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:
Fun and practical. That’s us today. That’s what they say.

Jeff:
That’s what they say. That’s what they say.

Chris:
Meaning Connor on the video. Rumor has it. Rumor has it. Yep, there you go. Hey, so today we’re opening up with a segment called Mailbags. Oh. So Mailbags comes from today, Marissa C. And Marissa is writing in. And by the way, as a side note, if you want to write in, we would love to hear from you. Email us at info at thebibleguys.com. And we would absolutely love to answer your questions or consider answering it on a podcast.

Jeff:
Yeah, which by the way, just as a side note, thebibleguys.com has, we’re trying to build that website out more and more and more. There’s going to be a lot more features pretty soon. But a transcript of our shows Of the whole show word for word is on the bow. That’s scary. Isn’t that neat?

Chris:
Yeah, cuz I would say um Maybe we edit those out.

Jeff:
I don’t know but good good. Hey, I can do lots of really cool things lately.

Chris:
So yeah That’s very neat. So here’s what Marissa C says First I want to tell you that you two have an incredible way of bringing the word to life. Thank you. Thank you Marissa. I And she said, I would like to know if either of you have any secret talents that you could share it with us. Secret talents. Wow. Okay. Okay.

Jeff:
All right. Let me see. I can wiggle my ears.

Chris:
Oh, can you? Yeah. Oh, that’s cool. I could, I think I could do it.

Jeff:
Hang on a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Good job. Yeah. So our listeners, that was riveting.

Chris:
Yeah, that was riveting. Yeah.

Jeff:
Hundreds and hundreds of listeners listening right now and they’re like, okay, I’m just imagining, just imagine.

Chris:
So something that I never, I never, ever, ever talk about and rightfully so. And you’ll find out why. Okay. But I could speak another language fluently. Can you really pig Latin pig Latin?

Jeff:
Oh, I bet you can. Can you really? Yeah.

Chris:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I said, you want to go to the store after this? Oh no. Okay. So yeah. And so my, my buddy and I, uh, Dave Davis from home, uh, in Youngstown, we used to irritate. And so the reason why I think we kept on doing it is because, uh, it made Norman Jeff so mad because pig Latin is just that way anyway. Right. It’s just sort of irritating. Sure. And, um, and so, but we would just talk in pig Latin all the time and, uh, because we could talk in front of them. You know when you go and somebody of another culture talks about you right in front of you? It happens to me all the time. Right, right, right. So that’s what we did.

Jeff:
All the time. That’s funny. That’s hysterical. I can juggle.

Chris:
Oh, can you really? Yeah, yeah. How many at one time?

Jeff:
Five. I can go five balls at one time.

Chris:
Oh, yeah.

Jeff:
Five’s good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So two on the outside, one in the middle. That’s what you got going.

Chris:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I can do two really well. You can do two? I can juggle two really fast. Yeah. And really, you know, a long time.

Jeff:
Three is the one that I can just grab any time and do if I practice a little bit.

Chris:
I can do three for like three rounds and then I lose it.

Jeff:
I can walk around the house juggling. Wow. Yeah.

Chris:
That’s pretty good. So I’ll go another one. So I can kind of draw a little bit.

Jeff:
You can. That’s right. No, no, not a little bit. Like you’re an artist.

Chris:
Well, I at some things. Yes. I think that growing up, my older brother, he was a commercial artist. And then all my brothers had talent and they would draw. And then my brother, Jimmy, got into the field as well with video and artistry. And Jimmy and Chuck are both just unbelievable, uncanny. For our Heritage listeners, they remember two Christmases ago when we did the Upside Down Christmas. We had those watercolors.

Jeff:
HeritageChurch.com. Go and watch Upside Down Christmas. All of the art in that your brother did.

Chris:
Yeah, my brother did. It’s all hand done, right? Yeah, hand done. So he’s very talented. And I think that just over the years I sort of just picked it up. And so all my kids consequently draw. But Tori, my youngest daughter, she really has a talent. Wow. So she’s, she’s as good as me.

