Transcription

Connor
You’re listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun and practical ways.

Chris
You know, Jeff, during that roll in, I almost wonder if it should say to two friends, talk about the Bible and fun and exciting ways. Exciting. I mean, it definitely is practical. Sure. But, you know, maybe we should switch it up every now and then.

Jeff
Fun and exciting.

Chris
Yeah, I think it is. Yeah.

Jeff
Da da da da da da da da da da da.

Chris
Well, no, I mean, I’m talking about, you know, okay. The scripture coming alive. Well, today we’re Sunday.

Jeff
Sunday.

Chris
Sunday. That’s right, that’s right, that’s right. Did I ever tell you. Did I ever tell you there was a. When I lived in Atlanta, Georgia, there was a church that was out in the middle of Conyers, Georgia. It was the middle of nowhere. And and it was way bigger than it should be based on the population. So everybody drove to it and it was, you remember Dukes of Hazzard.

Jeff
That’s just a good old boy. Yeah.

Chris
That’s where it was shot. Dukes. It was shot in Conyers anyway. But but they sort of knew that they were in the middle of nowhere. And so they would have a slogan and the slogan on the radio every time they would have a car horn, beep, beep. And it was like the slogan, and here’s what they would say. They’d say, and remember, a church alive beep beep is worth the drive. Yeah. And they would, they would do it. And I’m telling you, it is just stuck. It is so cheesy. But it stuck out in my mind. Right.

Jeff
And you would never believe I had a lady this past Sunday tell me that in the lobby.

Chris
Church alive is worth the drive.

Jeff
Yes.

Chris
Wow. Because she drove.

Jeff
Yeah, well, her and her husband are from originally from Oklahoma. And then they were talking about how great heritage is and they have to drive to come. But she said, you know what? My husband always says a church alive is worth the drive.

Chris
Okay, so isn’t that funny? It’s been around a while, apparently.

Jeff
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chris
That’s funny. All right, well, we’re going to do a segment of who’s most likely and we have not read these. We’ve not read.

Jeff
These. Yeah I like these okay.

Chris
Here we go. And so for our viewers who are actually watching, we have paddles that we’re going to hold up.

Jeff
Right. We have one that has handsome picture and another picture.

Chris
Oh thanks.

Jeff
Jeff. Yeah.

Chris
Well, it’s very nice of you to talk about me.

Jeff
The blue shirt facing forward, handsome.

Chris
Thanks so much, Jeff. Okay, here we go. So who’s most likely number one to fake their birthday at a restaurant for free cake? Okay. All right, here we go.

Jeff
I’m going to go.

Chris
I’m going to go.

Jeff
Have you. Have you faked it?

Chris
You faked it. So we both held up ourselves.

Jeff
I held up my self and you held up yours. Have you faked the cake?

Chris
I have done this so many times I can’t even count. I need, I need, I need more appendages to. To count how many times I’ve done this.

Jeff
Are you celebrating anything today? Yeah. Celebrating my birthday.

Chris
Yeah, yeah! Woohoo! Yeah! That’s so funny.

Jeff
So they don’t ask, is today your birthday? Right? Right. So you can celebrate your birthday 365 days a year, right? Yeah. So I’ve done it more often for other people than I’ve done it for myself.

Chris
Sort of like a prank on them or whatever.

Jeff
Get get the whole crew to come out of the kitchen and.

Chris
Sing, put a sombrero, put a sombrero on them and sing or something. Yeah, that’s really funny. All right, let’s go number two. Who’s most likely here we go to answer the phone. If you call in the middle of the night. Oh, I know who that is. It’s Chris. That’s definitely me. Yeah, yeah.

Jeff
I sleep with earplugs and I turn my ringer off, so I’m not answering. Even if you call, my phone is not going to.

Chris
Ring, and my phone is actually right next to my bed, I’d never turn it on silent. And if it rings, I’m waking up. Yeah.

Jeff
So if you have a problem at night, call Chris.

Chris
Oh, I see what you did there. I see what you see.

Jeff
I’m not answering.

Chris
That’s funny. All right, who’s who’s this one? Who’s most likely to go to Disneyland on every vacation? Chris. Geez, that’s a tough one. Desiree.

Jeff
So what’s your next vacation?

Chris
Disney.

Chris
Yeah, yeah.

Chris
So we’re pulling a Christmas with the Kranks.

