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
The Comparison Trap & How to Escape It | Walking in the Spirit | Bible, Bros & Brew
In Galatians 6:4-5, Paul brings out the importance of taking the time to soberly examine ourselves and our own efforts instead of focusing on how we measure up in comparison to others. Building on this scriptural foundation, David & Phil discuss the dangers of getting into comparison and competitive jealousy, and they provide practical tips to help believers build an authentic, thriving fellowship and connection with God.
gotbrew@biblebros.net
In this episode of Bible Bros and Brew. We're going to continue our conversation that we started last week about stepping up and helping those who are falling. No, let me do that again. Three, two, one On this episode of Bible Bros and Brew.
David McIntyre:We're going to continue on in our conversation around Galatians, chapter 6, verses 1 through 10. There's a lot of practical life in these scriptures that directly correlate with what we just talked about, about walking in the Spirit and, specifically, walking by the fruit of the Spirit. Let's go, you're going to love it. Up. Next, on Bible Bros and Brew, we are those dudes and you are with us, which means you've made a great choice, and so did we. Welcome to the show. We're glad you're joining us tonight. We've got some good stuff to talk about and some very practical application of the word to discuss. Really, we're going to talk a little bit about ourselves and how we see ourselves tonight, among some other things, but before we get into that, let's check in with everybody and let's ask the question, the question of the moment, because the answer to this question may impact how your conversation flows. And that's what's in the cup, ryan, I'll start with you what you drinking tonight.
Phillip Rich:Well, David, I took a playbook right out of the old David. Mcintyre playbook.
David McIntyre:Uh-oh, then you better have come with something. Oh, the McIntyre playbook.
Phillip Rich:Uh-oh, then you better have come with something.
Ryan Holdeman:Oh yes.
David McIntyre:Ryan, I'm so proud of you.
Jon Dzyuba:What you say what you say bro.
Phillip Rich:Yes, and it's got. This is the Serengeti blend Full body with notes of chocolate and molasses.
David McIntyre:So, dude, how is it? Because that's the next one I want to buy from them.
Phillip Rich:You know me, I'm a dark roast kind of guy and it's really good that's awesome, that's good stuff, man.
David McIntyre:I'm so. I'm not going to cry on this episode over coffee, but I said can't hold little, miss me.
Jon Dzyuba:That's pretty bad.
Ryan Holdeman:Can't lie.
David McIntyre:You just made the night so we can end the show. Everything's great. People Study those scriptures Night, all right.
Jon Dzyuba:John.
David McIntyre:What you got, what you bringing to the table tonight?
Jon Dzyuba:That's a good question. I think I overdid it. I wanted to try something simple. I found a little white chocolate coffee. It's pretty tasty, but then I think I added a little too much flavor. I had a little peppermint that was added, because I love peppermint. It actually mixed really well until, yeah, I guess there is such thing as too much, but besides that it is pretty refreshing. I just kind of I kind of have to, like you know, suck it up now and finish the cup, because you know I made my cup. Now I have to sip it. So I made my cup, now I have to sip it.
Ryan Holdeman:Yes, yes, so true, as the old saying goes.
David McIntyre:You made your cup. Now you're going to have to sip it.
Ryan Holdeman:Right.
David McIntyre:Nice. We'll remember that for a while to come, John. Make it into a t-shirt, oh dude, okay, we just got a t-shirt idea. We gotta beat those who are listening though unless you really love us.
Jon Dzyuba:I was gonna say yeah, go ahead.
David McIntyre:I'm following the copyright as we speak. Well, phillip, what you?
Ryan Holdeman:drinking tonight well, it's kind of a hot day out here in the ATL. As you guys know, I went with some cold brew once again, but this time around I've got the Stoke man Stoke cold brew. I like the unsweet black. That thing is smooth yet robust. I'm not even going to ask Dave?
Ryan Holdeman:I'm not even gonna ask david, I'm not even gonna ask you man, but anyway, yeah, it's just really good man, um, I like products, avail yourself if you have um the ability to avail. Um. Anyway, sorry, david, how about you man? What are?
David McIntyre:you drinking that unsweet black boy? That's right up your alley.
Ryan Holdeman:I'm leaving that right there, bro, I promise you.
David McIntyre:Except yours is sweet, so that's, okay. Yes. I eat cream.
Ryan Holdeman:No Tonight.
David McIntyre:I'll bring another coffee to the table. Um, this is uh stump town coffee roasters and this one is holler mountain, which is creamy and caramel caramel from Stumptown. I grabbed this up today looking for something to try. Let me tell you it's a good coffee. I'm not going to overly complain about it. I just don't know if it's conversational coffee. I'll be sitting and determining whether this is conversational coffee or whether this is sitting alone, devotional coffee.
