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A Big View Of Christianity
8 Plays6 days ago
Is faith your own personal faith? Is it something you privately hold? Is it something you feed on Sundays, separate from the rest of the world or life? This view of Christianity seems entirely too small. The truth of the Gospel is that it affects absolutely every part of life.
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Transcript
Introduction and Central Question
00:00:13
Speaker
Well, Dustin, here we are again. Yes, we are. um Answering Pilot. Answering Pilot. I don't know why I have trouble remembering the title of our podcast, but anyway, maybe it's because I'm thinking about the question that Pilot asked, what is true? That's always the first thing that goes in my head. said, wait, that's not what we call this thing.
00:00:31
Speaker
Maybe we should have. But anyway, that's not what we're here to talk about. Well, we're here to actually, yeah, answer the question, what is truth? That's right.
Christianity as a Lifestyle
00:00:39
Speaker
Answering pilot. And, um you know, one of the things that we were talking about is that Christianity is a big thing, isn't it?
00:00:48
Speaker
Sure. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, i don't want to interrupt you. No, it's... You you're going to say something. Well, yeah. i don't I don't know what I'm going to say next, so you go. it's just Yes, it's big. Okay. We agree that. And thank you for joining us.
00:01:01
Speaker
No, yeah i mean, it's, yes, when we so when we're saying that, what we're getting at is it's so much more than just a religion or a set of beliefs, ye um which many other world religions, you know, may fall into that category.
00:01:19
Speaker
um But what we're going to attempt to unpack a little bit here is the notion that um it's it's not just a set of beliefs, but that it is it is an entire lifestyle. um And that believing the truth of the gospel, the truth of the Bible about Jesus and who he said he is and what he came to do and what he's done for us and what he's called us to do is something that affects our entire lives. Yeah, yeah.
00:01:49
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, so much so, we order like you said, we order our lives around the truths of the gospel. And we've been talking recently about how gospel transforms culture, transforms culture um civilizations, bit build civilizations. I mean,
00:02:06
Speaker
Yeah, I mean,
Faith Beyond Sundays
00:02:07
Speaker
it's it's a big deal. So we echo Abraham Kuyper, who said there's not one square inch of the universe where Jesus doesn't cry mine. You know, it all belongs to him. Right.
00:02:17
Speaker
And one of the things, and this is not by way of criticism, it's just to help us to think a little bit, but one of the things that It seems like we Christians do a lot of the time, we kind of make ah Christianity or the gospel itself smaller than it really is. And so part of what we want to do is say, wait a minute, this this thing's big. I mean, right it has. it's It's shaped history. Yeah.
00:02:41
Speaker
Yeah. I think in, in, is in, uh, especially in America, I think more so maybe than around the world, although I think you see it in other, uh, nations as well.
00:02:52
Speaker
Uh, but we've talked about this already in some other episodes about how there is a cultural Christianity that exists. Yeah. And it's not necessarily true faith in Jesus, um but it's it's identifying with Christian principles and it's its it's a cultural thing. Yeah. um It's part of what makes us American and we're a Christian nation and all of that.
00:03:13
Speaker
um But also along with that is the tendency to compartmentalize it. Yeah. And to say, okay, Christianity, this is what I believe and this is over here in this box. Yeah. But then there's the rest of my life. um But...
00:03:27
Speaker
Again, we're where we we want we want we wanted a big view of the gospel and of Christianity, um and not not just put it in this little compartmentalized box that we put over here to the side that we take out once a week, yeah for example. But it's something that affects everything that we do. Yeah, that's ah that's a big concept, because, yeah, we we do. A lot of Christians, they do just that. They compartmentalize. Yeah.
00:03:53
Speaker
Yeah, well, church is something I do on Sunday and the rest of the week. I'm just like the world. right that's That's a problem spiritually as well as intellectually. and Yeah, we're going to be talking more on the intellectual level, I think, but nevertheless, um certainly heart issues are involved. right um I came across, ah you know I try to read broadly as you do, something John Stonestreet said.
00:04:19
Speaker
was very similar to um some of the things we've been talking about. And so it got us to thinking, you know, about this just a little bit. And he talks about the fact that when, um you know, Christianity can can be, you know, reduced in size, as it were, excuse me,
00:04:38
Speaker
You talked about compartmentalization. um yeah One of the things we can do is is just take you know Sunday morning and say worship. We gather for worship, but then we think, well, that's all worship is. Worship's just Sunday morning. right And that's making worship and Christianity in in and of itself, but both, smaller than it really is. Yeah, yeah. A lot of Christians shrink that down.
00:05:04
Speaker
Even more so, and this isn't necessarily the direction we're wanting to go today, but even more so when people will say, I really enjoyed worship today at church, they're talking about the the songs that they sing, right? right um And so on the on the on one hand, we would say, well, everything that we do when we're gathered together during that meeting time on Sunday is considered worship, praying, reading the word, hearing the word preached, even the fellowship that we have with our brothers and sisters. yeah All of that, along with the singing, is all part of worship. yeah But then again, to expand it out even even larger than that, worship is not just that hour, hour and a half meeting that we have on Sunday mornings once a week.
00:05:51
Speaker
um That is a time for us to corporately worship, right but we're called as individuals to worship God. yeah and and What does that mean? well Romans tells us that it's about laying our lives as a living sacrifice that's right and that every part of our lives is a form of worship yeah if if we're doing
Depth of Discipleship
00:06:12
Speaker
it to the glory of God. yeah So we've talked about this before. Cutting the grass can be an act of worship if we're doing it for the glory of God. Eating a good meal can be an act of worship.
