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.
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The Pharisee, the Tax Collector, and the Danger of Self-Righteousness | Bible, Bros & Brew
We're in Week 5 of our study on the subject of pride, and this time around, David & Phil focus on the famous parable of the Pharisee & the tax collector in Luke 18:9-14. There's a very salient lesson to be learned in the dramatic contrast between how the Pharisee approached God--and what he focused on in his prayer--versus the humble, contrite, and earnest prayer of the tax collector. Also covered in this podcast is the vitally important topic of examining your motives, which involves the surprisingly difficult task of looking at not only WHAT you're doing, but WHY you're doing it. So get your coffee maker percolating (or your teapot boiling), grab your Bible & notebook, and join us as we delve into this eye-opening discussion!
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We've been journeying down the road talking about the concept of pride. And you know, it's kind of like the concept of a snake. If you've ever walked through the woods or been somewhere where unbeknownst to you, or maybe unbeknownst to someone else that you've seen, there's a snake on your path and it bites you. One of the things that you have to have to deal with that snake bite is the anti-venom. The antidote to the snake bite is critically important once you get bit. Tonight, we're going to look at Luke chapter 18, and we're going to talk about the snake bite and the venom, anti-venom that is, of humility that's going to make all of the difference. Coming up next on Bible Bros and Brew. And the one and only Ryan Holdeman. And then we've got our producer, the man with the plan on the Wheels of Steel. We've got John hiding in the background there. He's in an undisclosed location because it's better for all of us. So we're glad that you guys have joined us. Uh, we know that we're going to be talking about pride tonight, so we can't wait to have that conversation. But as you know, one of the things that we always do is we have to kick this thing off by finding out what's in the cup. So we're going to kick it over to John. John, let's start with you. What are you drinking tonight?
SPEAKER_00:Well, that's a great question. I figured I'd follow through with the whole fall thing that we're trying to do. Um, because I I realized that the last two weeks I kind of went crazy and had no ties to fall. So today we're doing something simple. It's a salted caramel coffee. That's that's that's all there really is to it. It's perfect. I absolutely love salted caramel. And it's I have like I have like an extra big mug so I can have extra more coffee. And it's amazing. Nice. How about you guys? How about you, Mr. Ryan?
SPEAKER_01:Um, I've got the um it's a new one. Oh right here in uh northern Nevada. I think well they're actually from Northern California. Um but it's a it's called Bear Roots Coffee Roasting Company in uh Lake Tahoe, uh South Lake Tahoe, uh California, which is just a stone's throw away from where I'm at. Nice uh Sierra Sunrise Blend. It's a medium roast, it's got notes of berries, chocolate, and sweet, and um it's real good.
SPEAKER_02:Come on now. Dude, do you feel the spirit of the great west when you read when you uh drink that? Indeed.
SPEAKER_04:I know I just had a prairie wind blow up my neck.
SPEAKER_01:I don't even know what to do with that information. Just keep drinking your coffee. In the higher elevations.
SPEAKER_04:Here we got our first glasses on so I can move into a dull system.
SPEAKER_01:Up in this region here.
SPEAKER_04:Ryan, I'm actually proud of you, first of all, for for your fresh new coffee. But that one also sounds actually interesting. What is it called again?
SPEAKER_01:Uh Sierra Sunrise.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, you know, if if I were friends with us, I'd probably send us a bag. Yes, you do whatever you feel led to do.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:Don't feel pressure. Oh my god. What are you drinking tonight?
SPEAKER_02:Well, every now and then Peregrine will drop uh these. I guess they're kind of like special slash limited batches of these coffees called geisha coffees.
SPEAKER_03:Uh-oh.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Not memoirs of a geisha, no, not to be confused with that, but um, but this is the uh El Salvador Rob Roberto Oroya Geisha. Wow, um, it's in a small bag because, like I said, it's a small batch, uh small batch, slow roasted, uh, notes of pineapple, vanilla cream, and brandy, um, which I know nothing of that taste whatsoever.