David McIntyre:So, right now I'm having to lean into the spirit realm a lot for my conversation. That's why I had to rerecord the intro three times. If my coffee was right then it might have been different. But no, it really is a good coffee. It's exactly what it says. It is Kind of creamy, kind of Italian, doesn't have a nasty back bite on it, so that's always a plus. So, yeah, you can grab that over at Target and you can grab all of these coffees that we've drunk at different places, that we're drinking at different places. You can grab Stoke at your grocery store. Kahala should be at some of your grocery stores.
Jon Dzyuba:I got mine from.
David McIntyre:Amazon, amazon, yep, that's where I got mine from, so you might get your kahala from Amazon and wherever you want to find chocolate, white chocolate, coffee, just make it up like John does and get it from wherever it works.
Jon Dzyuba:The white chocolate is not necessarily a common coffee flavor that you can find Mine came in an assortment, so I got lucky, but it was also the only one that I had, so that was it. I ruined it.
David McIntyre:Let me give you one. I had so, uh, that was it. I ruined it. Let me, let me give you. Let me give you one. I know this is way off track. Let me give you one white chocolate that I think is really good and it's from, I believe it's the donut shop, and you can buy it in a cake up.
David McIntyre:It's like it's white chocolate and coconut okay, and that and that's really good it was better than I thought it was, because I'm not a huge coconut dude, but I've become one because my wife is making me.
Jon Dzyuba:Oh boy.
David McIntyre:So yeah, so there's for me, there's my story.
Phillip Rich:Another good white chocolate. Um, you know me, I'm not usually a huge um flavor guy, but another great white chocolate is me, oh I'm gonna take this frother and frost my coffee right now on those words.
David McIntyre:Going to take this frother and froth my coffee right now on those words here's some ASMR bibble boards and brew. All right, that's what I had to stir that cinnamon in. I'm making it conversational coffee.
Ryan Holdeman:There you go.
David McIntyre:All right, that's what. There you go. All right, that's what's in the cup. Let's dig into the word now and talk a little bit or continue our conversation. Really, on from last week and honestly I can just tell you guys, it's been like 18 weeks and we've virtually been talking about the same thing or we've been talking in the same realm, been talking about the same thing, or we've been talking in the same realm.
David McIntyre:And I don't want that to scare you, because if you spend a lot of time in a certain scripture in a certain place, that's not a bad thing. You should be digging into scripture with the objective of spending some time there and again, you want to glean from it deeper things than what you may just feel like you get on the surface, even though with the Bible you can go surface and then pull back a layer, pull back a layer, and you can pull back 100 layers in your life and still pull 101 back and still find something else that didn't stand out to you before. So we encourage you to dig into the scripture, we encourage you to crack open your Bible, read along with us, dig in for yourself, take notes and really just dig in and make this a part of who you are. So I want to start, I think, by just reading Galatians, chapter 6. I'm going to read verses 1 through 5 right now to set us up. I'm going to go read it from a bit of a different translation. Last week we looked at primarily the King James and the New Living. I think we did.
David McIntyre:This week.
David McIntyre:I want to bring out another translation that we sometimes bring out, but it's one that actually we kind of grew up with in the Word, and it's called the Amplified Bible, and what it tends to do is it tends to like take the scripture pretty much as is and then add explanation or explanationary words to the end of a sentence or in a phrase to help you better understand.
David McIntyre:And so, as I was reading through that today and yesterday, I felt like it did a really good job of communicating what the scripture is saying. So, looking at verse 1, it says are to restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness, not with a sense of superiority or self-righteousness, keeping a watchful eye on yourself so that you are not tempted as well, carry one another's burdens, and in this you will fulfill the requirements of the law of Christ, that is, the law of Christian love, and that's really when we were looking at this last week. That's really what we're saying. It is an act of christian love to help to carry your brother's burdens and we even talked about the concept that there's.
David McIntyre:So we don't do that enough as believers, uh, when it comes to bearing one another's burdens and helping each other. But that's how we show that it's Christian love. The Gospels tell us that they will know we are Christians by our love for one another. So if you've ever had somebody come to you and say, don't know, we're Christians by our love, they just come up a little short because it's by our love for one another. So how we treat each other helps communicate to other people that we belong to Christ. And just think about it.
David McIntyre:When you see other communities out there, you see so many communities out there that are well connected. They take care of one another. You know, I'm thinking about the Jewish community right now. In some parts you can look at the Muslim community and they seem so interconnected. They seem to be taking care of and supporting one another. And and not that we compare ourselves to them, because they're not our model of comparative, but when we look at how we are doing ourselves, we have to at least be willing to judge how we're doing and take action to improve where there's opportunity to improve. Improve where there's opportunity to improve. Let's continue reading.