Jeff:
Wow. That’s amazing. For the people who are not Heritage attendees or have listened to the podcast much, if you’re new to it, music is my background, mostly instrumental stuff. So I actually went to college on a music scholarship and I have a music degree, which is kind of weird that I’m a lead pastor, teaching pastor.

Chris:
Yeah. And your instrument was?

Jeff:
Uh, all the brass instruments, I can play all the brass instruments, but my, my main was trumpet. So I played a lot of trumpet.

Chris:
Yeah. And so consequently, I’ve been trying to every once in a while, I’ll ask Jeff to play the trumpet on the stage. But the thing with the trumpet is though, when you got to build up. It’s all muscle.

Jeff:
It’s all muscle. It’s all muscle. So if you guys wanted me to do it, I’d need like an eight week or 10 week run of pretty serious rehearsal to get back to where I could go. We’re doing some brass for Easter.

Chris:
Yes.

Jeff:
And I was just talking with Trey about that. And I just, I travel five times, four times between now and Easter. I just couldn’t get in shape for it. But I’d love to, because I could play all that music.

Chris:
Well, you could be in your hotel room somewhere and like, you know, just ripping it. Tanzania.

Jeff:
Exactly, exactly. It’d be fun. But yeah, I had an opportunity all through college and then even for a while played in semi-pro stuff. Got a chance to do some work with, we played with the Detroit Symphony, I don’t know, eight or nine, 10, 12 times, something like that, for the fireworks at Greenfield Village and played in most of the auditoriums and theaters between here and Little Rock, Arkansas.

Chris:
So when I was in elementary school, I took an instrument for two years before I quit. Do you know what that instrument was?

Jeff:
Was it trumpet? It was trumpet. Was it really? It was. So we’re probably about the same. Right, right. The only difference would be, I don’t know, tens of thousands of hours.

Chris:
Yeah. No, tens of thousands of hours. Yeah. I actually took trumpet. So the only note I remember is the high C.

Jeff:
Through high school, I would practice an hour, hour and a half a day. In college, I was playing two and a half hours a day, or rehearsing two and a half hours a day, and then playing with the band or the orchestra or whatever. And then as an adult, especially when I was playing with the Motor City Brass, I was a couple of hours a day to play. But because it’s all muscle, that’s just like, it’d be like doing football rehearsal for, or football practice for two hours. You know, you’re pretty blown out after that, and so you have to Be careful with it. But yeah, I love it. Loved it. Miss it. I just don’t have time for it. I don’t have two and a half hours to put into it anymore. Right. So anyways, there you go. There’s your answer, Marissa. Thank you, Marissa, for writing in. Lots of good answers. Yeah. And so I’m super excited to have Chris start drawing all this stuff.

Chris:
Yeah, sure.

Jeff:
And then what was your obscure one? What was the goofy one? Pig Latin. Pig Latin, yes. Please, please don’t.

Chris:
See, exactly. Okay. Remember the episode of The Office where Andy wanted to ask Pam out and so Jim told him to approach her with all the things that she hates. Oh, right, right. And it was Pig Latin was one of them. It was so good.

Jeff:
So we are continuing, this is one of these passages, Jesus had so many profound things to say. And in the past, it seemed like Matthew, Mark, and Luke were always saying the same stuff. Well, here, this is a John thing. It’s only in the book of John 14, 15. And so here he goes, and he says in John 14, verse 15, if you love me, Obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father and He will give you another advocate who will never leave you. He’s the Holy Spirit who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive Him because it isn’t looking for Him, doesn’t recognize Him. But you know Him because He lives with you now and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans. I will come to you. Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me since since you also will live. When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my father and you are in me and I am in you. Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my father will love them and I will love them and will reveal myself to each of them. Judas, not Judas Iscariot, but the other disciple with that name, said to him, Lord, why are you going to reveal yourself only to us and not to the world at large? And Jesus replied, all who love me will do what I say. My father will love them and we will come and make our home with each of them. Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I’m telling you is from the Father who sent me. I’m telling you these things now while I’m still with you. But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative, that is, the Holy Spirit, He will teach you everything and remind you of everything I’ve told you. I’m leaving you with a gift, peace of mind and heart, and the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid. Remember that I told you I am going away, but I will come back to you again. If you really loved me, you would be happy that I’m going to the Father who’s greater than I am. I have told you these things before they happen so that when they do happen, you’ll believe. I don’t have much more time to talk to you, because the ruler of this world approaches. He has no power over me, but I will do what the Father requires of me, so that the world will know that I love the Father. Come, let’s get going.”

