S1 E14 Goodness

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Darling, why'd you go and listen?
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They ain't got nothing good to say.
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Now there's so much life you're missing.
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So-called friends led you astray.
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You know the devil keeps us company.
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With all its bright and shiny things.
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I think about, you know, when you ask somebody
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how their day was and they say good, it's like it is a— we're
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going to see it's a huge word. It's a big, important word.
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And it also can mean absolutely nothing in our
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day. I don't think that's the enemy that's twisted that necessarily.
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I just think, how was your day? It was good. I think it's a laziness,
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though, because for me, it's a laziness. Answer.
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I did a billion things I don't want to talk about. How are y'all doing?
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We're doing good. Doing good. Doing good. It's a word that means absolutely nothing.
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Glaze over. Don't ask me another question. It's what you're supposed to say,
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you know? Yeah, good. Yeah, it was a good day. And that's what my kids
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say when I ask them, how was your day at school? Good. It's good.
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Yeah, it's good. So it's funny because that's not the biblical
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meaning that we're going to get into here. But so much more than just,
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oh yeah, I had a good day. Yeah, it's kind of like a love maybe
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where it's like you can love a hot dog, but you can also love your
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wife. Yeah,
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and 2 different kinds of love, right? Yeah, 2 different kinds of good too,
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right? Good day, but you can have a good day. You can have a good
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brisket. Mm-hmm. And you can also be good.
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Yeah, and Jesus is good. And somehow those all mean different things,
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right? So there's a lot, a lot to experience good and you can be
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good. You can be good. You can feel good. Feel good.
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Yeah. Good is kind of a funny word. Yeah. What is good? What is good?
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Yeah, it's a greeting. Yeah, what's good? Yeah. Let's get it. Good morning.
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Good morning. Yeah, you say that regardless if it's a good morning or not.
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It's, hey, good morning. It's a bad morning. Yeah, yeah, like, man, that's just— I
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think, I think good has probably is twisted more
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than just about any of these. Oh yeah, um, because what
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is good for you? What's good for you? Yeah, we always define
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good by our own standard or our feelings or our emotions
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or the temporal, whatever circumstance you find yourself in. Yeah. It's kind of like
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the same theme in all these. Yeah, yeah, very similarly.
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Yeah. Well, welcome back, guys. If you just watched, uh, the previous episode,
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you'll notice that we're still wearing the same clothes. Maybe we should have swapped seats
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or something. I don't know, we just started rolling.
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We're not that pretentious that we gotta— we did before the same same outfit
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for an entire week. Yeah. Oh yeah. Well, I know some—
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I hear on some podcasts where they'll record like they'll take a whole day and
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record like 6 or 7 podcasts and they bring different outfits and they like,
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they change, but they'll talk about it. So we weren't
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that prepared. That's serious. We didn't have any outfit changes. We intended the last
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episode on kindness to be kindness and goodness together, and then we ended
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up talking for more than an hour about kindness. And so, uh, we're gonna try
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to jump back into— which was good. It was good.
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Now we can talk about goodness. Goodness. And I see Casey's
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open to Genesis all the way to the beginning, and, uh, Ethan's over
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to Galatians. Why don't you read the fruit of the Spirit section again?
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Yeah, so we'll start with the fruit of the Spirit like we have been doing.
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Galatians 5:22 says, but the fruit of the Spirit
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is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
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goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against— or I'll
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just stop right there. Against such things there's no law. So we've been kind
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of breaking them down and now we're here at goodness, right? And I kind
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of struggled with the last one— kindness. I felt like it was, well, kindness is
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kindness. Yeah, but we ended up talking for an hour about it which was,
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you know, I realized some aspects about it, you know,
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and I felt some conviction through that, but goodness is one of those that I
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think it's easier to define, and it's easier to see how the world
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has twisted goodness. Kindness— no, not too much of a twist there I guess.
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I'm sure there's some examples of bad you
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know, using— misusing kindness, but goodness, we see that pretty prevalent
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in our culture, in our society, in our world, and for
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as long as you can look back in history, right? That, oh, what, you know,
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what was good, and you said it a while ago, is defined by the person
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that's, you know, talking about it, you know, and that doesn't always mean that's good,
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right? No. So Casey, you want to close up? There's a prophet
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at some point, I can't remember where it is, but woe to you who call
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that which is good bad, or call that which is good evil and call that
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which is evil good, right? There's a— there's— this is,
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this is the heart of— from the beginning, what is good is the
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story of the world, right? Good versus evil.
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And, um, what did Adam and Eve— right,
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they were, hey, eat this fruit and you'll know good and evil,
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right? What was the name of the tree? The tree of knowledge
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of good and evil, right? So This has been twisted from the beginning.
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So what does God
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define as good? That's what's good, right, is what
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God calls good, and in Genesis in the beginning in the creation
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account it talks about how God was creating all
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these things, and then it says,
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and God saw that it was good, so God
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is who really defines what is good,
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and then like you said we read on into the creation of
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mankind, and in
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the creation of— I believe it was Eve,
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and he said it is really good, right?
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And then the fall,
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right? That they're tempted with eating from the
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knowledge of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
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And that's a— I mean, that's a kind of a— that's a
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weird topic. And we can go there if you want to.
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But why was that? Here's a
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question. Why was that even a temptation?
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Like, why? Have you ever thought about that? Like,
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why did God even give
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that as an option? I think he
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gave them a choice. A choice to— it's free will, right? I agree with that.
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Yeah, but what I'm saying is even deeper than that, the free will to
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know what is good or to know what is evil.
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So I mean, I've heard different talks about,
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you know, that, and I really believe like, no,
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they knew what good was. They could just look around. They knew what God had
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said was good. God had already defined this good. My creation is good. You are
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good. So they already knew what good was. They didn't know what evil
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was. Okay. I think that was what was enticing. There's something else I don't know.
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They had an understanding of what was good because they experienced
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it. Yeah. Now, but did they know that that was
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good? And you can't know that it was good unless you know that there's something
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out there that is evil. So yeah, so there's—
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but if they just— without the contrast, you don't really know what is good,
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I guess. Without this, and this is where I'm leading to, this is where
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I'm trying to go, is that only God can
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tell us, show us, and allow us to experience what is good even
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today, even knowing that there is good
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and evil. How do we do that? How do we have the availability
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to understand what is good and
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not just have a a simple
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knowledge of it, but, but actually know and experience and
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believe. Um, well, the only way is knowledge
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of God, right? Like, I know we— each one of us,
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uh, Romans talks about it, we're without excuse. We know that
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which is good, uh, and right because of the
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created order, like through creation. And so we have,
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we have a morality a
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moral conscience, every human, regardless of whether they— but
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once we reject God, we know that that conscience is seared, right? And it's,
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and it's, uh, bent towards evil,
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right? So we, though we know that which is good, we exchange
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it for that which is evil. That's humanity's story. Um, so how
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do— how is that redeemed? It's through knowledge of God, right? It's through relationship
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with God. God is good. God is— oh yeah. And so that's the only way
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we can be good, right? What would y'all say the opposite of
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good is? Before we go there, I think we should expand what
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you just said. Like, that's exactly what we're going over, right? Is the fruits of
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what? It's the fruit of the Spirit of God. Yeah,
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it's a fruit of the Spirit. So the only way we can in our human
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experience know and understand what is truly good
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is to have God's Spirit in us and,
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and to work, you know, work this out in
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our lives. They had creation. They also walked with God,
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and I'm sure those conversations— God is describing that which is
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good to them, right? And so, um, we,
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we have a similar experience,
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you know. We're walking in the Spirit. Yeah, walk by
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the Spirit. That's the next couple verses. Keep in step with the
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Spirit, right? And he's going to show us what is good, right?
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Because what is good is complicated in our present
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day, you know. It was maybe simpler in the garden
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I think it's very complicated today. Yeah, what is ethical?
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What is right? What is good? Knowing what is good and what
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we should do, it, it is available through scripture,
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but there's also some scenarios and things that scripture doesn't
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speak to, right? So like you take the issue of IVF,
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right? Intra— in intravenous fertilization,
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right? So That's a complicated
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scenario. And I'm not even asking
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that we even dive in, go on the record today of what
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we think is good. But what you're saying is there's scenarios that
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Jesus did not cover because it wouldn't have even made sense to them.
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You're talking about aliens to them, right? So exactly. Yeah, obviously.
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Or how do we balance the use of even a smartphone? Like how
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much screen time? Like that's not necessarily talked
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about in scripture, but there's wisdom applied to that, and so I think goodness is
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a complicated thing. Like knowing what is right
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and good in our world takes a lot of wisdom and
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community and time in God's Word and walking by the Spirit and
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conviction, you know, and with some of those harder topics like, you know,
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screen time or video games or certain video games or certain
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practices, right? I think that we can still find the answer in
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scripture. I think that's what you're kind of saying. It's like, it's— yeah, it doesn't
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say like, hey, you should only watch 3 hours a day, but we can see,
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you know, what is good, what is true, which go
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hand in hand together, right? Yeah. What is the difference there?
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I think there's a goodness and truth, or are they very much— I think they're
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one and the same. You know, the word of truth,
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you know, Jesus was the word. He was truth. He was good. I mean,
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I think it's it all describes the same person in my mind.
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You know, I can see how you can take them apart and describe them individually,
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but for me it's one and the same, but I think one of those— a
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practice that we can do to evaluate is kind of like 3 steps. You know,
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what does God's Word say about it? Well, God's Word doesn't say my
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screen time, right? Say, okay, what's the Holy Spirit saying? And that's go
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to prayer, you know, go to God in prayer and meditate and do
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read Scripture as well, and okay, I am convicted because
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I'm spending more time on my phone rather than in God's Word.
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Okay, that's what the Holy Spirit is teaching me, and you know, and if you
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pray about it and you're still kind of like, well, I'm not quite sure.
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I think it's okay. God's giving you a choice, you know, and I heard a
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speaker present it like that. He was talking about, you know, what school should I
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go to? I don't know. I have 3, 4 options.
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Is there a wrong option? And he kind of broke it down like, what's God's
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Word say? Obviously it doesn't say Ole Miss or whatever.
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It doesn't matter, right? Okay, what's your— what's the Spirit telling you? And for that
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speaker, he was saying, you know, well, the Spirit, you know, convicted me because I
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kind of wanted to go to this school, but, you know, that was because that's
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a party school and that's kind of what I wanted. And obviously that's, that's wrong.