David McIntyre:It goes on to say in verse 3, for if anyone thinks he is something special when in fact he is nothing special except in his own eyes, he deceives himself. Verse 4, but each one must carefully scrutinize his own work, examining his actions, attitudes and behavior, and then he can have the personal satisfaction and inner joy of doing something commendable without comparing himself to another. Yeah, okay, don't talk, david. Just keep reading Verse 5. Indomitable, without comparing himself to another? Yeah, okay, don't talk, david, just keep reading Verse 5,. For every person will have to bear with patience his own burden of faults and shortcomings, for which he alone is responsible. Philip, I think I want us to pick up at verse 4 here, okay, philip, I think I want us to pick up at verse 4 here, okay. But verse 3 is worth noting, and we talked about it, I think, at length last week. It is this concept of don't get too cocky and full of yourself. You're not all that.
Ryan Holdeman:Right.
David McIntyre:And you know, I heard somebody a little bit ago and it's registered with me you spend so much time in your life thinking about what other people are thinking about you and you come to find out nobody's thinking anything about you. Most people are too busy thinking about themselves.
Ryan Holdeman:That's true.
David McIntyre:To spend time thinking about you. Yeah, unless there's some ex-lover that you've gotten completely torn up and then they are thinking about you and that's not happy, you know. And there are other places where people do think about you, but really, you know, we live in a society that's just too full of itself yeah, and and especially now, phil, when you got.
David McIntyre:We live in a world where there are everybody's got a cell phone, everybody's got a vlog. You know everybody wants to take pictures of themselves, selfies and do all of this stuff and you are the center of your world and it's obvious but in the greater scheme of things.
David McIntyre:You're not that. You're good you. You have to and you fix me here, philip. We all have to take a very sober place on the who we are thing. We're everything to god, and god cares deeply for us. He tells us that we're the apple of his eye, that he's always thinking about us, ways to do us good and make us happy, that he cares for us, that he holds us in his mighty right hand and no man, nobody, can pluck us out of his hands. There's so much good that the Lord says about how he feels about us. Even with all of that, still said, we have to come to grips with the reality that he loves us all, that he loves us all in a in a same kind of way. Not this, um, not this. You know, there's david, but then there's philip he could live without david, that's not how the lord looks at us that's right.
Ryan Holdeman:yeah, bible says I think it's an act 10, it says says that God is no respecter of persons, so he loves everyone equally. He does not show preference based on the fact well, I like his hair better, I like her, you know her height better. Whatever it might be, he's not playing those kind of games. He's not a man Number one. God is not a man. So he doesn't view humans the same way we view humans. And actually I think it's 1 Samuel 16,. It says the Lord doesn't see like man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart, and so that's the thing that matters the most to God.
Ryan Holdeman:And actually that kind of brings us back to the Galatians scripture. It's all about the heart condition. You know he was telling us in verse three of chapter six. It's like if you think you're something when you're nothing, you're deceiving yourself. You know, and what I see today? David, I know we've talked about this before, but there is an epidemic of narcissism in this society right now. It's falling out of control. And if you think about it, it lines up perfectly with what Paul said in 1 Timothy, I think, maybe chapter 4. He said in the last days, people will be lovers of their own selves.
Ryan Holdeman:Lovers of their own selves. Lovers of their own selves.
David McIntyre:Yeah, I think that's chapter three, right.
Ryan Holdeman:Yeah, there you go Probably. So I've never seen it quite like it is now. I mean, you know, you and I, david, we grew up in the 80s, you know, and sometimes I wonder, if social media had been unleashed in our childhood, would we have acted the same? You know, I kind of wonder things like that sometimes, you know.
David McIntyre:Yeah, I'm glad it didn't, because we are the last generation that seemed to have what I would probably call a normal childhood.
Ryan Holdeman:Yeah, yeah, I did see somebody put out a post on Twitter, now known as X, the other day when it was Mother's Day this past Sunday, and it said Happy Mother's Day to all the iPads. And I thought that was a great statement, man, because you know, it's sadly, in the digital age, and we've seen it over and over again my daughters work with younger kids because they coach tennis. They work with younger kids and they deal with this firsthand, like these kids who their parents don't aren't really engaged with, and they just hand them an ipad. And that's how they they've grown up is. They've grown up on ipads, on tiktok, and they don't have any real conception of reality, you know, outside of the digital world, and it's, and it produces, sadly, it produces this self-centered, short attention span. The only thing that matters in life is me kind of a mentality and you know, and they go from one instant gratification to another instant gratification and it's not a good thing. It's not a good thing, man, but I don't want to get too far off.