00:06:23
Speaker
Cleaning up after the meal sure to serve your wife or whoever cooked the meal yeah can be an act of worship. yeah And all of these things that we do, it's all about this attitude and mindset.
00:06:36
Speaker
ah that says, I'm doing this for the reason of giving glory to God, of showing thanks to him for his provision, whatever it may be. But if it's done with that attitude and mindset, then all of it is worship. And again, that's kind of what we're getting to here. yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah Is that Christianity is worship. Yeah, that's right. And so all of the all of life is designed to be that way. That's right. Yeah, you hit it. I mean, you use several phrases we use a lot. and go ah We do what we do for the glory of God. All of life is worship.
00:07:12
Speaker
One of the things that the reformers said is that we live before the face of God. We live quorum Deo every moment. And so, yeah, obviously, as you and again, you you pointed this out, but let's just tease it out just a little bit.
00:07:25
Speaker
there's ah There's a difference between, say, corporate worship and private worship. Right. ah And what what you just said, well, all of life is worship. So corporate worship, you've got the gathered body.
00:07:37
Speaker
And not not to go too far down the road on this, but we can we can take a little little bit of a detour. um There are certain things you do in corporate worship that And certain things you don't do in corporate worship because of what the the setting and the context is. I mean, we happen to subscribe to something called the the regulative principle, and we believe that the Bible tells us what we ought to do in worship. Right.
00:08:02
Speaker
So, you know, there's prayer and there's the breaking of bread. I'm going to Acts 2.42 here, um which would be the Lord's Supper. um Obviously, there's the Apostles' Doctrine. That's how they refer to it in Acts 2.42, you know, preaching the word. there's And this is right up your alley. I mean, you're associate pastor. You serve in various capacities. You preach, but at the same time.
00:08:24
Speaker
ah You lead the music portion of our worship. and That's not the only worship taking place, as you said. So hymns, psalms, spiritual songs, admonishing one another through that. And then, of course, you get Lord's Supper and baptism and things related to that. So um even though i can ah You said cut the grass. That's true.
00:08:45
Speaker
Let's just say, I don't know, even though I could play tennis for the glory of God, we're not going to bring our tennis rackets and start batting the ball back and forth right in corporate worship. Yeah, and I'm not going to call a tennis match a worship service. Yeah, right. There you go.
00:09:02
Speaker
Two distinct things, but nevertheless, right if we're doing it for the glory of God, So again, just by way of reminder, and I don't want to cut you off, um as you said, all of life is worship. We don't want to make it smaller than it is. And sometimes we we do that because we just think about Sunday morning only. How about the issue of discipleship?
00:09:23
Speaker
We can kind of truncate that. you know If we think discipleship is... you know I don't know, just a matter of going to a few classes. But discipleship is more than that, isn't it? Right, yeah. yeah A lot of churches will just call that discipleship, and it's just an extra class that we take at 5 o'clock on Sunday afternoon right or something like that. right um And we call that discipleship classes.
00:09:46
Speaker
And on one hand, there's nothing wrong with calling that a discipleship class right if you're viewing it in the sense that in this class you're learning how to become a disciple. It's not just the gathering of that knowledge, um but it's actually taking that knowledge and... internalizing it and applying it to my own life. And and how does that affect, ah how should I live differently based on these new things that I'm seeing and learning in the word?
00:10:13
Speaker
Yeah. um And growing as a disciple, which does mean learner. Yeah. But learning doesn't just mean gathering intellectual knowledge. Right. It means applying it. Yeah, that's exactly right.
00:10:26
Speaker
um Being being a transformed. you know To go back to something I think you were alluding to earlier, um yeah you know out of the book of Romans, to be not conformed to this world, but be transformed through the renewing of your mind. So your mind and your heart are essentially synonymous in the New Testament.
00:10:44
Speaker
So we renew our minds and we're being conformed to the image of Christ. We're being transformed from you know worldlings, as it were, to the new creatures in Christ that we are. And so that's that's discipleship.
00:10:58
Speaker
Excuse me. And, um yeah, we're we're not only learning knowledge, as you said, or facts, but we're learning ah Christ himself. Because our goal is to be more Christ-like, just to put it another way. So um it's not just acquiring knowledge, as you said, not just, you know, learning to be more moral. I mean, a lot of times we say, oh, well yeah, okay, well, we just got to be better people. Mm-hmm.
00:11:22
Speaker
Well, you want to be better people, right right? But that's not the sum total of it. and And so, yeah, think these are different ways, obviously, that we can make Christianity a little bit smaller than it is.
00:11:38
Speaker
We've talked about the area of evangelism, for example, and how um a lot of folk regard evangelism as simply getting people to make decisions for Christ. Right, right. But it's it's bigger than that. No, no. Again, evangelism, ah when we when we look at that word and we're thinking about ah spreading the good news of the gospel, but we always take that back to the Great Commission. We talked about this in a previous episode as well.
00:12:06
Speaker
That Great Commission says to go and make disciples And so it's not just that decision. It's not just that conversion that we're looking for, but we're looking to see people be changed, and transformed, as you said already, into
True Evangelism and Commitment
00:12:23
Speaker
disciples.
00:12:24
Speaker
Disciples of whom? Disciples of Christ. That's right. And so, again, that learning that's taking place with discipleship is learning about him and about his character and how I can live my life in a way that better reflects him and his character and the change that he is making in my life.