SPEAKER_04:But I will say I now know where the geisha is coming in.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my god. But it's it's a light to medium roast. This is really good coffee. That's really what I'm trying to get to with all my explanation. This is like excellent coffee, man, because it's got pineapple, vanilla cream, and brandy notes. And you would you would not believe somehow they nail all three of those in this cup. And um, cheers once again to Peregrine. You guys are the best.
SPEAKER_04:So, yes, they're very good. We love Peregrine here, yes, sir. Can you spell geisha as it's written on the back for us?
SPEAKER_02:G-A-Y-S-H-U-H. Just kidding. That's okay.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, I was gonna say, I think you may be pronouncing that wrong.
SPEAKER_02:Is G-E-S-H-A? Now I've been told that's what it's pronounced as. Uh if I'm wrong about that, then I apologize to everyone, including the LGBT community.
SPEAKER_04:So this episode is off the wheels already. Uh tonight, I would like to bring also a fresh new coffee to the table, not knowing that Ryan and Philip would be so strong in their representation. But tonight I've gone back to a favorite of mine, Red Barn, uh, who are in New England, and this is their caramel vanilla.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_04:If I can get that down. Man, let me tell you, just like their autumn delight was a delight, this uh caramel vanilla is really nice. It's a smooth coffee, it's got a limited aftertaste, and you really get that, you really get that kind of fall fear kind of taste in your mouth. So it's a really good one that we highly recommend for you. You can of course go to Peregrine, Red Barn, whatever that place Ryan was talking about.
SPEAKER_02:I think it's called bare roots.
SPEAKER_04:If I'm not bear bare roots, bare roots, sorry about that. Uh and uh, of course, Aldi, and you can find any one of these flavors and make them your own. Um pretty, you know, we guys we gotta we gotta start doing something where we we make access to these coffees available through links or something, so that people can can grab a cup of coffee because you'd be thrilled to have this caramel vanilla with me right now. Whatever you do, grab something to drink with you, a cup of coffee, cup of tea. When we do brew here, we're not talking about beer and spirits, we're actually talking about coffee and hot teas and that kind of thing. You can go with a cold and water brew as well, and that kind of thing. Wow. Um, we don't count water, water's not a brew. You can bring, see, my water is in this cup, and we never talk about it on it.
SPEAKER_02:In all fairness, water is used in the brewing process, though.
SPEAKER_04:I will say that, but true, true.
SPEAKER_00:Water is transformed and made into a new creation through the brewing process, right?
SPEAKER_04:And minus and minus 10 house points from each of your houses.
SPEAKER_00:Actually, this is an undisclosed house.
SPEAKER_04:Sorry, John. Especially Hufflepuff, you guys have to stop it.
SPEAKER_00:I'm not even a Hufflepuff.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know what that means, but it sounds funny.
SPEAKER_04:It sounds funny.
SPEAKER_02:It's like a Dr. Seuss character or something.
SPEAKER_04:We'll leave it alone.
SPEAKER_00:Ryan is already puff.
SPEAKER_04:All right, we're gonna now that we've talked about what's in the cup, we're gonna jump into a little bit about what's in the word. You know, we've been, as I've said, talking about this concept of pride. Um, and you know, pride is it's a stinky little bugger. I you know, I hate to say it that way, but you know, as we've dug into this a little more and a little more and a little more, we we begin to we begin to see how slippery pride can be, and how easily it can slip into your life, and how it could take some of the simplest things, the good things God's done for you, the good things that He's allowed to happen in your life, the good things that are going on around you, and turn them into prideful moments where you forget that it was God who did all of that, and you think it's by your power and by your might that you've gotten all of these good things. And so when we look at um, we talked, we talked a little bit about pride, and one of the definitions is that pride is the sinful elevation of self that leads us to place our confidence in our own strength, in our own wisdom or our own status rather than in God. Let me say that again. Pride is the sinful elevation of self that leads us to place our confidence in our own strength, wisdom, or status rather than in God. One of the other things that we kind of laid the roots for in our early kind of our beginning, our first episode talking about this was that there are two kinds of pride out there. There's good pride and there's bad pride. There is this pride that you can have in good things, the good things of God. You can you can have pride in your community of believers, you can have pride in the things that God has done when you exalt what God has done and said, look at God's creation, look