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 13) | Maintaining Persistence Through the Pressures of Life
As we enter the final stretch of our journey through 2 Peter 1:3-11, David & Phil discuss the difference between falling--i.e., getting sidetracked by sin and/or stumbling in your walk with the Lord--versus falling away, where you simply depart from the things of God altogether. A good deal of time in spent in this episode highlighting the importance of getting back up when you sin or make moral blunders in your Christian life, with an emphasis on the fact that God is interested in the "long game"--as Psalm 103:14 says, "He remembers that we are dust", and He is inconceivably patient in His dealings with us. So brew up your favorite coffee or tea, grab your favorite Bible, and join us as we dig into the Word together to learn how to re-center ourselves when we take a few hits in this good fight of faith.
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On this episode of Bible Bros and Brew. We're going to continue our discussion for, coming from 2 Peter, chapter 1, when it talks about the things that we need to add to our faith, and we're going to focus in on verses 10 and 11, and what it means to have an abundant entrance into God's kingdom as we continue to develop in these spiritual qualities. Stay tuned, it's going to be in. This is Bible Bros and Brew, the podcast where we dig into God's Word, we share the Word, we try to explain the Word and we also enjoy a lot of coffee as we're doing it. So I'm here tonight my name is Phillip, by the way. I'm here tonight with my best buds ever, of course. I have John, directly to my left, your right, sipping on quite a lovely looking beverage there, and then I have, on the end here, david McIntyre, the one, the only, the Mac Daddy of spiritual gurus. Praise God. Sorry, but yes, we're here tonight and of course, you know.
Phillip Rich:If you've been with us for a while, you probably know what we've been doing. We've been going through the book of 2 Peter, actually the chapter 2 Peter 1, where we've been talking about these things that we should be adding to our faith as believers. And Peter talks about how you know, once you're born again, you can become a partaker of divine nature through God's great and precious promises. That's 2 Peter, 1, 3. And then he talks about how, since you have these great things that God's invested in you, here's some other things to add to your faith. And then, as he goes down the list, he wraps it up with this idea. He said if you add these different qualities to your faith, you know virtue, knowledge, patience, temperance. The list goes on. I think there's seven of them total.
Phillip Rich:He said if you add these things to your faith and you continue to develop in them, the big point that he makes there is you shall never fall. And that's what we've been talking about. Actually, the name of the series has been how to Keep from Falling and, of course, this series was born out of discussions that David and I have had about some of the things that have gone on in the body of Christ, and I know many of you are familiar, probably, with some of the controversies and scandals that have been hitting left, right, front and center, with popular ministries, with popular Christian artists who we find out maybe they're living a double life and have been doing so for years. Some of the stories that have broken have been downright unbelievable. With some of the stuff that's happened.
Phillip Rich:Or just living scandalously yeah just a scandalous life and it's like, okay, so I'm not sure you really think God's real. You know, with some of the stuff that you hear about and don't get me wrong, it's not that you know that any of us are above falling or above stumbling into sin. We all have our moments where our flesh is stronger than our spirit and it's easy to yield to certain things at times, and so I definitely don't want to put it out there like we're in a position to judge any person. We're not. But at the same time, we recognize that if you're naming the name of Christ according to 2 Timothy 2, paul said naming the name of Christ.
Phillip Rich:According to 2 Timothy, chapter 2, paul said let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity, depart from sin. And actually he said that was one of the inscriptions that are found on the foundation of God. Is what it says Actually, john, I know we're not in our full flow yet, but if you don't mind pulling up 2 Timothy 2, I just want to present that real quick, as we're kind of in this zone here. I got you Appreciate it. Yes, sir, this is a little bit of a departure of our norm.
Jon Dzyuba:Just a little. That's what we do. We depart.
Phillip Rich:We freestyle. You know it's like a battle rap, you know. Ok, down here in Second Timothy, chapter two, let's see verse 19,. I believe it is. Let's see, there we go. It says nevertheless, god's firm foundation stands bearing this seal. Now, back in the day, a seal was like something that was stamped onto documents and different things like that, and it was something where it was an official marking to say, hey, this came from some type of magistrate, some type of governor. This is an official document that says, bearing this seal, the Lord knows those who are his. That's one. This seal. The Lord knows those who are his. That's one.
Phillip Rich:And then, number two everyone who calls on the name of the Lord must turn away from iniquity. He's like this is part of the foundation of being a believer. The foundation of being in the faith is these two things. Number one you got to know that God knows who you are. You got to know that you belong to him and he knows you because you belong to him.
Phillip Rich:And then, number two if you call on the name of the Lord, if you name the name of Christ, is what it says in the King James. It says depart from iniquity. This translation says turn away. If you really study the Greek word out there, when it says depart from iniquity, it actually means to absolutely cut yourself off from and have no more dealings with iniquity. So that's a pretty hefty thing in the original manuscript and so forth. But so again, when you don't do that, when you still kind of flirt with sin, when you're still kind of, you know, not fully committing to walking away from those sinful things that you know good and well you're not supposed to be doing, there is always a potential there for you to fall into sin and sometimes end up worse off than you ever were before you got saved. Peter talks about that in 2 Peter. It said you know if you've escaped the corruption of the world through the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, but then you go back to it. He said the latter end for you is worse than the beginning.
David McIntyre:We don't want that testimony, man, you know we've got proverbs that talks about the man that does. That is like a dog returning to its vomit.
