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Podcast 33 - Public or Private
31 Plays2 days ago
Join us as we discuss the call to live out our faith.
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Transcript
Public vs. Private Faith
00:00:09
Speaker
Hey, welcome back. Here we are at the Grove Hill Podcast. Excited to have you joining us today. Wish you could hear the online conversation. Well, the offline conversation to more entertain. it It was offline for sure. It was offline. Yeah. Hey, glad you're joining us again today. Glad we haven't scared you with anything we said to this point. Got a topic today that we want to talk about a little bit with you because I think all three of us as ministers and maybe even before we were in ministry have... probably heard conversations or had conversations around this subject.
00:00:40
Speaker
That the gospel, our personal experience of the gospel, is a private matter between us and God.
Community and Accountability in Faith
00:00:47
Speaker
um I would submit to you, and I think this is where the conversation is probably going to center around, that there's more to it than that, and there is an active enemy who tries to get us to buy into this myth that um private is the only way to go when it comes to our faith. right So talk to me a little bit about that. Either either one of you ever heard somebody say something along those lines, that's between me and God. sir. And it's often ah based around a misperception of scripture because there are scriptures that tell us to go and and go pray in private, right? You shouldn't praying for elaborate words or anything like that, but it should be ah a private thing.
00:01:26
Speaker
in your growth and your relationship with the Lord. Right. Um, but as far as living out our faith, it's, it's a very public thing. Yeah. That typical excuse, don't we like the Pharisee, you know, you know, pray, you know, in private, but there's an, an effort for this individualization. Like you can do this Jesus thing without the church. You can do this without God's people.
00:01:50
Speaker
Last time I checked, I don't see those areas where God shows benefit in the walk of a person without the community of others that are believers in Christ.
Living Faith Publicly
00:01:59
Speaker
So, yeah, I think it's a big disconnect for people and the excuse. So we've all heard that those, like i said, phrases that kind of similar to that, that something along the lines of, you know, your faith is fine, keep it between you and God, or my faith is personal between me and in the Lord or whatever, sounds respectful, even sounds humble. So you don't sound like the Pharisee that we're talking about here. But the truth is it's a distortion of a large chunk of Scripture yes that we read. yeah um Imagine a fire that never gave off any heat or light.
00:02:31
Speaker
that's That's what it would be like if your faith never showed up. It wouldn't be no fire at all. Right, exactly. yeah You couldn't even define it as a fire. And I would say and suggest it here, and it's my argument today, and I think we're on the same page, that if you are not showing evidence of your faith, if you're not even talking about your faith, then you've got to question whether there's any faith there at all. Can you really define it as faith? Yeah. So, Western culture says that faith is private, we've got to work it out for ourselves, don't rub it in my face, and I'll keep mine to myself. But Scripture says that faith is p public and that it is lived out. So let's talk about where this private faith idea came from.
The Public Purpose of Faith
00:03:11
Speaker
Where do you think... the arguments first began for for that. So definitely your faith is personal. um So you can't be ah ah a corporate Christian, meaning like, hey, I go to church. you know That's what makes me a Christian. ah your Your faith is a personal relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus and accepting the death on the cross and forgiveness of our sins. And so that side is personal.
00:03:35
Speaker
People will take that and say, okay, if it's personal, then it needs to stay with me, right? which again, there's some truth in the personal aspect of things, but then why were we still here on earth, right? If our relationship was the end goal, then we'd be taken off this earth as soon as we
A Personal Story of Faith Transformation
00:03:53
Speaker
accepted him. But we're here for a reason, that's to then share the truth that we have with other people, and that takes a public approach to it, not a private approach to it. Yeah, yeah.
