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
How to Keep From Falling (Part 5) | God's Prescription for Spiritual Strength | Bible, Bros & Brew
In 2 Peter 1, Peter offers a list of virtues or qualities that we should add to our faith. The reason why this is so important is because it helps us establish a vision for the type of life we want to live as a follower of Christ. Not only does Peter's list provide excellent suggestions for building our character, but it also functions as God's perfect prescription for preventing spiritual failure. In this latest installment of our series titled "How to Keep From Falling", David & Phil dig into the scriptures to discover not only what we should do to prevent moral failure, but also what qualities and characteristics we should aim to develop as we mature in our walk with Christ.
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In the book of 2 Peter, peter gives us a list of what we call the virtues or things that you should be adding to your faith, and the key reason why he gave us that list was found also later on in that chapter, in chapter one, where he says if you do these things diligently, you shall never fall. And so we're going to talk about in this episode of Bible Bros and Brew how to keep from falling by the biblical prescription outlined in 2 Peter Up next, welcome one, welcome all to this episode of Bible Bros and Brew. My name is Philip and of course, with me I have the magnanimous David McIntyre to my was that right? Your left, and also on the other side, I've got John, the producer, behind the wheels of steel making sure everything is cool and real. Oh yeah, and I'm saying okay, let's not, let's not do that. David is just cleaning his glasses. Please, dude, please, let's stop the cringe right now. But we want to welcome you to the episode here.
Phillip Rich:We have been in the vein of looking at 2 Peter, chapter 1. And what we've been talking about is a prescription that Peter laid out when he was talking about things to add to your faith. Now, the first thing he said in second Peter one, I think it's like the second verse. He says you know, this letter is written to those who are of like precious faith. And so he wrote the letter to everybody who is considered a believer or a person in the body of Christ. A believer or a person in the body of Christ, he said now, in light of what God's done for you, in light of what he's given you, now, it's time for you to add to your faith these following things. And then he gives us this list, and I think it's outlined in verses like five through seven there. We're going to get into it in just a little bit here.
Phillip Rich:But the whole purpose of it, according to what Peter told us, was that if you diligently apply these things and add these qualities and these virtues to your faith, he said, the result would be you shall never fall. Now, I don't know about you guys, but I am a believer in what God's word says. And so if he laid out that prescription for us and said hey, if you do these things, you'll never fall, then I want to know what that is, because I don't want to be in a position where one day I end up falling or getting, you know, entangled in some moral failure and something like that, just messing up my life. You know that's not cool. We've seen it happen in different scandals that have broken out lately in the body of Christ, whether it's prominent musicians that have fallen into sin, or ministers and preachers that have been found out to be doing some shady stuff behind the scenes, and the thing that you know, we want to always show mercy and try to pray for those people, but at the same time, the Bible says in the day of prosperity, be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider, and so I think it's important for us to.
Phillip Rich:When we look at something that happens like a situation like that, it doesn't hurt to learn from the mistakes of others and go man, whatever happened on that end, whatever they ended up getting caught up in. I don't want to be a part of that, because I don't want to end up in the same boat man. None of us is immune to temptation. All of us deal with different things that pull at us, and, of course, the current culture we're in doesn't help, because it lends itself to feeding the lust of the flesh in so many different ways, and so we want to talk about what we can do as believers in Christ to stay strong in our faith by adding to it with the virtues that Peter outlined. So, in light of that, before we jump whole hog into the topic, let's talk about our famous question what is in the cup? So let me see, john. How about you, sir? What is in your cup this evening?
Jon Dzyuba:That's a good question. Just as a recap. In light of last week's coffee, I think I figured out what my issue was. It's been hot all like so far this summer and I've been getting dark roast coffee To go on the light roast side. Normally I do like a dark roast because that's just what I typically like, but I went for a maple light roast and it's a lot more palatable in the heat in my opinion, because in my mind heat is just like heavy and makes me sweat, especially in Georgia.
Phillip Rich:It just makes it unbearable.
Jon Dzyuba:Having a dark roast I don't think is as appetizing as a light roast. I'm loving the maple syrup flavor, just because it's simple and it's pretty easy to not hate. It's from Lidl. It's some of the good stuff, man. Plus I was going to rock the Star Wars mugs.
Phillip Rich:That's what we do here sir, the mug game is strong sir oh, always, always, man, always good stuff.
Jon Dzyuba:Oh, man, check it out, that's cool that's right, that's right yes, about you mr david tonight I am having a very conversational call that's
Phillip Rich:all we can pray for man this is also from Lidl.
David McIntyre:This is maple bourbon maple, bourbon okay and it is. I was in a hurry tonight to get a coffee so I didn't think a whole lot about it, but when this smacked me in the mouth after I first talked about it, yes, it made me feel very, very conversational.
Jon Dzyuba:So this is a good coffee for everybody.