Ryan Holdeman:I know we're trying to go on the Galatians trip, but when you tie it back to the scripture, you know he's saying you know, if we wanted to fulfill the law of Christ or the law issued by Christ. We have to learn how to not be self-centered. That's really the bottom line to the whole thing. You have to bear each other's burdens and then that way you fulfill the law that Jesus gave us, which he only gave us one. He did not give us 50 laws or a hundred laws, he gave us one. He said a new commandment I give you that you love one another as I've loved you. That's it.
David McIntyre:He did say in a second is like unto it.
Ryan Holdeman:Yeah, yeah. He said love God with all your heart, soul and strength, and then love your neighbor as yourself.
David McIntyre:Right, which are kind of both the one and the same. Yeah, it's the law of love, you know, phil. Well, let me shut up and let's just stick with the script can I say one more thing, david you can say four more things, bro, can I say?
Ryan Holdeman:something real quick though, please do, can I say?
David McIntyre:something real quick, though Please do. This is completely off the topic, but I just wanted to share. Since I put that cinnamon in this coffee and stirred it up, I have become more conversational.
Ryan Holdeman:The conversation has started to flow, I feel it in my spirit?
David McIntyre:Yes, it has.
Ryan Holdeman:Stoke automatically gives you conversational vibes and power, because it's full of something, bro. Maybe just a heavy dose of caffeine, I'm not sure.
David McIntyre:I'm sorry to have distracted Sorry.
Ryan Holdeman:No, but I just wanted to say the Christian walk prescribed in the Bible, the Christian walk is brutal to selfish people, period. It's brutal to selfish people and that's what I've learned because it took me. You know, getting brutalized by the word. You know how the Bible says in Hebrews 4, I think it's verse 12. It says the word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword and it will divide between soul and spirit and the joints and the marrow. It'll discern the thoughts and intents of your heart and as it's doing that, it's bringing things to your mind and it's convicting you of things. There we go. Thanks, ron. It says for the word of God is, alive and active, sharper than any two-edged or double-edged sword. It penetrates, even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Ryan Holdeman:And so just by getting into the word, as David and I talk about all the time on this podcast, just by getting into the word, you have what James 1 talked about you hold the mirror in front of you and that the word acts as that mirror.
Ryan Holdeman:And we know most of one of the biggest you know purposes for a mirror is for you to look and see what you need to adjust.
Ryan Holdeman:You know, because if you, I don't know, I don't feel comfortable about going out into the world and not ever having looked in the mirror in the morning, you know I've got to make sure I ain't got no boogers or you know, like didn't wake up with crusty eyes or something like that. You know you got to check on those things before you head out into the world. And so the word's the same way, like as you get into it, it starts bringing things up, it starts sharpening you, it starts chipping away at certain things that don't need to be there. All of that kind of happens as you let the word kind of do its sculpting work, if you want to call it that. But anyway, I know I kind of went off on a tangent, david, but but I think that you know, in light of what Galatians six is talking about, how we need to examine ourselves and look at ourselves and make sure that we've we've judged our own work first, before we start going out and telling everybody else what they should probably improve on.
David McIntyre:Right and look, even taking it as far as as even while you're helping someone else, to still continue to judge yourself.
Jon Dzyuba:Yeah.
David McIntyre:You know that don't ever, don't ever, lose sight of that. And part of the concept of judging yourself and working through these things as they're laid out in Galatians, is again so you don't get a big head about stuff. Yeah, yep, and the lord doesn't want your big head, he wants your big heart. He wants your big heart and you're and influenced by what he wants your big head, influenced by what's in your heart, not what's going on, and being like oof, can't wait to go tell so-and-so. But that leads us back to verse four. It says but each one of us must carefully scrutinize his own work, examining his actions, attitudes and behavior, and then he can have the personal satisfaction and inner joy of doing something commendable without comparing himself to one another.
Phillip Rich:Wow.
David McIntyre:I don't know how many times the Bible directly and indirectly talks to us about the concept of comparing yourself in this scripture. The reason why I love it is that, as you carefully scrutinize your own work and making sure your actions were right, your attitude is right and that your behavior was right, it talks about having not this global satisfaction, but a personal satisfaction and an inner joy for having done the right thing.
Ryan Holdeman:Having done the right thing.
David McIntyre:Yeah, having done something commendable, that's a joy and a satisfaction that you have within yourself. Yeah, it's not meant for you to be like I can't wait to get out to the restaurant tonight. I hope I see Bob so I can tell Bob what I did, so he can realize he's still falling short and I'm still in the game doing and you, you do all of that and it just makes you, first of all, it makes you a jerk to.
