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
A Biblical Understanding of Love and Joy | Walking in the Spirit | Bible, Bros & Brew
In Galatians 5:22, Paul offers a list known as the "fruit of the spirit", which is a collection of mindsets and behaviors that reflect and express the nature of God in our lives. In this latest installment of our series titled "Walking in the Spirit", David and Phil dissect the scriptures regarding what love actually is, as well as understanding the vital difference between joy and happiness. So grab your Bible and your brew, make yourself comfortable, and dig into the Word with us on this fascinating topic!
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Over the last few weeks we've been talking about the works of the flesh, but now we've got to get into the meat of it and figure out what it means to walk by the Spirit. Up next on Bible Bros and Bros hey everybody, I'm David and welcome to this episode of Bible Bros and Brew. I am not a man alone. I've got others with me On the side of me. I've got Philip Rich, yes, and down below is the one and only John Oxendine. No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2:I was going to say John Oxendine. He was a little Georgia senator.
Speaker 1:This is John.
Speaker 2:This is me.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:This is John. Yes, this is John this is John we're not allowed to say his last name out of fear for retaliation from unknown parties. Later on we'll uncover his last name in a future episode. Yes, ryan's not with us tonight because he's off goofing off in the mountains somewhere.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 1:Far from where he should be, but that's okay, we forgive him and we're sure the Lord will someday too. We're going to jump into some good topics tonight. You know we've been talking about walking in the Spirit as an overarching theme, but we spent the last several weeks walking through the works of the flesh, and we've broken down what each one of them communicates and means to us, and how it impacts how we should live our lives. Well, we've finally gotten to the place where we now need to take a shift and begin to look at what the fruit of the Spirit is. In other words, when you walk in the Spirit, what fruit does that bear? And so we're going to start tackling that tonight, but before we do, we want to find out what's in everybody's cup. As you know, good coffee precedes good conversation, and when they're done together, well, just magic happens. So we'll start with you, philip what's in your cup?
Speaker 1:If you were a betting man you would probably be able to guess which coffee I'm about to present.
Speaker 3:you would probably be able to guess which coffee I'm about to present, which roaster that would be. Just take a wild stab at it.
Speaker 1:What do you think? It might be. Could it be the folks?
Speaker 2:from Colorado.
Speaker 3:Well, how did you know, David, it's actually peregrine.
Speaker 2:Should have put money on it.
Speaker 3:I'm telling you, man, this one here is the Peru Willy Torres Huaman. It comes with tasting notes of fudge, cherry and clover honey.
Speaker 1:It's that cherry again man.
Speaker 3:Dude, I'm telling you, it's fantabulous man and I wanted to flex a little bit of a flex, but it's kind of. My mug is a little bit jacked right now, but this was a Bucky's mug, which you know if you've ever been to Bucky's, you know.
Speaker 1:Ah, yeah.
Speaker 3:It's the place to be dude, but unfortunately it's got this film kind of thing that's starting to peel off right here.
Speaker 2:I know Whatever.
Speaker 3:that's all about, so don't tell anybody about that. Anyway okay, let me just all right. Anyway, how about you, david, what you got in the cup man?
Speaker 1:Well, tonight I'm just drinking a very standard coffee. Okay, I thought I'd had it before, but now that I'm tasting it, I don't think I have. This is Black Rifle Coffee Company's Freedom Roast. Okay, and I'm only partially in love right now, but as I drink it more, I think I like it more. Hold on, let me get a. Like it more. Sip and see how I feel. Yeah, there's something happening, though, um and I don't think it's black rifles fault I wonder if this bag has been sitting too long. So here's a little note for you Coffee drinkers your coffee does go bad. You can't just have a bag of coffee out forever. It will mildew and start going bad, and so I think I'm tasting some hints of that, that I've let my bag sit out too long. So Black Rifle is great. The cup I've made is not. So somewhere in between our conversation I might be making another cup Black Rifle Coffee Company. Go get them. They've got a lot of good coffee that I really enjoy. True, indeed, ken, have it fresh. What are you drinking?
Speaker 2:That's a great question. Um, tonight I'm drinking salted caramel. Um, I don't have anything to show you, just to show you what it is. But I kind of wanted to go back down to my roots and just have black coffee today. I don't know if you've been paying attention recently, but I've been on this sweet sugary creamer high and I need to break that habit very, very quickly. So I've been enjoying some sweet caramel or not sweet caramel, salted caramel, which is another favorite of mine, nice. But it's been pretty, it's been good to me, and I'm taking it slow, taking it nice and easy. I've produced some great conversation tonight.
Speaker 3:There's no shame to that game, john. I just want you to know that. You know you want to do salted caramel. You want to do, you know, a little flavor licious thing here and there yeah I'm all about it.