00:12:41
Speaker
Yeah, got something going on today, man. I'm sorry. It's all right. Our our church you know has a a pretty active biblical counseling ministry that we participate in We have several um people that are involved in that as counselors, um but we we've talked about in a lot of our training that really biblical counseling, you know, the way that we view it, the way that we practice it, it's not just a Christian psychology, right, where we're just taking worldly wisdom, as it were, psychological analysis and throwing some Bible verses on top of it.
00:13:20
Speaker
But what we actually try to do in biblical counseling is, in fact, discipleship and evangelism. Yeah. and so we're we're meeting one-on-one with people who are dealing with problems, whatever that may be.
00:13:33
Speaker
And in some cases, we find out as as we talk with them and, and to use ah to use a phrase, unpack. some things that they're dealing with, we may come to the realization that they they don't they're not saved. yeah They don't know Jesus. yeah And so then we present the gospel to them and and we try to lead them ah to a saving knowledge there. And then from that point on, we can take them further to help deal with their problems. yeah um But even even if they are a believer, but they're just struggling with something, the goal that we have is not just to get them to stop
00:14:05
Speaker
doing the thing, whatever it might be, for example, or just to, if if it's marital counseling, and it's not just to get them to stop fighting with their husband or wife or, you know, to just to have a happy marriage.
00:14:17
Speaker
um But we are trying to disciple them and to say um the the end goal surprisingly enough, is not a happy marriage. Right. It's a Christ-honoring marriage. Right. um Which at times may mean that I may have to sacrifice. I may have to, you know, lay down my rights, as it were, or whatever, in that relationship because I'm doing so to honor Christ, to reflect ah his character. Yeah.
00:14:44
Speaker
And obviously we know that if in a marriage, for example, if both sides are, know, Following that then there's going to be joy in the marriage. You know, we're not saying that a Christ-honoring marriage is always going to be where you're just keeping your head down and just, you know, enduring. That's right. um We do believe that that following the principles of the Bible leads to joy and and fulfillment and happiness and all of those things.
00:15:10
Speaker
But that's not that's not the ultimate goal is just to have a happy marriage and to not be fighting anymore. That's right. The goal is honoring Christ, which again is what we're looking to do with discipleship. That's right.
00:15:22
Speaker
You've got transformed hearts, transformed lives, as we were saying a little bit earlier. and yeah When you were talking about all of that um as discipleship, and then that great commission being make disciples, it reminded me yeah you know When I was first um ah saved, when I was a young new believer, I was like 22, 23 years old, and I was very active in the church. I mean, God had just you know changed my heart, changed my life, and couldn't couldn't get enough and of the church and the fellowship and the teaching of God's Word. I was learning so much. But I remember we would have these... um
00:16:01
Speaker
you know, revival meetings. and um And again, a series of meetings where you preach the gospel, that's fine, um because God does the work. but But my view was kind of, okay, well, you know, these folk are going to, quote-unquote, get saved. And I remember thinking, because I had seen folk get saved, supposedly, at a revival meeting,
00:16:23
Speaker
join the church, you know, that Sunday or whatever. And, you know, either very quickly thereafter or maybe even a month or so or two, whatever, all of a sudden you didn't see them anymore. and And I just remember praying during one of these meetings.
00:16:39
Speaker
Okay, Lord, these people just came down. They got saved. So help them to to just stay in church long enough to where they'll really see this is a great thing, and they'll really enjoy it, and they'll know, you know, we can make friends with them, so they'll just stick, they'll just stay.
00:16:56
Speaker
and And what was in my head was that somehow, um you know, we had to work something up in order to secure, yeah you know, their salvation, as it were, if that makes sense I just didn't understand. right And, of course, part of that was...
00:17:13
Speaker
the The whole teaching, and I'm not saying the church that I was in was teaching this, but just our culture, rampant, um you know, decisional regeneration where all you have to do in order to be saved is pray this prayer or walk this aisle or, yeah you know, whatever. So um that that makes Christianity small, too, which is, again, what you were talking about.
00:17:35
Speaker
But there does come a moment in time where a person is born again and they repent and they believe. But
Progressive Sanctification
00:17:42
Speaker
if they're truly born again, then, you know, we don't have to,
00:17:47
Speaker
um what's what's the word? We don't have to ah do all kinds of things to make the church attractive to them so they'll stay. yeah yeah They're going to stay because they love Christ. Now again, got to help them learn how to fight sin, deal with sin issues in the heart, as you were saying.
00:18:03
Speaker
That's part of discipleship. right But the whole point of what you're saying, I gather, and that in in the discipleship process, is is just that. Here's a new disciple, now we're discipling, but he's already born again. so Yeah, part of part of it is what what we would call progressive sanctification. There you go. um And again, it that speaks to, as you said, there's a moment in time where we're brought from death to life, right?
00:18:34
Speaker
there's There's a moment of time when our destiny's changed, our heart is awakened. You know, all of these things that take place, salvation happens at a point in time. But ah we believe, because the Bible teaches, that we though we've been changed, our hearts are new and we've been saved.
00:18:54
Speaker
there is still this dichotomy that we have to fight with. There there is our sin nature that still wars against the Spirit, um and we constantly have to be fighting against that.
00:19:07
Speaker
um And so progressive sanctification means that over time, progressively, we are fighting sin. We are learning more and more how to honor Christ in all that we do.