David McIntyre:Bob, uh and, by the way, bob might be the one that you need to be spending some time with lifting up and help bear his burden. That's why he's not as active as he maybe should be with lifting up and help bear his burden. That's why he's not as active as he maybe should be right right and you know it's.
David McIntyre:It really is about getting out of the comparison game and we if, if we don't, if there's not another disease. You mentioned this concept of this kind of group narcissism. Um, I'm gonna tell, comparison is another thing that's out there that we all get caught up in and honestly, philip, I think that's also why so many people's lives are off track, because they're so busy looking at other people's lives for direction.
Ryan Holdeman:Good Lord, dude, that's such a powerful thing. It can have a very powerful negative effect on people's lives. The whole issue of comparison is so interesting, man, because if we get into it when we do, oddly enough it typically only is a comparison to people that we know. You know what I mean. Like, right, we don't really compare ourselves to a movie star or a musician or someone, or bill gates or warren buffett or a multi-billionaire. You know we're, but we're trying to outdo the neighbor down the street. You know, whatever the case, or the person on our job who you know might be, look like they're doing well, or whatever it is.
Ryan Holdeman:And it's like number one comparison is always a moving target. You know you're never going to arrive at whatever this thing is you think you're trying to get to. And then number two I remember reading this somewhere, but it says comparison is the thief of joy. And I do believe that, because what it does is it robs you of being able to see your own life and all the things God's blessed you with. Instead of you looking at what you have and being thankful for it, you're now looking at what you don't have in comparison to what someone else has, looking at what you don't have in comparison to what someone else has, and that is a recipe for constant frustration, constant envy, and it never turns out well. It never turns out well when you live a life just trying to compare and getting into competitive jealousy and those things like that. It is a moving target and you'll never be satisfied, no matter what you end up achieving or whatever.
David McIntyre:No, and you know what else is that Comparison? It requires us to assume things.
Ryan Holdeman:Yes, a hundred percent.
David McIntyre:We're looking at other people's lives and saying I wished I had this, I wish I had that.
Ryan Holdeman:And you have no idea what in the world is going on behind the scenes of that.
David McIntyre:Come on, that's right. In some cases it may very well be a matter of you're not willing to do what that person did to get where they are.
David McIntyre:There you go, there you go, but in other cases you have no idea what's happening in their lives and that they may be dealing with levels of abuse, that they may be dealing with all kinds of things that you wouldn't want to have any part of. But we look at the outside of man and we say I want that. But notice what the word says. I think it says it in Proverbs. It says that God looks at the inward parts of me, and so God is. That should tell us something about this concept of comparison where even God won't look at and he I mean this is God who knows you. Even God doesn't look at your outward parts to determine your heart condition. He looks at your inner being and determines where you are and what's going on with you.
David McIntyre:I love the scripture that Philip shared just a minute ago, where it talks about how you know. The word is sharper than any two-edged sword dividing between you know bone and marrow, etc. That means that you can't hide from God. Come on, come on. He's cutting to the quick, he's going to the deep, he's going to the root of what's going on. That's why it never benefits us that, when we're praying, to lie.
David McIntyre:It doesn't benefit us when we're riding around and we're talking to God and we're expressing ourselves, to try to express to him something that simply isn't true about the situation or circumstance. It's better to say you know, Lord, I'm just jealous of their situation and I wish it was me. It's better for you to say that to the Lord about what's going on than for you to pretend as though he wouldn't know. He's the Lord, your God yeah absolutely.
David McIntyre:Yeah, it's better to be honest with him and go ahead and have real conversation with him and to pray honestly. When you're praying with him, to be able to say Lord, I just want to keep it real.
Jon Dzyuba:Yeah.
David McIntyre:I looked at that situation and I envied that. I wanted that for myself. You know, I look at that person and I can't stand them, lord, and I know that's not what you want for me, but I truly feel this way and I need you to help.
Jon Dzyuba:Yeah.
David McIntyre:Yeah, We've just got. We've just got to open ourselves up to the help of the Holy Spirit.
Ryan Holdeman:That's right, man. If you think about Psalm 51, one of my favorite passages, because it's really been a help to me so many times, it was right after David had sinned with Bathsheba and he prayed this prayer of repentance and he told God. He said Lord, you desire truth in the inward parts.
David McIntyre:Yes, tell it to him.