Speaker 2:It's so funny because when I was making it, my nephew was was so adamant about me mixing my coffee. He's like, wait, you got to mix it. You got to mix it. I'm like, no, this is just black coffee, buddy, I don't need to mix it. No, no, no, you got to grab the creamer, mix it, mix it. He was like my temptation personified and I broke free. But I do love black coffee. I know I haven't approved that recently, but I do like some black coffee every now and then. It just feels good. I don't know how to describe it.
Speaker 3:It's a robust thing. Black coffee is just robust Like a manly situation there.
Speaker 2:Well, it's just.
Speaker 3:There's some hair on your chest.
Speaker 2:I guess I've gotten used to it.
Speaker 1:I have sent my coffee to the emergency room for help.
Speaker 2:There's no looking after it.
Speaker 1:I'm sure something new is going to come and it's going to be much better than that. Can I get my conversation right? I feel like I can't talk right now without it, but I'm going to effort to do so.
Speaker 2:So that's what's in our cup everybody.
Speaker 1:Now let's dig into a little bit about what's in the word. Tonight, as you all know, if you've been studying with us, we've been studying in the book of Galatians, the fifth chapter, starting at verse 16. And so we've gone from 16 through the end I think it's 24 or 25. And we've kind of looked at the whole scripture and we've worked our way now through the works of the flesh and we identified in the works of the flesh that they are categorized into four. You could categorize them, that is, into four categories sins of actual, sins of immorality, sins of idolatry, sins of animosity and sins of temperance. And we've talked about those things, what each one of them meant, and we encourage you, if you haven't, to go back and pick up one of the previous episodes and start going through that with us. It was actually quite a good run to go through the works of the flesh and see the different things that they meant. But before we jump into the fruit of the Spirit, I want to talk about this bridge scripture that happens from the ends of the work into the work of the flesh, leading us into the fruit of the Spirit. So if we could look at um, let me first of all, pull some scripture up, or ask john if you'll pull up. I believe it's verse 23, ah, sorry, even earlier than that if we look at verse 21,.
Speaker 1:It ends with envying, murders, drunkenness, revelings and such like, and Paul goes on to say, of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1:So Paul puts out a very significant warning there, and to say, basically, to walk in the flesh, to live in the flesh and have your flesh be your guide, means that you will not qualify to inherit the kingdom of God, not qualify to inherit the kingdom of God. Now, if you're a Christian, your whole concept is you want to inherit the kingdom of God. Notice that that's God's way of doing and being right. Right. So we want to live in a way that reflects how God does things right and how God is right, and so that requires us to live righteously, which is what the fruit of the Spirit really clues us into. He goes on from there to say but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. And they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust thereof. Philip, you have a thought about that bridge statement there before we jump into the fruit of the Spirit before we jump into the fruit of the Spirit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just something that came to me a little while back from verse 21, when he says you know of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in times past. So evidently Paul had made this a regular part of his you know, teaching or impartation to this church, and I find that fascinating. It just shows you again that this was something that was just an ongoing situation that he was probably having to deal with with these people in that congregation, and probably not just there, but, as we can see even from the letters to the Corinthians, I'm sure he had to deal with some of that stuff too there. But I just love how he's saying look, this is nothing new, like I've told you this before and I'll tell you again, they that do these things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. And this is something else too.
Speaker 3:When it talks about inheriting the kingdom of God, it's like what David mentioned earlier. The kingdom of God is the realm in which God is in full like, has lordship over, and where things look and operate how God wants them to right. If you think about a kingdom, you know that's a kingdom. He rules over a certain realm. In other words, whatever the king says goes. Whatever the king wishes, that's what happens. We've seen it throughout history and for as long as there's been monarchs and things like that, whatever they wanted to do whether it was smart, stupid, extravagant, weird whatever it got done because the king wanted it to be done Right and what?
Speaker 3:We see something interesting if you tie in Romans 14, and we don't have to go there, but just kind of something to look up later, romans 14, he says the kingdom of God is not in meat and drink, but in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Speaker 3:So it's like when God's kingdom, when you're operating under his lordship and under his rules, the end product is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. So it's like I'm not sure how many people would not want that kind of thing. And so when he says this thing about the works of the flesh, he said if you're doing all this stuff, you're not going to inherit the kingdom of God. You're not going to inherit that space where God is Lord and where things operate how he desires it, to, where you have life, and life more abundantly, where you have peace, where you have protection, where you have well-being, where relationships work, you know, where you're not depressed, you're not anxious, you're not dealing with fear all the time, because in God's realm and his kingdom, his will is done as it is in heaven, if that makes sense, and so I just think that that's something.