David McIntyre:Maple bourbon from Lidl. The problem with Lidl, though, is and I'm sure, if I'm wrong, my wife will yell at me from another room If Lidl's a little bit like Aldi, the problem is the consistency in which you can find these things. That's the only problem, because, like I think, this came in a pack where it was pumpkin spice, apple pie and maple bourbon, which are all kind of considered fall flavors. If you would Right.
David McIntyre:Even though I don't know why apple pie would be in a fall mix, nor maple bourbon, but when you throw pumpkin spice in it, it makes it sound like it's fall.
Phillip Rich:There you go.
David McIntyre:But I hope you can go there and find it. If not, I'm sure you can find something else. I think Lidl overall has some good K-Cup coffees and this is a K-Cup. You guys know I'm on a K-Cup right now. I'll be, back on the bag coffee in just a minute.
Phillip Rich:Hey, no worries, man K-Cups are. Hey dude, I just want to get in a major show I was want to give them a go ahead and bring out that paragraph bag.
Phillip Rich:I got to give a major shout out to paragraph. This week they have just released two different Ethiopian sourced coffees and oh my, oh me, oh goodness, this one is called Ethiopia. Go, I'm going to pronounce this right go, tt Yirgacheffe I you know. Okay, upon looking at the flavor notes, I had concerns because I said, okay, it says strawberry, vanilla cream and lavender, lavender though right now, because I said okay, it says strawberry vanilla cream and lavender oh lavender though.
Phillip Rich:Right Now I was thinking to myself you know I don't normally do lavender in any kind of coffee stuff, but I was curious. I said man number one. Ethiopian coffees are normally like, just wonderful. Like the past ones they've had at Peregrine have been light roast Ethiopian, it's just been fantastic. This one here, I'll go ahead and tell you, is in my top five of all time. It's like one of the GOATs. What? Yes, really, this thing is so good and it wasn't just me. I let Stephanie try some and she said the same thing. She was like dude, I can't even with that coffee right now. It's just unbelievable.
David McIntyre:So wow, that's high praise.
Phillip Rich:Yeah, yeah. So shout out to Peregrine our folks out there, Colorado.
Jon Dzyuba:We love you. But that's right. Yes, sir, you made. You made feel like lavender and the other brand releases a lavender coffee. We'll pass Right.
Phillip Rich:Peregrine. Yes, Right, Anybody else talk to this hand? Okay, sorry, but with Peregrine man the lavender it just all melded so well, it's just anyway. Yes, so you can tell I enjoy these coffees.
David McIntyre:Yeah, that thing hits you right in the.
Phillip Rich:In the pancreas or something like that.
David McIntyre:Right in the I was trying to say I was trying to say stomach book it just, it just wouldn't come, it just wasn't calm Feeling extremely conversational tonight.
Phillip Rich:It's the coffee. You gave me Something's in that K-cup, dude, I'm telling you.
Jon Dzyuba:Ever since you've been drinking from those K-cups, you've been acting a little funny.
David McIntyre:I gotta get out these K-cups.
Phillip Rich:There's some bioengineering going on. There's something's happening there, dude.
Jon Dzyuba:Oh man.
David McIntyre:Praise God. I'm sorry, punched you right in the stomach.
Phillip Rich:Yes, or the solar plexus. Whatever you choose, Good man.
David McIntyre:Is it solar or solo? What is it?
Phillip Rich:I think it's solar, like the sun. I don't know why, but I think that's the actual term for it. Interesting. It just shines brightly in the body, I guess I don't know, Anyway we are way out there already, man. Oh goodness, help us all Lord.
David McIntyre:Let's use the word to draw us back.
Phillip Rich:Yes, correct, back to where we back at center, shall we say. But as we've been talking about in the book of 2 Peter, this is to me like one of the most amazing chapters in the New Testament, honestly, like the passage that Peter gives us here. It's just one of those things. It's like he's telling believers he's like, hey look, just because you're born again, just because you have like precious faith, that doesn't mean you rest on your laurels. You know, in this life of faith it's important to be a person of initiative and add to your faith. There are things that you should diligently apply yourself to, and I think that's an important point that I know, david, you and I probably talked about it a little bit last week too, but this idea of passive Christianity just isn't found in the Bible. When you begin a life of faith, it's important that you take on this mindset that I'm going to diligently pursue these things that God's laid out for me to pursue. And he's got several different lists all through the New Testament, all through the letters of Paul, that talk about what you should follow after and what you should seek. I think about 2 Timothy, chapter 2, when he said you know chapter two, when he said you know, flee those old things and follow after righteousness, faithfulness, peace and love with those who call on the Lord with a pure heart. You know there's several places where he talks about what to follow after. And when you think about what that phrase follow after even means it's not anything passive, it's nothing that you, where you're sitting around waiting for it to fall on you, you know, it's something you have to apply yourself to. And, of course, in in second Peter, actually, since John's got second Timothy up, if you don't mind putting on there second Timothy, chapter two. Real quick, I'm just going to touch on it. I know I can go bananas on the rabbit trails, but near the end, like I think it's around 19 through 20 something, something he says here yeah, in verse 20, it's kind of small on my screen, I think 22. There we go. It says yeah, reject, I'm sorry, 20. Yeah, 22.
