Bible, Bros & Brew

How to Keep From Falling (Part 4) | The Rewards of Knowing God | Bible, Bros & Brew

• David McIntyre, Phillip Rich, Ryan Holdeman, & Jon Dzyuba • Season 7 • Episode 4

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One of the most unfortunate things to witness is a prominent Christian figure very publicly falling into sin, and then dealing with the inevitable fallout that comes afterward. When these types of situations happen, the natural tendency is to ask "How in the world did things get to this point?" Rest assured, it didn't happen overnight--many times, moral failures are the result of thousands of tiny compromises, the cumulative effect of steadily drifting away from fellowship with God for weeks, months, and maybe even years on end. In this latest installment of our series called "How to Keep From Falling", David & Phil take another look at the first chapter of Second Peter, and dig into the list of qualities that Peter encourages us to add to our faith in order to keep from stumbling in our walk with God.
 
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Phillip Rich:

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably noticed that there's been several different types of scandals breaking out in the body of Christ. We're talking popular ministers, popular musicians, all kinds of wild stuff popping off. And, of course, if you're like me, the question you ask is how in the world did this happen? How did things come to this place? And, as we all know, everybody sins and falls short. But there's also, if you're living in a pattern of secret sin or in a pattern of just a double life, if you want to call it that, it can turn into something way beyond, way further than you ever thought you would go in the wrong direction. So what we want to do in this episode of Bible Bros and Brew is talk about how to keep from falling by following the biblical prescription in the book of 2 Peter. So stay tuned. It's going to Bible Bros and Brew. David's already cracking up about something. I've got to figure out what it is.

David McIntyre:

Because you just made that chair in like the nick of time.

Phillip Rich:

Oh man, full disclosure. I forgot my charging cord and I had to get one of my daughters to get it for me, and she is now my tech support. So shout out to Chelsea, praise God. But anyway, welcome to the latest episode of Bible Bros and Brew. My name is Philip and of course, with me is David to my. Oh man, I almost had it right. No, I didn't.

Phillip Rich:

You know, that's direction here. We have Ryan down here and then John over there, and this is our crew that we try to assemble. We're assembling a team weekly and the whole purpose of our podcast is just to get people excited about getting into the word, studying the word for themselves, and our hope is that through the things we bring out on the podcast, that you'll have a fire lit in your own heart to be a studier and a student of the word of God. So of course, we encourage you as always, we have tons of videos on our channel, bible Bros and Brew. We definitely encourage you to go back and check out some of the catalog that's been made so far, especially what we've been talking about. The past couple of weeks here. We've been on a new series that we started called how to Keep from Falling and, of course, kind of the I don't want to say the inspiration, but the idea or the concept behind this series was just looking around and seeing some of the stuff that's been happening, with different prominent ministers who have fallen into sin very publicly maybe, things that were kind of in the dark and the shadows for a long time, now all of a sudden coming to light, different ministries as a whole being plagued by scandal. We're finding out that people who were presenting themselves one way were completely different people behind closed doors. Also, even with popular Christian musicians, some wild stuff has popped up lately. So of course, the question is, when you hear about that kind of stuff, how in the world did they get to that point? How did they get derailed so badly?

Phillip Rich:

And I don't want to, you know, approach this with any idea that any of us are immune to that type of thing. Because we have to be watchful, we have to be sober, just like it says in 1 Peter 5. We have to be vigilant to make sure that we're staying on track with what God's Word says and prescribes how to live for us. And, of course, any given time, if we're not careful, you can slide on off, begin to drift into some things that you never thought you'd be a part of If you don't stay diligent about fellowshipping with God, staying in the word and just making sure to keep your spirit fed the right things. But anyway, before I get in too deep with all the stuff we're going to be talking about, I do want to go ahead and start us off with our famous question here on Bible Bros and Brew. Which is what is in the cup? So, david, if you don't mind, could you start us off with what's in your cup, sir?

David McIntyre:

Yeah, tonight I am rocking something very simple. I am on K-Cup right now. I've been on the K-Cup thing for the last several days. Those are people at K-Cups that I haven't tried, that my wife has bought into the house and I've been enjoying them and, quite frankly, my favorite coffee right now is Green Mountain's Half Cat. I don't know what's going on with that, but that coffee is hitting me in all the right places.

Phillip Rich:

Yes, sir.

David McIntyre:

And it makes my conversation. And that's the important part too. But tonight I am drinking. I hope you guys can see that. Hopefully it'll there you go. I'm drinking a little Southern Pecan. This is from.

Jon Dzyuba:

Aldi actually.

