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 11) | How to Avoid Being Unproductive in Your Spiritual Life
We've been dissecting the seven spiritual qualities outlined in 2 Peter 1:5-7, and as we conclude our journey through these critical virtues, there is a powerful principle that all of us would do well not to ignore in verse 8: "For if these things [i.e., these spiritual qualities] be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." In this episode, David & Phil explore this theme of fruitfulness and productivity in light of what God's Word says about applying these seven spiritual qualities to our lives. So if you're ready to quit spinning your wheels and you want to see true progress in your spiritual life, grab your Bible and join us for this episode--and don't forget to brew up your favorite cup of joe for the occasion!
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Over the last few weeks we've been talking about the characteristics or the virtues that Peter lays out in 2 Peter 1, verses 5 through 8. Now we want to dig a little bit better, a little bit deeper, because Peter says something in verse 8 that is critical to our Christian walk and it says if we lay hold of these things and we grow into them, we won't be unproductive or ineffective in our knowledge of the Lord. We've got to talk about exactly what that means. We have to unravel it a little bit and then we have to dig into the joy that is in verses 8 through 10 for the believer who holds fast to these virtues and holds fast to their knowledge of the Lord.
David McIntyre:Up next on Bible Bros and Bros. Hey, so good to be with you. We're glad you joined us. I'm not here alone. I've got other strange men with me. But we're not doing strange things, we're studying the word. And now that it's weird, I want to introduce you to the weirdest part of the show, ladies and gentlemen Philip Rich, ryan Holden and the weirdest of them all is John Zuba.
Phillip Rich:I've got some candy in my van out back.
David McIntyre:Oh, you just crossed over man. We're so excited to be with you guys. We're excited about what we're going to be talking about today. We're going to talk about I'm going to use the opposite of what the Bible says being effective and productive in our knowledge of the Lord. And let me tell you, it is a joyful thing, it's a good thing that we're about to talk about tonight, but we're just going to have to decipher a little bit of scripture in order to get down to the joy and the good part that's in it. And it's not really like it's not.
David McIntyre:I may be making too much of it or more of it than is actually there, in the sense of it being complicated or hard to discern, because it really isn't, but I came across something this week that I think will help our discernment of what the scripture is trying to say. I can't wait to talk about that with you, but before we do that, let's jump in and talk to everybody and find out what everybody's drinking tonight so that we can determine whether they're going to be accurately or appropriately conversational for the conversation. Ryan, let's start with you. What conversation piece?
Ryan Holdeman:have you bought to the tape. Well, I got the Pete's Dickinson blend and I've got my homemade ice brewed coffee. Nice, I'm ready to go.
David McIntyre:That's nice, Ryan, Thank you. Now just one little chastisement. I'm going to need you to give Pete a peregrine type of rest. We understand that you love it, but you're going to need to come back to it in just a minute while you try something else.
Ryan Holdeman:Okay.
David McIntyre:Okay, god loves. Wow, god loves you. God loves you. I believe that your homebrew does help you to be conversational.
Jon Dzyuba:That's a beautiful thing, John.
David McIntyre:what are you not drinking? Because usually you drink yours before we start the show.
Jon Dzyuba:It's because I know how to make good coffee. Actually, that's not true, but today I did make a good cup, okay.
David McIntyre:Is that cup empty?
Jon Dzyuba:It almost is. It almost is Too fast, but listen, it was full earlier today. It was, it is still. Uh, or bailey's irish cream. Ah, it was really good and I put a little bit of italian sweet cream in there. So I got a little irish, got a little italian, and it's sweet, and it's sweet, but not too sweet, it's good.
Phillip Rich:It makes you feel relaxed, but excited.
David McIntyre:Okay. Well, we're ready to hear which of the peregrine roast you're drinking tonight.
Phillip Rich:Well, much to everyone's surprise, it's not peregrine tonight, can you?
Jon Dzyuba:believe it.
Phillip Rich:It's like peregrine tonight. Can you believe it? Defcon 5. I am going with Coffee man tonight. This is a local roaster from Atlanta, actually Huff Road Northwest in Atlanta, georgia, I don't know where that is. This one is the Brazil. It's called the Rainforest Coffee. Surprise, it's got notes of brown sugar chocolate and it is bold. Now I did try another type of coffee man a couple episodes ago, whatever, and it was the Honduras. I'm digging Honduras a little more than the Brazil. To be honest with you, it is what it is, man.
David McIntyre:You'd better go south, but not too far south.
Phillip Rich:Exactly Still the same continent, but just a little different region. We're good man. Shout out to Coffee man. Keep roasting, sir, You're doing good.
