation, you're going to have to deal with the after effects of what that brings. You're going to have to deal with oh gosh, now I got to cover my tracks. Oh gosh, now I got to cover my tracks. Oh gosh, now what if she's pregnant? Oh gosh, what if I caught something from her or she caught something from me, whatever, I don't know.
Speaker 3:But it's not like that action exists in a vacuum. It does not. It's going to affect your life and that's why, you know I think it's in proverbs 6, maybe he said, he that commits adultery, lacks understanding and he destroys his own soul if he does, you know, um, that is, that's baked into the cake and it's not a matter of and I hope I'm not coming across like this, like by beating people over the head if you've made that kind of mistake or you've fallen into that kind of sin.
Speaker 3:No, we're not beating people over the head, we're making the word clear, exactly, exactly, and I definitely don't want to come across like you know. You're a horrible person. If you've done this, it's just. But you will have to deal with the consequences. That is just the way life works, the way God built these things into the system, and that's why he told us to avoid that stuff, because he's trying to get us to live a good life. You know, he's trying to help us avoid all the landmines and the pitfalls and the stuff that can derail us. And that's why it says in Hebrews 12. And I was just looking at this yesterday, actually, john, if you don't mind pulling that up for me In Hebrews 12, he had just got finished with the hall of faith, talking about what Abraham did and what Moses did and all this stuff like that.
Speaker 3:And then he gets to verse 1 in Hebrews 12. And he says Since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, look at what he says here. Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up, and let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. So he's trying to tell us there are some things in life that have the potential to trip you up. You know there's temptations, there's sins, there's stuff out there that, uh, if you're not staying sharp spiritually, it'll be easy to fall into this stuff sometimes. Yep, and so we you know, david and I, we're coming from a place of. You know, we don't think we're infallible, we don't think we're infallible, we don't think we're above all this, we know we have to stay vigilant and have to stay on top of our game spiritually as much as we can.
Speaker 1:And we know the scripture is true where it says we die daily.
Speaker 3:There you go.
Speaker 1:We do, and all of what Philip just described is walking in the spirit.
Speaker 1:Yes, and walking in the spirit although you know we talked about walking in the spirit has to do with hearing God and having our minds renewed to the things of God, but it doesn't mean that we're, as Philip said, we're not tempted. We are tempted. That's what makes it a journey, because in the journey there are things that happen and you have to adapt and adjust and move. But all that adapting and adjusting and moving, is you growing and hearing from the Holy Spirit? Is you growing and hearing from the Holy Spirit? Remember, we talked about the breath of God a couple of weeks ago, hearing God breathe wisdom on where to go, what to avoid, how to do this, how to do that, how to make it work here, how to make it work there, how to get the best out of this. This is also where the principle, which we talked about before, of 30, 60, 100 fold comes in.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:You may not always get 100 fold. Sometimes you come to a place where you know you're working through and you're like God, help me. And you're, and you finally make your way to the end of it and there's a 30 fold harvest for you, right so? But you're getting something out of it, and it could be that you know what. This ground wasn't designed to produce all that much here, or there are limiting factors that limited what you could get out of that particular ground at that time, but God is faithful to always give you a harvest and let you know you're on the right track.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:And you're going the right track. Yes, and you're going the right way. So all of this is walking in the Spirit and it's every day.
Speaker 3:That's right, it's every single day. That's right. And if I could emphasize something here, David, it's not just I go to church on Sundays and that's it.
Speaker 1:Yep All again.
Speaker 3:If the totality of your Christian life is I go to church on Sunday, you're not going to be strong spiritually, period.
Speaker 1:You're literally if seven days of the week you do the math with me, phillip If seven days of the week is 100% and you're going for one, not even one day.
Speaker 3:One hour.
Speaker 1:You're going for an hour, an hour and a half, because you know you don't like those long two, three hour services. You're going for an hour, an hour and a half. Are you doing like 2% all week in time spent with God and walking in the Spirit? Because at that point look, we haven't talked about it yet, but I've got in my notes here somewhere that walking in the Spirit requires the Scripture, it requires fellowship and it requires prayer.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you need all three of those things working every day. But if they're only happening on Sunday for a minute, and then you throw up a whoop to God during the weekday as you're on your way out the door, you know, you know, oh God, blessed week in Jesus name, amen, and you're out that guys, that just don't get you there.