at the sun and the moon, look at the sky, look at the beautiful people that God's made, to take pride in the good things God's done, but not to try to declare your ownership over those things is the difference. And so as we look along, I want to read something for you at church a couple weeks back. Um I heard a great quote, and it said this it says that pride says, I don't want to worship God, I want to be God. And that was Todd Hampton who said that. You know, we could go down and we've even mentioned it here, you know, when you look at the story of Lucifer, and the whole story behind Lucifer is he wasn't satisfied being the anointed cherub. He wasn't satisfied being that minister of music where God literally the instruments were in him, he was beautiful, and he was God's creation, and instead of taking his place in God's creation, he said, I will exalt, you know, my name above his name. And when he did that, God said, No, you won't. And he convinced a third of the angels on his way to go with them, and God kicked them all out of heaven. And what we now call, and you know, you guys can correct me if you think about it differently, but what we now call demon or demons, things that we consider that some of them are really fallen angels uh that were once in heaven and and now have joined the devil's forces because they allowed themselves to be deceived and they fell with it. And so it was a moment of pride that separated God from Lucifer, or really that separated Lucifer from God, and he has been our enemy ever since then and has sought to instill so many anti-Christ things in our lives. And you know, I heard somebody say the other day, Phil, you know, when you are in the world, it's absolutely no big deal to function by pride. It's no big deal to function uh in the and the works of the flesh, you know, because that's what you're supposed to do.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_04:But when you transition from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear son, something should change about you. And now we no longer work according to those same rules and laws, we switch systems, a better system with better outcomes and a change in life. And so tonight, as we get started, we've been looking at stories. We looked at the story of Nebuchadnezzar and how he went from being God's anointed to declaring that all God had done had uh was his work and the benefit and the work of his hand and his might and his wisdom and his strength, and how God bought Nebuchadnezzar to the point where he was like an animal crawling on the ground uh out of his mind until he came to himself and shifted and began to praise God for what he did, and he retook his place, and God blessed him even beyond where he was before. Then we looked at the prodigal son, and when we looked at the prodigal son, we saw a very similar kind of story in one sense where we see this son who gets full of himself and says to his father, I want my part of the inheritance so I can go live like I want to live. And his father didn't fight with him, he gave him the inheritance, and of course, the sun went out just like any teenager would. Um that's personal, so let me just leave that alone.
SPEAKER_02:I felt that, David.
SPEAKER_04:I felt that right, he goes out and blows it, absolutely blows it, and then he tries to get work around town and finds himself working for a farmer feeding the pig slop in the pig pen. I guess he finally comes to himself and he says, You know what? Even the people who feed the pig slop in my father's house are in better condition than this. So I'll go back to my father's house, I'll repent, and hopefully he'll accept me back. And of course, many of you who know that story know that when he returned, I think that was um uh Luke what was that, Luke 15?
SPEAKER_02:Uh yeah, Luke 15.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, Luke 15, the prodigal son. He returns to the father, and the father's looking for him, he's anxiously awaiting the return of his son, and he embraces him, takes him in. He doesn't just put him in the pigpin. No, he puts his robe back on him, he brings out the fatted calf, he celebrates him, and the son's latter position, I think, is probably better than his first, and part of it was because the son came to himself, yeah. And then last time we were together, we looked at the concept of what Jesus had to say about the Pharisees, and he said, You look at these Pharisees and you do what they tell you to do out of obedience to the word, but do not live like they live. And it was such he broke it down, he told you why, and he ended with the concept of he who exalts himself will be abased, bot down, bought low. But he who abases himself first or who humbles himself, he will be exalted by the Heavenly Father. Well, this week we want to walk a little step further and we want to look at one more story, and we want to look at the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector, and I think you'll find it fascinating. Philip, before we start the stories, any thoughts about where we've been so far and anything stand out to you?
