Get Radical Faith with Beatty Carmichael | Bible study, Bible teaching, the bible teachers podcast, help me teach the bib

This is a continuation of our series on Identity -- "who are you in Christ?"  In this episode on Romans 7:10-11 I uncover a fascinating truth about sin -- is it a "thing" or is it something we do?  In other words, when we as Christians sin, what is the reason behind the sin?  When we "battle with sin" and attempt to live righteously, what does that really mean?  And... what is the implication of all of this in terms of who we are in Christ?  This is Part 1 of a two part series.

This is a fascinating insight into the interaction between body, soul and spirit.  This is Part 1 of two sessions that are part of our Identity series on "who are you in Christ?"  Based on Hebrews 4:12 and 1 Thessalonians 5:13

Has the Lord ever promised you something you really wanted, but you were afraid it wasn't true? Or, have you ever read a promise in the scriptures, maybe such as, "you cannot out give God's ability to take care of you," and yet you were afraid to fully test it and see if it was true?

This episode is all about that topic. It's called Demands of Faith.

A demand of faith is when you claim that which is yours, by faith, and you receive it. It's part of walking by faith, but it goes a step beyond -- it's taking authority and claiming that which the Lord has promised.  

We see demands of faith with Moses, Elisha, King David, and throughout the Bible. And... we see it today in the lives of those who walk by faith.

If you want to grow stronger in walking by faith, you will love this episode.  Watch the actual live teaching and diagrams on YouTube.  Visit our website at https://GetRadicalFaith.com/podcasts/?=PodcastDescription

This is the fourth of a multi-part series on Spiritual Warfare entited "Get Free of Torments, Addictions, and Constant Life Failures."  This episode teaches on unforgiveness and the impact it has in open doors that allow demonic spirits to torment you.  Watch the actual live teaching and diagrams on YouTube.  Visit our website at https://GetRadicalFaith.com/podcasts/?=PodcastDescription

"Getting Free of torments, addictions, and constant life failures - Part 2 -- demonic strongholds that hold you back."

Do you ever feel like you're being "tormented" at times, struggle with addictions, or feel like everything you do constantly fails -- relationships falling apart, sales opportunities vanish, you never get ahead financially, and more?

If you feel that way, you're not a lone.  Your life could be simply full of bad decisions ... but it could also be something more.

That "something more" could be a spiritual battle you are dealing with.  It could be you have "saboteurs" in your life that you can't see.  Jesus said "the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy.  I came that you might have life, and have it abundantly."

If you are not experiencing abundant life now, in this life, you could be in a spiritual battle.  And if you are, this Radical Faith series on spiritual warfare will not only share what's going on, but also how to get free of it.

Transcription (was completed by automated process.  Please ignore any speech-to-text errors)

[00:00:04] Well, hello, everyone, thank you so much for joining us today. I'm super excited and welcome to this next session of Get Sellers Calling You with Beatty Carmichael.  Beatty is the CEO of Master Grabber, the creator of Agent Dominator and one of the top marketing experts in the real estate field. Beatty, I am super excited about our call today. What do you have for our listeners?

[00:00:28] Well, I am very excited about it as well, Penny, because I get to do today what I love doing. And sometimes I pinch myself saying, Lord, do I really get paid to do this stuff? And the answer is yes, ultimately. So we're going to do not a real estate marketing call. We're going to do a radical face call for those who may be new to us. As a reminder, we do two types of calls. So if you're here for real estate marketing, that's not going to be the topic of today's call. The topic is going to be living as a Christian, and what all of that type of stuff means. So if you want to enjoy that, please continue listening. Otherwise, you can turn off this episode and come back to our next one. So what I want to do when we talked last time, Penny, on the topic, Do all who accept Christ go to heaven? Do you remember that topic?

[00:01:26] Yes, I do. I do.

[00:01:28] Ok, well today we're going into part two, OK? And next time when we do, another radical faith call will be it part three. And I'm not sure if it's going to be three or four parts, but is this really incredibly exciting for me and very interesting. And I think there are a lot of deep application in terms of what we do with our lives that come out of it. So I want to go into that. So this is a quick review. We started last time with some statements that Jesus made and now we're going to test your memory. Do you remember what those statements Jesus made that we started?

[00:02:11] It was something that has to do with we were talking about do all people go to heaven if they get saved or the all believers go to heaven? And it was something it was something along the lines of, all right, that's OK.

[00:02:27] That's OK. Yeah, no, that's OK.

[00:02:30] Hey, I got it written in front of me. You don't. So that's the key. Oh so the gospels have four times God found is so important. They put four times in the gospel, the basic statement by Jesus that the one who endures to the end will be saved. Yes. Yes. The one who endures to the end by your endurance, you will gain your lives. Okay, so the question was. What in the world has Jesus talking about? So let me ask you a question. When Jesus teaches that you must endure to the end to be saved, does that mean that some people don't endure to the end?

[00:03:11] Yes.

[00:03:13] And therefore they don't endure to the end. They're not saved.

[00:03:18] That's correct. They're not going to go to heaven.

[00:03:20] Yeah, and that interesting and yet we think. Huh? OK, so we talked last time on the parable of the Sower, one of the most important parables, because it's the only one that is in all three synoptic gospels. Matthew, Mark Luke is the only one that is in its entirety in all three gospels is the only one that is fully interpreted by Jesus in all three gospels and is the only one that Jesus says, if you don't understand this one, how can you understand any of the parables? So it's kind of like the key, the master key that unlocks every single parable if you dig into it. And what we learned in the parable of the Sower is several things just in a quick review. OK, so you have a sower, we assume the soldiers us, OK, it's not very clear, but go out and you sow the seed everywhere. The seed is the word of the kingdom. And do you remember who the word of the kingdom is? If you were to put a name Jesus. Right. So where it is. So Jesus everywhere and some falls on the path and birch take it away. It's rejected. Some fall in on Iraqi soil. They accept it with enthusiasm. And as soon as the sun comes up because there's no root, it withers. Then some falls on the thorny soil.

[00:04:44] Ok, we call that soil number three. If we do soil one, two, three, four. So the stony soil falls among the thorns. It grows up into a plant. It grows up with the thorns, but there's no fruit. And then there's the for soil good soil that it produces some 60, some 30, some 100 salt, OK? And Jesus and Jesus says only the see that falls in the good soil is good. And you have to produce fruit and so what we kind of came through with all of that is that three soils accepted Jesus to some degree. You know, the rocky soil accepted the seed enough that it produced something. But there were no roots. The thorny soil accepted the seed. It actually went in the ground. It produced roots because we know now plant grew, but it was bad. And then the fourth soil, the soil accepted the seed, accepted Jesus and produced fruit. And so what we start to understand is put this parable is telling us, I believe, is that not everyone who accepts Jesus goes to heaven. Not everyone who accepts Jesus actually produces fruit. We also describe that fruit is the womb of a seed is for the seed is formed. And so what Jesus is telling us and we're going to get into this today a little bit more, that unless you're unless Christ is formed in you and you're producing more of Christ, then you're not good. Okay, so that's kind of where we ended up. Any questions or any thoughts on that before we move forward?

[00:06:33] No, just such a good reminder. Such a good refresher from last week. So I'm looking forward to this week.

[00:06:41] Good. I am too. So we covered one quick topic last time and wrapping up. And I want to I want to focus on this more today. And that's the difference between converts and disciples. So let me just cut in that. What we talked a convert is one who accepts Christ. A disciple is a convert who pursues Christ. Does that make sense?

[00:07:10] Yeah, yeah, OK.

[00:07:12] And and so it's kind of like a two step process. First, you accept Christ, but accepting Christ. Doesn't mean you go to heaven, it's what happens after there, so you accept Christ and then you pursue Christ. Now, this is not saying we're going to kind of touch on this maybe in a later session, OK? The question is, if you're currently a bad soul, can you become a good soil? That's not the topic of this call, OK? This isn't the topic of once I accept Christ, do I have to do something special? That's not the topic. All I'm saying is very clearly there is evidential difference between good soil, bad soil. And so let's look at it and then let's also analyze it within our lives. So what we find is not all converts go to heaven. But all disciples do all right. And then, John, 15 eight, this is Jesus, and he says by by this, my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit. And so can you finish this sentence on that?

[00:08:21] And so go and bear fruit and so prove to be my disciples, right, when you bear much fruit, you prove to be my disciples.

[00:08:31] And this is what Jesus is talking about. This is, by the way, the great commission go and make converts of all the nations. Now go and make disciples of all the nations. And so there's something there about this mandate. So with that, I now want to move in to where we're going to be talking about today and it's really quite fascinating. I like to look at what John the Baptist had to say about frit. By the way, this is now trivia. Do you recall anything John the Baptist said about fruit?

[00:09:08] So. Wow. Mm hmm.

[00:09:12] I don't know, off the top of my head, so let's turn to Matthew three verses eight, nine and 10 and let's see what he says about fruit.

[00:09:25] Bear fruit in keeping with repentance and did not presume to say to yourselves, we have Abraham is our father, for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now, the axes laid to the root of the tree. Every tree, therefore, does not bear good fruit that does not bear good for it. Cut down and thrown into the fire.

[00:09:52] Ok, just a little back. Back up. Scripture uses the metaphor trees a lot as representing men. OK, so that's why you see this. The access to the trees, every tree that does not bear fruit when he's talking to people and he says bear fruit with keeping with repentance. So when you see the word tree, typically that's going to be speaking about men when there are different types of trees, is talking about different types of men or the human race. Not always, but that's one of the things. So what does this say that what type of fruit are we to bear? Fruit that keeps with resentence fruit that keeps with repentance, so let's go back and cover one thing that's really important. When we read the Bible, the Bible is a book written by a single author, God himself. And when we when we see common terms throughout, there are always going to have something. They're always going to mean about the same thing or typically. OK, so you have just as we talked about last time, you have characters in a book. And if a character named John is introduced at the beginning, the book, then when the author calls out John toward the end of the book is the same. John is the same person. In this case. We have the character of fruit. The last time we talked about with a state in the sower that the good soil produces fruit, we had to understand what fruit is. But here John the Baptist is talking about fruit bear fruit in keeping with repentance. So we kind of understand that what John the Baptist is talking about is the same thing Jesus has been talking about. Does that make sense? Mm hmm. Yeah. OK, so this fruit is fruit in keeping with repentance. Here's something also interesting. What was the message that Jesus came preaching to you? Remember what that message was?

[00:11:58] The kingdom of God is here or now, but there's one one part right before that.

[00:12:03] Do you remember what it was? It was an action and love, love one another now repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. OK. Oh, so close your so close. So there's something about repentance that's really important when we talk about healing later, whenever the Lord guides me in that direction, repentance is really a key part of of that. So so we are to bear fruit of repentance, OK, if we don't bear fruit.

[00:12:38] What does John's passage say is going to happen.

[00:12:43] Hmm.

[00:12:46] Well, if we don't, it says that every tree or person that is not very good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

[00:12:54] Ouch. You think what do you think that's actually going spiritually? What is he communicating?

[00:13:03] Going to heaven, crash and crash and burn.

[00:13:05] Yeah, OK, right, OK, so we see this thing about trees. We see this thing about fruit. We see this thing about an axe cutting down a tree and we see this thing about being burned. OK, do you recall any other parables that Jesus uses about a tree being cut down?

[00:13:30] I do not.

[00:13:32] All right, turn with me to Luke, 13 versus six through nine. This is the parable of the barren fig tree, OK?

[00:13:45] Oh, now you remember, right? OK, yes. So let's read the parable of the barren fig tree and what we're looking for. OK, this is let me kind of give you the Cliff Notes version of all this. God works in patterns. You see the same pattern throughout scripture in all kinds of areas. Last time we saw this pattern of something about fruit is important to being, you know, going to heaven. If we want to use that term, that's really to being part of the kingdom of God is the better term.

[00:14:15] And we saw that a lot of people produce something, but they didn't produce fruit. The soils produced a plant to some degree. And so we see this pattern. And I want you to be looking for the patterns as we go through. So let's read about the parable of the barren fig tree, OK?

[00:14:33] And he told this parable a man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vine dresser, Look, for three years now, I have come seeking fruit on the fig tree and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground? And he answered him, sir, let it alone this year also until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good. But if not, you can cut it down.

[00:15:08] Hmm. Wow. OK, so it's not bearing fruit. John talks about bear fruit with keeping with repentance or you get cut down. This is talking about it's not bearing fruit. Let's cut it down. All right. So we have some patterns and similarities there. Here's the question. Does a good tree produce good fruit?

[00:15:28] Yes, and how do we know that?

[00:15:34] Well, that's a good tree. Then that's its nature, its nature is to produce. OK, all right, so nature is wrong with it. It's going to it's going to reproduce itself, right?

[00:15:48] Ok, so seed reproduces after kind. Good. All right. Let's go real quickly. You don't have to turn there, but let's look at what Jesus says. It's in Luke 643 and he says for no good tree bears, bad fruit. Nor again, does a battery bear good fruit for each tree is known by its own fruit. So does a good tree produce good fruit according to Jesus? The answer is yes. OK, so now we're using trees. OK, keep in mind, the metaphor is mankind. Jesus is saying no good man produces bad fruit. Every man will be known after the fruit he produces. OK, there's a way to look at it. So if a tree produces no fruit, is it a good tree?

[00:16:37] No, and why is that how do we know that because Jesus just said it, a good tree is going to produce good fruit, right?

[00:16:47] Yeah, yeah. Parable of the sower. Only the good soil. The good soil is known because it produced fruit. Jesus said that. By this, my father's glorified that you bear much fruit and so proved to be my disciples, so we know that a good tree will always produce good fruit. A tree without fruit is not good. That's soil number three. If you recall, the plant grew up but produce no fruit. OK, so that's kind of where we are here. Let me give you a little background also. This is interesting, the background on the fig tree. So throughout scripture, the fig tree, in fact, do you know what the fig tree represents throughout scripture? Did you know that? Did you know that it represented something?

[00:17:39] I know I did not.

[00:17:41] All right, so there are two trees that are used all throughout scripture, sometimes are used in the same passages, sometimes are used differently. One is the fig tree. Do you remember what the other one is?

[00:17:52] My guess would be an olive tree.

[00:17:54] Yeah, so you have fig trees and olive trees. The question is, what are they? OK, so here we go back to patterns again. Same thing as Paul talks about. The pattern of not all who are descended of Abraham are Abraham's descendants. You remember him saying that? I think it's in Romans. OK, what is he talking about? Abraham had a physical bloodline and Abraham had a spiritual bloodline. The physical bloodline is a shadow of the spiritual, but it's not the spiritual. And we see this thing with fig trees. So throughout scripture, the fig tree represents the chosen people of Israel, of the natural. OK, you can call it the physical descendants of Abraham. And within that physical descendants, it's in a sense, it's death. OK, that's that's why you see all the time the fig tree without any fruit. That's why this parable is the fig tree that's going to be cut down. But then you have the olive tree and the olive tree represents the chosen people, a betrayal of the promise. These are the spiritual descendants of Abraham. And in a sense, the olive tree is always represented with life.

[00:19:11] All the fig trees always represented with death and saying, yeah, and an interesting.

[00:19:18] So just as the natural the natural world is a shadow of the spirit world, then the people of Israel, the fig tree is a shadow of the people or the promise represented by the olive tree. So that's kind of what we're seeing here. We've got this parable, the bear and fig tree. The fig tree, by the way, is there do you recall any other place in the Gospels where there's a barren fig tree?

[00:19:51] Hmm, I do feel like this story is brought up again, but I don't remember where Jesus is going into Jerusalem.

[00:20:01] Oh, yes, yes. You see the fig tree and leave. He walks over to get some fruit and there's none there and there's none.

[00:20:09] And it's not the season of fruit. It's not the season of fruit. And he curses it. Why do you think he curses the fig tree?

[00:20:18] When it's not the season for fruit, I don't know, I've always wondered that because I've always just thought that that was one of those moments in Scripture where it's just showing the sense of humor of God.

[00:20:32] Ok, so if we if we say I digress, but this is important, is fun. So the fig tree represents the natural Israel and sin and death, even though it's not the season for figs, as a believer, it's always the season for fruit. This is why you read through revelations and and other passages like in Psalms and other places where you have visions of the heavenly realm and the trees and the plants are always producing fruit all the time. There is no season without fruit. It's always the season for fruit because there's always a season for life. OK, and so Jesus curse, is it the same as the natural descendants of Abraham had been cast with death because they're in bondage to sin, ruled by death, made a covenant with death when Adam fell. OK, and and so you see all these all these patterns, imageries and all these concepts kind of coming together in this one image of Jesus cursing the fig tree. And so we kind of have something similar here. OK, so we have this fig tree. So Israel had been chosen and set apart by God from among all the nations. OK, so this is where you have kind of the chosen people. And Israel had been given gods promise of salvation. Right in that tree, an issue with God's own people, but yet here's what's interesting. Turn with me real quickly, John, 111, so so I want I want to give you this picture, it all ties back into this barren fig tree parable we're talking about here. So the picture is. God had chosen Israel, God had given Israel the promise. Israel was God's people, OK, and now let's read what happens, John, 111, can you read that?

[00:22:50] He came to his own disguise, right?

[00:22:54] So Jesus came into his own OK, now, now finish it and his own people did not receive him.

[00:23:00] Hmm. OK, so his own people did not receive him. So we have kind of this this thing. This is the victory. OK, so now let's move back to the parable of the barren fig tree, 13, six and nine. What do you think this parable is telling us?

[00:23:22] Oh.

[00:23:27] Well, if we're relating it to what you just kind of give that description, the fig tree and the physical nature of the descendants of Abraham and bondage to them, then the fig tree. Who was in bondage, bondage to sin is not going to produce fruit.

[00:23:48] There's no loss almost that that may be a little too much, so so the parable is going to be giving basically one simple point that Jesus trying to make. Let's look at the let's look at the key aspects of the parable first. OK, man has a fig tree. The man comes seeking fruit. There is none. He says, cut it down. OK, those are the basic elements of the parable. So what this tells us is that if you don't produce fruit, you get cut down.

[00:24:18] Right? OK, yeah.

[00:24:21] And cut down. What do you think that means?

[00:24:28] Removed from your purpose, yeah, is it you think this is similar to what John the Baptist was saying just a moment ago? The axe is laid at the root of the trees, and if you don't produce fruit, you'll get cut down and thrown into the fire, right?

[00:24:42] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:24:43] Ok, so that's I think it's what's talking here is you can get cut down and discarded that purpose that you're talking about for which you've been there, you're going to lose. All right. So but what about the vine dresser? This is real interesting. It says that a man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. Where do we where do we hear about a vineyard and a vine dresser? Does anything come to mind?

[00:25:12] Yes. Jesus. He says, I am the vine dresser and we are the vine almost. No, sorry. I'm sorry. We are his the vine. The father is a vine dresser.

[00:25:24] That's right. There are the branches. We are the branches, not the fruit that. Yeah. So John, that's John Tuffin one. So let's go there real quick. I want to show you something. OK, we're just going to read what you just said, basically, John, verse one.

[00:25:41] Yeah, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser.

[00:25:46] Ok, so now we have again characters. The olive tree is planted in the vineyard and the owner comes and talks to the vine dresser. Do you see all these pictures coming together now? OK, so in the vineyard, Jesus is the true vine. He's the olive tree is in the presence of Jesus. The Vineyard, who is the father is there. And the owner says to the to the father, God, the father cut it down. Now read what the vine dresser says. I want you to see this. This is really cool.

[00:26:25] This is verse eight, right? Yeah, OK. And he answered him. The vines are the the dangerous, right? Yeah. He answered him, sir.

[00:26:36] Let it alone this year also until I dig around it and put on the newer.

[00:26:44] Yeah, then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good, but if not, you can cut it down.

[00:26:52] Oh, so this is the vine dresser. This is God, the father saying, hey, before we cut this down. Let me work on it special, let me give it special attention, let me let me dig around it, put in manure, let me really do everything I can to give it every opportunity to produce fruit and then if it does well and good, but if it doesn't, then let's cut it down. And that interesting. The heart of the father.

[00:27:23] Yes, he's the God of second chances.

[00:27:26] He's got a second chance for us. That's right.

[00:27:30] And we actually see this same picture. And John, 15. So Rejon 15 first to.

[00:27:41] Ok.

[00:27:43] When they get back, they're looking to all right. Every branch and me that does not bear fruit. He takes away in every branch that does bear fruit. He pretends that it may bear more fruit.

[00:27:59] Okay, perfect. So every branch that does not bear fruit he takes away. There's actually different ways to translate that takes away. And when we look at scripture, it's always multidimensional. Sometimes there's a lot more meaning than just one simple meaning. And so one way to translate in which most Bibles translate as he takes away. But another way you can translate that same word that's been used takeaway is to lift up. So you get kind of the image of if I'm a vine dresser and I'm in the vine is very valuable. This is business. This is what produces livelihood. So I'm not going to just willy nilly, you know, get rid of a branch just because it doesn't produce. I'm going to work with it. Tender care, because if I can get it producing fruit, it's worth a lot. So one way to interpret this is the vine dresser. Every branch that does not bear fruit, he lifts up the idea. You pull it up out of the ground, out of the dirt, you take the dirt off and wipe the dirt off the leaves so they can have sunshine and then you tie it up on the trestle so they can be in the sun and give an opportunity to produce fruit. But then if it doesn't produce fruit, he takes it away.

[00:29:17] Does that make sense? Mm hmm. Is that cool? Yeah, it's a great picture.

[00:29:22] So that's the same thing we see with this parable of the barren fig tree. Hey, let me give it more time and let me work with it to see if it can produce fruit. It shows the heart of the father really wants to give us every opportunity to produce that fruit. So so now with that, let's start looking a little bit deeper into some questions about this barren fig tree. Did the barren fig tree look like a mature, a mature tree? In other words, had it matured?

[00:29:59] No.

[00:30:01] Ok, so let me ask you, do you think it was standing tall like a normal tree?

[00:30:10] Possibly.

[00:30:12] Ok, yeah, OK, if for the owner to come look for the owner to come looking for fruit, should there have been fruit there? Yes, OK, it should have been, which means it's mature enough to have been producing fruit, does that make sense? Yes. OK, so it's mature enough by age and by visual appearance to be producing crude. So. So it's probably at the normal height of other trees that produce fruit, other fig trees, right? Mm hmm. Do you think it has limbs and leaves?

[00:30:51] Yeah, probably.

[00:30:52] Ok, so appearance wise, it looks like a mature plant. But the problem is there's no fruit. OK, so here's what I think Jesus is also teaching on this.

[00:31:08] The same thing we get from Parable of the Sower and some others will say if it's possible for someone to look like a Christian, think he's a Christian because he accepted Christ at some point and may even do Christian like deeds, OK, but still be dead and not born again. That's what you have with this this fig tree. It looks like a healthy fig tree. The only difference is there's no fruit, but everything else about it visually is it looks like it's like a normal fig tree. Does that make sense?

[00:31:44] Yeah. Yeah, OK.

[00:31:46] And the problem is there's no fruit.

[00:31:48] If we use to take this metaphor out and kind of convert it to what seems to be saying how we would phrase it based on the parable of the sower is. There's no Christ being formed in that person. And and if there's no Chrispin been formed in that person, then spiritually that person is dead.

[00:32:11] Makes sense.

[00:32:12] Yeah, it does OK, because we're only alive in Christ. So based on the four soils of the parable of the sower, which soil would you say that this tree is planted in or represent?

[00:32:28] I would say three because yeah, yeah, it's growing and it has leaves and branches and like you said, looked fully mature and like it should have fruit on it.

[00:32:40] Yeah, exactly. So this is that soil. Number three, this is why the fig tree is used throughout scriptures that barren, that barrenness. How many people would you think there are who call themselves Christians and look like this fig tree? They look like a Christian, but they bear no fruit while.

[00:33:04] I hate to say there's probably way more than.

[00:33:08] Then I would want to admit that there are yeah, do you think they think that they're Christians?

[00:33:15] Yes, absolutely, yeah, we see this even with Israel.

[00:33:19] They thought they were the chosen race, we're all going to heaven because we're part of Abraham. Paul says no. You know, you're you're you're not. OK, so I want to share just a little personal comment on this, because this is actually how all of this study got started for me. So I have a personal friend, a dear family friend named Rich. His parents and my parents have been best friends. His parents were in my parents' wedding. I believe it goes back that far. We've done things with Rich and his family. We've been really close. They've been down to our family farm a lot. And and what happened is in ultra high school, Rich was way a column kind of a hoodlum hurdle may be the wrong word, but he was just way off track. He was chasing the girls, chasing the drugs, chasing, you know, chasing everything. And he was absolutely not a Christian. He gets into college. He goes even more over the deep end there, and then something happens. He's presented with the gospel, he hears it, he receives it with joy, and there's life change in his life, he starts to pull back and stop some of these abhorrent behavioral type of activities he's been doing. And then he gets married and he's later on after college, he starts a Bible study at his home. Lots of people come. They share the gospel. Lots of people claim he claims to accept Christ. And then we start to work together.

[00:35:06] He actually worked here with our business for about a year, just over a year, and during that entire time, I saw no evidence at all of Christ being in him. He lives a life of extreme bitterness. He pursues women even now.

[00:35:28] He doesn't touch them, to my knowledge, but he sure does pursue them. He pursues riches and wealth that he cannot get, that he cannot get. And everything is very kind of superficial. And so he's even suing me. OK, believe it or not, I'm on something. And through all of this, there's no bitterness in my heart for him. There's only this love and compassion. And as I pray for him and as I analyze what's going on and constant the thing that keeps coming to mine, Lord, is my friend saved. I know he accepted Christ. I know there was a change in lifestyle, but I see no evidence of Christ. And so my it was my concern for my friend that started me digging, taking a deep dive. And what does the scripture say? Does everyone who accept Christ go to heaven? Okay. And and so that's kind of where we are today. And that's what prompted all this. So let me yeah, it's really interesting. So the Lord takes even difficult circumstances in your life and produces good from it. That doesn't mean he's the orchestrator of just like we talked about a while back with the story of Joseph. Okay. You know, if God is sovereign and control, does that mean everything that happens is his will? OK. And even though God did not orchestrate the evil that happened in Joseph's life, he leveraged it to produce the good that he had for Joseph. So that's kind of how this came out. Let me talk as we're talking on this topic of. People who believe they are Christians, people who have accepted Christ at some point, and, you know, my friend Rich, you know, he received a gospel with joy, just like soil number two on the stony ground.

[00:37:29] And it actually produced a plant that looked mature. But but my perception of what's going on is it's being choked out by all of the other thorns in life, by the way, sawn OK, in small number three, if you look at thorns as a metaphor, as a character throughout the Bible, it's usually used to on what chokes out life. All right. Everywhere you see Soren's, you can kind of translate somewhat loosely, but translate something is choking life out of this. And if you go back and read, you'll see that you see that common theme. So so the thorns choke out the life of of what's there. But I want to talk on this. There's another parable called I Never Knew You, or at least that's what I call it. Let's turn to Matthew seven versus 21 through 23. So there's word on this topic of the fig tree. The fig tree thinks it's a good tree, but it's not because it produces no fruit. My friend Rich calls himself a Christian, and he may be I'm not I'm not rendering judgment, but I'm rendering observation observationally. I see no fruit. The question is, is it possible to accept Christ and not go to heaven? And so let's read another parable. OK, keep in mind, the parable of the sower unlocks all the parables. So you will see this pattern. Are you ready to read it?

[00:38:57] Yes. All right. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father, who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name. And then will I declare to them, I never knew you depart from me. Workers of lawlessness.

[00:39:27] Ouch.

[00:39:28] That's pretty painful in it, that's stinging words, that's what we call the stinging words.

[00:39:34] Yeah, so so let's ask a real simple question on this one. OK, were these people focused on works or fruit?

[00:39:45] Works. How do we know that?

[00:39:49] Because everything it talks about them doing is they work, oh, did we not prophesying your name, cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name. All right. So what's the difference between works and.

[00:40:06] What do you think, um.

[00:40:10] Work is to me, this is just my personal opinion, which to me is what you can benefit or gain for yourself, whether it's notoriety or a favor. And then fruit to me comes from the overflow. It's just what's in you and it comes out by itself.

[00:40:32] Ok, I think that's very accurate. Very fair. I was summarize it slightly different. Not that that it's a different understanding. It has a different route of of source works is what you do. But fruit is Christ formed in you. Does that make sense? Yeah. And if crisis formed in you, then he lives through you. And therefore, what you do in action, what you do is from him and not you, and that's the difference between works and free. It's what you do versus Christ doing it through you. And the other thing about works in fruit, as I start to think about this deeper think about this works is created in this in this topic of what we're talking about with this terrible works is created by pursuing the activities of Christ. While fruit is created by pursuing the person of Christ. Yeah, yeah. And so when we look at what we do in a lot and I'm going through this series because, you know, the Lord has called me in ministry, I'm a full time minister, secretly describes disguised as a business owner.

[00:41:55] And he has called me to do these radical faith podcasts and teachings to teach his people that they may step more boldly out by faith, solidly on God's word and produce fruit. OK. And and that's kind of why all this comes up and why this is, quote unquote, intermingled with business, because the whole purpose for the businesses to do this stuff.

[00:42:22] And but what's interesting is. I was going somewhere with that, let me back up, let me figure out where I was going to work. This created by pursuing the activities of Christ. And fruit is created by pursuing the person of Christ and. When you pursue Christ. Then fruit is automatically produced, so we need to take an introspective look at ourselves and our loved ones and ask, what are we really doing? Are we pursuing the Christian activities?

[00:42:58] Oh, I want to go kill. I want, you know, give me this gift of healing. I want to tung's gift of tongues or I want to, you know, go help the poor and serve the widows. Are you doing those because you want to be found in favor with the Lord or are you doing those because they emanate from the Lord pulling you through it, wanting to do it through you, because you're pursuing the Lord as opposed to pursuing the work? I think that's kind of really where I want to go and hit on with this is we have to say, you know, what's what's driving us? Are we the tree with no fruit? Are we these people that Jesus says, I never knew you. So let me now let's have some questions about this parable. Back to the parable. So, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name. Too many mind works in your name. And Jesus said, I never knew you depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. So do you think these people looked and acted like Christians?

[00:44:06] Absolutely.

[00:44:08] Yeah. They even did the activities that Christians do. Dendi Yeah.

[00:44:12] I was going to say they did activities that a lot of Christians can't do.

[00:44:17] That's right. Yeah. So they saw a lot of times you see someone who prays for healing and the person's heal and you think that guy is really spiritual or someone who gets a, you know, prophecy or does somebody we think they're spiritual, but according to this, they could be dead. Right? So they looked and acted like Christians. Were they born again?

[00:44:42] Oh, well, according to Jesus, no.

[00:44:46] Well, according to Jesus is a good place to be according to you, right? OK. Yeah, OK. So no, how do we know that they're not born again?

[00:45:03] I don't know. OK, so back to this so parable, the sower in the seeds, OK, the seed is shown by the sea, produces fruit in good soil, and when it produces fruit, what's inside the seed? I mean, what's inside the fruit? Yeah, the seed is inside the fruit, right? OK, and so the seed is born again.

[00:45:31] Does that make sense, yes.

[00:45:33] Yeah, OK, and so born again, born again within the fruit, we know these people are not born again because there's no fruit for all who produce fruit are Jesus's disciples and a disciple knows their teacher. In fact, the definition of disciple is one who studies and follows their teacher to become exactly like that teacher. OK, that's kind of technically the definition of disciple. We know these aren't disciples because Jesus says, I never knew you.