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So the Spirit will lead you. And then he was left with 2 options,
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you know, and, and he didn't have an answer. And his point was, is like,
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God gives you an option. You can make a choice. And you know, after you've
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evaluated his word and after you evaluated time and
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prayer with him, then God gives you a choice. He gave Adam and Eve a
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choice in the garden, right? Yeah. He had already— we
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can say they didn't have the word, but they had God himself, right? They had
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that option. The word was there. The word was with God. So God does give
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us options, and so in doing so, we can choose goodness. That speaker
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could have chose, man, I want to go to the party school, and that could
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have led him down a really bad path in life. But so,
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so yeah, so you said the difference between truth and good,
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right? So what is truth worth if you don't
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apply it, right? If to know what is true but
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not allow it to, uh, help you
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make decisions in life, then, then it's not worth anything,
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right? It's the same thing with good. So I,
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I believe what we treat good as a measurement of,
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um, how we're doing, right? Or, or it's in,
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in the Bible, I think a lot of times it's a measurement
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of obedience. And so that's what you were saying,
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you know, in the garden they had the option, right? Um,
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it would have been good if they would have obeyed God's command.
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Yeah, don't eat from it. Yeah. So I think of, I think of like in
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business, like, how are we doing this month? We doing good or are we doing
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bad, right? Yeah. So are you doing,
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are you doing good? And that takes effort. It takes
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effort to do good in business. It takes effort to do good in anything
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that you do. Right. And so,
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um, I, I think, and that's what I was saying last podcast,
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like the kindness is more of the action, the acting out the goodness.
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It's the, it's the, uh, evidence and maybe the proof
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of goodness. Uh, goodness is a little bit deeper.
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It's a little, it's, it's who you are. Um, and, and it's
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more of a, standard,
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right? A way of life. And so,
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but like I said, it's also that just maintaining obedience
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and being steadfast and trying to
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do good. Like a lot of times in business,
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just to kind of keep, you know, keep that thought alive
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is if we don't do what we need to do in
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the times that we need to do it, eventually that turns
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into hardship, financial hardship.
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And so not always does it rely on that because
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there's times that it doesn't matter how much effort I put forth,
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we still struggle. But do all that you
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can, right? Do all that you can and take it as far as you
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possibly can in being obedient and trust
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God. With the rest of it? I think goodness biblically is, uh,
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like moral uprightness, moral, uh,
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uh, excellence. It's doing what is right, doing what is
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true according to God's character, right? So I think
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a substitute word is, is almost righteousness,
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right? Um, yeah, living out righteousness.
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And now we know as Christians that our righteousness,
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uh, is, is not our own. It's an alien righteousness that comes from
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the outside, right? We are only right because God declares us
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right, because Jesus gives us his righteousness through
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faith, right? And so we are positionally
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before God, we are declared as if he is the judge. He declares you are
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righteous, you are perfect. We are not,
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um, but that has been wiped clean,
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right? But we are called in our sanctification to
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grow in righteousness or goodness, right? And to grow
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in doing the right thing. So I think there ought to be a movement,
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as in all of these, right? A movement from immaturity to maturity. Yeah. A movement
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from less righteous to more righteous in how we,
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how we conduct our business and how we treat our wives and how we raise
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our kids and how we are community members, how we deal with money. All these—
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there's so many areas. This is why I was trying to think of goodness It's
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like goodness is this massive umbrella over 1,000
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different areas, and you can— we could, we could— and we, we dive
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into— we use that word in so many ways. All right, I mean, yeah,
17:44.054 --> 17:47.277
I know, we, we could dive into each one of those. What is it like?
17:47.518 --> 17:51.591
What does it mean as a Christian to exercise goodness or practice goodness
17:52.091 --> 17:54.863
or be good in business, in fatherhood,
17:55.120 --> 17:58.954
in whatever? Like, we could just spend Right. Yeah. And I've got
17:59.454 --> 18:01.466
some. I've got some here in a minute. We're going to put you all on
18:01.966 --> 18:05.080
the spot of what is right and good in this
18:05.113 --> 18:08.689
situation. So you can look forward
18:09.189 --> 18:12.318
to that, listener. I think one of the key verses— and you read
18:12.818 --> 18:16.348
it, y'all, y'all got some others queued up, I can tell— but Ephesians 5,
18:17.269 --> 18:23.521
where you went last episode. So I'm
18:23.537 --> 18:27.245
going to start in verse 6. He says— and
18:27.745 --> 18:31.307
the key verse is in really verse like 10, 9 and 10— but
18:31.323 --> 18:34.999
he says, let no one deceive you with empty words,
18:35.416 --> 18:39.349
for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons
18:39.849 --> 18:43.074
of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them,
18:43.459 --> 18:47.617
for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in
18:48.117 --> 18:51.964
the Lord. Walk as children of light. For the fruit of light
18:52.464 --> 18:55.618
is found in all that is good and right and
18:55.650 --> 18:59.336
true, and try to discern what is pleasing to
18:59.836 --> 19:03.903
the Lord. So there's this connection between a lot of different words— light,
19:04.688 --> 19:07.605
uh, good, right, true.
19:09.095 --> 19:12.204
All of those are synonyms in this passage,
19:12.316 --> 19:15.729
right? And so I think, I think that helps us understand
19:16.147 --> 19:19.290
what is goodness? It's walking in the light.
19:19.531 --> 19:22.658
Yeah, it is doing, uh, living according
19:22.690 --> 19:26.418
to the truth. It's righteously living. It's righteously living.
19:26.548 --> 19:30.318
It's doing what is right in any given circumstance. That is
19:30.448 --> 19:33.906
what is good, and that is defined by God,
19:33.922 --> 19:37.462
right? So I mean, this is— we don't need to get
19:37.962 --> 19:42.040
into all of this, but we live in a subjective morality
19:42.140 --> 19:45.302
world. Right, where things are just
19:45.641 --> 19:48.739
good or right based on our own opinions and
19:49.239 --> 19:53.794
our own sense of morality, right? And so I
19:54.294 --> 19:57.940
love watching like people go on college campuses and debate
19:58.936 --> 20:02.276
college kids about abortion or about whatever issue,
20:03.052 --> 20:07.793
like the Lindsay Clancy trial, and like, and inevitably
20:08.213 --> 20:11.752
they will make a moral statement about something But that's
20:12.252 --> 20:15.759
not— they'll say, a college student who's not a believer, yeah, but that's
20:16.259 --> 20:19.911
not good, or that's not right. And it's so easy as a Christian to
20:20.411 --> 20:23.389
go, okay, by what standard? What do you mean?
20:23.853 --> 20:27.828
Why is that wrong? And they'll go, well, it just is. It's not
20:27.860 --> 20:31.323
right to treat somebody like that. It's not right to kick somebody out of
20:31.371 --> 20:35.394
your country. It's not right to force a woman to have
20:35.894 --> 20:39.321
a child that she didn't want to have. It's not right. And it's so simple
20:39.821 --> 20:43.936
to go, By what standard? What do you mean? How do you measure whether something
20:44.032 --> 20:47.221
is right or true or good? Because now you're saying
20:48.070 --> 20:50.891
it's not right for us to force her to have this baby, but what about
20:51.179 --> 20:55.234
the rightness of killing that baby, right? And so it, it quickly
20:55.266 --> 20:58.567
puts them on the defensive and the shaky ground
20:59.067 --> 21:02.701
of like, how are we defining what is good and what is right?
21:03.118 --> 21:06.563
But I think, I think that example can also help in our lives of whenever
21:07.063 --> 21:11.034
we're, we're in the same— not the same situation, same argument, maybe something similar or
21:11.534 --> 21:14.433
different, but we start to say, you know, well, that's not right.
21:14.497 --> 21:18.200
That's not okay. We got to ask ourselves based on what?
21:18.280 --> 21:21.678
Is it based on my gain, for my good
21:21.710 --> 21:25.189
or for, you know, the well-being of my family? Or is it no,
21:26.038 --> 21:29.934
this is— that's actually not what God's scripture says. You know, is what I'm
21:29.982 --> 21:33.797
saying or claiming to be good or right based in scripture? So yeah,
21:33.893 --> 21:37.676
those videos, right, we can obviously, you know, we can see how the lack
21:38.176 --> 21:41.011
of God, right? We can be hypocritical. We can be very hypocritical and we can
21:41.027 --> 21:44.314
do the same thing with a different scenario maybe, But we
21:44.780 --> 21:47.302
ultimately, it's like, well, this is good for my family. Well, is it? Is it
21:47.350 --> 21:50.900
really? Because what's good for your family is that you follow the Lord your God
21:51.400 --> 21:54.610
with all your heart. You can elevate that above whatever the
21:55.110 --> 21:58.224
scripture says. So we really, uh, I think those videos can teach us a lot
21:58.273 --> 22:02.047
though, you know, seeing those, you know, and what sometimes they're
22:02.547 --> 22:05.902
meant to be, you know, rage bait, you know, get people mad or, or be
22:06.402 --> 22:10.030
controversial. That's the whole purpose of them. And but there's something deeper
22:10.079 --> 22:13.788
to learn from that is what are you basing your good on? It's yourself.
22:13.933 --> 22:17.386
It's your mankind. And I think, again, we're just hypocritical
22:17.886 --> 22:19.570
of that. So we can learn from that as well. I like the way it
22:20.070 --> 22:23.954
finishes in verse 10 because he says, and try to discern what is pleasing
22:23.986 --> 22:27.680
to the Lord. So, so I think that's where my mind
22:28.180 --> 22:31.775
goes with all of this about goodness is, is actually discernment.
22:32.016 --> 22:35.148
Yeah. Because discerning what
22:35.648 --> 22:39.560
is good is a, is a skill, is a, a mature,
22:40.041 --> 22:43.585
uh, thing, right? And so, um, and then
22:43.970 --> 22:46.697
even what is pleasing to the Lord. Yeah,
22:47.098 --> 22:50.546
goodness is that which pleases the Lord. Yeah, that's another
22:51.046 --> 22:53.882
way we could define it. Well, it goes on in verse 15,
22:54.539 --> 22:57.891
um, skip ahead. Yeah, wisdom. Yeah, it says,
22:58.004 --> 23:01.340
be very careful then how you live, not as unwise but wise,
23:01.933 --> 23:05.445
making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil.
23:05.622 --> 23:09.297
Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand—
23:09.716 --> 23:13.004
there it is— but understand what the Lord's will is.
23:13.503 --> 23:16.992
So it takes an understanding, right? So to be able to
23:17.492 --> 23:20.983
know what God's
23:21.032 --> 23:23.727
stance is on these sensitive topics,
23:24.163 --> 23:28.131
we have to have an understanding of what God's will is, and the only way
23:28.195 --> 23:31.405
we can really do that is to cultivate a relationship with him through his
23:31.599 --> 23:35.383
Word. And what did Jesus say? Jesus said,
23:35.544 --> 23:39.152
I am the bread of life. I am— this is— yeah,
23:39.232 --> 23:42.664
this is the blood, my blood.