David McIntyre:

So, your neighborhood saving place you can grab a little box of Aldi Southern Pecan. It's nice, it's warm, it's a little smoky and it feels really good going down. And again it's making me very conversational.

Phillip Rich:

That is the most important part. The most critical ingredient of any coffee is the conversational quotient, as we'll call it.

David McIntyre:

Correct.

Phillip Rich:

Correct, All right. Well, Ryan, how about you sir?

Ryan Holdeman:

Well, we got the iced coffee today. Yes, a lot of hint of it reminds me of like a chocolate milk with caffeine. It's the, but it's not mocha flavored or anything, it not? This is the super coffee cold brew, extra bold, black and unsweet, dark roast. It's got B12. It's got aptogen. It's got clean energy.

David McIntyre:

You sure you're not trying to get a grant from the government with your clean energy coffee?

Phillip Rich:

It actually has solar panels on the bottom and on the side.

David McIntyre:

And it shoots flames out of its lid.

Phillip Rich:

That is next level coffee, ryan, I don't think anybody can follow that with a.

David McIntyre:

That's why you should go to John next. All right.

Phillip Rich:

Now, John, if I'm not mistaken, I think you said you feel like you made a mistake with your coffee choice today. What may have happened?

Jon Dzyuba:

Well, I'll tell you what did happen along with my cup of coffee was also a cup of disappointment. I genuinely I don't think that I like not, not disappointment. I'll say that I not not just yeah, it's not just disappointment, it's a discovery, and I just don't think I like fruit in my coffee I have.

Jon Dzyuba:

It's a white chocolate like raspberry flavor. Okay, coffee, um, it's not bad. I like the white chocolate. I don't think I like the raspberry, and at least in coffee it's. It's just funny. I don't like uh I normally do like fruit. I think they're refreshing, but fruit and coffee I don't think mix well, it just tastes funny. I don't think tart and coffee go together at all. I tried to add a little extra white chocolate flavoring.

Phillip Rich:

Yeah, it can be, it can be interesting.

Ryan Holdeman:

Yeah, as a heterosexual man, I don't like fruit in my coffee either. As a heterosexual man, I don't like fruit in my coffee either.

Jon Dzyuba:

I'm glad we're on the same page, Mr Extreme Caffeine.

Ryan Holdeman:

This podcast is all for real, ladies and gentlemen, when your boy hasn't gotten no sleep, the filter is thin.

Phillip Rich:

Yeah, the filter is wearing very thin dude.

David McIntyre:

I love that. Remember, just remember, john. Anytime a coffee company tells you something about fruit in their coffee, what they're really referring to is the level of acidity ah, okay, and so fruit equals acidity. So yeah, and so depending on how you like your coffee light, medium or dark certain levels of acidity go better. I think this is my opinion with certain with levels of roast that you have.

Phillip Rich:

Yeah.

David McIntyre:

So I think dark and acidity go together. That's Philip's realm, even though he says he's a medium roast guy.

Phillip Rich:

Yeah, yeah. But you know I really do love a dark roast every now and then. Man, I'm a fan. Something about it's just got that punch. You know that you need to bless your life Speaking of blessing your life. What's that about?

David McIntyre:

About something about Ryan. Ryan lives in darkness.

Phillip Rich:

Not spiritual darkness, just coffee darkness.

Ryan Holdeman:

The dark world super roast.

Phillip Rich:

Oh, my goodness. But I have something that we this is our brand new situation for this week, dude, we never tried this before. But it's the Stoke cold brew but decaf. Praise God, I had to go, like actually on the website to find where they carry decaf Stoke Cause I was like, I love Stoke, I like to have it a little later in the evening, but I can't go bananas on on caffeine, you know, going further into the evening.

Phillip Rich:

So I said man let me see if I can find something. You know, and this is so cool because it's actually the same exact flavor that I like in the regular caffeinated version, which is the unsweet black. You know, it's like. You know, it's just, it's solid gold man, but with the decaf it's got a little bit more mild situation there. So, loving it, dude, stoke, shout out to you guys, and Peregrine, we'll see you next week. But so that is what's in the cup. Now we're going to get into what's in the word and we've made our foundation scripture.

Phillip Rich:

I think one of the most I don't know what to call it like one of the most impactful scriptures or passages in the letters of the New Testament, and that is from 2 Peter, chapter 1. Man and David and I had started on like the very beginning verses of second Peter last week and I think the week before, and Peter in his letter second Peter um, it's interesting because he doesn't address it to a specific church. It's not not recorded that it's written to a specific church, he just simply said it's to anyone with the same light, precious faith as we have, and so I believe it was meant to be a letter written to the general body of Christ. And it's so fascinating man the things he put in there is. The cool thing about it is that you recognize this is a older, much more mature Peter. He's writing actually he even says it in the letter that you know, he knows he's about to leave this earth and go be with Jesus.