[00:46:09] There's no fruit. So if I were to ask, were these converts or disciples, what would you tell me? Converts. Hmm, yeah, converts, they receive the Seiver joy, they receive the good news, they look like Christians. But there's no fruit, there's no fruit because they're not disciples, so did they obtain eternal life?

[00:46:36] No, no.

[00:46:38] So do you see this pattern again, it's possible to call yourself a Christian, even to those Christian type works? But not truly be born again. Do you think maybe at some point these people that Jesus is talking about had actually, quote unquote, accepted Christ?

[00:46:57] Yes, I do. So then what happened?

[00:47:05] Too focused on works and doing instead of getting to know the Lord and being transformed by Jesus in them.

[00:47:15] Yeah, to focus on works, to focus on themselves and Jesus. So if we go back to our last session on this topic, again, the parable is sweet and sour. We use a word called stewarding the soil that stewarded the seed well is the good soul that produced fruit. But when it's stewarded it poorly, it didn't produce fruit at all. And I think we can use that word here. These people accepted the seed, but they did not steward the seed because they weren't pursuing Christ, they were pursuing Christlike activities. Do you see the difference? Yeah, yeah. So now let's look at two more parables. That tie in, we're going to see a similar pattern and what I'm looking for here. I want to make sure you and everyone else sees this. There's this pattern and it's not a single time pattern over and over and over and over again. We start to see what the Lord is telling us by looking at the patterns of the parables. And as we move into our next session later, we're going to pull away from the parables and actually go into the epistles and what Jesus says, what Paul and Peter says.

[00:48:33] And we start to start to see these things and now we start to piece together. These things have been really tough to understand. Now we start to see the pattern. It all starts to make sense. And now we see what the Lord is trying to tell us. So I'm going to read these because they're long and I'm just going to truncate some things along the way. But these are going to be the parables of the miners and the talents. OK, we'll start with the miners. You can open up your Bible to it if you want. I'll read it, though. It's 19 and we're going to basically read 19 verses, 12 through 26. So, Cirlot, the parable of the miners and the talents are two completely different parables, but they are very similar. And I think we're going to see some similar truths here. So starting with Luke 1912, he said. Therefore, Jesus says a nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return, calling ten of his servants.

[00:49:29] He gave them ten miners and said to them, Engage in business until I come to the first came before him saying, Lord, your miner has made ten miners more. And he said to him, Well done, good servant, because you've been faithful and have very little, you shall have authority over ten cities. And the second came saying, Lord, your miner has made five miners. And he said to him, and you were to be over five cities. Then another servant came and said, Sir, here is your miner. I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. I was afraid of you because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not. So his master replied, I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant. You knew, did you, that I'm a hard man taking out what I did not put in and reaping what I did not. So why then? Then you put my money on deposit. So then when I came back I could have collected it with interest. Then he said to those standing by, take his mind away from him and give it to the one who has ten miners. Sir, they said he already has ten. He replied, I tell you that to everyone who has more will be given. But as for one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away. All right. So let's ask a few questions about this parable to understand who is the nobleman being represented in this parable, do you think?

[00:50:56] Jesus, yeah, so Jesus is a nobleman who are the servants? US, us as people and what was his command?

[00:51:09] His command was to be about his business, to engage in his business until he tried to engage in business until I come.

[00:51:18] And so does engage in business mean.

[00:51:24] It means.

[00:51:26] Do the business that I have given you to do.

[00:51:30] Very good, I'm going to clarify just a little bit, if you don't mind, engage in business means to take what a noble men gave them and produce more of it for the nobleman's benefit.

[00:51:45] Oh, does that make sense?

[00:51:48] Mm hmm. Do you see do you see that as represented here? Yeah, yeah. OK, so how does this pattern resemble the parable of the sower?

[00:52:02] Well, taking the seed, yeah. And producing more, so, yeah, producing more.

[00:52:10] Yeah, you take the seed, you accept it, you steward it well, you produce fruit that has more seed in and we're producing more of what's been given to us. OK, so for the servant who did nothing, why was he called a wicked servant?

[00:52:27] Because he didn't do what Jesus asked him to do, he didn't engage in business, he didn't engage in business.

[00:52:34] Why do you think he did not? What do you think is the fundamental difference between the wicked servant versus the good and faithful servants? What is the primary difference?

[00:52:47] Oh, well, the first word that comes to my head is laziness.

[00:52:51] Ok.

[00:52:53] I don't think that's it, so go back to what we just finished talking about with some of the other just a few moments ago, what did we do? What did we discuss in terms of the difference between a disciple and a convert?

[00:53:08] What what causes the difference works versus someone who's pursuing their relationship, pursuing the growth.

[00:53:18] Ok, yeah. So if we were to take that, here's what I would say. The question is.

[00:53:25] For the servant who did nothing, why was he called Wicked? He was in my what I understand he did not value the noble man enough to work on his behalf. In other words, he he merely took but he did not serve in pursuit. Does that make sense? Yeah.

[00:53:44] Yeah. It's only when you serve and pursue. You become a disciple if you're simply looking at it for what you get out of it and you treat it with contempt. You don't serve them per se. Does that make sense?

[00:54:00] Mm hmm. OK, so then if we used. So then what happened to the one who did not serve and pursue but merely took and hid?

[00:54:14] What happened to him? His his portion was taken from him and given to the one who had more, so what he had been given had been is now taken away.

[00:54:25] Mm hmm. Is this this talking about spiritual things? Right. Yeah, wow, that's pretty scary, isn't it? It is, yeah.

[00:54:34] Ok, so since this is a parable about Jesus and his servants, here's a question. Did all of the servants accept what Jesus gave them? Yes, ma'am, did all who accepted it enter into Jesus's blessings?

[00:54:52] All that, the one.

[00:54:55] Oh, OK, so if we lose so so if we go back to all who accept Jesus, go to heaven.

[00:55:05] Base, if we're using this parable and the pattern we're seeing. I say there's a difference between merely accepting what Jesus gives and stewarding it, well, does that make sense? If we use the terms, convert and disciple on this, which of the servants would be converts and which of them would be disciples?

[00:55:30] The first two would be Disciple's and the last one who didn't do anything with his portion would be the convert.

[00:55:37] Yeah. All right. So let's we wrap this up. Let's read about the challenge. So this comes from Matthew, 25 versus 14 through 30. We're going to see the same pattern. OK, so Matthew, 25 versus 14 for he'll be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them his property to one. He gave five talents to another, two to another, one to each, according to his ability. Then he went away. He received the five talents win at once and traded with them, and he made five Tallas more. So also the one had the two talents made to tell us more. But the one he received, the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. Now, after a long time the master, those servants came and settled accounts with them. He you five talents came forward bringing five talents, more same master you delivered to me five talents. Here I made five talents more. His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. And he also, who had had the two talents, came forward saying Master, you deliver to me to talent. Here I have made two talents more. His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant.

[00:56:57] You've been faithful over a little. I will set you overmuch enter into the joy of your master shortie. He also, who had received the one talent, came forward saying, Master, I knew you to be a hard man reaping where you did not. So in gathering where you get scared or no seed. So I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is here. But his master answered him. You wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I where I have not sown and gather where I gather no seed over our shadow, no seed. Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers and that my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him. Who has the ten talents for to everyone who has will more be given and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not even what he has will be taken away and cast the worthless serpent servant into the outer darkness. And that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth now again. So when the master gave the talents his servants, did he expect them to work on his behalf to bring increase?

[00:58:14] Did each of those servants accept the talents?

[00:58:17] They did.

[00:58:19] And so what's the difference between the servants?

[00:58:24] We have disciples and we have a convert again, yeah, yeah, one love the master and it says Win at once and traded with them. They eagerly worked on his behalf and eagerly came to the master, said, Look, Master, I got you even more. Sure. Like when you have a young child that comes and said, Daddy, Daddy or Mommy, Mommy, look what I did for you all eager because they want to please you, right? Mm hmm. The last one simply dug a hole and hid it in the ground, doing nothing to benefit his master, not master, always demanding of me. He gives me this money, says do business. I I don't care, I'm going to throw it in the ground and give it back to them, right.

[00:59:12] No concern for his master. So did the servant who did nothing. Look like the other servants of the master, do you think?

[00:59:23] Yes, yeah, he probably dressed the same. So these are servants of the master, so they probably had uniforms, they had probably protocols, they probably had some prestige among the community because they work for the master. And looking at them, you couldn't tell any difference. But what happened to that servant, the wicked one? What happened to him?

[00:59:45] He was cast out. What was what was given to him was taken away. Then he was cast out and then he was cast out.

[00:59:52] So do you see any parallels with all these other parables? Mm hmm.

[00:59:57] A lot of a lot of patterns here. Right. And they all point to the same thing. So this is the key. When you start to see everything point to the same focal point, you start to pick up. This is important, right? This is something God is saying over and over and over again. We're going to see this a little bit more on the next sessions. But let me just kind of wrap up some things I think are the takeaways. All right. So the parable of the summer shows that the key. Is we have to steward what we've been given. We see that in the parable of the talents, in the parable of the miners. We see this throughout scripture. We've got a steward it if you value something a lot, you'll steward it. Well, if you value it little, you won't steward it at all. Does that make sense? Yes. OK, that's what we see in all of these parables. Are you stewarding what you've been given and both of these parables? The servants who value the master. Took what the master entrusted them. And worked on the master's behalf, you know, the question I saw like to ask is, are we taking what the Lord has given us and working on his behalf or are we taking what the Lord has given us and simply using it on our behalf? That's I think that's kind of the critical point here that that's being communicated. Those who did all the Christian like things, they were working on their behalf.

[01:01:27] Did we not heal the sick, cast out demons, do all these mighty works? So. So if we were to then go back to kind of summing this up, a convert is that person who accepts what is given without valuing the giver. A disciple accepts what is given and values the giver so much that they steward well, that which was given them. So we it comes back to where is your focus? We see this in the parable of the merchant of fine pearls or the parable that the treasure in the field where they sell everything they've got because they want it so much, they pursue it. If we use kind of Christian these terms, you know, they've all been given like if we just look at the talents in the minus, they'd all been given the million minus or talents. They've been given the gift of salvation. They all accepted the gift. But only those who stewarded it obtained the gift. And the gift was removed from those who did not. So same thing we saw in the poor soils. So kind of the big take away. A couple of other things we see on this actually. Now the big take away. Yeah, but there's one more pattern that we see in these two parables. So the minus and the talents. One more thing. Do you know what that one thing that they have in common is?

[01:02:58] Hmm.

[01:03:02] There were three every time.

[01:03:05] Oh, that's a good pattern, yes, there's three three is three is a whole number, right? OK, so there's there's something there. OK, it's a whole truth with holy.

[01:03:17] No, the thing I saw it and saw is they all occur over a period of time. OK, in other words, I think this is what Jesus is saying, telling us. You can't assess the heart immediately. It takes time to see the fruit of the heart and over time. OK, what one does? Well, evidence what their heart is truly like. And it's only the ones with a true heart for Jesus who will enter his kingdom. And and so I think that's kind of the message here. A lot of it is is the one with a true heart. The other thing that's been convicting of me as I go through this is the focus of discipleship. And if you think about discipleship, so a lot of times a lot of us, you know, we want Converse, go share the gospel list, bring in, you know, bring people to salvation, which is good. Definitely not criticizing that, but it's a focus is sharing the gospel, bringing people to salvation.

[01:04:24] Then what's happening afterwards, the way I see it, this is a low image the Lord gave me, not a vision, but just kind of well thought in my mind is it's like raising kids, OK, you birth a child and then for the next 18 or 20 years, you're nurturing and training that child and disciplining them and helping them grow to maturity. And all your focus is on those few children. And then they go do the same thing. OK, but it's not you just go berserk, you know, 30, 40, 50 kids and just, you know, have at it and hope you do well. OK, so I think there's a time to, you know, really focus on making sure that we're raising disciples and not just converts.

[01:05:11] Yeah, that's really good.

[01:05:13] All right. So we got to wrap up. But any thoughts? Anything hit you?

[01:05:19] Oh, gosh. Just so Eye-Opening, you know, I mean, I know these passages. I recognize them all, but it's just so good to kind of dig a little deeper and really get to the heart. I love how the heart of the father was portrayed with the same tree that was producing fruit. I love how I think that would be my encouragement to anyone who's listening, who feels like I've messed up. I can't. I was too late for me, that kind of thing. I've just created way too many things, that kind of thing that the heart of the father is always to restore. And I just love how that was evident in that scripture. You know, that he is the God of second, third, fourth, fifth chances, you know, because his heart just wants you to be connected with him.

[01:06:06] So you lost that and he gives time. I've got to read one saying this. This is a bonus, Jeremiah. Eighteen. Okay, because it talks on that. Jeremiah Yeah. For those people who may be saying it's too late for me, I've done so much bad, I've known the good, but I've kept going after the bad. Let me share what Jeremiah God says. And Jeremiah, he says, this is Jeremiah starting with FF7 If at any time I declare to a nation that I will pluck it up and break it down and destroy it because it's been evil and wicked, and if that nation then turns from its evil, I will relent to the disaster I promised it. What God is saying is judgment is coming. But if you simply relent or repent, this is what John the Baptist said at the, you know, bear fruit. In keeping with repentance, the Lord says, I am quick to relent if you will simply repent. And he keeps relending.

[01:07:11] Yeah, he does. And that relenting is changing his mind. He changes his mind. I think there's actually a translation of scripture that reads it that way, that he will change his mind. And I love that I do, too.

[01:07:24] All right. Well, let's wrap it up.

[01:07:26] Well, baby, thank you so much for today. This was so great. And I'm just encouraged by, again, just all the time and effort that you put into studying and preparing for all the listeners. And I hope this has been an encouragement to everyone. And I look forward to our next call and I hope that everyone can join us again.

[01:07:47] Amen. We all have a great day.

[01:07:49] Thank you so much. Bye.

P023

Transcription (was completed by automated process.  Please ignore any speech-to-text errors)

[00:00:00] All right. Welcome, everybody. We're so glad you're with us again today. This is a great week for us, celebrating the other week leading up to Easter. And I'm so excited to have lady on the phone with me again today for our next session. I was calling you. Beatty Carmichael is the CEO of Master Grabber, the creator of Agent Dominator and one of the top marketing experts in the real estate field. Beatty, I'm super excited. I always look forward to our calls. What do you have for our listeners today?

[00:00:34] Well, today, Penny, we're going to do as we move into Easter. This will be coming out long after sometime long after Easter, probably. So at least now our listeners how long it is before from the time we do the call to the time they actually come out. But with that said, we're going to do a radical faith call for those who may be new on to our podcast.

[00:00:57] Radical Faith is where we diverge away from talking about real estate marketing and talk about what I believe is absolutely the most important thing, and that is our relationship with Christ. So if you don't have interest in that topic, you can go in and turn this episode off.

[00:01:14] Otherwise, I'd encourage you to listen and we're going to have a great discussion. This is a really cool topic that we're going to be talking about today. And Penny, would you like to guess what the topic is going to be?

[00:01:31] Well, if I think about what we've been discussing, I'm going to I'm going to generally guess something along the lines of the goodness of God.

[00:01:42] Well, that's a really broad statement, and I think it could definitely fit into that topic. The good thing you did. You did.

[00:01:51] I knew you aren't going to get to topic, by the way, for those who know how we do these on the radical face called Penny has no forewarning of what any of the topic is. So we call it a virgin call from that point. Right. So today, I want to talk about a matter of perspective, because I think especially right now, just to kind of log down where we are, no pun intended, log down. We're all down sheltered in place with a corona virus. This is this is technically mid April, pretty much right now. And most states have put a shelter in place. Law, you can't leave your house except for essential businesses. A lot of our real estate clients in some of their states, they've damed real estate non-essential. So it's been really tough. And the question is, how do we view what's going on? That's kind of a narrow focus. A broader focus of what I really want to talk about is as Christians, we're told to in Hebrews four 11, we're told to strive to enter into God's rest. We're told to rest in the Lord. And sometimes in our own phraseology, there is a I on a phrase that we'll use. And this is kind of the focus of what I want to talk about, which is how do you work from a position of rest? And have you ever heard that term working from a position of rest? Yes.

[00:03:30] Yes, I have. So in your estimation, what is that?

[00:03:38] It's working, but not using my strength or my will or my mindset or preconceived notions in order to accomplish that task. It's relying on my I can do it through me.

[00:03:56] It's realizing the Lord to do it through you. And what I want to do is I want to peel back the onion and really start peeling it back into a deeper and deeper layers and kind of show you at a deeper level. Working from a position of rest means what it looks like, how to begin to apply it to your life. Because as we work from a position of rest. I'm going to make a I'm going to make a statement that's going to sound a little far fetched, but I think by the time we get through this session, I'm going to be able to back it up and that working from a statement of a position of rest is always victorious. Think about this. A lot of times we work and we don't know if we're going to succeed, but when we work from a position of trust, it is always victorious. So let me start with our passage. I wanted to go through a quick overview real quickly, kind of give you a bird's eye view of the entire scope of what this whole concept of working from a position of breast is. And then I want to dig really deep into some scriptures that start to bring a lot more illumination to it. So let's turn real quickly to Hebrews three, verse 11. Hebrew. Because this is kind of where we start to see God's rest and I'll let you read it once you get there.

[00:05:23] All right. Hebrews three, verse 11. As I saw in my wrath, they shall not enter my raft, so they shall not enter my rest.

[00:05:33] So let me give you the backstory on this. This is pulled from the time of the exodus. This is when Moses said send out 12 spies to search out the promised land and check into it. And if you remember that God had been telling them, telling all of Israel, I'm leading you to the promised land. And in that promised land, it's going to be a land of milk and honey. It's going to be overflowing in abundance. You're going to live in houses you did not build. You're going to drink water from cisterns. You did not dig. You're going to eat grazed from vineyards that you did not plant. In other words, everything is going to be already fixed and ready for you. You remember that? Okay, then. So then Moses sent out spies into the land, 12 spies, one spy for each of the tribes of Israel. And what they wanted to do is go through, check out their land, see what's going on, and attest to the bountiful ness and abundance that was already there. The land was so fertile, if you remember. They cut a single stem of grapes and they had to carry it on a pole between two people because it was so full of grapes and so big and so heavy. This is the abundance of the land that the Lord has promised his children. So it's not just I'm going to give you a promise and your life is going to be a little bit better. The Lord sent them into this place of tremendous abundance, tremendous fruit, tremendous everything. And then do you remember what happened when those guys come back? I do not. Okay, so they give two reports, the first report is an abundant land. But do you remember the second report?

[00:07:34] I think it was that they saw giants in the land. That's right. The Giants were more than they could handle.

[00:07:41] That's right. So 10, 12 spies came back and gave a bad report that said, yes, it's abundant, but no, there's absolutely no way we can ever conquer. We were like grasshoppers in their eyes. And they gave a report from a man's perspective. The other two spies were a guy named Caleb and Joshua. They gave a report from God's perspective. And what do you think the difference between God's perspective versus man's perspective was?

[00:08:18] God's perspective was one of rest, not worry.

[00:08:23] That's right. One of rest not worry. One of, hey, we can conquer because the Lord is with us. The Lord has promised. Don't be afraid. Well, what happened is they became afraid. They believed the bad report, not the good report. And as a result, they became fearful and they would not move forward as a result. God says, well, we just read as I swore in my wrath. You will not enter my rest. And he makes them circle the mountain. All right. For now, this is about a year and a half into it, maybe two years. So he makes them circle that mountain for another 38 years. They were now in the wilderness. 40 years. One year for every day. The spies had gone out into the land. And God says those people who were afraid, who looked with their natural eye perspective. You will not enter my rest. Only those who have looked and looked from my perspective. That I'm gonna give you the land. You will enter my rest. And that's why Caleb and Josh were the only people of that generation that were actually able to cross into the promised land and enter into God's rest. So that's kind of the backstory. Does that make sense?

[00:09:44] Yes, it does. Okay, so now I want to give you kind of a synopsis of of taking it from there and talking a little bit more about what it means to work from a position of rest.

[00:09:57] And the key is it's work. It's not rest. Okay. So God's rest is not an attitude of cessation. Okay. It's technically it's an actual place. It's a place of abundance. Okay. But there is a there is a transition of going from the place where we are, which is a lack of abundance to the place where God has created for us that place of rest, which is abundance. And we see this in the micro and macro and the micro. We're always in a position of less abundance, moving towards God's promise of greater abundance, whether it's our spiritual life or any other part of our life. Does that make sense? Yes, it does. Okay. So it's happening as we speak. But then at the macro level, in the big scheme of things, we also see that the trajectory of our life is continuing to be, in God's rest, great abundance, ending with eternal life and being in the heavenly places and for ages to come, as it says in officiants. So what we see with this passage in Exodus is kind of an allegory of our life. And I wanted to peel back that onion a little bit for you. So when they entered the Promised Land, they did not rest physically. Do you remember what happened when they transitioned from the wilderness into the promised land? There's something that never occurred during the wilderness that now started to occur all the time. Do you remember what that might be?

[00:11:43] I feel like it was. They complained a lot and they felt like their needs weren't being met.

[00:11:50] Almost. Okay. So they complained before they crossed the Jordan River, once they crossed the Jordan River. Now they're actually engaging into the promised land.

[00:12:02] Something else occurred.

[00:12:05] It was led by the priests. That thing that occurred was war. Now they had to fight for the promised land that had been promised them. They had to fight to take over the possession that had already been given them. Does that make sense? Yes, it does. And so when we move in to our promised land, this whole lot just make sure you can hear me now, is that correct?

[00:12:34] Yes. I got one little crackle there, but we're good.

[00:12:37] Okay, good. So they had to start going into and they started moving into battle. I want to kind of speed this up. So what happened is in a very a very high level sense, Joshua goes and he leaves the charge. Josh Wood leads the charge. And when he's leading, he's coming at it from a perspective that God has already given them the land. Therefore, victory is assured. And therefore, when they went out to fight, they went with the perspective, we are winning because God has promised it.

[00:13:14] Does that make sense that day when Joshua did that? Do you think there was any unrest in his spirit? Oh, my gosh. I wonder how this battle is going to come out.

[00:13:28] I think for me personally, if I put myself in his shoes, if I came out with that kind of statement to the people that I was leading, then I would have no doubt I would have no fear.

[00:13:39] He's asking me to just say that he's likely right.

[00:13:43] So we could then say that he fought from a position of rest because his spirit was at rest in peace, because a victory was assured. Does that make sense? Okay, so now we're starting to see. Working from a position of rest means it means working from the perspective of what God has already promised. And therefore, you can be assured of the outcome. And it's no longer scary. Then what happened is after Joshua and the Elders died off, then everything changed. The perspective of the leaders changed.

[00:14:20] This is now it gets us into the period of the judges. And if you remember, the judge's life was miserable. They were being attacked on all sides. They would try to go in and take over more of the promised land and they would lose and be defeated all the time because they no longer work from a position of rest. They worked from a position of fear. They started to see with or naturalized rather than their spiritual lives. They looked at the natural enemy that they are facing rather than looking at it from God's perspective of seeing the victory is already won.

[00:14:54] And then we move down the line for a couple of hundred years, and then another man comes out and comes to the scene. And this guy named David. Do you remember anything about a guy named David?

[00:15:10] Yes. Okay. And so does God, where it says that David was a man after God's own heart. Okay, so David is actually a foreshadow of Christ.

[00:15:25] Think about this.

[00:15:28] David was not of the line of Aaron, but yet Aaron is the priestly line. But yet, David was a priest.

[00:15:38] He wore the E. He danced before the Lord. He prophesied he did all kinds of priestly things. He was also of the royal line. Juda. And he was a king. He was a royal priest. And Jesus was a royal priest. He was royalty. And he was our high priest. And we are now royal. So we see this this poor shattering, this type of Christ coming online. And what happened with David? Is he engaged in battle? He engaged the same way that Joshua did.

[00:16:18] The victory was certain. Now he had some fear and some Currentzis concerns. We see that through Psalms, especially as he's been attacked by Saul. But he goes out and in faith, from God's perspective of his promise. He goes out and engages in battle and he wins. And he then conquers the promised land that God had promised his son, Solomon. Then comes on board and enters into the rest of the land. So as David goes in to the land, there's war and unrest.

[00:16:55] But there's constant victory. Then as Solomon comes on line, the land is at complete rest. And now Sollom Solomon gets to focus on building up the temple. Whereas David did not have that opportunity. So that's kind of the big picture. Do you see this in the macro? Yes. Yes, I do. So what we really see with all of this is this. Working from a position of trust comes first and foremost by faith.

[00:17:28] And faith being that title deed of that which is promised.

[00:17:32] So when we're in our lives and we search the scriptures, we spend our time and the word and the Lord reveals certain promises to us and we can work with confidence towards those promises, knowing that victory is certain. Now, what we may not know is the timing. But we know that the certainty of victory is there. And that certainty of victory that starts to create that working from a position of rest. All this making sense. Yes, absolutely. So now let me share one more. I want to share an illustration, and now we're about to take a deep dive into the scriptures. This is just a real quick overview. Here's an illustration of working from a position of rest, which is the knowledge of the outcome versus working from a position of undress, which is seeing things in the natural. Have you ever watched a really tense movie? Were you on the edge of your seat and your heart pounding? Your adrenaline rushing? Almost all the way through the movie? Yes.

[00:18:38] I hate that feeling. I know. I know. I hate it, too. So what caused that feeling?

[00:18:47] Uncertainty, not knowing what was going to happen and not being able to control the outcome.

[00:18:54] That's exactly right. You're looking at it from the perspective of that character. And the music, dun, dun, dun, dun dun, he's he's going into this dark room and he turns a corner and, you know, there's someone there. Right. That's about it. Okay. Now, once you watch that movie, if you were to go back and watch it the next day. Are you this tent and sitting on the edge of your seat?

[00:19:22] No. Why not?

[00:19:24] Because I know it's going to happen. That's right. You know the outcome. That second time through. You're watching it from a position of rest.

[00:19:36] It doesn't even get your heart beat up. Why? Because the outcome is certain. And therefore, you know the certainty of each outcome that nothing's going to happen. You know, generally, if you remember well, you know, generally what's going to happen. But if you don't remember, well, you know, there's not a big deal.

[00:19:56] And therefore, you're sitting watching it from a position of Resh while the person next to you. This is their first time through. They're scared to death. Do you see the difference of perspective? Yes. Okay. That's our Christian life. We can either look at this from our eyes and be scared to death. Or we can look at it from God's eyes and be a total peace. Why do you think, looking at it from God's eyes, you're at total peace?

[00:20:30] Because she's not worried about anything, then I don't have the right to be either.

[00:20:34] That's right. So what I want to do now, I want to show you a couple other scriptures where this gets manifested and then we're going to take a real deep dive. You ready? I'm ready. Okay, let's turn to Hebrews 11, verse 17, 18 and 19.

[00:20:53] All right. 17, 18 and 19 by faith. Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said through Isaac, shall your offspring be named? He considers that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which. Figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

[00:21:24] Very good. So here's what happened. Abraham was at complete rest when he offered Isaac up as a sacrifice. Think about this in our perspective. We're going through tough times. Maybe your job, your your livelihood has been cut off because right now the shelter in place or because of other things that come up later in your life or you have situations with relationship or situations with help or with something else. And. You're scared. When you're scared is because you look at it with your own natural eyes. But think about Abraham. His only promised son. This is the son of the promise. All of his descendants is going to be name through Isaac. All of this inheritance is going to go through Isaac. And now God has told him to do something stupid and crazy for a man's perspective. Abraham, I want you to sacrifice your son to me. Your your your love of your life, the sun. I've said this is all the promises are coming through this one person. Now I want you to kill him. Do you see the turmoil that could really be going on?

[00:22:49] I can't even imagine.

[00:22:51] I can't either. And yet. According to scripture, there is no mention in scripture that Abraham was concerned at all. Why was he not concerned? What does it say?

[00:23:07] It says that he considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead.

[00:23:13] That's right. In other words, his perspective was from God's promise. Rumor says by faith, righteousness was read into Abraham, the promise. Faith is believing God's word, basically in real simple terms. So his faith in God's promise told him that the current situation had no bearing on the long term outcome. And because he had no bearing on the long term outcome. And the reason had no bearing because God's promises cannot fail. And therefore, if they cannot fail, the long term outcome is still intact, then it doesn't matter what happens right now. This is why it says that he considered that God was able to even raise him from the dead. He was fully expecting to kill his son. Stand back. And his son would miraculously come back to life. How many of us, when the Lord tells us to do something and it doesn't make sense in the natural naturalise, we say complete disaster. How many of us? Panic and cause that's not what most of us for sure. If we're going to work from a position of rest.

[00:24:36] And another way to say it is we're going to work from the promise, not to the promise, we hit that in just a moment. But if we're going to work from this position of respite, from the promise, from God's perspective, we got to do what God says to without questioning because. God has a perspective, we don't all we have to do is plug into that perspective and sometimes we don't know the perspective, but we know his promise and therefore we can rely on the promises that make sense. Yes.

[00:25:07] Okay, let's look at one more passage and then we're going to really take a nice deep dive. This is going to be fun. Okay. Matthew eight. Matthew eight versus 23 through 26.

[00:25:21] Twenty three or twenty six of Matthew eight. When he got into the boat, his disciples followed him and behold, there arose a great storm on the sea so that the boat was being swamped by the waves. But he was asleep. And they went and Wolken saying, save us, Lord, we are perishing. And he said to them, Why are you afraid? Oh, you have little faith. Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea. And there was a great calm. And the men marveled saying, what sort of man is this? That even the winds and the sea obey him. Huh?

[00:26:01] Let me ask you a question. What do you think was the perspective of Jesus?

[00:26:07] Rest, he not only rest. He was so restful. He was asleep in the middle of the storm.

[00:26:15] Yeah, well, it was the perspective of the disciples.

[00:26:19] Fear, worry. And they mean. They take what they're doing with their natural eyes.

[00:26:26] They know what was going on with their natural eyes and Jesus had a spiritual perspective. Perspective.

[00:26:35] All right. So we could say that Jesus was operating from a position of arrest. The disciples were operating from a position of natural sight. We can also say position of breath is a position of faith. Faith is God's perspective. Natural side is man's perspective, and they are always opposing each other. This is where Romans, eight says that the flesh can never please God because it is always at enmity with God. This makes sense. All of this is on this matter perspective.

[00:27:15] Now, let's start looking at perspective from God's perspective. This is going to be really cool. Let me let me just mention one thing. Perspective.

[00:27:30] Is everything perspective determines the outcome. You have God's perspective. And that creates one outcome you have man's perspective. It creates another outcome. Now, this isn't 100 percent true, but this is, generally speaking, the pattern that God's laws operate in. And we see this with Peter walking on the water. If you remember, when he's walking on the water, his perspective was where?

[00:28:04] When he was walking on the water, at first, his eyes run Jesus.

[00:28:08] That's right. So his perspective was on God's word.

[00:28:14] And God's word had inherent with it. A truth and that truth was you come on the water and you'll walk on the water with me. Then he changed his perspective. And what happened when he changed his flight? Where did he put his perspective in what happened?

[00:28:33] He started looking at the ways around town. So I took his eyes off Jesus and started looking at the water and the waves. And he became careful. Then what have you been thinking?

[00:28:48] There you go. So he changed his perspective from God's perspective, working from a position of rest to man's perspective, working from a position of natural sight, and by changing the perspective. The outcome was changed as well.