23:42.841 --> 23:46.305
You know, take it and drink. Like, he's— Jesus is over
23:46.805 --> 23:51.132
and over and over again telling us to consume him. What does that mean?
23:51.581 --> 23:55.190
To consume, to consume Jesus and
23:55.690 --> 23:58.477
his teachings and understanding, you know,
23:58.558 --> 24:02.996
daily, moment by moment, and really trying to understand How
24:03.124 --> 24:06.949
God, how Jesus dealt with situations
24:07.126 --> 24:11.223
in his day. Perfect situation
24:11.723 --> 24:15.071
we talked about last podcast was the what Samaritan? The Good
24:15.119 --> 24:17.937
Samaritan. You know, Jesus called him good. Why?
24:18.565 --> 24:23.834
And we, you know, we went through that. But what's the question when— how
24:23.963 --> 24:27.847
is it like, what is the biggest commandment? He calls him good teacher. Yeah,
24:27.928 --> 24:29.941
good teacher. He said, how do you— what is good? Yeah, what is good?
24:30.055 --> 24:31.646
God, I was going to look that up here in a little while. No,
24:31.662 --> 24:35.413
it's good. Uh, it's good,
24:35.605 --> 24:39.035
it's good now. But, uh, yeah,
24:39.115 --> 24:42.706
to, to, to really try to divide and,
24:42.802 --> 24:46.329
and discern and have an understanding and, and have
24:46.829 --> 24:50.641
a good, um, a compass in these sensitive
24:51.395 --> 24:54.360
issues that aren't verbatim, verbatim,
24:54.745 --> 24:58.175
uh, explained in the Bible, we have to have an
24:58.272 --> 25:01.702
understanding of God's will. And, and what I was saying
25:01.894 --> 25:05.052
to begin with is the only way we can do that is to have his
25:05.552 --> 25:09.619
Spirit within us. So at first, then all really we have to do is
25:09.827 --> 25:13.721
believe and dive into it, and God gives us his Spirit,
25:13.913 --> 25:17.663
and when we read his Word, his Spirit then gives us the ability to
25:17.679 --> 25:21.012
understand what it's saying and what his
25:21.124 --> 25:24.937
nature is, and then that ultimately— and Proverbs
25:24.985 --> 25:28.222
is slap full of it. Start there. Just start there and really try to
25:28.238 --> 25:32.019
dig into it and try to understand God's
25:32.519 --> 25:36.209
precepts and decrees. And have a desire,
25:36.675 --> 25:40.032
set out to fulfill that desire to know more about God.
25:40.932 --> 25:43.984
So I think totally I agree,
25:44.145 --> 25:47.358
and I think the twist on just from the beginning of this
25:47.858 --> 25:51.872
root word good can really be like, you know, think about the non-believer,
25:52.097 --> 25:54.957
the average American maybe at this point,
25:55.615 --> 25:59.134
but they think of good and goodness, right, in terms,
25:59.150 --> 26:03.015
you know, like that we were talking about biblical goodness, goodness that's
26:03.159 --> 26:06.749
true and from God, right? And, uh, I think that
26:06.781 --> 26:10.034
the argument or the twist here is that why does
26:10.066 --> 26:13.399
it matter to please a fictional God being
26:13.431 --> 26:16.812
someone who doesn't believe, right? Or, you know, that's, you know, that, yeah, the Bible's
26:17.312 --> 26:20.802
a— it's a list of good rules, you know, good rules, but it's— this
26:21.302 --> 26:23.958
is what's good for society or my family. Like that, there's a twist there,
26:24.007 --> 26:27.003
right? It's like this is what's really good, and there's a conflict, there's a battle
26:27.051 --> 26:30.455
there. And I think we really need to define what— okay, if we're going to
26:30.487 --> 26:34.004
say this is goodness, is God's Word, God's truth, being in the light, all these
26:34.101 --> 26:37.714
things, righteousness, why do we need these things? And I think
26:38.214 --> 26:41.970
of, you know, what's the opposite? It's evil. You read it. The days are evil,
26:42.050 --> 26:47.463
right? And I look at Romans 12:17.
26:47.511 --> 26:50.883
It says, do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what
26:51.383 --> 26:54.641
is right in the eyes of everyone, right? Which is tricky,
26:54.753 --> 26:58.251
which is hard when especially when we come with some of these modern questions
26:58.283 --> 27:01.780
and ethical moral things, but you scroll down to verse 21,
27:01.893 --> 27:05.342
the last verse here. Romans chapter 12 is
27:05.842 --> 27:09.145
a great, great chapter, but I'm not going to read it all
27:09.273 --> 27:12.386
just for the sake of right now, but 21 says, do not be overcome
27:12.482 --> 27:15.659
by evil, but overcome evil by doing good
27:15.835 --> 27:19.044
with good, right? So it's like to me there's the contrast.
27:19.124 --> 27:21.996
Like here's one side, and here's the other, and like, and if we want to
27:22.092 --> 27:25.854
uphold goodness, then We have to reject, rebuke evilness,
27:26.031 --> 27:29.652
right? And it's a choice. The tree of knowledge of good and
27:29.732 --> 27:33.434
evil, right? 2 opposites, right? So if
27:33.934 --> 27:37.211
we want to partake in Jesus and his goodness and
27:37.711 --> 27:40.071
like the salvation that he gives us, right, we have to, we have to realize
27:40.168 --> 27:43.529
what's evil. And what's evil is our own desires, our own fleshly
27:44.849 --> 27:48.068
desires or gain or whatever, right? What's good for
27:48.568 --> 27:51.610
me, you know, in worldly aspects, that's, that's what's evil.
27:51.771 --> 27:55.101
Yeah. And because that's selfishness, that's, that's going to lead me down
27:55.601 --> 27:58.907
my own path, not the path that God wants me to pursue.
27:59.004 --> 28:02.628
So I think we really got to talking about different scenarios,
28:02.676 --> 28:06.114
right? Like, okay, what, what is the evil trap here and what is
28:06.387 --> 28:09.810
the good, the good path? You know, maybe the
28:10.310 --> 28:13.431
good path's harder sometimes. A lot of times it is harder to go down that
28:13.479 --> 28:17.165
good path, but the alternative is evilness.
28:17.294 --> 28:20.937
It's going to lead you to sin, separation from the Father, right down a dark
28:21.437 --> 28:25.362
path. And I know many people, many testimonies that would and say, yeah, I've lived
28:25.426 --> 28:28.875
the evil life and it's not good. You know, maybe I
28:29.375 --> 28:32.853
had an instant of pleasure or goodness, right, like that worldly
28:32.885 --> 28:36.205
goodness, but that fleeted and that was away the next
28:36.237 --> 28:39.381
morning, and all the shame and the guilt or whatever, you know, you name it,
28:39.606 --> 28:43.360
that didn't— what I thought was good, you know, the money, the wealth,
28:43.472 --> 28:46.808
the prosperity, like all that, it really wasn't good,
28:47.145 --> 28:50.851
right? It wasn't everlasting, and I think that's what we can see in God's goodness
28:51.351 --> 28:54.698
is that it's It's everlasting. It's not just, oh man, I had a
28:55.198 --> 28:58.384
good day and I got what I wanted, and man, I got that bonus at
28:58.448 --> 29:01.911
work or whatever. You know, it's— no, it's goodness is something to have.
29:02.456 --> 29:07.168
God's goodness is something so much deeper, grander, and rewarding
29:07.264 --> 29:10.454
too, because it's not something that we produce. It's something
29:10.486 --> 29:13.820
that we cling to. God's already, you know, defined what is
29:13.916 --> 29:17.234
good. So the twist that the world gives—
29:17.734 --> 29:20.583
I mean, that's kind of the answer. Question you asked,
29:21.385 --> 29:25.118
you know, what is the twist? The world says take the liberty
29:25.535 --> 29:29.284
of free choice and decide what is good for yourself,
29:29.637 --> 29:32.889
right? And God says you don't
29:32.905 --> 29:36.495
have to take on that burden. I've already established this. This is
29:36.671 --> 29:40.484
who I am. Yeah, learn who I am and then you'll know what's
29:40.984 --> 29:43.577
good. It's already established. It's already established. We don't have to work for it,
29:43.737 --> 29:46.669
and that's the, um, we don't have to redefine it.
29:46.923 --> 29:50.268
We don't have to redefine it. And that's the repent. You know,
29:50.736 --> 29:54.464
we need to repent here whenever we are taking the liberty to
29:56.467 --> 30:00.860
name what is good versus not
30:00.989 --> 30:04.754
being in line with what God says. His word says it's good. There's a saying
30:05.028 --> 30:08.874
in East Texas. We describe certain people as good old
30:08.987 --> 30:12.352
boys. Good old boys. What's a good old boy? Yeah. Yeah. Are you
30:12.419 --> 30:15.583
asking? Yeah. I think of like a— I'll let
30:16.083 --> 30:18.873
you take it. He's gonna do what he says he's gonna do. Okay. He's a
30:18.889 --> 30:22.340
man of his word. A man of his word. That's godly. Yeah. Um, he's a
30:22.840 --> 30:26.352
good old boy. If I'm in a bind and I call him,
30:26.657 --> 30:30.429
he's gonna come through. Okay. He's dependable. He's dependable. Okay. Yeah.
30:30.990 --> 30:34.489
Um, he's a good old boy. He's not gonna bother
30:34.521 --> 30:37.731
anybody unless somebody comes bothering him.
30:37.988 --> 30:41.568
Okay. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I know that's a lot of slang. He's independent.
30:41.616 --> 30:44.185
He's independent. Um, yeah,
30:44.988 --> 30:48.007
somebody that I wouldn't mind being around,
30:48.344 --> 30:51.989
you know, and having a conversation with. Somebody that I might generally— yeah,
30:52.181 --> 30:55.264
respected. Yeah, yeah, somebody I may check up on every once
30:55.764 --> 30:59.343
in a while. Yeah. Um, good old boys in East Texas
30:59.843 --> 31:02.265
are like, you know, salt of the earth kind of people.