00:04:02
Speaker
Yeah, spurs on the the other... body, you know, the other parts of the body. We were just talking about this in a class the other night in 1 Corinthians. This thing called communal sanctification. And people are thinking it almost was a pause because you don't hear that talked about very often. But the the efforts of honoring God with right worship with one person in the body of believers can spur another one on. And it's because this one person is not letting their faith be private. They're working it out. They're they're displaying it on public. So it's it's very necessity-like whenever we look at displaying now I had ah ah family friends of ours growing up, kind of a larger family, and they kind of took this poor approach to, actually they took no approach to church. and They said they claimed home church, right? And I'm not saying anything bad about home churches. i and I like home churches. But their home church was their family only.
00:05:01
Speaker
They never went to church. They never find community in anybody else. And they made their whole Christian walk private within the walls of their home. That kind of home church I'm talking about. And um I talked with my friend, I talked with his dad, i tried to get them to break out of that to see what scripture actually designed us to do and what he asked us to be with our faith. And they never did until later in life when the dad turned about 65, 67 years old, somewhere around there, um he decided to start going to church.
Historical Influences on Private Faith
00:05:30
Speaker
Once he did, he was one of the most impactful persons to the k christian the Christian faith because he started living his faith out rather than just keeping it in. um And in in suit, his whole family followed in the same way. But while they were private,
00:05:49
Speaker
there was no There was no benefit coming from that family at all. No fruit. I would be a little harsher on home church. There's no biblical accountability. ah If dad wants to go and throw down the law, ah last time I checked, there's roles of...
00:06:06
Speaker
the body of Christ. And that doesn't just get played out with mom, dad, kids. Yes, it can get played out in its ah sense of, you know, a portion, but all of it, I think that that's very, very skewed for you to think that you can fulfill all the roles that God desires for each one of those persons in a home church.
00:06:28
Speaker
There's some reasons for that. The persecuted church, sometimes there's the ability for you to have to do those things because right you're you're in fear for your life. But even those people sometimes are saying, hey, I'll burn at the stake. I don't care what it is. yeah I'm going to make that public display in my faith. I believe if you trace it back to the history of the church, I believe that the church was always grounded in this idea of a communal faith. Mm-hmm.
00:06:50
Speaker
the book of Acts all the way through, you never see an apostle who goes into hiding once he accepts Christ. no He immediately comes out and becomes a teacher, a trainer, a disciple maker.
Dangers of Private Faith
00:07:00
Speaker
I think where the problem started was during the Enlightenment period of history where they started to move towards this idea of not all not all truth is your truth, you know my truth is your truth, that kind of stuff, which kind of played itself out in this idea that you believe what you want to believe, I'm going to believe what I want to believe, which removed the necessity and even the idea of accountability. yeah Because if it's your faith, then I can't speak into your life at all, and likewise with mine. And so...
00:07:31
Speaker
It's easy to tuck that away and within the walls of your home and never have to answer to anybody but to your point what you're trying to say and and with your friends what happens is you set up this ah I'll call it this test tube for laboratory for um for heresy to to sit in yeah because my mind can conceive of ideas that are beneficial to me beneficial even to my family But if I'm not in the company of other believers, you can look at me and go, that's not what the Scripture says. Which is one of the biggest things, the issues I saw with their families. is There was no accountability, period.
00:08:05
Speaker
And it wasn't until they started accepting accountability from community that they then became very productive in what they did. But before, it was kind of useless. Yeah. So Matthew 5, verses 14 through 16, Jesus starts off by saying, you are the light of the world.
00:08:24
Speaker
Doesn't sound very private.
Challenges of Public Faith
00:08:25
Speaker
No. no I mean, what's the whole point of light on the world? What does Jesus say? He says, you put it on a city on a hill, right? Can't be hidden. I mean, yeah, apply this to any other relationship in your life. If I proclaim that my wife is my wife and I love her, and yet I go out in public, and then I just hide or keep silent that relationship, ah Kelly's going to feel like junk. like she's she's not goingnna why why do i wear this, right? It's to... to proclaim that i'm taken you know to remind me of a commitment that i made um and it's publicly it's not something i do in private it's something that's displayed that people know that i'm married right and so why would i treat my relationship with the lord any different hey i'm gonna gonna love you and spend time with you in private but when we're in public i'm just gonna i'm gonna put you aside don't really prioritize you i think it does two things i think
00:09:13
Speaker
the this secrecy you know kind of faith it does two things i think it masks the illiteracy that we have about god the illiteracy of what relationship with god looks like and then i also think it is a very fearful place because what it does is if you're public with your faith there's an impending weight of the cross yeah that Christ calls you to carry. He's saying, okay, you claim me. This is what you carry. And people would rather say, no, my faith is private.