[00:29:06] Pretty cool. So now let's dig deep. So let's look at since everything focuses around God's perspective.

[00:29:12] Now let's look into what is God's perspective. This is going to be really cool. Let's look at a number of passages. Let's start with Revelation 13. Revelation 13. Eight.

[00:29:27] Revelation 13, verse eight says to all who dwell on earth will worship it. Everyone whose name has not been written before, the foundation of the world in the Book of Life of the Lamb who was slain.

[00:29:46] Let me also modify that translation just a little bit, I think this may be an I.V. I don't recall the same passage. Slight different translation that articulates a truth that is a little bit clearer. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast, all whose names have not been written in the Lamb's Book of life. The Lamb who was slain from the found from the creation of the world. To God's perspective, is this from the foundation of the world? The lamb was already slain.

[00:30:26] That promise manifestation.

[00:30:31] That was to come at a minimum 4000 years later, depending on how you look at the age of the Earth, 4000 years or 40 million, it doesn't matter. God's faith says the lamb was already slain. Long before the lamb was slain in the natural, does that make sense? That's the perspective of God. Let's look at this. Go to Ephesians one versus four and five.

[00:31:00] Okay.

[00:31:01] All right, effusions one, verse four and five. Even as he shows us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as son through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will from the foundation of the world.

[00:31:23] This is God's perspective from the foundation of the world.

[00:31:27] You were already chosen in Christ.

[00:31:33] Let's look at another Hebrews for three.

[00:31:39] All right. Hebrews four, verse three. For he who have believed for his who have believed entered that risk and as he said, as I swore in my RAF, they shall not enter my risk. All those his works were finished from the foundation of the world.

[00:32:01] So from the foundation of the world, God's perspective, all of his work had already been finished. Do you think this could be the work of Moses leading his people out of Egypt? Be. This could be the work of Christ on the cross. Yes. I think this could be the work that he's called us to do. Yes, it could. Yes, it could be all the works were finished before the foundation of the world. Let's look at Matthew 25 34.

[00:32:35] All right. Matthew, 25 versus 34. Says then the king will say to those on his right come you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom, prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

[00:32:52] There we have it again. God's perspective is from the foundation of the world before it was created. The kingdom was already prepared for us.

[00:33:05] Let's look at one more Isaiah 46 versus nine and 10.

[00:33:13] Okay. All right, Isaiah 46 six, verse nine and 10. Remember the former things of old. For I am God. And there is no other. I am God. And there is none like me declaring the end from the beginning, from ancient times, things not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand. And I will accomplish all my purpose.

[00:33:37] So from God's perspective. From the foundation of the world. N had already been declared and finished. Before it began. What does this tell you about God's perspective?

[00:33:56] It's way bigger than our way, bigger than ours, right?

[00:34:02] So God's perspective is what faith looks like. Would you agree?

[00:34:07] Yes.

[00:34:10] From God's perspective. Before the foundation of the world, everything had already been finished. From God's perspective, think about in this way. God's perspective is things are truth, even when they have not manifested in the natural. Remember, we talked a while back on believe that you have received what you've asked for and then it shall be granted, you are from God's perspective. It's already been done. Now, this is not a name it and claim it. This is a name it and be it, as a friend of mine shared, name it and claim it as a perspective that says I'm naming something. I do not have. But name it and be it is a perspective of knowing what I already have. As a promise from God. But God's word is already said, and I am simply walking and living this out until it's manifested in my life. Do you see the difference between that? Yes, I do. So this working from a position of rest. It says God works six days and rested on the seventh, says that all of his works were finished. Working from a position of rest is. It's been done. It's finished. The outcome is assured. All I have to do is walk in faith for that outcome to be manifested in my life. This is why this story, Peter, is so important to others. But Peter's the clearest example, walking and working in reste. Gets one outcome, walking and working in fear gets another outcome. The outcome is assured as long as we operate and walk and faith. The outcome is not assured. If we ignore. God's perspective ignored trusting him and tried to do it on her own. Is this helping? Yes, absolutely. Okay, so then let's look at faith and the perspective of God a little bit more. Let's return real quickly. Foundational principles of faith. Romans, 10 17. Can you quoted or.

[00:36:49] You remember from from hearing by and hearing by what, by receiving the word of Christ. Yes. Sense 17. I get to change because I've got I've got my outline in front of me comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

[00:37:16] That's right. Through the word of Christ. What is the word of Christ?

[00:37:22] The Bible. A little bit more. Everything that he said a little bit more.

[00:37:30] Oh, gosh. So let's talk on it this way. Will pull it off from John in the beginning was the word, the word and the word was with God and the word was God.

[00:37:48] So here we have in the beginning was the word. The word was with God. And the word was God and faith comes from hearing by the word of Christ, which is God himself. And John, 17, it says thy word is truth and where we come back to truth.

[00:38:10] God's perspective is one of truth and truth manifests itself in a natural way and acted on by faith. So we see kind of this circular. Faith comes from hearing by the word of Christ, which is God's truth, which is God himself. Faith is the perspective of God. And then we now faith is let's define a little bit different. It is the perspective of God. But what is God's perspective? Hebrews 11 one. You want to pull up Hebrews?

[00:38:46] Pull that up, because I do not that one off the top of my head.

[00:38:50] You actually did? No, it's just a matter of recalling this specific one.

[00:38:53] Yes, you're right. You're right. Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

[00:39:02] So it is the assurance of things hoped for. In Bible terms, hope for is an assured promise. It is not what we do, which is a variable that we're not sure. I hope it doesn't rain while I'm out here on my deck. Now, it is a hope, but that's not what the Bible talks about. The assurance of things, hope for the conviction of things not seen is the absolute certainty of what it is. And it's an absolute certainty because it is God's truth. Faith comes from hearing and hearing God's truth, the word of Christ. Another pass, another translation says that faith is the title deed of what has been promised. Even though we do not see it yet, we've got the title deed. So I want you to envision for a moment King David. He's out there fighting these battles. And I want you to picture this little caricature of King David. He's got a sword in one hand leading his army, charging in his other hand. He's got a crumpled up title deed that says the promised land is ours. This victory is mine. He's charging into battle, holding faith by one hand, holding the sword. And the other hand, because that faith, that title deed gives him the assurance of victory makes sense. Yes, that is working from a position of rest. Fighting for victory from a position of rest. It is working from from the promise. He's carrying the promise with him. And he's going into battle. The outcome is certain, those particular path of the battle.

[00:40:58] How many of his men he may lose? What's going to happen at any given moment? Those things are uncertain, but the outcome is guaranteed because it is the truth of God. So faith is when you look at things from God's perspective, not man's perspective. When you look at it from the promise, not to the promise. There's a number of different types of faith mentioned in scripture. I'm just going to kind of throw these out, see if this rings a bell by faith of faith through faith in faith. You remember those kind of passages used throughout scripture. So if faith comes from hearing the word of Christ is faith, therefore is the word of Christ. Faith, therefore, is Christ himself. And what we can translate with these is faith is Jesus, then it's by Jesus of Jesus, through Jesus. And Jesus. In other words, when we operate in faith, we're operating. In Christ, from Christ. And it's literally and technically Christ operating through us. We're abiding in him. He's abiding in us. We do nothing. He does it all. It's him living through us. What is it, Galatians? Three, two, twenty three. Twenty one of those. I'm crucified with Christ and is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and through me. Okay, so that's kind of this perspective. So now I want to come back and I want to bring another perspective and kind of tie this together. We're almost finished, by the way. Is this exciting so far? Is this interesting?

[00:42:58] Yes. Love it. I love it.

[00:43:01] Okay, so now I want to talk about an old covenant versus new covenant. Old Covenant is the covenant given to Abraham, and that includes the law, the new covenant. The law has been fulfilled in us. The law is still in us. That's what Romans says. But the rightest requirements of the law have been fulfilled. Those of us in Christ. So the law is still present, but it's now fulfilled. But the covenant is a little bit. I want to I want to shift the focus of the covenant from the law to the promise of the fulfillment of that. So let's talk about the old covenant. First time with me to Hebrews 11, verse 13. So this is the Hall of Fame. Faith, the Hall of Fame. And this is a statement put in between as it kind of wraps up. What's going on in Hebrews 11 13?

[00:44:04] These all died in faith, not having received the things promised. But having seen them and greeted them from afar and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the years.

[00:44:18] Okay, so in the old covenant says that they were looking towards the promise, not from the promise, they were working towards the promise, the promise of the Messiah and of sonship being brought into the kingdom. Does that make sense? Yeah. Everything they did was from the outside looking in outside of the promise, looking into the problems. Now, let's contrast that with the new covenant and the new covenant. Let's go to Hebrews 11, first, 39 and 40.

[00:44:56] All right, 39 and 40 and all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised and God had provided something better for us. That apart from us, they should not be made perfect.

[00:45:11] So now this is basically saying the promise is ours.

[00:45:15] And apart from us, they were actually looking forward to us because we're the holder of the promise. So now, as the possessor of the promise, our perspective changes. We now are looking from inside a promise out rather than from them looking outside in where we work from. The promise they worked towards the promise is the same. Yes. Okay. Let's look at one more passage, Matthew, 28, verse 27 and 28.

[00:45:53] All right. Twenty eight. All right. 27, 28. Wait, are we sure we don't have a verse 27 in chapter 28?

[00:46:07] That's a start. It may be 26, but it starts and he took a cup and when he had given thanks. Here we found it. And he took the cup.

[00:46:18] And when he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, drink it, all of you. This is my blood. The Covenant, which is poured out from many for their forgiveness. That's all right.

[00:46:30] Now, tell me the reference on that verse, if you would.

[00:46:34] The verses were right, but it's chapter 26, 26.

[00:46:38] That's where it was. Okay. So here's where he's going. And there's a word that sometimes you use and sometimes not. I'm going to use it here.

[00:46:48] Same drink of it, all of you. This is my blood. The new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sin. So now we had the inauguration of the New Covenant. We had the old covenant, the new covenant.

[00:47:02] We are to drink the blood of the cup and drink the cup, which is his blood. And that inaugurates the new covenant as we're abiding in the promise we're now operating from the promise because now the new covenant is in us, in the old covenant. They were looking towards a promise with us. We're looking from the promise. Making sense.

[00:47:29] Yes, absolutely.

[00:47:31] Yes. Okay, so the old covenant operates from an outside perspective, looking in the new covenant operates from an inside perspective, looking out. And we're going to take the same pattern in terms of how we operate and work. But I want to show you one more verse. Go to Matthew 17, verse 20.

[00:47:53] All right.

[00:47:53] Verse 20.

[00:47:55] He said to them, because of your little faith. Truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you.

[00:48:11] All right, great. So this faith to Jesus is talking about. It is only possible when you're operating from inside the promise, from inside Christ, because if you're going to move a mountain.

[00:48:27] Now, this could be metaphorically backup. So mountains and scripture are pretty much government governmental authorities. They just asked him why could we not cast out this demon? Jesus says because of the littleness of your faith, the littleness of the perspective of God operating through you. This is a governmental authority that takes a lot more faith than what you try to operate in. That's basically kind of one way that we could interpret this. But he's using metaphorically a mountain. He's on. They just come down from mount to transfiguration. Okay, so you just come down from this mountain. So he's probably talking about that mountain. They just went up to a high mountain, it said prior.

[00:49:20] And so you said if you have faith like the grain of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, move from here to there and they'll move and nothing will be impossible. For you, that faith is only when you have the faith of Christ. Not the safe looking towards Christ. Does that make sense? Yes.

[00:49:45] Yes. This is kind of the old test, some old covenant versus new covenant. Old covenant. Look towards the promise. Through Man-Sized with a little bit of faith. New Covenant. Is the reality of working from the premise now kind of wrapping this back up to where I started the idea of working from a position of rest. Is working from the promise.

[00:50:16] Not to the promise it's working from inside.

[00:50:22] Looking out as opposed outside, looking in, maybe an easy way to try to understand this is imagine a really tall brick wall. And on the wall is running north south on the east side of the wall is this promise. This promise is whatever the promise may be in your life. It could be a new car. They could be victory in business. It could be health, it could be anything. It could be all kinds of different things. On the east side is a promise.

[00:51:00] On the west side of the wall is where you stand. On the west side of the wall. You cannot see the promise. Does that make sense? When we operate in the natural when we operate by our natural allies, all we see is a wall.

[00:51:23] And we have no idea what's on the other side. We work and we work and we work. And we're scared to death because we don't know what's going to happen. We pray and we plead with the Lord. Save me. Help me. Please do this, because we don't know what's going to happen, because our perspective is not God's perspective.

[00:51:47] From our perspective, this man's perspective, that is not working from a position of rest. It's working from a position of site and unrest and fear and fear. Exactly. Because site creates fear. Natural site creates fear. Because natural site, when in the presence of God's promise, natural site is always contrary to God's promise because it's all the flesh. God's promises are the spirit.

[00:52:20] So when we work from a position of rest, it's as if we walk around that brick wall and now we're on the east side and we see. The promise that God has given us and now we believe it, we're looking at it now with our Spiritualized. And we believe that as certainty, faith is the certainty of hope for is the title of doubt which has been promised.

[00:52:48] And now when we work, we work diligently towards it. But we have no fear that we will not achieve it.

[00:52:59] We know the outcome is certain. We know the victory of that promise is ours because it is. And God's word, God's word spoken to us, limited to us. Impress upon us. However he communicates. But that is the difference between working towards the promise, hoping in human terms, hoping that is going to become true versus working from the promise. It's already true. And now I'm simply doing the necessary labor for it to then be manifested in my life. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. That's what it looks like. To be seated in Christ. Be rooted in Christ, be rooted in his word, having the certainty of his word and his promise in our life and therefore moving forward with no fear. Can I share a little personal testimony on this? Absolutely. I've been in business since 1997.

[00:54:11] I've had some great ups and some great downs. One period time almost went bankrupt. And what's interesting is even the times where I was afraid, I always trusted the Lord. But I was still afraid you'd say this with David. He trusts the Lord. But when you read through Psalms, you see the fear come out. But every time the fear comes out, the psalm always ends with. And I trust in the Lord and he brings me victory is likely through writing the song. He comes back into God's perspective. You see him shift from that perspective to God's perspective. Well, I was during this period of time. And the Lord gave me a passage and the passage said, you will never suffer famine again among the nations because at that time we were in a famine financially and we were about to die financially. And ever since he gave me that passage, I'd been like Superman. I fear nothing. Shoot me up if you want to. They're just going to bounce off me. Why? Because I have the promise from God. And so it doesn't matter what situation we come into.

[00:55:25] I know we're not going to lose anything. I don't have to worry about losing the house. I don't have to worry about not having food. I don't even have to worry about. I've got my youngest child is in college right now. I don't even have to worry about how to pay the college bills because the promises will never suffer famine. Now, I've got a lot of other promises of a lot more abundance. But the simple promise was that now remembering one of my business groups, one of the ladies is a group called Vistage, business owners and business people that made work through different, different things. And one folks and one ladies in my group had asked the question because they've seen me over the years up and down, up and down. But always with the big dream, always with the certainty of victory. Always pressing forward. Always upbeat, regardless of what financials might say at the moment. Her question is, how do you do it? How do you keep your attitude so positive and keep going in the presence of all of the what we see as all the setbacks?

[00:56:42] And as I was contemplating that answer, you know, the answer is because I've been promised. We'll never suffer famine again. Never is, never. And it's a promise from God. And I can't tell you how incredible it is to operate from that position because it means I never have to fear. I don't. I don't take it on presumption. I work hard. I never have to worry about the outcome. Does that make sense?

[00:57:14] Absolutely. Yes.

[00:57:16] And that's what this is all about. That's what this is all about. That's working from the promise.

[00:57:23] Beatty, I was thinking of the verse and Hebrews Chapter 11 talked about without faith, it's impossible to please God. It goes on to say, because those who come to the father must believe that he exists and he rewards those who earnestly seek can. And that that verse kept popping up in my mind while you were sharing that testimony. It is that faith. It's your faith that you've had that where you have been able to see the promise. And I love that that's such a good thing.

[00:58:00] I'm so glad you brought that up, because I love that verse on the cutting table thinking it didn't really need to apply here at all.

[00:58:12] The lies at all. I love it. That's awesome.

[00:58:15] Yes, it does. Well, we got to close up. But do you have any final thoughts or comments before you wrap up?

[00:58:21] I don't. I just love the perspective today, and I hope our listeners are able to grasp that as well. Just knowing, like you said, that we do have that promise. And when we grab ahold of it and we see it with faith, knowing that God's giving it to us, that we can operate and rest and not in fear, no matter what's going on in the natural. And I think that's the key is is seeking the Lord, keeping our eyes fixed on the Lord and not letting our vision wander to the natural to what's going on around us, the waves and the wind. Easier said than done, but it can be done.

[00:58:59] I want to make one comment on this as to our real estate friends out there.

[00:59:04] When this Corona vase hit and people started going and shelter in place. I saw so much fear among so many of our clients and clients who follow the Lord. But they operated in fear.

[00:59:23] And I'd like to just speak to you guys for a quick moment. Stop looking at things in the natural. You've got to look at it from God's perspective, what God's word has shared with you and what he has illumined to you and hold that promise, because without faith, is it impossible to please them. And it's only by faith that you get the promise of faith. When you add by fear, you get the consequence of fear. And so it becomes says in the natural what we call a self-fulfilling prophecy. You can speak to words of fear. And it evaporates. The miracle of faith. And just like Peter, you can think and say. You see, I knew it was going to happen. No, you spoke it into existence. You take God's word and you focus on God's word and you speak God's word and you believe God's word because it is the word of God and it is truth. And by doing that action, God says, I am well pleased with you. Here's the promise that I've given you by faith and that your faith has now brought to bear. So do not fear. So focus on God's word. All right.

[01:00:53] That's awesome. All righty. This was great. Thank you so much. I agree with that. I want to encourage our real estate friends as well just to stay the course. Keep your eyes on the prize and keep your focus on the Lord. Don't allow other things around you to dictate what you're feeling and concerned about. You have nothing to fear when your eyes are on the Lord. So this was a great call today. Super excited. And we bless you all. Thank you so much for listening. And we're excited to be with you again very soon.

[01:01:26] Hey, man, you all be blessed.

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Transcription (was completed by automated process. Please ignore any speech-to-text errors)

[00:00:00] Hey, this is Beatty Carmichael, and I want to do something very special on this podcast and take a kind of divergence from my normal podcast. I want to share a recording from a. I call him a friend. I've met him by phone a number times, never in person. And it's a man whose name you'll probably recognize. You may not recognize his name, but you'll definitely recognize the same his name. And that is Adolph Coors, IV. And as we go through these very challenging times, everything is uncertain. Well, it seems like everything's caving in around us with the Coronavirus and businesses being shut and their livelihoods are being strangled. And we just don't know what's going on and what the next thing is. It brought to mind this recording that Adolf gave me permission to share and his history of going through this intense, dramatic struggles to the point of death. Thoughts of suicide, losing everything important in his life. Just trying to make sense of it all. And it's an amazing story that I think you'll find a lot of encouragement in and one that I think you will if you're like most people who've listened to, will find this to be one and the most touching and life changing stories that you've heard. So with no further ado, I introduce to you, Adolf Coors IV.

[00:01:36] Our speaker tonight, Mr. Adolph Coors. The fourth is certainly an outstanding example of a biographical speaker. Mr. Coors is the great grandson of Adolph Herman Joseph Coors, who was the founder of the Adolph Coors Brewing Company of Golden, Colorado. His father was Adolph cause the third and at the end was chairman of the board of the Family Business. When Mr. Coors the fourth was 14 years of age, his father was kidnapped and brutally murdered and being the oldest son of the family, his teenage years, as you might expect, were difficult at best as the family attempted to deal with their great loss. Mr. Coors spent three years in the United States Marine Corps. He was a cold weather survival training instructor. He developed a fervor for discipline that led him into extreme bodybuilding, the martial arts and a strict health food regimen. And I think when you see him, if you haven't seen him yet, when he stands up here, he still carries that frame rather nicely. He was really driven, though, to succeed at any price. After graduate from University of Denver School of Business, he spent two years with the New York firm of Sheraton, Hamilton and Company as a commodity specialist.

[00:03:02] And once he left the rigors of the commodity business, he spent about six years working with the Adolph Coors Company. And various departments, in his experience, ranges from marketing and strategic planning, sales, borrowing, quality control and financial planning. Mr. Coors left the family brewing business in 1979 and he became the investment advisor for his immediate family. In addition, he also founded the national marketing company called Atco Enterprises. He has served on the board of directors of the Prison Fellowship Ministries, which is an internal national prison ministry, was founded by Chuck Colson in Washington, D.C.. He serves on the board of directors of the Family Ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. And he also has a on the board advisors for kanika camp, which is a Christian camp in Branson, Missouri, which I know a lot of people who are here tonight have ties to that idea through children or through personal experience. Mr. Cooper's and his wife, B.J., have been married since 1967, and they live in Englewood, Colorado. He has two sons. Please join me in giving a warm Bermingham. Welcome to Adolph Cause the Fourth.

[00:04:32] Good evening, gentlemen.

[00:04:38] Dawn, thank you very much for that kind introduction.

[00:04:44] And I want to thank you, gentlemen, for taking time out of I know it's been a very busy day for all of you to be a part of this dinner tonight. And I particularly want to thank Phil Retik, young business leaders and all those who have worked very hard to make this evening a reality. Continue, gentlemen, eating your dinner if you have not finished. But while you're eating, I'm going to ask that you do lend me. And here, you know, I'll be very honest with you guys. I wish somebody had loved me enough about 30 years ago to invite me to a dinner like this. And I believe that we're all here together because of a divine appointment. I don't think believe anything happens by accident. So I'm going to ask that even though you're eating your dinner but or you are not finished with your dinner, just please let me in here, because I'm going to put up my family to you gentlemen. I'm going to be very vulnerable to you tonight. We're going to laugh together and we're going to maybe even cry a little bit together. I'm going to share with you the Adolph Coors family, as Don mentioned, a family that's recognized all over this world. It's been a very interesting family, gentlemen, to grow up in. Well, before I get into my personal story, I want to relay a story that I came across recently that really, really made an impact on me and saw before I get into my own personal story, I want to share with you the story that goes like this. Listen very carefully.

[00:06:31] One foggy night, a captain of a very large ship saw what appeared to be another ship's lights approaching in the distance. There's another ship was on a course that would mean a certain head on collision. And quickly, the captain signaled to the approaching ship, please change your course, 10 degrees west. And the reply came blinking back through the thick fog that evening. You change your course 10 degrees east insulted. The captain pulled rank and shot a message back to the other ship. The message said, I am a sea captain with 35 years of experience. Change your course. Ten degrees west. Without hesitation, the signal flashed back. I'm a seaman. Fourth class. You change your course 10 degrees east to pattern forming here. Enraged, the captain realized that they were rapidly approaching one another and would certainly crash within a few short minutes. And so he blazed. Gentlemen, he blazed his final warning. And the warning was this. I am a fifty thousand tonne freighter. Change your course. Ten degrees west now. A simple message came blinking back through the thick fog that night, and that simple message was this. I am a lighthouse. I'm a lighthouse, you change your course now. True story, guys. True story. And like that sea captain, we as human beings need to change course. Gentlemen, when we're confronted with the truth and over 20 years ago, I was confronted with a truth. One evening when I learned an incredible fact. I learned that the God of this universe that I didn't particularly have much time for, to be honest with you. When I learned that the God of this universe, who created me, who created each one of us in this room, I learned about the incredible love that he has for each one of us gentlemen. They each each one of us in this room. Now, grant me the privilege. It is a privilege for me to be able to stand before you tonight. Grant me the unique privilege of being able to share with you a journey that literally changed the course of my life. I'd like that sea captain, guys. I was headed for certain destruction.

[00:09:41] The name Adolph Cause, as Don mentioned, is a name recognized all over this world.

[00:09:47] Back in 1868, at the age of twenty eight years of age, my great grandfather, Adolph Herman Joseph Coors, twice orphaned at the age of 14 with a dream in his heart without a penny to his name, stowed one day aboard a steamer headed for America.

[00:10:11] He hid onboard that steamer, and several weeks later he landed in the city of Baltimore. And a year and a half later, he found himself in a small mining town called Denver, Colorado, in the spring of eighteen seventy two.

[00:10:32] A year later, he convinced a business partner, a friend of his, a very successful businessman in Denver. He convinced this gentleman to buy an old tannery building in a small town called Golden, Colorado. Golden has located 20 miles west of Denver, on the edge of the foothills. And those two enterprising young men bought an old tannery building in Golden and formed what was then known as the shooter, Coors Brewing Company.

[00:11:01] And it began to make beer and served that beer to the miners working in the mining camps above Golden. Seven years after that fledgling little brewery got started it all. Herman Joseph cause my great granddad bought his business partner out and formed what is now known worldwide as the Adolph Coors Company. Gentlemen, this is truly one of the great success stories in American industry. And 51 years ago, I was born into this unique family, gentlemen, a family much like yours. Tonight, a family that has aspiring hopes and grand dreams. And I know you had your hopes and your dreams tonight as well. And that's good. I was blessed with two wonderful parents. I had two older sisters and a younger brother. And as a family growing up, we did everything together. I have fond memories of the first 14 years of my life.

[00:12:10] But looking in the eyes of my father and looking in the eyes of my grand dad and hearing the stories of my great grandfather, I learned at a young age I learned that failure was not going to be tolerated in my family.

[00:12:26] I learned that there was a certain pecking order in my family and I was going to fit in with that pecking order based upon three things. I was going to either be accepted into this family or rejected this family based upon looks. Based upon how well I did in school and based upon how well I performed on the athletic fields growing up, that was the pecking order in our family. If you did well in school, if you looked well and you perform well as an athlete, you would be accepted in this family. You know, I remember looking in the eyes of my father, and I remember him telling me in so many eyes, so many, so many ways. He was saying, son, you better perform in this family if you're gonna be accepted. You better perform. In other words, gentlemen, I was raised in a family, what I would call conditional love. But I want you to file this back in your mind. You know, I wish somebody had loved me enough as a young boy. I wish somebody had sat me down. I wish they would have told me this. I wish they would have said it off course. What good is it going to be if you gain the whole world? Gentlemen, I was after the whole world. What good is it going to be if you gain the whole world, Adolph Coors. But in the process of gaining this world, you end up losing your soul. I never heard that guy's never heard. You know, I wish somebody loved me enough to tell me, Adolf, if you live for the next world, you're gonna gain this one in the deal.

[00:13:57] You'll gain it in the deal. But if you live strictly for this world, you're gonna end up losing them both. I never heard that. You know what I heard growing up in this wonderful family? About the same thing that many of you in this room are hearing right now. I heard that he who dies with the most toys wins this game called life. Is that your philosophy tonight, gentlemen? Have you bought into the lie that if you die with the most toys, you're gonna win this game called life? I hope you don't believe that tonight. If you do believe that tonight, I want to get very personal with you. I want to ask you two questions. The first question I want to ask you is, what do you win, gentlemen? What do you really win? And then more importantly, I want to ask you this. Where does that prize you're looking for? Where does that prize get delivered? Where is it going to be delivered? I want to take you three thousand years in the past. I want to take you. I want us to sit down and I want you to hear the words of one of the wisest men who has ever lived. His name was David the Psalmist, David, one of the wisest and one of the wealthiest men this world has ever seen. Listen to what David tells you and me as business.

[00:15:18] Today in 1996, he says, Gentlemen, our days are few and our days are very brief.

[00:15:28] Like the grass, like the flowers blown by the wind and gone forever. Think about those words, gentlemen. This life there we're living is nothing but a training ground. It's a training ground for where we are going to spend eternity because you see, gentlemen, you are used to making decisions. You're very successful businessman. I know who I'm talking to tonight. I know I'm in respect of you. I'm an all of you. I know who I'm talking to tonight. You're very successful, gentlemen. I know you. You are. But gentlemen, this is nothing but a training ground as one decision we have to make as human beings while we're on this Earth. One most important decision. I'm going to ask you to make that decision before I leave here tonight, because it's a decision it will determine where we spend eternity. Is that important? And I will get to that decision in just a few minutes. I want to take you tonight to a cemetery outside of the town of London, England. And I'm going to take you to two grave markers. The first grave marker reads, She died for want of things.

[00:16:42] True story. Right next to that grave marker is another grave market. I'll bet you can't guess what that grave marker says was a grave marker of her husband. A grave marker reads He died trying to give these things to her general. That is a sad commentary, a sad commentary on how two lives were wasted, believing, buying into the lie that the things of this world could make them happy. I bought into that lie for 31 years of my life. Gentlemen, I want to share with you where that philosophy took me and the tragedy it brought to my family. It caused me a tremendous amount of pain and heartache. You see, gentlemen, life is wasted if we're basing our life on the things of this world. You see, tomorrow, some of us life is consists of a materialistic if only, if only I could get that new job. That job would make me happy. If only I could get that new car, I could buy that new toy, I could marry that pretty girl, I could get that raise.

[00:17:59] That would make me happy.

[00:18:02] But you see, gentlemen, I learned many years ago that life is wasted in the endless pursuit of these things, because even if we achieve them and you've achieved many of these things, those things really don't bring us what we're looking for.

[00:18:18] You see, chasing after pleasure is really a confession of an unsatisfied life. Now, I want to get very personal, every one of us in this room are created by a God who loves us with an immense love. Now, why do you believe that tonight makes no difference? He's there and he loves us. And he creates you and me with a unique blueprint. You have a blueprint for your life. Gentlemen. No other human being has ever had in the face of this earth. We're created different except for one way. There's one thing that knits you and I together tonight, guys. One thing that makes you and me the same. And that one thing that knits us together tonight is when we're born into this world, the God who created us creates us batteries, not included. In other words, there is something missing in our lives, a spiritual vacuum, if you will, an emptiness. And many of us go through this life and we try to fill that void in our hearts. We try to fill it with our careers. We try to fill it with our athletic achievements. We try to fill it with our own importance, with titles, with material possessions, even with our family members. General, let me tell you. For somebody who's done that for 31 years of my life, let me tell you, these things were never meant to fill that void in your heart and mine. They were never meant to do it.

[00:19:50] That's reserved for one very special relationship.

[00:19:54] That's why John D Rockefeller senior, when he just before he died, said the following. And let me quote this man. It was very successful. He said, I have made billions, but these billions have brought me no happiness. That's why Henry Ford senior, just before he died, turned to one of his best friends one day and he said, sir, he said, My friend, I was happier when I was a mechanic. Now, why could these guys, these successful businessmen, why could they say these things? For the same reason? I could say at 20 years ago when I realized the void, my heart wasn't getting filled. So I want us gentlemen tonight, I want you to slow down your life long enough tonight, I want you to get real. I want you to slow down. I want you to listen. And I want us to really focus in tonight on some important issues. In the first 14 years of my life, gentlemen, Norman Rockwell couldn't have painted a pretty or picture. I was blessed, as I mentioned earlier, with a great family and as a family, we did everything together. But as a young boy, I made a tragic mistake, a mistake. I'll bet some of you are making in this room tonight. You don't even recognize it's a mistake. You see, the mistake I made was I put my faith and trust in a human being. And really for the first 14 years of my life, my father, it of course, the third was, my God. I worshipped him. You want to talk about a successful man? Here was a successful man.

[00:21:34] Not only was my father chairman of the board of our brewing empire in Golden, Colorado.