Speaker 3:It won't get you there. No, it won't. It's funny too, man, cause I just remember, um, when I first first started coming into the things of God, and again, credit to David for being my truly a mentor to me in my, in my beginning of my walk with the Lord man, and still is a mentor, you know. But but I remember it was like a I don't know if it was a shocking thing to me, but it was like a revelation, if you want to call it that that I could read the Bible for myself, like I was. I was flipping out, like I didn't have to wait till I go to church to hear the scripture you know or hear somebody preach about it. I could actually sit down and read the Bible for myself anytime I wanted to.
Speaker 3:And understand it for yourself and understand it for myself Absolutely. And it was like, the more I dug into it and I started getting some, you know, bible study tools and David actually David gave me this thing called the World's Bible Handbook and it was just this amazing book full of all kinds of details about the scripture and I mean, oh goodness, I consumed that thing, man. But it really set me on a solid foundation as far as you know what I believed about the word and understanding the word better Once I got into it to that degree. The word itself don't forget, guys, the word, and understanding the word better once I got into it to that degree. The word itself don't forget, guys, the word is seed. Don't forget that.
Speaker 3:The word itself will begin to produce the fruit. If you spend time in it, you put it into you, you invest the time and to to read it, to digest it, to understand it, to study it. It will eventually produce fruit. And just like Mark 4 says, when Jesus talked about the parable of the sower, he said the seed is going to spring and grow up and you don't even know how. The farmer doesn't even know how. It's just going to happen. The earth brings forth fruit of itself. And that's the thing. Once I realized I could trust in that system of seed time and harvest, I can trust in just planting the seed of the word in me that it would produce something eventually, man. It set me on a good path, dude, and I've endeavored to do that from that point forward, and God's been good for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'll just have one little piece and then we'll we'll jump on these to at least these two new pieces we want to give you tonight. Yes, um, when you go beyond just what, that two percent on sunday, we'll call it five percent, just to be generous and you work to make, and you work to make scripture, prayer and fellowship with others a part of your everyday life. God honors that and he meets you there. He's faithful, it's as you spend time with the scripture and study and dig in. God's faithful to meet you there because he meets you there with revelation and understanding. Yeah, again, god's faithful to meet you there because he meets you there with revelation and understanding. God's faithful to meet you in your prayer time because he'll give you wisdom again, understanding and discernment and so many other things that come through prayer and then through your fellowship with others. He will give you relationships and community that are beneficial to your spiritual growth and will help you that as you go on down the line.
Speaker 1:You know one thing that's happening in my life right now I'm starting to see that God is bringing some old friends back into my life and I need it right now. I need it desperately because I've been too long floundering by myself and, um, it's my own, I, I'm guilty of it, it's my own doing, but when you self-isolate, you can get yourself into trouble. Yeah, but he's putting old, old friends, trustworthy godly friends, back around me, and one that I have prayed for for a long time but I've never led to the Lord that I've got to, and he's faithful to do that. If you spend your time just outside of Sunday in prayer and fellowship and in whatever I said those scriptures, time and description that you need, so trust God and know that he's faithful to meet you where you are. So I always tell people if you say you only got 10 minutes, god will take your 10 minutes, but I guarantee you that if you'll spend those 10 minutes well, that you'll get too hungry to just keep doing 10 minutes.
Speaker 3:That's right. That's right.
Speaker 1:Man Praise God and then you want 20, and then, before you know it, you turned your study time, your prayer time, into an hour, an hour and a half. You find that you can't function right in the day if you hadn't gotten your prayer and study time. I don't know how many times Philip and I have called each other and be like man, I'm off today. I only had 20 minutes with Jesus today and I just feel wrong and I'm mad at the world and everything's not working.
Speaker 3:You know all of these things.
Speaker 1:It's a good thing. It's a good thing to be dependent upon the Lord.
Speaker 3:That's right, man, that's right.
Speaker 1:All right, Philip. In the little bit of time we have left, there are two more works of the flesh that I want us to talk about Okay. And they fall under the next category within. I'm trying to if you see me looking away, I'm trying to pull up my screen. There it is. They fall under the sins of idolatry.
Speaker 1:And they are idolatry and witchcraft, and so I want to start by giving us a good definition of the word idolatry. It comes from the Greek word idolatria, which is a combination of idolon, meaning idol, and litrea, which means worship or service.