Phillip Rich:It says flee from youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace together with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. So he's also talking about your associations there. He's like the people that you're hanging with need to be in that same mindset too. But I think it's important that we realize the kind of mindset that Paul's giving out here, he's conveying here. He says flee from this one thing and then follow after or pursue this other thing. So it's not just good. It's not good enough to just say, ok, well, I'm a Christian because I don't do this anymore. I don't drink anymore, I don't smoke anymore, I don't sleep around anymore, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's not about just what you flee from, but also what you're pursuing and what you're heading towards.
David McIntyre:Right.
Phillip Rich:And that's the part B that I think a lot of times we don't emphasize enough and, as we've talked about before, I think, David, it's like sometimes we believe that as Christians, we identify ourselves by what we don't do. You know, I don't do drugs, I don't do this. It's like that's all great and grand, but what do you do? You know? What are you pursuing? What are you about, If you want to put it that way?
David McIntyre:It's even the same when we talk about the concept of sanctification being set apart unto so many people. Like you just said, philip, they get the being set apart unto, but it's like unto what Right You've got to fill in. If you don't fill in the what, then you leave room for confusion and you leave room for someone else to fill in the blank for you.
Phillip Rich:There you go.
David McIntyre:And you don't. You don't need that, you need the Lord to fill in that blank. And it's separated from this world into the kingdom of God, into God's righteousness, into God's way of doing and being right. And so we have to realize there's always a from and an unto that's connected with these things.
Phillip Rich:Absolutely. And actually, since you said that, David, I got to take us to Matthew 12. John, if you don't mind going over to Matthew 12. This came up earlier I was talking to my wife and my daughters about. We were just kind of just kicking around some conversations and this came up and it was like man, you know, God intends on us to fill our lives with something else once we get saved. In Matthew 12, verse 43 43, Jesus says something very interesting here. It says when an unclean spirit comes out of a man, it passes through. And what is that in places?
David McIntyre:I'm sorry I can't see it too good can you make it a little bit bigger, john? And then can you also. Is your page fully maximized?
Phillip Rich:ah, there we go. I can see it better. There we go. Matthew 12 43.
Phillip Rich:When an unclean spirit comes out of a man, it passes through arid plate. That's what I couldn't figure out. I thought I said and, but um, it says it passes through arid places, meaning dry places, seeking rest, and does not find it. Then it says, hey, I'll return to the house I left. And on its return it finds the house vacant, swept clean and put in order. So then it goes, verse 45,. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, oh my goodness. And they go in and dwell there and the final plight of that man is worse than the first Dude.
Phillip Rich:This is telling us that, you know, god's serious about us learning how to disconnect from the world and disconnect from that former way of living that only fed your selfish desires. That is something God's very serious about us learning how to walk into as believers. And he also gave this type of a warning. And actually there's another warning in 2 Peter for the same thing. If you did try to disconnect from that stuff but you don't fill your life with something else, you run the risk of not only dipping back into what you were a part of before, but it might even come back worse than it was the first time around. That's bad and I don't mean I don't mean to say this to try to scare or intimidate or nothing like that, but we got to take this seriously and go.
Phillip Rich:Okay, you know this life of Christianity, there really isn't a such thing as standing still. You either are moving forward or you're moving backwards, and actually that's a law of physics. You know, that's a physical reality. Things either move forward or they're moving backward. There's really no standing still, not like in the quantum realm and all that good stuff. But so I say that because it's going to tie into what we're talking about in second Peter. He's giving us a vision, he's telling us here's something to aim at.
Phillip Rich:And I think that's so important because you know, jesus also said at the end of Luke 9, he said nobody, if they've put their hand to the plow but look back, they're not going to be fit for the kingdom of God. He's like nobody that puts their hands to the plow and looks backwards is not fit for the kingdom of God or is fit. I don't want to do a double negative thing, but you get what I'm saying so again. There's this principle here of we're moving towards something once we come into the things of God. We're not just drifting and floating and hoping God does something here and there and everywhere. We're on purpose with our life, with Jesus. It's very, very important. But if we swing back over to 2 Peter, I do want to Go ahead. David, I'm sorry.
David McIntyre:I just want to throw a thought in there too. You might be thinking to yourself well, I don't get it, because they go back in the house and they find the house clean. Isn't that what my life is supposed to be? And you're like so my house is clean, so what am I now? Open up seven spirits where is coming in and doing their thing with me and I, if I were to give you an reason why it is.
David McIntyre:There's the difference between being clean and, as Philip was saying, moving forward from unto, versus I'm clean, now what, yeah. And to just sit and now what? And not pursue is a challenge. You'll see that one of these words that we deal with tonight has to do with the word vigor, and that means to take very, very effective, purposeful action. And the thing is is that, when I'll take it back to our human story, when I got born again, I was, as people you've heard people say, I got on fire for God. What that simply means is I became extremely interested in the things of God, and the more I dug in, the more I wanted to know about it.