[00:21:42] He was a semi-pro baseball player, a scratch golfer, a gifted musician, an architect, an engineer, a rancher flew his own airplane.

[00:21:55] One of the best tennis players ever seen in my life, one of these guys at everything he did, everything he did, David.

[00:22:01] He did it to perfection. He was a driven man.

[00:22:08] I idolized him, but gentlemen, for each one of us in this room, life brings many changes.

[00:22:18] Some of these changes are sudden. Some of these changes are gradual. Some of these changes bring us a lot of happiness. But then again, some of these changes can bring us a tremendous amount of pain. There is a God in heaven, gentlemen, who loves us with an immense love and what he needs to tell us. He screams out to us. He says, enjoy my gifts. He wants us to enjoy his gifts. But he also warns us, gentlemen, not to put our faith and trust in these gifts.

[00:22:50] Our faith and trust needs to be a very special relationship.

[00:22:57] As Don mentioned in 1960, something happened to my family that violently tore apart a family that I'd put my faith and trust in. Thirty six years ago, this past February, my father, on his way to work one morning, stopped three miles from our home to help what he thought was a stranded motorist snowing hard that February morning, my father walked over to this man's car. But in that car was not a man who was experiencing car problems in that car was a man who had been stalking my father for two years. A man who in 1958 escaped from prison in California, a maximum security prison. A two time murder. There was a violent struggle on that bridge that morning, my father was a tough guy. And as my father was running back to his automobile that morning, Joseph Corbett pulled out a gun and proceeded to put multiple bullets in my father's back. Alive or dead? I'll never know, but the body of my father was stuffed in the trunk of this man's car and at 7.30 that morning they sped south seven long months. My sisters, my brother, my mother, myself, we all hope, beyond hope that dad would return. But gentlemen, that was not going to be the case is the remains of my father were found 40 miles south of our home, seven months almost to the day that he was kidnapped. You know, gentlemen, I had 14 years with that guy. And you know what I learned most about that man, what he taught me the most successful is he was he was very successful.

[00:24:52] We had all the things. Gentlemen, this world says you have to have to be a success. We had a war. But, you know, my dad left me a legacy that I'll never, never forget. He taught me how to throw a curveball in our backyard. He taught me how to fly his airplane. He taught me how to hunt. He taught me how to fish. He taught me how to be a dad. You see, gentlemen, that's what I remember about my father, not how successful he was, Don. He was successful. But as a 14 year old boy, you don't care how much money your dad's making. You know what you care as a 14 year old boy. You know what you care the most about. When your dad comes home from work every afternoon, he spends time with you gentlemen at the other end of life. There won't be enough stocks, there won't be enough bonds, there won't be enough trophy's in your case at home, there won't be enough toys in your driveway to compensate for the loss of your wife and your kids. There simply will not be enough. And I'll bet there's at least one person in his room tonight whose career is number one in your life. I bet there's one, at least one. It's your career is running your life right now. Gentlemen, I beg you, if that's the case in your life and only you know who you are. If that's the case tonight, I beg you, go home, reprioritize your life.

[00:26:15] Will you do that, please? I don't know here about in Birmingham, Alabama, but in Denver, Colorado, I have yet to see a U-Haul trailer hooked to a hearse going to the graveyard. In other words, Jumaa, what I'm telling you tonight, we're not going to take any of this stuff with us. None of it's going with us. You know what's going with us when we die. Our families are going with us. The legacy we leave to our kids are going with us. That's about it, gentlemen. That's about it. I graduated from high school shortly after my father's murder. I want to become an attorney. I was accepted at 17 years of age. I was accepted to one of the best law schools in the state of Georgia. Mercer University. Perhaps I'll have you heard. Mercer. Macon, Georgia. 17 years of age. Driven to succeed. I walked onto that campus, began my freshman year of pre-law, but instead of majoring in pre-law my freshman year, I majored in sorority and minored in fraternity and failed academics and graduated my freshman year with a point six grade average. You can well imagine, gentlemen, that did not sit well with my grandfather and my mother and my family. Remember, failure was not going to be tolerated in my family. And I returned home at 18 years of age of failure in my family's eyes. And Don, I remember that summer when I returned home, I barely got my bags unpacked. That summer, I found myself on an airplane one Friday night.

[00:27:58] Just 18 years of age flying to California.

[00:28:02] That Friday evening, I landed in San Diego that evening. And I wasn't greeted by friends that evening. I wasn't greeted by relatives that evening. Walking off the airplane that evening, I was greeted by five loving drill instructors at the Marine Corps Recruit Training Depot.

[00:28:24] And I was literally thrown in the back of a pickup and I was driven to the recruit training depot to begin my nine months of boot camp. And gentlemen, you can well imagine the name Adolf Coors what the next six years of my life were like. David, I was driven to succeed. Any price. I was in boot camp about 30 seconds, and I realize that if I didn't get awful tough very quick, I was not going to survive. Nine months of boot camp. Was that simple? Over the next six years, my body weight went from one hundred ninety five pounds to two hundred and seventy five pounds. In that void in my heart that I've told you about, is that one of our hearts in that void. I put a tough, macho Marine frame, 20 inch arms, a fifty four inch, just twenty two inch neck karate and the martial arts. Akino became my gods. You know, it's amazing how we can mask our insecurities, isn't it, guys, we all have a way of masking our insecurities. And I hid behind 275 pounds, full of anger, full of bitterness. But, you know, it's amazing we wouldn't worry so much about what other people think of us if we don't, how seldom we they do.

[00:29:52] Back in those days, I was what you call a light eater. Every morning when it became light, I would start eating.

[00:30:02] There's a ugly five-letter word guys called pride. And pride goes before our destruction, gentleman, and a hearty spirit before a man's downfall. Well, obviously, I made it six years as a Marine, escaped death on countless occasions. And just before I returned home to my family. I learned from my mother one tragic morning that my oldest sister, just 27 years of age, living in the state of Illinois. The proud mother of a brand new baby son. That morning had been diagnosed with incurable cancer.

[00:30:43] Twenty seven years of age. Gentlemen, are you putting your faith and trust in your good health tonight? Are you?

[00:30:52] Your athletic ability, your good looks, your academic prowess, all these things we put our faith and trust in, is that what you're trustees tonight? You remember the psalmist, David warns us 3000 years ago, he said our days are few and they're very brief. Thirteen months after my sister was diagnosed with cancer, she stepped from this life, gentlemen, into the next. And we all face death in this room. Every one of us. And we need to be reminded that as a tree falls, so must that tree lie. And as a man lives, so must he die. And as a man dies, so must he be. All through the days of eternity. Gentlemen, is your passport for eternity in order tonight, is it? Is it an order? You may need that passport. I may need that passport sooner than we dare think.

[00:31:58] Somebody once said that marriages are made in heaven, but then again, so are thunder and lightning.

[00:32:06] And I returned home twenty nine years ago to marry my high school sweetheart. But you know, guys, many girls marry a man just like their fathers. And then people wonder why their mothers cry at weddings. Twenty nine years ago, LBJ, my beautiful bride, and I began our union together. Which, you know, I'll never forget the day that we were married, David, walking down the aisle with the girl of my dreams, a girl I dated all through high school, a girl of my dreams on my right arm, Don walking down the aisle of the largest church in Denver. Hundreds of people have come to see us get married that afternoon.

[00:32:53] On my right arm was the girl of my dreams.

[00:32:55] But as I looked at her at the ride out of the right side of my eyes, I looked at her from I looked as beautiful girl. And I knew I knew here she wasn't going to feel that boy. And gentlemen, I'll tell you tonight, that beautiful wife that's home waiting for you tonight. That wife of yours, God's gift to you. That girl was never meant to fill your void either. Not really. Not permanently reserved for one relationship. Don't put that burden on your wife to fill that void in your heart. Gentlemen, don't do that.

[00:33:27] That's unfair.

[00:33:31] You know, we're funny as human beings. We spend money, we don't have to buy things we don't need in order to try to impress people, we really can't stand.

[00:33:41] And that describes the first eight years of my marriage to B.J., my beautiful wife. I graduate from the University of Denver School of Business. One of the top of my class driven to succeed. Just a few days after I graduate from University Denver School of Business, I walked into a hospital one evening, the largest hospital in Denver, and that evening, Don, where my wife, her doctor and myself, there were three of us that night and then poof, there were four laid off cause the fifth my first son 25 years ago came into this world. Now, gentlemen, you can go back and tell your friends that cause does come in fits. But guys, as much as I love my son, in fact, I am blessed with two wonderful boys twenty five and twenty, I love them as I know you love your kids, those beautiful kids of ours. Gentlemen were not meant to fill that void. Nah, not permanently. It was just after he was born that driven to succeed. I began to invest millions of dollars into the real estate market of Colorado trying to impress my real estate friends. I began to invest millions of dollars into the stock and bond markets of this world. In fact, I was trained as a commodity specialist in New York. You're putting your faith and trust in your investments tonight, are you?

[00:35:19] I used to go home every Friday night. I used to get The Wall Street Journal out. I used to get a calculator out. I used to calculate my net worth every Friday night before I went home. And if my net worth had raised that didn't increase that week, I would go home and out. Have a great weekend. If my net worth had declined during that week, I would have a horrible weekend.

[00:35:42] Well, gentlemen, in a brief period of about two years, my investments went against me. I had the best minds in the business working with me, the best minds in the business. My investments went against me and I was facing personal bankruptcy about two years later. Don't put your faith and trust in your investments, guys. Don't make that mistake. Please don't do that. A fool and his money are soon parted. A fool and his money. 1972, I went to work for the largest single brewery in the world. Two thousand acres in Golden, Colorado, had my name on the outside of the building, the Adolph Cougars Company. Two thousand acres. I had to learn the business from the ground up. Which often meant many nights without sleep, many days without returning home to my wife and son. As I began to climb the corporate ladder of success, whatever that nebulous term means, one morning about a year later, I was getting into my sports car to travel home. I hadn't slept in three days. I had a 25 mile drive each day from our brewery to our home in Littleton, Colorado, that morning, I made twenty three of those twenty five miles, I was traveling at a high rate of speed. Two hundred seventy five pounds. Nobody was ever gonna hurt me again. Invincible.

[00:37:14] Tough.

[00:37:17] Well, gentlemen, it's amazing what a head on collision can do to a tough module Marine frame traveling at a high rate of speed. My body went through the windshield as my car hit another car at the crest of a hill hit on.

[00:37:32] Putting your faith and trust in your good health tonight. All right. Thank you, tough. Thank the world can't get to you. I would just like. I'm getting real, guys, I'm getting real some of your squirming.

[00:37:49] I told you I was going to get real, my two hundred seventy five pound body went through the windshield of my sports car in a millisecond, my goal of becoming a karate master evaporated as my knees shattered as they hit the dashboard.

[00:38:04] My brain was a mass of scrambled eggs. Six days and. Unconscious. Two years in recovery. Two years. Got my attention two years.

[00:38:22] It was during that two year period of time, gentlemen, that the God who loves us so much slowed me down long enough to put me on my back. You know what he was doing? He was saying, Adolf, I want to talk to you. Adolf, I love you. I want to say some things to you, Adolf course. And you know what he was telling me? He was saying, Adolf, get a good look at your life. You've got a marriage is headed for divorce, Adolf, cause you've got a four year old son at home and you don't even know you don't have time for friends. And gentlemen, I began to ask myself three questions. One, I want to pose to every one of you sitting here tonight over and over again. I would ask myself, Adolph Coors, who are you really?

[00:39:10] David, I would ask myself, Adolph Coors, why are you here really?

[00:39:16] And where are you going with the rest of your life? Really? Gentlemen, I didn't have the foggiest idea I was going from promotion to promotion, from airplane to airplane, from boat to boat, from travel to travel. I could go anywhere. I wanted to go play park golf and a golf course in this world by anything I wanted. I'm not bragging, I'm just saying that's what it was like. But inside here, Gemma was avoid it was getting so big you could drive a truck through it. And then something happened. Gentlemen, I want you to listen to very carefully. Something happened one evening just out of common courtesy, Don. I invited one of our senior vice presidents home for dinner. My father had hired this man, I'd known him, I'd hunted with him as a little boy. He was a very successful man, one of our senior vice presidents. I invited him over for dinner. I was training under him to take his position. He was going to leave in a matter of a few months and I was going to step into a vice president's position. My goal was right on schedule.

[00:40:21] I was headed right straight to the top or so I thought into that dining room. That evening came this gentleman and his beautiful wife. The conversation at our dining room table, we talked about sports, we talked about politics, we talked about beer, lots of beer. But then suddenly the conversation became silent. And then just out of common courtesy, my wife turned to this man's beautiful wife. Her name was Vera. And b.j.'s as beer on it. An interesting question. P.J. Severo, what are your interests in life expecting that Vera would say, well, my home or my career or my children? That's not what she said that evening. Vera Sunde very quickly looked at my wife in her eyes. She said, B.J., one interest in life, that interest is serving Jesus Christ. Gentlemen, this was a Wednesday evening. I looked at my watch. It was 7:30, just about what time it is here tonight. I looked at my watch and I thought to myself, we're gonna invite these people to go home right now. I mean, that's exactly what I thought.

[00:41:31] You don't talk about religion on a Wednesday night.

[00:41:34] That's for Sunday. But you know, guys, this couple love my wife and I enough that over the next five hours, five hours in our dining room table, they open up their lives to me. That evening, I learned something that I needed to do here. I learned that 2000 years ago, a fact of history. God stepped out of eternity and into time. And the very person who his one and only unique son. A fact of history. I'd learned about his son, Jesus Christ, in Sunday school every Sunday. Growing up, I knew about him. But that evening I learned that I needed to put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And he loves us so much that he sent his only son to die for you and me. If we would put our faith in Jesus Christ, we will never perish. Gentlemen, we will have everlasting life with him. And then that evening I learned something. It really hurt. I knew it. But I heard it from this man. I learned that it causes a very, very sinful man, a very prideful man, a man broken off from his relationship with his creator.

[00:42:53] German. I learned that evening that because of my separation from the God who made me, I could not know his love and plan for my life. I also learned that until that barrier was separated, I would not know his plan and avoid my heart was never going to get filled. My life would really have no meaning and purpose. And then when I died, I would have eternity separated from him. You see, gentlemen, God has a unique plan for each one of us in this room, but because of our pride and our rebellion, that barrier that separates us from God separates us from knowing that plan for our lives. That evening, I learned that an order to bridge that barrier, I must put my ultimate faith and trust in God's provision for me. And I also learned that evening that I could not do this for my wife and she couldn't do it for me. We need to individually reach out and receive God's gift. Each one of us needs to reach out and receive that gift. And to those of us who reach out and receive that gift, he gives us the privilege and the right to become his children. You know, this couple was leaving our dining room 1:30 the next morning and this man stopped me dead in my tracks in our driveway. When he said the following, he said. He said, Adolph. You know what your trouble is? Adolph, you're putting your faith and trust in the things of this world.

[00:44:21] I'm putting my faith and trust in a $2 billion brewery, putting my faith and trust in a big six figure paycheck, putting my faith and trust in an airplane at the airport, a boat, a beautiful home in the mountains, putting my faith and trust in my marriage, my things. My wife stopped me dead in our tracks, getting to bed that evening. She said, you know, she said, honey, this couple's got something. We don't have it.

[00:44:52] It was three days later that my wife slowed down her life long enough to recognize the void in her heart was not getting filled. And my wife several days later said a very simple prayer. Prayer. We're going to pray together. And just a few short minutes and gentlemen, avoid it. I tried to feel for seven years of marriage, was instantly filled that morning, as she said yes to God's provision for her. My wife's never been the same since. I think it was Phyllis Diller who said, never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight. Our marriage wasn't working, gentlemen. It wasn't working. And still, several days after she made this decision, I walked out on my wife and my son of four years thinking divorce might feel. My board walked into one of the best hotels in downtown Denver. You know, while was separated from my beautiful wife of good friend of mine gave me a book that I recommend to every father and every husband in this room tonight. It's a book called Do Yourself a Favor Love Your Wife. Written by Pastor Paige Williams, a pastor from Florida. Gentlemen, I cried my way through that book several times. I cried my way through that.

[00:46:09] You know, I used to think that a macho man, a tough man, a neat man, you know, macho guy was a guy who could drink his buddies under the table, who could earn a lot of money, who could buy all the things you want to buy all these things.

[00:46:22] I thought that's what a real man was. But, you know, this book told me what a real man is, a real man as one who has his priorities in line with the God who made us. There are four of them, gentlemen. They're so simple. We missed. The most important priority we will ever have as human beings is to know the God who made us and know him in a personal way. It's the most important relationship you'll ever have. The second most important relationship, gentlemen, is the love that wife waiting for you at home tonight to love her. But, guys, we can't love our wife and our own strength. We simply can't do it. And love has to come from the God who made us. It's a very special love. The third most important relationship is the love. Those kids you're blessed with at home. You see, gentlemen, all children are the living messages we send to a time we're never going to see. And then the fourth most important relationship is to have true friends. I'm not talking about business associates. I'm not talking about golfing buddies or drinking buddies. I had plenty of those. I'm talking about a person who will attend your funeral someday and not look at his or her watch. And I had none of those, none of the above or even close making lots of money, had titles going to the top of the head, of course, company. I was going to do it. But it was about a week later that I went to hear a man speak at the request of a friend. I didn't want to go hear him. Just like some of you here tonight are here because somebody wanted you here. But you really don't want to come. But you're here at the request of a friend. And that afternoon, I walked into this auditorium surrounded by thousands of people.

[00:48:08] And I'll tell you what, I did not want to be there, but that afternoon. As this man began to talk, I learned something and I needed to hear. I learned that my salvation is found and no one else.

[00:48:28] There is no other name under heaven given whereby you and I gentlemen can be saved. No other name but Jesus Christ. You know, Marines don't cry cause men never cry. But that afternoon, as this man shared, tears began rolling out of my eyes. I began to cry uncontrollably.

[00:48:51] That afternoon, I learned that for 30 years the God of this universe had been knocking right here in my heart, but I've been running from him so hard.

[00:48:57] I was a driven man, driven. But that afternoon I slowed my life down long enough to hear the God of this universe knocking right here in my heart. And I just man closed in prayer. He asked me to make a decision. He asked. Every one of us to make a decision. And that afternoon, I recognized my voice wasn't getting filled. That afternoon, I said yes to God's provision for me. And I said yes in a very short prayer. Avoid I tried to fill for 30 years, was instantly filled.

[00:49:32] My life's never been the same since, gentlemen, I travel all over this world sharing with successful people just like you, my wife and I got back together again about a week later. You know, gentlemen, a good marriage is a union of two. Forgive us. A good marriage is not finding the right person. A good marriage is becoming the right person for your wife. And gentlemen, don't make the mistake of basing your marriage on feelings. Don't make that mistake. If you gentlemen feelings come and go in a ebony flow. Here's a triangle, gentlemen. Here's a triangle at the top of this triangle is the relationship with Jesus Christ. You are over here and your wife is over here. The closer you draw to the God who made you, the closer you become as husband and wife, the closer you become as husband and wife.

[00:50:34] Simple physics.

[00:50:37] It was not long after I got back together again with my wife that I was able to sit down one morning with my mother who was near death. My my mother was 44 years of age at the time. My father was murdered in 1960.

[00:50:50] Over the next 15 years, my mother cultivated a hatred for the man who killed her husband. My dad and I cannot describe you. Hatred, killers.

[00:51:00] Hate will kill you. It'll kill me. And the dead and the pain about hate. My mother tried to drown her songs and alcohol. Alcohol will kill us guys and kill us. If used excessively, alcohol will kill us.

[00:51:15] One morning I was able to share with my mother the greatest news in the universe as I share the love of Jesus Christ with my mom. 72 hours after I said goodbye to her on that Wednesday morning, she had a massive stroke in the home of friends, fell down a flight of stairs and never regained consciousness. But gentlemen, to those of us tonight who know Jesus Christ. Death is not a period. No, death is not a period. Death is a comma in the story of life. Gentlemen, we are really not ready to live until we're ready to die. That's why I asked you at the beginning of my time with you, I asked you, this is your passport for eternity in order. This is heavy stuff, guys. Heavy stuff.

[00:52:04] Is your passport for eternity in order?

[00:52:08] I shared this message with a successful business couple in North Carolina five years ago and an event just like this. That evening, as we closed in prayer, they made a decision for Jesus Christ. That evening, they got into their car to return home to their kids. Two blocks from the event. They were hit head on by another automobile.

[00:52:31] They never made it home, never made it home.

[00:52:37] This decision I want to ask you to make in about a minute cannot be made when God Gell-Mann has to be made. When we're here, we're alive.

[00:52:47] We'll never know who we are, gentlemen, until we know whose we are.

[00:52:52] And I'm going to ask you to do something for me tonight as you go home after a busy day. I want you to put your head down on your pillow tonight. I want you to think. I want you to get a real what you get very quiet. I want you to think about all these things you're putting in that void in your heart tonight, gentlemen. I don't know any of you, really. I want you to think about what you're stuffing in here. Your success at the office. Maybe your bank account. Maybe your athletic prowess stuffed in here, your drive. You succeed at any price stuffed in here, your toys in the driveway, stuffed in here. That promotion coming up, that trip this summer, stuffed in here at Cute Girl at the office. Well, if I could just get her between the sheets. Is she going to make me happy? I played those games. You know, I played those games, too. I know what I know. That's going to be stuffed in here. I want you to ask yourself this first question. So what somewhat.

[00:53:57] But before you doze off tonight, gentlemen, I want you to ask yourself an infinitely more important question.

[00:54:02] I want you to ask yourself now what? Because, gentlemen, in life, as in any other race, crossing the finish line first makes no difference. If upon crossing that finish line, you suddenly discover that the race you've been running all these years to the crowds while cheering just perhaps might be down the wrong track. I ran a race for 30 years. Down the wrong track nearly cost me my marriage at nearly cost me my life. It cost me several fortunes. Cost me a relationship with my first son for four years of his life. If you've never claimed your inheritance and haven't by professing Jesus Christ tonight, gentlemen, I'll promise you this. Everything that you do on this earth will be totally in vain. I promise you.

[00:54:58] And I know there's a couple of you in his room tonight are thinking, well, Adolf Cougar's I'll deal with God later. I've got my career to think about. I got my family to think about. I'll deal with God later. Yeah. Gentlemen, you should Will.

[00:55:10] But it won't be on your terms. I can promise you that.

[00:55:17] So what? Now what?

[00:55:25] Well, laid off, I got to go to church twice a year. I'm a good person. I'm going to heaven on our head off. I'm a good I'm a good guy. I'm going to heaven. If you believe that any religion is a vehicle of entry to heaven, if you believe what I'm sharing with you tonight is a religion, gentlemen. Think again. This is not a religion I'm talking about tonight. This is not a religion because religion won't do. You and me, I look good. There's a barrier that separates us from our God. It's called our pride and rebellion. And because of that barrier, Jesus Christ had to come to die. The most agonizing death called crucifixion of history. And three days after he died, he walked out of that tomb and ascended into heaven. Irrefutable proof that what I'm dealing with tonight is not a religion, but is God the God of this universe? We're dealing with God himself, and he wants to do business with you tonight. Eternal business. But I'm not going to promise you that if you make this decision is your life is going to become trouble free from here on out. Because the Christian life, gentlemen, is not a trouble free life. But there's a savior knocking on your heart right now who says, my peace, I give with you my peace I give to you tonight. My peace I leave with you. Are you tired of carrying the burdens of this life by yourself? You would never meant to carry those burdens by yourself.

[00:56:44] He wants to carry those burdens for you tonight for the rest of your life. And he promises us you'll never leave us. You'll never forsake us. But tragically, some of you are gonna get into your car in the next 10 minutes. You're gonna leave here and you're gonna go back to your offices tomorrow morning. You're gonna forget everything I said, and that's your choice. But if you believe that any way to heaven is okay, if you believe that your good looks, your talent, your money is gonna get you to heaven. I want to leave you with one last thought before I turn it back over to Don for the conclusion. Just hours before Jesus Christ went to Calvary's cross to die for you and me, gentlemen, one of his disciples one morning stopped him dead in his tracks. Man's name was Thomas, a Jew. Thomas had been following Jesus for three years. Thomas as Jesus Christ. A very important question that morning. Thomas said, Jesus. Are you the Messiah? Are you the way to heaven, Jesus? Are you the one we've been waiting for all these centuries? I couldn't ask a more important question. Who is Jesus to you gentlemen? Jesus turned to Thomas that morning and listened to what he said. If you believe truth is relative. If you believe your talents, you're going to get you where you want to go. Jesus turned to Thomas that morning.

[00:58:12] Is the Thomas. I'm the way I am. De-wei Thomas. I'm the life Thomas. I am the truth. No, man. Thomas comes to God the father. But through me no one goes to heaven, Thomas. But through me, not religion. Right out the window. Gentlemen, it knocks your talents and my talents right out the window. It's so simple. We miss it. It's faith in Christ. Guys, it's that simple. Doesn't take a rocket scientist. It's so simple. We miss it. Don't miss it tonight, guys. Don't miss it. Because none of us know how much time we have, none of us do. Your wife is not wired. Your life is not wired. Don't think it is. Not wired. So I won't ask you to make a decision now as I leave you. I couldn't give you a better gift than one about to give you an opportunity to say yes to this God. This knocking on your heart right now wants to come in. He wants to change you, and he wants you to have an impact on this city. He wants you to be a father and a husband. That you were created to be a successful business manager. You were created to be all along. He wants to change you from the inside out. If anything I have said to you tonight, gentlemen, if anything I have said to you makes any sense at all and you hear that knocking on your heart.

[00:59:31] Please don't leave here without making that decision. Please don't do that because this decision determines where you spend eternity says. It's the most important decision you will ever make. I'm gonna ask you to make it right now. Close your eyes.

[00:59:55] Get real quiet. This is between you and God, between you and your creator. Listen to that. Knocking on your heart. Listen to it. I pray this out loud. I want you to pray silently. And I want you to meet you with all your heart. Lord Jesus, I need you. And by an act of my will tonight, I open the door of my heart in my life and I receive you as savior. Lord, I understand for the first time tonight that I have run from you all these years. I have rebelled and sinned against you countless times. But tonight, I want to thank you for forgiving all of my son, my rebellion, my pride. I want to thank you for your death on that cross for me. Take control of my life tonight and make me into the kind of man, the kind of husband, the kind of father, the kind of human being. You created me to be. Thank you for coming into my heart in life right now and granting me eternity with you as you have. So promise to me. It's in Jesus Christ name. I do pray a man. And I want to thank all of you for listening. And I trust that my time has meant something to you. God bless all.

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Transcription (was completed by automated process. Please ignore any speech-to-text errors)

[00:00:06] I'm so glad you joined us. For those of you who don't remember me, my name is Penny. And welcome. Welcome to this next session of get sellers calling you Beatty Carmichael. Beatty is the CEO of Master Grabber, the creator of Agent Dominator and one of the top marketing expert in the real estate field. Beatty, I'm super excited. I know you always have something great for us today. What are we going to be discussing today?

[00:00:31] Well, today we're back on another radical safe's topic, which means that this has nothing to do with real estate marketing and everything to do with living boldly as a Christian. So if you're not interested in that topic, feel free to turn this episode off and wait for the next one. But that's what we're going to be talking about today.

[00:00:52] Great. Super excited.

[00:00:55] Yes. And so in continuation from the last radical faith call, we're on a short series. When bad things happen, is it God's will? And today, we're gonna be talking part to kind of this sub topic on this is going through dark times. Have you ever gone through dark times in your Christian life?

[00:01:16] Yes. OK. I want to remember, actually. Yeah, I think.

[00:01:22] I think it's part of the process that God that the Lord uses both for us and for accomplishing his will. And a lot of times it's hard to really discern what's going on. So I want to go back to kind of the core question that I asked you last time. You said that God is sovereign and that he is in control. So the question is, if God is sovereign in control and does that mean that everything that happens is his will?

[00:01:54] And do we blame him for it? Right. So that's one of those questions that we all wrestle with and we talk about. There are basically four things that could be going on. Number one, when bad things happen, we really have to understand first what is bad. Okay. Bad is bad if its source is evil and the outcome is evil. Right.

[00:02:17] And that can happen. And I think a lot of the real heartaches that we go through in life may actually have its roots there. We're going to talk about that on the next session. Then last session, we talked about how God directs our steps and we have the freedom to freewill, to use your terminology, to disregard his direction and place our foot down where we want to is or where he wants to. And when that happens, it says that we stumble. And so sometimes when bad things happen, it could simply be a consequence of us simply not following the Lord's direction. Okay.

[00:03:04] And so I would call that not bad, but just consequence and probably inconvenient more than anything else. Another thing that happens when things are bad is they're actually directed by God because we have sinned and he's bringing discipline into our life. So it feels bad, but the outcome is good. And then the last thing that happens when things feel bad is when the source is a lord and it's all for our good and even discipline is for our good. But it but in this case, it's all for our destiny or for the Lord is leading us. So it feels bad. It seems dark. But if we could see from God's perspective, it's really an amazing journey. And that's what I want to talk about today. So we ready?

[00:03:58] Was great.

[00:04:00] Ok. So we're going to if we can wrap it all in quickly, we're going to talk about two stories. Two people, actually, more than two people. But their stories are known by the people are the story of Joseph. And the story of Esther. And I'm assuming you know both of those stories, right?

[00:04:17] Yes. Great story.

[00:04:20] All right. So let's see how well you know it. Now he's now is gone by. Alicia, details. How old was Joseph when he went out to find his brothers in the field?

[00:04:36] Later, I want to say sixteen or seven. Yeah.

[00:04:40] Good. Seventeen. So that's going to tie into this. So let me give you just a little background. And I'm going to just kind of read from the Bible and skip around a lot. Normally, I'd like to read, but this this kind of story forms. I want to tie it together.

[00:04:59] So this starts in Genesis, Genesis 37. And for the most part, if you don't recognize some of this verbiage is coming from the living Bible, which makes things sometimes a little bit easier. And it starts like this. Joseph's brothers, of course, noticed their father's partiality and consequently hated Joseph, okay.

[00:05:22] They couldn't say a kind word to him one night. Joseph had a dream and promptly reported the details. His brother's causing even deeper hatred. Listen to this. He announced we were out in the field binding cheese, and my chief stood up and you're she's all gather round me and bowed low before it. So the brother said, So you want to be our king, do you? And they hated him, both for the dream and his cocky attitude. So here's a question for you.

[00:05:49] Did Joseph, do you think, grow up in a loving family? Yeah. With his brothers hating him the whole time.

[00:05:59] Now that a loving family. No, no. Okay.

[00:06:06] So his father loved him. Yes. But his brothers hated him. It says three times that they hated him, they hated him. They hated him.

[00:06:14] So can you imagine living in an environment where your closest relatives are all hating you?

[00:06:21] I cannot. Would you call that good or bad?

[00:06:26] Bad? Yeah, I would think so, too. So then we read a little bit long further. So now Joseph is 17 years old, his father, Israel. Okay. So just give you the genealogy. Have Abraham Isaac Jacob Jacob's name was changed to Israel and Israel had 12 signs. Those are the 12 tribes of Israel. And son number eleven, if I'm correct, is Joseph. Okay. And so he sends Joseph out into the fields to find all of his other sons. The other ten brothers at that time to his 10 older brothers. And and just check on what's going on. So this is where we pick up. And he says, but when they saw him coming, recognizing him in the distance, they decided to kill him. Okay. Here we have that loving family again. Let's kill our brother. Here comes that master dreamer, they exclaim. Come on, let's kill him and toss him into a wall and tell father that a wild animal has eaten him.