31:03.100 --> 31:06.628
Um, just Hard worker. Yeah,
31:06.644 --> 31:09.769
blue collar. Yeah, blue collar. Yeah, hard worker. Uh,
31:10.234 --> 31:14.080
you know, probably provides for his family but probably has some wild
31:14.580 --> 31:17.926
oats, or, you know, whatever that saying is. Like, probably lives a
31:18.426 --> 31:21.547
little loose and fast on some morals, but, but like,
31:21.707 --> 31:24.992
generally, for the most part, is a good old boy. I think there's a
31:25.057 --> 31:28.325
lot of— we got a lot of— that's why it's a phrase.
31:28.582 --> 31:32.508
Um, there's a— there's some like dotted
31:33.008 --> 31:36.804
line connection between that and Christianity. It's not the same
31:36.836 --> 31:40.826
thing, right? But in our culture where Christianity
31:40.923 --> 31:44.609
has been maybe the dominant influence
31:45.109 --> 31:48.359
for a significant amount of time, there's some of those
31:48.392 --> 31:52.318
things are still valued. Good old boys aren't necessarily
31:52.382 --> 31:56.005
Christians. In fact, many of them are not. They aren't
31:56.505 --> 32:00.557
in church. They aren't leading their family. They may not even still
32:01.057 --> 32:04.393
be with their family, but they're hard workers, they're good community members.
32:04.987 --> 32:08.277
Their nature, their nature is good. If to,
32:08.437 --> 32:12.273
like you said, in comparison of, in view, full view of how the
32:12.773 --> 32:15.948
world is, they're not just, uh, lousy rednecks,
32:15.980 --> 32:18.997
right? Like, they're a good old boy. Like, you know, responsible,
32:19.093 --> 32:22.897
responsible for the most part. Yeah, good employee. I think there's a—
32:23.397 --> 32:27.470
so maybe one of the aspects I want us to think about is a
32:27.518 --> 32:31.462
lot of the good old boys do what's right on the outside,
32:31.622 --> 32:34.075
right? There's a veneer of goodness,
32:35.470 --> 32:38.500
but the heart is not always in the right spot.
32:38.596 --> 32:41.690
And so I think that that's one of the aspects of goodness maybe we have
32:41.722 --> 32:45.249
to consider is, um, what does Jesus
32:45.749 --> 32:48.904
say? Uh, you're like whitewashed tombs,
32:49.401 --> 32:53.329
right? You're clean on the outside, it's a facade, but you're—
32:53.489 --> 32:57.737
there's death on the inside. You're— you've cleaned the outside
32:58.237 --> 33:02.433
of the glass, but the inside is dirty. And so how
33:02.481 --> 33:05.943
do we— or how is goodness sometimes
33:06.087 --> 33:09.517
just on display on the outside but not
33:09.597 --> 33:13.220
actually there on the inside? Does that make sense? Yeah, no, definitely. What,
33:14.005 --> 33:17.403
um, do we sometimes do what is good but
33:17.451 --> 33:20.672
for the wrong reason, and why is that not good? Yeah,
33:20.929 --> 33:24.166
I think a lot of times there's, there's some selfish gain to achieve,
33:24.182 --> 33:28.450
right? Like, I'm gonna do these good things that we can I'm not gonna list
33:28.950 --> 33:32.465
them by name, but there's so many, uh, like nonprofit organizations, there's so
33:32.481 --> 33:35.677
many churches, there's so many, uh, charities that
33:36.177 --> 33:39.596
do all this really good thing, good stuff, right? Um,
33:39.612 --> 33:43.209
but also they have a CEO making a million dollars. They have, you know,
33:43.225 --> 33:47.144
there's misappropriating funds because it's gonna, it's gonna
33:47.644 --> 33:50.677
benefit them. And, and I'm not trying to dive into all that. I don't know
33:50.693 --> 33:54.351
everything. Yeah, but you don't have a list over there? I mean, I can
33:54.367 --> 33:57.661
pull one out. Yeah, that is Romans, Micah, Ephesians.
33:58.516 --> 34:02.616
So that reflects— they do what he thinks. The whitewashed
34:03.116 --> 34:06.681
tombs. Yes. Maybe a little bit more subtle,
34:08.942 --> 34:12.451
less obvious. Something that I think that,
34:12.629 --> 34:16.025
that, that we— that's common amongst
34:16.525 --> 34:18.649
us, especially in, like you said, our society.
34:21.399 --> 34:25.550
It is a privilege to participate in society,
34:25.887 --> 34:29.798
and we, I think we inherently know that. And so, okay, I need to maintain
34:29.846 --> 34:33.356
a driver's license. I don't need to have, I don't
34:33.856 --> 34:37.347
need to have all, you know, speeding tickets, DWIs, or whatever,
34:37.427 --> 34:40.488
you know, I need to mind my P's and Q's. Yeah, you know, there's some
34:40.988 --> 34:44.559
things for me to be able to participate, and I need,
34:44.639 --> 34:51.013
I know, like you said, I think there's inherent knowledge in also
34:51.256 --> 34:54.874
in society, you know, they're in it. This is
34:54.987 --> 34:58.315
biblical to take care of your family, to provide
34:58.815 --> 35:01.327
and do well. Okay, so I've got to hold down a job. So I need,
35:01.600 --> 35:04.418
I need to be able to drive. I need to have a job. I need
35:04.918 --> 35:07.183
to be responsible. I need to show up. I need to be a man of
35:07.199 --> 35:10.892
my word, you know. And so there's these, you know, we can really
35:11.714 --> 35:15.585
do all that we can just for still for selfish reasons,
35:16.089 --> 35:19.840
still to your point. I mean, it's the same example, but it's maybe
35:20.340 --> 35:22.181
a little bit more subtle, a little bit more, you know,
35:23.142 --> 35:26.653
accepted amongst us. But you said
35:27.153 --> 35:29.843
a lot of these— the difference between those 2 is that,
35:31.237 --> 35:35.181
like, the Pharisees knowingly trying to preserve
35:35.681 --> 35:38.851
their way of life and not give up their power.
35:39.252 --> 35:42.875
When I'm talking— when I'm thinking of a good old boy, like, this dude probably
35:42.923 --> 35:46.052
don't have that much, like, He's just a, you know,
35:46.534 --> 35:50.533
regular run-of-the-mill, not, not very flashy or shiny,
35:50.629 --> 35:53.584
didn't have all the cool stuff, fairly humble,
35:54.403 --> 35:58.611
uh, setting in my mind, right? Um, so yeah,
35:58.659 --> 36:02.739
how can I maintain a position in society
36:03.076 --> 36:06.513
and, and provide for my family? And I know that sounds
36:06.545 --> 36:10.175
twisted, like, oh, these are good things. It's good to provide for your family.
36:10.239 --> 36:13.354
It's good to Yeah, for sure, to be a productive member.
36:13.450 --> 36:16.902
And so, but is that the— you're making it the
36:17.402 --> 36:20.964
thing, or you don't— you just simply don't know or have been
36:21.060 --> 36:24.368
presented God's word or understand
36:24.868 --> 36:28.638
the gospel, right? Because there's plenty of those people around us too that need
36:29.138 --> 36:32.941
to be reached, that would— that are ready. Their soul is ready to receive God's
36:33.441 --> 36:36.810
word. Um, and, and we— that's, you know,
36:37.757 --> 36:41.222
Christian men, that's our job to reach those people. I've got
36:41.722 --> 36:45.201
a heart for these guys. I really do. Like, this is a— I
36:45.217 --> 36:49.100
believe that this is a ministry that God has called on my life
36:49.308 --> 36:52.758
and to, um, to seek these
36:52.918 --> 36:56.624
types of people out and to go out of my way to
36:57.124 --> 37:00.443
be kind, go out of my way to be good, and to truly show them
37:00.555 --> 37:04.736
what true godly love is and
37:04.881 --> 37:08.415
how can you really live
37:08.447 --> 37:12.480
this out, right? And so I've done— I'm
37:12.980 --> 37:16.969
not saying I'm perfect in this, but I really am trying to make an effort
37:17.387 --> 37:20.590
in this calling, this side of my life,
37:21.899 --> 37:26.520
to use my business as an avenue for people to
37:27.312 --> 37:27.894
really see.
37:30.234 --> 37:33.745
To present that. Yeah. Yeah. I got some
37:34.948 --> 37:38.316
situational ethics. All right. Talk about goodness.
37:38.396 --> 37:42.485
What is— what does it look like to exercise this?
37:42.710 --> 37:45.981
Y'all may have more scripture we can jump to anytime. I don't know.
37:46.254 --> 37:49.445
Ask a question. Okay, let's go. Thinking about telling the truth,
37:50.022 --> 37:53.855
right? We would agree that telling the truth is good.
37:54.224 --> 37:57.751
Good, right? That's right. It's what we should
37:57.816 --> 38:01.648
do. Okay, so you're at work. You make a mistake,
38:02.128 --> 38:05.398
do you admit it or do you just quietly
38:05.975 --> 38:08.876
fix it? These are kind of gonna have to be rapid fire because I got
38:09.376 --> 38:12.787
a bunch of them. It depends on the mistake. Okay. Did you
38:13.287 --> 38:16.265
accidentally book the wrong flights or did you spend, you know, did you spend a
38:16.765 --> 38:18.749
lot of money on accident or, you know, I don't know. I'm trying to think
38:19.249 --> 38:21.746
of an example, but it depends to me. It depends.
38:21.939 --> 38:25.481
Okay. Yeah. Um, a whole lot of adult diapers
38:25.981 --> 38:29.183
in this conversation. My first reaction
38:29.215 --> 38:32.988
is Cover your tracks, right? That's my, that's my first initial
38:33.004 --> 38:36.214
thought. But then it's like, like I said, I have to allow God's
38:36.714 --> 38:39.939
Spirit to take, take hold and to shake me here sometimes.
38:40.003 --> 38:43.423
Better to tell the truth, always maybe have a consequence or
38:43.923 --> 38:47.196
a little bit harder, or is it better to just in business fix
38:47.696 --> 38:50.776
it? And this is the way I run my life. I try to in business,
38:51.129 --> 38:53.955
your best loss is your first loss.
38:54.452 --> 38:57.904
So don't, don't keep on going. Quit throwing money at
38:58.404 --> 39:01.786
something that's like And I've learned this the hard way. And this is
39:01.883 --> 39:05.667
the way that, you know, be truthful because it's going to— yeah,
39:05.972 --> 39:09.517
it may— you may have made a mistake or whatever it may be.
39:09.597 --> 39:13.141
And a lot of times it's something innocent. Honest, right? And honest.
39:13.269 --> 39:15.370
And then, but we're like, oh, I'm going to get in trouble. And then we
39:15.870 --> 39:18.979
create a lie. Like, just come forth with
39:19.479 --> 39:23.213
the truth to begin with. And yeah, there may be a cost. There may be
39:23.713 --> 39:26.420
something that it costs you. But before you move on, I got an example,
39:26.436 --> 39:29.670
actually. I don't know if I— I don't think I told you. I messed up.