Phillip Rich:Yes.
David McIntyre:So after God cleaned me, I was pursuing him. So my house was clean, but I was also unto. I was chasing after God. I was going after this thing understanding that thing, appropriating gifts of the Spirit, appropriating speaking in tongues and other things of that nature around understanding things, understanding the application of things and all of these things and then applying those in my own life. I wasn't waiting for somebody to tell me to apply, I was applying those things in my own life and over time. I've just been in an unto, unto, unto, but I have gotten to places where I was just sitting still, and every time I find myself just sitting still or too comfortable where I'm at, I have found that all of a sudden something pops up, things come up and it's just like dude, just keep moving.
Phillip Rich:Yes.
David McIntyre:Just keep moving.
Phillip Rich:Come on.
David McIntyre:So it's not that there's anything wrong with being clean, but it's after you're clean there should be pursuit. Yes, and it should be pursuit with vigor after the things of God, as he leads and guides you to just be clean and then to sit still and do nothing leaves the door open for the enemy to come in and get you back off track.
Phillip Rich:That's so good man, that's so good. And you know, what makes me think of David is that what happened with David in the Bible, when it says it was?
David McIntyre:the time come on, bro.
Phillip Rich:Yep, he was sitting still, he was chilling on the balcony and it said it was the time for Kings to go to war.
David McIntyre:And.
Phillip Rich:David the King decided not to go to war and he's just hanging out on the balcony and all of a sudden he sees Bathsheba and at the wrongest time ever. He saw her at the wrongest time ever and that complacency had set in and all of a sudden taking your eyes off the prize. Now it turns into this thing of being susceptible to temptation, uh, and distraction, and so sorry to interrupt you, but see, look at the, look at the principle here.
David McIntyre:He went from chasing god unto chasing bathsheba, because once he looked over at her, his attention, his focus, his intention, his desires were all focused on getting that woman. Yeah, to the to the degree that he made sure the woman's husband was put on the front line of the war and killed. Goodness, he had completely left God at that point.
Phillip Rich:Yeah.
David McIntyre:And his unto was Bathsheba Wow.
Phillip Rich:Dude, that's heavy man and that you know. Again, none of us are above that type of temptation, none of us are above falling into things like that if we're not careful, you know there's a reason why.
David McIntyre:Because you know what, philip, I don't think David, even though he was not where he should have been, I don't think he walked out on the balcony that night and was looking for trouble.
Phillip Rich:Exactly, exactly.
David McIntyre:But he walked out on the balcony and what he didn't realize was there was an open door out there and it was designed for him.
Phillip Rich:Wow, dude. And we know, according to 1 Peter 5, it says the enemy walks around like a roaring lion. He's seeking whom he may devour and one of the things I'm sure he is looking for is complacency and a lack of any type of direction, because he knows it's easy if he can find somebody like that. That's in this place of just kind of you know, like Proverbs 1 says the complacent ease of fools will destroy them, and King James, I think it says the prosperity of fools will destroy them. But actually when you look up that word it means like a complacent ease of fools will destroy them. He's looking for that complacency to where you're just kind of resting on your laurels I've arrived, I'm good to go. Next thing you know you walked into a trap and weren't spiritually alert enough to avoid that thing. Know to avoid that thing. So we, you know and I don't want to paint a picture that you're always on the edge of disaster or anything like that. That's not what we're trying to convey here.
David McIntyre:And that's not what the Christian walk is.
Phillip Rich:Thank you, thank you, and I'm glad you're saying that too, because that's not what we're trying to convey. But we also know that there is a path that God's laid out for us, that he's given us the prescription to walk that path. It's all through the letters of Paul, through the letters of Peter. Anything addressed to New Testament believers is our prescription to walk that path out. And if we choose to do that, we'll be so occupied with the things of God we won't even be concerned about the other stuff. But if we choose that route of complacency and spiritual inertia and kind of go that route, next thing, you know, it becomes easy to drift.
Phillip Rich:And actually there's a great quote that I heard from this guy named Brian Tracy. He said there's only one direction you can coast. And I was like that's good man, that's good dude. So and that's the thing, we want to be alert, be vigilant about these things, because God has so much more for us. You know he wants to do great things in our lives and through us to help other people and bless other people. But we have to walk out that path that he's prescribed, otherwise, you know, it's easy for anybody to get caught up in some stuff that they might regret later. It just you know. It's just the way it goes.
David McIntyre:And Philip, I love that you used the word prescription because you know I think about in the whole and it's it's same with similar medical science. But when you're dealing with natural or homeopathic kind of healing and stuff like that, you know prescriptions usually are the combination of multiple things you know you just you don't. You don't just take dandelion root. You know you're you're taking um, you know you might be on.
David McIntyre:It might put you on some lavender, some dandelion root and hibiscus yeah and say that's going to help you with, uh, you know, whatever issue that you may be dealing with, and it's the same thing with what we're even talking about tonight it's that all of these virtues are like a remedy yeah if you will, and the remedy is is by by. For example, Lori has me on this stuff that I take in the morning. I take moringa powder and I do a bone broth and I'm doing turmeric.