Jeff
It’s the most magical place in the world.

Chris
It is. But we’re pulling a Christmas with the Kranks. Although we’re only doing Disney one day and we’re doing universal one day, but we’re going to be gone for a week. Yeah. So we’re spending the rest of the time just with Sarah and Brandon in Florida.

Jeff
Oh, cool. Yeah.

Chris
And mainly because. It’s so unbelievably expensive. Oh, yeah? Yeah. You know, we figured out we had a we had a zoom call last night, and we figured out that universal is more expensive than Disney. Did you know that? Really? Are you ready for this? So Disney is like 190 bucks to get in. So universal is like 280. And then a Disney Lightning pass is only 30 bucks for a person, which only gets you on certain rides. But did you know that an express Pass at universal is $350 per person on top of the ticket price?

Jeff
Oh wow.

Chris
So so in other words, if I were to just pay for the five of us to get into universal and then to have a pass, I’d be paying $2,600. Wow. And I said, I said, number one, we’re going to be waiting for hours in lines. And number two, I guess we’re going to universal one day. Wow. Because I can’t I can’t afford it, man. Expensive. Yeah, yeah. All right. You ready? I am number four. Who’s most likely to treat your house like their house? What? Chris? What? Oh, to treat your house like their house. Yeah.

Jeff
Do you do you ever just walk into somebody’s house? Yes. Yeah. That’s that’s what I’m saying.

Chris
That’s that’s what it is.

Jeff
That’s you.

Chris
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. In other words, you’re just going to go in the fridge.

Jeff
You’re just at home at everybody’s house. Yes.

Chris
That is.

Jeff
Definitely me.

Chris
That’s you, that’s me.

Jeff
All right. What’s what’s to eat. And then number four eating leftovers. Right?

Chris
Right. Yeah, sure. And then number five who is most likely to forget to text back? That’s me.

Jeff
That’s definitely. That’s me.

Chris
Yep. Yeah. And and so so talk about why why why. Because you don’t use the phone as a leash. Is that your big theory.

Jeff
So yeah. What happens is I wind up getting like groups of texts and they’re usually between meetings because I don’t look at my phone during a meeting, hardly ever.

Chris
Which is a great practice.

Jeff
Um, I don’t know. I’m just resentful of. I. So you and I were at that age where we bridge between. Texting and cell phones in our pockets and back in the old days when there wasn’t that right, right. And so. I just. I feel so strongly that social media and texting and carrying a phone in your pocket is a leash that everybody else has.

Chris
Well, but but wait a minute. Now we know that they were.

Jeff
They yanked that.

Chris
Leash on you. We know that. But that is not what we’re talking about.

Jeff
I know well, so.

Chris
We’re talking about that, like forgetting to.

Jeff
Text somebody. So I leave my ringer off. Usually it’s not on. A lot of times I turn off notifications if I’m in meetings and things, and so I might be on my phone in a meeting, but most of the time it’s I’m typing notes or I’m looking up something based on what we’re talking about, but I’m not normally answering texts or emails, those kind of things. So then what happens is in between meetings they go, oh, I got to look. Now I’ve got seven texts right? And I and I start answering one. And then the next meeting starts and I go, I’ll answer those other ones later. But by the time the next meeting is over, I’ve got seven more. Right. And so that’s what happens is they just get they get stacked up, and then I forget to answer 1 or 2 every once in a while. So I tell everybody all the time, hey, if you don’t get the answer you want from me the first time, send me another one or 2 or 3, right? And I’ll get to it. It’s not offensive to me at all, but that’s it is. I want to be on my own time and doing what I think is most important. And the first time that dawned on me, I was in a meeting with my pastor, the pastor I was working for, and my phone buzzed and I looked at it and he just paused and waited. And I put my because he old he was an older guy, you know, so he wasn’t carrying a smartphone around in his pocket. Then he must say, the phone buzzes and I look and I laughed, and then I put my phone down and then the phone buzzed again. Jeff
I looked and laughed and I went like this. And I showed him a picture of this stupid cat thing.

Chris
Yeah.

Jeff
And he goes, that’s what you’re doing while we’re having a conversation. Is this more a cat’s more important than what we’re talking about? Yeah, I remember thinking, that is really rude. And I think that was that might have been the last time where I’m like, okay, I’m done. I’m not going to do that anymore. Yeah, yeah.