Phillip Rich:

You know, he's obviously an older man, or I think maybe he was actually. He was martyred so he didn't live out all of his days, but he knew that his time was coming soon, basically. So he said, before I leave, before my decease, he said I want to leave you some things to stir you up by way of remembrance. And so he gives us this whole passage in 2 Peter 1. And actually, if we want to go ahead and go there now we talked about this last week, I'm going to try not to make the review the entire episode this week, david, you know we've been known to rock and roll like that, but basically, in verse three, peter said his divine power, of course, talking about God, his divine power has given us, us believers, everything we need for life and godliness.

Phillip Rich:

Thank you, Jesus I know that's right and so right there, just we can stop for a quick second there. Anything you need to live life itself, whether it's, you know, provision for your life, peace, uh, freedom from anxiety, all the stuff that you might think you need in life, he said he's given us that through his divine power, and also to live a godly life. According to what it says right there, he's given us everything we need to do that. Now, of course, if you're a believer who's been struggling in certain areas and trying to get certain things out of your life certain sins maybe, certain bad habits you've been tangled up in, or whatever it may feel like godliness is a hard thing to achieve sometimes. But it says there in second Peter one he's given you everything you need for life and godliness.

Phillip Rich:

But it's it's predicated on the very next phrase in that verse and it says he's done that in the blue highlight there, through the knowledge of him, through the knowledge of him who has called us by his own glory and excellence. And so what David and I went into last episode was talking about how it's through knowing God, because that's what it means when it says through the knowledge of him is talking about through knowing him. Through knowing him, he's given us all those things that pertain to life and godliness, coming to know who God is. Because I can tell you and David, of course you can back me up on this when you really begin to press into God's word and endeavor to begin to know him, there's no way you can stay the same.

David McIntyre:

No.

Phillip Rich:

I'm telling you, man, things begin to happen. Things change in your spiritual life. They change in how you view things. Just come into a fellowship with God. They change in how you view things. Just come into a fellowship with God. You start understanding how he sees life and what his perspective is, because it's in his word. And so having those things written down for us we need them. You know, having those things written down for us, we can now get a peek into the mind of God. And the more we get into his word, the more we absorb it, the more we endeavor to live by it.

Phillip Rich:

All of a sudden, you find yourself coming to know who he is even more. It's almost like and this is true with any human relationship you can't get to know somebody until you know their words. It's a boyfriend, girlfriend, wife, husband, friend, whatever it is co-worker. I really can't get to know that person until I know their words, if I never have any conversation with them, if I never find out what their likes and dislikes are, their hobbies, their interests, whatever. I don't have a clue about who they are or anything about them, but as soon as I begin to know their words, I find out about them through what they say, then I can say it to that guy.

David McIntyre:

Can I just throw in Philip, just think of it like a relationship. The stages of a relationship are built upon how much you believe, you know and understand of that person. When you and a man and a woman meet and go on a date based upon what they learn about one another at the initial date, they decide to have another, and then another leads to another and throughout the process, as Philip said, they're getting to know one another. And then, as they get to know one another, they decide to be more exclusive and only date each other and to give their focus and attention to each other, because they're getting to know each other. Through that process and through a year or whatever time it may take you. Then you go from first date to dating, to boyfriend and girlfriend, to now we're going to get married. So now she's my fiancee and we go from the stage of fiancee into marriage and then we go from marriage now let's.

David McIntyre:

Some people would think that marriage is the end of the story, just like some people think getting born again is the end of the story, but really that becomes part of the beginning of the story. And now you're learning this woman or you're learning this man, in some cases, as if you never knew them before. Right, because now that you're closely connected and you're living with one another, you're seeing things that you never saw before. You're seeing habits and behaviors and you're understanding more and more about this person. And what happens in marriage is you don't become, per se, more married, but what your hearts do is your hearts grow and become more and more knit together.

David McIntyre:

Come on, man, that's why they say some of these older couples look like one another.

David McIntyre:

After a while she's influencing him, he's influencing her. They're loving on one another, they're understanding one another, they have a. Then you begin to get to this place where you can kind of have a pre-idea of what it is your spouse may want. So when you're at the restaurant you can pre-order for her, you know, and all of these things. And so then you walk through this process of marriage where you're growing together and year by day by day, year by year is growing and growing and you never stop learning about your spouse, even though you know a lot about him. My wife and I've been married some 30 years now almost and I know a lot about lori.