Ryan Holdeman:Dude, you desire truth in the inward parts. Number one God knows it anyway. Okay, let's just get that out of the way. He knows what you really think. He knows what's really going on in your heart, whether you want to admit it to yourself or not, or admit it to other people or not. He knows. And so coming to him with any kind of pretense or whatever else, it's a no-go man. He already knows. So you might as well just be honest about it. There it is. New Living Translation says but you desire honesty from the womb. That's heavy, teaching me wisdom even there. And then in the English Standard Version it says behold, you delight in truth in the inward being and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
Ryan Holdeman:Over and over again, these different translations just point to the same thing. It is God wants us to come to him honestly. He wants us to come to him honestly, man, whether it's pretty or ugly, whether it's, you know, convenient or not, whether it's comfortable for you to even say or not. And sometimes you got to get very, very brutally honest with yourself. You know, you got to say God, I did that and sadly I wanted to, even though I knew it was wrong, you know, and just get to that kind of a place where you can be honest with yourself. It's not easy, because a lot of times we have these layers of things we think about ourselves. I would never be that way, you know, I would never have thoughts or motives, and then finally God's able to keep chipping away at that thing and peeling the layers of the onion, and then finally it gets to the thing where it's like okay, god, you're right, I actually was, I actually did have a wrong motive. You know, things are hard to admit, man. They're hard to admit.
David McIntyre:And Phillip, it's like people you know. Have you ever spent time talking to someone about what they've been going through and what do they do? They literally beat around the bush, and I mean it. I mean there is literally a bush in the room and they are running around it, telling you everything but the truth of how they feel. We see it in counseling, when we talk to couples and we say so, tell us what's going on, and they only tell us the part they want us to know. And then over some time, we begin to find out that the first thing you said wasn't true.
David McIntyre:And so now when we thought we were laying a good new foundation, you've set a booby trap.
Ryan Holdeman:Oh, my goodness.
David McIntyre:Because you weren't honest from the beginning.
Ryan Holdeman:Goodness, gracious man, and it's, it's um. And to be honest, speaking of honesty, to be honest it takes courage and it's not easy. A lot of times it actually takes courage to be honest because you have to get to the place where what you admit can feel like it's breaking you. You know and I can speak from experience with this stuff, man, you know I've had some things happen in the past couple years that I had to take a very, very hard look at myself and realize I had fears that I didn't know were holding me back. I had things that I had kept buried for years in certain relationship issues, not with my wife, just, I won't even get to detail but in other things that were no bueno. And then also in marriage too, we find there are layers of things that you don't realize can affect your marriage that maybe you haven't dealt with. You know I had those two I don't want to say it was never any marital issues, because those have come up too, you know, and all of it required honesty, though, like whether it was dealing with my wife or dealing with my family or whatever else.
Ryan Holdeman:It required brutal honesty to finally say this is where I actually am. I thought I was here but I'm not. You know, this is where I actually am. And until you get to that place, you're kind of just going to keep going around in circles and chasing your tail, man, and it's sad. But you know, god desires truth in the inward parts and to tie it back into Galatians. That's what he's saying there, I believe, is. You know, take time to really examine yourself, examine you know, not only what you've done, but why did you do it. And once you get to those things, you can really have the satisfaction of knowing that you okay. I approached this thing how God wanted me to, instead of me trying to duck and dodge and manipulate and lie and be whatever else you know. So just some thoughts there, man.
David McIntyre:Yeah, that's good, philip. I want to deal with this last part in verse 5 because he set us up in verse 4 to take a look, a good, long, strong look, at ourselves. And when you look at yourselves and you realize you've done well, then you can have personal satisfaction and inner joy of doing something commendable without comparing yourself to one another, joy of doing something commendable without comparing yourself to one another. And verse five goes on to say for every person will have to bear, with patience, his own burden of faults and shortcomings for which he alone is responsible. So you know, I looked at that and I was like, and I talked to you a little bit about it during the week, and it's the concept of you know.
David McIntyre:So do we bear our burdens alone or do we bear our burdens with help? Well, in the world we live in, you may be bearing your burden alone, to be frank, with you alone, in the sense that there are people I'm talking about human people interacting as believers. We never bear a burden alone, right, because Jesus is with us and he's given us the Holy Spirit. So we have a helper in the Holy Spirit who will help us through whatever burden we have to bear. But it is a, as you've already seen. It is by Christian design. It's an act of Christian love for other believers to come alongside of you. Yeah, but, philip, do you have some thoughts about that? Because I know what the scripture isn't saying is that you know. All right, just be prepared to suck it up by yourself.
Ryan Holdeman:Yeah, yeah, I, I, um, ron, if you don't mind putting that back up, there's something in that, uh, amplified passage. In verse five it says every person will have to bear with patience his own burden of faults and shortcomings, for which he alone is responsible.
Phillip Rich:Um.