Jon Dzyuba:Yes.
David McIntyre:Which is I always like to paint the disgusting picture.
David McIntyre:So that you realize just how bad it is yeah and then you know, don't forget how jesus tells the story of the man who um wipes his sweeps, his house clean and then, you know, other spirits come in and see the place is clean and fit and ready and he goes out and gets you know others like himself and it's he turns in and they come and make up their, their residence, their dwelling place, with him, in him, and their latter end is seven times worse than the beginning oh yeah, that's not a good thing.
Phillip Rich:No, um, that'll jack you up and I think that you know in in to a certain degree. Is that that principle from? I think it's from the book of luke? Somewhere it says to whom much is given, much is required. You know, once you've come into the things of god, you've come to know who he is.
Phillip Rich:Uh, if you then turn away from him, there's a little bit more of an intensity behind the forces of evil that can come after you once you've done something like that willingly. And of course God has a lot of mercy and he'll give you a jillion chances. But then there's also times when people, their hearts, get so hard because of refusing to turn from iniquity that after a while they begin to cut God's voice off, cut his spirit off. You know they don't want anything really to do with God. All of a sudden now they find themselves sometimes in a trap of all kinds of mess that can really destroy your life. So you don't want to end up that way and that's you know.
Phillip Rich:That's the whole point of why we're doing this series and this podcast, especially on this theme. We do encourage you, of course, as always, definitely check out the previous episodes. We've already done, I think, 12 of these episodes on this theme here from 2 Peter 1. So definitely check out the ones that we've done up until now and if you haven't done this yet, like and subscribe. I know we got to throw that in there. It always helps the channel out, but before we jump too far into the deep end we always have to go back to our famous question here on Bible Bros and Brew what is in the cup? So, john, you look a little frozen there, so I'll go with David first. David, what's in your cup, man?
David McIntyre:Uh-oh, tonight I am trying something a little new. My wife insists that I try this new and she has been diligent to bring it to me and has found one that has delighted my taste buds. I am drinking tonight, happy Coffee, happy.
Jon Dzyuba:Okay.
David McIntyre:A little name drop. This is Robert Downey Jr's coffee.
Phillip Rich:I didn't know he had a coffee Okay.
David McIntyre:This Happy brand is his. Among others and so that means I'm special because I'm drinking his coffee. Sorry, I need to live for Jesus, sorry, yeah, this particular one has notes of toasted biscotti and levity and I do feel the levity. It has made me partially conversational. I'm still searching for the biscotti.
Phillip Rich:Interesting, interesting man, I didn't know, I can taste the biscotti right now. Okay, here's what's so weird, Interesting man? I didn't know I can taste the biscotti right now.
David McIntyre:Okay, here's what's so weird. Honestly, even though I've been in the coffee business myself you know cafes and stuff like that one thing that I never, ever really ate a bunch of it was biscotti.
Phillip Rich:Okay.
David McIntyre:Biscotti is not my thing, you know I get it. You get the little hard bread and you you dip it in your coffee and all of that good stuff but I've never been a biscotti person so I think that's why I'm struggling to find it in the drink. I know what it is, I know how different ones of them taste, but I'm not sure I find it here.
Phillip Rich:Gotcha, gotcha. Okay, according to your most recent, well, praise God. According to your most recent sip there, what do you think? Is there a biscotti to be found?
David McIntyre:There is a little bit of biscotti there. I think it depends on the kind of biscotti you had, because you can eat all kinds of different biscotti and never have the same taste twice.
Phillip Rich:Okay, okay, you know what's funny, david? I have been getting that confused in my mind with Biscoff cookies. Yeah, airplane, you know, but it's not that right. Biscotti is like just this dry bread, right.
David McIntyre:Yeah, biscotti is the. Typically it is the. It's flat on the bottom and oval shaped on the top.
David McIntyre:Okay, and it's rounded edges, gotcha it is. You can get them chocolate covered. They come plain. They come in chocolate flavors. They come in different flavors. It's just I just that's just not my thing. I've bought it. Come in chocolate flavors, they come in different flavors. That's just not my thing. I've bought it and I've sold it and other people get it. I never really even sold a bunch of biscotti, because it's not so much of an American thing. I think biscotti is more of a European.
Phillip Rich:I think you're right, it's more of a European. I think you're right. Yeah, I think you're right, man, it's more of a specialized niche here in the US. Cool beans, man. What about you, john? What do you got in your cup, man?
Jon Dzyuba:I'm glad you asked. I will confirm, first of all, that we did have a lot of biscotti in our house when I was growing up, a lot of tea in biscotti. Have a lot of biscotti in our house when I was growing up, a lot of tea in biscotti, okay. Second thing, I'm drinking a vanilla bean brulee, but like light roast coffee. Um, it's good.
David McIntyre:Don't get me wrong, it's good but I think I'm coming to I think I'm coming to find out.
Jon Dzyuba:I maybe I just don't like light roast, unless it has, like I added some flavor to this, like a little vanilla creamer, uh, which is really good, but yeah it's, I don't know it. It's maybe I've just drank too many dark roasts, but like it just looks watered down and maybe because it looks watered down.
Jon Dzyuba:it looks watered down. It tastes watered down. It's good. I like vanilla, it's good. I wish there was a dark roast version of what I'm drinking tonight. That'd be top tier, if you're interested. I wish I had a bag for you. It's from Target. It's really good. It's a nice little summery coffee for you to try Good stuff man, it looks amazing.