David McIntyre:

But then I also recognize sometimes it feels like I don't know anything, because she'll introduce, she'll do something different or introduce something to me that's fresh and I kind of have to study that and figure that out and process it and put it together and then the day will come where one of us will part this earth and all of that time of knowing and spending quality time and all that won't have been in vain.

David McIntyre:

Yes, it won't be in vain for you or them, because we know that when we're in Christ we'll see each other once again and then we move on into the next part of life. Maybe you start, you know, even in your older age, start dating again or something like that happens. But you see the process, just like in dating you get to know him and the whole desire of the father is for us to know him. Remember, oh gosh, I think it's in Hebrews, chapter 8 or 9. Forgive me for getting it wrong if it's 9 and not 8, or 8 and not 9. But he talks about how. He's talking about the high priest, and he's talking about how in the old days they used to have the tabernacle. And it says I think it's in chapter 9, actually that you know they didn't go into the Holy of Holies because the way hadn't been revealed yet.

Phillip Rich:

Right right.

David McIntyre:

And so we're supposed to get to know Jesus and get to know the Father from the outer court to the inner court. But remember what Jesus did actually when he died on the cross. Literally, the veil in the temple was torn, meaning we now have access to the Father. And now in verse 8 of Hebrews, chapter 8 of Hebrews, he says I'm no longer going to have this word out here, it's going to be in their hearts. In other words, it's for us to know him.

David McIntyre:

And so the only way we can know him is through this word. And so you've got to stay in this word, you've got to stick with it, because if you don't, you're missing. Just think of it Every day I'm not in the word is a day I'm missing the opportunity to get to know the father more.

Phillip Rich:

Wow, wow.

David McIntyre:

Even if it's only a verse or chapter, whatever it may be, you want to get the Father more, even if it's just a little thing that day.

Phillip Rich:

Yes, that's so good, David. You know it's making me think of a scripture. Oh gosh, I hope I can find it, dude, because it's coming to my head, but I think it's in Jeremiah 17. Um, let's see. Yeah, okay, let's just try those things. That's like, on the right day at the right time, that thing hits you, buddy, I'm telling you.

Phillip Rich:

But in Jeremiah, chapter nine, he says uh, verse 23,. Let's see, I had to look it up on my e-sword real quick. Okay, yep, verse 23,. It says this is what the Lord says Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the wealthy man in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this that he understands and knows me, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises loving, devotion, justice and righteousness on the earth, for I delight in these things, declares the Lord. Man, dude, think about that. He's like. Whatever you think you can have grounds to brag about or be excited about, or boast about. He said the main thing that should excite you is that you know me. You know that's like the ultimate, and I might.

Phillip Rich:

I mean, david, you can tell me what you think, but that's like, the ultimate achievement for a human being is to come to know God and to know who he is.

David McIntyre:

Yep.

Phillip Rich:

In God's eyes, that accomplishment is bigger than anything else. It's like coming to know him is the pinnacle and the main reason why we even exist on this earth.

David McIntyre:

Right, that's heavy. I'll take it even further. I believe, philip and you can fix me if I'm wrong, but in a sense 2 Peter 4 tells us this, but it is by knowing him we can receive the precious promises of God.

Phillip Rich:

Yeah.

David McIntyre:

So it's led me and I'm going to dig into it and maybe we talk about it next week or something. But we kind of need to outline the precious promises of God, right? What?

Jon Dzyuba:

are those.

David McIntyre:

Yeah, because it's the promises that says blessing. I will bless you. I'll bless you when you're coming in. I'll bless you when you're coming in, I'll bless you when you're going out. Whatever you're involved in, it will prosper and succeed. You know, given it shall be given unto you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, you know, will then give unto your bosom, but with the measure that you meet with all, it'll be measured unto you. But with the measure that you meet with all, it'll be measured unto you.

David McIntyre:

All of these, are beautiful promises in the Bible that God says when you do X, I assure you that Y is going to happen. Those are the precious promises. And whereas we dig in and get to know God, I believe it's like you know, it's like playing a video game and you make some movement down one road or something and you get there and you find out there's an access door. Take side quest and boom, you're into a treasure. Trust.

David McIntyre:

And you find all this treasure all over the place because it's intended for you to find.

David McIntyre:

And then, once you know that thing and you're acquainted with that thing, now you can access that thing, because before you knew that by his stripes you were healed, you didn't know to come to God for your healing needs, you didn't know that he would provide for that.