Chris:
There you go. Come, let’s get going.

Jeff:
Let’s be going, I guess is what it says, but yeah.

Chris:
Let’s be going. You know, so I said in yesterday’s podcast that I was going to comment on the phrase, do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. Right. Which you just get done reading. Um, there’s, by the way, there’s a lot to talk about here because he says so much, but let me just tackle it right. Cause it’s on my mind. So, um, at the beginning of John 14, he says the same thing. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Do not be afraid. Uh, you know, believe in me if, if it were not so, I, you know, I would not have told you I go to prepare a place for you in my father’s house, as many rooms, all that stuff. Right. Yeah. Okay. So, um, I oftentimes quote this at funerals. so uh… when somebody is at a funeral, they’re very saddened because, you know, the heaviness of somebody who was alive is now no longer alive. And obviously they’re just sad to have them go. And it’s hard to picture heaven. It’s hard to picture them, you know, in a place where it’s real. And, um, and I, and I, so what I do is I actually quote Jesus because Jesus in John 14 was getting ready to leave the earth and he was getting ready to die. And so I use this at funerals because Jesus is trying to paint a picture about the reality of heaven. And oftentimes when he talks about it, he couples it with this phrase that says, don’t be afraid. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Do not be afraid. So at the very beginning of the chapter, he talks about mansions in heaven and he says, don’t be afraid. You know, and when he’s talking about death and preparing to die, he says, uh, I’m going away. Don’t be afraid. Right. Because the reality of heaven is real. Right. Okay. So, and the thing that I usually do is I tell people, uh, the thing I capitalize on is that he, uh, tells them in verse 27, I’m leaving a gift with you, peace of mind and heart and the gift I give to you, the world cannot give. So once again, don’t let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. And so this idea that God says, hey, if you want to talk about death, you want to talk about heaven, you know, which he does through this whole chapter, I’m giving you something the world cannot give, right? I’m giving you peace of heart and peace of mind. And this is a gift that the world cannot give. And I liken that to the fact that the world doesn’t have an answer to death. If you don’t believe in God, you’re an atheist, and you believe it all ends, there is no hope. There is no peace. There’s nothing, right? Jesus says, I’m giving you something that the world cannot offer, which is gift of heart and mind, and it’s peace. And I think that only in God can we find this peace when it comes to death, when it comes to thinking about our loved ones in heaven. That Jesus is describing right here. That’s where the peace comes from. That’s where the joy of knowing that this is not a final goodbye, but rather until we meet again. Right. Right. So you can try to find peace elsewhere, but you’re not going to find peace the way that God gives it.

Jeff:
So it’s interesting. He, he talks about, you know, it’ll be, you’ll have greater power. You’ll do greater things than me. That’s always, we know he’s already attached that to the power of the Holy Spirit in us. He’s going to talk about that in Acts chapter one, uh, when he says, you know, uh, the Holy Spirit will come on you and you have power. Right. Um, but here he also says that that peace comes because of the Holy Spirit, right?

Chris:
Yeah.

Jeff:
The advocate. And he’ll teach you everything and remind you of everything I’ve told you. And so, It’s always sad to me. I just was in a conversation the other day with a godly woman and her and her husband, they’re up in age.

Chris:
It’s like 60?

Jeff:
Late 80s.

Chris:
The gentleman is late 80s.

Jeff:
I was kidding. They are coming to a point where they’re borderline obsessed with prophetic things.