Speaker 1:So, idol worship, but it really comes down to. It refers to an idol or a worthless thing. Wow, only God could have given it that definition, because I'm sure he wanted to make it clear. So it refers to carved images or idols, anything meaning an idol or an image. And it's interesting that both this term witchcraft and the term idolatry fall. Both this term witchcraft and the term idolatry fall, according to the commentary, under this category of idolatry. Wow, and that's because witchcraft, just like natural idolatry, are both opportunities where you are worshiping something other than the Heavenly Father. Wow, wow. And so these are deep waters here, philip, what do you got on idolatry?
Speaker 3:You know, the first thing that popped in my head was that scripture and at the very end of 1 John, it's the last thing he said in the book, in chapter 5. He said little children, keep yourselves from idols. And it's interesting, the word keep there in the King James it actually means to guard. So this is not just something like, it's not something passive. When you're guarding something, there's a reason that you have to guard, right, it's because there's a danger out there. You don't have to guard anything where there's not a threat to that thing that you're guarding, if that makes sense. And so when he says, guard yourself from idols and I think it's the Amplified Bible, maybe, but there's another translation that says it defines idol as anything that could take God's place in your heart. And I was like, wow, guard yourself from anything that could take God's place in your heart. And I was like, wow, guard yourself from anything that could take God's place in your heart. And I have found dude, I know you, you and I've talked about this the human heart, man is prone to drift. There. It is cool. Well, I don't know what translation that is. Do you know what translation is John? Ah, the new living? Yes, sir, um, but if we can go back down there, it says little children, dear children, keep away from anything that might take god's place in your heart. And it's just interesting, man, when you think about this.
Speaker 3:Um, the human heart is very it's easy for us to drift, to be honest. It's easy for us to drift in our hearts. Sometimes we get occupied by things and then we don't realize we've kind of gone off the mark a little bit. It could be something as simple as a new hobby that you picked up, or it could be something as heavy and deep as a whole relationship that you're in. Whatever it is, there's a lot of times there will be challenges to that thing of keeping God first and centered in your heart, you know. And so in this walk with the Lord it's going to be. There are going to be some times when that gets challenged. There's going to be some times when you might take your attention off Him and start realizing that, man, I've kind of forgotten the original purpose for why I'm here on this earth, and it is to enjoy fellowship with God, to walk with Him through this life, and if I've started to look to something else or to someone else as the thing that takes care of me, the thing that's going to sustain me, the thing that's going to meet my needs or make me feel complete, then I've already, in some level, to some degree, I've missed it.
Speaker 3:I've missed it, I've gone off the mark, because God, from the time you know that you got saved and became aware of these things, he has pursued you, first of all, for you to even get saved that's something that there's a whole other conversation there that he pursued you for you to be able to get saved, because Jesus said nobody comes to the Father unless he draws them. So there's a whole side of that that we got to talk about. But also this thing that God's done in you, in your heart. It wasn't to no purpose, it wasn't just so you could. You know, okay, god, that was awesome. I got saved. Now I have fire insurance, I'm squared away.
Speaker 3:Let me just go about my life like I normally do. No, he actually wants to be a part of your life on an everyday basis, in every aspect of your life man, in the decisions you make, the path that you take, the career that you choose, the mate that you choose, all these different things. He's got a good life set aside for you and he wants to be involved in that life with you, and so this is why he's telling you this. It's not some power trip for God, it's not like that. It's something where he realizes I want you to have life and have it more abundantly, but you have to walk with me in order to understand how to get into that. So I don't know just things I think about.
Speaker 3:when that scripture came in my mind, I was like man you know he wants this life for us, but he also wants to walk with us into those things that he's prepared for us.
Speaker 1:That's good, philip. You know I'm reminded I'm sitting here looking at the. You know God has hated idolatry from the very beginning. Yes, sir.
Speaker 1:And you know, when the scripture says he's a jealous God, it's because he doesn't want to share you with anyone else. That's why you have you know God pulls at you, he tugs at your heart, says the goodness of God, draws a man unto repentance. That's why, even in your sin, god will be good to you because his desire is to draw you into repentance. That's right For your stuff. But idolatry has literally and I want to use a term that's not appropriate to use, but I think it'll make sense when I explain it Idolatry has undone the church over and over again, throughout, or better to say, god's people throughout the time of the word yeah From. You know, I'm thinking of Isaiah. You know, in the book of isaiah, where they had the asherah poles all up and down the sides of the mountain and they'd go to these poles and worship, you know, worship wood, you know, and it's also. It's also funny, like you know. I think of um, I believe it's isaiah and how he mocked them.
Speaker 3:for their idols and their idolatry.