Speaker 3:There's so many kingdom benefits that you can partake of. But if you're out there operating in the flesh, like Galatians 5 is telling us, those benefits are not going to be fully, you're not going to fully tap into them, because you're, you know, kind of slipping your foot over here in darkness and doing something over here in darkness. And God doesn't dwell in the darkness, he's in the light.
Speaker 1:You know you won't qualify for them.
Speaker 3:Exactly, exactly and so and again. It's not, it's not a thing of works. And I think that people when they hear qualify, like you say, david, they think they probably think works. But that's not even the issue. The issue is alignment. You know, are you in alignment, spiritual alignment, with the things that represent God's kingdom?
Speaker 3:It's no different than like if you play in baseball and if the catcher is just walking around looking at the crowd, you know you're not ready to toss that pitch. You know the catcher is just walking around looking at the crowd. You know you're not ready to toss that pitch. You know the catcher has to be in position, craps down, got his little catcher's mid up. Then you know he's ready, um, because he's in alignment but is.
Speaker 3:But if you're just gonna, you know, if he's just gonna wander around and kind of be, you know, slacking on the job, it's just going to wander around and kind of be, you know, slacking on the job, it's not time to throw that pitch. So it's the same thing with the way God operates. He's like you have to be in alignment with what I'm doing, with what I say is right, with what I say is acceptable, and those things put you in spiritual alignment. So, instead of you being in darkness, dipping your foot over here and stuff that is not from God, you're operating in the light, and that's a very important thing to distinguish, because it's not a works-based thing. You're not earning his blessings, but you're positioning yourself to be in the right place to receive his blessings, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:That's good, and just think it is the works of the flesh, so that should give you a clue that it's not about works. It's your works that got you in that flesh in the first place. I'd also like to remind you, just think about our model prayer. How does it start? Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come. So we're even praying for God's kingdom to come.
Speaker 1:That is desiring to, as Philip said, align ourselves with God's kingdom and to see it manifest and realized in the earth, and to see and manifest and realize in the earth. So we're looking for those of us who believe we are looking for something different than what the works of the flesh have the ability to produce in our lives.
Speaker 3:Praise God.
Speaker 1:So, now that we look at that, let's look at the next, the first of the fruit of the Spirit, and it's an important one, because some would say in verse 22, it says but the fruit of the Spirit is love, and it is significant that love kicks off this list. In some translations it is love period, and then there's add-on or there's semicolons or colons after love, which implies that love is the foundational thing and all of the other fruit are born out of love. Wow, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, and I tend to agree with that understanding of the scripture, because, you know, faith worketh by love. You know, without love, all these other things just fall apart. So love has to be the foundation of the believers. Walk in the spirit, philip. Actually, let's, first of all, let's take a look at love. Let's look at the Strong's KJV and let's look at this word love. It's coming up here in just a second now. There's a lot of interesting. There's a lot of interesting stuff and, um, you know, philip and I were talking before we started the episode and it made me want to do something that he does and and it's like you know, and I'll let you, you lead the way here in the first part, philip, to say you know, let's start by talking about what love isn't.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:There's so much wrongheaded thinking about love in our modern society. We have it in that it's just if you have a gooey ooey feeling about somebody, that means it's love, or just this feeling of like you get butterflies in your stomach when you think of somebody and that must be love. And also and I don't want to get too far in the woods this early on, but this idea that you might as well go up in there.
Speaker 1:We're going to find our way anyway.
Speaker 3:We are man eventually, right? I mean, if it's a little out of order, who cares? But this idea that If you see somebody going down a path that you know is destructive, you don't stop them, but instead you, you encourage that path, because after all, we got to love people unconditionally. That makes about as much sense as me not pushing my daughter out of the way of an oncoming car. You know, you got to be careful about stuff like that. And again, david, I'm not trying to skip around too much. No, no, I'm not trying to skip around too much. But this idea of accept me as I am, no matter what I'm doing, or if you don't sign on to everything that I'm doing, then you don't love me. Quote unquote Bro, if you don't leave room for correction and if you don't know how to receive correction, you're not being loved. If you don't know how to receive correction, you're not being loved.
Speaker 1:And in some cases you know, depending on what we're talking about, you're actually being enabled to operate in self-destruction, if you want to boil it down. You know, sometimes, philip, I think that the word love is thrown around almost as a as a negative, not a positive it's. You know it. You know we.
Speaker 1:We talk about love, so that means leave people alone, which in one sense, might be the opposite of what love is yeah and in other cases, you know, I think people throw love up and they throw love at people as a means to deflect, either deflect from bad behavior or deflect from being allowed to do whatever they want to do.