[00:07:28] Then we'll save what will become of all of his dreams. So they're still jealous of what God has given him as a dream.

[00:07:37] So says when Joseph got there, they pulled off his brightly colored robe. Okay, so his father given him a robe of righteousness, robes or status symbol in this one was greater status symbol because it had lots of bright colors. And so it says that they threw off his robe and threw him into an empty well. And then they see a bunch of traders come by. And so when the traders came by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the well and sold him into the traders for 20 pieces of silver.

[00:08:17] And they took compete. Now, can you imagine at this moment, Joseph being thrown into the well by his brothers, being rough handle and then being yanked up and sold into slavery for only 20 pieces of silver. What do you think's going on in Joseph's mind at that point?

[00:08:34] He's got to feel completely rejected and was scared.

[00:08:39] Yeah. So many things. Did he feel like he deserved any of this? No. Do you think he was questioning God?

[00:08:50] Yes, absolutely. We always question God because we don't trust him, do you think if he trusted God as Moses, trusted God as he was as there going through the wilderness? Do you think if he trusted God at that level that he would be questioning God quite so much? Probably not. No. So what I find is we question God the most when we don't really trust him. In other words, when we keep our eyes on ourselves and not on the Lord in his word, that's usually when we question what's going on. Does that make sense?

[00:09:28] Yeah. Yeah. Oh, okay.

[00:09:30] So then we pick up. This is now in Genesis thirty nine. So Joseph arrives in Egypt, his soul to part offer a member of Pharaoh's staff. Okay. Part 4 later puts him in charge of all of his affairs. And then one day part of first wife begins making eyes at Joseph and suggests that he come and sleep with her. And what is Joseph to you, remember?

[00:09:54] He says no. That's right. He says no. He says, my master, trust me, with everything in the entire household. He he's held nothing back from me except you because you are his wife. How could you do such a wicked thing? Is this. It would be a great sin against God? No. Do you think Joseph loves the Lord? Yes. Do you think he's following the law the best he can? I do. Yeah. Okay. And now this woman's coming after him, is Josef's acting properly and faithfully?

[00:10:31] He is. Yeah. And what happened to you, remember?

[00:10:37] I think she keeps pushing like she keeps trying to seduce them and really try to get him to go along with what she wants. And he keeps saying no. And she gets upset.

[00:10:50] That's right. You don't want to give way too much. Yeah, that's right. Okay.

[00:10:54] Well, hopefully most of folks are listening to this. Probably have some some recollection of Joseph, but let's read into it. Then one day as he was in the house and no one else was around at the time, she came and grabbed him by the sleeve demanding sleep with me. He tore himself away, but as he did, his jacket was robe slipped off and he was left holding. She was holding it as he fled from the house. When she saw that he she had it and he had fled, she began screaming. And when the other men around the place came running and she was crying hysterically, my husband had to bring in this Hebrew slave to insult us. She saw. He tried to rape me, but when I screamed, he ran and forgot to take his jacket. So do you think Joseph has been wrongly accused?

[00:11:44] Yes. If this is this good or bad?

[00:11:48] Bad? Yeah. So what's happening? Is this one bad even after another, isn't it? His brothers hate him. They try to kill them. They throw mental until well, then they sell sell them into slavery. And then he's doing well. He's acting righteously before God. His master puts him in control of everything. Now he gets slammed again and it gets even worse. So says that when her husband came home that night, she told him her story. That Hebrew slay that you've had around here. Try to rape me. And when he heard it, he was furious and he threw Joseph into prison down into the dungeon.

[00:12:29] How do you think Joseph is feeling right now?

[00:12:33] Or cannot be. Yeah.

[00:12:36] Do you think he's going, oh, lord. Thank you. I'm so excited. I'm right in the center of your will.

[00:12:43] No, I haven't. I think he probably had a few choice words.

[00:12:47] Probably so. Let me ask you. Was he right in the center of God's will?

[00:12:54] Well, that's a trick question. Yes, he was. I think I know, yeah. Come on the story.

[00:13:01] That's right. That's right. So this is a key. When we know the outcome, we can now piece it all together going through it.

[00:13:09] We have to trust the father's heart.

[00:13:14] Yeah, and not worry.

[00:13:18] Okay. As we always worry, but the more we trust the father's heart, the more we can handle any of these quote unquote, dark times that come our way because we know who's in control. So now this is now we're in Genesis 40 sometime later. It happened that the king of Egypt, pharaoh, became angry with his chief baker and his chief butler. So he's thrown throws him into the prison where Joseph is. And then one night, each of them have a dream. And Joseph interprets both of those dreams and the dreams that his interpretation actually comes comes true. Jon Favreau decides to hold the party. He pulls both the baker and the butler out. He puts a butler back in a position and he kills the baker. Justice Joseph said, What's going to happen? So does and Joseph said, hey, Butler, when you get out. Remember me, tell Pharaoh about me. I've done nothing to be here. I've. You know, I've done nothing against my own people who have been sold into slavery. I've done nothing wrong. Please tell him. And what did the butler do?

[00:14:32] He remembered.

[00:14:34] I think he if I remember right again, I want to give why he lied. But I think he tells Pharaoh, I know somebody that can interpret dreams.

[00:14:44] Yeah. Okay. So so watch this. This is cool. So now we're in Genesis 41. One night, two years later. Okay. It was two years later. Joseph still is in dark times in the dungeon. No freedom, no light, no, no nothing but grunge. Okay.

[00:15:09] Two years later, Pharaoh dream. Two dreams. No one could interpret them. Then the butler remembers Joseph at that point, is that are you know, I totally forgot some time ago when you you're angry with a couple of us and put me in there, Chief Baker in jail. Baker and I each had a dream. One night we told the dreams to a young Hebrew who was a slave of the captain there, and he told us what our dreams meant. And everything happened. Just as he said, I was restored to my position and the baker was executed. So Pharaoh sent for Joseph at once. Okay, now, is this good or bad?

[00:15:50] This is good if he's getting called out of prison.

[00:15:53] Yeah, that's right. Yeah, it sure looks good, right? Yes. OK. Can you see the Lord's hand starting to move right now in this pressure?

[00:16:04] Yeah. Okay. Now to put this in perspective, this is eleven years after. Joseph has been sold into slavery.

[00:16:12] He's now 28 years old from 17 to 28. He's been a slave. So then Joseph interpretted dreams tells Pharaoh that both dreams are saying the same thing, that there's gonna be seven years of great abundance. And then seven years of the most severe famine that's gonna be so severe, you won't even remember how abundant it is. And and then pharaoh says talks. His advisers said, well, we need to put someone in charge to manage all this. Who do we do? And so now I want to pick up and I'm one. Reed, this is Genesis 41, starting in thirty nine.

[00:16:55] And then it says then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are, you shall be over my house and all my people shall order themselves as you command only as regards the throne will I be greater than you. In other words, Pharaoh now puts him in second in control of all of Egypt.

[00:17:19] Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand and and put on Joseph's hand. Here's the significance. The signet ring means that Joseph can do anything in the king's name.

[00:17:30] By the way, as Christians, we've been given the Lord's signet ring. Okay.

[00:17:39] So now there's some deep implications on how effectively we end up using that. But that's another story. So he takes a signet ring, puts it in Joseph's hand. And then during the seven plentiful years, the earth produced abundantly and in the seven years of plenty came to an end and a seven years of famine began to come, as Joseph had said.

[00:18:05] So here's kind of the summary I want to go through with all this. The Lord is directing all of these events in Joseph's lives. Would you agree? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:18:17] So Joseph was a man at God's own heart.

[00:18:19] And even in his flavouring, in imprisonment, we know that he sought the Lord because he always tried to do what was honorable and.

[00:18:28] The Lord always put him in charge of bless everything that was going on. So we see the Lord's hand upon Joseph. Even in the dark times. Did you in your dark times, have you ever seen the Lord's hand kind of still working with you and through you during those tough times?

[00:18:44] Yes. Yes. It's hard to say. You know, you're natural. I tend to focus on the dark. But for sure. For sure. God was there.

[00:18:53] That's right. And I've seen the same thing over and over again. And. And so back Joseph, because he was faithful in the small things as he was coming through. We'll call this his wilderness experience. As he was coming through this wilderness, then the lord put him in charge of much, just as what Jesus says, because you had been faithful in a little. Now be in charge of tent cities as he's the parable with the miners. And then. But here's the key. From Joseph's perspective, as he's going through it, each event merely seemed to have a natural cause and effect. His brothers hated him. He has a dream. They hated him more. He goes and they decide to kill him. They throw him in a well. Then they say, lis-, thelen, every single thing. There is a cause and effect that Joseph is putting together. Does that make sense? Oh, yeah. Okay. So from his perspective, it was just one bad even after another. I'm sure he felt bitter. Bitter. I'm sure he questioned God on what was happening. And yet here's the thing. The Lord is directing every step of his, so if you remember last session, passage after passage after passage. Lord Lord is telling us he guides our step. He directs our step. He's cha-cha-cha path even tells us where to stop and rest. And what we find here is every step is guided and directed by the Lord. And finally, Joseph comes to that same realization once his brothers come and provides food. Okay. Because Joseph set for God sent me before you to preserve life. Joseph finally figured out what was going on. Later. He figured out it was his destiny that the Lord was working on. And until we see the Lord guiding all of this, let's see. Let me think a couple other thoughts on this before we shift some topics. So. So here's a question. When bad things happen. Does guide calls it? We can obviously look at this life of Joseph. All these things that were seemingly bad. Here's the question. Did God cause all those events to happen?

[00:21:23] No. No. Then what happened?

[00:21:29] He used them. Yeah, he did them for yeah. Did he know they were going to happen? All right. Who knows all things?

[00:21:41] He knows all things. And he used them.

[00:21:45] So sometimes we find a guy who uses the bad debts in the world to propel us. To the good destiny that he has for us. Does that make sense? Yeah, I think think about Jesus. Satan was gonna try everything he could to stop Jesus. Do you think I knew that?

[00:22:11] Oh, for sure.

[00:22:13] And do you think everything that Satan did to stop Jesus actually playing God's hand to fulfill Jesus's destiny?

[00:22:22] Yeah, they're.

[00:22:25] Do you think God is a respecter of persons?

[00:22:32] I think he treats us all the same. I think he loves us all the same.

[00:22:36] Yeah. Paul says God is no respecter of persons, right? Yeah.

[00:22:41] So he thinks of his favorite neighbor. We're all here, too. That's right.

[00:22:47] We're all his favorite. So here's the thing. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. What he does, for one, he does for all because he respects no one greater than someone else. This is why when and this is what it says. You know, because faith was reckoned righteousness was reckoned to Abraham because of his faith. So is righteousness reck into us because of our faith? In other words, God sets a precedent what he does for what he does for all. And what we find here with Joseph, the Lord is leveraging all of these evil things that are going on.

[00:23:28] That guy knows ahead of time. But he uses those almost like the picture I'm getting is saw like that. Have you ever played a pinball machine? Yes. What? The ball. It hits a thing. It goes somewhere else. It bounces around. Okay. It's almost like God knows every little post out there and swiped the ball in just the right direction to hit one post and another post in the next post pushes the ball a little bit further and it guides all the way to homerun.

[00:23:57] Okay. Enter into the goalpost. And that's kind of what's going off and going here. So. There is a possibility that God caused some of this to happen. These think God caused a Israel to love Joseph more than the other brothers.

[00:24:17] Oh, that's a tough question. No. The only reason I say no, God doesn't cause bad is because God is good.

[00:24:27] Right. No, I don't. I don't. I don't. Okay.

[00:24:31] Is Israel loving Joseph more than the other brothers? Good or bad?

[00:24:38] Then God says, Jacob, I loved you, so I hate it. Is that good or bad?

[00:24:46] Which is bad for itself, but is God good? Yes.

[00:24:52] Ok, so what is good for God?

[00:24:55] Can it also be good for man?

[00:24:58] Yes. So if if God cause Israel to love Joseph more than the other brothers, is that good or bad?

[00:25:11] Aschen, I think.

[00:25:14] Yes, he says he's not causing Israel to hate the other brothers, but just to love Joseph Moore. Do you think God caused Joseph caused Israel to make Joseph a bright, multicolored jacket? Yeah. Do you think God knew that that would create jealousy and hatred among the brothers? Yes. Do you think God caused Joseph to have those dreams? I do. Do you think he knew that those trains would cause jealousy and hatred among the brothers?

[00:25:50] Yes. OK. So here's what we have. We see God causing a lot of events that had the repercussions of evil responding that God uses to push Joseph toward his destiny. Do you think that's possible that he's doing the same thing in our lives at times as well?

[00:26:14] Yeah. Okay. Is kind of cool.

[00:26:18] Yes. Very cool. All right.

[00:26:21] So. So we pick up a lot of things and just some really interesting things. Let's say this to try and catch up on where I am on my notes. When bad things happen to us. We must first try to decide, are they truly bad or are they simply not what we desire? Is it truly bad that the brothers hated Joseph? Is it truly bad that they wanted to kill him? Is it truly bad that they sold him into slavery? Are all these things truly bad? Or ultimately, are they just simply not what we desire? But they happen to be the best thing for us because they push us where the Lord is directing us and we don't. We can't tell that as we go through. OK, from our perspective at the moment, we can't grasp God's big picture. It's only after a period of time that we can look backwards and see. And for Joseph, it took twenty two years before he understood that all these bad things that had happened to him were actually God's hand leading him. Let me ask you a question. Twenty two years later. Do you think if he had the perspective before he was twenty two years as he was going through those processes, do you think his heart toward God would have been different?

[00:27:53] Oh, gosh, yes.

[00:27:55] Do you think he's one had it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:27:58] And so what can we pull out of this? What we can rattle out. Yeah, we got it. We got to we got to trust the Lord to be a faithful father. Quinn We know that we're truly seeking the Lord, honoring him, really following him, trying to do our best. Yeah, we stumble. But when bad things happen, things that we consider bad, we have to trust the heart of our father. Like I mentioned last time. When you can't see what the Lord's hand is doing, you have to trust his heart. Does that make sense? Yeah. So now I want to shift stories and talk about Esther, because here's what I would call the lord tells the same story with the same message over and over and over again all throughout scripture, because he's constantly revealing who he is. And it's our job to pull out of those scriptures, the understanding of who he is. And so I want to walk through another story that has really neat implications, very similar. So this is the story of Esther. Okay, trivia question, what is Esther's real name?

[00:29:21] I probably can't pronounce it.

[00:29:26] I right. Yes. Yes, I know that something like that. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:29:33] I was just discussing the future of you. No, no, no. Big deal. Big deal on that. OK. So let me kind of give you the background and lay out the storyline of Esther. So Israel has been Jerusalem has been destroyed by neighbor Nasr. All of the people have been taken out in exile. This is the time of Daniel, okay. He was taken as captives. And Mordechai, a guy named Mordecai and Esther, are gone as well. Then never. Nasir's kingdom is overtaken by getting that guy name King a hazardous. Who's king of the purge, Persian in the Meade's or something like that. And and he's having a feast and throwing a great big party. He calls the queen in to show her off in front of all of his guests. She refuses. He gets upset. He banishes her. Then he's upset because now he doesn't have a queen. So they say, well, let's go throughout all your kingdom. Get the most beautiful virgins that are out there. And we'll bring him into your hair, him and you get to choose. OK. So that's kind of the storyline. So now we come to sue. So the capital where he is. This is where Esther is living with her uncle because Esther is an orphan. Chances are her mother and father were killed during the Beattylonian captivity. We don't know that for certain. But that would make sense. And then she's living there peacefully with Mordechai, her uncle, and now she's forcefully taken from him to be thrown into King's Haram. Is that good or bad? Bad?

[00:31:18] Yeah. I would think so. Take away from our family.

[00:31:23] Yeah, the only family she's got. So then she becomes king later. Mordechai gets a job working for the king. Says he sits at the Kings Gate. OK. And while he's a sharpie, overhears a plot from two people that are upset with the king and they want to kill the king. All right. Do you hear that noise in the background? Is that problematic? No, you don't. OK, perfect. Great.

[00:31:55] So I'm out on my deck when I do this. And I just want to make sure you don't hear the background noise. So. So he reports. Mordechai reports this plot to the queen, who then takes it to the king. The king investigates, kills those two people.

[00:32:11] The king is saved. OK. So then later, the king appoints a guy named haymon as prime minister, essentially to run the country. And Heyman is an evil man and everyone is supposed to bow down and basically worship him as he comes by. And so every time he comes by and comes by Mordechai, he goes to the King's Gate. What do you think Mordechai does as a Jew? He does not. He does. That's right. So you have an evil Preibus man, everyone's falling down except this one man who stays standing. What do you think? Who you think's going on in Heyman's heart at that point?

[00:32:51] Why are you not backing down? That's right.

[00:32:54] He gets real angry. Okay. And so he finds out that Mordecai doesn't bail because he's a Jew. So now Mordecai hates all the Jews. So he decides I'm going to get rid of all of them. So he goes the king and says, I'll pay you ten thousand talents. A silver. That's a huge amount for Mordechai. I mean, haymon is really rich. I'll pay you ten thousand talents a silver if you let me write a decree to kill all of the Jews because they're bad for your kingdom. King says, Hey, that's good. All right, I'll do that. So he he lets the king lets him do that. So then haymon writes a decree and sent it out through all of the province. This is basically all of the world at that time and says on this date, in about twelve months, every person can rise up against ologies, kill every Jew, every man, woman and child.

[00:33:49] And whoever you kill, you can plunder everything they have. So now all the Jews are scared to death. Certain death is marked out and they're powerless to stop it. Does that make sense so far? Yeah. Yeah. Is is this bad?

[00:34:05] Yeah.

[00:34:07] If it's rooted in evil. Yeah. I think it might be even Satan trying to get rid of the Jewish race pressure. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So then Mordechai comes to Esther. She goes the king and wants to plea for help. And so she's gonna do this through two life sessions. So she says, King, will you come to lunch with me today and will you bring Heyman's? Now, this is really, really interesting. The fact that she comes before the king, she puts her life on the line. So the king realizes something really important. She she has something really important to ask where she would not have risked her life. Okay. So he says, yes, I'll be there. He grabs haymon. They go have lunch. He says, what do you want? She says, I want you to come tomorrow to another banquet and then I'll make my request now. So then haymon goes home right after that. And he's all excited, he calls this France. He tells his wife and his friends how great he is, how powerful he is. And even the queen invited me to a private lunch with the king. And then he says, is this is hatred coming up? And yet none of this is worth anything as long as I see Mordechai alive. So now his wife says, well, look, you got the king's favor. You're powerful. Why don't you build a gallows tomorrow morning? Go ask the king if you can hang him. Mordechai on the gallows before lunch and then you can go to lunch with the king and the queen and just have a wonderful time. So can you imagine haymon all excited, giddy that night saying, oh, finally, I'm going to kill Mordecai tomorrow. You see this thing going on for now. What gods? Humor. Okay, so Mordecai is about to be killed. His runway of options is about out. He doesn't know it, but in probably 10 hours, he's gonna be dead on that gallows.

[00:36:24] Okay. There's nothing he can do to escape. You get the picture of this? Yeah. Have you ever been in a position you felt like there's nothing you can do to fix the problem, you are doomed? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So but God has a sense of humor. God is in control. And what happens that night with the king? Do you remember?

[00:36:53] I feel like somehow Esther says something that kind of like trapped.

[00:37:01] Almost almost, yeah. So that happens in a moment. So that night, Paul Heyman is all giddy and probably can't sleep. The king can't sleep.

[00:37:14] Do you think it might have been providentially God keeping the king away? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so the king says someone read me a book I know remade a book of all the good deeds in my kingdom. So these pull out this book and they start reading all night long and then they come to the story of Mordecai, how he reports this plot by these two employees to kill the king and two employees were killed and the king was saved. And the. And that's where we now pick up in an extra six. So I am now going to start reading from here. So that's the background. And let me start reading what the scripture says. So the king says, what reward did we ever give Mordechai for this? And his courtiers replied, nothing. Well, he's on duty in the outer court. The King inquired. OK, so this is early morning. He's still in bed. They're still reading. So you can get them. This is really early in the morning. And now that it happened, Hayman had just arrived in the outer court to ask the king to hang Mordechai. Okay. He's so excited. He gives up early and that's the first thing on his mind. So the courtiers replied, Hanemann is out there. The King said. Oh, great. Bring him in. So, hey, haymon comes in.

[00:38:40] Now he's coming into the king's private chamber. Okay. And the king says him, What should I do to honor a man who truly pleases me? And what do you think a man is thinking to himself?

[00:38:52] He's going to honor me. That's right.

[00:38:55] That's right. The scripture says. Well, who would he want to honor more than me? Pride comes before the fall. Right. So he replied. He so haymon says, we'll bring out some of the royal robes that the king himself has worn, and the king's own horse, and a royal crown. And it struck one the king's most noble princes to robe the man and lead it through the streets on the king's own horse. Shouting This is the way the king honors those who truly please him. Hey, man, was grand jury. Can you say this? All the pride and praise from all the people out there?

[00:39:32] Yeah.

[00:39:36] God, wonderful. So the king said, excellent. Hurry and take these robes and my horse and do just as you said to Mordecai, the Jew who works at the chancellery, follow every detail you suggested. What do you think's going on, right, Ben? I'm haymon.

[00:39:58] I can not. I mean, I was I could fly on the wall. I'm sure his face fell to the floor. And. Yeah. Can you can you imagine? Can you imagine the embarrassment even that he probably felt?

[00:40:12] That's right. And here's something I want you to recognize. All of this is happening in Mordecai. Doesn't have a clue. So often God is doing all kinds of things behind the scene and we don't even have a clue yet. And yet. God is in control. So we pick back up. So haymon takes the robes and puts them on Mordecai. I can just imagine.

[00:40:40] Mordechai, come here. I want to robe you. I want to set this crown. I am ready. And I can just imagine what more ecchi is doing. He's going, yeah. The Lord is about to save us. So he puts a rose on Mordechai Mount's him on the king's own state, and leads him through the streets of the city, shouting, This is the way the king honors those who delights in them.

[00:41:04] And then afterwards, who? Mordechai goes back to his job, and haymon hurries home, utterly humiliated.

[00:41:15] So now he's sulking. So keep in mind, this is the morning, the second feast with the queen. So later that day, just a couple hours later, as he's mourning and he's complaining and though his wife is saying, well, if Mordechai is a Jew, your plans are gone, completely fail. No, he still doesn't know. The queen is a Jew. So then the king's men come and get haymon to bring him to lunch. And in at Lighton. And I can just imagine that haymon is all sulking and morose during this banquet. And the king asks again to Esther, What can I do for you? We pick back up. This is Esther, seven. And at last, Queen Esther replied, If I've won your favor OKing, and if it please, Your Majesty, save my life and the lives of my people. For my people have been sold to those who will destroy us. We are doomed to destruction and slaughter. If we were only to be sold as slaves. Perhaps I could remain quiet, even though then there are being calculable damage to the king that no amount of money could begin to cover. So she hits right on. There is money that's been paid on this and don't matter how much has been paid. Even if we're disowning slavery, this is gonna destroy the king. Okay. And then the king replies. What are you talking about? And who would touch you? Assa replied. This wicked haymon is our enemy. Then haymon grew pale with fright before the king and queen. The King jumped to his feet, went out of the palace garden at Heyman's, stood up to plead for his life. The queen asked her, for he knew that he was doomed.

[00:43:08] You know, this happens so frequently. All that loss and the enemy that's attacking us, we think they're about to win. And yet God has everything in his hands. And in just a moment, boom, it's all gone. So. In despair, haymon falls upon the couch where Queen Esther was reclining, just as the king returned for the palace garden. Will he even rape the queen right here in the palace before my eyes? The king roared and instantly the death fell. That hood was placed over Hanemann face. And then when the king's aide says Sir haymon is restored, order to 75 foot gallows constructed to hanging Mordecai. The man who saved the king from assassination. It stands in Heyman's courtyard. Heying haymon on it. The king ordered, so that's the end of haymon. Then the king is well, Mordecai Heyman's position gives Esther all of Heyman's possessions and in Mordechai writes, a decree that the Jews can not only defend themselves on that date. This is now about 10 months to go. But he can. They can also kill every one of their enemies who hate them. And and so on that day when it comes, the Israelites destroyed seventy five thousand of their staunchest enemies. So that's the story of Esther in that. Pretty cool. Am I wrong? All right. So now let's. I want to wrap this up and I want to give some really cool takeaways out of all this, because I think this is really kind of what's cool, cool with this. So the central thought on all of this that hit and hits me as I'm as I've gone through it. Is do you think the Lord could have prevented haymon from coming to power?

[00:45:05] Could have. Yes. Yes. If he prevented haymon from coming to power without a protected his people and they would never have been in peril.

[00:45:16] Yeah, unless someone else came and did that. But yes. OK.

[00:45:21] But God chose not to do that. Yeah. Think about it. God allowed his people. To go through tough times. So he can deliver them and not only deliver them. But give them greater blessings, I think someone said that the darker the times you go through, the greater the blessings on the other end. OK.

[00:45:51] So what we have to realize is because the Lord directs those events that have a major impact on our lives and accomplishing his will then as we go through these events, even though it's scary. Are are honest response should be to be at peace knowing that the Lord is in control and that all of these things, if we're in God's will. Okay, if we're doing our best to follow his guidance. OK. As we talked about last time. Then whatever happens, we should be at peace. And content knowing that God is guiding everything that's going on for some reason, for his glory and for our destiny of where we're to be used to that make sense.

[00:46:39] Yeah.

[00:46:41] And how often do we get our eyes off the law and back on ourselves and we start to get afraid and question the Lord. So if Heyman comes to powers, Prime Minister, the Lord allows him to do, he's choosing to destroy all of the Jews. But watch this long before he ever came to power. God put Queen Esther in position to deliver his people. God is playing this big game of chess and he knows exactly what's going on and he's positioning the pieces. Already. But watch this, see? God could have prevented haymon from coming to power in check. Instead. He chose to show his own power and sovereignty by delivering their people once they were in peril. And. And not only that, though, here's the kind of the other key is because haymon came to power, because all these events came through, because all the Jews were terrified and scared to death for their life. Then through that problem, through that process, God deliver the Jews even more. He didn't just deliver the Jews from haymon and the threat of being killed. He delivered the Jews from all of their enemies at that time because they killed all 75000 of them. So it was a greater blessing for them to have come through that process because they ended up in a stronger, safer, more secure position. Does that make sense? Yeah. So it seems that God allows us to go through tough times, not only so he can get the glory delivering us. But that he can bless us more through that. And I think there are five takeaways is that I get from this. First, the Lord is in control of all things. In the big scheme of things, okay. He doesn't control haymon. He doesn't control the evil, but he is in control. He has his overriding control of everything that goes on. That's the first thing we can get from this. The second thing we can get is that he's coordinating the activities long before their purpose is known.

[00:49:05] Think about this. So. First.

[00:49:09] He coordinates the activity to get rid of Queen Baster. I think that's her name. And then that forces King hazardous to say I need another queen. Who do I get?

[00:49:22] They rip ask her out of her home. They thought that was bad and God is doing all that to position her.

[00:49:30] In a position of power, but not only that, Mordecai then gets a job with a king. And he overhears his plot and he reports it. That plot and Mordecai overhearing it has a key role to play in this. By the way, do you know how long it was from the time of that plot to the time that the King read back through the Chronicles and said, we honored this person for saving?

[00:50:02] I felt like it was. I felt like it was over a year, but I don't know exactly.

[00:50:07] Yeah, yeah, it was. It was about five years to watch that one seemingly insignificant thing. He just happens over here, this plot and reports it five years later. Is the key to saving the entire nation of the Jewish people. Then so God is causing a lot of things that we don't even see long before they ever come to fruition. The third thing we can take out of this. If the Lord allows us to face complete loss, complete destruction, or, as I call it, running off the cliff, it seems like we're just about to run off that cliff and there's nothing we can do to prevent it. He allows us to get into that position. For us to be scared to death but rely and trust on him, in fact, one of the things Mordecai said to Esther. She said, I can't go before the king because. I could be killed. And watch Mordecai Faith in the Lord. He said, we'll ask her. Who knows if maybe you haven't been put in as queen for a time such as this to save our people. But if you don't do it, be assured that the Lord will save us. But it'll be through some other means.

[00:51:31] So more ecchi has this great faith in the Lord. Great worry of what's going on, but great faith as well that the Lord can take care of it. And that's what happens. The Lord allows us to go to the edge, to go right to the edge of that cliff, then force. He always intervenes. He always protects his loved ones from destruction. He allows him to get to the edge, but he won't allow them to go over the edge. And fifth, which I think is pretty cool, is during that process. And because of that process, he also as a bonus, he blesses us even more, you know, with not only with the Jews and destroying all their enemies, but Mordechai is taken from just a lowly employ to prime minister of the entire country. So it you just see God's hand in all of this. And as I go through this, I am encouraged that he's always in control. He's coordinating all these events in my life and in your life that we don't understand, that we get concerned about, that we're afraid of. Sometimes he allows us to head straight for the cliff and we feel that we have no control in the matter because ultimately we really don't.

[00:52:54] We are moving down. If you recall, one of the sessions we did early about God's timing versus Manson. I mean, we're in that little pipe. You're right. Going down that raging river and you can't stop it. You know, it is moving and you're just going along with it. So there are things that we can't stop. We see this cliff we're about to go over and we seem to be powerless. And then the lord comes in. And here's how he saves us. He saves us through a miraculous set of events. We may see them as circumstantial. When we see God's hand moving miraculously in a natural, we call it providential, providential circumstances. But make no false assumption. It is the Lord's hand guiding and directing all of it directly for our care, directly for his will, directly for where he wants to lead us, and this is time back into the last one. This is where it says the Lord will get us to his destiny for us. And he says, even if I had to put a bit in your mouth and force you that direction, you will go where I am sending you then. In that call.

[00:54:16] Yes. Great. And even though I was just thing about, you know, what does this guy with all those all that does does that. I mean, he was before he was just a CEPR boy, basically just a son that helped on the farm and then look at where he ended up. Yeah. Only in command under the pharaoh.

[00:54:38] Well, you know, even in my own life, I'll tell you a story. I don't tell this much, but I got involved with Amway as a freshman in college. You know what Amway is?

[00:54:49] Yes. Yes, I do.

[00:54:51] Yeah, it's a network marketing company, pyramid company, as people call it. And I come from a well-to-do medical family. And we had a great lifestyle growing up. My dad did very well financially and faithful before the Lord. But in freshman year college, I get hooked in Amway. I get hooked into the approach of, oh, my gosh, you're going to be rich. I thought literally that I was going to graduate college as a millionaire.

[00:55:25] So I was. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Well, that's kind of what they told. I apologize. One moment. You can probably hear that helicopter back there. Good. Is kind of loud. Can you still hear me over the helicopter?

[00:55:38] I can. Yeah. OK, great. OK, great. So. So I was about to quit college because I knew I didn't need it. My parents wisely tell me, just finish it. So I did. But I changed my degree and just had a great time in college and in studying. So I get out of college and then I find out I'm not making a bunch of money. In fact, I have to go home and live with my parents and all my friends who got a regular degree. They're getting all these nice cushiony jobs and they're buying homes. And woe is me, every time I see a friend drive by in a Mercedes or BMW or, you know, I was driving old jalopy.