David McIntyre:Good, good and just for the record. We pick at Peregrine sometimes, but they're a house favorite for this team. So, we love our Peregrine. Tonight I am drinking something new as well. I did not intend to drink it, I was going to drink something else, and then it tasted nasty all of a sudden.
Jon Dzyuba:I'm sorry to hear that.
David McIntyre:Tonight I'm drinking something called Stella Blue.
Jon Dzyuba:Ah I think I've heard of that. That looks pretty cool.
David McIntyre:But Stella Blue. This is the it's called Positive Vibes. It's a light roast, it's a balanced blend of Colombian and Central American coffees. Roasted perfectly to accentuate flavors of fruitiness and lemony acidity. Wow, if you guys know anything about me, I'm more of a nutty over a fruity person. But, this isn't bad. It just has a little bit of a different edge between the fruity and the nutty. So it's nice and I do feel that it's conversational.
Phillip Rich:But do you get the positive vibes from it? I was just about to ask.
Jon Dzyuba:Yeah, do you feel positive? Because this could be a really good conversation or a really bad conversation.
David McIntyre:You know it doesn't give me a bitter aftertaste as it hits the back of my mouth. Okay, so it's good. Yeah, I feel positive about that.
Jon Dzyuba:Okay, I feel very positive about that.
David McIntyre:Okay, I feel very positive about that. Sometimes you got to choke on it just to make sure there's nothing weird there.
Jon Dzyuba:Because it hasn't been weird yet so far.
David McIntyre:Now. If that acid shows up later on, I'll let you know next week.
Phillip Rich:The old reflux.
David McIntyre:Stay tuned. So that's what we're drinking tonight. And now let's dig into the word a little bit. As I said before, we're in 2 Peter, chapter 1. And I want to connect a dot here, because several weeks ago, when we were starting this conversation, we had a pretty good conversation grooving around verses 3 and 4.
David McIntyre:And if you look at 2 Peter 1, verses 3 and 4, it says His divine power talking about Christ's divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of him, who called us by his own glory and excellence. Through these, he has given us his precious and magnificent promises so that through them, you may become partakers of the divine nature, now that you have escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. And how did you escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires? Through the knowledge of him. And so we dug through that and we talked about something that I don't know. Philip, I think we've talked. I know we've talked about it before. I think we'll talk about this to the end of time. It'll be the one thing. Sometimes you may get sick of us saying but you gotta, you gotta get in this word.
Phillip Rich:Yes, yes.
David McIntyre:That's what it really boils down to. The only way that you can grow in your knowledge of him is by digging in this word and studying it out and understanding it and you grow in your understanding. Growing in your understanding helps you to grow in your knowledge of him. You can use other resources and stuff that help you study, but as you grow in your knowledge of him, you also grow in so many other things in other areas and you're actually it causes you to apply the word into your life, because study without application of the word becomes almost a useless endeavor. You know, it'd be like if I studied rocket science but I never used what I studied to actually build a rocket and make an effort to go into space. You know, if Elon never, if all he did was read the books and dig in and get all the details and all that, but then never created a Falcon X, you would be like why did you study all that stuff? Well, I just thought it was interesting.
David McIntyre:Well, study without application ultimately just leads to head knowledge but it doesn't necessarily come out in the life, where it becomes fruitful, not just for you but for others. And as you dig into the word, one of the things you begin to realize is that God wants this word to not only be fruitful in your life, but he wants that word to be fruitful through you into others. You are a conduit of God's goodness in the earth, and the more you know about God's word, the more likely you are to make effort to be good and to do good. That infiltrates the lives of others and causes God to be lifted up before them, and he draws other people to him through your lifting him up.
Phillip Rich:Yeah.
David McIntyre:And so as we looked at that, yeah, and so as we looked at that, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and then love, which we covered those final two, last week and so as we roll over to verse 8, we get this I don't want to. Warning isn't the word. I don't know what the right word is, philip. I don't want to use. Warning isn't the word. I don't know what the right word is, Philip. I don't know if you can think of what the word. Maybe it's an admonition ah, yeah, that sounds good.
David McIntyre:An admonition in verse 8 says for or the word for can also mean because, because if you possess these qualities, or the word for can also mean because, because, 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.
David McIntyre:So now, paul doesn't just tell us for the sake of just talking about these virtues, but remember, he starts off by saying for this very reason, make every effort to add, to add, to add each one of these virtues to your faith, add each one to the next one, to the next one, to the next one to your faith. Add each one to the next one, to the next one, to the next one, because by possessing these qualities, so in other words, not only do you have them in your hand, but you grow in them, yeah, yeah, so they're not just seed in your hand, but they get planted, nurtured and then ultimately harvested. And more gets planted and you keepured and then ultimately harvested and mortgage planted, and you keep growing, and you keep growing and manifesting these things that you keep from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
David McIntyre:I'm going to pause there for a second, philip. What are you thinking, what's your thought around these verses?