00:19:18
Speaker
And so discipleship is just... us helping one another do that. yeah um But again, if we don't understand this concept of progressive sanctification being something that happens in the life of every believer, right every true believer, then again, we make Christianity small because we we can just reduce it to that decisional moment yeah or that salvation moment to where, okay, the person's been saved and now we just hope they...
00:19:49
Speaker
live good yeah and don't don't do bad things. Right. But what we're actually taught in Scripture is that, okay, now we've been conscripted into God's army, as it were, and what we're warring against is not just demons or Satan himself. well We're warring against sin and its influence in our own lives, and that's something that is a lifelong battle for us. Right. And so when you when you look when you look at life,
00:20:18
Speaker
through that lens that I'm now in a lifelong battle, then that that makes it bigger because this isn't just something that I can just do once every seven days um for an hour or so and be done with it. This is a lifelong battle that I have to continually fight. And so that then that makes it, it's huge. There's nothing bigger. That's right. That's right.
00:20:39
Speaker
Let's expand it even further. Sure. um Because you're going down the track there, exactly what what we need to be thinking. And um you know the the decisional regeneration, yeah, you you can make this decision and your life is not transformed. What you're talking about is a transformed life and it's transformed over time and that's a process.
00:21:03
Speaker
Okay, well now, and and dealing with our heart and all everything you said. Okay, so now, um Okay, let's think about not only, let let's put the first two dynamics that we talked about together. You know, all of life is to be lived for the glory of God. I'm i i'm being transformed now.
00:21:20
Speaker
So now we want to see how our Christianity affects ah the way we do our work, the way we not only interact with others, but the way we interact with culture, you know, on we could go.
00:21:35
Speaker
it's it's It seems to me like there's been, and I think a lot of people have ah pointed this out. I didn't come up with this, but but I agree that that there that particularly in American Christianity,
00:21:48
Speaker
um And it may be, well, I know historically, not that we want to go too far down this road. Sorry, bro. But part of it is is the result of that decisional regeneration. Part of it is the result of, yeah you know, what I would call Phineasim, you know, out of the Second Great Awakening.
00:22:04
Speaker
Part of it is just... you know the We put a lot of emphasis on the individual in America, and in and in many ways, rightly so. In some ways, it's deleterious to a certain degree.
00:22:18
Speaker
but um the But here's where I'm going. The privatization of our faith. well Yeah, my religion's between me and God. yeah um Like you were saying earlier, use the term compartmentalization. Okay, yeah, I got my faith over here, and then I got the rest of my life over there.
00:22:35
Speaker
Never the twain shall meet. And say, wait, what? you know Well, not only do the do people not want to talk about it, or they don't want to offend others, but they often don't even see the connection between the rest of their life and their faith. That's when we have a massive problem. It made Christianity small. Yeah, yeah. um I mean, you you said the phrase, and I think it's okay to use the phrase in the right context, um but you said the phrase, my faith.
00:23:02
Speaker
and But so many people will say, this is my faith. But again, that's that internalizing where this is my private thing that I have between me and God. And, you know, you might not agree with my faith, but so that's one of the reasons I'm going to keep it private.
00:23:19
Speaker
Um, so we don't, we don't argue about anything or, or whatever. And it doesn't, it doesn't, it doesn't make an impact or have a change on anybody, uh, around me. And, and ultimately that means it's not really making a change in my life either.
00:23:33
Speaker
Right. Right. Because it's just at that point, then it's just kind of my security blanket. Um, it's, it's my little thing that I have over here to comfort me when things are
Critique of Cultural Christianity
00:23:44
Speaker
rough. That's right. And,
00:23:45
Speaker
and Obviously, the Lord does that for us. you know if if If we're His, He can give us that comfort and that peace in difficult times.
00:23:58
Speaker
um But again, not we don't want to make it small. It's not just some fuzzy, warm blanket that we have to make us feel better. Right. Yeah, that's that over-individualization and um the the the feelings that it gives to me. So now there's a little bit of, ah and which might be different from your feelings, and so now there's a little bit of relativism mixed in.
00:24:24
Speaker
mean, it's like a witch's brew right right yeah when you start mixing in all these items Ironic you said that phrase because what I was about to say is when you really, if you really follow that logic to say that this is my faith and it's something private to me.
00:24:40
Speaker
um But again, it's a relativistic kind of view. Well, then what if someone says that Wicca gives me that? um or Or what if, you know, what if this person's belief is is Catholic?
00:24:54
Speaker
Or what if this person's belief is Muslim? yeah Or whatever it may be, but it's their private faith and it gives them comfort and it makes them feel good. And they find meaning and truth in it. yeah um But again, the the message of Christ is exclusive. yeah um It's, there I am the way, the truth, yeah the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. yeah And so, if if it's that definitive, that it is the one and only way to eternal life, to hope and peace and and all of these things, then it can't be so small as just to be my own personal faith. right. right
00:25:34
Speaker
I was watching the and NBA playoffs where they wrap up in June. Yeah, I think it was about a month ago. And um I won't mention his name because it's not my purpose, but there's one NBA player out there who claims to be a Christian, and and maybe he is. I mean, he's all over social media, apparently, and outspoken about his faith. But it was interesting to me that he's well-known, and I saw it in two or three different interviews,
00:26:00
Speaker
He gets his strength by praying to his mother. His mother's passed away, and she's looking down, and, you know, man, i felt I felt you with me tonight, you know, that kind of thing. And that's just sentimentality. right I mean, it could be worse, but at a bare minimum, right? Because there's a lot of Christians who kind of think maybe their parents or other loved ones who've passed away are kind of helping them. Yeah. Right. and And it sounds a lot like a lot of the Far East ah religions and where we pray to our ancestors. Yeah. Yeah, it does. and things like that. And so, again, we're mixing elements of Christianity in the Bible that sound good and feel good. the cauldron. but Yeah, yeah, exactly. we Yeah. Throw a little bit of this in and a little bit of that in and find something that that is palatable to me. And and that's what I'm going to call my faith or my quote unquote Christianity. There's so many celebrities.