Speaker 1:But you know, often idol worship always led to something else God hates, which is sexual sin. This commentary talks about is that the homage paid to false gods was often accompanied by shameful displays of sensuality. The abuse of the gift of sex inevitably leads to the elevation of the creature to the level of creator oh, wow goodness. I'll mention it again in just a minute, Bennett, but we did a series a little bit ago talking about modern day idolatry.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 1:And you may not necessarily walk up to an Asherah point, but you know what witchcraft still exists. And remember and Phillip, you may want to talk about this for just a moment Witchcraft isn't as Christians think about it. When we read witchcraft, we think about, you know, the pointed hat, the green skin, as if this was. You know somebody about to sing Defying Gravity? As if this was. You know somebody about to sing Defying Gravity? Mm, hmm, and that's not what witchcraft is, even though that's a part of it. Its root word is the word pharmacy. Wow, talk about that for just a moment, phil.
Speaker 3:That is a fascinating study If you ever want to get into it. That word witchcraft is like david said. It's where we get our, our english word pharmacy from, and it does refer to the use of illicit substances in one way or the other. Um, those things have been around forever, okay, uh, people have had and invented some sort of drug and that type of thing. They've had them for millennia now. And actually looking at this here on the screen here, where it says word origin, it's derived from the Greek word pharmakon, meaning a drug or a spell giving potion. That's fascinating there. It's interesting because, well, actually we'll just look at what it says here.
Speaker 3:In usage In the New Testament, pharmakia refers to the practice of sorcery or witchcraft, often involving the use of potions, spells and enchantments. It is associated with idolatry and the manipulation of spiritual forces through illicit means. The term that's heavy right there. The term is used to describe practices that are contrary to the worship of the one true God and are often linked with moral corruption and deception. And I'll bring it a little bit further down, because it's good stuff right here too. And I would read a little bit further down, because it's good stuff right here too, which says, in the ancient Greco-Roman world, pharmakeia was commonly associated with the use of drugs and potions for magical or religious purposes. Sorcerers and magicians were believed to have the power to influence the spiritual realm, often for personal gain or to harm others, and such practices were prevalent in pagan religions. Now, this is something that is interesting. It's all designed to try to have a power above normal human power. It's designed to have some type of control and power above natural level in order to either cause or try to make something happen or harm someone or that type of thing. And it's interesting too that the use of drugs and potions and stuff like that is kind of put into the mix, because if you think about it, even now, um, we know there's all kinds types of drug epidemics going on in the country.
Speaker 3:You know, even with the fentanyl situation and and, uh, these heavy, heavy drugs that have kind of hit the streets, and you see people walking around in these catatonic states and stuff like that, what it it really comes from. If you want to boil it down, it's human beings have an innate craving for the supernatural. We have that. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3 that God has set eternity in the heart of every man, and so there's an element in all of us that desires something above the natural. That's why things like superheroes appeal to us so much. We love the idea of having ability above the natural, something like that.
Speaker 3:Well, drugs, unfortunately, they're a horrible substitute for it, but their design and their purpose is to make people feel or experience something beyond what's normal and natural is to make people feel or experience something beyond what's normal and natural, and that I know there's a lot of talk about. You know what types of drugs are okay, quote unquote, to use, because they can supposedly put you in some kind of, you know, super meditative state or something like that. But you got to be careful. I think that that I think there's a lot there that can open the door to something that is completely against the will of God, the ways of God, and we'll put you over into that, that realm of, honestly, the demonic or the, the, the very, very unproductive.
Speaker 1:It's funny you say demonic. The commentary talks about this. It says the English translations usually render pharmakia as witchcraft, as KJV, niv or sorcery. The RSV and the NEB do that. These words correctly convey the idea of black magic and demonic control and demonic control Wow. But they miss the more basic meaning of drug use. It goes on to say in New Testament times and I'm going to hit you from right out of left field right now In New Testament times, pharmakia in fact denoted the use of drugs with occult properties, oh boy, for a variety of purposes, including especially abortion.
Speaker 3:Okay, you just got the bomb, dude.
Speaker 1:This is wide and deep. I would tell you that there's a lot of people that play around with a lot of drugs and looking for their next time. You know they saw Saturn, they saw Mars. You know all this stuff when they were high. But have you noticed the number of people who don't come back? Have you noticed the drugs out there are getting stronger and crazier. Yeah, that they're slipping into things and it only takes a minuscule amount to take a life.
Speaker 1:You've got to realize that these things are designed to end life to remove you from this earth to no longer be an enemy on the playing field to the devil.