Chris:
Yeah.

Jeff:
And I kept trying to probe. I knew, I knew what the answer was. I kept probing and finally she said, so you don’t, you don’t think the rapture is going to come before? Oh, I don’t want to die. I just, I don’t want to die. And I thought, oh, so should we be students of the word? Yes. Should we know what prophecy says about the end? Yes. But the motive for them was, we don’t want to die. We’re afraid of dying. That was, it was their terror of death that drove them into this place. And I just felt like, and so I said, Hey, listen, Jesus said, you don’t have to be afraid.

Chris:
Sort of backwards, isn’t it?

Jeff:
Jesus said, I am giving you the Holy spirit to comfort you, to give you peace. And when you’re truly in the spirit, that doesn’t mean that there’s nothing bad happening, man. When I read prophetic things, boy, it’s going to get rough. but I can have the peace of God in the middle of those difficult things. And so it was really great as we were reading this, the note for verse 27 in the Life Application Bible says, the end result of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives is deep and lasting peace. Unlike worldly peace, which is usually defined as the absence of conflict, this peace is confident assurance in any circumstance. With Christ’s peace, we have no need to fear the present or the future. Sin, fear, uncertainty, doubt, and numerous other forces are at war within us. The peace of God moves into our hearts and lives to restrain these hostile forces and offer comfort in place of conflict. Jesus says he will give us that peace if we’re willing to accept it from him. If your life is full of stress, allow the Holy Spirit to fill you with Christ’s peace, right? And so that is one of those things. I think that we can go to the Father often and pray, God, send your Holy Spirit to give me peace today. Peace that passes all understanding, the Bible says, right? And so in these most difficult times, in the scariest moments, Catch your breath. Pause for a minute. Don’t just go running crazy like a chicken with your head cut off. Instead, pull back and ask for the Holy Spirit to give you God’s peace in a way that you can’t even understand or fathom. And it’s not an absence of conflict. It’s not an absence of the problem. It’s supernatural peace from God that he’s going to carry you through it. And you know, we’ve talked about that. How can you be threatened with heaven? If the worst possible thing could happen, how can you be threatened with heaven? Right? And so all the other things are incidental. So if you’re afraid of dying, does that mean you don’t believe you have a good father? He was willing to do everything else he could think of doing for you, everything else necessary to pay the price for your sin, but he’s going to let you live in a torturous moment without giving you any ability to navigate through that. Is that, that doesn’t make any sense, right? So sometimes I think the devil even to our last minute, often will try to get us to doubt how good God is. And we forget the power of the Holy Spirit in us to help us have peace even in the biggest storms. It’s literally Jesus getting in the boat, it’s Jesus walking on the water, peace be still kind of thing. Jesus is sleeping in the back of the boat because he’s not afraid of the storm. Why? Because he has sure confidence that when God said go to the other side of the lake, he’s going to the other side of the lake. Period. That’s it. Right? And if we can just understand that, that that’s the offer God gives us. I’m in control. I will take care of you. No matter what you face, I will give you the power and the ability and the grace to make it through. And the other side is just that great.

Chris:
Yeah. That’s so funny that you’re saying that because that’s literally the message this Sunday. Did you know that? Yeah, so we’re talking about that. Going to the other side of the lake and God being on the other side. Yeah.

Jeff:
So that’s really great. Well, hey, can we jump? What we don’t want to miss is the beginning because Jesus says a whole bunch about obeying him. Yes. And obedience now doing what God says to do is not so you can go to heaven, but doing what God says to do is the only way that Jesus tells us we can tell him we love him. There is no other way.

Chris:
If you love me, obey my commandments.