00:26:53
Speaker
ah that we've seen do that, whether they're athletes or actors or musicians, politicians that will love to claim to be a Christian when it's time to get the Christian vote yeah during an election cycle, ah um but then you know just totally abandon it, not even speak about it, right or act on it when they're in office. Yeah, that's right.
00:27:19
Speaker
Well, and and to go back to your your point, we're just teasing that out, but um because i I use the term my faith, and you you keyed on that. Jude, for example, and in in the scriptures, he talks about the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Mm-hmm.
00:27:35
Speaker
And so right there, as you know, he's talking about something more than an individualized or privatized faith. Yes, we have faith. We're given the gift of faith, and we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that we might be saved.
00:27:47
Speaker
um Justification through faith. But um there is a content, and you emphasized that a moment ago, there's a content to our faith. Mm-hmm. It's not just faith in faith.
00:27:59
Speaker
It's faith in a person. Yes. And then there's a body of truth related to the reality of who that person is and what that person is all about. Yeah, that's the faith once and for all delivered to the saints. We are saved as individuals. Yep.
00:28:12
Speaker
You know, I do have my faith because the Lord has given it to me. Yes. And that's that's a big that's a big thing to understand is because a lot of times when people say my faith, it's really because it's what I've created, um what I've put together, what I've mixed in the pot, as we said. um This is my faith that I've come up with that works for me. Yeah.
00:28:34
Speaker
But if we are saying it biblically, then we're saying, if we say my faith, we're saying the faith that the Lord has given to me. And it's from that universal truth that we find in the gospel, in the word that is in Christ and in Christ alone.
00:28:52
Speaker
and And all of these things that we've talked about so many times. So. Yes, it is personal, but it is also there is also universal truth to it yeah that that anyone who has faith in Christ, who who is truly going to be called a Christian, must be submitted to
Faith in Daily Tasks
00:29:12
Speaker
that same universal truth. Yeah, that's right. Without mixing in these other ingredients. That's right.
00:29:17
Speaker
and And as you said, that that faith, that content of our faith, it speaks to every area of life. And so, you again, we're dealing with our heart hearts and transforming marriages and and all that. But it's it's going to impact, um you know, again, we we mentioned this a moment ago, how we do our work. Mm-hmm.
00:29:39
Speaker
See, if all of life is worship, to bring that back in. And now um there's a content to our faith. Well, what does our faith or the Scripture say about the Christian's relationship to work, for example?
00:29:54
Speaker
I mean, a lot of Christians think that work is the result of the fall. Mm-hmm. Well, as you well know, work is not the result fall. Work is good and of itself. Toil is the result of the fall. That's right. The sometimes toil, lot of the time, the sometimes futility. But work is good.
00:30:11
Speaker
ah work work is good god God worked. in the garden, he worked on the cross, he's working now to sustain the universe, and so work is good. But we need to ah see that so it starts in our understanding, our hearts and minds, okay, I want to work as unto the Lord, Paul says, not just to get ahead, not just to please my boss, but I want to work as unto the Lord, because you know He's the one watching, not my mama. I love my mama. And I do want to see her again one day, and I i fully believe that I will. I think Paul addresses that in 1 Thessalonians. She's a believer. Sure. But... um
00:30:52
Speaker
No, no, the the one who's watching me, it's not like a Bette Midler thing. God is what? Do you remember that? You might be might be too young for for you. Well, I wasn't a huge Bette Midler fan. Well, so yes yeah, yeah.
00:31:04
Speaker
Not super familiar with her catalog. Well, i think she yeah i think she had this song, maybe I got it wrong, but From a Distance. okay. God is watching me. This is is this big hit song way back when. Yeah. don't even know when. But anyway, um I guess I don't even know Bette Midler until then, but that I digress. So...
00:31:21
Speaker
so Yeah, the Lord the lord is is is watching us. so and And we want to think in bigger terms about what work is. It's not just work.
00:31:32
Speaker
um Again, all all of life. and And these are the things that we talk about constantly, but we're just putting it you know in the context of what we're dealing with here. um We don't want Christianity to be small. We want to march into the things that God has given us to do with our our eyes open and our understanding there, okay, this is going to affect what I do. But at the same time, it's not merely privatized.
00:31:57
Speaker
Not talking about being obnoxious, but we march into the public square with the faith, once for all delivered to the saints. And it's first and foremost demonstrated in how we deal with people, how we do our work. But that gives us, along with other dynamics, we could speak without that. I mean, there are random encounters I have with people who I talk to about the Lord. yeah But we we also, and that's why I have a platform. i was getting ready use the platform.
00:32:26
Speaker
because God has saved us and He wants us to speak. But at the same time, when you do your your work as unto the Lord, people notice that, and that gives you a platform from which to speak. Yeah, yeah. You said random encounters, and that's the thing about a random encounter is you never know when it's going to happen.
00:32:43
Speaker
And so right in light of that, um we we want to always be doing everything that we're doing with an attitude towards glorifying the Lord because you never know when an opportunity might arise in in any type of context ah where you might have the opportunity to speak to someone about the Lord, to share the gospel with someone.