SPEAKER_02:Um, just the the theme that kind of runs through all the different things we looked at, like the Nebuchadnezzar story, like Prodigal Son, um, is that sometimes, unfortunately, and we talked about this already, but sometimes unfortunately, you don't really recognize the pride that you're in until you hit a wall or you hit rock bottom, as some people call it, or just some kind of situation that kind of brings you to yourself and brings you to your knees most of the time. And I think about that scripture in Proverbs, I forgot which chapter and verse, but I know it says, a man's pride will bring him low, but honor will uphold the humble in spirit. And to me, there's such a contrast there that the Bible's trying to show us. It's like, okay, you've got it, you've got a choice. Choose pride. Oh, there we go. Appreciate that, Ryan. Was that you, Ryan? I appreciate it, man. Um, in the New International, actually, I'll I'll do uh uh the King James a man's pride shall bring him low, but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit. One thing to keep in mind, too, just uh especially with the book of Proverbs, there's so many scriptures that contrast pride versus humility. So many scriptures that talk about one versus the other. And even most of the the uh verses in the New Testament that deal with pride are quotes from Proverbs about pride. Like when um when James said God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble, he was quoting Proverbs when he said that. Um but long story short, the point I wanted to make was that um God shows us, already tells us, here's the end result for pride. If you want to be prideful, here's where you're gonna end up. And also if you want if you choose humility and to be humble, here's where you're gonna end up. You end up with honor, you end up being exalted, you end up uh being set on high by God in due time. Um, so and then he says it's up to you. You know, you make that choice. And I know I think all of us know what we would like to choose, but then we battle with this flesh and we battle with our own selfishness, we battle with our own our own pride, and we still sometimes go the wrong way because it's just such a temptation to do so, it's what we're used to, or you know, uh maybe old thought habits that kind of lead us down that same trail. Those things are still with us that we're working through. So um, this thing about pride versus operating in humility, I think, David, you know, I think you would agree, it will be a process, it will be uh done over time, developed over time. It's not like you you're gonna wake up one day. I decide to never be in pride again. And from that point, you actually never deal with it. I don't think that happens to anybody. You know, I think we have our daily battles and we we over the over the long haul, the trend is up, the trend is in the right direction, but it does take time, and so we do have to be patient with ourselves and also you know receive God's wisdom and guidance for every step of the way. Um, I know you probably weren't asking for that much, but those are the thoughts I had about what we covered so far.
SPEAKER_04:No, that was good, Philip. And you know, the other thing I think, and we need to talk about this maybe down the road, is that I think sometimes the reason why we don't work harder to attain certain elements of the scripture, the fruit of the spirit, you know, the virtues that we talked about from uh Second Peter a couple of weeks back, and even this picking up this virtue, uh putting down uh pride and picking up this virtue of uh humility is because I don't think we really appreciate the reward. Wow, and I know that we as humans are reward-driven. But remember, you know, Hebrews 11 says God reward he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Yes, and so I don't always know what God's rewards are, but the fact that God says that he's a rewarder, I want whatever he's got. Yeah, I want whatever he's got. So maybe we talk a little bit about down the road here about the rewards of laying down pride and putting on humility because there's there's a lot in there, some of the rewards are just being out of the pressure of it all. Uh, because there's a lot of pressure when you're responsible for everything and not God, that's pressure, folks. And um, I don't wanna, I don't, yeah, nope, nope. You can have it, you can have it. All right, let's let's look at Luke chapter 18. Is it 18 we're looking at tonight? Um, we want to look at the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Uh Philip, you want to start on this?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, sir. Um, first thing of just maybe think about it. If for those who have the King James Bible, you'll see that word publican there instead of tax collector. Same difference, it's just what the old English word for tax collector was is publican. So it doesn't mean Republican uh or Democrat. Just wanted to point that out. But um in verse 9 of uh Luke 18, um it says, and he's talking about Jesus, he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Um I have to pause real quick right here.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, the problem's already there.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, because these are two elements of pride in one verse. First one is they trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and then the second element, they despised others. I feel like those are actually almost inseparable, like it's two sides of the same coin in a sense, because anytime that you begin to operate in self-righteousness, it's almost like comparison comes with it. You know, it's it's a seems to be a byproduct of trusting in yourself and in your own self-righteousness, you automatically start judging other people as well. And that's not good, but it does happen. And I just think there's something about it that breeds that kind of thought behavior, like, you know, if you're so dependent on self for your righteousness, you know, I'm I'm I'm right before God because I do everything right, I tithe every penny that comes in, I attend church every time the doors are open and all these types of things. You could check off your spiritual checklist. Um, when you have that as the, I don't know what to call it, like the the ammunition or whatever for or no, it's it's the evidence to build your case for why you're righteous, then after a while, it's almost it's almost inevitable that you will also begin to look down on those who you think aren't doing as much as you're doing or aren't as serious about God as you are, and that type of thing. You know, and and I think about that that verse um or that passage where Elijah was in the cave and he was crying to God and saying, God, you know, it's just me out here, nobody's trying to serve you anymore. I'm you know, like that. And then God's like, Yeah, bro, I've got about 7,000 people who have not bowed their knee to Baal. You know, he he had to set Elijah straight, like, you're not the only circus in town, bro. Okay, just just get that in your head.