Chris
Yeah. And I yeah.

Jeff
So I just want to be present with the people I’m with. Yeah. But that means I wind up getting stacked up on phone calls and texts.

Chris
Yeah. Yeah. You know, I used to be in a position where. I wasn’t doing so many things, and now I feel like I’m doing a thousand things all at once, and everybody’s deadline depends on my decisions. And so oftentimes, like, for instance, I’ll give you an example. We need to move on. But but during the last podcast I had somebody text me and literally I texted them back during the podcast because their whole their whole schedule is they’re sitting at their office right now waiting for my permission. So he sends me and says, is this good enough? And I had to answer him because I’m thinking like, well, I could answer him in 20 minutes, but I might forget. And then but, but their job depends on my decision. So I do feel like it’s a leash for me and and it’s a bad thing. But anyway. Yeah. All right, let’s move on. So John 831.

Jeff
Tell your people to make the best decision that they can that they’re comfortable taking responsibility for.

Chris
Yeah. Well, that’s a good blanket statement until you realize what decision you’re talking about. Hey everyone. If you’re listening on one of the audio platforms like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker, would you do us a favor? Would you share it with somebody else? And would you also follow us? Because if you do that, you can click a bell on one of them to get notifications. If you do that, it helps the algorithms, it helps us out and we would really appreciate that. So thanks.

Jeff
So today we are talking. Jesus is talking about God’s true children. And so we’re going to read John 831 through 47. It says, Jesus said to the people who believed in him, you are truly my disciples. If you remain faithful to my teachings, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. But we are descendants of Abraham. They said, we have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean? You will be set free? Jesus replied, I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin. A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever. So if the son sets you free, you are truly free. Yes, I realize that you are descendants of Abraham, and yet some of you are trying to kill me because there’s no room in your hearts for my message. I’m telling you what I saw when I was with my father. But you are following the advice of your father. Our father is Abraham, they declared. No, Jesus replied, for if you were really children of Abraham, you would follow his example instead. You’re trying to kill me because I told you the truth, which I heard from God. Abraham never did such a thing. No, you are imitating your real father, they replied. We are illegitimate children. God himself is our true father. And Jesus said, If God were your father, you would love me, because I have come to you from God. I’m not here on my own, but he sent me. Why can’t you understand what I’m saying? It’s because you can’t even hear me. For you are the children of your father the devil. And you love to do the evil things he does. Jeff
He was a murderer from the beginning. He’s always hated the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character, for he’s a liar and the father of lies. So when I tell the truth, you just naturally don’t believe me. Which? Which of you can truthfully accuse me of sin? And since I am telling you the truth, why don’t you believe me? Anyone who belongs to God listens gladly to the words of God. But you don’t listen because you don’t belong to God.

Jeff
What?

Chris
Yeah. Now, this is this is perhaps one of the strongest statements that Jesus has ever made to anybody. Yeah. Yeah. Right. I mean, like when he was talking to the Pharisees elsewhere and he referred to them as whitewashed tombs. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And he calls.

Jeff
Them snakes and vipers and whitewashed tombs.

Chris
And vipers. And by the way, those are really strong words. Yeah, right. But that’s not as strong.

Chris
You son of the devil, you.

Chris
Son of the devil. And that’s that’s not quite as strong, right. And not only that, but he’s literally using their reactions and he’s and he’s and of course, everything he’s saying is true, but he’s saying the reason why you don’t believe me is because you’re of the devil, right? And those who are from God gladly listens to the truth. But you’re actually proving it right now.

Jeff
The way, the way that you I can prove to you that you’re of the devil is because he’s a murderer from the beginning. And you want to kill me just for what I’m saying, right?

Chris
Right?

Jeff
Right, right.

Chris
Yeah, yeah. And of course. Wow. Because that’s. I mean, just imagine seeing every human that you’re interacting with from God’s perspective. Yeah. So God himself is able to, you know, know and judge all of our hearts and knows our intents and everything else and just to be able to see it that way. And and so Jesus calls it out. And that’s why it’s so strong for us. But, you know, for him, he’s just saying what’s so obvious to himself. Yeah. Right. So he sees it that way.

Jeff
You know, he they had already begun trying to kill him, plotting to kill him and stuff. And so that’s what he’s calling them out is you. You’re a murderer in your heart. You haven’t yet killed me. But you’re a murderer in your heart. That’s how you know that you are a son of the devil because he’s a murderer. So.