Phillip Rich:Man. You know, all through the Bible and there's actually several parables that Jesus talked about this very kind of theme about fruitfulness. And yes, yeah, you know one of the original commands that God gave to Adam and Eve be fruitful and multiply. And so there is a blessing that comes with being in line with God's way, and that blessing is productivity and fruitfulness. And I was thinking about that, because that's basically what he's saying, but kind of in an inverse way. Here it's like if you do these things, it'll keep you from being unfruitful. So if you kind of make the negative of that or the flip side of that, then if you do these things, you will be fruitful. You know you won't be barren, you won't be unproductive, but rather you'll be productive. And to me, like there's so much much evidence of this that if God creates something, and just the fact that he put it in this earth, it's meant to do something. You know what I mean. It's for a purpose. And so, and Jesus told us in John 15, he said, if you abide in me, you know, you stay connected to me, you're going to bear much fruit. That's in john 15. And, of course, when we think about, uh, that, yeah, there, it is good stuff.
Phillip Rich:Um, in john 15 he says actually, can we back up to verse one? Let's see, there we go. He says I am the true vine. This is jesus talking, and we know it's him because it's in the red. That's right. Um, he said I am the true vine. This is Jesus talking, and we know it's him because it's in the red. That's right. He said I am the true vine and my father is the keeper of the vineyard. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit. So God's not a fan of not bearing fruit. And it says and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes it to make it even more fruitful. So even when you're bearing fruit, god has an idea or an aim for you to continue bearing more. I think that's pretty fascinating.
Phillip Rich:And then he said you're already clean because of the word that I've spoken to. You Remain in me and I will remain in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. Now, the word remain, the King James says abide. And it all kind of has the same theme of taking up a residence. You know, like this is where I dwell, this is where I live, this is where I hang out. And he says in verse five I am the vine, you are the branches. What an illustration, man. I love that the one who remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit.
Phillip Rich:For apart from me and one translation says, separated from me you can do nothing. And if you think about it, David, I mean we know that if you had like a rose bush, and you cut off one of the branches from the rose bush, that rose may be nice and, you know, fully bloomed right now, but as soon as it's cut off from the bush, it begins to die. At that point it stops bearing fruit or it stops having the potential to bear fruit. Once you know, at the moment, it gets disconnected. And we're the same way.
Phillip Rich:You know, truly, truly, god is the author and Jesus is in the book of Acts. It calls him the prince of life. You know he, god's the author of life. As long as we stay connected to him, we stay connected to life. But as soon as we depart from or separate from, whether it's through pride or through sinful, you know, habitual sin, whatever it is all of a sudden it gets harder and harder to bear fruit. You know, try, try bearing the fruit of the spirit when you're not fellowshipping with God. That's a hard task. It does not work, man. So I probably went on a little bit of a long diatribe.
David McIntyre:No, you didn't not at all.
Phillip Rich:Praise God. But I see it that way, man and you and I both know from experience when we're hanging out with God and we're doing our best to abide in him, the spiritual walk gets a little easier. It's like there's a grease to the wheels at that point. But when you haven't spent time in the word, you haven't prayed, you haven't taken the time to acknowledge God's presence or spend time and you know, studying the word or whatever all of a sudden, man, the spiritual side of life gets hard.
Phillip Rich:that's when you realize I really can't do anything without him. That's, that's the truth of it, right there, man that's good, philip.
David McIntyre:I want to look at two words, if we can uh here in this section the words ineffective and unproductive, because there's really um, as I was looking at this, there really is a negative side to these characteristics and it is. I think the reason why it's written is to provoke you not to give way to them, if that that's a way. But if we start by looking at this word ooh, what do you got up Ryan?
Ryan Holdeman:Ooh where'd you get that from? This is the Strongs Wow.
David McIntyre:Okay, wait, I'll ask you later. Sorry, how did you pull it up like that? I'm moving from word to word.
Ryan Holdeman:I'll show you. We'll just do a quick little lesson.
David McIntyre:Okay, cool, do a lesson.
Ryan Holdeman:So I'm here on verse 8, right, and if I click on 8, it'll open up this page here, and then I click on this little Strong's button here and then it'll take you on a breakdown through the whole passage.
David McIntyre:Oh, look at that.
Ryan Holdeman:What we like to read is here, and that'll take us into the deeper meaning of the word.
David McIntyre:Yeah stay right there that there's Greek lexicon, so this word ineffective. It refers to letter B here in the Strong's of 092. And it means to be lazy, shunning the labor which one ought to perform.
Phillip Rich:Wow.