Speaker 3:Come on man.
Speaker 1:Remember the Bible says that the payment for sin is death.
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 1:Paul is trying to tell us here that both idolatry and witchcraft are sins. They're works of the flesh and they have the ability Remember. At the end of this it says those who participate in these things don't inherit the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1:So you miss out on everything by trying to become a part of something that is not designed for you. And I'll tell you one other thing about idolatry, philip. Idolatry also because people again I mentioned the series but people get stuck in idolatry right now because they don't see people out in the Temple of Baal and all of this other stuff, but you know, worshiping the gadgets that you have.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just think about it. You have that phone and just be honest with yourself. Your phone is in your hand most of the day and you are connected to that phone like nothing else in your life. Do you realize that these, these, uh, different companies work to reach you and connect to you and use your phone as the place that they want you to do it? That's your new drug. It's, then, your app. You know, the phone is the idol and the apps are your pharmacy.
Speaker 3:Wow, that's heavy.
Speaker 1:That you're working with and you've got to be in your drugs all the time and you've got them right there in your altar that you worship at your phone. You can't sleep at night without it. It's right there by your bed. It's never outside of arm's reach If it's not present. You feel naked and exposed and like something is missing in your life. Just think about it. Just think about how this thing has you. We've got to come free from all of this stuff. We've got to come free from all of it.
Speaker 1:Give us a last word here, free from all of it. Wow, dude, we got to give us a last word here. We're almost way over our time.
Speaker 3:Yes, I would just. I mean, it feels like we've like Lisa Stansfield, we've been all over the world.
Speaker 1:Can't find my baby.
Speaker 3:I would just say this list that Paul gave the works of the flesh. Take time to study these different words that are in there and understand the meaning behind the Greek translation to these words. Get your concordance out and just really think about that. He's labeling these things as things that are opposite of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. So in other words, if these things, these things listed under the works of the flesh, are operative in your life, then you're in a place that is antagonistic to the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. So I don't think God wants you to stay in that place, obviously, and so he's given you the equipment, his word and the different things to help you see the changes that need to be made. And then also he's given you the clear evidence of where his activity is, which is the fruit of the spirit, in verse 22 of Galatians 5. So I don't know, man, I probably said too much right there, but definitely just take time to study those things and also the contrast between them and the fruit of the spirit.
Speaker 1:It's a good study. That's good, philip. We're going to put a bookmark right there. We've got to come back. We've got a lot more ground to cover and we'll promise to cover that with you. You know, we want to encourage you to connect with us. First of all, we want to encourage you when you come to these Bible studies, you know, feel free to bring your Bible, bring your notebook, bring a pen, take some notes down. Free to bring your bible, bring your notebook, bring a pen, take some notes down. Look at these scriptures with us, because they're the scripture is health to your flesh yes and it's marrow to your bones, right.
Speaker 1:In other words, it's healthy for you, it's good. It says with long good life, will he uh, with long good life, will he? Um, what's the?
Speaker 1:rest of the word Satisfy you, satisfy I couldn't think of a word to satisfy you and show you his great salvation. Right, but we've got to pick up this word and we've got to get that word coming in. And so the entrance of his word brings life and it gives understanding to the simple. That's Proverbs. So we've got to take it serious, to dig into this word, to hear the word and then to begin to take action on the things that we're hearing. So it's not enough for you just to hear what we're saying. It takes you taking action on what you're hearing, and not hearing just from Philip and I, but specifically hearing from the word, so that you know that you can take action on that. Philip and I are men and so we have no designs or no misunderstanding about our fallibility and the fact that we don't know everything. But we know that if you trust in the word, you'll get every place that you need to go. So spend time in the word and if you need to, us me too. We're here to help walk with you as you're walking through this life together.
Speaker 1:You can connect with us on social media by connecting with us at Bible Bros and Brew on Instagram. You can find us on Facebook, you can find us on X and we'll soon be out on TikTok as well, so that you can find us in all of those places. You, of course, can connect with us on Rumble. You can connect with us on YouTube. Use the comments section to tell us how you're taking these episodes. If you have questions or comments, or want us to cover something specific for you, we'd be glad to do that, or even just answer questions for you. We'd be glad to do that, or even just answer questions for you, so take the opportunity to connect there. Now, the last thing I want to do is remind you once again that we did talk about, a few weeks ago, the concept of modern day idolatry, and I want to encourage you to take a look at that. Next on Bible Bros and Brew. See you next time.
Speaker 3:Peace.