Speaker 1:If you recall back several weeks ago as an example, we talked about the concept of. We talked about the concept of sexual immorality or sexual immorality, and we talked about the concept, or at least I did that. If somebody is using the term I love you to get in your pants, that is completely opposite of what this love is talking about right now. It's so, it's so far gone from from what this actually means that it's um, it's wild. It's wild that we would take love and so desperately misuse it. But because we're a broken people in a broken world, we're using godly things and trying to get ungodly results from them.
Speaker 1:And then we want to justify our behavior by using once again that godly thing to excuse away what we've been doing. It's just wild.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. It makes me think of this story. I heard a minister say a while back he was at the grocery store and there was this little kid. He's probably like I don't know six or seven years old, and he's begging his mom for this cereal. And the mom is like no, we're not getting it. And the kids just fussing and fussing about it. And then finally she's like no, put it back, we're not getting it. And he says why do you hate me? You know, it's like this. You know, in some people's minds, um if I don't get what I want then you're not loving me.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean. It's like wow, is that we can't? We can't sign on to that and say that unless I'm giving somebody everything they want, I'm not loving them. Sometimes what people want is not the best thing for them and we've seen that over and over again. I've seen it in my own life. For goodness sake, man, you know you can. There's things that you think you want at the time, but then you find out later, hindsight, 2020, I'm so glad I didn't get that thing that I thought I wanted. So love has that dimension to it and I wanted to.
Speaker 3:You know, when we were talking about it, before the show started, I was saying to David I said you know, I don't want love to be seen or viewed as some ooey, gooey, you know warm, fuzzy puppies and rainbows kind of thing, at the expense of talking about the full spectrum of what love is, including correction, including those hard conversations sometimes and all those things like that. Because Jesus said in Revelation I think it's Revelation three he was talking to one of the churches. He said as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. So he was of the opinion that if I love you, I'm also going to tell you when you're wrong. I'm also going to tell you when you're getting out of alignment. Otherwise, I let you go down a path that's not going to be productive for you and that can't be love. It's not possible for that to be love. So, anyway, I know we got to keep moving, but I wanted to just share that.
Speaker 1:No, that's good, that's good. Let's look over here at Bible Hub and, once again, the tools that we're using and that we recommend that you can use that will help your Bible study is, of course. We're looking at Bible Hub right now, which you can get all of your different translations. You can see commentaries there, you can do word studies in the Greek and Hebrew. Phil also uses eSword and you can pretty much do all of the same things with Esword.
Speaker 1:So when we look at this word love, it comes from the Greek word agape, which means love. It also means love, benevolence, goodwill, esteem. The plural of it is love feast, which I've also found very interesting. But when we go down to the usage, just back up a little bit, john, I want to read this to you. It says agape is a term used in the New Testament to describe a selfless, sacrificial, unconditional love.
Speaker 1:So what Philip was saying just a minute ago is exactly right, because this love, this particular love that's being talked about here in Galatians, chapter 5, is not an ooey-gooey love. It's not this. You know I love you, you love me, we're in love. Everybody loves love, love, love, and you know that kind of be the picture there. No, this is the one that's not only is it selfless, but it is sacrificial. The picture of this love is Jesus laying down his life for the people, for the church. That's the kind of sacrificial love that we're talking about here. It goes on to say it is the highest form of love, often associated with the love of God for humanity and the love that believers are called to have for one another. Unlike other Greek words for love, such as eros, which is romantic love, phileia, which is brotherly love, agape is not based on emotions or feelings but, it is an act of the will characterized by a commitment to the well-being of others.
Speaker 1:In other words, there's a place here in the Helps Word Studies that you just keep scrolling down. John, there you go. That really means to love means. In antiquity it meant to prefer, to have a preference for divine love equals what God prefers, wow. And so when we look at love here, you know saying to Philip that, as a Christian, I have a responsibility to love my brothers and sisters in Christ. That is my choice and that is my preference.
Speaker 1:I may have never met you before, I may have never seen you before and there are Christians out there that I know that I will never see but what I do know is, as my brothers and sisters in Christ, I love them and I pray for them, because that is my preference, that is my will, that is my choice to do, and we often get into these kinds of wonky teenage loves and we think relationship love is the kind of love that you know. That's how we know what love is, and I would tell you that that's only partially true, honestly, the Eros and the Philea that this translation talked about are more of relationship types of loves, particularly Eros, which is erotic, erotic love. Philea, which is brotherly love. That's where we get the city of Philadelphia from the city of brotherly love. You know, those loves have more to do with relationships and connections.