[00:56:17] My comment was there. But for me, go I. And after a number of years of that, I really thought I'd screwed up my life. You know, that pivotal point of my life and everything was screwed up. I went from job to job trying to earn money here and there. Nothing was happening. By 10 years, 12, 13 years later, I was still broke. Okay. I found myself unemployed. We had a small house and we've been faithful to the Lord all the time. But nothing was going on. And then the Lord bless us with this business that I started. And do you know what that business was? Adele, tell me it was selling, so during this time I started to really learn about marketing, started to really consume it. I tried a couple of businesses with a friend of mine. They never really amounted to much, but we honed a lot of marketing talent and we developed a product that really was great in generating leads. And so the Lord blessed me with just a little inkling of a business. And my first customer base. Was network marketers.

[00:57:39] And then we started to take all this stuff that I learned in Amway, the attitude, the go get it, all this stuff, and we applied it in business and two and a half years later.

[00:57:52] We were making a hundred thousand dollars a month in profits. Wow. Can you imagine that? And I look back and I think if it hadn't been for the Lord directed me into Amway, I would never be in business today. But during the time, I really thought I made a bad mistake. And I think all of us can probably look backwards and say the Lord's hand guiding them and kind of on that same topic.

[00:58:21] I want to share one other thing. I was at church one day and man was asking me how how is my how my business was. And I told him, You mean in the natural or in the spiritual? Right. I shared that, you know, in the natural. It's like running full speed. The engine is running. The drive shaft is running. The wheels are spinning. But we're going nowhere because we're stuck in the mud, because at that time it felt like we have this big elephant standing in front of us keeping from moving. But I told him in the spiritual God has told me that we're going through wilderness time. Once I get to the wilderness, he's going to move that elephant out of the way. And we're gonna then just take off. And the man said, well, you know, he has a brother and or friend or someone like that who'd gone through some dark times in his business as well. I tell him, no, we're not in dark times. I've been in dark times. My business, but now is not one of them. I said you're only in dark times when you get your eyes off the Lord and put them on the natural. When you become afraid, that's when it's dark. But when you keep your eyes on the Lord, it's always bright. And and I was sharing the example of Peter walking on the water. So when we go through these times in our lives, it's important that we don't keep our eyes on the natural because we get become afraid. We start to question God. We put our eyes on the Lord. And that's where we have our trust. That's where we have our confidence. For sure. Yes. So any any other comments? We got to wrap up. But any thoughts, your comments?

[01:00:02] Yeah, just for me. Trying to turn to keep my focus on knowing that all the little things like he just said, all those little things that I think might be ruining me or a bad decision or gas, ash, gas, I should have gone that way or whatever. The Lord still uses it all in his promises to take care of us as his children. Yes.

[01:00:27] And I would go one step further if we're faithful before him. And we can honestly look at our life and say there is no sin in my life. I mean, no, no focus have seen in my life. Obviously, we all sin, but there's no sin in our life. Then we can know that we're in the center of wherever he has us. And therefore, not only know that those bad things, Glaude can bring something good out of it, but he's using those bad things to bounce us like that pinball machine. The next step down the path of where he's leading us, it's all part of his plan.

[01:01:05] Yeah, to become fully mature. Yes, okay.

[01:01:12] He matures us and he puts us where he wants us to be. To be used in his kingdom, to build his temple. And yeah, it's really cool. Really cool. All right. Awesome.

[01:01:26] Oh, Beatty. I think we're about out of time. We probably need to wrap it up. But thank you so much for your time today. Thank you for your expertise. And just that, the diligence that you put into studying the word and and teaching it to our listeners and myself as well. This was a great call and I'm excited about our next one.

[01:01:45] I am, too. We'll be talking on part three.

[01:01:48] Sounds good. I guess we'll see everybody then.

[01:01:52] Be blessed. All righty. Bye bye.

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[00:00:01] Hi. How are you?

[00:00:03] I'm good.

[00:00:05] Great. Well, I'm so excited about today. To all of you out there listening, this is Danny Thomas again. And I'm super excited to be here on our next version of Sellers Calling You a Beatty. Michael. As you all know, Beatty is the CEO of Master Grabber and the creator, Agent Dominator, one of our top marketing experts in the real estate field. Beatty, I'm excited. What are we talking about today?

[00:00:30] Well, today on this radical faith call, which obviously has nothing to do with the real estate marketing, we're gonna be talking about the topic of God's timing versus man's timing. Have you ever had those experiences in your life anywhere? Maybe God had indicated something was going to happen and it just keeps taking longer and longer and longer. It hasn't happened. Or, you know, you're seeking the Lord in prayer and asking for some sort of answer and or an outcome. And it just doesn't seem to happen quite as quickly as you want.

[00:01:09] Ever had that goodness? Probably more times than I care to admit to.

[00:01:17] And I got frustrated one day, I'm sure, probably many days. And I said, what in the world is going on? Right. God. Until I made this. And yet, where is it? Like Abraham or back when he was Abraham, God said, you're gonna have a son, Abraham. And you're going to have descendants like the stars of heaven. You know how long it took for Abraham to get that promise?

[00:01:42] A very long time, 25 years.

[00:01:49] And yet he never wavered on something that Lord hit me. I'm reading through Hebrews and he's talking about the men of faith. And one things that says that Abraham believe God for the promise and therefore he was willing to offer up his son, Isaac. And it hit me what that was really all about. I always thought that connection. And this has nothing to do with guys timing, but it kind of ties into it. And it dawned on me, faces in the amplified Bible says Faith is the title deeds of things we do not see yet. And so I was thinking was Abraham, you know, he has this title. The title Deeds says, through Isaac, all of these descendants are coming. And therefore, Abraham had no qualms about sacrificing his son because he knew the promise was good. The title, they would say, was solid and therefore nothing could sort that promise from coming true. So God, if you want me, I offer up Isaac. No big deal because I know something's going to happen because you can't fulfill your promise except through Isaac and therefore it's all temporary. I just thought that was kind of a cool understanding.

[00:03:15] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:03:17] So let's get into this whole topic of God's timing versus man's timing and where I think the problems come from. If I were to ask a couple of questions, kind of setting this up, the questions I would want to ask are going to be things like why does God delay in answering our prayers that are clearly according to his will?

[00:03:45] And I think it's in James that if you pray according to his will, we know that he hears us. And if we know he hears that, we know that we will receive that for which we are familiar with that passage.

[00:03:58] Okay. So we're asking clearly, according to God's will. Here's something that comes up a lot of times, especially for parents. Lord, I know it's your will for my child to have a personal saving relationship with you and you pray for that child. He or she is now 20, 25 and 30. And 35 and 40. And 45 and 45 and 50. Okay. And your keep do you keep praying?

[00:04:24] And why isn't God answering that? Or maybe another question. Sometimes we act on God's promises and yet we don't see the results we feel we should have. I think Abraham was perfect. Just kind of a case study on that. He's living by faith. And yet where is this child? And then he has his child, Isaac, and he's living by faith. And now God says to sacrifice him.

[00:04:50] And it seems like what God has promised and the fulfillment.

[00:04:58] Something's missing in that. Gradient, does that make sense?

[00:05:02] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:05:05] Maybe another type of issue is God. I know you say I'm been healed. Why am I still sick? I'm praying for my healing. Or money. All these things in our lives where we can go back to scripture and we clearly see God's promise.

[00:05:29] And we feel that that promise is spoken to us. The scripture gets into us that this is God's promise to us, and yet we don't see things happening. What's happening? There's lots of things that can be going on. Faith, belief, timing. But I want to try to bring some focus into timing on this call and to start off. I'd like you to read a passage for us. And the passage is Mark Levin versus 22, 23, 24. And just to kind of set the stage on this passage, disciples have just come to Jesus and asked a question. And Jesus is now going to teach them about faith. And that's kind of where we are. But within faith is timing. And this is what's going to be real interesting. So let me know when you're ready.

[00:06:31] Okay. All right. I'm ready, Mark. Eleven, twenty or 24. Then Jesus said to the disciples, Have faith in God. I'm telling you the truth. You can say to this mountain, may you be lifted up and thrown into the sea. And that will happen. But you must really believe that will happen and have no doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for anything. And if you believe that you receive that, it will be yours.

[00:07:00] Ok, so here's we kind of have two things going along. We have faith and timing. Obviously, we cannot pray.

[00:07:09] Without faith and expect to receive it, James says the person who doubts not expect to receive anything from the Lord. But then we also have an element of timing and the timing is in that very last sentence. So read that last part for me again.

[00:07:26] Okay, I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you received it, it will be yours.

[00:07:34] If you believe that you've received it is received past, present or future tense.

[00:07:44] Okay, so if you believe that you've received it. It's already years. That's what he's saying, right?

[00:07:52] Mm hmm. When did you get it? Put the next part.

[00:07:57] It will be yours, it will be yours.

[00:07:59] This will be past, present or future.

[00:08:05] I actually think it could be present and future will be.

[00:08:11] Does that mean it's right now?

[00:08:13] No, that's future.

[00:08:15] Okay, so here's the problem that we're running into.

[00:08:21] Past tense. I believe I've already received it, but future tense will be granted to me. Do you see the problem?

[00:08:32] It's a problem because in our physical world, everything is based on a linear chronicle chronological time. But when you get into the spirit realm. Time really isn't quite so linear. And faith for the most part, has no time constraint at all. We may talk about that a little bit later on. I don't want to go there, but I just want to kind of pose the problem that the problem we're running into with God's timing versus man is God operates in a different frame than we do. And faith operates in a different frame. Faith says you must first believe that it is years that you actually hold that title deed in your hand. And then in the future it's going to be granted. You're granted. And so now we go, Lord is mine. Where is it? Right? You say I'm healed. Where's my healing? You say. He will be safe. Where's the salvation? You say you're going to get us out of this terrible mess we're in. When is it going to happen? Because I've been praying a long time and it hasn't happened. And so we have this constant stress in our life. If we're not careful, but this level of anxiety and level of confusion as to what's going on, and that's that's where the challenge starts to come. So I want to talk about two rooms. I want to talk about the spirit realm and the physical realm. And we see this used throughout scripture and even in our own vernacular, lots of different ways. You have the natural and you have the supernatural.

[00:10:15] That's the same thing as the physical versus the spiritual, which is the same thing as the earthly realm versus the heavenly realm. All of these are basically interchangeable because there's this contrast between what we see in the visible world and what actually occurs in the invisible. Are you following me so far on that?

[00:10:42] Yes. Yes.

[00:10:44] So here's another question for you. If you were to put us on, put it on a scale and weight 1 as greater than the other. Are we?

[00:11:00] More natural or supernatural? Or said another way. Are we more physical or spiritual?

[00:11:12] Are you asking for my personal opinion? Yes. My personal opinion is that I am more spiritual than I am natural because I believe that my spirit is the only thing that's going to live for eternity, either in heaven or in hell and in my case, in heaven. So I believe that I'm more spiritual than I am physical.

[00:11:32] Yes. And I would agree with that. And I would agree with it. For those same reasons. But I would agree with it for one additional reason. If you look at it as you look at authority and control, does the physical have authority over and therefore control over the spiritual realm?

[00:11:57] Or do you think the spiritual realm has authority and control over the physical realm? Or are they completely separate and neither one impacts the other? Which one do you think? Which of those three options?

[00:12:10] I think the spiritual has control over this goal, but I also believe that whatever you give the most control to or allow to control has the. The most authority over you. In other words.

[00:12:30] Yes. Yes. Yes, I agree.

[00:12:34] But if we can start with the premise. Or the truth that the spirit realm has authority and control over the physical realm and that there's something there. It doesn't mean that every single thing that occurs in the physical is driven by the spirit, but it does mean that in the hierarchy of things, the spirit realm has authority and impacts the physical realm much more than the physical realm impacts the spirit. It's kind of a one way direction on a two way. There are things we do in our lives that can impact our life. But I would say that those things we do in our lives impact our lives first and foremost, because they either neglect what goes on in the spirit realm or they take advantage of what goes on in the spirit room. When we focus on ourselves and on our own situation as opposed to focus on God, we get one outcome. But when we focus on and trust in the Lord, we get a different outcome. Does that make sense? Yeah. So what we do in the physical impacts, but ultimately if we do in the physical is either rejecting or neglecting the spirit or it is falling in line with the spirit.

[00:14:02] And therefore it's still the spiritual side of what goes on that makes the impact in our lives. Is that.

[00:14:11] Yeah, it's a matter of fact, I was thinking when you were saying that I was just thinking about creation, creation of the world God created. He spoke and the world came into being. But all of that came after the spirit. That to me, I mean, that was just something that popped in my head. I'm like, okay, well, clearly the spirit realm has authority because the created world came through the spirit realm.

[00:14:40] Yes. Bingo. And so when we start to understand that, then things start to make a little bit more sense because we're so trained, we only look in the physical, we don't look in the spirit.

[00:14:53] And I'm not talking about we have to have spiritual, spiritual eyes and see in the spirit realm like a like a quote unquote, a or. But we can't neglect what's going on in that room. So let's move into an element of the spiritual realm. And since you brought up creation, let's go there real quickly. Let's go to Genesis 1 1, Genesis 1 1.

[00:15:22] Genesis 1 1.

[00:15:24] Before you go out on me, I want to set the stage as we read these. We read them with an understanding of where we're going. I want to show us that God transcends time. That God is outside of the realm of time. And because he's outside the realm of time. What we think of this time or when something shouldn't happen is different from our perspective than his perspective. And I want to first take that up from scripture and then I'm going to give you kind of walk you through an example of how this operates within our lives. And it's really cool. So let's let you region says 1 1 1 1.

[00:16:07] In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

[00:16:11] All right. So in the beginning, God created. In the beginning. God already existed. Does that make sense?

[00:16:25] Yeah.

[00:16:27] So we have this first statement of guys, the eternal existence. That exists. I want to say even before time. Give me a moment. I'll back that up scripturally. Let's now turn to John 858.

[00:16:53] All right. John, eight fifty eight. Jesus answered, I tell you the truth. Before Abraham was even born, I am.

[00:17:06] So now we have Jesus claiming that he existed not only before Abraham, but that Jesus exists eternally. That's what I mean. That means I am. It's not that I was or I was created. It's an eternal existence. The same as with the Lord. And we know obviously of God as these exist eternally so as Jesus because they're one. All right. So let's look at let's look at Titus. 1 2. This is going to be really cool. We're getting closer.

[00:17:42] We want to be. Go ahead.

[00:17:44] All right, Titus 1, verse 2. This truth gives them confidence that they have eternal life, which God who does not lie promised then before the world began.

[00:17:58] Promised before the world began, the amplified Bible says, before the world or the ages of time began. So now we're getting a little bit closer that scriptures are starting to indicate God existed before time. But let's look at one final verse. Let's go to Jude. 1 and we're going to read 24 and 25.

[00:18:30] June 1, 24, 25. Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away. And we'll bring you with great joy into his Gore's presence without a single fault. All glory to him. Who alone is God? Our Savior. Jesus Christ, our Lord. All glory, majesty. Power and authority are his before all time and in the present and beyond time.

[00:18:59] And that call for all time.

[00:19:03] And now beyond all time here, we have scriptural reference that says. God created time because God existed before time began. When we start to look at God's promises. And the impact of this whole thing called faith, believe you have received it passed. And then it will be years, future tense. We can't reconcile this problem in the natural because the natural is bound by time. But when we move outside of the realm of time now, it's really easy to reconcile what's going on. And the more we can understand from God's perspective, the more we can live in a way that honors, the more we live by faith and faith in a very simplistic type of definition.

[00:20:01] I mean, it's multifaceted, so you can't just put it in a single box. But ultimately, faith is seeing everything from God's perspective because it's seeing it through his eyes and not our eyes through what he knows as truth, not what we think of as reality. This kind of forming making sense. So I want to I want to use a tube as an example. So picture a tube like a garden hose. Okay. So imagine right now you've got a 10 foot garden hose. With a 10 foot garden hose, it's hollow all the way through and I can put water in the front end of that garden hose and that water is going to travel through the garden hose and go out the other end. Are you picturing the picture right now?

[00:20:54] Yeah, yeah.

[00:20:56] So this garden hose, in essence, represents time. Time starts at the beginning. You put some water in at the beginning and then over time it comes out on the other end. If we were to look at the garden hose as time, then you could say that that garden hose starts in Genesis, the creation of the heavens and the earth, and it ends in Revelation, the new heavens and the new earth and everything that happens through Genesis, through Exodus, through first and second Samuel into Chronicles, into the mind all the way through the New Testament. There's this linear timeline that those events are traveling through this garden hose of time.

[00:21:52] Picture that if we were to take a zoom in on that garden hose. Now, that garden hose can represent your life. And my life from the point that we born travelling through to the point that we die, everything in our life is contained within that garden hose because that garden hose is time. Now, here's something interesting in this garden hose. Let's assume that you you were to become like the old movie, Honey, I Shrunk the kids. Right. So you become really tiny and you get a an inner tube and it's really tiny and you start the journey at the beginning of that hose. All right. If there are waterfalls. This is a 10 foot hose. If there's a big waterfall at marker number four foot and you're just starting the hose, do you see those waterfalls?

[00:22:58] No.

[00:22:58] No. When did you get to see those waterfalls? When do you get to experience that waterfall, when you're going through the hose, when it was like right behind you.

[00:23:08] About to take you out.

[00:23:09] That's right. When you're right there. Okay. Now let's. Now, let's assume for a moment did that garden hose is made out of clear plastic. Okay. So you're the honey who shrunk the kids, let's say. I know I'm the guy who shrunk the kids and I shrunk you and you're starting on your journey through your hose and foot. Number four, there's a raging waterfall. You don't see it until you get there. But I'm outside of the hose. Do I see it before you get there? Oh, yeah. Do I see it as you begin your journey at the very beginning of the hose? Yes. Yeah. Not only do I see the waterfall at foot number four, but I see also what happens at foot number eight, nine and ten. Does that make sense? Yes. Why do I see it? You don't.

[00:24:09] Because you're on the outside.

[00:24:13] I'm on the outside looking in. So now let's take this hose a little bit closer. So let's say, for example, that I am God, I'm not. But let's say that I was in this example and you were Penny and I see you traveling through your homes. And in that traveling through, you ask me, I really want this special gift. And I promise you, I have already given it to you. Now, you're right now on foot. Number five. I put that gift at foot number six. Here's the question. Did I already give you the gift?

[00:25:10] Have you already received it? No. Hold on. Pray you have received it. Have I given it to you?

[00:25:22] Yes. If I've given it to you, then have you received it? Yes. Okay. When will you take physical, physical possession of that gift?

[00:25:36] When I get to it, you get to it.

[00:25:40] So now we start to get this understanding. How can you receive past tense? And yet it will be your future tense. Okay. And you can receive it because when God gives a gift, he's not operating inside of our homes. He's operating on the outside of it because he created the hose. He sees the whole thing.

[00:26:12] Hmm hmm hmm hmm.

[00:26:13] He's going to put that gift marker number six feet and says, I have given it to you. And then it's your job to go down the hose until you receive possession, but you have to believe. Okay, so let me share some other fun implications of this.

[00:26:34] When was Jesus crucified? According to the Bible.

[00:26:40] As far as age.

[00:26:44] When was he crucified?

[00:26:47] Well, he was crucified in 30, and it was a time after Passover.

[00:26:58] And then when the time line.

[00:27:02] Was he crucified?

[00:27:06] Let's say he was crucified on. It was Passover the next day. I believe the day after Passover is when he was crucified.

[00:27:18] All right. All right. So what year would that be, roughly? Generally speaking, let's say.

[00:27:32] A lot of math, I guess we know about 33 is a calendar date. But here's the question. According to the Bible, Quinn was crucified.

[00:27:51] That's a good question.

[00:27:53] According to the Bible, he was crucified before the world began.

[00:28:00] Yes. Do you remember that that's in Revelations crucified the lamb, crucified before the foundation of the world.

[00:28:11] So how could he have been crucified before the foundation of the world and yet. Two thousand years ago, we see him up on a cross.

[00:28:21] Yeah, that's really good.

[00:28:26] What's the implication? The implication is. Kind of a lot. Boy, this could go really deep if I'm not careful. So let me make it simple. So let's go back to the timeline of just 2000 years. We're going to keep this kind of simple at the point of crucified crucifixion or at that point of of Jesus becoming the lamb slain for the righteous to make us righteous.

[00:28:56] Then when you accept Christ as your savior. Are your sins forgiven immediately, immediately.

[00:29:10] Is it only past sense or future sense as well? Okay, but you haven't committed those sins yet. So how can it be that when you ask Christ to come into your life, that you're forgiven for all past sins? And those that have yet to commit.

[00:29:35] Well, because I'm not perfect and there's only one perfect person, Jesus Christ, because I'm a human and not perfect. It's very possible that I'm going to sin in my life. God's saying I'm going to go ahead and take care of that.

[00:29:51] God's guarding all say I'm going to take care of it. But a little bit more. Let's look from God's perspective, not man's perspective. So I've got this. This 10 foot clear plastic garden hose in front of me that represents all of the generation of men from Genesis to Revelation. Somewhere around probably foot number five, let's call it somewhere halfway in that process. It could have been before or after the physical time chronologically when Jesus comes to earth and is crucified. And at that point, God says sins are forgiven. Right.

[00:30:38] So when he says sins are forgiven, he's speaking that truth outside of the timeline, outside of the tube. And therefore, it impacts the entire to not only those who look forward to the coming of the messiah and their faith was counted to them as righteousness, but also those that come after that chronological point in time that look backwards to what Christ did. Their faith is counted to them as righteousness and righteousness means a sense have been forgiven. Follow me. Yes. Okay. So what that means is that chronological point in time when we say, Lord, forgive me of my sins, please come into my heart. Just say whatever little simple commitment that we make. It is in the spirit realm already done for our entire life. We have been made righteous in our life, not just to that point. That's kind of the technical reason. There is a very simplistic version of technical reason why when we've asked Jesus into our life, our sins are forgiven, including those that we have not yet done. We don't know we're going to do that, but God looks in that little clear plastic tubing, says, shame on you. But I've already forgiven you. He knows what's going to happen and it's all been forgiven.

[00:32:11] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:32:14] Okay, so then. We ask for a special gift or God gives us a promise of something to come.

[00:32:24] And now we have a slight variation to this tube that I have to make to help illustrate what's going on within this timeline. Have you ever seen one of those little splitters that you can put on a garden hose that you screwed in one end and then it has basically to end so you can now have two garden hoses coming out of one? You know what I'm talking about?

[00:32:47] Yes, I do. Okay. So that is a decision junction on this garden garden hose of our time. So now here's the point. I want you to understand. I want you to see if we can make this simple. So you're cruising along because I shrunk you. You're on your little inner tube going through your clear plastic tube of your life and you don't know what's coming ahead of you because you can't see it. But I as God, I see everything that's going on. I know what's going to happen before you even know what's going to happen. And therefore, I can say, Penny, trust me, I got your back on this one. Okay.

[00:33:29] So now God says, first off, let me come back and ask a question. Do you think there have been any times when you've asked God for help? It would have been within his will that you receive that blessing, but for whatever reason, you never received it.

[00:33:56] I'm not going to do.

[00:33:59] Not that you just have been delayed receiving it, but maybe you missed out on the blessing deeply. That's possible.

[00:34:06] I do. I do.

[00:34:09] Yeah. Because we even see this back in that passage. What was it? Mark Levin, 24 What ever you pray and believe that you received them and they shall be granted you. What if we don't believe that we receive them? Is it possible that we miss out on those things that we've asked God for?

[00:34:32] Yes, because I think even if it's there, if you don't believe, you're not going see it.

[00:34:39] Yes, absolutely. So now this takes me into the decision junction and this is now another element of God's timing. God says first you ask. You ask me. I'm God and this little example, you asked me, God, I really want this special gift. And I somehow communicate back to you, says Penny. I've given it to you. Now, believe it. You're to believe that you've received it.

[00:35:18] What I do at that moment is ahead of you.

[00:35:22] We have a decision junction and I place that gift on the left hand junction. The left hand junction, actually, we'll call it the right him, because that's more biblically accurate. So on the right hand junction, you get to the fork. You can go left or right on the right hand junction. I place your gift to face. On the left hand junction, you bypass it completely. So now you come to the decision point. This junk decision junction in your life and you're trying to decide which way to go. Is it possible that you believe by faith and you take the right hand junction?

[00:36:07] Okay.

[00:36:08] And if you believe by faith and take the right injunction, then as you're going down that inner tube of life, you're gonna run right into the promise that I've given you because I place it right there. But is it also possible that when you get to that decision junction that you doubt?

[00:36:27] And you end up going left instead of right. Sure.

[00:36:32] Okay, so if you doubt you go left. Does that make. My God, my promise of giving you a gift null and void? In other words, did I lie to you? I told you I was going to give you this gift and you didn't get it. Did I lie?

[00:36:52] No. What happened?

[00:36:56] I chose the wrong path.

[00:36:59] You acted by sight, not by faith. You acted in fear and doubt rather than by faith. And these decision junctions always come up in turbulent waters. And in almost all cases, the passive face looks like a raging waterfall and tumultuous rapids. And the task of doubt looks like calm water. Have you ever experienced that?

[00:37:32] Yes. Yeah. Okay. So what we do in our natural is we go, oh, that can't be right. Right versus left.

[00:37:42] That can't be correct. Right. That can't be correct. It's not going right. I must need to go left because how much easier it is. And God always asks us to do something bold and step out. Faith is living on the edge because faith is not living by sight, but living by God's word alone. It's doing what God says to do even when our naturalize say, that's crazy. And when we get to these decision junctions.

[00:38:21] It is possible, I believe, to miss out on God's highest and blessed and greatest blessings for us in our lives because we choose the wrong path, because we make a decision by sight rather than decision by following him. And so this is that fork in the road. And let's read real quickly a couple other things. Go to first, Peter, 3 8. This is a passage that we're all probably familiar with. First, Peter, three, I just want to kind of illustrate what I think this passage is kind of saying.

[00:39:04] All right. First, Peter, three verse eight, finally, all of you should be of one mind, sympathize with each other, love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tender hearted and keep a humble attitude.

[00:39:20] First, Peter.

[00:39:21] Maybe I am first here.

[00:39:24] Okay, then maybe a second, Peter. But the one I was looking for is with the Lord. One day is a thousand years and years as one day. And just try to grasp that, because with the Lord being outside of time, you know, whether it's one inch or one centimeter, one foot on that timeline. He sees it all. There is no time within the Lord.

[00:39:51] The time is only within our livelihood turn. One less, one less passage on this, James, 1, 6 and 7.

[00:40:02] Saying.

[00:40:05] All right, James. 1, 6 and 7. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

[00:40:28] Okay, so we get down to that decision junction.

[00:40:33] Can you see how easy it is to start to waver left, right or left, right or left? We pray to God. What are your eyes telling you has to be the best solution. When you pray to God, what are your eyes telling you?

[00:40:52] Whatever. The easiest path.

[00:40:54] Easiest path, right. And sometimes God's word says. The right path, not the left path. And so this is when we start to waiver. What happens is if we waver too long, we pass right on by where we ought to be and we go down that path of doubt. And this is what I think James is kind of talking about when we get to these decision junctions, not to expect anything from the Lord if we don't fully trust him. The things that he gives us, he gives us by faith. Spirit realm overrules the physical realm. He gives us in the spirit realm first because it's outside of time. He places it in our future some place. But it's us going through our physical realm, making the choices of faith that lead us to that promise that's been given first in the spirit room and then it manifests in the physical. But if we doubt and waver, we end up taking the wrong choices and we totally bypass where the Lord had for us and those great blessing. That doesn't mean that he can't move that blessing down the line again, but it does mean that we're missing the best path for our lives. And that's this whole concept of the timeline and kind of how it works, the implications on this. I think it's several. We need to remain persistent and safe if we take that low definition we've been working on.

[00:42:28] Faith is choosing. To believe an act on God's truth rather than choosing to act. On the reality of the natural, it will never make sense. And usually when we choose to act on God's truth, the natural is saying, don't do it, don't do it. It's nothing but danger and hardship. And yet God is saying, come on. Trust me, you won't believe the blessings that await you if you just trust me. Okay. And so we have to remain persistent in faith because when God has promised. His promise will come true if we persistent faith. Hebrews 10, 35 and 36 basically says don't throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. And he says once you have done the will of God, you'll receive what was promised. He's talking about this whole thing, that these promises are received by faith, just like just like salvation is received by faith. I think the second implication is stop asking. And start thinking about this. Have you ever been in a time in your life? Let's call it financial, because I think we all go through financial struggles. Have you ever been in a time in your life financially where you're almost pleading with the Lord, help us, help us. We're about to sink. We need help. Have you ever been kind of desperate stage?

[00:44:08] Yes.

[00:44:10] Prior to getting into that, has God's word promise that he will take care of you as long as you trust him?

[00:44:19] Yeah.

[00:44:20] Okay. So when we come into that state where his work says he'll take care of us.

[00:44:25] And now we're pleading. Oh, my gosh, I'm about to sink. Is that. Pleading a prayer of faith for prayer site.

[00:44:36] Definitely it's based.

[00:44:39] The site is fear based because the devil wants us to believe what we see because we'll get afraid and God wants us to believe what he says. And it's totally two totally different things. One other implication of this whole timeline concept is realizing that we can't see what God sees. And if God is promised, then we need to stop asking. Or maybe I should say stop pleading. And start thinking now if we take the story of Alija and the rain. Okay, so this goes back to the time of the Kings.

[00:45:25] Israel and Judah has broken and have broken up. Ahab is now king and Elijah has. He's up on Mount Carmel. And he's just finished killing all of the bill process because they prayed for far to come from God to light their sacrifice. And it didn't. Elijah prayed for God to. Bring far down and it totally sucked up and burned up all of the sacrifice, the stones, the water and everything else. So there's just been this great victory. And then Elijah tells Ahab. Hop on your chariot and go before the rains come and you get stuck in the rain and everything was dry and dusty. Elijah believed God that it was going to rain.

[00:46:17] Follow me so far. So we're at the stage where a promise has been given. Elijah knows what's going to happen. But then what does Alija do? Do you remember what he does right after he tells? They have to hop in his chair and go.

[00:46:33] I don't remember, he goes up and he bowed down and he prays and he tells his servant, look out over the horizon and tell me what you see. The servant comes back and says, I don't see anything. So what is Elijah do again?

[00:46:48] He tells me to go back and look again.

[00:46:52] That's right. Elijah prays again and says, go back and look. Elijah does that seven times until there's a little cloud the size of a man's hand. So here we have how we should operate. First off, let me ask you a question. Do you think Elijah believed rains were coming?

[00:47:14] Yes.

[00:47:15] Yes. Why did he pray? Was he pleading with God, please, Lord, please, we need the rains, please. Or do you think his prayer was something different?

[00:47:27] I think his prayer was thanking, thanking God for the rain, just believing that it's coming.

[00:47:34] Yes, it's a different level of prayer. Different type of prayer. It's a prayer of Lord. Send the range, according to your word. Because I know they're coming. I thank you in advance for those rains that are coming. That is what our prayers ought to be when we come before the Lord. Not a prayer of pleading and fear, but prayers of anticipation and thinking because we know God's word is true. And then the third implication is sort of like Yogi Berra, you hear these Yogi Berra saying when you come to a fork in the road, take it. I just see this physical fork sitting there. And when you come to when you come to a fork, take the fork and the knife also there's a knife. But in this case, when you come to that fork in the road of your life, that decision junction always take the fork of faith. Because that's the only way that you're going to receive these abundant blessings that God has for you. Now, his overriding grace will still bless you, even in your abundant blessings are only going to come when we take those forks of faith.