David McIntyre:

And now we can talk a little bit later on about, well, I prayed to God and he didn't heal me. Well, we can talk about some of the why behind that and what God chooses to do. It's up to Him how he chooses to move in your life, but nonetheless you wouldn't even know that he could heal you if you had not become acquainted with who he is. So as you become acquainted with who he is, you become acquainted and very aware that in the midst of all that he says he is, there's all that he says he will do for you because you're his child, because he loves you and because he wants to bless you. And I just think that's a beautiful thing, that the scripture opens up itself to you, and in doing so it also reveals the treasure of the word.

Phillip Rich:

That's right, that's good David, and it's interesting too. Like in Hebrews 11, it says that God's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

David McIntyre:

He's a rewarder Like.

Phillip Rich:

he knows that humans are driven by incentive. He understands that he made us. You know. He knows that we always ask that question deep down what's in it for me?

Phillip Rich:

You know, that's just human nature. And so he's like I'm telling you to seek me, I'm telling you to come to know me, and if I'm telling you that I'm not doing it just to for it to be in vain, believe me when I say you come to seek me, you come to know me, there will be rewards for you. And I'm telling you, david, you know, you can. I'm sure you can say the same thing, living that kind of a life where I've been trying to seek God for years and years and lock into his word and get to know him through his word. I have innumerable rewards from doing that. I've seen so many God, almighty God has done so many things for me.

David McIntyre:

So many good things, Jesus.

Phillip Rich:

I can't even I seriously there's not even a way I can describe it Just the amount of things that he's done for me and given to me that I know could have only come from him, could have only come from him.

David McIntyre:

So many open doors, so many opportunities so much favor, so many blessings that were unexpected, so many opportunities that you didn't plan, that you didn't strategize, that weren't even on your list of things that God opens up for you as just blessings and surprises for your life. And let me say something here, and maybe I'm being too sensitive, but that's not the prosperity gospel, that's the gospel of Jesus.

Phillip Rich:

Christ, there you go.

David McIntyre:

Absolutely. That's the gospel, because we got. The exchange that God is asking for is not necessarily the exchange of us putting a dollar in the bucket and that creating a blessing, the exchanges. Get to know me and I will open doors for you, I will instruct you, I'll teach you the way and then, before you know it, just out of the goodness of God, that you've been blessed and so you just want to give, you just want to share, you want to help people when you can, because God did it for you.

Phillip Rich:

Absolutely, bro. Man, praise God. You know, I've seen it and I know, david, you've seen it over and over and over again and it's like even the things that you never told anybody that you even had a desire for, god knew it and could meet that need and that desire. And it just reminds me of something, man, if you don't mind me sharing a quick testimony about this man, no, go ahead, but back when, all the way from when, since I could remember, I've always been fascinated with skyscrapers. That was like my thing. I, since I could remember, I've always been fascinated with skyscrapers. That was like my thing. I loved architecture, I love skyscrapers and so even in elementary school I remember I would draw pictures of, you know, tall buildings and my big thing in life, I always wanted to go to New York city. That was like my thing, like if I could ever go up there, it seemed like a whole other world. You know cause?

David McIntyre:

I'm living in the skyscrapers.

Phillip Rich:

Yes, like living in north carolina from a small town. It's like the. The chances of me going to new york were like I might as well say I'm going to mars. You know, growing up, you know it just wasn't really in on the table at the time but I never really talked about it, never really told anybody. I just, you know, it's just something that I always thought was awesome and I mean I would even read about the different buildings the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, all those cool buildings in New York.

Phillip Rich:

Fast forward way. Many years later I get saved, I'm working at a ministry and all of a sudden I get promoted at all my job into a position where they wanted to establish a church in New York City and the pastor who was my boss picked me to be one of the people that would go up there and begin to start small groups and do things to kind of help build that church. And so in 2006, he sent me up there and I went to New York City not one time, but for a solid six years I went up there on like a every two week basis and then after a while it became once a month, but I've probably been to New York over 50 times at least to New York, over 50 times at least. And so I got to know the city very well and I was just, I remember, thinking that, like the one of the first flights when I was flying up there, I was like, holy moly, I am on a plane heading to New York, you know, and like it was a desire of my heart that was fulfilled, like way more than I could have ever even asked for way more.

Phillip Rich:

So I'm telling you that, to say, get to know the Father, get to know God through His Word. He knows those secrets of your heart that you've never told anybody, the things you want to see happen in your life, the things that you pray for and hope for. He knows what they are and if you just trust Him and get to know him, he will bring those things to pass in his time and according to his way. You know it's just leave it up to him, just focus on getting to know him, and then he'll bring those things to pass in the time that he knows is right for you.