Phillip Rich:Nice little summery coffee for you to try. Good stuff man, it looks amazing. In the cup there you got the glass thing going. It looks like dude who wouldn't want that as a refreshing drink.
Jon Dzyuba:It is nice, it is what about you.
Phillip Rich:Uncle Phil you know man, I'm rocking something brand new here on the podcast. I'm excited about it. It is from our favorite roaster, peregrine, but it is their brand new decaf. They have a Guatemala Alma decaf.
David McIntyre:They moved on from Columbia.
Phillip Rich:Which I love, the Columbia dude, it's still like the goat of decafs, but this has sticky toffee, pudding notes, sweet, sweet cream and milk chocolate. Let me tell you, man, this thing here goes so good with like okay, like my wife made a sweet potato pie last night because she's just awesome. So uh, it's too early I know like it's not quite fall, but, dude, we've been feeling the fall vibe trying to come back. We even started up the fireplace this morning for no good reason except just trying to invoke fall into the household.
David McIntyre:See, then you guys poked me the bear. You poked the bear about having a little cup of pumpkin spice too early.
Phillip Rich:That was Wil for you, ryan, you've got fireplaces roaring at this point.
David McIntyre:And it's not even that cold outside.
Jon Dzyuba:I know it's so sad. It was chilly this morning. It wasn't cold, but the temperature dropped and I think that you had the coffee like a week before the temperature started following.
Phillip Rich:Yeah, yeah.
Jon Dzyuba:So maybe it was a little premature, maybe I don't know, but it is starting slowly here in Georgia, slowly starting to become autumn. Right, it's a very slow pace, but we're getting there. You know how it is, man All.
David McIntyre:I got to say is you people, dude, shout out to Peregrine, shout out to Happy, check out these coffees.
Phillip Rich:Man, we're always want to give some Uh-oh, agreed, agreed. I gotta keep some things under wraps, so but uh. But speaking of speaking of habits, here's a good segue. Let's talk about making new habits in your faith. By way of second peter, chapter one, when it talks about the things that you should be adding to your faith, which is the whole crux of what we've been dealing with in this series about how to keep from falling. We're telling you Peter lays out a roadmap. He says if you want to not fall into this stuff, if you want to keep yourself moving forward and having spiritual progress, here's how you do it. He says you've got to add to your faith virtue, to to knowledge, to that virtue, and on and on and on.
Phillip Rich:Actually, we're going to look at it right here, in verse three, second Peter one, verse three, he says oh, there it is. It says his divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness. That's a good good thing. Through the knowledge of him, who called us by his own glory and excellence, through these talking about his 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. Excuse me, so it's through the promises that we become partakers of his divine nature?
Phillip Rich:There's a bit of divine substance in his promises, and when you ingest the promises by way of reading them, studying them, speaking them over your life, you're partaking in honestly, in that which is divine because it came from God. And as you do that it says, you become partakers of the divine nature. Now that you have escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires and David, I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that the more of his divine nature you partake of, the more you flush those evil desires out. What do you think?
David McIntyre:Oh, no, Philip, I don't have a clue what I think. I was reading a little excerpt of this commentary and you gave it to me faster than I was ready for. I wasn't ready.
Phillip Rich:Dude, that's all right man.
David McIntyre:But here's a little something, please, if I understand where you were? Nah, dude, I just need you to take it back.
Phillip Rich:No problem. I was basically saying the more you partake of his promises, the more I'm sorry. The more you partake of his divine nature by way of his promises, then the more it flushes those evil desires out because they're being replaced by godly desires. That's what it means in Philippians 2.13 when it says that it is God who works in you. He is at work within you to will and to do of his good pleasure.
David McIntyre:I was going to say, philip, what it reminds me of is it reminds me of as the word talks about. You know to say, philip, what it reminds me of is reminds me of as the word talks about. You know how we, we, we are made clean by the washing of the water of the word right, yes and it's the.
David McIntyre:It's the exchange here, it's in it's. It's in our knowing him, in our knowledge of him. Um, look, it even says through the knowledge of him, the eyes of our understanding being enlightened. But in our knowledge of him, as we grow to know him you know we've talked about this over the last couple of episodes throughout this series you know, as we grow in our knowledge of him, we become more aware, we do all of that, we grow in him, but one of the other things that happens, and that is we're washed by his work.
David McIntyre:Yeah, and that washing is designed to wash away some of the um I hate to say it this way because I think it may sound a little blasphemous because I think it may sound a little blasphemous it's the remnants of the day, it's the junk of sin, it's the junk of life that either tries to hang on to you sometimes or that gets on you during the day. With the washing of the water of the word, you become clean.
Phillip Rich:Yeah.
David McIntyre:And it helps you to, day by day, walk this thing out, because you're constantly showering in the word and you remain clean and that helps you to walk this life out. That's what I was thinking about when you were saying that earlier.
Phillip Rich:That's good, david, that's good, and it's true. It's like I remember that one of my favorite bible teachers ever his name is Chuck Missler.
Phillip Rich:He said a lot of time, a lot of times he would say you need to bathe in the word you know, every day, bathe in the word, spend some time, set some time apart to read the bible, and I'm you know, dave, if, if, if, anybody knows anything about this podcast. You know, that's what we tell people all the time. It is take time to read the word of God every day, and I'm not talking about I'm sorry, go ahead, david.