00:33:06
Speaker
But if I'm in the middle of having a bad attitude about something or or thinking sinfully about something, then I might not be prepared to share that word of hope with that person. yeah um Or I might be acting in such a way that they're not going to be interested in hearing what I have to say. Yeah, that's right.
00:33:26
Speaker
um You know, not not to not to kind of push the the hustle culture that that that's out there in a lot of ways, but Christians should be the ones that are on time to work. They should be the ones that are that are willing to go the extra mile when asked to do something, that that take on assignments ah with good attitudes um and and those kind of things. And again, not so not to please my boss, not to be a brown noser or whatever you might want to call it.
00:33:52
Speaker
um But again, to do so, ah first and foremost, again, because the Lord is watching and I want to honor Him. yep um and And it's not that I want to do it so that He doesn't punish me for for doing bad. I want to do it because I want to to bring glory to Him. yeah um And then also because who knows what door that might open for me to be able to talk to someone about the gospel or share truth with. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
00:34:22
Speaker
Yeah, that that's that's what it's all about. And and so I think, um you know, to to circle back to something you said earlier, because we're talking about, okay, well, it's not just a privatized faith. It's a personal faith, yeah but it's not privatized.
00:34:40
Speaker
So we're taking it into the marketplace of ideas. We're taking it into the public square. We're taking it into work, et cetera. we we We get those platforms, as you were saying. So we don't want our faith disconnected from our work. We don't want our faith um disconnected from our work.
00:35:00
Speaker
Usually when we think of ah vocation, we think of work, but we talk about vocation a lot from our different callings. So like if I'm at work, even if it's drudgery because of the fall, we do what we do for the glory of God. If I'm having to change those diapers as ah as a dad or a mom, I'm um Not the most pleasant thing, but we can do that for the glory of God. So our faith is not disconnected from that.
00:35:27
Speaker
Our various vocations, our faith is not disconnected, you know, from the larger world. So can we do a thought a thought experiment real quick? You said a little bit earlier, and I used a couple of examples, but your examples, you you were talking about cutting the grass for the glory of God, washing dishes for the glory of God. Let's talk about washing dishes for a moment.
00:35:49
Speaker
Why would washing, how how could washing dishes ah be for the glory of God? I can think of a couple of ways, but I'm just going to hit you blind here. Well,
Public Integration of Faith
00:36:00
Speaker
yeah. um ah Well, for one thing, as we've talked about in the past, pushing back the fall, um we're taking a dirty dish and and making it clean again. Yes. you know And we're making sure that the kitchen is is clean and organized and and that we can make, you know, edible meals out of it and and all those things.
00:36:23
Speaker
Um, that's, that's certainly part of it. Um, uh, again, like I said already, um, you know, if someone else prepared the meal, well, you're serving them and even showing gratitude to them, um, by saying, i appreciate you preparing this meal. Now I'm going to clean up. Yeah. Afterwards. yeah um And especially if you're in a husband and wife dynamic there and, you know, i'm I'm serving you because you've served me. We're we're a team here. We're serving one another.
00:36:49
Speaker
Those kinds of things. um So, I mean, that's that's a couple of examples. um' Yeah. The couple you were thinking. of Well, those those were exactly. I don't have anything else to say. So, yeah. No, no, no.
00:37:00
Speaker
No, I was thinking of those two, um but I'll expand on that to just a little bit. You know, the whole cleaning the dishes, because you mentioned, um okay, we can use those plates again.
00:37:13
Speaker
Whereas if you just over and over and over again, then you're you're liable to maybe get some kind of bacteria that you you don't want or disease. i'm I'm not, you know, a scientist or anything.
00:37:24
Speaker
But um also... you walk into a a home and you see dirty dishes all over the place and food on the floor and gym socks everywhere you know hanging from the ceiling fan or whatever i remember going to home when i was a kid it was just we lived in the neighborhood and everybody's homes were nice and neat and this one family it was crazy they had like old half-eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on the floor in front of the couch and like four kids and said wait what's happening here Well, nobody, you know, i mean, we all have the same visceral reaction when walk into a scene like that.
00:37:58
Speaker
Well, again, that doesn't glorify God. No. So the clean kitchen, and again, we're not trying to enslave our wives here or even ourselves, because like you said, ah it's it's a good thing for the husbands to to help their wives in that way. we could have a podcast on that one day, perhaps.
00:38:17
Speaker
But Jesus was a servant, right? Yeah, he washed his disciples' feet. Yeah, and what do he tell us? Which about as menial as a task as you could have had at that time. Yeah, usually a slave did it.
00:38:27
Speaker
So, yeah, it was so scandalous. Peter was like, Lord. No, no, no, no don't wash my feet. yeah Yeah, yeah. So certainly making a point to Peter. And then he said, as I've done to you, then you do to others. like otherwise yeah Yeah, and I don't think.
00:38:42
Speaker
you know He was telling us this practice of foot washing and corporate worship. right I think he was telling the disciples to serve one another that way, yeah and we could certainly apply it to helping ah anyone, not just our wives. certainly want to help our wives, but to my sister's having some ah health issues, and um whenever whenever you know i visit her at her at her home, she...
00:39:08
Speaker
She lives, well, she's here now, but she lives, you know, almost 600 miles away. I cut the grass. And um so, yeah, because it's very, very difficult for her to do that.