David McIntyre:And then I take some other stuff upstairs, but one of the things she found is, by taking the bone broth with the moringa powder, so putting the moringa powder in the bone broth and then, right after I'm done drinking that, I drink the moringa powder. I mean, I drink the turmeric juice that we have that there is a synergy to those medications working together. And the same is true with what we were talking about here, and that is is that these virtues that we are talking about and started talking about last week are all synergistic and by working them together they create a remedy that says, as Philip said, you can't fall, you won't be you'll. You'll find yourself less Like if you are out on that balcony, like David was that you'll at least have the wherewithal not to take the open door to cross over to the other balcony. You won't do that because you'll be vigorously going after the things of God and not sitting there as an empty suit waiting to see what might happen next.
Phillip Rich:Wow, good stuff, david, good stuff man. I love that. And it's true. It's like in second Peter, as we're going to be looking at here in a minute, these elements that he's given us, they do work. Like he said, like David said, they work synergistically, man. They build upon each other, they complete each other in a way. And what it does is it fortifies your character, and that is the key of all keys is that you're building into yourself, into your character, really the attributes of God. If you want to just break it down, that's really what it boils down to. It's the attributes of God that he's saying we can walk in as we get into his word and understand how to apply that word. That's why he told us in 2 Peter, 1, verse, I think, three. It says that by the precious promises of God we can partake of the divine nature. So there we are, there we go. It's the attributes of God that we can begin to convey and reflect in our lives by applying these things. So let's take a look at him here.
Phillip Rich:In second Peter, chapter one, in verse five, he says, for this very reason make every effort we just talked about that 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 to godliness, brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness. Love.
Phillip Rich:Now what's interesting is that seven virtues and we know God's number is seven all day long, all through the Bible, he loves doing things in sevens, and so I think it's just pretty cool that that's put this way. And he says here if you possess these qualities, in verse eight, if you possess these qualities and continue to grow in them again, that's the pursuit thing we've been talking about they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But here he gives you the flip side. But whoever lacks these traits is nearsighted to the point of blindness, having forgotten that he's been cleansed from his past sins. And again, if you've forgotten that you've been cleansed from your past sins, it's a pretty strong indication that that's a person who might drift back into those same things.
David McIntyre:Clean house sitting around there. You go.
Phillip Rich:You got your clean house. You're not replacing it with anything. It says verse 10,. Therefore, brothers, strive there's that word Strive to make your calling and election sure, and he's saying. What he's talking about is firming it up or confirming it by doing those things he mentioned in the previous verses. For if you practice these things, you will never stumble there. It is David, and you'll receive a lavish reception into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, jesus Christ. That sounds good to me. I want the lavish reception, dude.
David McIntyre:Praise God, I want the lavish reception, but I want to make it there with as few stumbles as possible.
Phillip Rich:Thank you, sir.
David McIntyre:As few falls as possible. Yeah, yeah, help me get there that way.
Phillip Rich:Praise God, praise God. And so David, the first one on the list here, that he says in verse five is to add to your faith virtue. Now, the word virtue is very interesting. I don't know, john, if we can pull up like the, the Greek translation.
David McIntyre:We definitely need to, because there's some good stuff there and, if you remember, last week, towards the end of the episode, we talked about what faith was. Yeah, basically said that faith equated to being persuaded, to be fully persuaded, to come to trust yeah and as a reminder of that, I just want because I love reading this every time we come to these word studies that faith is always a gift of God and it is never something that can be produced by people.
Phillip Rich:Yeah.
David McIntyre:In short, faith for the believer is God's divine persuasion and therefore distinct from human belief, confidence. Yet it involves confidence.
Phillip Rich:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That's good, David, and that's our part. Our part is to use our will to agree with what God has said, and I think that's a detail that gets missed a lot of times, david, it's like believing is an act of the will. People don't really. I mean, I didn't for years, I didn't really understand that, but after a while it's like oh wow, that's actually how believing works. You have to decide and say I purposely agree with this that's why no?
David McIntyre:no, no, you're good, purposely agree with this, that's why no? No, no, you're good, You're good.
Phillip Rich:Oh, I was just going to say I think the Pharisees, maybe they told Jesus they're like you know, hey, show us a sign so that we may believe. It's almost like we're not deciding to believe until you show us something. You know what I mean. It's that kind of thing.
David McIntyre:So it's a believe because you show us something. You know what I mean. It's that kind of thing. It's a belief because of the sign Right, and Jesus didn't necessarily even. Another example of that is Thomas, who sat in there and said until I see the holes in his hands and the piercing in his side, I will not believe, right, thomas? Thomas was straightforward. He's like I'm not gonna believe until I see it. So that when jesus showed up the second time and thomas was there, he's like now, do you see, thomas? He said you see now and you believe? Yeah, blessed are those who believe, who have not seen. Come on, man. And so if you think that, if you think I'm just going to say it and let Phil fix it if I get it wrong, I think I've come to understand, and if my understanding is wrong, I'm okay to be corrected.