Speaker 1:What this love is, is this agape, is all God that, just like Jesus laid down his life for us, we ought to be willing to go as far as laying down our lives for others, thus demonstrating the agape love of God. Now we can also demonstrate the agape love of God by how we care for, treat and love one another. To be kind, look to walk in all these other fruit of the Spirit is an act of love. To even want to do it and put the effort forward to do so, so that you can fulfill the law of Christ and love your brother. That is agape, that is sacrificial love, Because that means you choose to do it, not you have to do it.
Speaker 1:And I think, Philip, that even as Christians, we have to choose to do it. I think some people think well, this is easy just because the word says so, so that's what I do. And I think that, yes, that easy just because the word says so. So that's what I do. And I think that, yes, that is true, the word says so, that's what we should do.
Speaker 1:But to actually walk it out is where the real love hits the road.
Speaker 3:Agreed, agreed. I was thinking about that scripture in John 13. Actually, john, if you don't mind pulling that up for us In John 13,. Actually, john, if you mind pulling that up for us In John 13, jesus all through the Gospels.
Speaker 3:First of all, he was trying to boil everything down to some essential things Because by the time he showed up on the planet, they had I mean, the law had gotten out of control. You know, they had this, what they call the intertestamental period, where the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the doctors of the law began to take over and started creating rules and regulations and laws that they had come up with and just squeezed the life out of the whole intent that God had behind the law. And when Jesus came, that was one of the things he kept emphasizing to the Pharisees and Sadducees. He's like you know, you sit here and you tithe off every little leaf in your garden. You're tithing off these things, you're exacting with the law, but yet you forget the weightier matters, like compassion and mercy and love. He said you know you should do the tithing thing, but you shouldn't neglect the other aspects of it, the weightier matters. And he was constantly saying to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. Those two things fulfill everything that the law talks about, everything from Moses all the way through the prophets to the entire Old Testament. It can all be summed up in the simple idea love your neighbor as yourself. So that was his backdrop for them.
Speaker 3:But then he takes it a step further with the disciples, and that's where John 13 comes in. This is fascinating to me because I didn't catch it at first, but then, after you read it, it's like, oh, I kind of see it. Now it's down in verse 34, I think it is let's see here, bunch of red. There it is In verse 34,. He says so now I am giving you a new commandment. Now these guys were used.
Speaker 3:They were used to talking about commandments. You know that's all they knew of. The old covenant was commandments and laws. And Jesus said I've got a new one for you. Love each other just as I have loved you, you should love each other. And so that took it a step even beyond what the old covenant talked about, which was to love your neighbor as yourself. Here Jesus says love others as I love you. That's a whole different level there, man. Others as I love you. That's a whole different level there, man.
Speaker 3:And of course, when we think about what Jesus did, his love was, as David just mentioned, self-sacrificial. He laid his life down. You know he was willing to benefit others at the expense of himself, and that's the kind of love that we, as believers should begin to practice towards each other. You know, you benefit others, even sometimes at the expense of yourself. That is always easier said than done, that's for sure, and that's why it's it's it's rare, sadly, to see, to see someone walking in that type of love and to commit to that type of love. It's not easy, you know, but the thing is it's very rewarding because when actually, I think it's a little bit further up in John 13, jesus said if you do these things, happy are you if you do them, you know. So it was like he's showing us the key to happiness there, you know, walking the kind of love that he's put out there for us to walk in.
Speaker 1:That's good. I want to read this little snippet from. I'm also reading alongside of Galatians. I'm reading the New American Commentary. It says, and I think it had something to share, something I think is fascinating it says Paul's emphasis, here in Galatians as elsewhere, was on the Christian's love for his fellow human beings. While the horizon of the love of neighbor is by no means restricted to fellow believers, it is supremely important that Christians learn to live together in love. When Christians forget this, then two horrible consequences invariably follow. First, the worship of the church is disrupted as the gifts of the Spirit are placed in invidious competition with the fruit of the Spirit, as happened at Corinth. The second thing that happens is the witness of the church is damaged as unbelievers stumble and fall over the obvious lack of love within the body of Christ.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 1:Wow. And so we've got to realize that even this love that God has called us to, that is selfless and sacrificial, is a love for our brothers and sisters, but it's the love that we're to walk in this world with. But we are to regard them with love, regardless of what their status is, and we see that when we miss these opportunities. I love that second one, particularly where the witness of the church is damaged as unbelievers stumble and fall over the obvious lack of love within the body of Christ, and I think that's of some of the things that we've been talking about lately.
Speaker 1:That's one of the things that's going on in the church. You know there's literally a line of people who are dealing with church hurt.
Speaker 3:Oh goodness.