Costs and Necessities of Public Faith
00:09:48
Speaker
I don't want to be held to anything. So therefore, I'm not going to tell you anything. yeah So, i mean, genuine transformation, genuine Christianity is what we're talking about here today is this.
00:10:01
Speaker
personal and public. There's no doubt there's a personal element to it because it's a heart transformation and nobody can see the heart. All we can see is the evidence of what the heart believes. And so there's a heart transformation, but there's also um a real outward expression of that thing. Yeah.
00:10:22
Speaker
Romans chapter 10, I think it is where rap Paul says, if you confess Jesus with your mouth so that others can hear. Everywhere in the scripture is talking about behavior changes that come because of your heart. James even says, yeah you know, you tell me about your faith with your words. I'll show you my faith by my works. yeah That's not private at all. It's meant for the world to see it. And so I think that silent faith is not at all the biblical pattern that's demonstrated for us. It's not taught by Jesus or Paul or any of the other apostles.
00:10:53
Speaker
And truthfully, for the church, you can't obey the Great Commission and have a private faith. Right, yeah. I mean, you got to go to the ends of the earth, right?
00:11:04
Speaker
um A private faith, I love this quote, a private faith that never becomes public was never truly personal to begin with. Very good. I think when we use those arguments, those's those ancient arguments about your truth versus my truth and keeping things private, it's real easy to insulate ourselves from this idea of a real faith that transforms us. yeah We can keep Jesus at arm's length and really never actually have any true change of theme. thinking our or even our heart patterns.
00:11:37
Speaker
um So, think it Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It talked about the fact that if going true disciple of Jesus Christ, it's going to cost you something.
Reasons for Preferring Private Faith
00:11:47
Speaker
public Public faith lived out costs you something.
00:11:51
Speaker
Speak to that just a little bit. What do what do you see in the living out of your faith day to day by your personal choice? Yeah, for sure. So starting with Scripture, it says that if we're going to follow Him, we're going to to take up our cross, deny ourselves, and follow Him. Last time I checked, the ah crucifixion was public, and it was public for a purpose, right? And so that all would see.
00:12:13
Speaker
And so us in the same way, we're not carrying that cross in private, we're carrying that cross in public. So what that looks like is for a teenager walking into a school, it means they're going to look absolutely different from the rest of the school. And that's going to cause criticism. It's going to cause humiliation. It's going to cause, there's a weight to it. There's a cost to it. um But ah scripture also tells speaks to that as well, saying that they're not hating you, they're hating me. right And so um it's ah it's a difficult thing to walk your faith publicly in today's world because it's instantly going to be met with criticism. Or in the case of Charlie Kirk, death. right He was speaking truth and people hated it so much that they yeah came after his life. Yeah.
00:12:59
Speaker
Yeah. So let me throw, i'm going to throw four reasons I see for why we buy into the private faith mentality. And y'all can respond to these rapidly as we're kind of wrapping things up here. um Reason number one, while we drift to private faith, we are afraid of rejection from others.
00:13:17
Speaker
Yep. Like I just said, It's easy to stay quiet about it and not be ridiculed about it or rejected. So we say, um i just have a private faith. I think what Kyle mentioned, that sometimes we do have that encounter with the world, that they'll look at us a certain way or they'll view us in a certain light. But I think sometimes we've even...