39:30.170 --> 39:34.570
You're confessing. I'm confessing right now. Okay. Um, but I fixed it. So I
39:35.070 --> 39:38.230
took the seniors, a senior trip, right? We went to Slitterbahn. Oh my goodness.
39:38.730 --> 39:41.690
Here we go. And it was supposed to be for the next Thursday. I mean,
39:42.190 --> 39:45.030
I booked them on Wednesday and I picked the third, like the next day on
39:45.530 --> 39:49.070
accident. And I was like, spent, you know, $300 or whatever on tickets. I'm like,
39:49.570 --> 39:53.510
oh crap. And couldn't get, I was emailing 5 people trying to
39:54.010 --> 39:56.490
call. And if you, if you mess up at Slitterbahn, just don't even try to
39:56.990 --> 40:00.301
call because they don't answer. Uh, but Eventually I got
40:00.801 --> 40:03.621
a hold of someone on email and they fixed it. Okay, so I didn't tell
40:04.121 --> 40:05.723
you because I was worried. I was like, I was making the lie like,
40:05.964 --> 40:08.177
oh, Brian's gonna be mad at me. I just messed up and then we can't
40:08.677 --> 40:12.124
take the kids on a senior trip. Okay, another one in truth-telling.
40:12.220 --> 40:15.140
Your friend asks you your,
40:15.525 --> 40:19.230
like, your opinion about something in their life, either how they're
40:19.730 --> 40:23.562
living or a decision they made or whatever, but you know that the honest
40:24.062 --> 40:27.686
answer is gonna hurt them. Yeah. You know, what is, what is good?
40:27.798 --> 40:30.832
What is right? Do I look fat in this dress? Sure, you could
40:30.848 --> 40:34.074
take it that way. Yeah, this is where
40:34.524 --> 40:38.103
your character comes in, right? And how
40:38.152 --> 40:42.052
well do you know this person, for one? So it is a little bit circumstantial,
40:42.165 --> 40:45.086
but say it's a— did you say it was a good friend? Yeah, good friend.
40:45.134 --> 40:48.521
Good friend. Ask your opinion about something in their life. I'm going to
40:48.569 --> 40:51.860
be truthful, but I'm going to deliver it in a kind
40:52.360 --> 40:56.790
way. In a kind way, right? Yeah. And actually,
40:57.290 --> 41:00.050
I think, yes, be truthful. And I would say I deliver it in a sly
41:00.550 --> 41:04.290
way. Sly way? Sly, just kind of like, I don't want to
41:04.790 --> 41:08.370
be too brash. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Character comes into play here.
41:08.870 --> 41:13.410
Carefully. Yeah. You've got to present the answer. Maybe playfully be honest.
41:13.910 --> 41:16.590
Yeah, that's a good way to do it. Playfully. Yeah. But at the same time,
41:17.090 --> 41:20.070
be serious too. Say, hey, and then you've got to be intentional.
41:20.310 --> 41:23.862
Like, okay, now I've got to kind of go into some depth
41:23.910 --> 41:27.345
here, and, and it doesn't need to end with that question and
41:27.441 --> 41:31.213
or that response. It needs to go a little bit deeper. Yeah. What about,
41:31.293 --> 41:34.615
um, you accidentally get, uh, too much change back at a store?
41:34.695 --> 41:37.729
I don't know if y'all use cash or not, but yeah, a store makes a
41:38.229 --> 41:41.773
mistake and, and yeah, you know, yeah, you return it. Do you go return it,
41:41.805 --> 41:44.614
or do y'all— what's the right thing to do?
41:44.951 --> 41:48.065
Debbie called me the other day. I'm gonna— and, and she was like,
41:48.081 --> 41:51.210
hey, this bill on, uh, changing my
41:51.434 --> 41:54.628
oil was, um, way less than what
41:54.660 --> 41:57.372
I thought it was. I was— she told me that. I was like, yeah,
41:57.388 --> 42:00.902
that's not right, because they replaced their cabin air filter and all the
42:00.982 --> 42:04.432
other filters. I was like, it should have been $150, and it was— it
42:04.932 --> 42:08.059
should have been $350. It was only $100. And so I'm like,
42:08.700 --> 42:12.134
something's wrong here. I was like, read you— read
42:12.634 --> 42:15.472
me your, uh, receipt to me. And then she was like, it was just oil
42:15.584 --> 42:18.790
change. Like, yeah, they didn't change you for none
42:19.290 --> 42:21.450
of the filters. She was like, okay, well, what do I do? I've already drove
42:21.950 --> 42:24.890
off. I was like, baby, you gotta turn around. Like, you gotta go. They made
42:25.390 --> 42:28.850
a mistake. And here's the deal, I own a business, and if I rendered a
42:29.350 --> 42:32.780
service and forgot to,
42:32.990 --> 42:36.510
uh, this is treat your, you know, treat your neighbor, you know,
42:37.010 --> 42:38.370
I think you want to be treated— that is the good thing to do.
42:38.870 --> 42:40.850
That's the right thing to do. I want them to come back and pay me
42:41.350 --> 42:43.650
if I forgot to charge them for something. I have not personally been on the
42:44.150 --> 42:47.380
other end of that. But so, but I know what's right. But I know that
42:47.412 --> 42:50.526
there's other people that would say like, oh, they're mistaken. This is God's
42:51.026 --> 42:54.490
favor in my life today. This is— I saved $100. I saved $200.
42:54.554 --> 42:57.331
Yeah. Yeah. So let's move on.
42:58.487 --> 43:02.676
This one happens pretty frequently. When is something gossip
43:02.740 --> 43:06.031
versus like sharing like a prayer
43:06.531 --> 43:10.493
request or like, you know, like caring for somebody
43:10.525 --> 43:13.028
within a group, right? So,
43:13.477 --> 43:17.356
um, you know, like, when does a prayer request become
43:17.661 --> 43:20.963
gossip? Is it ever appropriate to share somebody else's
43:21.172 --> 43:24.554
struggle with people that are not that
43:25.054 --> 43:28.529
person? What's right in that situation? Maybe you need counsel, maybe you
43:28.562 --> 43:31.607
need understanding. Yeah. Is that then appropriate
43:32.107 --> 43:35.855
to like, hey, I'm going to come talk to you about this situation because I
43:36.355 --> 43:39.622
need to know what to do? Or is that wrong? We're breaking confidentiality.
43:39.686 --> 43:42.748
What's good? What's right? I hate to say it because you said a while ago,
43:42.812 --> 43:46.280
but it depends. It I hope you start every answer
43:46.780 --> 43:49.900
with, it depends. It depends. If you— I mean, if your, if your buddy is
43:50.400 --> 43:53.780
struggling with— and, um, yeah,
43:54.280 --> 43:56.040
he's just really been down in the dumps, you know, I would, you know,
43:56.540 --> 43:59.360
let's just pray. Let's lift him up in prayer this morning. Pray over, you know,
43:59.860 --> 44:03.340
my buddy. But if it's your buddy that's— man, he's going through it. He just
44:03.840 --> 44:06.520
cheated on his wife. You just want to tell somebody that it's a big gossip.
44:07.020 --> 44:09.080
It's a big story and no one else knows and you're the only one he
44:09.580 --> 44:12.244
confided in, you, you know, and like, this is serious, then it's like No,
44:12.309 --> 44:15.385
that— he confided in you. You don't need to— you can say like, hey,
44:15.417 --> 44:18.300
I have a friend, but you don't have to mention his name, you know.
44:18.380 --> 44:21.508
And then also be like, well, don't be like, I got a
44:22.008 --> 44:25.921
friend and man, he is just messing up. He was sleeping around with these girls,
44:26.196 --> 44:30.024
other women. And no, that becomes gossip. It's how you present it, I think.
44:31.073 --> 44:35.769
Definitely depends on the situation, you know, how severe the
44:35.850 --> 44:39.214
situation are they going through, but also how you present it of
44:39.714 --> 44:43.116
like, are you I don't know, bragging. I think
44:43.261 --> 44:46.518
that if we considered gossip just mentioning people being in
44:46.534 --> 44:50.257
the wrong when they're not in the room, then this book is slap
44:50.757 --> 44:54.205
full— sorry, almost slap full of gossip, if that's the way we define it.
44:54.750 --> 44:58.168
So we've got to be careful here, though, because when I,
44:58.329 --> 45:02.052
when I walk into a room and somebody is talking about somebody and they're asking
45:02.552 --> 45:06.834
me opinions of things like, what is their intention? Are they trying to actually understand
45:07.334 --> 45:10.910
why somebody is doing what they're doing? Are they trying to get an understanding of
45:11.342 --> 45:14.789
right and wrong here, or are we just talking about somebody for sport?
45:15.334 --> 45:18.460
You know, you know, in, in when you leave that room and go to the
45:18.960 --> 45:22.131
next room, are you still talking about that same person? Like, are you spreading that
45:22.227 --> 45:25.465
wildfire? I mean, that is the assassination of character.
45:25.673 --> 45:29.424
Yeah, right. And so we've got to be careful here. So any time
45:29.456 --> 45:33.256
that I'm, I'm going to turn it into a, a time
45:33.384 --> 45:36.846
to preach and you're going to quit talking about people in front of me after,
45:37.135 --> 45:40.549
after a while because, oh, because here's the deal. It's not
45:40.677 --> 45:43.354
gossip if we're trying to reach a solution.
45:44.668 --> 45:47.777
And if there is a solution at hand and we're trying to
45:47.873 --> 45:51.239
understand the situation and for it to
45:51.399 --> 45:53.226
edify ourselves,
45:54.283 --> 45:57.649
then yeah, let's talk about it. It's okay. We all know
45:57.729 --> 46:01.511
what's going on. Let's figure out what's right. And if I ever have
46:02.011 --> 46:05.197
the opportunity to correct this person in this way,
46:05.421 --> 46:08.482
this is the way that I need to carry myself. And it depends. It depends
46:08.982 --> 46:11.527
who's in the room as well. So we don't need to, as Christians, just,
46:11.607 --> 46:14.459
oh, we can't talk about nobody. No, that's not healthy either.
46:14.988 --> 46:18.627
Right? That's all the way before we have to address problems. I think gossip is
46:18.739 --> 46:21.673
one of the most like socially accepted sins.
46:22.410 --> 46:26.289
Oh yeah. I, yeah, I probably veer on the— I try to.