SPEAKER_04:So, um Philip, can I share this quote with you? I picked up another one from a guy, his name is Todd Hampton. He said, A battle uh it kind of goes along with what you're saying. It says, a battle with pride can be expected when we have a wrong view of God, a wrong view of ourselves, or a wrong view of others. Wow. Let me read that one more time. A battle with pride can be expected when we have a wrong view of God, a wrong view of ourselves, or a wrong view of others. And as you see, like you just said, Philip, you know, right here in these the we're like just eight words in. And we already got two of these things working.
SPEAKER_02:It's true, it's true. And again, I like how it says uh each each of those points you mentioned is a wrong view, right? Because that deals with your perception, that deals with your the lens you're looking at life through. And if that lens is warped with pride, then you're gonna be in a bad place, and it takes a while to learn how to see things the way God sees them, you know, according to what his word says, um, and learn how to see people the way God sees them. And and it's not easy to do because we're all of us, it's it's so much more um tempting, I guess, to rely on our our own self-righteousness, to rely on our good behavior, the fact that we do XYZ good things or the fact that we abstain from XYZ wrong things. You know, either way that goes, it's still pride. It's still you thinking that this show rises and falls on you instead of on the sacrifice that Jesus made 2,000 years ago, you know, and and that's uh eventually if you if you live in and and try to walk this word out long enough, you'll run into a wall with that stuff. And God will start to show you who you really are, and it's kind of embarrassing at first, you know, but um, but you know, um there's also some who who are not even interested in in you know that much soul searching, to be honest. You know, it's more it's just they're good with thinking that they're you know they're okay with God because of all the good things they do and the bad things they abstain from, versus depending on the actual sacrifice that Jesus uh did for all of us. So um that's a whole other topic, I guess, in in in in that sense, but because that's dealing more, you know.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, in one sense, but at the same sense, is that person is going to have to come before this living God and give an answer for that. God's going to deal with you on that stuff, and you have to think about it. If God loves us, he's not going to leave us out there just hanging with these character flaws.
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
SPEAKER_04:He's going to want to deal with us and have us to correct those things because he knows what they do to your life if left to fly willy-nilly uh with you know unhindered, you know, and just do whatever they want to do in your life. They'll wreak havoc in your life. So if you are a true believer, know that God eventually is going to bring these things to confront you so that you can deal with them.
SPEAKER_02:That's right. That's good, David. So moving into the the I think the next verse in Luke 18, which is probably verse 9, somewhere around there. Verse 10. So here comes the beginning of the parable in verse 10. Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are. Extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. He's like pointing to the dude over there.
SPEAKER_04:Can we paint a picture though? That you have to realize these two men, even though there's probably some distance between them, uh-huh, they're they're still close enough that one can look down on the other.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_04:And he's like, I'm not like this, I'm not like that. I'm not even like that dude sitting right there. You know, it's like that is hilarious.