David McIntyre:I said it's mission critical.
Phillip Rich:It's mission critical. And I don't mean read a book about the Bible. You know some spiritual author. I'm not talking about that. I'm not talking about listening to a sermon based on the Bible, even though those things are cool. I'm talking about the straight up word of God from the Bible itself.
David McIntyre:There's something different about it. You've got to have that and you know. Phil, you hear what you're saying. Don't misunderstand.
Phillip Rich:Hear our hearts in this please hear our hearts, because Dave's got to come and fix what I'm saying.
David McIntyre:I'm not fixing what you're saying. I'm walking with it. We're not devaluing the quality of a good book because Philip is a good book. He's a book reader. Philip's a much more avid reader than I am. At times I'm more of an article reader, you know. I'll go through all kinds of articles and stuff and um, but books, and then we both, you know, just like I, got caught off guard over here because I'm looking at a commentary right now.
Phillip Rich:Yeah.
David McIntyre:And we take in all this information. But its whole objective is to help us to better understand what it is we're reading in the word. It's not, it's. We're not using the word to validate. Well, we are. Let me be careful. We're not reading the word so that we can say, wow, so-and-so had a great book. We're looking at that book and we're evaluating it against the word.
Phillip Rich:Yes.
David McIntyre:And then when that book lines up with what the word says and then can even help bring clarity to the word, then we're like man, that's a good book. Or this commentary helped me to better understand and appreciate what was going on in that time. It helped me understand context and put these certain words in a specific place that made sense. So I understand why back in that day they used it like this, but then in other times I used it like that and other things. So your commentaries, you know, your concordances and things like that all have value, but they are not the word.
Phillip Rich:That's right.
David McIntyre:No concordance, no commentary, even though they contain the word. They're not the word. You use what you have at that time, but the word is the critical thing. That's why you hear these stories about other parts of the world where people literally pass handwritten Bibles. They pass handwritten verse chapters of books, like in China and other parts of the world. They're passing little bits and pieces of the Bible around to one another and handwriting them. There are even those that literally memorize the whole book. They're memorizing the whole book because of the trouble that they could potentially get in if they're found to have or be harboring a Bible. And that's in different parts of the world for different reasons. And you know, if you're, you better remember that word because if you're, if you're in some Muslim countries you die for that.
Phillip Rich:Yeah.
David McIntyre:You know. So that's how much the word is valued and treasured, and that's the approach that we should be taking in valuing and treasuring the word as well. We don't have to fight every day for the right to access it, but what we shouldn't be guilty of is not accessing it when we have it.
Phillip Rich:That's right, dave. That's good man, it's true. I mean, you know we're so privileged in this country you kind of can forget that the world is bigger than the USA and there are some places all over the globe where just having a Bible is a punishable offense.
Phillip Rich:You could get arrested for having a Bible. That's just mind-boggling to me. You know, and so we. You know those of us who live in the US or in other countries in the West where Christianity is more accepted, has been the tradition of that country. Whatever the case is, man, I hope you realize how privileged you are. You know we got tons of Bibles, you know, I mean, and even through the internet we can access all kinds of resources and that's why David and I always encourage you guys, definitely, you know, get on the web, go to biblehubcom, go to eswordnet, you know blueletterbibleorg, all these places that have tons of different you know scriptural tools and things to help you understand the Bible.
Phillip Rich:And I think, david, if I'm you know, I know you've probably heard this before with different people, but one of the things we hear a lot is you know, the Bible is kind of boring to me. You know, I can't understand it. It's not, you know, I read it and it's just the thou and thus, and it doesn't make any sense to me. It's not, you know, I read it and it's just the thou and thus, and it doesn't make any sense to me, if that's been your experience. Again, go on different websites like blueletterbibleorg, biblegatewaycom the different ones we've already talked about and look up other translations of the Bible. I think some that I feel are good.
Phillip Rich:I know, david, you can tell me what you think it's like the Berean Study Bible, the New Living Translation, the New American Standard Bible. Those bring the words that the King James sometimes can throw you off with. Those other translations can bring those words in a more modernized format and help you understand it better. But I think still, even beyond all that, whatever translation you choose, here's my approach to it, just like if you were in a college course. Let's say you're taking organic chemistry. They hand you a textbook at the beginning of that semester. They say here's your textbook, here's the chapters you got to cover, here's what you got to know for your test. You can't never pick up the book and expect to pass the test and you can't say I just don't understand organic chemistry, you know well, you've got to crack open and study.
Phillip Rich:You know, crack that book open and study it. I feel the same way about the Bible. It may seem hard to understand at first. That means you've got to dig a little harder, you've got to study a little more, You've got to read it over and over and over again until certain things start to sink in a little better.
Phillip Rich:And I always say pray as you read the scripture. You know, ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten the eyes of your mind, ask him to shine light on the areas that he wants you to see from the scriptures. And I'm telling you, man, the more you do it, he will begin to speak to you, he'll begin to prompt you, he'll begin to show you things in the scripture. He said in Jeremiah he said call unto me and I'll answer you and show you great and mighty things that you don't even know. And I believe that's a major thing to remember as you're getting into the habit of studying the Bible every day. Pray and ask God to help you to understand it for sure.