46:26.578 --> 46:30.057
I'm not saying I'm perfect. No, it's impossible to be perfect. But I try to
46:30.121 --> 46:33.407
veer on the other side of like just not really talking
46:33.907 --> 46:37.014
about things because I'm in a position where I tend to know a lot of
46:37.514 --> 46:40.685
things because people come and tell me stuff and I kind of
46:41.185 --> 46:45.170
hate that. To be honest, because it just is messy.
46:45.670 --> 46:48.710
I think a good response that if you find yourself in the situation, you didn't
46:49.210 --> 46:52.610
present it, but maybe you're, you know, you walked into someone's gossip and it's— and
46:53.110 --> 46:56.210
just, it doesn't have to be a 10-minute— ruin my walk. No, I think the
46:56.710 --> 46:59.690
good thing to do is to stand up for the person that's not there,
47:00.190 --> 47:02.650
right? To end it and be like, no, I really enjoy that person, you know,
47:03.150 --> 47:06.410
and I don't like what you're saying about them. You know, you can do that
47:06.910 --> 47:10.478
kindly, you know, and there's And you can, you can display
47:10.978 --> 47:13.639
the fruits of the Spirit in that, and, and hopefully it leads to repentance.
47:13.688 --> 47:17.459
And I, I have a similar story where it did. So a
47:17.959 --> 47:21.488
lot of times, this is the, this is the irony of it, is in a
47:21.552 --> 47:26.319
lot of times in gossip that there is people
47:26.367 --> 47:28.935
that are gossiping just to gossip,
47:29.738 --> 47:33.060
there's probably— they're being hypocritical in some way, right?
47:33.429 --> 47:37.235
And so Not that I'm trying to dig and find out
47:37.347 --> 47:41.394
where these people are being hypocrites because they present it, they present
47:41.894 --> 47:44.991
themselves. You've got to, we've got to be good and quick-minded to say, hey,
47:45.296 --> 47:48.459
you're doing the same thing. Like, let's call it out.
47:48.507 --> 47:51.559
Let's say, you know, it's, you know, what's black and black is black. Doing the
47:52.059 --> 47:54.610
same thing by sitting here talking about that person. Yeah.
47:55.413 --> 47:58.801
You're being ugly too. Yeah. Now Maddie was asking me about a
47:59.301 --> 48:02.780
situation the other day. Somebody, she's like, like, yeah, they just won't
48:03.280 --> 48:05.440
go talk to that person about it. And I'm like, aren't you doing the same
48:05.940 --> 48:09.140
thing to me? Like, you're talking to me about it instead of— like,
48:09.640 --> 48:12.740
now we're like 4 of us staying on it. And that's why we need to
48:13.240 --> 48:16.580
stop the conversation. She was like, you're right, I shouldn't be saying that. And so
48:17.080 --> 48:20.820
yeah, we've got to have a presence. That's what I'm saying. That's why it's good.
48:21.320 --> 48:24.590
We must, we must have a presence in those rooms, in those conversations,
48:25.080 --> 48:28.640
and redirect and show and shed light. That's what God calls
48:29.140 --> 48:32.767
us to be Here's another one. Someone comes and tells
48:33.267 --> 48:36.572
you something in confidence that probably shouldn't be in confidence,
48:36.636 --> 48:40.777
but you discover that somebody's in danger, someone's being
48:40.809 --> 48:43.715
harmed, that sort of deal. And they ask you,
48:44.084 --> 48:47.343
please don't tell anybody, right? What is the right thing to do?
48:48.354 --> 48:52.432
They're the ones who did the harm? I don't know, could be. I would say
48:52.932 --> 48:56.445
definitely the good thing. Should you keep that in confidence or should
48:56.945 --> 48:59.962
you report that, share that? Well, I think as what's good,
49:00.139 --> 49:03.352
a youth pastor, you know, I'm thinking in those terms and trainings
49:03.852 --> 49:06.066
that I've done, it's like, no, what's good is to help the person that's being
49:06.243 --> 49:08.893
harmed. That's, you know, if it's, uh, you know,
49:09.937 --> 49:13.327
any kind of abuse, there's so many different types of abuse, right? But no,
49:13.471 --> 49:16.989
what's right is help the person who needs the help. And if this person is
49:18.129 --> 49:21.278
the abuser or the attacker or whatever you want to call them, like, no,
49:21.422 --> 49:25.147
they're They're not to be protected. Yeah. No, sometimes that's good.
49:25.211 --> 49:29.145
Some— yeah, sometimes that takes some thought and some wisdom, right? Is to—
49:29.787 --> 49:33.977
when, when you— to help that person, which y'all
49:34.025 --> 49:37.621
two have probably way more experience here than I do, just trying
49:37.653 --> 49:40.704
to think it through. Uh, I don't know if I have a,
49:41.105 --> 49:44.219
an experience, but, um, yeah,
49:44.235 --> 49:47.687
sometimes helping them is telling somebody, right? Yeah. And whatever
49:48.187 --> 49:50.978
that may be, times where I'm unsure, I, I— there's been times where I've been
49:51.478 --> 49:54.400
unsure, like, well, it's You come ask me. Yeah, I go and ask you.
49:54.450 --> 49:56.630
There you go. I was going to say, like, you need to have— I think
49:57.130 --> 49:59.710
it's a good, good time to realize I need some mentors in my life that
50:00.210 --> 50:02.250
are, you know, a little bit ahead of me that maybe they've dealt with a
50:02.750 --> 50:04.560
similar situation. I'm just not sure who I'm supposed to go ask.
50:05.630 --> 50:08.850
Ultimately, seek scripture if you got nobody,
50:09.350 --> 50:12.750
which the answer's in there. So yeah, I think that's— that one's a little more
50:13.250 --> 50:16.870
black and white for me. Okay. What about your workplace? And I know that's weird
50:17.370 --> 50:21.230
for us, but let's just say your workplace is asking you to do something unethical,
50:21.310 --> 50:24.754
either just by the culture that's there or your boss
50:25.043 --> 50:28.449
telling you, hey, change these numbers to make something look better.
50:28.755 --> 50:32.852
Don't tell somebody, don't tell the customer about a problem. Let's just sweep
50:33.352 --> 50:37.432
it under the rug. Let's— or take credit for somebody else's work, or clock
50:37.932 --> 50:41.272
in for somebody who's not there, or use company resources for
50:41.772 --> 50:45.820
personal gain under the guise of everybody's doing it. This is the culture here.
50:46.655 --> 50:50.654
Um, I guess what is good at what is right in those
50:50.703 --> 50:53.960
situations. Now, the right thing may be losing your job,
50:53.976 --> 50:58.310
maybe saying, I can't stand for this. I'm going to take
50:58.326 --> 51:01.728
Ethan's approach here. It depends. It really does.
51:01.824 --> 51:05.547
I think it does depend sometimes. So— oh, you don't think
51:06.047 --> 51:10.121
it depends? I don't think it depends on this one. You said something like
51:10.651 --> 51:15.257
to say, here's the deal, because not everybody needs to know everything.
51:15.658 --> 51:19.186
So not everything is beneficial, right? So to—
51:19.491 --> 51:22.827
for like, say, customer— now there's,
51:23.661 --> 51:27.494
there's a good time, there's, there's times whenever, you know, I know how a
51:27.994 --> 51:31.118
customer is going to be and I just, I want to
51:31.618 --> 51:35.127
get him in and out. And if he understood the
51:35.627 --> 51:39.265
trouble and the, the time that I've actually had to spend versus,
51:40.003 --> 51:44.111
uh, what I charged him Um, and is— which
51:44.611 --> 51:47.852
I'm not saying that in, in the, in the negative way. I'm always charging
51:47.964 --> 51:51.608
less than what I have in it. It's just part of being a small,
51:51.753 --> 51:55.236
small-time business. There's no way that I could be fair and charge
51:55.429 --> 51:59.362
people according to how much time. But what I'm saying is, is like,
51:59.378 --> 52:03.439
say we mess up, uh, on a, on a job, cut it apart and
52:03.939 --> 52:07.324
fix it. They don't have to know, right? So I do think it—
52:07.453 --> 52:11.016
yeah, I do think that it's, uh, situational now.
52:11.370 --> 52:14.410
That, that would require you to define
52:14.910 --> 52:18.430
what is ethical and what's not, you know. Um, I think when it deals with
52:18.930 --> 52:21.810
like money, that's what I was thinking. Whenever you're like, you know, numbers and money
52:22.310 --> 52:24.870
and, uh, you know, this person clocked them in and they really weren't here,
52:25.370 --> 52:28.790
like, no, that's, that's wrong. Yeah, what is, what is unethical? So if it— that's,
52:29.290 --> 52:32.750
that's probably where I'd have to answer that question. You'd have to, you'd have to
52:33.250 --> 52:36.790
define each scenario for me. Yeah, your scenario though, like,
52:37.290 --> 52:40.150
no, you fixed the problem. Like, it wasn't like you shorted somebody or— I didn't
52:40.650 --> 52:43.625
sweep anything under the rug. It's the same quality that was going to to come
52:44.125 --> 52:48.231
out to begin with. There's no— yeah, sometimes people
52:48.731 --> 52:52.316
just don't need to know everything because that just ends up being problematic.
52:52.510 --> 52:56.104
Let's switch gears. Okay. And I know you don't do social
52:56.120 --> 52:59.375
media, but let's think about social media and just maybe talk about
52:59.875 --> 53:03.442
some of this. You see people post something that's clearly
53:03.862 --> 53:06.768
wrong, clearly like either propaganda,
53:06.929 --> 53:08.721
AI, or, you know,
53:10.034 --> 53:13.817
purposefully misleading or whatever, uh, what is right
53:13.945 --> 53:18.161
and good in that situation? Is it comment publicly and
53:18.466 --> 53:21.896
say that? Is it send them a private message, hey, I think—
53:23.098 --> 53:26.384
is it, ah, who gives a rip and
53:26.884 --> 53:30.921
ignore it? Is it share it and call them out publicly
53:30.953 --> 53:34.463
because they posted it publicly? What is good and right
53:34.479 --> 53:38.344
in our social media engagement on truth
53:38.844 --> 53:42.499
and false things? Text is difficult.
53:43.445 --> 53:47.167
You cannot have a— this is hard because
53:47.667 --> 53:51.064
it's like even I can have the best intentions with a text to my wife
53:51.866 --> 53:55.058
and she knows exactly who I am and what I do and
53:55.091 --> 53:58.571
reads the wrong tone into it. Reads the wrong tone. Whole day is ruined.