David McIntyre:

Right, right, and you know those desires were put in your heart by God, and not only this God put that desire in your heart and he takes it upon himself to fulfill that desire in you, right, it's so wild. It's the most beautiful thing about God and who he is and who he wants to be in our lives and really, really, I mean this is why this, this, these two verses alone, and peter have absolutely just taken me out yeah you, you.

David McIntyre:

It's like god is so clearly saying that I, I just want to know you. You, yes, you know, I want you. And, more importantly, what he's really saying is I want you to know me.

Phillip Rich:

Yes, Ryan. I see you've got a scripture up for us. Please share, sir. Oh, David, I didn't mean to interrupt you. Were you saying something there?

David McIntyre:

No, no, I'm good, I'm always ready for a Ryan jump in.

Ryan Holdeman:

No, I just wanted to capitalize on what you guys are saying. This scripture I've always really loved, and Jeremiah 33, call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know, right to me that always meant like, especially in today's day and age, like where you can google anything or get ai to tell you something.

Ryan Holdeman:

If you get to know god, he's going to tell you things that you can't get from chat gpt, that you can't get from google that you can't get from the library of congress, that you can't get from a life coach or anybody else, things that he's going to show you, things that you can only access from him Right and unsearchable. Ungoogleable To me. That was always. I don't know. I just always liked that. I love that.

David McIntyre:

That's so good, ryan. Ryan, you just said something that I think is important. You know everybody's looking at not everybody, but lots of people are looking ahead to the future right now and they're seeing AI come in. You're seeing some companies that are starting to lay people off. You know you're seeing all this stuff kind of happen and Ryan he just nailed it there are things that God can show you and will show you that. Ai can never show to you.

David McIntyre:

You may be able to search it after God reveals it. But this is why, a couple of reasons why I believe that things like AI are never going to completely uproot anything. No, um, in one sense, because the ai is no competitor for god no no, and ai won't.

David McIntyre:

Won't give you dreams at night. It won't wake you up, as it says, in the night sessions, with a vision, with a, with an understanding. How many of the great inventors and men of our time have been asleep, or at rest or taking naps and all of a sudden woke up with the understanding of what it was they've been working on? Those are are things that come from God. Those are not things that come from man or technology.

Phillip Rich:

Come on.

David McIntyre:

David, you, just you have. Again, when you're connected into him and you're getting to know him, you begin to learn to trust him and ultimately, when you put your trust in and I'm jumping ahead to verse 5 a little bit but then you become fully persuaded.

Phillip Rich:

Yeah.

David McIntyre:

Right, you know, or the or the or, in other words, you walk in faith.

Phillip Rich:

Yeah, yeah.

David McIntyre:

You know, and it's just a beautiful. It's a beautiful thing and I just we couldn't talk more about the importance of getting to know him, except to talk more intently about how to get to know him.

Phillip Rich:

Yeah, and one quick thing too, david, just to kind of cap that part off with the scripture that Ryan just shared. My daughter had to do a book report or like an essay, I guess, on George Washington Carver, and he talked about a fascinating dude. This guy was unbelievable man. He loved God First of all. He was a strong believer in Jesus, he was a Christian and you know, he just he would just fellowship with God in the woods. That was one of his favorite things to do was just walk and pray, walk and pray.

Phillip Rich:

And so, of course, one day he's like just, he has a peanut in his hand. He's like God, tell me about this thing. You know, what can we do with this thing? And if you guys know, you know the history of George Washington Carver, the man came up with I don't even know how it's dozens of uses for the peanut. You know like he discovered how to do peanut butter and use peanut oil and peanut for soap and all this kind of I mean, an insane amount of inventions came out of him just simply asking God, hey, what can we do with this? And it was through him coming to know who God is. It's almost like well, we talked about I think last week David that the same characteristics and features of God begin to kind of rub off on him. Because, just like God's a creator, you know, george Washington Carver became a creator of sorts like he was an inventor, he's like.

Phillip Rich:

I could do this with this, I could do that with this. And just coming to know God, kind of tapping into the mind of God, and just coming to know God, kind of tapping into the mind of God. This man invented things and came up with things that changed literally changed the course of history in some ways. So it's a powerful thing to get to know your creator and, like you were saying earlier, it's way beyond what chat GPT can do or anything like that man. We're talking about the creator of the universe here. Get to know him.

David McIntyre:

It's a good idea.

Phillip Rich:

Yeah, that's a good thing, Philip.

David McIntyre:

I know we're kind of running out of time a little bit, of course I thought we would. If we could. Let's read verses five through eight and kind of show people where we're headed.

Phillip Rich:

Yes.

David McIntyre:

And then can we just talk a little bit about that word faith, the very first of those words.

Phillip Rich:

Yes, absolutely Well.