Phillip Rich:But anyway, I know we kind of took a little detour there, but let's continue in 2 Peter 1. Let's go back to the list of virtues that we've been talking about, and again, we've covered a lot of these in a lot of detail in the previous episodes, so definitely check those out. But in verse five he says for this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith virtue and to virtue, knowledge and to knowledge, self-control to self-control, perseverance and to perseverance. Godliness and to godliness. Brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness. Love, for if you possess these qualities and you continue to grow in them I think that's a big key there continue to grow in them they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. They'll keep you from being ineffective, they'll keep you from being unproductive. So what that means is they will help you be effective and help you be productive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Phillip Rich:But whoever lacks these traits verse 9, whoever lacks these traits is nearsighted to the point of blindness, having forgotten that he's been cleansed from his past sins. Therefore, brothers verse 10, strive to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these things, you will never stumble. There's our main theme, and you will receive a lavish reception into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now I know we've already covered the verses all the way up to verse 9. We've kind of got on verse 10 last time, david, but for verses 10 and 11, david. What's your thoughts on those two verses there?
David McIntyre:These verses are loaded and there's a lot of good stuff here, but there is, you know, in the midst of all of this is this promise, and the promise is that if you practice these things, you will never stumble. The King James translation says you will never fall. All of that refers back to the concept of sin, and it is a. It's a deep concept here that I think is important that you pay attention to and you get, because what it's not saying, because what it's not saying it's not saying that you'll never be tempted Right. It's not saying that you won't actually make a mistake, you won't sin, you won't err, but what it does mean is that when you do, you won't fall, as in fall away.
David McIntyre:Yeah, you won't fall away from the the. The word is apostasy.
Phillip Rich:Right, yes.
David McIntyre:And what we have now in some cases, some places, is an apostate church. We keep seeing, as Philip was saying in the beginning of this, as he so beautifully set this up was, we keep seeing individuals who are saying you know, I remember so very vividly when one of the members of a band that I really love and had really, you know, through my formative years in Christ, this was the band Right, everybody knew who they were.
David McIntyre:They were the crap in christianity and they were saying the word that was helping you make it through yeah and then, when one of the members wrote an article and said how he is deconstructing his faith, what he really meant was somewhere along the way and I'm you can say I'm being judgmental, but based upon the scripture I don't think I am, but it being somewhere along the way. I stopped cultivating these virtues. And in place of cultivating these virtues, I've looked at this world and I've loved things about it. Wow. And because I've loved things about it, I've chosen this world over the things of God.
David McIntyre:And now I'm going to walk a different kind of Christianity. I still want to call myself a Christianity, but I'm going to create a God of my own mind and he is going to believe what I believe and he's going to look at things the way that I look at things and because of that, we're going to agree and everything's going to be Wow, wow. And that's that's apostasy, that's a falling away from the things of God. So, because you could see that if you were to read this, you'll never stumble or fall again to say I'll never sin or you'll never err or make a mistake. That is contrary to the word.
Phillip Rich:That's right.
David McIntyre:So it can't mean that. So it has to mean in the greater scope of things. As I am walking through this life, I take some hits, I go through some things, I'm tempted on every side, I may even fall at some point. But what will not happen is I will not give myself over to the enemy. And the reason why is because in the cultivation of these fruit there's something also beautiful that begins to happen, and that is these fruit also have the ability to activate in my life.
Phillip Rich:Yes.
David McIntyre:They're not just passive fruit, where you're loving, where you're doing this, you're operating in patience and all of that, and they're just passive fruit and you grow the. You know, have you seen plants, flowers in a garden, where you plant them and they're basically for your enjoyment yeah you know I love dahlias.
David McIntyre:Dahlias are a beautiful species of plant. Oh my gosh. They are so beautiful when they uh sprout and come to their full bloom. But ultimately they're there for beauty, and boy, do they serve that purpose. Well, but the fruit of the Spirit and these virtues have the ability to transform and take action in your life. How do I mean? That means that because we show brotherly kindness and then we show love to other people. When we fall, it's amazing that God will have somebody there who will help us to get back up on our feet.
David McIntyre:That's right that we don't have to try to help get up on our own, that when we patiently endure, like good soldiers, the things that we're going through, that eventually we're holding up that wall in patience and patient endurance and then all of a sudden the strength of the Lord swoops in and that one day, where I was once holding that wall up, I now push it clean and the weight of that thing is no longer on me because God's helped lift it off of me, so these are active characteristics that come to work in your life, and when you fall, when you sin, when things go on, when things aren't looking great, these things come to your aid and they help you so that you do not fall to the point where now you're writing letters talking about how you're dislocating.
David McIntyre:I was about to say dislocating. You know you're whatever that word is I just deconstructing right. Deconstructing your faith or as you've seen. You've seen people fall all the way apart from God and they fall apart from God and then they say stuff like I'm mad at God.
Phillip Rich:Yeah.
David McIntyre:God didn't come through in my situation or circumstance or whatever it may be, and we treat God sometimes like he's a vending machine and that we go to him, we put in a quarter and he's just supposed to do what we want him to do with no thought, no consideration about the greater scope of all that's happening and seeing how God is working things together.
David McIntyre:We forget that the scripture says that he works all things together for our good See what we don't believe is we don't believe that god can work a bad thing in our lives together for our good we only believe that he can work good things together for our good.