Speaker 1:And now some of that is their own doing. But there's some genuine hurt there where it was people-oriented and people not walking in the love of God and reflecting God's love to others that could have preserved that hurt and that pain that others are going through. We just have to be so careful with this love and realize it's a love that lays it all down for others and that is pleasing to me.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, and it's interesting you mentioned the thing about church hurt, because a lot of times when you run into people who maybe no longer go to church or maybe even no longer consider themselves to be a Christian, one of the first things they always say, if you ask them, is well, it's just a bunch of hypocrites in the church. They talk a big game, but they don't do what they say, and that's sad. It's sad that it's like that, but I mean David it's a bad testimony.
Speaker 3:It's sad that it's like that, but I mean, david, it's a bad testimony, it is. It is, and you and I both we've had our own experiences with this very same thing before, where people would say one thing or present themselves to be a certain way, but we're completely the other way in reality and unfortunately, people are people, whether they're in the church or out of the church. You know what I mean. So there's going to be situations where folks might lie to folks, backstab, cheat, other things like that. It should not be named among the body of Christ, but it does happen. But in those cases you don't always necessarily have to, you know, just sit there and get abused the whole time. You can peacefully part ways. But at the same time, it's up to us, each person. We have a responsibility to be a doer of the word, and James talked about that. He said you know, to fulfill the royal law is to love your neighbor as yourself.
Speaker 3:You know, we can't have. It should not be named among the body of Christ, that we're out here saying one thing but doing another. You know, because that's not true. That's not true, love.
Speaker 1:Right, can I just offer to those of you who are watching and listening? Let me offer an elixir, if I could, for church hurt. Number one never put people on pedestals, they don't belong.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Part of the reason that people get hurt is because they place people in places and heights that they should not be and eventually it's inevitable they will fall. Number two is remember everybody in church is just as human as you are.
Speaker 1:There you go, they're just as capable of failure as you are. And if you look at everybody in the room that way and recognize that everybody has a story, everybody's come from somewhere and that place is not perfect, then you'll see your place in the midst of that group of people, but you'll also not esteem others higher than they ought to be esteemed, and that will ultimately preserve you, because you don't have any rose-colored glasses on or misconceptions about where people are, how they are and what is possible with people In a room full of humans. Look, jesus had 12 men and one of them was a deceiver. I've heard some pastors and preachers say that means in every 12 that you got, one of them is a devil. That doesn't necessarily mean that. It just means that even in small groups there are chances that somebody's intentions are not good. If you recognize these things when you walk in the door, you are less likely to be hurt if something happens, and then you have to deal with it. So be wise, phil. Let's look at the next one. You think we're ready.
Speaker 3:I think we're ready.
Speaker 1:All right, so the next one is joy Did.
Speaker 3:I get that right. Yes, sir.
Speaker 1:Yeah, joy. Let's look at the? Um, let's look at this word in the? Uh, the word study and breakdown of it. Um, this is a fun little word. Uh, no pun intended. Um, one of the things that I think is important, philip, for people to understand is joy is not based upon or built upon your status or situation in life.
Speaker 3:Come on man.
Speaker 1:Joy doesn't mean that everything is going well and that you're provided for, you're prospering and things are going on. Joy is a much deeper and broader tool than that in the Christian's toolbox. If we look at it, it comes from the Greek word kara, which means joy, gladness, delight, a source of joy.
Speaker 1:It's derived from the verb kairo, meaning to rejoice or to be glad, if you continue on down just a little bit. In the usage it says in the New Testament, kara is used to describe a deep, abiding sense of joy and gladness that is rooted in spiritual realities rather than external circumstances.
Speaker 3:My goodness, my goodness.
Speaker 1:I just want to read that again. That joy, uh, the abiding sense of joy and gladness, is rooted in spiritual realities rather than external circumstances. Yeah, it is often associated with the presence of the Holy Spirit and the believer's relationship with God.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 1:This joy, as you know, is a fruit of the Spirit and is characterized by a sense of inner peace and contentment that transcends worldly troubles.
Speaker 3:Goodness gracious, that's good man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what are you thinking?
Speaker 3:I remember our former pastor saying this all the time he said joy comes from what you know, not what you're. This all the time he said joy comes from what you know.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:Not what you're feeling at the time, and joy itself doesn't even necessarily start as a feeling. It actually can start as an acknowledgement and an understanding of who God is and who he is in your life. And from that understanding and from that sense of wow, you know I'm in fellowship with the creator of the universe. I have his spirit living in me. You know I'm born again, I'm one with the creator. Now you know how it says in 1 Corinthians 6, he that's joined to the Lord is one spirit. You know, when you start acknowledging these spiritual realities just like that definition was earlier when you start acknowledging the spiritual realities, it truly can produce a sense of joy. Like man, this is, god is awesome. Look what he did.