53:58.619 --> 54:02.229
Yeah. And then it— so my approach is to just keep my
54:02.729 --> 54:05.150
mouth shut and And here's the deal.
54:06.498 --> 54:09.710
Don't, because you're going to attract the same type of people.
54:10.175 --> 54:13.724
Like, yeah, don't expect any other result other
54:14.224 --> 54:16.710
than those kinds of folks that are going to blast you, going to get on
54:16.759 --> 54:20.500
there and comment and be hateful and negative in
54:20.596 --> 54:23.840
those situations. I'm not going to, I'm not going
54:24.340 --> 54:28.400
to participate in that. I'm really, I don't
54:28.900 --> 54:32.490
like airing out, uh, stuff on social media.
54:32.990 --> 54:34.930
I don't have social media, but I got a lot— I got a lot to
54:35.430 --> 54:38.690
say about that situation and just the whole thing in general.
54:39.190 --> 54:42.130
Like, yeah, that's what you're going to attract. If that's— if that's— whether it's political,
54:42.630 --> 54:46.050
religious, or just controversial, it doesn't even matter, right?
54:46.550 --> 54:49.550
If you're gonna— if you're gonna post something like that, if it's— if it— if
54:50.050 --> 54:52.970
you're close to that person, you know, if it's your brother, sister in Christ,
54:53.470 --> 54:56.413
right, or, or someone that you have a good relationship, good friend, Like there probably
54:56.913 --> 54:59.899
needs to be someone, and maybe it's not messaging them. I don't think commenting is
54:59.995 --> 55:04.669
the right, because then you're just, you're feeding into the excitement
55:05.169 --> 55:08.412
of it all, right? And then someone comments on your comment, and then you're arguing
55:08.444 --> 55:12.026
and squabbling, and what fruit is coming from that? Nothing.
55:12.524 --> 55:15.881
So I think that if it is something like, hey, my good friend,
55:15.897 --> 55:20.105
you know, like Byron, if you posted something that was against Scripture
55:20.250 --> 55:23.123
or and was hateful or whatever, right? Like, no,
55:23.957 --> 55:27.278
it's— there's going back to accountability. It's my responsibility to like— I don't have
55:27.310 --> 55:30.921
to comment, but like maybe I do call you, or maybe
55:30.985 --> 55:34.547
I think in person is probably the best because things can get messed up
55:34.771 --> 55:38.093
in text like that, and all of a sudden you're mad, but I think that
55:38.622 --> 55:42.553
as a Christian man there's a level of accountability, and what is good is to
55:42.794 --> 55:46.148
go to your brother or sister in Christ. Hey, you know what you're
55:46.648 --> 55:49.780
saying about this topic, this hot topic that's going on right now, You know,
55:50.280 --> 55:53.760
I get it. You may believe that, but— and it may be a totally confusing
55:54.260 --> 55:57.740
scenario, but like, hey, that's just not what Scripture says. And sometimes it's easy
55:58.240 --> 56:02.080
as that. And it's like, I just want you to know that. So being honest
56:02.580 --> 56:05.600
is good, you know, being honest in those situations and— yeah,
56:06.100 --> 56:10.320
and then approach them with kindness. So we talked about last episode though, and you've
56:10.820 --> 56:13.540
got to have to know that person well or care what they, you know,
56:14.070 --> 56:17.340
what— be involved in such a way, you know, if they're your friend
56:17.840 --> 56:21.097
on social media, then you probably do. Yeah. Well, I'm just saying. Yeah. Oh,
56:21.113 --> 56:24.358
kind of, maybe not really. I don't know. But, um,
56:24.881 --> 56:28.231
I don't know. I've got like over 1,500 friends
56:28.488 --> 56:31.801
and there's just people that send, you know, whatever.
56:31.882 --> 56:35.279
Yeah. It's just, I think that's everybody on Facebook is just,
56:35.408 --> 56:38.532
oh, I heard about him or no, no, that guy, uh, send him a friend
56:38.548 --> 56:41.792
request. I don't deny any friend requests. So I don't know.
56:42.212 --> 56:45.751
So everybody go add me. But like, just say, yeah. Oh, they do Spinner 42.
56:46.235 --> 56:49.311
Just kidding. I do have,
56:49.504 --> 56:52.982
I do have social media stalkers. My quote unquote
56:53.094 --> 56:56.333
friends. You're not that famous, huh? You're not that famous.
56:56.397 --> 57:00.084
No, I'm not that famous. But no, Shane Stover stalks
57:00.584 --> 57:04.332
me on Facebook through my wife's profile because my wife will just— she
57:04.396 --> 57:07.698
loves to post. She's social media. She loves to post
57:08.198 --> 57:11.497
and give updates. That's her scrapbook, right? She likes to remember,
57:11.625 --> 57:15.713
you know, memories and all that other stuff. And that's good. But yeah,
57:15.857 --> 57:19.528
I hear about it. I hear about Debbie's posts before I even see them on
57:19.624 --> 57:22.883
Facebook because because they're, hey, what are you doing? Yeah, I thought you were supposed
57:23.383 --> 57:26.688
to be working. Whatever. But anyways, yeah, so I think you've got
57:27.188 --> 57:29.418
to know, you got to know the person to be able to call them out
57:29.918 --> 57:32.147
on it for sure. So what I've learned so far is, you know, watch out
57:32.647 --> 57:36.097
for those stalkers, Shane Stovers of the world. Yeah, for sure.
57:36.884 --> 57:40.417
Um, here's another one, a little different lane of thought,
57:40.433 --> 57:43.853
but what is the difference between kind of technically
57:43.949 --> 57:47.831
doing what's required but not actually doing what's
57:48.200 --> 57:52.705
good, right? So kind of the, the bare minimum, the minimum requirement.
57:53.746 --> 57:57.241
Some examples: a husband, um, is technically
57:57.433 --> 58:00.543
providing for his family but maybe isn't
58:00.960 --> 58:04.711
serving, not really being the leader, the, the man that he needs to be.
58:04.807 --> 58:08.110
A dad physically there but disengaged.
58:08.334 --> 58:12.726
Um, a church member attends, not really involved
58:13.226 --> 58:17.070
in the life of the church, serving, giving, whatever. Uh, an employee doing just
58:17.570 --> 58:20.890
the bare minimum of what's required, but not, not really
58:21.549 --> 58:25.386
like do like enough to not get fucked, right? A Christian,
58:25.900 --> 58:28.597
whatever. Um, is that wrong?
58:29.335 --> 58:32.434
Is that— I'll give you the biblical answer, uh,
58:32.787 --> 58:35.741
which I mean, which would be yeah, that's wrong. Um,
58:36.175 --> 58:39.482
why is it not? Jesus said if, if a man asks you to,
58:39.787 --> 58:42.918
to walk 1 mile, um, go 2. Go 2 with him.
58:43.640 --> 58:46.707
So yeah, go, go far and beyond and, and work,
58:46.835 --> 58:50.306
work as not— that's what,
58:51.012 --> 58:54.483
what Jesus said, you know, work like you're working for the Lord. Like,
58:54.965 --> 58:57.921
have that mindset. That should be the mindset. Now,
58:57.937 --> 59:01.038
is it what I do? No, I'm not perfect in this. There's a lot of
59:01.054 --> 59:04.074
things I'm like, okay, I'm so ready for this to be done. What,
59:04.283 --> 59:07.914
just bare minimum? I'm ready for it, you know, to be over with and out
59:08.414 --> 59:12.236
of my life. So yeah, do I fall guilty? I do get,
59:12.397 --> 59:14.590
I do get weary in these in doing good.
59:15.788 --> 59:19.578
Yeah, but, but I— it is front
59:20.078 --> 59:23.655
and forth, you know, it's in my mind to try to
59:24.269 --> 59:26.804
maintain that effort. Yeah,
59:29.050 --> 59:31.443
I think there is a difference between just,
59:32.512 --> 59:36.171
just trying to kind of toe the line or just barely
59:36.236 --> 59:39.814
meet the requirements and not doing
59:39.878 --> 59:43.492
things all the way or doing what is good for others. Yeah, I think there
59:43.992 --> 59:47.106
is a difference. So I'm, I'm sick of these, so I'm done asking. I have
59:47.122 --> 59:50.334
a bunch more, uh, but they make me like— I
59:50.834 --> 59:54.462
don't like thinking about some of these things. But I, I hope it's
59:54.670 --> 59:58.204
maybe helpful with some scenarios just to think about,
59:58.461 --> 01:00:01.786
okay, goodness is complicated, and doing what is
01:00:01.818 --> 01:00:05.962
right takes thought and understanding and understanding
01:00:06.138 --> 01:00:09.528
and discernment and Um, it— I think it also
01:00:10.028 --> 01:00:13.770
takes, uh, the wisdom of community, right? So I think even
01:00:14.270 --> 01:00:17.980
just us talking it out, like, I think it takes one
01:00:18.480 --> 01:00:22.543
another, right? Like, I think that's part of the gift of the church and
01:00:23.043 --> 01:00:27.444
the gift of Christian community and brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers is like,
01:00:27.685 --> 01:00:31.107
we need each other because you'll think about things a little different way
01:00:31.220 --> 01:00:34.576
than I would have, and Ethan will bring something different to the table. And I
01:00:34.592 --> 01:00:37.236
wouldn't have thought about it like that. And it's like, oh wow, no, I need
01:00:37.736 --> 01:00:40.970
to consider that. Yeah, there's checks and balances whenever you involve
01:00:41.163 --> 01:00:45.089
other people other than yourself. Yeah, if it's just me— and yes,
01:00:45.169 --> 01:00:48.454
I have the Holy Spirit, and yes, the Holy Spirit leads, and I have God's
01:00:48.518 --> 01:00:51.883
word— but there's wisdom in the community too, right?
01:00:51.979 --> 01:00:54.511
I think if we're making isolated decisions,
01:00:55.264 --> 01:00:58.036
especially in some of the gray areas of goodness,
01:00:59.014 --> 01:01:02.538
like the difficult difficult things like, should we have—
01:01:02.586 --> 01:01:05.986
do IVF? Should we not? You know what, some of those hard
01:01:06.019 --> 01:01:09.329
ones, right? Uh, that's where we need the wisdom of the
01:01:09.829 --> 01:01:13.376
community. We need the discernment. That's part of the gift of the Holy
01:01:13.876 --> 01:01:18.734
Spirit, is the church, is the, the gathered body. So yeah,
01:01:19.161 --> 01:01:20.606
I don't know, where are you going?
01:01:22.755 --> 01:01:26.630
Oh, there's a lot more we can talk about. Goodness. Uh, I guess I
01:01:27.130 --> 01:01:29.490
don't know how much more we want to go. I think we're reaching the end.