Ryan Holdeman:I think there's a level of accountability that we have to be willing to take. If we do have something that's, you know, a fault or a thing that we keep getting caught up in that derails us, or whatever the case is, we have to finally get to the place where we go. Am I responsible for this? Is it right for me to blame someone else, or is it something that's in my control?
David McIntyre:Is it the devil? The devil's coming at me again.
Ryan Holdeman:That devil. He keeps making me watch that porn. No, no, bro, you have decided to turn on the computer or TV or whatever, and you decided to look at it, you know.
David McIntyre:Now there's something demonic in the porn.
Phillip Rich:Yeah.
David McIntyre:I'll give you that there's something demonic in the porn and about the porn. But if you didn't have the ability to say no to it, then all of us would be watching it Right, and if you think about it, then all of us would be watching it Right.
Ryan Holdeman:And if you think about it, there is no temptation taking hold of you. That is not uncommon to man. I think it's 1 Corinthians 10, right, ryan.
David McIntyre:Yeah.
Ryan Holdeman:Because this one is a big one, man, in terms of accepting responsibility, even for the things where you know temptation to sin and things like that. You have to get to a place where you can accept responsibility for those things and go. It's not the devil made me do it. It's not God's testing me, it's nothing like that. It's actually your decision. As bad as it sounds, it is 13, I think Ryan.
Ryan Holdeman:Yeah, 13. Sorry, I should have told you that, ryan. No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. So even if we tie that in to Galatians 6, where it says if anyone's been overtaken by a fault, if they've been seized by a fault, it's not whatever that person did, it's not something that has never happened to anybody else in history. You know, in any temptation we deal with, I promise you, there's been somebody else that has lived and died or whatever, or is still alive that has also dealt with those same temptations. You know. And not only that, but uh, I think there's one translation that says there's no temptation that has taken hold of you. That isn't beyond human experience, I think is one of the translations, I forgot where it is.
Ryan Holdeman:In other words, it's not some super extraordinary thing that's so powerful and strong that you simply can't resist it. God has promised to not allow that and that's what the rest of that verse says. We can put it back up there. It says but God, yeah, it says I'm sorry, no temptation, regardless of its source, has overtaken or enticed you. That is not common to human experience. Nor is any temptation unusual or beyond human resistance.
Ryan Holdeman:But God is faithful to his word, he's compassionate and trustworthy and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability to resist. So there's actually no such thing according to the Bible, no such thing as a completely irresistible temptation Like you just had to do it. That doesn't exist according to the Bible. No such thing as a completely irresistible temptation Like you just had to do it. That doesn't exist according to the word. And it says here but along with the temptation he has in the past and is now and will always provide the way out as well, so that you'll be able to endure it without yielding and will overcome temptation with joy. That's good news. I call that the escape hatch, philip. There you go, man. That's the escape hatch, and it's a struggle sometimes and a battle and nobody's saying that it's not but there is this promise from God that he will not allow you to be completely overwhelmed by a temptation to where you simply can't get out of it.
David McIntyre:Right, and Philip, I think it's worth saying, and we're not going to get into this conversation tonight, but I just want to remember and I want to say it's in James, chapter one, but I could be wrong God is not the tempter.
Ryan Holdeman:Yes, that's James one. You're right, that's James 1.
David McIntyre:Just a reminder God does not tempt any man.
Ryan Holdeman:No.
David McIntyre:So when temptation comes, it is a work of the enemy. Yeah, it's also a work of your flesh.
Ryan Holdeman:There you go Right.
David McIntyre:Which we recognize, that the flesh tends to lend itself over to the enemy's camp when you walk in the flesh. So you have to be careful Once again. This is why we have to choose to walk in the spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh, because the lust of the flesh still has you watching porn. The lust of the flesh still has you reading those books that are also porn, ladies, but that you think are not really that bad. But it's playing.
David McIntyre:You're getting the same dopamine hit and you're getting the same experience up here in your head. He's watching it. You're imagining oh boy, both of you have missed God on it, right? But the temptation to dig into those kinds of things, those are your own fleshly works. That's the enemy working against you. And again, god has made the escape hatch. You can get out of that every single time with his help. So don't don't uh again. Don't think more highly of yourself than you ought to think. Think soberly about yourself. What now? As I'm thinking about it and thinking about what Phil has said, part of thinking soberly is to realize I need all the help the Holy Spirit will give me. I need him every day. I'm completely leaned in on him. He's leaned in on me and we'll talk about that at another point and by leaning into him he's covering me, he's helping me, he's guiding me and he's leading me, and it's helping me to make better life decisions, and that's that's really truly where we need to be.
David McIntyre:All right, phillip, we're, we're right at it. Any final thoughts on this, as we we've gone through five. We're going to pick up at six next time and we may actually just run through the end of that point, but I'm excited to get to verse 8, because verse 8 helps us to tie this all back together and help you to see that we haven't lost track of where we were in looking at this, from Galatians, chapter 5, way back at verse 16.