[00:49:01] So that's the.

[00:49:06] Any final thoughts or comments before we wrap up this call?

[00:49:12] I was thinking when you were talking about the path and choosing the path, it's usually rockier. The one that the Lord has tends to sometimes in the natural look like the one that you don't want to be on. And I was thinking about myself included, but I know so many others tend to pray when they're going down that path or deliver me like deliver me from this storm. Please make this storm stop. It's just overwhelming me and whatever. And it just hit me that a lot of times women are praying to be delivered from that. If God were to answer that, then we would miss the promise that he had set out for us, because if we're praying to be delivered or removed from that situation, we're not gonna be on that path anymore. And we're going to miss that promise.

[00:50:05] What you were just talking about, the God's already put out a sobering thought, especially at those storms are brought about as a test. We all go through a wilderness in our life.

[00:50:18] And I would think if you zoom in and out of our life, there's like a little wilderness is the wilderness is a time of testing before we receive a blessing. There are times when we're being attacked and there's some discernment there. But I think the main thing with all of this is I remember one time I was going through some really tough times financially with the business and I was pleading with God. I was pleading because I was afraid almost to the point of tears. And that's a moat. And so for me to be almost the point of tears, it was really dramatic. And I remember the Lord speaking to me and just see my spirit and saying something along the lines of, do you not trust me? Taking care of you all these years. Do you really think I'm going to let you down now? It wasn't quite those words, but that was the gist of it. And it really kind of shook me and I thought, you're right, I need to be. Acting in faith and not in fear, and I think that's the junction we come to the forks in the road. Which way are we going to act? Because Peter walking on the water, so long as he acted. Taking the fork of faith, he walked on the water. As he took the fork of sight and fear, he sunk. He missed out on God's greatest blessings for him. At that moment in his life, because he acted in fear. And that's the whole thing here, is it's all part of that timeline and which way you go.

[00:52:03] Oh, well, Beatty, I think we're about out of time. This is great. Today, I really appreciated this talk. And just hear your insight and your wisdom on this subject.

P011

[00:52:15] It was wonderful.

[00:52:16] I appreciate that. All right. Well, until next time, we'll see you guys later.

[00:52:22] All right.

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[00:00:00] Hi, Beatty. I'm so looking forward to carrying on our conversation today. For those of you who were not with us last week, we will be talking more about my medical plan. We're going to be naming Beatty Carmichael next. I guess I was calling you Beatty master Barber. The creator of Dominator is one of the marketing experts in the real estate field. And Beatty, I'm just really looking forward to hearing this discussion. No, I'm fine.

[00:00:35] Yes. And again, just as a quick disclaimer, if you're coming to this call to learn about real estate marketing, this is one of our radical faith calls. We're not going to talk anything about real estate. We're all gone. We're going to be talking about Christian principles and living your life for Christ. So if you don't want to listen to this one, go on and turn it off and go to the next podcast. When it comes out. So. Yes. So last time we talk about ties today, I want to talk about offerings because ties and offerings go together because they're both our treasure that we usually hold on to because it's our money. But before we do, I wanted to clarify or actually correct one thing from the last session, if I may, Penny more in the last session we talked about no longer under law, but under grace and I talked about it no longer under the Mosaic Law. Well, after the call, the law kind of convicted me, said you better research that, because that may not be exactly accurate. So I went back to Romans 6 and Romans 6 and 7 and 8 and 9 and realized, no, it's not. The mosaic clocks that were no longer under it is the law that then Moses wrote down. But it's not. All of the light of the Mosaic Law are the do's and don'ts of all the little action items that you do. But I want to clarify what scripture says is the difference between underline under grace. So real quickly, I'm just going to go through a bunch. This is in Romans 6, 7, 8 and 9. I just want to pull out some some things if you go through it.

[00:02:23] Paul is making a constant comparison between law and grace, but he starts to use different terms. I think as I run through these, you'll start to see the difference. It's not that galore. We're no longer supposed to do what the law says. That's not what. No longer under law, but under grace means we still do it. It's just that we do it from for a different reason. So Romans six 13 is where it says we're no longer under law, but under grace then enrollments six, 17 and 18. It says that we went from slaves of sin to slaves of righteousness. So now we start to see that under law, you're a slave to sin, under grace, you're a slave to righteousness. Then we move to Romans seven. Twenty nine. And and Paul says that I serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin. So you're still talking about under a law? Under grace. Under grace. I serve the law with my mind. Under law, I serve the law of sin with my flesh. Then we move into Romans a wine. And it says, The law of the spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death. Still going back to no longer under law, sin and death, but under grace, which is spirit of life. Romans age six to set the mind on the flesh his death. But to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. So we've gone from law slave to sin, which is flesh, which is that grace is slave to righteousness, which is mine. And the spirit which is life is. Are you following me on this, Penny?

[00:04:12] Okay.

[00:04:14] And the end of the final thing is Romans nine thirty and thirty to the Gentiles have attained righteousness by faith. But Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not obtained it because they pursued it as if it were based on work. And so here is basically what it means and not no longer under law, but under grace. It's two sides of the same coin. So we have a coin. In that coin is God's spiritual law. This is what we were talking about last time. We were going to talk about this time. Last time, the spiritual always focused on tithing. This time we're going to focus on offering. But on the law side of the coin, you have to do the works. Works could never get you there because it says in Romans 7 the law is spiritual, but the flesh cannot comprehend the law cannot do the law. So it is always the law of failure and therefore sin and death. But on the other side of the coin is still the spiritual law. But on the other side, it's grace, which is by faith. I've been saved by grace through faith, say by faith. Through grace. I think it's grace through faith. I'm not no longer myself. But the work of Christ that has worked within me. Okay. So it's we come at it from a different perspective. I'm a slave to righteousness because I'm now righteous as opposed to I'm a slave to sin because I'm central. That's no longer under law, but under grace. So that's the clarification. All right. So let's jump in to financial stewardship really quick through this. I want to look at a couple of things. So if you've got your Bible handy. I'm going to have you look it up. So we're going to start in Second Corinthians Nine so you can just kind of turn there. We're going to start with first six in just a moment, but I want to lay the groundwork for what we're doing. OK.

[00:06:13] So when the Lord has us, he has our money. If he doesn't have us, he doesn't have our money. As I mentioned on the last session, you can look at someone's checkbook and their calendar and say pretty much exactly what they really believe in. OK. How do they spend their time and spend their money? So when we talk about ties, we talked about it being a spiritual law of tithing and it's holy to the Lord. But tithing is 10 percent. OK. It's the first tenth is what God says it is. So the next thing we want to talk about is this thing called offering, because offering now takes us above the time in real simple terms to kind of put some terminology when we earn money. A tenth of it automatically belongs to God and the 90 percent of it belongs to us to handle it in a way that God wants us to. Now we know that God owns it all, but from a spiritual law standpoint, the first tenth is holy and set apart to God. The rest of it is ours to do with as we choose within levels of righteousness and how it would please him. Follow me so far. OK. So now we want to look at is what is this thing called offerings and how is is expressed. And so in Second Corinthians 9, Paul is talking to the Corinthians on financial giving, but he starts to use some really interesting terms. So read Second Corinthians 9 6.

[00:07:57] 0 farmer or a small crop, but the one who won a general crop.

[00:08:07] Ok. So right now, Paul is using an agrarian term to express financial truths, because this agrarian term actually is a spiritual law. It's a law that seed always reproduces after its own kind. The seed of man produces man. The seed of a fruit tree produces another tree of that same fruit. The seed of sin reproduces sin. The seed of righteousness produces righteousness, the seed of God. It says that Jesus was formed that from the seed of God, essentially. And that he had no sin in him because his seed was righteous. And so we have this concept that a spiritual law that seed reproduces after its own kind. And now Paul is talking in financial terms as a seed. Okay. So then let's read the next next first verse 7.

[00:09:14] All right. We must decide in your own heart how much to go and don't get reluctantly or in response to peer pressure. God was the person who gets cheerfully right.

[00:09:28] So we have a couple of things here that you must do. My translation says, Lady, each one do justice. He is purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. So it just takes fewer words to say the same thing. So the first step is it's a heart thing. It's not a mind thing. It's a thing of the heart. Okay. If you only do what's required, it's under compulsion. What your. Your version says peer pressure.

[00:10:02] I think you can go beyond peer peer pressure and say, well, the Lord requires it. So let me give it right. And that's not what the Lord is looking for. Let me have you. I want to show you something real interesting. Do you remember Cain and Abel?

[00:10:18] They are all OK and they both offer sacrifice or in offering up to the Lord, God accepts one and rejects the other.

[00:10:26] Remember that war? Do you remember why?

[00:10:34] I think it was the heart, the heart behind it. One of them gave cheerfully and knew that what he had been given was the laws in the first place. So he was happy to return it to the Lord or to offer it to the Lord as a sacrifice, cause he knew where it came from. And then the other one. I feel like it was a jealousy thing in his heart. That was a heart issue.

[00:11:00] The jihadist who must turn their traditions genesis for verses 3, 4 and 5. For Genesis 4 versus 3, 4 and 5.

[00:11:12] Would you marry that? Yes. All right.

[00:11:15] When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. Abel also brought a gift. The best portions of the firstborn lands from his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift. But he did not accept Cain in his gift. This made team very angry, and he looked dejected.

[00:11:38] All right. So tell me. Look at the look at what he just said. What is the difference between the two offerings that Cain and Abel made? What is the scripture? Tell us about how it describes those offerings.

[00:11:53] Cool presented some of his crop. He took a portion of what he had or horrible as a gift to the Lord. This all part of it doesn't it doesn't specify which part, says some partners. All Moore brought the very best course. The first part.

[00:12:16] Yeah. So. So that this is the difference. Cain brought his gift under compulsion. I got to bring this offering to the Lord. Let me just swipe some of my fruit and I'll come bring it to you.

[00:12:31] Abel says, I won't give the Lord the very best of the very best. So he's not only the first. It says that he gives of the first born of his flock, but he gives the fat portions of the firstborn. So the fat portions are the best of the best of that animal. And so he gives the best of the animal of the best of all of the animals. Do you see the difference? Yeah. And so one was giving under compulsion. The other was giving cheerfully out of a heart of love. That's what God looks for. He honors the heart, not the action. Simply to give and to give more doesn't do it. And this goes back to it's a spiritual thing. It's not the action that we go through. It's the heart in which we go through. In fact, James talked about this. He said. You say you have faith. I have work. And I'll show you my faith by my works. In other words, the actions emanate from the heart. And that's what that's what Paul is talking here. In Second Corinthians 9 7, God loves a cheerful giver, not one who gives under a compulsion.

[00:13:48] Ok, so let's go back to Second Corinthians 9, and that's why.

[00:13:54] So let's go now to the next verse. Verse 8. OK, so real quickly, Sade reproduces after its kind. God wants us to give from the heart out of a cheerful heart, not any compulsion. And now we're in verse saying, let's see what it says there.

[00:14:13] All right. And God will generously provide all war. Well, will all come every single point we love to share with others.

[00:14:24] God will generously supply all you need. Does that sound like it's a maybe or it's a fact?

[00:14:34] Welcome back.

[00:14:36] Well, now for those more literal translation is out there. You'll read an ESB or an ISP and it says, well, hold on, it says God is able to make all grace. How are you getting this? God will do it. OK, we'll generously give. So. So let me talk on this. This is really cool. So my version, NAACP says and God is able to make old grace a bounty. So, Penny, when you and I use the word able, like I say, hey, Penny, are you able to grab that chicken out of the oven for me?

[00:15:21] Are you OK?

[00:15:23] What does that mean that you will or does that simply mean that you physically are able to if you choose to?

[00:15:35] If I ask them, how are you able, what are thinking about how I grew up in school?

[00:15:41] Me that means I'm physically able to make them do it.

[00:15:46] You can do it. Exactly. So that's not how this word is used, because the actual Greek word that says that's been translated into the English table actually means is powerful, mighty and will very emphatic. Just like your translation says he will generously give. Okay. So the key point here, one of the key points. Is that God says that he will generously give back to you. Rick, you read your your version again. I love the way it reads.

[00:16:25] God will generously provide all your stuff for you.

[00:16:29] Oh, God will generously provide all you need. My version and God is able. Will is powerful, mighty, and will make all grace a bounty. So they're saying the same thing will generously provide all you need.

[00:16:47] Ok, now continue.

[00:16:51] Then you already have everything you and you left over.

[00:16:56] Always does that sometimes. Part of the time or all the time. All the time.

[00:17:02] Always have everything you need. Does that mean there going to you know, you're going to run out of money and can't pay your bills?

[00:17:11] No, that's everything.

[00:17:13] Everything you need. All right. And then what's the last part of that verse?

[00:17:16] And plenty left over to share with others.

[00:17:20] Ok, so now for the really deep questions. You ready?

[00:17:28] Ok, I hear that hesitancy.

[00:17:31] Ok, so the last time we talked about the tide being 10 percent, because that's technically what the tide is.

[00:17:38] That's what God says. The first 10 is mine. So an offering is everything above the tide. Are you following me?

[00:17:50] Ok, now we're supposed to give the tides cheerfully and not earn a compulsion. But regardless of how we give it, it's supposed to be given.

[00:17:58] Ok, so but the offering is purely what's called a freewill offering. It's from the heart. So if I give 12 percent of my income, technically what that says is I'm giving tithe plus 2 percent offering. Follow me so far. OK. Does God God's word ever lie?

[00:18:24] Now, is it completely true?

[00:18:27] 100 percent.

[00:18:29] Ok. So based on this passage, Second Corinthians 9 8.

[00:18:35] If I cheerfully give 12 percent of my gross income. Does this mean that guy? Can and will meet all of my needs and everything at all times.

[00:18:53] Absolutely.

[00:18:55] All right. If I give 14 percent of my income. Does this mean that God will generously meet all my needs in everything at all times?

[00:19:09] Yes.

[00:19:11] If I give 20 percent of my income. Will he still meet all of my needs and everything at all times?

[00:19:20] Yes.

[00:19:22] So here's the big question. At what point is God unable to do that, to meet all my needs? At what point of my giving is God unable?

[00:19:35] I think about the fact that his nature and his character is not. It's not possible for his nature and his character not to meet a need. Does that make sense? No. I came out right, but I just I'm thinking about his nature and character. It's actually it would go in complete opposition of who he is as a father to not me to meet.

[00:20:01] I might qualify that statement because there are some technicalities there. There are people who have need of healing that don't get healed. Would you agree? When there are people in financial struggles that aren't getting out of financial struggles. Would you agree? Well, OK, so that statement is true within two caveats. Number one, that we're living and acting by faith and that there is a legal opportunity for the law to act in that direction. Say when we sin, we give the enemy a legal right to attack us. And when we have unrepentant sin, that legal right remains. God may want to relieve us of the attacks, but legally, until that sin is repented, he is not able to release that legal. That legal right from the enemy. I don't know if that makes sense. Am I right? I don't want to get too far in that direction, but.

[00:21:07] Okay. Okay.

[00:21:09] So. So there is God at the heart of God. And then there is the spiritual laws that God is put in place. And he wants us to follow his spiritual laws.

[00:21:25] And when we followed them by faith, forgive those who have trespass against you. And and we have repented of our sins. We've denied ourselves.

[00:21:37] When we do all of these things, the more we operate in unison with the father, the more the father can bless us fully as his son.

[00:21:50] But the less we operate in unison with the father, the less the Lord can bless us as his son.

[00:22:00] Did I lose you or is.

[00:22:02] No, I'm just thinking, yeah, and I totally agree with that. Okay. So, yeah.

[00:22:07] So I just want to qualify your statement because it's not quite so black and white. But generally speaking, it is, yes. So. If so, back to this topic. If there is no point in giving that we can give guys ability to meet all of our needs and take care of us and provide an abundance. Then here's a simple statement that we can pull from this Scripture. You cannot give God's ability to provide for you as he has promised.

[00:22:45] Would you agree with that statement or or.

[00:22:49] Ok, so now let's look at another passage. We can go back to Malachi 3, verse 10. So last time we talked about verses 8 and 9. Which says because you haven't been bringing in your ties into the storehouse, as is my spiritual law, you are Kirst with a curse. And he's talking to the Levitin, the priest of which we are royal priesthood.

[00:23:17] So he's talking to us. But then he says something really interesting right after that. And so now we're going to go to Malachi 3 10 and read that verse.

[00:23:29] Ok. Bring all your tie into the storehouse. So there will be enough food in my temple. If you do that as the Lord in heaven. Amen. I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing. So great you won't have room enough to take it and test me in there.

[00:23:52] Try it.

[00:23:53] Perfect. Did you hear that last part? Test me. Where have we put something else? We've heard in the Bible about testing the Lord. Anything come to mind?

[00:24:03] Oh, for sure. Old Testament.

[00:24:07] Do not test the Lord, not just the Lord, but yet hear the Lord's suggestion.

[00:24:14] How do we reconcile those two statements? Jesus even told us. Satan says no, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. And yet here the Lord says test him. What is the difference? This is important to understand the difference.

[00:24:34] That's a good question. Yeah.

[00:24:38] All right, so let me let me make it real easy. All right. When your child disobeys you, are they testing you?

[00:24:47] Yeah. Okay. That's.

[00:24:51] The type of tests that God says, do not put me to the test, do not test me like a disobedient child. But the Lord also has put certain promises in place and he wants us to test those promises. In other words, to prove those promises, true. Here's a picture, an illustration. I build a chair out of wood and I want to make sure that it's going to hold you up. I want to make sure it's strong. So I have to test the chair. I'm gonna get on it. Stand, jump, jump up and down. I'm gonna find the biggest, fattest, heaviest person I can find. Or two or three of them say, y'all sit in the chair all at the same time, jump up and down on the chair, and the more they can stress the chair and the chair doesn't break and the chair has passed the test. Does that make sense? So what the Lord is saying in Malachi 310 when he says test me now and this he is saying, this is my promise if you'll bring the whole time. And we know that he's actually talking about ties and offerings because the verse right before is talking about ties and offerings. So to bring the whole tied into his storehouse. He will open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. That's my translation that it has. And he says, test me now in this. And prove it true. So here is the cool part. If we go back to Second Corinthians 9.

[00:26:29] God says there is no limit to how much you can give cheerfully, and I not only cannot but will not generously provide even more for you so that in everything and at all times you will have an abundance.

[00:26:50] But then he says here in Malachi, test my promises and let me prove them true to you. You see the connections here. So now what do you think the implication is now that we see what God's word says? What do you think is the implication?

[00:27:13] Overflowing, blessing, abundance, always having what we need.

[00:27:18] All right. What's the implication for?

[00:27:23] Us personally.

[00:27:30] Well, if we're testing a promise that the Lord has given us, and he tells us that the command test, when I read that it's a command to me, he does put me to the test. Yes. Then I have to have faith and believe that when I do put him to the test, that he is going to fulfill the promise that he just gave me.

[00:27:51] Yes. The implication is, number one, we have to test him. And we need to test it by faith and trust him and see what happens. So let me share a story. I want to share several testimonies on this because it's cool. So. We go back to 1988 for some of you listening to this. You go, oh, my gosh, are you really that old? Yes, I am. And others, you're going. I remember that, you know, 1988 wasn't all that. I don't want to ask you if that's old for you or not.

[00:28:25] Good.

[00:28:27] So at this time, I was out of college, I had a class, a job. And and I started to prior to that, I I realized that the, quote unquote, required giving the spiritual law, you know, God's ties. What was his was 10 percent. So I gave 15 percent because I wanted to be sure I was giving cheerfully. So I gave over and above what was required. And that's where I found myself in 1988. And I read a book called Trust God for Your Finances. And in this book basically hones in on these two passages in Second Corinthians 9 and Malachi 3. And I was convicted in my heart that I needed to test God's word because that's what his words said. Now, is that what his words said? But his words said, there is no way you can give my ability to take care of you. So. This was my prayer and this is no embellishment. This is exactly as I remember it. The heart and even the words make it the words wrong. But the heart is there. All right, God. So pure, that big of a God. Prove it to me. If you if you if you can take care of me. Improve it. I'm going to triple my giving from 15 percent to forty five. Oh, I forgot to tell you last part of the story. Every month. I only had twenty five dollars left over after paying all my bills I had. I mean, I was month to month on my cash. And so I said, if you can if I cannot, I'll give you. Prove it to me. Show me you're that big.

[00:30:16] I'm going to triple my giving for 90 days and I'm not going to look back until 90 days.

[00:30:22] So I went from 15 percent giving to 45 percent giving for 90 days.

[00:30:30] And guess what happened? You always had enough.

[00:30:35] Yeah. Nothing changed.

[00:30:39] At the end of each month, I had twenty five dollars left over, and then at the end of 90 days I looked back and I thought, wow, I save twenty five dollars a month. Just like before. But I had triple my giving and the Lord providential words and reducing my expenses that allow that giving to go through. But he didn't increase my income. He didn't give me more money after his all said and done. He simply made it all work out. Moving forward, I can never see how you can make it work out. Looking backwards when God acts providential, you can always see what how God made it work out. But we always act before we can see that's what faces and so Faith is acting on God's word in such a way is that you're completely out of control. That failure is certain unless God intervenes according to his word. And that's what he did. And so that gave me this great confidence. I can trust the Lord. So I increased my giving to 20 percent as a way of life. And then fast forward. I'm going to give you a whole little set of testimonies are all focused on trusting the Lord because you'll see this pattern. Nineteen ninety seven. January 1997.

[00:32:02] I have a home with a mortgage payment. I have a car with a mortgage payment. If you ever had one of those.

[00:32:10] My wife was a stay at home mom. We had a small Beatty and another one that was coming that year.

[00:32:17] Our number two, we had five thousand dollars in savings and I was unemployed. And I gave the five thousand dollars in savings in the month of January to a missionary. So now we had nothing. And I did 13 different things to make money that year. My adjusted gross income, which is what you actually is, is what you end up keeping out of after any business expenses was eleven thousand eight hundred and eighty two dollars for the year.

[00:32:58] We had no savings and we continue to give 20 percent from every dollar we earned before we lived on anything. So let me ask you a question. You're a mom to live in. This is nineteen ninety seven. So 20 some odd years ago. Eleven thousand eight hundred eighty two dollars to pay a mortgage payment to pay a car payment to pay off food, all expenses, diapers and everything else. By the way, my wife had to have a root canal that year and it was eleven hundred dollars in cash that we had to pay. So you had to factor that in those eleven thousand eight hundred eighty two dollars, cover all those expenses now.

[00:33:48] And that was the year I got married. No. Okay.

[00:33:53] All right. So let me tell you even more. We never missed a payment on anything that year. We were never so much as even late on a payment. I don't think we even had a late charge on any payment. How can you do that?

[00:34:15] Looking back, I can see what guy did.

[00:34:17] But moving forward, we live by faith based entirely on his word that says you can out, out, give God's ability to take care of you when you give cheerfully. He will always provide for you.

[00:34:31] Does that make sense?

[00:34:34] All right. And then I want you to look up a verse, Hebrews ten thirty eight.

[00:34:45] Say ten or thirty eight. And my righteous ones will live by faith, but I will take no pleasure and anyone who turns away.

[00:34:58] Yeah, my version, but my righteous one shall live by faith. And if he shrinks back, that means turns away. My soul has no pleasure in him. The only way you can please the Lord is to live by faith, which is acting on what he says is true. Anytime you live by sight because you don't believe what he says is true, he takes no pleasure in you. So what we did that year, not two not boasting on me, but just showing how true God's word is. We live by faith. We didn't know how he was going to provide. But we knew he would. And therefore, we lived as if he would. And then he always did. So something else happened that year. In October, I one of the 13 things I did was starting a little business that I didn't think was going to go anywhere, and it ended up being the business that we still have today. But it goes even further. So that was October 1997 when I started that little business. Two years later. And I think it was October and maybe in September of nineteen ninety nine. In two years we bought a new home and the second most influential suburban city in Birmingham called this debut. And one of the nicest sections of that segment of that area. And we paid it off in five and a half months.

[00:36:43] Wow.

[00:36:46] That's the increase. Of what God says will come to pass. Whatever you say, so that all seed reproduces after its kind. You cannot give my ability to take care of you. You cannot. Out, give me to meet all your needs at all times and poor. If you go back to Malachi and test me now and this, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.

[00:37:18] Ok.

[00:37:20] And so I got to continue this story because it doesn't always end as nice as you think it might. So we buy our new home. We paid it off in five and half months. I then increased our giving from 20 percent to 40 percent and then I wanted a different house. OK. There is a home that is coming on the market over in Mountain Brook, which is the most influential of financial influentials area of Birmingham. And it was in the nicest section of Mountain Brook.

[00:37:56] And I wanted that house. And and I started to feel this nudge. By the Lord to increase my giving even more. More than 40 percent. And I'm going, no. And that nudge was persistent. Have you ever had one does know just by the law that just continues to persist?

[00:38:17] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:38:19] All right. Advice. Handle it now rather than later. OK. It's a lie. He's not gonna give up on you. You're eventually gonna have to do it. So I kept resisting and resisting. And then we took this trip down to a place called Marco Island, Florida, with a missions group that we're involved with. And late one night, I went out on the beach and just kind of wrestled with the Lord on this issue. And and basically, here's the wrestling increase you're giving. No. Why? Because I want this house. Increase your giving. No. Why? Because I want this house. I want to save up more money so I can buy this house. OK, the spirit versus the flash, right? Law versus grace. I mean, this whole thing I do the things I don't want to do because it's a sin in me. As Paul says. And and so. So then God changed his request rather than saying increase your giving. Do you know what he didn't said?

[00:39:28] You said give me give me the house. Why do you think he would say, give me the health?

[00:39:37] He wanted you to trust him with it instead of you trying to figure it out on your own.

[00:39:42] Yeah, almost. The house. Was keeping me from obeying him. It was the obstacle. Look with me real quickly, Matthew. Six twenty one.

[00:39:56] Paul?

[00:40:00] All right. Matthew Sick and there's 21.

[00:40:05] Wherever your treasure. There the desires of your heart will also be.

[00:40:11] That's right. For where your treasure is there, will your heart also be? My heart was not with the Lord.

[00:40:22] Because my heart was with the house. You make. Does that make sense?

[00:40:27] The house was my treasure and that's where my heart was. So he said, give me the house. And do you know what I said?

[00:40:36] Yeah, I said no.

[00:40:40] And then he said, give me the house and that's for a few more times. I finally said, OK, I'll give you the house. And so in this figurative illustration, I grabbed the house from my left side and I shifted it over and lifted it up to the Lord to my right side. And I gave him the house. And when I gave him the house.

[00:41:06] What followed with it? He know.

[00:41:12] That came later before it followed with It was my heart. Because where your treasure is, there also is your heart. So when I gave him my treasure, my heart went with it. By giving him my treasure, I gave him therefore my heart.

[00:41:29] You know what the law said in. Tell me. Now increase your giving. And you know what I said?

[00:41:41] I hope that is that okay? That's right. I said, okay, how much?

[00:41:47] You said because you say what happens a lot of times in our world of giving, especially in these offerings. OK. Because these are kind of their freewill offerings is we have obstacles that hold us back because they're our treasures. It may be school for the kids. It may be this vacation we're saving up for. It may be a new car. It may be moving to that new house.

[00:42:12] It may be buying new clothes. It may be anything. But when it becomes an obstacle to answering that nudge on your heart that the Lord is directing you to do, to test his words, to live by faith, then that obstacle becomes your sin.

[00:42:31] And it's impossible to please God with that sin, because now your heart is no longer with the father but with his creation. And he says, don't worship my creation, worship me. So when you identify whatever it is that's holding you back and you give that to the Lord, that treasure, your heart goes with it. And when the Lord has your heart, then you're willing to do anything he asks of you. Are these is this connecting a lot of dots?

[00:43:04] So then I said, OK, how much? He said 60 percent. I said, OK, we'll give 60 percent. And so for a long period of time, not not today, but for many years thereafter, we gave 60 percent of our income. 60 percent of everything we had. We gave back to the Lord and the Lord continued to sustain us.

[00:43:24] And and you cannot out give guys ability to take care of you. So does this mean that you ought to be giving 60 percent? No. The Lord chooses what he wants everyone to do. The key is to not resist what he's asking of you. He will let you know as you want to test his word. He will let you know what he wants you to do. The key is don't resist it. Because he has his best and highest will and desire for you. So just kind of wrapping up a lot of this stuff right now. I know that the Lord because I just know how the Lord works. The Lord is probably talking to you, to whoever is listening to this, that you've got to increase your giving because you've been holding back, because you've been giving by sight and not by faith. And in giving by faith, living by faith starts with giving him your treasure. Okay. Figure out what it is that's holding you back. And relinquish it to him so that your heart is with him.

[00:44:40] And then you can easily act on whatever he's calling you to do, so on.

[00:44:47] Maybe just put in maybe just some categories, some people, you know, maybe you need to do a three month test, go way out. I'm doing a three month test right now. That scares me. You know, a three month test back then 15 to 45 percent and giving. I didn't have a whole lot to lose. I'm doing a test right now for 90 days testing God's word. And it's kind of scary because just because of the magnitude of what I'm testing. So maybe do a three month test, just give got a chance to prove his promise is true in a short term test so you can see how he works. Okay. Or maybe others. Lord is just directing you to give increased your giving permanently. Okay.

[00:45:38] You're giving it X amount and you really fill in those. You need to be giving more and ask the Lord how much. And there's some of you that are listening to this that probably, hey, you know, all this is old news. I've been through this. I'm content. I don't feel any nudging by the Lord. And that's great. So I'm just kind of wrapping up what, you know, this whole concept of radical faith. It's acting on those promises of God, acting on the things he's promised us, acting on the things that he's directing us. It's living with a question that he would ask. Do you trust me? And your answer says, yes. And I'll prove my trust or my faith in you by doing the work. The actions taken, the direction that you've called me to do. And if you don't do that, remember of without faith, it is impossible to please him. So before we wrap up, Penny, since you're the only one I can get feedback from or questions, any questions or points of clarity or any comments.

[00:46:46] Before we wrap up this call, actually, does that last little bear that you were just talking about this of speaking to our audience and people that are listening? And I was thinking, you know, there's a lot of people that that might actually be giving more than their 10 percent like you did for so long, Beatty. And there may be thinking why or to give more than ten. And the thought that popped in my head was sometimes it doesn't always have to be financial. I know we're talking about finances right now. So absolutely. But maybe you're in one of those positions where you already give above plan and there's something else that you could still give that you're not sure what it is. And it could be things like your time sacrificing some of your schedule and things like that. I was just trying to categorize for myself personally places where my treasure could be, where my heart could be. And I know that scandal is a big one for us. We're just in a busy season of life. And so that was something that kind of stood out to me.

[00:47:44] You know, I think that's great because I'll just share personally kind of what's going on with me. And I share part of this. And a radical faith session before with Caroline, not with you. But there are two things that hurt me as you were talking on that. And I just want to share these because these may prompt some people to say, hey, I can step out that way also. The first thing is my quiet time. You know, the Lord says to give him the best of all, we have the first of everything. And so years back, I said, Lord, I want to have I want to honor you. And I want to trust you before I rely on me. And I want to honor you with the best of what I have, so not only financial giving, but I started thing about my time, my most productive time as a business owner is the first part of my day. That's before the chaos starts hitting. That's when I'm brightest and clearest and unable to really zone in and focus. So I said, Laura, I wouldn't give you the first part of my day. Not the leftovers. I'm not going to get up super early for I can barely stay awake. I want to give you that time of the day. That is crazy. To give up because it's the best time to be productive in the work you've called me to do, so my quiet time is in the mornings. You know, it's typically somewhere between seven and eleven.