SPEAKER_02:It's actually kind of hilarious. And I do think Jesus had a sense of humor with a lot of the stuff he said and shared, man. I really, really do. So um, I wouldn't put it past him that this was uh meant to be a little bit of a wise crack right here. Um, but it says, you know, I'm I'm thank God that I thank you that I'm not like these other people, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican over here. I fast twice in the week. So he starts listing all his cool uh spiritual checklist items. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, now here comes the contrast, and the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, meaning he was beaten his chest, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And look what Jesus said, verse 14. I tell you, this man, referring to the publican, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, talking about the the Pharisee. For everyone that exalts himself shall be abased, and he that humbles himself shall be exalted. Now, what's interesting to me, David, and it just kind of hit me uh looking at that last part. It's obvious Jesus has drawn the comparison between the Pharisees' approach and the publican's approach. And in Jesus' comparison, exalting yourself evidently means to focus on yourself and what you do and don't do and how you compare to others. While humbling yourself seems to focus on who God is and what he's done. And I think there's a big lesson in that, dude. Like humbling yourself means you're starting to take the focus off of yourself and on to God versus exalting yourself, which means it's all about you. You know, there's a lot of self-centeredness when when you talk about exalting self. So um that's just something, just a uh I guess we can riff on that for a little bit here.
SPEAKER_04:No, Philip, I think that's good, and I think it's right. I just think that's uh, you know, let's just again, if you keep it 100, all the things that that Pharisee listed off, probably more than I did last week. Right, right, right. I didn't I didn't fast. You know, so I didn't do some of those things, you know, and um I have some reasons why, but nonetheless, it's not that his list of things he's done isn't impressive.
SPEAKER_02:Right. So now we get I'm sorry, David. Go ahead. No, no, no, go ahead, Philip. I was just saying, so now we get into the real crux of the whole thing, which is why he was doing that. Right, there's there's where pride lives. It's not so much what you're doing, because again, and somebody said this too, I forgot who it was, but somebody said when it came to doctrine, Jesus was very much in line with the Pharisees, you know. If you think about it, because he he believed in sticking to the word just like they did, but their reasons were the problem. And here we are with this whole thing. It's like um, it's not, you know, the list of things that the Pharisee did were impressive, they're great spiritual works, if you want to call it that, but why did he do them? You know, and that's when if you refer back to the video we did a couple weeks ago, um, when Jesus was rebuking the Pharisees, he said they they do it because they want to be seen of men, right? Their whole purpose and whole point is to appear to be important to men, and and that's already off base because again, that's exalting self instead of focusing on on God, dude.
SPEAKER_04:And and what else is wild about that? Two things are wild, but the thing that's wild about that, and you look at Matthew chapter six, and it tells you they have their reward, they've been seen. Yes, they've been seen. That's just think all you want is for people to see you and think you're somebody or something, and Jesus is like, fine, you have your reward. People see you and they think you're something, but you've completely missed God, you've completely missed everything that God wants to give for to you, you've completely missed everything that God wants to do in your life, you've completely missed the opportunities to grow and mature in Him all because you want to be seen. You know, I was thinking, Philip, in my you know, as an actor, one of the questions that actors often ask, and and you of course you don't see it, you you hopefully see the results of it in the movie, but the actor will ask, What's my motivation? Okay, you know, so in other words, when I'm asking a director uh or the writer what the motive of this character is, I expect to hear something like, you know, not the well, because of what they said in the script, but because of the heartbeat and the mindset behind the character matters.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And when that informs how you act, how you play the role, then it can influence the differences in the character and how they come out. If a director tells me that, well, the motivation is he's he's stubborn and he just doesn't want to cooperate. Well, you're gonna see this curmudgeon type of character that comes off that just as you know doesn't want to cooperate come out. But if you hear the reality is that he's still hurt and wounded because he lost his life, his wife five years ago and he's never quite gotten over it. And so the thought of being around people and opening up his heart again to them is too painful for him to bear. Now, when I play that same kind of curmudgeny character, it comes across with a different with a different air to it, a different motivation behind it. And when we talk about this, when we talk about the motivation of these people, and just now even think about it, God's giving you some direction to do, and you go to God and say, What's my motivation? God tells you that his motivation is to bless people. God's motivation is to do good, God's motivation is to heal all who are oppressed and harassed of the devil. God's motivation is to do good. But now, what is if the enemy was the director of your play? What might the enemy direct and say is the motivation? The motivation is to get all that you can and keep it and keep it secret. You know, your motivation may be your motivation is to be secretive and sly and slick. You want to secretly take away everything you can from this person. But you see, my point is that the enemy has a motivation, and God has a motivation. And if we're not careful, we as actors in God's play can find ourselves getting direction from the wrong director and allow our motivation to be tainted.