David McIntyre:So that's what we're coming out to shoot with. That, the concept of being ineffective really says you're being lazy and unwilling to do the work that you've been called to perform, which leads to another interesting thought and I don't know if you guys have ever thought about this is that we're called to do this work? Yeah, it's not in one sense. It's not just a request for us to add to our faith these virtues, but it's really a calling. It's how we're supposed. If we're going to answer the call of Christ, which comes with our salvation, then we're actively doing these things. Yeah, yeah, and so I found that to be yeah, yeah, and, and so I found that to be interesting. But it's basically just being lazy and unwilling to do the thing that you've been called here to do. Now let's look at that other word unproductive. Yeah, that word unproductive comes from the Greek word akarpos, akarpos, and it means without fruit, to be barren. Wow, so you're lazy and unwilling to do the work, not doing the work that you've been called to do, and therefore you're unfruitful.
Phillip Rich:David, check out that. The number two, it says metaphorically not yielding what it ought to yield.
David McIntyre:Wow, isn't that good.
Phillip Rich:Dude. Now this makes me think of something man Like. It's not that you're incapable of bearing fruit, Because that actually would be unjust of God to you know, to say bear fruit, and then you actually just can't do it.
David McIntyre:Right.
Phillip Rich:But this is something where you have all the potential, all the everything you need, all the equipment, whatever it is to, to be able to yield fruit, but you're not yielding what you ought to yield.
David McIntyre:Right.
Phillip Rich:That's a whole other ball game, man Like. If you think about Mark 11,. Dude, when Jesus went to the fig tree and he saw the leaves on it, so he thought it was going to have figs. And it said but when he got up there there was no figs on the on the tree and thought it was going to have figs. And it said but when he got up there there was no figs on the on the tree. And he got I'm assuming it's because he was hangry. Uh, it said he cursed the fig tree. He said well, nobody's going to eat fruit from you from now on, you know. And then it said the next day that tree withered out, whereas there it is.
Phillip Rich:Uh, verse 12 in Mark 11, it says the next day, when they left Bethany, jesus was hungry. I love that verse because it shows he was a man having a real human experience. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if there was any fruit on it, but when he reached it he found nothing on it except leaves, since it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree May no one ever eat of your fruit again. And his disciples heard it. And then, like way on down, I think, verse 20, maybe yeah.
Phillip Rich:And as they were walking back in the morning they saw the fig tree withered from its roots. And then, of course, peter remembered and said look, rabbi, the fig tree you cursed has withered. Dude, again, this goes back to our thing, david, like if God has invested all these things in you, this potential, this, these abilities, these talents, these gifts, whatever it is, it is for the purpose of bearing fruit. It's not for you to sit on them, let them rot, let them waste away. There's a certain degree that you ought to be yielding, right, a certain degree of fruit you ought to be yielding, and if you're not doing that, you're not yielding what you ought to yield. Man, that's speaking to me right now, dude.
Phillip Rich:It's like let me check myself, make sure that I'm yielding what you ought to yield. Man that's speaking to me right now. Dude, it's like let me check myself, make sure that I'm yielding what I ought to yield.
David McIntyre:Right and note that Jesus wasn't being mean to the fig tree, no, but when he came upon the fig tree, it should have been producing and he knew it.
Phillip Rich:Yeah.
David McIntyre:The fig tree knew it too. Everybody knew that fig tree should be producing something. Yeah, and because it didn't, jesus? Which for Jesus to say that you're unfruitful? It gives the impression that not only is the fig tree now not producing anything, but that it would not produce anything in its future either. And that's not just because Jesus cursed it. So I think he cursed it for its unproductiveness, which you know. Now we want to do fruit tree. You know we want to do fig tree studies. Did this fig tree ever produce?
David McIntyre:And then did Jesus run up on it and see that it had never produced, and cursed it for the benefit of his disciples, not only seeing who he was, but understanding the concept of being fruitful. It's interesting, but you see here in these verses, that even though we talk about being ineffective and unproductive, you know, the reality is is that we're supposed to be just the opposite of that.
Phillip Rich:Yeah.
David McIntyre:That we're supposed to. We're supposed to be productive. I was reading, I was sharing with Philip, I was reading Matthew Henry's commentary and in his commentary one of the things he says is that, as believers that we are supposed to be, we're supposed to be. Oh gosh, let me look it up. Oh, where is it at when Christian virtues, faith, virtue, knowledge, etc. Are present and growing? They keep believers from being spiritually lazy and unfruitful.