Chris
Hey, by the way, you know how we often say, hey, here’s a note from our life Application study Bible. Yes. So I forgot my Life Application Study Bible this morning. And I actually have a quest study Bible. Oh, and it’s by Zondervan New International Version. So I grabbed this for a video shoot, believe it or not, that I’m doing. But anyway, I would I would like to read a note from the quest. Go ahead. And here’s how it reads. It says actually it has questions on the side and it says If the Jews believed him, why did they want to kill him? This is proof that their belief fell short on life changing trust. Perhaps they had formally declared themselves to be his followers, believing in what he could do, not in who he was. They were looking for miracles, political revolution, and fulfillment of their own personal dreams. But when their expectations for the one that they had hoped for or hoped to be their national savior went unrealized, and when and when he challenged their religious status quo, their loyalty shifted easily. They were not ready to admit their sinful condition and a place their trust in the Lamb of God. Their support for Jesus transformed into opposition.

Chris
Wow.

Chris
So yeah. That’s strong.

Jeff
So he starts off right. So he says he’s talking to the people who believed in him. Remember we ended verse 30 yesterday was in many people who heard him say those things believed him. So some rejected him, most rejected him, many believed him. And so he said to those people who believed in him, that’s what verse 31 says, you are truly my disciples. If you remain faithful to my teachings, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. I think it’s interesting that Jesus attaches proof of being a disciple, not with what you feel, or with what you think, or with what you agree with, or what you claim to believe. He attaches proof to your being faithful to my teachings, right? So you’re doing what I say, what I say to do. You’re living like I say to live. That’s not what saves you. That’s just proof that you’ve been saved. Right? Right. And and so our behavior should change. Our attitudes should change the way that we live. Our life should change. And we should. That’s one of the reasons why, you know, the people who listen to the podcast every day. We’re reading from Scripture, uh, those of you that read your Bible independent of this every day or regularly and you begin to apply those things, that’s why we need to spend time with Jesus. If he’s our Savior, we need to spend time with him because we need to be thinking like he thinks we can be doing what he says to do. And that then, is evidence or proof. And I think a lot of people struggle with assurance of their salvation because their brain and their heart say, yeah, that Jesus guy, I agree and wow, he exchanged his life for my sin and he gives it to me as a free gift and in a service somewhere. Jeff
They prayed a prayer and they accepted Jesus free gift. But then they don’t allow. They don’t even know Jesus teachings, so they don’t allow Jesus teachings to change their life. And then they struggle between the flesh and the spirit all the time. Even even Paul talks about that in Romans chapter seven and eight. They struggle with this battle between the flesh and the spirit, and they feel unworthy and and maybe, maybe they lost it. Or maybe I really never was a Christian. And it’s only because their life hasn’t been transformed. And the only way your life can be transformed is by spending time with Jesus words. And that way you know what to do, and then you begin to do those. Yeah.

Chris
And unfortunately, I think you’ve just described most Christians.

Jeff
Absolutely. Yeah.

Chris
And except the.

Jeff
People listening on the podcast.

Chris
That’s right. They’re spending.

Jeff
Time with Jesus every.

Chris
Day. That’s right. They’re yearning. They’re longing. Yeah. But but yeah, I think that the majority of people in this world, you know, they, they, they want to believe they when it comes to the really important things, you know, but they reserve those kind of thoughts and those kind of that energy of thinking about the afterlife. They reserve it only for the important times, you know, like when they attend a funeral. Sure. Or, you know, or maybe once every several years, some person they know brings up life after death and those kind of things. And so when it comes to when they actually want to think about those things, yes, they’re going to get saved in that church service. They’re going to put their faith and trust in Christ. They’re going to say, absolutely, I believe in God. But then, you know, apart from that, they just they’re not going to be what they would say. Religious, right. Right? Right. They’re not going to go to church, they’re not going to read, they’re not going to consider. And and that’s interesting because I think that. That’s where a lot of people, a lot of different religions, a lot of different denominations have that conversation that that debate. Right, right. So like, you know, are you truly saved if you don’t have fruit in your life? Because the book of James says that kind of faith doesn’t save you. Maybe it wasn’t true faith, you know, in the first place. But if you are truly transformed and you accept the gift of Christ, you know it’s going to show somewhere in your life. So only God knows, right? Yeah, yeah, only God knows our eternal destination.