SPEAKER_03:Come on.
SPEAKER_04:And now we start playing the role in a way we were never intended to, and ultimately playing the role that way, the real director comes down ultimately and says, Cut, this was never how I intended for this role to be played. That's right, yeah, and he will either allow you to rededicate yourself to the role and give you proper new instruction, or you can deny and say, I think my way is the better way, and he'll let you play the role that way, but know that it's not going to win you any awards, it's not going to get you any good results, and in the end, you're going to be sadly disappointed because once again, the role was never intended to be played that way. Wow. Wow. And so you have to this concept of motivation and what's driving you, what's behind you? Just think about it. What was behind Nebuchadnezzar that he stopped giving God the glory and started taking it himself? Right. What was he thinking? What was the prodigal son thinking when he sat there? And and quite frankly, we all don't know. We're gonna have to ask when we see these people, you know, and this might not be the topic they want to talk about either, by the way, when you see them in heaven. Uh you know, but what what were you thinking when you told your father, just give you your half of of the inheritance and let me just move on and do my own thing. What were you thinking? What was motivating you? Because what we the word that we would ascribe to it is pride. But if you would look in the deeper, you would even see what was motivating the pride. Wow. I mean, it's just this is a this is very interesting, and now you have also Philip, this man now who he's supposed to look. Here's the other contrast there exists here. The Pharisee is supposed to be loved by all because he's a religious leader, but the tax collector is supposed to be hated by everybody, yeah, because he's a tax collector. Right. And look at how opposite to what the expectation is that you see the two of these people approaching God. Wow. And the the you the humility to say, Lord, I'm not even look, not even being willing to lift up your eyes to the Lord because you know. You know, and it's better to stay low and look what happens when he stays low. He didn't exalt himself, he never once said anything to exalt himself. That's right, but God exalted him, yeah. And God said, When you look at these two men, here's the high man, the low man, and here's the low man, the high man. It's just interesting, Philip. It's interesting.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and so I think as as you progress in your life of faith, after a while, this is true for everybody, um, at least in my experience, after a while, you start realizing that God is far more interested in why you're doing something versus what you're doing. Over and over again, I've seen it in my own life. I know every you know, David, you and I have had our talks about this very thing. I talked with my wife about it, um, even with my daughters about it. It's like the the the emphasis should always be check your why, check your motive before you do anything, because you know, you may find that it's something coming from pride instead of coming from the right place or coming from humility. And, you know, it takes a I mean, sometimes it takes some digging to really get honest about it to where you can can admit, you know, I didn't do that for the right reasons. You know, I was kind of, you know, a little bit off base, or I thought it might get me this, or I thought it might open the door for this, or I thought I might look this way if I do this and that kind of thing. And takes a good long while for you to uh or for God, not you, for God to pare down those different elements of your character that don't serve any good purpose. You know, it's almost like um uh one of my most one of my favorite quotes by one of my favorite artists, uh Michelangelo. He said, he was a sculptor, everybody knows he was like the most insanely talented sculptor, probably ever, or whatever. But he said, What I what I want is already in that block of marble. I just have to carve away all the stuff that doesn't matter till I can get to it. You know, and and that's kind of what God has to do with us, you know, there's a lot of stuff he has to chip away and carve away till you know we we end up conformed into the image of his son, and that does take a while, you know, it's it's nothing that's gonna happen overnight.
SPEAKER_04:That's good, Philip. That's really good.
SPEAKER_02:Right, it's good.
SPEAKER_04:I I I think it's okay for us to put a bookmark right here because I do I do think if there's nothing this episode has gotten this, Ryan has something he wants to add. Um if there's nothing this episode has called us to do, it's to um, you know, I I think it's a backup. I could be wrong. But you know, he says, Ryan, can you I think I shared his verse with you a couple weeks ago. Um it's um he says, you know, if you have if you're running around with with a pockets full of money with holes in it, you know, and you got all these things going wrong. He says, consider your ways.
SPEAKER_02:Consider your ways. Wow.