00:13:38
Speaker
been hit more so with the family, like the people that are in our close circles, ah the extended family that'll say, man, you're just doing too much. You're just giving too much. And what we really find is there, I call it cheap, easy believism that they look at Jesus. I stole that from an old professor, but ah It is. It's cheap, easy believism that you can just carry around Jesus on your hip pocket. But what it is is a total turning of your life. So it'll cause those people that are close to you to say, man, you're just crazy out there. Yeah, I just heard a story recently of a very good friend of mine who was up for a fairly good promotion at his work, came down to two guys. And because he made a statement saying that because of my faith, I really truly value a work personal life balance for my family. I want to spend time with my family. Cost him the job. Now you could probably argue that's not directly related to his faith as much as it is just time preferences. But to me, that's a connection to this is what I value because of my faith. Right.
00:14:41
Speaker
Works not that important. Right. So fear of rejection.
Interconnection of Politics and Faith
00:14:45
Speaker
Second reason, a desire for comfort, which is closely attached to it. Yeah, for sure. Don't want be made uncomfortable because we stand out or you know step out on faith. and you know Let's just be real honest. Being a Christian is a lot easier if you don't have to do it boldly.
00:15:01
Speaker
Oh, of course. Yeah. Well, Christ calls us to, if we're called to follow him, we're called to pursue excellence. We're called to pursue the Christ standard. So pursuing that re reaching forward for that calls us to not sit on the couch and it calls us to have our brother look us in the eye have our sister look us in the eye and say hey i haven't seen this in you and by the way that happens with every christian that's happened with you that's happened with you it's not where none of us are exempt so we have accountability that meets us and sometimes it's uncomfortable
00:15:39
Speaker
Third reason, culturally, we've bought into the lie of private faith. Mm-hmm. We've absorbed this idea that somehow by speaking about Jesus or even more importantly, living like Jesus is intolerance. I'd say it's a political way to keep people divided and separated. um ah if I don't want to be i'm convicted by what you're saying, I'm just going to tell you that you need to keep that private. When it's not like we're sharing, Christianity isn't sharing our truth.
00:16:10
Speaker
We're laying out the truth, right? and Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. And so... um I would say after 2,000 years, the truth of God's Word is still threatening to people. And if they can get you to say, hey, you know what? Keep that to yourself. I'm going to keep my life to myself. Then they don't have to be convicted about the sins that they're committing.
00:16:29
Speaker
Yeah. You know, it's amazing to me, and I've always been a firm believer in this. It's amazing to me how much politics and political things creep into our conversations about faith.
00:16:41
Speaker
And at the same time, there's this very loud voice out in the culture saying, Religion and politics should not mix. Right. To me, that's absolutely feasibly impossible. Right.
00:16:51
Speaker
Because if you disconnect your politics from your faith, then you are taking away the very values about which you would govern or lead or rule. And so when people make stupid comments like that, to
Humility in Public Faith
00:17:05
Speaker
me, that was right. I used the word stupid. Stupid comments like keep your politics out of my faith and my faith value politics. you're You're kind of saying be a hypocrite. Right. Yeah. Just be a hypocrite. And by the way, guess what we've got in our government today?
00:17:19
Speaker
Hundreds and hundreds of hypocrites. ye yep Who will proudly stand and talk about Christianity long enough to get your vote, but when they get there, they don't live by the values at all. And yes, I called you all out.
00:17:29
Speaker
um And then the last the last one, this misunderstanding of what humility looks like. We don't want to be the Pharisee who beats his chest. We don't want to be the proud Christian who's parading their faith around in front of people for obnoxious reasons. So where do you draw the line between ah humble faith walked out daily versus a proud faith that I would say the intentions of why you're sharing things.
00:17:56
Speaker
um if If you're trying to preach the gospel for selfish gain of some sort, you're yeah you're obviously looking at it for prideful reasons, but um if someone's heart is that others know who Christ is, you can tell it pretty quickly when someone's preaching from the heart to reach the lost rather than selfish gain. I mean, you could look all across the internet at internet preachers right now, and there's a lot of self- um driven um boldness compared to like someone whose heart is to intentionally reach the lost.