Jeff
And you’ve mentioned already this week, but I think it’s one of your best phrases when you say that God’s commands are for his glory and our benefit. Yeah, right. And so when Jesus talks about truth, Jesus is talking about his truth that’s supposed to be lived out. It’s not just a truth to be believed, it’s truth to be lived out right when he says to love your enemies, when he says to turn the other cheek, when he says to go the extra mile, when he says, don’t judge. When he says to to to do good and all these things right, to walk away from evil and his truth is to be done, not just to know or to believe. And he says, it’s that truth. You’ll know the truth. So he says, I am the truth. We know that in just a little while, he’s going to tell us. In John 14 he says, I am the truth. And so when you know me, I’ll be the one who sets you free. Another time he says, the son who has the son, right, you’ll be set free. It says it right here. Uh. I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin. Then he goes on and he says, but. So if the son sets you free, you are truly free. I think it’s really interesting where they go. What do you mean? So he’s trying to explain. Listen, when you are not walking in my truth, you are enslaved. Don’t you understand? You’re living in slavery. You feel like you’re free because you can do whatever you want to do. But what happens is at the beginning, you can do whatever you want to do. And then sin begins to put its shackles on you and you’re enslaved by it. Jeff
So Jesus saves us not to just do whatever we want to do, but he sets us free to be able to serve God, right? And so there’s this, this freedom that he offers, and they go, what the heck are you talking about? We are the sons of Abraham. We’ve never been slaves. And I’m like, wasn’t 400 years of your of your entire existence as a people under slavery? Isn’t it amazing how we begin to believe lies are true, and we begin to believe that truth is a lie, and that’s exactly what he’s accusing them of. Here I am the truth. And you’re calling me a liar and want to kill me. Yeah, but you’re totally ignoring the fact that as sons of Abraham, for 400 years, you were actually in slavery and you’re declaring it free. Hey, guess what, guys? You’re slaves to Rome now, right? Right. You’re not free now. But. But this is what sin does. Sin makes us believe. Lies about ourselves, about life, about what’s going to make our lives better. And Jesus said, listen, when you really know the sun, the sun will set you free.

Chris
So I’ve talked to my share of football teams and and I always like to use the analogy of football because everything, by the way, is football.

Chris
Everything’s football. Everything’s football.

Chris
So but you think about it.

Jeff
So if football is life.

Chris
Right. So if you get if you get a ton of people on the fields and you and you say, okay, in order to be free to play this game, you got to follow these, you know, five dozen rules, right? Don’t violate this. Don’t violate this or this or that. Right. And if everybody agrees that that’s the best way to enjoy football, then they say, okay, ready, go. And all of a sudden now they’re free to play the game, right? Right. And and you as a football lover, you sort of almost hate every time it’s held up. The game’s held up every time it’s like, well, we’re going to review it.

Chris
There’s another flag.

Chris
There’s another flag, there’s another violation. It’s like, uh, but when there’s a big long stretch where there’s no violation of rules, then you feel like now they’re free to play, play the game. Right? And so you may say, well, rules are slavery and and non rules, you know, and you’re saying no no no no no it’s actually with the rules. That’s when you’re truly free to enjoy the game.

Jeff
It’s only the rules that make the game right. If there are no rules there is no game.

Chris
Right right right.

Jeff
There has to be a rule. You got to get the ball from here to there, right? Right. There has to be. Otherwise we’re just running with the ball. Right. That’s really kind of weird. Bunch of grown men running around chasing a pigskin, right? There has to be rules. Listen, we need to be safe. You can’t you can’t chop block like this, or you can’t take a guy’s leg. You can’t. You can’t hit a, you know, a Nick Chubb. Yeah, exactly. So there’s all these rules either for safety or to define what the game is. And so when we look at God’s laws we don’t look at them as being controlling. We look at them. He’s defining the parameters of the game. And he said, okay, now you’re free. Get in and make a difference with your life. And so Jesus is saying you’re believing lies and then you hate me because I’m speaking truth. Yeah. And so we shouldn’t be surprised that there are people in the world who hate us when we speak the truth because they hated Jesus. But man, you are free when you choose to embrace the instruction and the truth that Jesus gives and you decide to live it.

Chris
That is a great place to end and we will see you next time on The Bible Guys.