SPEAKER_04:You know, and um I it's either Habakkuk or Haggai. Um yeah, you you you you have planted much but harvested little. You um can you make that a little bigger, Brian? I'm sorry. There we go. Thank you. You planted much but harvested little. You eat but have n but never have enough. You drink but never have your fill. You put on clothes but are not warm. You earn wages only to put them in a purse with holes. Can you go to the next verse? Verse seven. Yeah, there's just an arrow there. It says, This is what the Lord Almighty says. The NIV says, give thought, give careful thought to your ways. But if you scroll down, uh the ESV says it, uh the Berean Study Bible says it, but the King James says, consider your ways. You know, and I know that's not quite the same, but it's this concept of you know, consider what is motivating you, what's driving you to do what you're doing. Um, this episode is calling us to self-examination, yeah. Because if you're doing it, doesn't matter what your job is, it doesn't matter what your role at church is, it doesn't matter about your position in your family or any of that stuff. If you are pretending to be pious before your family so that they believe that you're a highly religious person, you may already have gotten your reward. They think that you're a highly religious person, but the reality is, are you? And are you only comes through humility? You never have to put on when you're operating in humility. Yeah, God will always reveal who you are to all the people around you when you're functioning in humility, and it doesn't matter what gift or what thing you may be functioning in, we've got to learn to give way to humility and not care about what people think, how they may see us, what they may feel about the way that we're doing something. Because if we're walking in humility, we're trying our best to do it the way the Lord has instructed us to do. And so I just want to encourage you to consider your ways to ponder why you're doing what you're doing, and even take it a step further. Bring it to the Lord, ponder with the Lord why you're doing what you're doing, and it'll be amazing how that still small voice will whisper in your ear, or sometimes it will yell because God's tired of it, and say, Hey! That's the thing right there. That's it, that's it. And then the next question is to say, Lord, help me to shed this from my life. I want to be like you, Lord. Help me to leave this alone and help me to deploy humility, which we'll talk about next week, which means to lean into God with everything you have. It's a wonderful, wonderful thing to be humble. Your final thoughts, Philip?
SPEAKER_02:Oh man, just something you stood you said uh stuck out to me and it made me think of this quote. Um, I think it's Aristotle, maybe. He said, the unexamined life is not worth living. And I I love that quote. I think it's true. It's it's you know, take time to do what the Bible says, Hagai, consider your ways. And sometimes that's a painful process, you know. Um, it's not always fun. But if you're finding yourself stuck, which I have many times before, you know, then you have to take some time and really start looking at, you know, God, what am I doing that I don't need to be doing? And also what am I not doing that I should be doing? You know, help me to learn how to cooperate with you, cooperate with your spirit so that we can all be running in the same direction. You know, you don't want to be like the three-legged sack race where you're going over here and the other person's going over there and y'all both end up stumbling and falling, right?
SPEAKER_04:Right.
SPEAKER_02:Um, you want to move in sync with God, and that takes time and it takes humility and patience. And um, but the reward and the results are awesome. So um that's it for me, man.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, let's pray for you guys real quick. Father, we love you, and we just thank you for this opportunity to just take in what we've heard and take it in so that we can examine ourselves, Lord God.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_04:Help us to honestly and genuinely open our hearts to you and say, Lord, examine me. See if there be any wicked way in me. Help us to yield ourselves, our lives, our choices, and decisions to you, Lord God, and then point us in the right direction so that we can always be pleasing unto you, Lord God. Yes, that's our heart's desire, that's our prayer tonight. We love you and praise you. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, we're so glad you guys have joined us tonight. Uh we're um we're super excited, we're branching out a little bit more. TikTok will be back next week, every Wednesday at 7.15 or 7.15-ish. Uh, so join us back here then. And hey, tell a friend about us and tell them to come and join you for the live recording as well. Or remember, you can pick up the live episode on Mondays starting at 6 a.m. on YouTube or your favorite streaming podcast provider. Uh, we are so thrilled that you've joined us. Don't forget you can connect with us on social media, TikTok, Instagram. Uh, we're even out there in Facebook land, uh, and of course on YouTube and Rumble. Uh, until next time, I'm David. He's Philip. Ryan's out there somewhere, and I think John has dipped himself into his coffee. It's so good. Until next time, we'll see you later. Peace.