00:18:31
Speaker
When your obedience points back to you, then it's not humility. When your obedience yeah points back to and your ending period, when the period's made on the sentence after obedience and it's Jesus Christ, then yeah, yeah you're in a good spot of humility. So,
00:18:51
Speaker
so faith, when it's lived out according to what we see Scripture saying, it is a personal experience between you and the Lord Savior that because of the power of it is lived out in your words, your decisions, your actions, your interactions with people, your relationships. And if it's not lived out publicly, then it's not genuine. It just can't possibly be genuine, especially the way the Scripture describes it. So, um it's It's a faith that contradicts the gospel itself. Sure.
00:19:24
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Any final thoughts before we wrap up today?
Conclusion: The Importance of Public Faith
00:19:28
Speaker
yeah Yeah, I got one thing. um I've heard it said and on the topic of like abortion, I've heard it say ah everybody who's pro-choice has already been born, right? It's like those who are here have are the ones with the opinion.
00:19:41
Speaker
Well, if you've come to the knowledge of Christ, it's because someone lived their faith out loud. it was because someone introduced you to that truth. sure And so we are we have that same responsibility on us. um We can't just accept the good goodness of God's gift.
00:19:55
Speaker
If we truly believe in the goodness of God's gift, we're going to want to shout that from the rooftops, not in some type of obnoxious way, but out of love and bring that to other people. um As you look in Romans, Romans 12, there's a reason and a purpose to be a part of a body. And you living out and saying, hey, I'm just, you know, me and God and creation. That's that's it. No.
00:20:22
Speaker
No. If you're not involved in a church, and I would encourage some of our listeners... go send this to someone that hasn't tried out church because they think they can do them and God alone and try out the church. Uh, come talk to us. We would love to answer your emails or yeah communications about finding a, a biblically based church in your community. And we want you to be a part of that. Try out what God has originated in the plan in scripture. And ah promise you, uh, you will see and taste some of the good things that God originated for biblical community. Hmm.
00:20:57
Speaker
now So at the end of the day, if Jesus is willing to go public for you on the cross, you should be willing to go public for him in real life. That's right. That's the way it should work. I want to close with a great quote. This might make its way into our stuff, our vision and mission statement. i like this.
00:21:10
Speaker
The same gospel that saved you is the same gospel that sends you. Nice. That's good. So as you go out this week, be reminded that every single day of your life is an opportunity to speak the name of Jesus to people who may have never heard it and may, especially in our culture, may have never seen it lived genuinely before them. right So thanks for joining us today. encourage you to like, follow, and share our podcast. We'd love to have you come back together with us next week. We're going to close with a time of prayer. I think I'm going to take the honors today, if that's all right with y'all.
00:21:41
Speaker
Sounds good. I am paid to do this. so Here we go. Hey, Father, we thank you because when the time came, you did not hesitate to step in front of the world and lay down your life for us.
00:21:55
Speaker
What an amazing reality that a God so big, so awesome, so strong, so powerful would allow himself to become a man like us so that he may have us for himself.
00:22:07
Speaker
So forgive us on those days when we feel like we need to tuck away our faith or hide it behind empty words, Lord. i pray that every single day we are reminded of the power of that last statement, that it is this gospel that has saved us that compels us to be sent.
00:22:23
Speaker
Help us to live our lives that way. For those of us who yet to find the boldness and the courage, Lord, i pray that the image of the cross is always before us, reminding us of what links you have gone to so that you could rescue us from our sinfulness.
00:22:37
Speaker
And that likewise, we would be willing to do the same for a world that needs to hear it.
Final Prayer and Farewell
00:22:41
Speaker
I thank you for all our listeners today. If there are any who have special needs um going on in their lives right now, we just want to lift them up to you. You know what they are. Even though we may not know them or know them by name, Father, we lift them up just the same, knowing that the power that has kept you from that cross, that emptied you out of that tomb, that same power is available to us today through prayer. And so we offer up for those around us. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. See you back next week.
00:23:07
Speaker
Bye.