Phillip Rich:

In verse 5, 2, peter, what he starts to do is to give you like here's your marching orders, here's your assignment. He said, for this very reason make every effort to add to your faith virtue and to virtue, knowledge and to knowledge, self-control and to self-control, perseverance and to perseverance, godliness and to godliness, brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness, love, for if you possess these qualities he just gave you that whole list if you possess these qualities and continue to grow in them, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says in verse 9, but whoever lacks these traits is nearsighted to the point of blindness, having forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. So here we have a situation where somebody could get back into some old stuff that they got out of.

Phillip Rich:

Verse 10,. Therefore, brothers, strive to make your calling and election sure, For if you practice these things, you will look at this, never stumble Dude, and you will receive a lavish reception into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. David, what's on your mind about these scriptures?

David McIntyre:

Once again, here we are at a list of virtues, and there's a lot of correlation between this 2 Peter 1 and Galatians, chapter 5, which we just came from, and 5, which we just came from, and it's one of the things that is comparative. Is this list of virtues right? We have those list of, we have a list of good and bad virtues in Galatians, chapter 5, verse 16 through 26, I think, yeah, and here we are again with another list of virtues that I believe are interconnected with the fruit of the spirit. But the one thing that I think is important is that you don't get these virtues one time, but they're meant to be attained and then grown in.

Phillip Rich:

That's right.

David McIntyre:

So you should expect and I'm going to tell you, one of the ways that it works just through getting to know him is you've heard Philip and I say this and Ryan say this over and over and over again you can't exhaust God. You can't exhaust the knowledge of God. You can go in. You know, we just finished going over Galatians 5, and as much as I've gone over that, as many weeks as we spent digging through it, do you know? I can already go back and look at it and see some things that we didn't talk about that were meaningful. True, oh, man, we could have talked about.

David McIntyre:

Oh, we should add this, you know, because the word of God is an inexhaustible tool. Every time you think you've peeled back a piece of the onion, you realize there's another peel to peel back. And you just keep peeling back, and peeling back and peeling back, and you may get comfortable with the knowledge, comfortable enough to be able to have conversation and do all of that. But God has a way of surprising us and opening his word to us for greater knowledge, so that we can grow in his word. And I think that it's also interesting here, just as we get into this list of virtues and I know we're going to talk about each one of them is that the first virtue that it talks about is faith and the last virtue that it talks about is love.

David McIntyre:

And I was reading in a commentary and I'm going to paraphrase it, but I believe it, and it's this concept that faith is the foundation for every Christian. It all starts with, I believe. And what does that word faith mean? It means to be fully persuaded that word faith mean, it means to be fully persuaded.

David McIntyre:

It's the Greek word pistis, which means to be fully persuaded. I am fully persuaded that God is who he said he is. I'm fully persuaded that he will do what he said he does. He will do, and I'm fully persuaded that he loves me unconditional. I'm fully persuaded that he died for me and I'm fully persuaded that he loves me unconditional. I'm fully persuaded that he died for me and I'm fully persuaded that he now lives and sits on the right hand of the father and he has given me new life in him. The old has passed away and behold, all things have become new. I am now a new creation in Christ. I believe all of that, and I believe it's true. I'm fully persuaded.

David McIntyre:

And because I'm fully persuaded in those things, it opens the door for not only the entry of all of those virtues, but on the back end of it, love is born. No-transcript for what he's done for me, his willingness to lay it all down for my benefit. How can I help, but to love him? How can I help, not but to love him? It's amazing that in the midst of this journey and we also see it a little bit differently though, in Galatians 5, where we see that the first virtue is love, and it's almost like all of the other virtues are born out of love. So I think it's a beautiful set of virtues that we're about to dig into, and I just want you to remember faith and love go hand in hand.

David McIntyre:

That's right and they will absolutely reshape your life if you allow them to, to be fully persuaded that God loves me. That's a that's a wonderful thing.

Phillip Rich:

Absolutely Good stuff, david. And if you don't mind, we'll just look at one last thing with this, this verse, before we put a pin in this episode and it says here I just wanted to point this out because I think it's important in terms of the type of posture or attitude we need to have as believers and the Bible it says this over and over again in different letters of Paul and Peter and John James too, as a matter of fact. But in verse five he says for this very reason, make every effort, make every effort to add to your faith.

Phillip Rich:

I think the King James says giving all diligence giving all diligence.

Phillip Rich:

I think one of the things that that maybe does us a disservice yeah, there it is. Thank you, ryan. One of the things that does us a disservice in terms of Christian life, christian living, is this idea that it's got to be all God, you know, like if he wants me to do it, then he'll give me the magical fairy dust to sprinkle on me to make me get up off the couch and do something. That isn't what the Bible teaches at all. The Bible teaches that men have to be diligent, that we have to apply effort, that sometimes it requires strenuous effort.