00:39:20
Speaker
And she either has to pay somebody or or whatever. So we're going to serve in any way we can. So, yeah, think... There's a stewardship issue, too. um You know, you you mentioned, you know walking into someone else's home and and seeing it in total disrepair, like you described.
00:39:35
Speaker
um That's not being a good steward of what the Lord has blessed you with. Right. um You know, we... while we don't ascribe to a health and wealth type gospel, i do believe that the Lord blesses us with material things. Yeah. um And so if the Lord has blessed you with a nice home, yeah with a nice kitchen and and and all of this, um then you should, as a good steward, want to take care of it um and and to keep it clean and to keep it in good working order and all of those things.
00:40:04
Speaker
that's That's stewardship, which again is giving glory to the one who provided it to you. that's right. And, um you know, there's certain things that washing the dishes makes possible, keeps us healthy, keeps it keeps the place beautified, as you're saying.
00:40:21
Speaker
um our Our friends are going to be happy to come over and have dinner with us. Right. They're not going to want to do that if if we don't wash the dishes. Yeah. um So we're and able to engage in hospitality and and certainly have fruitful conversations around the dinner table. Yeah, this is totally off base, but you just made me think of when I was in college ah one time and of course it's a guy's dorm.
00:40:46
Speaker
Oh yeah you know and And think everybody knows what that means. Yeah. What you're going to walk into, the type of stewardship that you're going to see taking place the cleanliness that may or may not be there right and i remember there was those uh one friend of mine and uh i think he had ordered a pizza and said hey come you know come over and have some pizza and walked in and and they had a sink a little kitchenette area i guess sink area in this particular dorm and i mean the dishes were stacked you know way up high and there's just dried on caked on food everywhere there's literally flies flying in and out of there and i was like no thanks i'm i'm good i'm gonna do pizza tonight yeah right yeah it's your favorite but right yeah not tonight yeah suddenly not hungry oh man yeah that's right so we could kind of tease that out further yeah yeah but that's the issue right and people think why
00:41:38
Speaker
you guys are really getting out in the the tall grass there." It's like, no, think we're commanded to more and more think God's thoughts after Him. Yeah, and and and and that's the point that we're making is that when when we view every little thing as being part of a life of worship and honoring Christ in all that we do, even something as simple as cutting the grass or washing the dishes,
00:42:04
Speaker
paying my bills on time, you know, whatever, any menial tasks that you could come up with in your own head. The more that we think about those little things being ways that we can honor the Lord, that's how it gives us a big view. Yeah.
00:42:18
Speaker
Our big view is found in how we view the little things. That's right. um That's right. And so when, because if we, make Christianity about all of these little things coming together as a life of worship, then that's a whole lot bigger than just compartmentalizing it into this one thing that's my private faith that I yeah entertain every yeah every seven days. That's right.
00:42:41
Speaker
And think about this too, made me think of this, If you compartmentalize your faith, um so you've got your your church life on Sunday, and then you've got yeah the rest of the week, whatever it is, whether it's work or you know baseball, practice with the kids or whatever, um you're being discipled by someone.
00:43:05
Speaker
And if you're not learning to think biblically and to think God's thoughts after him, you're being discipled by the world. And it's just these random messaging. Now, in our culture, there's a lot of unified messaging. Sure, yeah. so you got that, but there's a lot of random messaging too. And this is why you know you'll see a lot of us believers will will claim to love the Lord, and and yet other believers will sometimes be shocked, wait, you you you're a Christian, but you're living this way, or you're thinking this way, or you know this this is what's driving you. you know
00:43:45
Speaker
Yeah, and that speaks to what we are filling our minds with. And it I think that's kind of a little bit what you're getting at is um what do we spend our time thinking about, listening to, reading, and watching, all of those things? Yeah.
Cultivating a Robust Faith
00:44:00
Speaker
And that's that's not to say that that Christians can't watch TV or watch movies or right or listen to music that's not worship music or right anything like that. We're not saying that. We're not legalists.
00:44:12
Speaker
But at the same time, what am I filling my mind with? yeah um Because even if I watch something that doesn't have a biblical worldview, not.
00:44:24
Speaker
have Have I been filling my mind enough with the scripture that I can recognize it? Yeah. And I can see that thing and be like, well, this is not honoring the Lord and this is why, you know, or, or this message is off, uh, from, from what the Bible teaches and here's why.
00:44:41
Speaker
um and it, So that also goes back to, you know, I also don't want to over-spiritualize when we're talking about every little thing. Doesn't mean that, you know, i have to say, all right, I'm washing the dishes because I'm worshiping the Lord. You know, I don't know't have to be...
00:44:55
Speaker
praying the whole time I'm sitting here doing whatever menial task it is. But at the same time, ah if I am in these down times, so to speak, if I'm taking advantage of those times to fill my mind with the word, with the things of God, ah with with things that that teach me about him, then even in some of those moments when I'm doing that little menial task,
00:45:21
Speaker
the Lord may bring that to mind. I mean, I've i've had i've had some some things pop into my head when I'm vacuuming the house or cutting the grass or yeah whatever it might be, um where, you know, it's the result of having spent time in the Word or or whatever.
00:45:39
Speaker
um And then when I'm doing the menial task, sometimes your mind is free to just kind of think on whatever. But if those thoughts are popping in my head rather than worldly thoughts, then, then you know, that's that's that's another way that we can that we can grow and and and develop in that faith.