David McIntyre:So when somebody dies and we don't understand why we don't go to god and say, lord, your word says that you work all things together for my good. So I believe that I'm going to find the good in this and you're going to set me on the path you planned for me. We don't pray that way. We pray why, why? Why, god, did you do this? And if we don't feel like we get answers, then we get angry at God and then we stop going into the word and digging where the comfort is where the balm is for our healing, that we need for the wound that we've endured.
David McIntyre:We stopped going to that and we start going to all kinds of other things that are not God and all they do is destroy us more, make us more bitter and lead us to a place where now we don't have our faith and trust in God. We're just doing our own thing.
Phillip Rich:Wow.
David McIntyre:Maybe that's an opening salvo into that concept, Philip.
Phillip Rich:Yeah, good stuff, david. Good stuff, I mean, it's true. It's like you know, in this walk of faith you will come up against obstacles, you'll come up against roadblocks, you'll come up against things that try to, you know, in some respects can tear your life apart. You know, it's nobody ever guaranteed an easy walk through the roses or whatever. Tiptoeing through the tulips, I think that's the phrase or whatever it is. God never guaranteed that.
Phillip Rich:He did say in Isaiah I think it's Isaiah 41, he said when you walk through the fire it won't burn you. You know, when you walk through the water it won't drown you. So he's saying it's not that the fire is not there, it's not that the water is not there, but they will not be in a place to overcome you. You will come out the victor.
Phillip Rich:And if you think about it, even what happened with Joseph, you know, in Genesis 38, it talks about all through that. You know the later parts of Genesis 38, 39, so forth, the story of Joseph is one of the most amazing examples to me. It's like God had given him this vision and this dream about how he was going to be, you know, kind of set, exalted and so forth. But you know, god didn't reveal all the details as to the path that it would take, that he would take to get to that place. And you know, I'm sure, that when Joseph was arrested for a crime he didn't do and he's in the prison and he tries to get the baker I think it was to put in a good word for him and it said when the baker totally forgot about Joseph. You know, he's down there and it's like the count of Monte Cristo, you know what's my crime?
Phillip Rich:you know, and that whole thing you know it's. You know Joseph was going through that. I'm sure there were times when he felt like God had forsaken him or whatever the case may be, but God never allowed any of those circumstances to overcome Joseph to the point where it destroyed him. As a matter of fact, every step in that process ended up being something that Joseph could use later to to to enter into his role as, basically, prime minister of Egypt. You know so. You know there's. We don't always understand all the different things that happen or the path that's being taken, but the one thing that we've been guaranteed from God is that you will overcome you will conquer.
Phillip Rich:You're more than a conqueror through Christ.
David McIntyre:And Philip, I'll even just say, just, depending on where you're coming from, just don't forget that he was thrown in a pit, yeah, before that. How about that? Yeah, how about your, your, and then how? How deep and wide is the wound that your siblings threw you in the pit, yeah, and left you to die?
Phillip Rich:yeah, because they, they didn't leave him to be picked up, they left him to die and then they lied to his dad and told him that he got killed by a wild animal.
David McIntyre:It's like that was crazy, it was pure evil. And it's just when you think about Joseph's life I'm reminded I believe it's Nikki Giovanni who had that had the poem said life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
Phillip Rich:Crystal stair.
David McIntyre:yeah, you know, it's had places in it where boards are bare, etc. And so forth, and it's like you know, yes, we look at Joseph's life and we see it as triumphant, but stage to stage to stage, he went through stuff yeah he went through and I and I, I mean why didn't joseph give up? Why didn't he turn who, who, who better to turn their back on God?
Phillip Rich:Right.
David McIntyre:He's in the pit, left all along his father's favorite child, hated by his brothers, and left there to die. You're in the pit, thinking you're going to die.
Phillip Rich:Yeah.
David McIntyre:And he could have turned his back on God at that point. Then he's bought into slavery, he's falsely accused and is put back in prison again, in another prison. And why not turn his back on God then? Because all he did was flee from that woman, like God said, and all it led to was him being put in jail. He could have given in to the woman and at least not been in jail. He'd been in the house.
Phillip Rich:Yeah, he had so many opportunities to turn his back on God through that process, but he remained faithful. And I think it's I forgot, oh man, it's that scripture in Genesis when it says what he named his kids. One was named Manasseh.
David McIntyre:Yeah, ephraim and Manasseh.
Phillip Rich:Ephraim and Manasseh, and I think he named him that because he was saying the Lord caused me to forget my affliction, something like that. I forgot the exact wording, but it was a memorial.
Phillip Rich:Yeah, it was a testimony, a memorial. Like you know, god brought me through and I believe Joseph was faithful to God through all of those things, and it reminds me of the scripture in Proverbs. I looked it up a minute ago, Actually, john, if you could put this up on the screen, it's Proverbs 24. This one here has been one that I have gone back to over and over again because, guys, I'm going to go ahead and tell you I know, david, I'm sure you would say the same thing man, we do not want to ever present ourselves as some kind of perfect Christians. We're not. Well, we can't, we can't, we literally can't, bro.
David McIntyre:Right, we are not in good conscience. There's a lot of people who play the role.
Jon Dzyuba:Yeah.
David McIntyre:And you know that ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. Can I just say one thing real quick, philip Please, please do. This is why we've got to stop putting other christians up on pedestals come on come on because we're all an imperfect group of people. Yes, the difference between us and the rest of the world is that we've chosen to join the chosen there you go and I'm not talking about the TV show.