David McIntyre:Faith is not waiting around for God to tell you per se that what it is it is. It is you seeing the evidence of what it is and making the decision whether you believe it. The Word says it's true. God tells you, he shows whether you believe it. The word says it's true. God tells you, he shows you all of it. Look, the greatest example is your salvation. Yeah, he shows you how he purchased your freedom. Yeah, he tells you to believe.
Phillip Rich:Yeah.
David McIntyre:But you have to make the decision and say I believe that's right, you have to accept it and do it. And I think there's a lot of people out there who are saying I'm going to walk by faith, but you're waiting for God to do some kind of magic where he sprinkles over your head. You're like, oh now, I believe that's similar to what Thomas was asking for. It's better for you to say Lord. It's like the man who had the oh gosh, who was it the demoniac? He said Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Was it the demoniac or the man, the son?
David McIntyre:Yes, the guy with the kid yeah yeah, sorry everybody, but I believe that's in Luke. But Jesus asked him if you believe he said he said one of the most human, beautiful things, of the most human beautiful things, I believe. Help my unbelief. Yeah, and it's like I can.
Phillip Rich:you can almost see jesus like okay, I can work with this guy right because he's not.
David McIntyre:He's not fronting about where he is. It's almost like to say I believe you are who you are. I'm struggling to believe that you can do something for my son because I've seen him like this all his life and it's the cry is if you can do something, do it. And Jesus is like I can take the little bit.
David McIntyre:And I can do something with the little bit that you do believe and he saw a miracle that day. So we've got to stop waiting for some fairy to sprinkle belief over our head and actually read the word, study it out and say you know what? I believe what Jesus has said here, that's right. Or when you believe that God has spoken something to your heart, you have to make a decision whether or not you believe that word, that he's spoken to your heart, and you say you know what? I trust this word that has spoken to my heart. I'm now going to step out on it, step out on faith, and then we'll find out what happens.
David McIntyre:It's possible you'll step out on it and you missed it. It's okay to miss it. Please it we. I see parents. I see I've been reading about and seeing some parents teach this to their kids and I wish I had been taught this way. I don't fault my parents or anything, but there are some parents wealthier parents who tend to teach their kids to go out and make mistakes, because the problem isn't who tend to teach their kids to go out and make mistakes. That's right, yeah, because the problem isn't the mistake, it's the recovery from the mistake, and then what you do from that.
Jon Dzyuba:Yeah.
David McIntyre:Right, and so you get the opportunity to go out there. I think it's okay for you to say I believe I heard something, or I believe I should go this way, and you step out on it. You find out that wasn't it. You haven't lost everything.
Phillip Rich:That's right, that's right.
David McIntyre:You learn something. You learn okay, that wasn't the voice of God. You dig into a little deeper. You begin to understand. You know what. That was what I wanted to do. I was trying to lean. I was trying to do a God thing, to try to make it like he was pushing me to do it, and it was really me. You can. You can grow a lot in the honesty of those moments when you fail.
Jon Dzyuba:Yeah.
David McIntyre:If you'll be honest with yourself when you fail and figure out why and come back to it. So we just stop waiting for somebody to sprinkle faith over your head.
Phillip Rich:There you go.
David McIntyre:Just choose to believe and then step out confidently on what you believe. And if you miss it, father, I repent. Yeah, help me get back on the right track, and he will. But I believe that God honors the kind of faith that's willing to step out even if you may be wrong.
Phillip Rich:That's good, david, that's good. And he said if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, dude, you don't even need this huge faith. Got to work with what you give him, even if it's small at the time, he knows how to work with it. He knows how to work with it, he knows how to bring us along to where he's increasing our faith. As we get used to living that way, I can I just remember like way back in the day, dude, you know, like David, you and I both kind of got, not kind of. We got born again like in the mid nineties to late nineties or whatever. Well, officially for me, Born again.
Phillip Rich:For real, for real, for real, for real and it's like it's been a while.
Phillip Rich:So you know, I can see the things that and I don't mean this in any kind of whatever toot my horn way, but the things that used to be a challenge for me to believe, maybe, you know, 20 years ago. Now I believe it without even thinking about it. You know the things about God that I don't even I literally don't even have doubts about ever anymore. You know it's, it's one of those things where when you walk with him long enough and you see the track record that he's built with you and you know he's going to come through every time sometimes it might be different than how you expected him to come through, but he but he's never not come through. And so it's like I look back at the track record, I'm like I have honestly lost my right to doubt. You know I don't have it. I have no dog in that fight anymore. I just believe. I just believe because I've seen him come through over and over and over again and I know I can trust him.
Phillip Rich:You know I can trust what he said in his word man, it's something you grow into. So, david, I love what you shared, man, that's, that's good stuff with you. Know just, you know God taking what you give him, even if it's small at first, and he knows how to grow that thing and to where you're walking by faith, just in a very intuitive and natural way. After a while it just seems second nature, you know which is really cool.