Ryan Holdeman:Yes, sir, final thoughts, Just this whole chapter 6, Galatians 6, I highly encourage everyone to read through it and just if it takes, you know, 20, 30 minutes to get through five or six translations of the same passage, I encourage you take your time and do it, because as you continue to just keep sowing that word in, just like a farmer sows seed, you sow the word into your heart All of a sudden. It may not be the first time around you read it, it may not be the second or third or fifth time, maybe it's that eighth time you read that same passage and all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit starts talking and it's like, oh, wow. And the next thing, you know, holy Spirit starts talking and it's like, oh, wow. And the next thing, you know, you get some insight on that, maybe a certain verse or whatever that you didn't see before, and those things it's helping you to stay founded on the rock, you know, and that's so powerful man. Just so, I encourage everybody, take time to read that.
Ryan Holdeman:Galatians 6, go back and listen to this podcast and the previous ones we've done as well. Listen to this podcast and the previous ones we've done as well. It'll all tie together as the spirit of God, you know, helps us to understand it.
David McIntyre:So, and I just want to, I want to encourage you to live humbly every day.
Ryan Holdeman:Yeah.
David McIntyre:Humbly, gently, with care, caring for your brothers and sisters in Christ. And you know a great way to start doing that is just simply start praying for people. Yeah, Philip reminded me of this a couple weeks back, and I've been doing it ever since. There are people that I love, and friends and family, my church members of the body of Christ. I'm praying for them all. I want to be a better brother in Christ and, you know, I think that helps me to be more of that.
David McIntyre:Galatians six man, that man that walks in the spirit and doesn't fulfill the lust of the flesh, because I don't want to have anything to do with the lust of the flesh, but I also recognize I'm a human, and so humility and gentleness and the other things that are written there will help me to stay sober and for me to continually take a look at myself and make sure I'm not getting too high but thinking more of myself than I ought to, so that I can walk out this life in a way that is pleasing to the Lord and abide satisfied as a result of that. So let's pray for everybody. Let's pray for them to walk this thing out and to look soberly at themselves and to dig into the scripture and see God work.
Ryan Holdeman:Yes, sir. Heavenly Father, thank you first of all for everything that you brought out tonight. Thank you for the help of the Holy Spirit and for his grace in everything that we do, and we just pray right now. Father, I pray for everybody listening to this podcast, everyone who will listen to it. Lord, wherever the areas in their lives are that they feel that tug and that pull for help, they're looking for answers, they're looking for something to break for them to understand how to navigate through, I pray that you give them the insight and the wisdom that they need.
Ryan Holdeman:Father, help them also, lord, give us all courage to be able to be honest with ourselves, the courage to know how to do that, the courage to admit when we maybe went astray or went in a direction we shouldn't have gone. Lord, help us to pour our hearts out before you with no hesitation. Lord, help us to get rid of any pretense that we may have or any kind of feeling of unworthiness that we may have, and help us just to come and pour our hearts out before you so we can get true healing wherever we might need it. We just thank you for that, father, and thank you for your faithfulness to us. That you said in your word, you'll never leave us nor forsake us. You said that you'll give wisdom liberally and you won't chastise us while giving it, and so we just give you praise for that. Father. We thank you for your goodness, and we pray all these things right now and we agree on them in Jesus' name, amen.
David McIntyre:Amen. Hey, ryan, you've been awfully quiet. No final words from you was that a no. I think your mic is muted.
Ryan Holdeman:I see his mouth moving. I think your mic is muted.
David McIntyre:I see his mouth moving. That means Ryan definitely doesn't have anything to say. He refuses to unmute himself. Well, everybody, we're so glad that you joined us for this episode. It's a good conversation. It's one that we hope that you'll continue to have Again.
David McIntyre:Take this episode, watch it a couple times or break it up over the week and watch maybe five to 10 minutes at a time. As you're looking at the word and digging in on this, finding other scriptures in other places that validate what this scripture says. The word is a great cross-reference and I think you'll be really pleased to see just how much the scripture has to say about these things. Remember that you can always give us some feedback in the comments section on whether you're watching us on Rumble or YouTube or whether you're watching or listening on your favorite podcast platform. Just remember, drop us a note. We do see those notes and we'll respond to you as best we can as we see them pop up. Also, remember that you can reach us by email at gotbro got got bro got brew at Bible brosnet Again, that's got brew at Bible brosnet, and let us know what you're thinking, how we can help or anything of that nature. I'm David, he's Philip. We are out of here. God bless y'all.