David McIntyre:And not only that, but the Holy Spirit's words here, wording here implies far more than just avoiding barrenness. It means being zealous and active and fruitful in good works. You know, there's two pictures being painted of the lazy person who doesn't bring forth fruit, or the zealous, active person who is constantly bringing forth fruit. And the picture for us here is not to get locked into being the ones that are barren, but to get locked into the bit of being active, yeah, and pursuing and planting, and searching out the word and applying that word in our everyday lives and applying it in situations. That's why we can't be hermits as Christians, and I can tell you that in my life, if I'm being honest, I'm a little bit of a hermit, and that's not something I'm as I've thought about it over the last several days thinking about these verses I'm not super proud of, because I think God wants us out there.
Phillip Rich:Yeah, I'm with you man.
David McIntyre:He wants us out there interacting and engaging with the world around us and engaging with the world around us, and instead we're fearful and we worry and we're anxious and we're like I don't want to interfere with this world around me because if you do this over here you'll get killed. You go over here you'll get shot, you know, and all that good kind of stuff, and so you don't have to necessarily go to some. It's not. I don't think God is calling everybody to go to all these dangerous places, but it's like at the grocery store.
David McIntyre:Be kind yeah you know what I mean?
David McIntyre:it's when you're, when you're shopping at a, as these guys like marshalls you know, when you're at marshalls, you know, is there an opportunity for maybe you to bless somebody and buy them a shirt and just say God loves you. He just wanted to bless you with that. Or give them some kind word or encouragement or whatever. You've been reading in the scripture and whatever that's stirring in you to do and to function as a believer in the sight of other people. Do that I think God wants us out there and to function as a believer in the sight of other people. Do that.
Phillip Rich:Yeah.
David McIntyre:I think God wants us out there and I'm I'm Phillip. I honestly realized my own guilt in hermiting because, you know, in some senses I could say it's safer this way. I don't want to be out there amongst them doing all this crazy stuff. But if we're not out there amongst them, then is there ever a voice of reason in the midst of foolishness?
Phillip Rich:Right.
David McIntyre:You know, is there ever the voice? Is there ever? Who's being kind?
Phillip Rich:Yeah, who's being?
David McIntyre:kind out there. I don't know. What do you think?
Phillip Rich:No, I think you're making good sense, man. It's. You know, it's one of those unfortunate realities of society today. Uh, people are just generally more I mean just from my experience, you can tell me your thoughts on it too but people seem to be more disconnected now than they ever have before. And it's funny because we supposedly have all these great social media apps that are connecting us, or so they tell us, and it's like lies, all lies.
Phillip Rich:Yeah, yeah, it's so. What do you call it? It's so disingenuous. You know well, we just made this app so you could be connected, and what we do is we substitute real connection for interaction on the app, you know, which, don't get me wrong. You can, you can, you know, chat back and forth with people, you can share pictures and all this cool stuff like that, but you know there's there's a difference, though, from between that and having actual face to face contact. You know being in a person's presence, contact, you know, being in a person's presence it's just not as common now as it was before, and even generally speaking, like just being in public and just striking up a conversation with a stranger is not as common now as it used to be, you know.
David McIntyre:No, and you know, phil, even what you're saying. It's like we're doing work on the business side of our lives. We're doing a lot of work with gen z and helping them get started in their, their life in the workplace and that kind of thing. Yeah, and one of the things that they you hear from the younger generations, millennials too, and gen z is this lack of connectedness and they're hungry to be connected. But we're, we're also and you know, ryan, you may have something to say about it, but you know we're we're saying we want to be connected in a growingly unconnected world. Yeah, and we are finding that, like you said, the text messages and the apps in and of themselves are not doing it. They're not serving the purpose. People, actually people want hugs.
Phillip Rich:Right.
David McIntyre:People want literal human touch. Yeah, they want that connectivity. They want to see your face. Yeah see your face, yeah, and, but then I worry sometimes, philip, you know the bible also says that the love of many will grow cold. That's what it says man and, and I and I think we're seeing some of it, but I can't imagine the day when that really is very, very is a big thing out there. That to me is a bad day.
Phillip Rich:Yeah yeah, I mean it's kind of already prevalent in society. You know, just this basic decency between human beings seems to be on the decline. You know even down to how if somebody sees someone, you know fighting or beating somebody up in the street, there's nobody even trying to attempt to break up the fight.
David McIntyre:it's more like wow, let's get the cameras out you know, I'm like.
Phillip Rich:It doesn't make any sense to me, man. I, I'm gen x dude, I'm old school, I don't understand. I'll stand around and watch the fight while somebody's getting their face pounded, you know, instead of you know, stepping in and trying to break it up. Ah, you know, I don't know, man, but so you know, there is. There seems to be, just in general, a little a bit of a barrier between people. Now. That wasn't there before, necessarily, and so, like you're saying, david, I think it's good to have you know, to maybe get out of your comfort zone a little bit and and just strike up a conversation with somebody, do something that is not comfortable, and it'll actually, most of the time. Most of the time, you'll find that they're open and receptive to it. You may have a few that look at you funny or treat you kind of weird or whatever. I think for the most part, people are craving, like you said, craving that connection, but they may not feel comfortable enough to make the first move oh, that's good.