Phillip Rich:But on to the second, Peter. I know we got to find a spot to put our pen, but I wanted us to at least cover that word virtue before we close out. He says, you know, back in verse five I think it was add to your faith, virtue. And so you might want to ask well, what does that word virtue mean? Like if we define it according to the original Greek language? It's an interesting word. I think, David, you may have had something you wanted to say about it too. It's translated arete, I'm not sure I'm even saying that right, but it says it's defined as virtue. Well, obviously, excellence, moral goodness. And then one of the ones that really I thought was very interesting was the proper definition, or it says properly manliness, valor. It's so interesting that this idea of moral goodness is tied to valor and manliness together and excellence of character. Uh, one translation said or moral excellence, which I thought was interesting too.
David McIntyre:so david your thoughts on it this is such an interesting word because from its part of speech it is feminine um, because you're look, I'm not a greek scholar, so please don't judge me um for not getting every pronunciation and all of that right.
David McIntyre:But when you have a pronounce there, a pronunciation, it has, it says arite, and usually you have with greek words. You have a's and o's at the end of the word. The o tends to be masculine, the A tends to be more feminine, or an A can be an E, you know, in the end of a word, and I find that it's feminine in its nature. But one of the first words that it says is it has to do with manliness, virtue has to do with valor and excellence and as you dig in, if you go down to the HELPS word study just a little bit further down, it says properly it's virtue, moral excellence, which is displayed to enrich life.
Phillip Rich:Yeah.
David McIntyre:And so, as you can see that this moral excellence is not just a character trait, that that pops up, but it's a way you behave, it's a way that you carry yourself. And if you look at go on down further, john, to the Thayer's Greek lexicon on the Strong's New Testament, number one talks about how particularly in 2 Peter 1 and 5, that it is a virtuous course of thought, feeling and action. It is virtue, moral and moral goodness. But here's the thing If you look in the parentheses, it calls it moral vigor, Moral vigor. And that is.
David McIntyre:I want to say that it is moral action, it's vigor, it's work, it's effort, it's putting something in right. It has everything to do with your actions and how you do things. So, as you can see right off the rip here, to your being fully persuaded, add this moral vigor, this excitement, this willing to be morally excellent and to go after it, not just to passively do anything, but to actively that's the word actively pursue and participate in things that are moral. It's masculine, they're valiant, they're things of valor. Move towards those things, and I thought that was just an awesome definition of this.
Phillip Rich:Yeah, that's good, David, that's good. It makes me think about what Paul said at the end of Romans 12, when he said don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
David McIntyre:Right, there's that action.
Phillip Rich:That goodness in action or that moral excellence in action there is fascinating too, because when you study the word out, when it says overcome, that word actually means to conquer. It has a lot more strength behind it in the Greek. So he's saying you can literally conquer evil with good. So there is a lot to be said for this idea of the moral excellence and that virtue of goodness and how powerful it really is. And you know, if we I know we can't get into it now, we got to wrap this up but but if you look into the history of how Christianity came into the world, they came into the world with a message of doing good which was foreign at the time. It was a completely it was the most opposite thinking type of idea and message that you could have brought into that culture 2,000 years ago.
David McIntyre:Right.
Phillip Rich:But yet it was the main thing Jesus told him to do. He was like hey, love one another as I have loved you.
David McIntyre:Right.
Phillip Rich:You know, show goodness Even if somebody's persecuting you. Bless them. You know, pray for those who despitefully use you. All this kind of stuff was completely foreign at the time. And yet we see, look what happened over time Rome itself went from persecuting and killing Christians to now being the Christian capital of the world in a couple of hundred years. You know, it's fascinating when you begin to study that out, just the effect that that moral excellence had on the whole world, that we're still feeling the effects of today. It's fascinating, man, david, I could get into it. Dude, even our concept, our modern concepts of human rights and all that stuff, it actually comes from the morality that was introduced by Christ.
David McIntyre:Right, right, and notice that just quickly. It wasn't, and Philip just demonstrated it by what he told you. It wasn't just a message. Right, it was action.
Phillip Rich:There you go.
David McIntyre:The message was communicated through their action. Now they also verbally communicated it that the way that people who call themselves Christians behaved was anti to the cultures that they lived in and around, and so we are supposed to be anti an alternative to the culture that exists in the world. And you want to find, you want to know one of the reasons why so many people are falling Because they are trying to make the culture of the world Christian when it was never designed to be, that we're supposed to be something other than an alternative, something different than what the world offers.
David McIntyre:Instead, we're so, as Christians, so enamored by the world. We're trying to make the world appealing to God and make it acceptable to him, and God will never accept the culture of this world.
Phillip Rich:Come on, bro, come on, man. That's the truth of it right there. Truth of it right there, because the culture of this world has always been designed to just feed self In one way or the other. It's designed to feed self and self only. It's not concerned with others.