Phillip Rich:

There's a scripture in Ecclesiastes that says a dream comes through a multitude of business, and one translation said a dream comes through much painful effort. So it's like there's all kinds of and the book of Proverbs itself is full of this idea of the diligent versus the slothful, you know, the person who's going to make effort and show themselves to have initiative versus somebody who's just going to be passive and not really do anything. That to me it's a small detail right there in 2 Peter, but it's actually a huge part of this. No amount of I don't know what to call it no amount of miracle, anything is going to override your human will.

Phillip Rich:

God made you a free moral agent, which means you have the right to choose to do or not to do anything you want to do or not do. And so when it comes to this study in the Bible, when it comes to prayer, when it comes to these things like that, I think what we, where we miss it, is we think that feel a certain way like I have to feel inspired before I can do these things. Dude, sometimes you got to drag yourself half asleep, barely able to function and crack open your Bible and read some scripture. You know, to develop that habit, that's necessary for you to begin to exercise that part of your spiritual life. And Paul said it and I think it's in 1 Timothy 5, maybe he says you know, exercise yourself to godliness.

Phillip Rich:

You know he said you know, bodily exercise will profit a little bit, but godliness is profitable for this life and the life that is to come. You know he was saying you know, put some diligence to this thing, man. And that requires an act of your will, that requires you deciding, and the cool thing about it is once you decide and say I am going to do this, I am going to read my Bible, I am going to take some time and pray today, once you decide that all of a sudden the grace of God comes, the energy, the strength that you need comes to be able to carry those things out, that's the Holy Spirit working with that power of decision that he's given you. So I think it's just an important detail to bring out.

David McIntyre:

You know. To add to that, philip, it's no different than the story you were just telling of George Washington Carver. What good would it have done for him to walk through the woods and say, lord, show me what we could do with this, and then never do anything with it?

Phillip Rich:

Come on, come on. He had to go to the laboratory, didn't he? He had to.

David McIntyre:

That's right. That's right. He had to start doing stuff and because he started doing stuff, we have peanut butter. Look, your fries at Chick-fil-A are made with peanut oil instead of canola oil.

Phillip Rich:

You know what I mean.

David McIntyre:

The other things that he created and did, but if he would have never transitioned from the woods to the lab.

Phillip Rich:

Come on.

David McIntyre:

There's no telling what beautiful things we would have missed out on because he didn't put action, put feet to what God asked for.

Phillip Rich:

That's good, david, that's good.

David McIntyre:

All right, philip, we're going to put a bookmark in it right here. Everybody, we are so grateful that you joined us. We want to tell you about something new that we're kicking off this week. We've created an actual Bible study guide for each episode of the Bible Bros and Brew podcast. What that means is that every week, if you're on our mailing list, we will make sure that you get that week. Not only will you get the episode that you'll see come live here on YouTube or whatever application that you're using. If you'll sign up on our mail list, we'll make sure that each week, on Monday mornings around 6 am, we're going to send out to you the Bible study that goes with that particular episode, so that you can have something to help you in your study time, to help you grow, help you stay focused, and then you can choose how you want to do it. You can do a little bit each week, each day, excuse me until you get through the whole week, or you can do into application all week long and let this word not just become something you've heard, but something you've applied and makes a difference in your life.

David McIntyre:

If you look down in the description section below or the description section for this podcast, you'll see an opportunity to join our mailing list. Go ahead and click on that. Join the mailing list, and we'll click on that. Join the mailing list and we'll start sending that out to you each week. Otherwise, you can always make sure that you remember to connect with us.

David McIntyre:

First of all, if you're watching here on YouTube, you can like, subscribe and then hit that bell so you'll always know when a new episode is coming out. You can also do the same thing over in Rumble. And then if you're on one of our favorite podcasting platforms like Spotify or Apple Podcast, you can like the episodes. You can also sign up for it so that you get your ding when each episode is made available. You can also join us on social media. We're on TikTok yeah, I finally did it and we're on Instagram and Facebook. You can just search for at Bible Bros and Brew and find us in all of those places. So connect with us and be a part of the Bible Bros and Brew community. We'd love to have you and we're so glad that you've joined us and you continue to join us for these episodes. Be sure to tell a friend until next time. I'm david. He's philip. Hiding in the background is ryan john's back there too, but they're definitely not in the same until next time. Yes,

People on this episode

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Stephanie Rich

Host
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David McIntyre

Co-host
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Phillip Rich

Co-host