David McIntyre:What do you got to say, professor ryan?
Ryan Holdeman:well, I think you know, if you're, you know we're talking about the solution of. You know we want to live in a connected world and we're more connected now than ever, but you know, I don't know how to overcome that gap. And you know, and then connecting that to you know, let me whip out my phone and you know, get this for the views, this, this tragic thing happening for the views rather than helping it. To me, it really boils down to being selfish versus selfless, to being selfish versus selfless. And I think you know, if you really want to live a life that is more connected, you can't connect with other people for selfish reasons. And what I mean by that is if you're trying to always connect with somebody and go out and meet somebody or even, you know, spread the gospel for a connection for yourself, you're always going to have a motive to try to get something from somebody, much like a sale, like a used car salesman type of feeling Right. But that's not what Jesus and that's not even what Paul is saying here, because even if you go, if we go back and we look at the scripture, is you know he's talking about things like brotherly kindness and love and godliness. Like these things are, you have to be very selfless.
Ryan Holdeman:And you know, throughout the gospel and throughout the new Testament we see that over and over again, of of being selfless, considering others better than yourself and putting others before yourself, the you know the first shall be last and the last shall be first. And so I think if you really want to overcome that isolation, your motive can't be selfish, even even if it's sugarcoated in all this Christian ease. You know I'm doing it for God. No, your motive has to be that somebody needs a connection with this. It kind of sounds arrogant too, like somebody needs somebody is out there, that that is lonely. And they need a connection with me, and not just me because I'm special, but me because of the god that's in me. Yeah and um, it's selfish of me to keep it to myself. Maybe, if the power of life and death is in the tongue, I have the power to speak life over somebody.
David McIntyre:Today I have the power to encourage somebody.
Ryan Holdeman:Today I have the power to remind somebody that God loves them today and it's selfish of me to withhold that and I'm ashamed to say that I've been selfish more days on this earth than selfless. But, um, you know, just a reminder to let your. If you want to overcome this with longevity, I think you have to go with the mode. Begin thinking of the motive of not trying to get something from somebody, or a tick on the check sheet or anything like that. You have to do it with a selfless motive.
David McIntyre:Yeah.
Ryan Holdeman:Amen to that.
David McIntyre:I think that you're right, Ryan, and I'll take it to what we're talking about, which is, if you're efforting to acquire these virtues but you have nowhere to pour out what you've learned. You got nothing, You're just. You're just acquiring knowledge.
Phillip Rich:Yeah.
David McIntyre:That that knowledge, if it's not ever exercised and used, it's just, it's, it's I don't know what else to call it, but kind of useless.
Ryan Holdeman:Well, and Paul calls it a drink offering. He said you know, let me die empty, let me be poured out like a drink offering. And so, um, you know, if you think about an offering, an offering is very selfless, it's not for yourself and, uh, sacrificial a lot of times, right, yeah. So, um, yeah, it's, it's being poured out so that you can be empty. So if you're just dying, you know, if you're just sitting here, living full of you know it's kind of like how you started the conversation you can be full of all this theology, you can be full of all these scriptures and memorizing them and living right and everything, but if you're full of it and you're not helping anybody else to come along with you, then that's all you are. You're just full of it, that's good, that's good, that's good.
David McIntyre:The other thing that I wanted to point out because I know we're getting close to time is that there should be a there's a joy for the believer, an absolute joy for the believer, to walk this way. It's not that it's not sometimes a challenge, and it's not that it's not sometimes difficult to do these things, because sometimes the Lord will ask you to show love to somebody who's just mistreated you Right or done something to harm you, or a family member or someone you love, and the Lord says, no, I want you to love them anyway, and you'd be like what? And then you look at Jesus and he looks at you and you look back at him and he looks at you and you heard me. And so it's not that it's an easy walk, but there's so much joy and walking out and doing the work of the lord. There's so much joy and following through with the things of god and seeing them go to through to their natural next result. Next result Jesus calls it walking from glory to glory to glory, and it's a good thing and it's something that we should look forward to, and not only is it something we should look forward to, even though there can be hard work in it, because you know what there's hard work in study.