Phillip Rich:Paul even warned us, I think, in 1 Timothy, 5 or maybe 4, one of the Timothys. He says that in the last days, hard times are going to come because people are going to be lovers of their own selves. You know, that was one of the first things he mentioned was like this idea of selfishness being one of the biggest qualities of the culture in the time of the last days. And man, I see it all over the place, dude. I mean it's. I know you too, david, it's, it's, it's crazy.
Phillip Rich:So we were like David said. I see it all over the place, dude, I mean, I know you too, david, it's crazy. So we were like David said. I thought it was great how you put it, man. We were designed, god designed the body of Christ to be an alternative, not to be some cheapo imitation copy of it that's just sprinkled with some good stuff here and there. No, we're supposed to be different and the difference should be noticeable. This isn't a thing where we're designed to blend in. We're actually not designed to blend in. We're designed to stand out.
David McIntyre:Yep, to be set apart. I'll just tell you one more thing. I know we're supposed to shut up right now. Do we ever, david? Do we ever? I know one of the reasons we ever, david. Do we have one of the reasons why this stands out so big right now and you're seeing so much of it, particularly in the christian world? Just look at just what happened at the bet awards. Um, I didn't watch it, but I did see the news that the gospel album of the year went to a secular artist named Glowrilla and she won for best gospel song at the BET Awards.
Jon Dzyuba:Wow.
David McIntyre:And she had Kirk Franklin, kiera Sheard and some other choir on it. Now the first songs before, all the songs before it, trash Hoan, the songs after it, slut Trash Hoan you know, don't Stick my Blank In your Face and all this other stuff, all that trash before and after. And then throw the gospel song in the middle and that's what wins the award. I will tell you that the Christian artists over the years, because they were so enamored with the secular artists and wanted to be so much like them, basically handed this award over to the world. It's perfectly fine now to give the world a gospel. They do a one song, gospel song, on their whole nasty album and they're just good to go and that's a song that we'll call Christian.
David McIntyre:And you know, she said, you know, I didn't know. Look, the artist said I didn't know if Kirk Franklin would do it and it's like girl Kirk will be in, but he did do it. And it's wild. Here we are. We're trying to hand over the keys to the kingdom to a world that God will not allow to have it.
Phillip Rich:Come on bro.
David McIntyre:We just got to stop this madness and get ourselves back on track and be perfectly comfortable being counter to the culture and being out here as an alternative. Not the same old thing, just wrapped up in religious clothing.
Phillip Rich:Come on, it's so cringe to be out there seeking the approval of the world. And you're a believer in Jesus, you have the spirit of God living in you, you've been redeemed from all the foolishness of this world and yet you want to sit here and get approval and try to be like them. You know it blows my mind dude, and I know you know I don't say that in the sense of like we think we're above anybody or anything like that. But the kingdom of God is above any kingdom of this world. We're meant to operate on that higher plane of living that produces better things in your life joy and peace and love and patience and all that stuff. That's what we're meant to operate as or operate in.
David McIntyre:What does this very scripture say? It says we are partakers of his divine nature. That's something much more than what this world is.
Phillip Rich:Right. Why in the world would those who can partake of divine nature be content with reflecting satanic nature?
David McIntyre:I'm going to drink to that.
Phillip Rich:You know I'm a drink to that. We'll leave it right there, but we want to say thank you everybody who's joined us live. Also thank you in advance, I guess, for those who will end up watching this video sooner or later. We do encourage you, as always, to go back through our previous podcasts. We've got a ton of them on our channel, bible Bros and Brew, on YouTube. We're also out there on Instagram, on TikTok I think we just hit X, right, david? I think we're on X now.
David McIntyre:Yeah, actually we're on TikTok. Yes, okay, I killed X. I'm sorry, I'll explain later.
Phillip Rich:It's okay. It's okay. Just try to find us. Whatever social you might use, we'll probably own there somewhere.
David McIntyre:Just type in Bible Bros and A&D Brew and you'll find us on social.
Phillip Rich:There you go, but we do encourage you to. If you're watching us or listening to the podcast, leave a comment like subscribe. All that good stuff We'd love to hear from you too. We do have an email address for if you have any kind of questions or any kind of thoughts or suggestions you'd like to share with us, stuff you want us to cover, even on the podcast. Here. That email address is gotbrewatbiblebrosnet. Once again, gotbrewatbiblebrosnet. So until next time, david and you.
David McIntyre:Yeah, just don't forget also that we're now doing Bible study notes for each episode.
David McIntyre:Yes. So if you want those Bible study notes, if you just look down in the description, if you'll use that link there to sign up for the Bible study notes, we'll put you on the list and every Monday we'll bail you out the most the Bible study notes. We'll put you on the list and every Monday we'll bail you out the most recent Bible study notes for that episode. That will help you and I promise you. It's designed to help you and be a blessing to your life, so take advantage of it.
Phillip Rich:Absolutely, Absolutely Well. Again, thanks for joining us. We're going to continue this next week with our series on 2 Peter, how to keep from falling. Hope you've enjoyed what we've done so far and until next time we will see you on the flip side. Stay diligent, Thank you.