Jeff:
And he says it over and over again through here, right? Yeah. Love me. And he says, the people who don’t obey me don’t love me. So I know a lot of Christians who know what the right thing is to do, but then choose not to do it. And then the other side of their mouth say, boy, I love Jesus though. Right. And Jesus is like, boy, it doesn’t feel like you love me. You knew what was right and you choose not to do it. And so we have grace. Grace means I don’t go to hell for doing the wrong things, right? Jesus’ grace, God’s grace is extended to me. He forgives me because I place my faith and trust in him. He pays the price. And so a lot of times people abuse grace. Paul says, what, should we sin so that grace will abound even more? The more we sin, the more grace there is. Wow, this is great. Let’s just keep sinning. And a lot of people just go, well, God knows my intent. God knows my circumstances. God knows my situation. I just had the opportunity with a friend of mine recently who was living in a situation that wasn’t the right situation. And my friend is a Christian and was saying, man, I have my reasons. And as you sit and listen to that friend talk about their reasons, they’re legit. This is a really difficult situation this person found themselves in. So they wind up choosing a living situation that wasn’t entirely honoring God. So when we got to talking about it, I was saying, what would it take for you to honor the Lord? And do you believe that God will bless you? Yes. Okay, let’s do that. And this person had the guts to step out and say, okay, I’m going to follow God in this. And things are working out pretty great. It’s going fine now. But it was fear that often leads us into If I don’t do this, I might lose that boyfriend. If I don’t do this, I might lose this job. If I don’t do this thing I know is wrong, I might lose this friend or this opportunity. And so we do things and we justify doing the wrong thing because, and then we still say, well, I love God, but I’ve got to do this or I’m going to lose this person. And Jesus said, listen, I should be the most important relationship. And then, you know, so many other times he says, seek first my kingdom and my righteousness. And I’ll add all these other things to you, you know, Matthew chapter six. And so we just have to trust that when we obey him, it’s the only way Jesus told us is the way that we can tell him we love him is when we choose to do what he told us to do. And so, man, I just want to celebrate when people decide to do the right thing, even though it feels hard, just know Jesus feels so loved by you in that moment.

Chris:
Yeah, well, obedience is the very definition of faith, right? So, you know, faith when we don’t understand it, faith when we’re afraid to do things, faith when we, you know, doubt that God can come through, you know, obedience, meaning it’s not just sometimes black and white, it’s obedience when we don’t even understand it. Yeah. You know, so obedience is a funny thing because sometimes when we hear from God, it’s really plain. Thou shalt and thou shalt not. It’s like that is pretty plain. But then there’s sometimes where we’re like, huh, there’s not a black and white thing that points to this exact scenario, but then we have to go off of God’s nature, God’s character, sometimes God’s principles, right?

Jeff:
And what he’s placed in your conscience.

Chris:
What he’s placed in your conscience, right.

Jeff:
Romans 14 says, don’t sin against your conscience, Romans 13.

Chris:
Right. And so God’s never going to put in his will something that’s contrary to other parts of his word. Right. And then there’s sometimes where we’ll hear something very specific that God wants us to do, like, quit your job, you know, or do this, or you know, or maybe it’s something simple, like simple, like give this money to this person or help this person, whatever it is. And, or, you know, or start tithing, you know, and, and, and, uh, and whatever it is. And what we hear this whisper, and then we don’t necessarily understand you’re like, but, but God, and that’s the scenario you’re talking about, which is like, by God, if I do that, this is going to happen. Right. And so we either don’t understand, or maybe perhaps we do understand, but we’re fearful Or maybe we just do understand we’re fearful, but then we also think there’s no possible way this is going to work to my benefit. God’s not going to come through because the odds, I’ve calculated the odds, and there’s only a small probability of this taking place. And so obedience sometimes is all of those things. Right. And it’s, and it’s, uh, so yeah, it’s hard to walk.

Jeff:
This is all in the same group of sentences talking about peace too. Right. So I tell Jesus, I love him by choosing to obey him, but I recognize circumstances can wind up getting really difficult because I choose to obey him. And God says, I’ll give you my Holy spirit and you’ll have my peace. Right. So we can have, we can have confidence and peace when we choose to do, uh, what God says to do, even in the most difficult situations.

Chris:
That’s great. Well, that is our time. And we will see you next time on The Bible Guys.