Speaker 3:You know, and I think about this like and it's just a proof to me, a proof positive that joy doesn't necessarily depend on circumstances either. You know, like you were saying David, it doesn't mean everything's peachy king for you to have joy. You can have joy in the midst of negative circumstances or unfavorable circumstances. You can have that, like I said. I think in the definition it said calm delight, meaning you know who God is, you know he's got your back, you know he'll never leave you nor forsake you. You know he supplies all your needs. You've got those things that you know, that are keeping you from letting the circumstances or the feelings of the circumstances overwhelm you and your emotions up here.
Speaker 3:To me that's such a powerful thing and when you think about it, dude, like the book of Philippians, it's often called the epistle of joy. I don't know if you ever heard that kind of thing, but it's one of those things where they talk about how God, how Paul, was always saying you know, rejoice in the Lord. And again, I say rejoice. You know that's in Philippians, and it's so funny. He wrote that while he was in jail. You know it was like he was sitting in the clink man, but he was like I'm rejoicing, I'm all good, you know, because God's with me Wherever I go, he'll never leave me. So to me, that just shows the kind of attitude you can have when you're connected with god. Um, it could. It could be this thing. That is not based on your circumstances.
Speaker 1:It's based on what you know about who god is that's good, philip john, let's go back over to the uh, to the word breakdown, and if if you come under the cultural and historic background just a little further up there, I want to read this to you. It says in the Greco-Roman world, joy was often linked to external circumstances, such as success. Circumstances such as success, wealth or pleasure. However, the New Testament redefines joy as a spiritual state that is independent of external conditions. This Christian understanding of joy is deeply connected to the hope and assurance found in Jesus Christ, his resurrection and the promise of eternal life.
Speaker 1:The early Christians experienced joy even amidst persecution and suffering, viewing it as a testament to their faith and the presence of God in their lives. You know, we see that, we see some that they rejoiced that they were found worthy to be persecuted like jesus. Yes, yeah, they took joy. They took joy in that and this concept of disconnecting joy and saying that I can experience joy, this sense of being satisfied and happy because Jesus is who he is and he is working in my life. You know I've been, I've been working on being more positive within myself. You know you can have a lot of negative self-talk if you allow yourself to get away with it.
Speaker 1:And I've been reminding myself constantly that I've got some things going on out there and I'm like you know what. I just thank God because these things are working out in my favor. Even though I haven't heard anything specifically yet, I know that God is working this out for my good and when it finally comes to bear it's going to be for me, and trusting God with those things, that's a level of joy, because now I walk away, not concerned about whether or not it's going to happen for me, but thrilled in the fact that I know God is working for my good.
Speaker 3:There you go.
Speaker 1:And I'm so happy and excited about that because I know that God is good.
Speaker 1:Yes, Now if you keep going down here just a little bit more into the word study, there's an interesting thing that I want to point out. Into the word study, there's an interesting thing that I want to point out. It says that zara, which is another, or cara, which is another feminine noun from the root car, extend, favor, leans toward being favorably disposed properly, the awareness of god's grace, favor, favor and joy or grace recognized. Then when it comes down a little bit longer before that, it says Kara rejoiced because of grace, kara joy because of grace.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:So we really have something to joy in. We have joy in God's grace for us.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:We can see his grace in every working of life.
Speaker 3:Yes, hey, john, if you don't mind going to Romans 5, I wanted to kind of piggyback off what David just said because it's fascinating. When Paul was talking about, he explained everything from Romans. You know, one all the way through four about. You know the redemption that's been purchased for us and everything that led up to that, and he beautifully lays it out.
Speaker 1:Oh my goodness, man, it's a masterpiece, it is a masterpiece.
Speaker 3:And then he gets to out oh, my goodness, man, it's a masterpiece, it is a masterpiece. And then he gets to chapter five and he says, therefore, verse one since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ, our Lord, has done for us. He says, because of our faith, christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now. We don't deserve it, where we now stand and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory. And then he says this we can rejoice too when we run into problems and trials Interesting, for we know that they help us develop endurance, and endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead us to disappointment, for we know how dearly God loves us. Because this is so good man, he's given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. And if you don't mind going down to near the end of that chapter, john, oh, sorry, I should have pulled you back up right before the heading. Keep going up there, john. It's right above that heading that we just passed about. Yeah, adam and Christ. Yep, right there in verse 11. It says so now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.
Speaker 3:So again, and then the King James.