David McIntyre:I'm talking about God's chosen yeah, those whom he has chosen and he's made it clear how to be one of the chosen to believe in him, yeah. To admit and confess your sins, yeah, believe in him and you'll become and invite him to live and dwell. You and you become part of the chosen. There is none of us, not a single one of them. That's why you got to. This is why you got to be so careful sometimes with church people, because people will play perfect, yes, yes, and they'll do it right to your face.
Phillip Rich:Yeah.
David McIntyre:They'll give you advice from a place of perfection. They will, they will talk from a place of perfection, and what you're looking for is experience. You know, I talked to Philip about things because he's been through some stuff. I talked to Philip about things because he has experience with God's word, and so I need the word and I need somebody with experience to tell me how to hold on. And the reality is, you guys, if we're being honest, there are different points and places throughout our Christian walk where we all could have chosen to walk away from God and do things differently, or the simple fact that, oh my gosh, walking this Christian life out isn't easy. So I'm going to do things in a way that's easier. I mean, I'm just going to say is it easy to pray every day, right? Is it easy always to read the word every day?
Phillip Rich:Right.
David McIntyre:I mean technically. In one sense it's like yes, it is easy.
Phillip Rich:Physically speaking right.
David McIntyre:Yeah, physically thinking it is, but getting up out of the bed to go and spend time with god, that takes. That takes decisiveness, that takes decision and it means you're putting in effort towards something that is not of your flesh, that's something that's not designed. You know it benefits you, but it's not for your selfish sake.
Phillip Rich:Come on now.
David McIntyre:And the reason why we want to live such easy lives is because we want to live selfishly. We want to do what we think is convenient for us, when we want to, how we want to. We don't want anybody telling us how to live our lives. We just want to live our lives and do it our way. And dag nab it, that's it. And the Lord is asking us to put all of that away, because you've been in charge of your own life forever and it has not gone well right things are not in order and you're not okay and dude.
Phillip Rich:We gotta do better dude, you made me think of that old thing dr phil used to say it's like how's that been working out for you? You know, you know when you're, you know you're thinking you're the captain of your fate, the master of your soul or whatever that thing is, and you realize you've made a freaking mess of your life right, you know but?
Phillip Rich:but you still want to persist in your own way. You know doing things, you know. Oh well, yeah, god, I know what you said, but you know X, y, z. Next thing you know you're going against his way. And the Bible says oh man, oh gosh. I think it's in Job it says who has hardened himself against the Lord and prospered.
David McIntyre:Right, look. Our old pastor used to say get your butt out of the way.
Phillip Rich:Get your butt out of the way. That's right. Yeah, I know what God's word says. But get your butt out the way, because what you're going to end up doing is coming up with some janky excuse that is not going to pan out. You know, you're just going to continue to go down a wrong road, and the Bible says in Proverbs 19,. You know, a person will ruin their life by their own foolishness.
David McIntyre:Yeah, that's blame him. Yes, yes, I was about to say the same thing. I don't remember where it was, so thank you for that. That's such a true statement. Ruin, your own life and then have the nerve to blame God for it. That's what happens when you're the God of your own life.
Phillip Rich:See, there you go, yeah, so you know we, we, we know David and I, you know we, both of us have been walking with the Lord for a good while now. I think for both of us. I think you, david, probably been 30 years. I'm like at 29 years, somewhere around there. So you know, we've we've seen the ups and downs. We've done a lot of good things, a lot of stupid things. You know, probably an equal measure to some degree, I don't know. But but I can say that God's been faithful through the whole thing, and that's why I wanted to show this scripture in Proverbs 26. John, if you don't mind putting that on the screen for us. In Proverbs 26. And then I think it's verse 16. Proverbs 26, 16.
Phillip Rich:This is one of my favorite, absolute favorite scriptures. It's been my life experience. It says oh wait, a minute, I'm sorry. Proverbs 24, john. Proverbs 24, my bad Verse 16. It says a just man falls seven times and rises up again, but the wicked shall fall into mischief. And this, this kind of, goes back to what david was talking about earlier. We're not saying that if you know, walking this, this life with jesus, that you're never going to sin and never be tempted. We're saying that when you do sin and when you do screw up, that your responsibility at that point is to rise up again, go to God, ask for forgiveness, repent and keep moving. That's your job. I love what our former pastor used to say all the time. He said when you sin, don't run from God, run to God.
David McIntyre:Right.
Phillip Rich:Don't run from God. Run to God. He's the only one that can help you.
David McIntyre:You know, I heard a guy say it this way today. You know he said the difference is the guy who says or you know it's like a kid who says um, oh my gosh, so-and-so has happened, don't call dad or don't tell dad versus somebody who says oh my gosh, so-and-so has happened, Call dad. Yes, yes, and we've got to be called dads.
Phillip Rich:That's right Every time, every time, and that's the thing, and I love the fact that he uses that phrase or that word seven. If you study out that, what the significance of the number seven in the Bible? It's always referring to perfection or completeness.
Phillip Rich:And so what he's saying is the just man or the righteous man will keep falling and falling and getting back up and get back up until he's perfected, until he's complete, back up and get back up until he's perfected, until he's complete. You know, in his walk with God there's a constant striving towards that standard that God has set, not a striving that's futile or striving that's vain, because every time you do mess up and get up, you learn something. And there's an old saying I heard a while back. It said whenever you fall, pick something up. An old saying I heard a while back. It said whenever you fall, pick something up.