David McIntyre:Studying this word can be a challenge, because there have been places I've come through I'm like what? And I have to really slow down and dig, and even at places to just say, lord, I don't get this at all. Help my understanding, yeah. And so you got to work and you got to earn this stuff too. But it's such a good thing for us, it's a joyous occasion and it's something that we should look forward to and that we should also come to it with expectation. Every time I dig into the word, I'm going to get something good out of it. Every time I dig into the word, I'm going to get something good out of it. The Bible says that the entrance of your word brings light and gives understanding to the simple. So today I'm going to have more understanding than I did yesterday. Thank you, lord. I have more light than I did yesterday, and you just have to take it on. And then there are some days, honestly, you're going to have to fight for it.
David McIntyre:Yeah, you're going to have to fight, to stay in the Word, to dig into it. You're going to have to fight and you know I've at least allowed myself some grace in some cases to say, you know what? I wasn't going to do nothing in this Word today. I just don't feel like it. But if I can just get five minutes, if I just take five minutes and read through a couple of verses and before you know it, you're back, you're digging again.
Jon Dzyuba:That's right.
David McIntyre:Just push yourself, even just a little bit. I'm not going to let a day get by me that I'm not going to read at least five, ten verses. Grab a little something, grab a psalm. Those are usually anywhere from, like you know. Some of them are eight to ten verses, up to 18 to 20. They're not all very long, right, but grab a psalm, grab portions of Proverbs, you know, but force yourself to just stick with it daily.
Phillip Rich:Yeah.
David McIntyre:And you will help yourself to be fruitful and productive in your knowledge of God.
Phillip Rich:That's so good, David.
David McIntyre:Philip, one of the other things I wanted to share with you that came up from that conversation in Matthew Henry was that it gave this listing. It says these virtues will strengthen and encourage, strengthen and encourage, listen, strengthen and encourage each other. Not just strengthen and encourage you, but they feed off of one another. I kind of believe, because it's the word of the Lord, that these virtues are alive. Yes, I know, it's the word of Paul. Paul, I'm sorry, peter. Peter wrote these things, but I believe that Peter wrote these things under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, so the Holy Ghost intended for them to get to us, and that makes these words alive and they strengthen and encourage one another.
David McIntyre:While you're working on brotherly love, love is seeping out over here. That love is turning a once not brother into a brother, and now you've got those two things working together, your fate is high and stirred up. So you've got all of this stuff working together and encouraging each other. They need visible fruit that glorifies God. Each one of these things leads to visible fruit that glorifies God. And then, finally, they demonstrate our acknowledgement of Jesus as Lord through our active obedience. Yeah, they demonstrate our acknowledgement of Jesus as Lord through our active obedience. And this is where, again, lazy versus active, zealous versus ho-hum, we're supposed to be active and zealous about the things of God. Remember when the last time you maybe have heard about someone being zealous about the things of God, it was Jesus in the temple and saying you're not going to turn my father's house basically into a marketplace.
David McIntyre:And he turns the absolute place upside down and says my house will be a house of prayer.
Phillip Rich:Yeah.
David McIntyre:And he lays the groundwork for what it should be. And it says that he was zealous towards the things of God, and that's what motivated him to do what he did. The same zeal will motivate you to dig into these virtues, will motivate you to dig into the word and cause you to drive forward in those things. Then it will be a good thing for you. It'll be a very good thing for you and you'll bear much fruit.
Phillip Rich:Yes, good stuff, david. Yeah, man, I think about Romans 12, and I know we got to wrap it up, but just the thought came to me while you were talking. Romans 12 says you know to be. He said don't be slothful in business, but be fervent in spirit as you serve the Lord. You know, and there's actually several scriptures that there it is. Appreciate that. Where is it? Down, near verse 11. There we go. It says do not let your zeal subside. Keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord. Easier said than done. And I know, you know that, david, because there are days, man, it could be, you're just tired, just physically tired. You may not always feel the zeal and the fervor, but there's obviously something in there, there's a spiritual resource you could tap into by way of the Holy Spirit living in you that can help you stir those things up. Living in you that can help you stir those things up.
Phillip Rich:And I've had those times. I remember there's been so many, I can't even tell you guys, so many mornings where I was just dog tired and I was trying to, you know, pray or get into the word and nothing in my flesh wanted to sit still, or you know cause I honestly thought sometimes I'd fall back asleep, you know. But, um, but in those moments and sometimes you do, and sometimes you do is, you know? But in those moments I remember, one of the things that would always kind of get me going and help me kind of pull myself out of the out of the morass, was um was starting to speak the word of god. You know, just start saying I can do all things through christ who strengthens me. I'm more than a conqueror through Christ, who loves me, greater is he who's in me than he who's in the world.
Phillip Rich:On and on, just starting to kind of build my faith up, and it reminded me of what I think it's in Psalms, or I don't even know that it's there. I know it's in the Bible, but it talked about how it said David encouraged himself in the Lord. Oh yeah, I forgot where that is, but I love the fact that it's in the book. It said David encouraged himself in the Lord, and it's like when he had oh, it was the Ziklag thing.