00:45:56
Speaker
um and again that's not to say that i'm i'm not i'm not saying that that always happens to me and that that uh that's not something that i'm progressively trying to be sanctified in as well um because we all are just like we've said so surrounded by uh opposing messaging um and and sometimes it can be easy to catch myself saying okay why am i Thinking about this in this way because, you know, this i know that's not honoring to the Lord. Yeah. But then I can recognize it because i know i have, there's been enough time in the Word that I know that, okay, this thing that even I'm thinking right now is not honoring to the Lord because I know what the Word of the Lord says about this thing or that. Yeah, that's right.
00:46:44
Speaker
Yeah, we're not, like you said, we're not legalists, but we want to honor the Lord. We don't want to dishonor him. um We have to be discerning. You know, I may listen to a song, like you say, that's not strictly Christian, but have to be discerning about it. I think there's some great, wholesome songs that aren't overtly Christian. Right.
00:47:04
Speaker
um And then they're probably rooted in, as I think about it, a larger Christian worldview, whether the singer realizes it or not. it You know, if they're a wholesome song. Yeah. um The kids, so it was a a fad not long ago. they'd They'd sing Take Me Home, Country Rose. That's a good song. Yeah. I like it. You know, I haven't analyzed it, so somebody's going to call me out on it. Yeah. I remember listening to that as a kid. Yeah.
00:47:30
Speaker
Yeah. um I mean, John Denver's not my fave, but anyway, I'm i'm down with that. um So our... some We're always being discipled, though. That's the key. Yes. that and that and Yeah, you said that.
00:47:44
Speaker
and our and And to be discipled, it's not only our understanding, but it's our love. It's our heart. e And so we can be discipled into loving something we shouldn't love. Yeah, yeah. And like I was saying, is a for myself even, sometimes, like I said, sometimes I may i might catch myself...
00:48:02
Speaker
Thinking or acting in a way that I know is not honoring the Lord. Well, where did that come from? Yeah. Well, it it comes from as some influence. it It comes from myself. Yeah. It comes from my sinful nature.
00:48:12
Speaker
But that's being stirred up by, you know, maybe it's maybe it's other things that I'm allowing to disciple me to use that word um rather than God's word. Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right.
00:48:24
Speaker
And again, that speaks to that progressive sanctification that we were talking about earlier, to where it's something that we're always warring against. and So we've ah got to always stay alert and always be active in our faith, not passive in our faith.
00:48:37
Speaker
um which again is all about a all so going back to this whole keeping Christianity big, yeah making it big. yeah um It's something that we've we can't be passive with. that's right We've always got to be active with it because we're always going to be warring against our flesh until the Lord takes us home. Yeah, yeah that's right.
00:48:56
Speaker
Man, that's a good place to end it. okay yeah i mean I've got more to say. I'm sure you do too. Yeah, we could probably talk for another hour. Yeah, yeah, Maybe we'll talk one one next, well, maybe not next time, but sometime about why Christians...
00:49:12
Speaker
Well, not necessarily. i don't think you have to be an expert in every field if you're a Christian. I mean, that'd be impossible. So, I don't have to be an expert in economics. I don't have to be an expert in law. don't have to be an expert in science.
00:49:25
Speaker
um But at the same time, I do think there are Christians who are called to be experts in economics, law, science, e etc. And I think as you're being discipled,
00:49:36
Speaker
um we need to understand at least a ah basic, we need have a basic understanding of a biblical view of economics, law, science, for example. I'm just throwing that out. Yeah, sure.
00:49:48
Speaker
That's part of a, I don't know, full or biblical worldview and making making Christ big. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Otherwise, we're going to... wreak havoc. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we kind of touched on little bit with, like said, why why why are doing these little menial tasks important? Mm-hmm. But, yeah, why...
00:50:08
Speaker
Why are certain economic principles good, for example? Yeah. You know, why are our views of God-given rights? Yeah. You know, why why is all of that important?
00:50:22
Speaker
And again, it's because if we're viewing it correctly, we're viewing it through the lens of the gospel. And that we believe in these things because they're biblical. Yeah. And and it's it's in some way, shape or form reflects God's character.
00:50:39
Speaker
Yeah. and and And just like there are scientific laws, like laws of law of gravity. We all agree. We all understand that basically. Well, they're economic laws.
00:50:50
Speaker
And and if if if you don't if you don't know what they are, you can wreak havoc. And you think, well, what are they? Well, I mean, history has proven you know what economic laws exist. Well, like you said, where do they come from? From the world that God has ordered, from from the nature of human beings. And what what's right is is reflective of the character of God.
00:51:13
Speaker
And what's wrong is is reflective of something else. Yeah. Anyway, I said was a good place to end it and then I kept talking. So you you you take us out however you want to. I'm going to be quiet. um All right. Well, I think we've kind of said it a lot, but, yeah, we just – Christians to have a big view of God himself, which we've talked about that before in the past, a big view of the gospel yep and of Christianity.
Conclusion and Ministry Info
00:51:44
Speaker
and And we want that to be applied to our lives.
00:51:47
Speaker
Because that is the gospel. The gospel is not just um about ah turning from sin or about being saved, as it were.
00:51:58
Speaker
um It's about a total life transformation. And that's what we want to see in people is to have hearts and lives changed. That's right. And that's all we have for today on Answering Pilot.
00:52:10
Speaker
The Answering Pilot podcast is a ministry of Randall House Church in Greer, South Carolina. You can learn more at www.randallhousebeer.com slash church. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram at at Randall House Church.
00:52:25
Speaker
Don't forget to like and subscribe, and we'll see you next time.