Phillip Rich:You know it's like you may screw up, but there's a lesson to be learned in it and a lot of times our mistakes can be some of our greatest teachers. You know, we can find out. Ok, I know what not to do next time. You know if I don't know anything else, I haven't learned anything else from that experience. I know what not to do. You know, and it's similar to what Thomas Edison said when he was, you know, working on the light bulb for who knows how many. You know weeks or months or whatever. He said I have not failed 10,000 times, I've simply found 10,000 ways that don't work. You know he was talking about the experiments that he was doing to finally develop the incandescent light bulb.
Phillip Rich:So I think we need to have that same mentality with the Lord, because his mercy does endure forever. You know he's never going to leave you or forsake you. He said so in his word. He's not going to leave you. But we have to do our part and come to him and repent and ask for forgiveness and say you know what, god, I screwed up. You know. Own up to it, man. Don't try to shift blame and deny and dodge and all this stuff like that. That's not going to work. God sees through all that mess anyway. Come to him with honesty.
Phillip Rich:In Psalm 51, it says he desires truth in the inward parts. Come to him with honesty. Say God, I did it and you know what it sucks. But here we are, you know. And then trust him to bring you out of that place. Teach you from the word, help you get back up and keep the train moving. Man, that's our responsibility as believers. If you do that, if you do that, you shall never fall. You won't ever fall away from him because you're constantly coming to him, and that's how things should be for sure.
David McIntyre:Yeah, that's good, we're going to put a bookmark right here. And then I think that one of the things I want to come back to when we get back together next time is I want us to talk about the calling, making your calling an election, sure?
Phillip Rich:Yes.
David McIntyre:I know that can be a confusing little bit at the beginning of that verse, but it's not actually that complicated once you dig in just a little bit and then we'll actually we should be able to, probably next week wrap up this section. Um, just, you know, don't allow yourselves to be tricked into believing that there's an easier way and that there's a better way. Right, the walk with the Lord is the way. That's the path that we're designed to be on, and it will bring us to the places that we're supposed to be in. And so, if you want to see good success, don't try to create a path and definitely don't try to necessarily follow somebody else's path. Their path is for them. Now you might have a lot of similarities and go through some things that are like. We all often go through very similar things in our lives. If we all would just talk about some of the things we've been through honestly we would.
David McIntyre:We would know that we've all come close to falling before. We would all know that we have come close to just laying it all down and saying I'm a useless, no good somebody and just go jump in the lake. You know what I mean if we were to tell each other the truth about our lives and our walk. But walk the walk that jesus has called and ordained you to walk, and and when you do that and it becomes more and more clear as you read and study the word you'll understand how to walk. You just do. The Bible encourages us to live every single day. Just to live, just keep moving every day.
David McIntyre:Live and do your thing and God meets you throughout that, that process, and you'll see an opportunity here, you'll see something there, you'll see this thing here, you'll see this thing there, and that, before you know it, you've lived a life that's full because you followed god, not because everything was perfect, yes, so let's pray for everybody, and and let's just pray for them to just to not quit on God.
Phillip Rich:That's right. That's right, man. Amen.
Phillip Rich:Father, thank you, thank you for this, for sharing these things, these concepts, by way of the Holy Spirit. Lord, we know everybody's in a different place in their journey with you. We know that you know exactly where they are and you are working personally with them and through them to will and to do of your good pleasure. You said in your word that you've begun a good work in us and you will continue to perform it and complete it until Jesus comes back. I pray for that, for those who are listening to this podcast, viewing this podcast, if they've had doubts, if they've had discouraging times, they've had places in life where they felt just completely down and out that you would encourage them with that word that you've begun a good work in them and you will continue to complete it.
Phillip Rich:Father, we give you praise for that. We will do what Hebrews 12 says that we'll look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, that we will lay aside every weight and every sin that easily entangles us and we'll run with patience the race that you've put before us. Thank you for helping us to do that, father. I pray that for people who are going through times of discouragement or feeling low or depression, or whatever the case may be, that you'll lift their spirits up, father, strengthen them with might in their inner man, strengthen them with a renewed sense of joy, a renewed awareness of who they are in you. Help them, lord, to do what David did to encourage themselves in the Lord. Help them to do that, father, and help them to realize that, as long as they keep moving and keep coming to you, that you'll sustain them. You'll help them because your grace is sufficient for them and we give you praise for that, father, and we agree on these things. Now, in Jesus' name, we pray Amen.
David McIntyre:Amen. Well, we're so glad that you guys have joined us for this episode. We intend to talk about certain things and then other things just kind of happen. So sorry, that's just how we talk. We want to encourage you to take advantage of the Bible study notes that we make available with each episode. The Bible study guide is available. You can just look down in the comments below or the description below and you'll see the link. You just sign up for the study notes and we send those out every Monday morning about 6 am so you can have those and you can use them as part of your study throughout the week.
David McIntyre:Don't forget to connect with us on social media as well. We're on TikTok, we're on Instagram, I think we're even out there on Facebook, and, of course, you can find us on Rumble and you can find us, of course, on YouTube. Connect with us, join our community. We'd love to be a part of growing with you. And, that being said, also, don't forget to use the comment section and all those places, or you can DM us on social media. If you have a prayer request, you need anything, something you want us to pray for for you, we're happy to do so. Just send those notes over to us, and we'll be right on it Until next time. I'm David, he's Phil. We're out. Peace, oh yeah. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