01:01:29.990 --> 01:01:32.310
Reaching the end, but if you got— I got a few verses. Okay, here in
01:01:32.810 --> 01:01:36.430
Thessalonians, this is Paul. Paul talks about all kinds
01:01:36.930 --> 01:01:40.210
of good stuff. Good stuff, right? But kind of here at the end of 1
01:01:40.710 --> 01:01:44.050
Thessalonians, he's kind of giving his final instructions, and I'm not going
01:01:44.550 --> 01:01:48.210
to read the whole 10 verses here, but we look at a few.
01:01:49.310 --> 01:01:52.570
He's talking about, you know, living at peace, living at patience, so he's kind of
01:01:53.070 --> 01:01:56.031
reiterating some of those fruits of the Spirit. And in verse 15, he says,
01:01:56.047 --> 01:01:59.575
make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always
01:01:59.640 --> 01:02:02.812
strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone
01:02:02.909 --> 01:02:06.548
else. And then he goes on and pray
01:02:07.048 --> 01:02:10.412
continuously, give thanks in all circumstances, right?
01:02:11.040 --> 01:02:14.020
And down at verse— I saw that a while ago,
01:02:14.036 --> 01:02:16.998
but now I forgot it— verse 21,
01:02:17.823 --> 01:02:20.655
or I'll read 20 and 21. He says, do not treat prophecies with contempt.
01:02:20.860 --> 01:02:24.583
But test them all. Hold on to what is good.
01:02:24.856 --> 01:02:27.344
So that echoes that word good, right?
01:02:28.034 --> 01:02:30.811
There's other fruits of the Spirit in there as well in that section,
01:02:31.485 --> 01:02:34.759
but he's like, hold on, hold on to what is good. You know, test things
01:02:35.259 --> 01:02:38.338
of this world. If it's unclear that it is, is this good or is it
01:02:38.838 --> 01:02:42.447
not? Like, test it. Does it stand with scripture? Does it stand
01:02:42.479 --> 01:02:46.091
firmly with scripture or is it, well, it's not, well, it's good, but it's
01:02:46.591 --> 01:02:49.028
really just good for me or it's really just good for that person. So test
01:02:49.528 --> 01:02:52.126
it. You know, if you're not quite sure with some of those harder topics,
01:02:52.174 --> 01:02:55.449
right? Seeking God's Word, seeking prayer and
01:02:55.722 --> 01:02:59.414
meditating on His Word, and time. Don't be
01:02:59.914 --> 01:03:03.877
too fast or hasty to make a decision, especially a big life-altering
01:03:03.893 --> 01:03:07.569
one. You know, maybe it does bring you good outcomes,
01:03:07.665 --> 01:03:11.904
right? But I think like jobs, job situations,
01:03:11.936 --> 01:03:13.782
or, you know, should I take this job? I can make more money if I
01:03:14.282 --> 01:03:18.052
do this. You know, we have a friend in a situation like that, or he's
01:03:18.552 --> 01:03:20.924
making his mind up still a little bit, but I can do this, make a
01:03:21.424 --> 01:03:23.794
lot of money, or I can do what God's calling me to do. What's good
01:03:24.294 --> 01:03:26.713
is do what God is calling you to do. You know, the things of this
01:03:26.761 --> 01:03:30.641
world don't matter. So, you know, test things. Are they good?
01:03:30.850 --> 01:03:33.912
You know, seeking God's word, but also just being
01:03:34.412 --> 01:03:38.146
in him, being in the Father, enduring. You know, we talked
01:03:38.646 --> 01:03:42.138
about endurance. Endurance. That'll show you what's good.
01:03:42.250 --> 01:03:46.147
You know, endure through some hardship. That's what is good. There is
01:03:46.259 --> 01:03:49.675
an element of Um, persevering, like perseverance.
01:03:50.092 --> 01:03:53.267
And, and that's what I said, you know, sometimes I
01:03:53.476 --> 01:03:57.084
grow weary of doing good. Like, I'm— yeah. And, and so,
01:03:57.244 --> 01:04:00.708
but the Bible warns us, don't grow weary of
01:04:00.756 --> 01:04:04.220
doing good. Like, keep that. Yeah, that's kind of what I wanted to read
01:04:04.720 --> 01:04:09.031
to wrap up, um, because I think the reality is doing
01:04:09.531 --> 01:04:12.944
goodness, yeah, it takes discernment. It also costs something. Yeah, it's like being kind,
01:04:12.960 --> 01:04:16.166
like we talked about it's going to cost us something to
01:04:16.666 --> 01:04:20.222
do good in certain situations. Similar to— yeah, it takes a lot of energy.
01:04:20.719 --> 01:04:23.893
It takes energy, takes thought. It, it may
01:04:23.925 --> 01:04:26.987
have social consequences, right, to do what's right.
01:04:27.083 --> 01:04:30.610
Even if it costs Debbie a couple hundred bucks to do what was right
01:04:31.110 --> 01:04:34.169
in that situation, uh, it— there's, there's those.
01:04:34.458 --> 01:04:38.369
So he says, and, and this is Galatians 6, this is just a few
01:04:38.869 --> 01:04:42.746
sentences down from the fruit of the Spirit: let us not grow weary of doing
01:04:42.858 --> 01:04:46.210
good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give
01:04:46.710 --> 01:04:50.720
up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to
01:04:50.784 --> 01:04:54.395
everyone, especially to those who are of the household of
01:04:54.895 --> 01:04:57.798
faith. And so, yeah, goodness, uh,
01:04:58.680 --> 01:05:02.243
it's hard. It takes endurance and pushing through. It costs us
01:05:02.340 --> 01:05:06.240
something, um, but it's also an action. It's doing good.
01:05:06.288 --> 01:05:09.594
It's not just, uh, it's not just a right
01:05:09.642 --> 01:05:13.045
way of thinking. It is action. It is actually getting out there
01:05:13.189 --> 01:05:17.246
and doing that. So, but the thing, the thing is, and what keeps me going,
01:05:17.518 --> 01:05:21.494
right, is what refreshes me is
01:05:21.590 --> 01:05:25.422
to know, I mean, what, what that says is don't grow weary
01:05:25.518 --> 01:05:29.510
of doing good because there is— you
01:05:29.542 --> 01:05:32.588
will reap what you sow. Like there is a crop.
01:05:32.652 --> 01:05:35.105
Good back. Yeah, there's— you will yield a crop here.
01:05:35.938 --> 01:05:39.545
And that's what keeps us going. All right. God's going to bless
01:05:40.045 --> 01:05:43.393
us. And not that that's the point. Yeah, that's not the point. But that's the
01:05:43.893 --> 01:05:46.456
encouragement too, though. Is, is get back up.
01:05:47.162 --> 01:05:50.643
Also reflect, reflect on times in your life where, okay,
01:05:50.948 --> 01:05:54.365
because I endured through that, I can see the, the harvest, and that was
01:05:54.798 --> 01:05:58.376
plentiful, right? It was good. Uh, so that should help you to continue in
01:05:58.472 --> 01:06:01.536
that. That's right. I think one thing, one main thing to,
01:06:01.857 --> 01:06:05.547
to take away is that, you know, goodness is not defined
01:06:06.047 --> 01:06:09.461
by us or our culture, society, you name
01:06:09.558 --> 01:06:13.057
it, by our country or our leaders, It's defined by God. And that's,
01:06:13.169 --> 01:06:17.361
that's the ultimate truth. That's the ultimate light. That's the ultimate thing is with
01:06:17.409 --> 01:06:20.107
all the fruits of the Spirit is like none of these are defined by man.
01:06:20.637 --> 01:06:24.459
They've already been defined and perfectly. We don't have to redefine them. We don't have
01:06:24.507 --> 01:06:28.249
to reinvent them or find loopholes around
01:06:28.749 --> 01:06:32.424
them because no, this is the right thing. And sometimes it's harder, but that's
01:06:32.441 --> 01:06:36.391
what's good. It's good. It's good. It's good.
01:06:36.471 --> 01:06:39.121
It's all good. It's all good. Oh,
01:06:39.265 --> 01:06:43.005
there's so many ways we use that word. Yeah, there is.
01:06:43.823 --> 01:06:46.969
Well, thanks for joining us today, guys. Uh, who wants to lead us in prayer?
01:06:47.691 --> 01:06:50.885
It's Ethan's turn. It's Ethan's turn.
01:06:50.997 --> 01:06:54.111
No, I'm gonna remember whose turn it is next time. It's Casey's. All right.
01:06:54.897 --> 01:06:58.043
Uh, dear Lord, we just come to you tonight, or today, Lord, and we just
01:06:58.543 --> 01:07:01.975
thank you, uh, for this opportunity that we have to get together just as brothers
01:07:02.475 --> 01:07:05.664
in Christ, Lord, and just get to dissect your word and really look
01:07:06.164 --> 01:07:08.532
at the fruits of the Spirit, Lord, and when it comes to goodness, I pray
01:07:09.032 --> 01:07:12.794
that you would help us, God, to apply that in our lives more times than
01:07:13.294 --> 01:07:16.832
not whenever we need you, Lord, whenever we are faced with ethical or
01:07:16.944 --> 01:07:20.549
moral decisions, God, that you would show us and guide us down
01:07:21.049 --> 01:07:23.497
the right path, God, remind us of the goodness that you've already presented to us,
01:07:23.914 --> 01:07:27.407
that we don't have to struggle to find out what that looks like,
01:07:27.455 --> 01:07:30.098
but you've already defined it in your word, Lord, so I pray that you would
01:07:30.598 --> 01:07:34.105
just guide us, lead us into your goodness, Lord, Lord, just help
01:07:34.605 --> 01:07:38.321
us stay away from what we think is good for ourselves, because most times
01:07:38.577 --> 01:07:41.864
that's, that's the evil trap of the enemy, Lord. So pray that you would just
01:07:42.364 --> 01:07:45.887
guide us, God, and pray over this podcast, Lord, that it would just be fruitful,
01:07:46.272 --> 01:07:49.895
and that we would just get the— get an opportunity to talk about your
01:07:50.395 --> 01:07:53.726
word and with one another, Lord, and it would just be
01:07:53.902 --> 01:07:56.595
fruitful overall. We just pray this in your Son's name. Amen.
01:07:57.108 --> 01:07:59.320
Amen. Be good.
01:08:05.070 --> 01:08:11.451
Family, I can save you from
01:08:11.951 --> 01:08:13.417
these demons in your choir.
01:08:16.270 --> 01:08:19.182
From these demons in your choir.