Jon Dzyuba:Remember when it was in Samuel right.
Phillip Rich:Yeah, one of the Samuels when they burned. Look at man, look at Ryan.
David McIntyre:Dude Ryan is kicking butt taking names dude. I think that boy knows his word.
Phillip Rich:Yes, but it was basically, like you know for those who may not know the full story that they were living in this little town called Ziklag, david and his crew. Some crazy marauders came in and just burned the place down while David and his crew were gone. They come back, everything's burnt down. Their wives and kids have been kidnapped. It's just total destruction. It's kind of like Gladiator. You know, when Russell Crowe came back and his family had been killed and that whole thing.
Phillip Rich:But it said here yeah, I'll read the King James. It says and David was greatly distressed, I can imagine, for the people spake of stoning him. That sucks, because of the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters. But David encouraged himself in the Lord, his God. It's like when you got nobody there that's going to encourage you. You've got to find it in yourself and, with God's help, to encourage yourself in the Lord.
Phillip Rich:And I think, just to kind of sum it up, one of the best ways in my mind is to start speaking the word. And David, I don't know, like I know we could probably never prove this, but I think part of his encouraging himself was singing the Psalms. That ended up being in the book of Psalms. I really do so, but just wanted to put that out there. Man, like keeping keeping that fervor, a lot of times you can stir yourself up in the word by speaking it over your own life and, just you know, making that a practice to help you in those times when your energy or whatever is feeling kind of low.
David McIntyre:Yeah, that's good, phillip. You guys, I think we're going to put a bookmark right there. We've still got a couple of more. We didn't make it through past verse eight, and that's okay. We're going to pick up nine and 10 next week and dig a little bit more because there's still more information to get through in here. That'll just paint the picture when we are, uh, we're glad you joined us and we're happy to be talking about the things we're talking about and we hope that we're a part of your everyday life and where you're growing in your knowledge of the world.
David McIntyre:We uh encourage you to connect with us on social media. You can find us on TikTok, you can find us on Instagram. We're also out there on Facebook somewhere. Just look for Bible Bros and Brew A&D Brew for social media, and you should be able to find us. You can also communicate with us through a couple of ways. First of all, through whatever platform that you happen to be listening to this episode on, you can leave a comment in that platform area and we can see that and we can share back with you.
David McIntyre:If there's an episode you want us or something, a topic or subject you'd like for us to talk about, just go ahead and put that in the comments section. Youtube also on Rumble, and we'll see that and we'll do our best to tackle that. You can also email us at gotbrew at biblebrosnet. That's gotbrew at biblebrosnet. We'd love to hear from you. And again, same thing If there's something you want us to talk about, something you want us to pray for you about, whatever it may be, we want to encourage you to do that.
David McIntyre:We also want to encourage you to take advantage of the Bible study notes that we've created just for you. They come out each Monday morning at 6 am. You can use them as part of your Bible study, you know, or part of your meditation a little bit later on in the day. We've got something for the five days of the work week for you that we think will be beneficial for you, as well as scriptures to dig into and other pieces like that that we just think will help you as you grow in your walk with the Lord. Philip, before we go, why don't we take an opportunity to let's pray for everybody. Let's pray for them to be fruitful and abounding, and not ineffective and unproductive, but effective, productive, active and zealous in the things of God and in their knowledge of the Lord.
Phillip Rich:Yes, sir, father, thank you for always being with us, thank you for the help of the Holy Spirit. Without him we can do nothing, and apart from him, separated from him, we simply cannot bear fruit. So, father, I pray for anyone who hears this podcast or is watching this Lord. If they've been feeling that struggle to stay connected, we pray over them right now that you would just reaffirm their connection with you, father. Let your presence be felt in their lives. We pray, father, that you'll just show yourself strong on their behalf. You said in your word that your eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show yourself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are perfect towards you. So, father, we pray for that, for your help to be felt in their lives, father, by way of the Holy Spirit living in them. And, lord, we ask you and we thank you that every person listening, I go ahead and speak it by faith. They are not slothful in business, they're fervent in spirit.
Phillip Rich:They maintain their zeal, they maintain their fervor for you, father, that they are walking in fellowship with you, in a lively, active fellowship with you, and as a result, just as a byproduct, they bear much fruit, and we give you praise for that, father, we give you praise for that, and we agree on these things now, in Jesus name, amen.
David McIntyre:Amen. Thanks again for joining us tonight. We'll see you on the next episode. Until then, I'm David, he's Philip, that's Ryan back there pulling the trigger, and then there's John, and he's, oddly enough, available today. So thanks, john, until next time. Peace.