Speaker 3:It says we joy in God he uses joy as a verb there we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we've received the reconciliation. So again, going back and it's pretty much what David's been saying too going back to this idea that when you understand who God is, based on what his word tells us, and you understand what he's done for us and the love that he's shown us through his son, through the act of redemption, all those things, when you really grasp that and it takes honestly, it takes a revelation of the Holy Spirit for us to fully get it, because it's so huge. But when you begin to grasp it, man, it produces that joy. Like man, I am his and he is mine. You know what I mean. Like we belong to each other. Now, this is a real thing that God did, it's something that he established in blood on my behalf, and when you start looking at it that way, it just changes. You realize that nothing in this temporal life can sever that connection you have with him, and that's a powerful thing, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good, Philip. I think we'll throw the bookmark in right here and we'll pick up with peace as we continue to look at the fruit of the Spirit, Philip. Any final deep thoughts on this before we wrap up.
Speaker 3:You know I know we said a lot in this podcast tonight. I would encourage everyone because the just the word love by itself is a huge study in in and of itself. You could go no further than love and be caught up for weeks in your concordance and your Bible study tools and all that. I would recommend, you know, take time to go through your concordance, find these different places, especially in the new Testament, where it talks about God's love and the love of God. You'll find a bunch of them in 1 John. That's a good starting point, but just take some time to study it. Take some time to find out what the Bible says about God's love for us.
Speaker 3:There's so many good ones, including Ephesians 3 near the end of that, when it talks about the love of Christ that passes knowledge and all those things like that. Definitely take time to look into that. I think it'll. It'll really bless you. And then, of course, you know, please feel free to go back and look at the podcast that have led up. To let us up to where we are now.
Speaker 1:I think there'll be a blessing to you too. Yeah, and I'll tackle joy in that. You know it's joy because of grace, calm, delight. You know, just really take that stuff to heart and study along with us. I know that you might be saying to yourself man, they have been talking about this stuff forever.
Speaker 1:We just made a decision that you know, when we look around, most people are going through this stuff too fast and people aren't fully getting it anyway so we might as well slow down and make sure people get it, and they kind of for lack of a better word they mine this cave and really kind of suck out of it all that you can. But it's important that you study with us. So don't let this be just you hearing, but let it be you taking the opportunity to go dig into the word. Look at the scriptures we've talked about. See what scriptures god leads you to. There'll be more. There's plenty of. The bible has plenty to say about everything to you. There'll be more. There's plenty. The Bible has plenty to say about everything. And so go in and dig in and find these things. It will nourish and encourage your life if you do. Yes, sir. Well, that's going to wrap it up for this episode.
Speaker 1:Again, we are so glad that you've connected with us and that you've joined us. We want to encourage you to connect with us by way of social media. You can actually reach out to us by most of the podcast apps that you're watching or listening to. This on have a comment section. Feel free to leave a comment. We'll get that comment. You can also drop us a note on Instagram. We're on X, we are on Facebook and we will soon be on TikTok. I keep saying that because it's kind of a reminder for me to set up our TikTok. So but reach out to us in all of those ways and you can actually also email us if you've got questions, comments, you want help in digging into something? We'd be happy to do, so you can reach out to us at gotbrew, at biblebrosnet Again, that's gotbrew at biblebrosnet. We'd love to connect with you. We'd love to connect with you, philip. Let's pray for them before we go and let's just ask the Lord to be love and peace in their lives.
Speaker 3:Yes, sir. Father, thank you for the privilege of sharing your word and thank you for every person who has tuned into the podcast and will tune into it. We pray over them right now, father. We pray that you will just open the eyes of their understanding to more fully grasp the love that Jesus has for them. Just like Paul prayed in Ephesians 3, father, we pray that they may come to know the breadth, the length, the depth and the height of your love. Father, that's for everyone, that's for all of us.
Speaker 3:Lord, you've given us so many great insights and scriptures for us to understand you better. In that regard, lord, help us as we go through our study time, as we come across those scriptures in the word. We pray that the Holy Spirit would just bring those things to life in our hearts and minds, that he'll give us a revelation of those things, lord, because we know that you said in your word that when we know the love of Christ, we can be filled with the fullness of God, filled with all of your fullness. Lord and Father, thank you for, as always, doing exceeding abundantly, above what we ask or think, just like your word says. We are grateful for that. We're grateful for all that you do for us.
Speaker 3:We just give you praise, father and Lord, for those who are listening and may be discouraged or going through a tough time. We just pray for them, lord. Have mercy on their lives, give them wisdom as they need it. Give them strength as they need it. Fortify their spirits as they need it. Give them strength as they need it. Fortify their spirits as they need it. Father, we know that you're the one who gives those things, and you give wisdom liberally, and so we just give you thanks for that, father, for just speaking to their hearts in a way that will set them on solid ground again. We give you praise for that, lord, and we agree on these things now, in Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1:Amen, don't forget to go back and grab a previous episode. Get yourself caught up to where we are and enjoy the study. I'm David, he's Philip, peace, thank you.