[00:49:19] Okay. Plus or minus on those. But isn't the best part of my working day because I give that up and offer it to him as as my sacrifice for the best of what I have. And then the Lord has been directing me to what I call build his temple, use my teaching ability and my understanding of his scriptures and the things he's led me through to teach others how this whole radical faith teaching series started. And I have kept putting it off because business is so crazy hectic. It's always a struggle. Either it's feast or famine, but it's never stable. Okay. And and so there's been a lot of times where this is one of the things that's important but not urgent. And the Lord finally showed me it's important to me, Beatty, and therefore it should be urgent to you. So as part of my commitment to him is to take significant time out of my working day over and above what I do on my offering, my my quiet time offering and focus on. Doing these type of this type of work, which has nothing directly to do with business, but it's the best of what I have to offer him. And that's the offering sort. So what you're talking about is not just money. It goes beyond money. But I think most people need to start with their finances at the least, because that's where most people stand. Yes, but it's not just finances. It's much more than that.

[00:51:05] Yeah, every area of our lives, the best with my spouse, the best with my kids.

[00:51:10] Or again.

[00:51:13] All right, well, we'll wrap up. Hope you guys are enjoying this. We got some other great things coming. All right. Y'all have a great day. See you later.

P010

[00:00:00] Well, hi, everybody. This is an example. And I'm really excited to be on the phone with Beatty Carmichael today for our next session, I guess I was calling you Beatty. Is this a massive grabber and the creator of Agent Dominator, one of the top marketing expert in the real estate field. I'm super excited today, Beatty, because I believe we're going to be discussing the topic of financial stewardship.

[00:00:26] Yes. So this is gonna be part of our radical faith series, which means as if you're a real estate agent listening to this, we're not going to talk anything about real estate. We're gonna talk about stepping out by faith on the lord, on his word. So if that offends you, you don't like that. Just go turn off. Otherwise, you will get a lot out of today's call. I'm real excited about today. This is actually the session, Penny, and the next one. So today we're going to talk about tides and the next one we'll talk about offerings, because how people treat their money is a huge indicator of how much trust they place in God and in his word.

[00:01:06] So it's going to be a real, real fun time today. Paulson.

[00:01:11] All right. So I guess I called the meeting, so I'll get it started. Does that work?

[00:01:15] Oh, great.

[00:01:17] Okay. And so let me just do a quick review on faith and kind of where we've come from. Our come to this point so that we can then usher in what we're gonna talk about today. So Hebrews Eleven One says that faith is the assurance of things that are hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. Now, just a brief reminder, the things that are hoped for. That's a biblical hope for not a natural hope for. Naturally, we say I hope it doesn't rain, but it may rain or not in the biblical sense. What you hope for is when God has given you a promise and you hope for the fulfillment of the promise as a confident assurance. So that's why faith is the confident assurance of those things hoped for. But the most important part about this first. For what we're going to talk about moving forward is it's the conviction of things not seen. If we look over at Romans 10, 17, then it tells us where this faith comes from. How do we have this confident assurance? ROMANS 10 17 says faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ or the rama of Christ, the Greek word ream of which means in our very loose definition in the series. It's kind of it's God's message specifically for you. OK. Then we look at Hebrew, ze love and sex.

[00:02:38] And this tells us that without faith as it is, it is impossible to please him. So what we start to see is that faith, you can have this confident assurance because the Lord Jesus tells you you can't. The Lord Jesus gives you a truth or a promise. We don't see it, but we act by it. Because if we don't act by it, if we without faith, is it impossible to please the Lord? Ultimately, we're going to kind of build into on a later session that faith is really seeing things from God's perspective. So then we have no passage we talked about in the series. James 217. And it says that even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead, been by itself. So what we find is kind of this this conundrum that a lot of people struggle with. I thought faith is believing, but you say it has to have works. James says, I'll show I'll show you my faith by my works. And so what this shows us is that when we see from God's perspective, we do the things that God does. If we say we see from his perspective and we don't do the things he does, then we really don't see from his perspective. We think we do. But really, we're seeing from our perspective, because this is kind of makes sense spending.

[00:04:02] Ok, so then we find that faith can not exist by itself. This is the key. Faith is always accompanied by works. And so one of the things we're going to talk about is how we handle our money, because that's part of our works. And it exhibits what our faith really is. And just a little simple definition that we've developed along the way is faith is acting under clearly defined will of God as revealed to his word. That's in the form of a promise or a direction. And one other part of that faith, that faith is usually stepping out in such a way that failure is certain unless God intervenes according to his word. If failure is not certain, if there is no personal risk, it's not faith. Does that make sense into the room to do that?

[00:04:59] Wah, wah, wah, wah. Okay. Challenge.

[00:05:05] Yeah, it is. It's a huge challenge, but it is exciting. You know, I want to do a whole whole session on on healings, okay? Because that's kind of stepping out in faith and you're nervous and you hope guy's gonna others first thing go down about to ask him to. Okay. But, you know, that's just a little painful thing.

[00:05:28] Let's shift into financial stewardship. And one last conclusion. I want an interest for this quick review. One last conclusion is faith is actually nothing but a choice if we really look at it in terms of what it is. It's a choice to act on what God's word says and therefore it's an act of the will. Okay. Now, I don't want to. I'm not making a one to one connection. Faith is not. You can't will yourself to have faith. But ultimately, our works are done, are exhibited by the choice we make based on the faith we have. Okay. We can choose to act on what God has told us or we can choose not to act. And the choice is usually based on where we look. If we keep our eyes focused on the Lord, we choose to act in that direction. If we take our eyes off the Lord and put him on the natural circumstances, then it changes our actions. And just like Peter walking on the water in one way, you get a miracle, in the other way you get consequence. So with that said, the Bible talks a lot about money and it talks about ties and offerings. And and there's kind of a misnomer that comes out a lot of times. You've heard, I'm sure, Penny, that we're we live under grace and not under law.

[00:06:58] Right. Okay.

[00:07:00] The question is. Is tithing part of the law? What do you think?

[00:07:08] I do believe it was part of the original law. Yes.

[00:07:12] Ok. All right. So now we have where the conundrum is, should we ties? Do we have two ties or is that part of the law that we're no longer under? OK. Do you remember when the law came?

[00:07:28] Oh, man, I wonder why the first or Bamberg, huh?

[00:07:33] And let's talk about the person through whom it came. Do you remember the person through whom the law was given?

[00:07:42] Oh, I know.

[00:07:44] Yeah. So Moses was the one who received the law. OK. Now, when we use the word law, there's actually several laws are going on.

[00:07:54] Romans Seven says that God's laws are spiritual and therefore flesh cannot fulfill them. And so we have Paul talking about spiritual laws that still apply today. Those are different from the law that we're no longer under. The law that we're no longer under is what is commonly termed as the Mosaic Law, because they came from Moses and the put the Mosaic Law was designed to do as we find out in Romans. Is this designed to expose us to sin? So it it does two things it exposes us to sin. It tells us from physical actions what we must do to be fully righteous and therefore we can never fully, fully be righteous and fulfill all the elements of the law. And therefore, that shows us that we need a savior. Does that kind of make sense? Those little connections.

[00:08:53] And so this is different than the law in Romans 7, where Paul talks about the spiritual that God's laws are spiritual. And then right after seven in eight, he says. Therefore, now we're no longer, you know, under condemnation. And he says to live by the spirit, not by the flesh of mine. On the spirit is life and peace of mind on the flesh of sin and death. So he's making a separation not on the Mosaic Law, but on God's spiritual laws that continue to operate and continue to need to be followed spiritually. So with that said, when we talk about tithing, I think I'm going to show you that tithing is not part of the Mosaic Law. But it is part of God's spiritual laws that we still operate under. So the question really comes up is this if Christ is your all. If you say that your surrender to the Lord, you're following him, the question is, does he really have your all? I remember someone once said, you can tell what a man believes. By looking at his checkbook and looking at his calendar, where he spends his time and where he spends his money, we'll show you what he ultimately believes in. And so does he ultimately have all that you got? And here's the big thing I find. If the Lord doesn't have your money, he doesn't have your heart. Do you remember? I forget exactly where I think it's in, Matthew. But Jesus says where your treasure is there. Will your heart be also.

[00:10:27] Okay. So we have to look and say, where's our heart? And we can look at our heart by looking at our treasure. How do we handle our money? Do we handle it the way Jesus would have handled it? Or do we handle it the way that. The natural man would handle it. So let's look at a couple of things. Do you have your Bible handy?

[00:10:49] I do. Great. Let's go to Genesis 14. Genesis 14. We're going to read three or four verses versus 17 through 20, let me give you the background on this. This is about Abraham.

[00:11:07] Abraham has just gone out and conquered a bunch of kings who stole, who came through and stole Abraham's wives and the wives of his family and his servants and all of his belongings and those of the town in which he was living. So Abraham takes his his male servants. They go and conquer all these kings and bring it back here. So. So let's read this right now. So Genesis 14 versus 17 through 20. Can you read that for us?

[00:11:39] I think after Abraham returned from his victory over Cal Doran and all his allies, the king bottom went out to meet him in the valley. And there. That is the King Valley. And now isn't that the king of Salem and the prince and gardener's pie brought Auburn and bread and wine. Now President Blessed Abraham with this blessing, blessed the Abraham. My God, most high creator of heaven and earth, and blessed the gardener's tie. Who has defeated your enemies for a year when Abraham gave no president. Appoint them all the good that he had recovered.

[00:12:20] Wow. So let's put this in chronological perspective. Did Abraham come before Moses or after Moses?

[00:12:32] Therefore, I believe.

[00:12:34] And do you have an idea? Any idea about how long before or time frame?

[00:12:40] No, honestly, I would be guessing.

[00:12:43] All right. Four hundred and thirty years, roughly. Remember, it was Abraham's grandson. Jacob, who became Israel that then moved to Egypt during the famine. And then they lived there 400 years before God brought them out through Moses and the Exodus. Okay. So what we have is. Abraham this is before he became Abraham. Abraham. Four hundred and thirty years before the Mosaic Law. Gives a tenth of all that he has to the priest of God most high. In other words, if we were to use today's terms, he gives a tenth to the Lord.

[00:13:33] All right, so let me see if this makes sense. Malcolm is a deck king of Salem. He's a priest of God most high. They come and have a worship ceremony with food and wine and a broom takes a tenth of all that the Lord has given him and gives it to milk Hassidic. So do you see this ties concert going on right now? OK.

[00:13:57] So this ties. Is long before the Mosaic Law. Let's look at another passage, Genesis 28, verse 22. And as you turn there and and almost read it. So this now is talking about Jacob. OK, so you have just to put this in perspective, you have Abraham who becomes Abraham, his son. The promise is Isaac and Isaac, son of the promise is Jacob. Okay, so this is now Abrams grandson and Jacob. God changes Jacob's name to Israel. Israel has 12 sons and this is now the 12 tribes of Israel. OK, so this is kind of chronology of what's going on. So read Genesis 28, verse 22.

[00:14:53] Jacob thinking on this memorial pillar former will become a prophet worshipping God. And I will present a bomb or oracle.

[00:15:04] Wow. Here we have a tenth again. Did God ever tell them? Here's my law you had to give a tenth or do you think God may have somehow implanted it in his soul or somehow communicate? I mean, DDC. They're both giving a tenth. The question is why? Okay, so now let's turn to Leviticus. Leviticus is more of the Mosaic Law.

[00:15:34] So now what we have is we have a we have a convergence of laws, a convergence of spiritual laws that have not been fulfilled in Christ. And we have that converging with the Mosaic Law that has been fulfilled in Christ. And it's hard to separate unless you start to look at it in layers and kind of understand it. So, for example, let me see, the Ten Commandments is not a law given by Moses.

[00:16:05] Given that given by God to Moses, by God through Moses.

[00:16:09] Okay, perfect. So is that part of the Mosaic Law?

[00:16:16] Ok, so you shall only have one got no other gods before me. We no longer have to follow that because we're no longer under law, but under grace, right?

[00:16:27] Correct. Are you sure you're not at all three do not commit adultery. We no longer have to follow that because we're no longer under law, but under grace.

[00:16:36] Right. Is that what we're saying? Do not murder you. Not still. Do not lie. Honor your mother and father. Keep the Sabbath. Holy. Honor the Lord. Your God. Serve him only. Have these been done away with that? We're no longer under because we're under grace. Or are these still valid laws that are spiritual laws that still operate today?

[00:16:59] Well, I absolutely think they are valid spiritual laws and we still operate in a different way.

[00:17:06] Ok, so. They're still valid today, is doing a sacrifice. Every Passover or having a feast of booze during that timeframe. Are those part of the Mosaic Law that Moses gave us?

[00:17:27] Well, are we still to do those two day now?

[00:17:32] Ok, what's the difference then? OK. You say this is rumbling. The difference is the Mosaic Law, our actions we were to do that pointed us to God, but they were not. The spiritual laws that are still active today of which do not commit adultery, I would say is still a spiritual law that God still says that's still valid today. In other words, it's not the law we've been released from or that's been fulfilled from. It's still part of the law. Do not fornicate. Do not commit adultery. Paul's been talking about that all through his epistles.

[00:18:08] And yet Paul's not under law, but under grace. So we can start to see that not everything that are the laws given by Moses are the law that we're no longer under. And that's what we're going to see here in Leviticus. So let's read Leviticus 27 30.

[00:18:28] They were thoroughly. One of the parties on the land, whether grain from the field or fruit from the tree, belongs to the Lord and nothing fell apart. Holy.

[00:18:43] Perfect. Okay. My translation says, does all the time of the land. Your says one tenth of the land. OK, so here we have now the definition of what a tie is. So that one tent is. So we have Abraham and Jacob. Four hundred plus years before the law was given the Mosaic Law giving a tenth. Now we have Moses defining what this is. The same way he defined the other spiritual law as you shall only have one God. You shall keep the Sabbath. Holy shall honor your mother and father. You shall not murder shall not commit. Adultery is not still all these things. Okay, so we have now this definition of a law, the love, the tenth the type. And we find three things about the tide. Number one is it's a tenth part. This is why Abraham gave a tenth to male CASA deck. And while Jacob says to the Lord, I will give a tenth to you because ties as a tenth part, that's 10. That's the actual definition. Hebrew word translate tight. The second thing we find out about this.

[00:19:59] Is if the Lord's. That's what they said. That's all the tie to the land of the sea, to the land or the fruit of the tree is the Lords. So we find that a ties belongs to the Lord.

[00:20:17] And the other thing we find out, it is his sacred instead of apart, in other word, it is wholly.

[00:20:26] When God calls something holy, does that carry of special significance with it? Or is that just a. Just a simple designation?

[00:20:37] I think it has. I think those are pretty weighty significance. If the Lord himself is calling something holy.

[00:20:44] That's right. It is a very weighty, special significance. And when? When the Lord through Moses says the tide is mine, it's holy to me. There is a huge weight of significance on this that we got to understand because most people live in financial bondage because they are violating a spiritual law, the law that Paul talks about in Romans 7, that God's laws are spiritual, not fleshly. All the Mosaic Law was fleshly, but the spiritual laws are still going and this is one of them. So we find that the ties is a tenth part. It belongs to God and it is holy. Just as God is holding. What does that mean? Okay, so now let's talk about tides versus offerings, because on this next session, we'll actually talk about offerings and that's when it gets really exciting. But this is just laying the groundwork. So tide versus offering a tide is what you give to the Lord. By his command.

[00:21:57] Okay, not by Mosaic Law, but by spiritual law. It is what you give to the Lord. By his command. And it is a tenth percent. If you say I'm tithing five percent, you're not. Because the definition of a tide is a tenth part. Okay. So it's a tent that you give back to the Lord by his command. An offering is what you give to the Lord. Over and above what already is designated as holy to the Lord. Okay, so while we can we say, you know, God owns it all.

[00:22:34] Which is true. All that I have is the Lord's, which is true. But there is a difference between that versus. The first tenet belongs to me, says the Lord Almighty. There's something about him claiming that first tenth is his versus the general understanding that all belongs to him. Are you following this so far? And so that which he claims is his is more significant his than that which just generally belongs to him. So when we give an offering is when we give from that part that's been entrusted to us.

[00:23:13] But as. Over and above that part, debt already is claimed by the Lord. So that's the difference between the tide and an offering. And that's where we'll talk next time. So then the question comes up. It's OK if I'm to give a shit of all that I have, do I give net or gross? What do you think?

[00:23:38] We have always personally given on the ground because we feel like it. Like you just said, Beatty, it's all the Lord's anyway. We actually have a saying in our family that, you know, some people will get hung up on. Giving a tenth because they're like, oh, gosh, that's 10 percent. That's a lot. We've always looked at it as we get to keep 90 and he's only asking for 10 percent. I mean, you know, it's kind of those percentages that help keep things in perspective, but we've always tied on the growth.

[00:24:11] Good. And I have to. But let's now back it up scripturally. Okay. Okay. Spaniards don't count. Let's see what God's word says. Right. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Let's turn to Proverbs 3.

[00:24:26] And we're going to read versus nine and ten Proverbs 3 versus 9 and 10.

[00:24:32] Okay. Honor the Lord with your well and with the best part of everything that you produce. Then he will fill your barns with grain and your that will overflow with good wine.

[00:24:47] And my translation says, Honor the Lord from your wealth in front. The first of all, your produce. The first is the best. Okay. But the first is the best of all your produce. So here's a simple question.

[00:25:03] Let's say you get a paycheck is net all or partial once you are sole? That's right. So.

[00:25:13] So now we have the biblical mandate that we're to give from all that the Lord has given us. So that means that when we tithe, we ties off of gross and not off of net. Okay. Makes sense.

[00:25:28] All right. So. So now let's ask another question. Let's say you own a business, because now it gets kind of complicated. You got all kinds of sources of revenues, all kinds of expenses, all kinds of very thing. How do you manage this when you have a business? I struggle with this for years because I've been in business for myself for many years. And here's what I've concluded. Now, this is my opinion. OK, as opposed to God's word. My opinion is. God blesses us with what's leftover. That makes sense.

[00:26:04] Okay, so after I get all the revenues in, I pay all my expenses of cost of goods, sold my rent and taxes, business taxes and not personal taxes.

[00:26:15] I pay all my employees. Okay. I pay all my lease payments, whatever's left leftover. That now hits my you know, it hits my benefit.

[00:26:28] That is mine and that is from is the portion from which I pay and do my giving in my tithing. So that's just an easy way. Okay.

[00:26:42] And so does this apply to personal expenses? No, because personal expenses are not part of what it took to generate the business revenue. So. So that's a simple designation. So like if you're a realtor, you're listening to this. Okay. You have your MLS fees. You have your broker fees. Okay. You have expenses you spend in marketing and helping fix up clients homes and stuff if you do that. All of those are business expenses in my perspective. They help you generate what the Lord blesses you with. What's leftover and what's what's leftover is what you end up taking off. So that's kind of a real simple opinion of that. So now here comes a good questions. Do you tie during bad times? Have you have you and Brian ever had bad times financially?

[00:27:37] Absolutely. All right.

[00:27:41] So the question is, when you can't pay all your bills, do you still tight?

[00:27:48] Well, this OK, so we're going to I'm going to repeat what you just said. This is personal opinion. I can't necessarily say that I have found this to be backed up in scripture anywhere. But Brian and I personally, when we know. Okay, Lord, we can't afford to pay this and this and this and still tied. Something's gotta give. Clearly, we don't want to default on our mortgage and things like that that need to be paid. So in those moments when we know we cannot give a tenth, we give what we can give because we know that the Lord. And that's just our personal opinion. We know that the Lord is still going to honor that, even though it's not 10 percent, because he's looking at our heart. He obviously doesn't want us to lose our house either.

[00:28:37] So. All right.

[00:28:39] So now I'm going to challenge your perspective. I don't want to ask you that same question again in about 10 minutes. I'll walk you through a few things and then I'd like an honest answer. If you still believe that or if you believe now something different.

[00:28:57] Ok. All right. Good. So this is gonna be fine.

[00:29:02] All right. So I can't pay all my bills.

[00:29:05] I can't pay my mortgage and do the tie and all that stuff. How do I handle the tide? Let's go back to. The first. Of the issues turn back, if you would. Leviticus, 27 30. Okay.

[00:29:21] Ok.

[00:29:23] And read that one more time.

[00:29:28] One tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain from the field or fruit from the tree, belongs to the Lord and must be set apart to him as holy.

[00:29:40] What does it say? Must be set apart is not optional. If you're in tough times.

[00:29:46] Must is a pretty direct word, I wouldn't say that's an optional.

[00:29:51] All right. It must be set apart as holy. It's Holy See, it's strictly optional, you can use it for personal needs if you have a need for it.

[00:30:00] No holy is the Lord.

[00:30:03] Ok. So we have one scripture that says. It must be set aside because it is holy to the Lord, because it belongs to the Lord already. My starting to persuade, you know.

[00:30:17] Ok, so here's the question. Should you take that which is sacred and holy and must be satisfied to God to pay your bills and give it to man?

[00:30:30] According to that picture. No.

[00:30:32] Ok, so now let's look at another answer coming at the same question. What part of what you earn should you give?

[00:30:43] Ok, so let's go back to Proverbs 3 9 and tell me what Proverbs 3 9 says.

[00:30:54] Okay. Three. By noon. Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the very best part of everything we produce.

[00:31:03] All right. So let me ask you, is the very best the first of all, you have or what's left over after you've given man what he wants?

[00:31:13] The very best and the first. Yeah. OK. Off the top. The glass.

[00:31:19] Ok, not the net. What you just said earlier that you gave off a gross, but then you said you actually gave off of that if things got tough.

[00:31:27] That's right.

[00:31:29] All right. So should you give benefits to leftover or from the first before anything else is given?

[00:31:38] Before the first, absolutely, yeah.

[00:31:42] So this is kind of where I was going, and I'm not badgering you. I'm not trying to spank you on this boat. But this is this. This is where a lot of people are. And this is why I said you can look at someone's checkbook and see the priority in the faith they place in the Lord and his promises. Do they act by faith or act by sight? Let me ask you a question. If you give based on what's in your checkbook, but based on other expenses that you have.

[00:32:13] Is that giving by faith or giving by sight?

[00:32:18] If I'm looking at what's in the textbook, I'm giving up on that, that's giving off a fight.

[00:32:24] Okay. So if you make your decision based off of go to pay all these bills and I still want to tithe and so you choose tithing or not based on your bills that state or face.

[00:32:38] That's by say.

[00:32:40] Yeah. All right. And if we go back up to I won't turn there. But Hebrews eleven six, it says without faith it is impossible to please him. You see, so this this this problem that we're running into when we say we, I don't have enough money, so I'm not going to take on this.

[00:32:58] This time that I have no faith.

[00:33:02] It means that ultimately that you're not trusting the Lord. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

[00:33:09] And it also means that you're not pleasing the Lord because you're not trusting him. It also means you're not pleasing him because you're taking holy offering and giving it to Martin. It's all these. We have these spiritual laws that are all playing a part here. OK. Not the Mosaic Law, but the spiritual laws that came long before the Mosaic Law and we don't really understand them. And because of that, we don't really understand the consequences that it brings us. We think what we go through in life financially is just the way it is. But yet we don't realize a lot of times we bring it on ourselves. Peter, walking on the border, I'll keep using this over and over again until I'm blue in the face because it's a perfect example. Same situation, two completely different outcomes simultaneously, based entirely on whether he acted by faith or acted by sight. So let's look at a third answer. OK, so the first answer do you tie during bad times? The first answer is it's wholly. It must be set apart. Second answer is what part of what you earn? Do you tithe from this third answer is whose is it? Okay, so we go back to Leviticus 27 30 again.

[00:34:31] It says that all the tie to the land is the Lord. It belongs to the Lord. Right. So let me ask you a question. I'm going to loan you my car. OK, it's your car. You're using it, but it's mine. Who owns that car? Either. OK, I say I need it back on Monday. And Monday comes around and you have a trip that you want to take. And you now make a choice, do I return the card, Ebadi? That was my agreement. Or do I take the car on a weeklong trip? If you take the car. Did you just steal it from me? Well, OK, so now ownership plays into how do we handle this type? So if you have something of the Lords and you don't return it to him. Isn't that still stealing? OK, so now let's bring this into a natural illustration. So you have a bunch of bills coming due and you're struggling because you don't have enough money to pay all the bills. So you go down to the local convenience store and you rob it and you get four or five hundred dollars out of the cash register and now you have money to pay your bills. Does that honor the Lord?

[00:36:07] No. Okay.

[00:36:09] Well, the Lord bless you and say, well, I understand your heart in the matter that you really want to honor me, but you just tight financially, so I overlook you're stealing from an okay.

[00:36:22] Which they think is worth stealing from man or stealing from God.

[00:36:28] Oh, well, if you still for man, I think you're probably stealing from God as well.

[00:36:34] Ok. But in this light, in this context, what do you think is a worst action to to sin against Manderson, against God? I do.

[00:36:47] Yeah. Okay. So now let's look at Malachi 3. This is the last book in the Bible. He's actually an Italian prophet called Malarkey. That's a joke.

[00:37:01] Malachi. Malachi 3.

[00:37:06] We're going to start. We're going to be versus eight or nine. But let me give you the background. Malachi is written to the Levi's and the priest. Do you know whether it's the role of the Levi? It's in the priest's.

[00:37:20] I don't recall, excellent.

[00:37:22] Ok. So out of the 12 tribes, one tribe are the live vertical tribe. Believe it's their whole role is to serve the Lord. They are the staff of the church. They are the pastors. They are the associate pastors. They're the the people who are employed by the church. Their whole function, their whole livelihood is serving the Lord. Everyone else, they out there, they're out there. And they have business. They have farms. They earn money. And they bring all their ties and their offerings into the Lord Storehouse, which we would call today into the church. OK. They give to the church. They give to ministry and they leave lights. Are the people like the missionaries, the parishes and those people that go out and then use that? Use those funds. And that's how they're supported. You follow me so far.

[00:38:15] Ok. So the leave lights were also under the spiritual law of tithing. And they were supposed to give a tenth of all that they received into the storehouse as well during this period of time. They aren't doing it. So now pick up Malachi 3 versus 8 and 9.

[00:38:40] Just eight and nine. Yes. OK.

[00:38:43] Should people cheat God yet you have cheated me. But you ask, what do you mean? When did we ever cheat you? You have cheated me of the tides and offerings due to me. You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating on me.

[00:39:02] While you are under a blessing, is that what you said? It does to say, I understand your heart and I know you're trying to do good, but you just don't have enough. And so I'll continue to bless you as that's what he says. No.

[00:39:18] So what do you think it means with the curse? Is that good or bad? Not bad.

[00:39:24] So does that mean if we put it in financial terms? Does that mean financial blessings in abundance or probably financial lack of funding to lack?

[00:39:37] So when we're in lack and we use gods ties to pay, man. We don't get ahead.

[00:39:47] Because God said, I curse you.

[00:39:51] Because you have taken my ties, are you following what Malachi says? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:39:57] Okay. We're going to talk about the next pass. Next part of that, probably next time. So here we have. The third answer. Whose is it and what's the consequence? If we use it wrongly.

[00:40:15] Do you remember? Let's go back. I want to talk really quickly. Holy. Remember when the Lord directed Moses to build the ark, the Ark of the Covenant? Was it holy or was it just normal?

[00:40:33] Holy.

[00:40:34] It was holy. Holy. Right. And placement of the ark is in the holy of holies. And how many people got to go in there?

[00:40:45] The only one. Only one. The priest, right?

[00:40:48] That's right. Yeah. OK.

[00:40:50] So now you remember when David is bringing the ark back and it's on an ox cart and a two tons of the priests are walking beside it and a cart stumbles put at risk the ark falling off the cart. So one of those priests I was walking beside stuck his hand out to protect the ark, to keep it from falling on the ground.

[00:41:13] And then what happened to him? Put it God to. He was killed, right? He was killed instantly. Fly. It's a big question. Why did God kill him?

[00:41:24] That is a good question. You know the answer. I really don't. Because I've struggled with that because it was like he said, he's reaching out for help.

[00:41:35] Yeah, I said he had a good heart. Danny surely God will show grace. But here's what happened. As soon as he struck that guy, dead guy's next word was to David. You treated my holy ark as profane. I told you always, you only carry with poles on the shoulders of the priest and you put it on a cart and you had a man touched my ark never to happen because it is holy. This is what God thinks about when he says holy. It is serious business, as you said earlier. It's very weighty. And so unbeknownst to Dave and unbeknownst to the man who had a good heart, he violated a spiritual law on something God considers holy. That's what's going on here in Malachi. The Levi's were violating the spiritual of what God says is holy. The spiritual law that far predates the Mosaic Law. And because they violate it, they're being coerced. They don't even realize that so much of the current challenges that they're going through right now is because of one thing, they're not tithing. And I want to give you a real interesting story. So my pastor who started our church. He's now pastor emeritus. But when he was pastoring, he had a business man come up to him and say, here's my pastor's name is Frank Parker. And the businessman said, Frank, I need prayer. Would you pray for me? He said, What's up? Said, almost about to lose my business. I'm almost about to go into bankruptcy. He said, All these things are happening. I'm losing accounts, I'm losing money. Nothing's you know, I need prayer. You know, the first thing that Frank asked him.

[00:43:36] What is it? Are you tithing?

[00:43:41] And he says, no, I can't afford a child. Frank said, you can't afford not to tide. And he starts to point out this stuff. And he prays for him and said, Lord, help. Call this guy's bill, this name Bill. Just to put some names to, you know, Lord, as a you bless Bill's business, that you would encourage him to honor you with his ties first and that he would just take care of, you know, something like that. But he instructed Bill that the tide is the first of all, you have not what's leftover. That is holy. It must be set apart for the Lord. And without setting apart for Lord, a lot of his financial problems could be caused by God cursing his business because it's a violation of God's holy spiritual law. So then Frank sees him about a year later.

[00:44:37] I think I have the time frame right and says, Bill, how's business? Oh, it is booming. We are doing more business than we've ever done. We're just making more money and all this stuff. And Frank says, that's fantastic. How, you know. And he says, pray for me some more. I say, I will. Frank said, I will. How's your tithing? You know what Bill said?

[00:45:04] He said he's doing it.

[00:45:06] He said tithing. Do you know how much money that would be, how much money we're making? I can't afford a tie. There'd be too much. So here's Frank's prayer. Lord, please bring his business back down to the level where he can afford to ties. And those are no, no, no, no, I'll tell Ty. I'll drive. Okay. But it kind of gets the point back. A crisis. Sometimes we think we can't afford to ties because we don't have enough. But we don't realize what we're actually doing. Sometimes we have so much we think we can't afford to take because it'd be so much and we don't realize what we're doing. The curse that God will bring upon a nation is the same type of curse God brings upon it. But an individual just the same way that the blessing he'll bring upon a nation is similar to the blessing he'll bring upon an individual. When we follow the Lord and step out by faith and follow his word and honor him, first of all that he gives us.

[00:46:03] He blesses us, whether it's an individual, a family or a nation, would you agree with that?

[00:46:09] Well, we do.

[00:46:11] Ok, so that same thing happens when we withhold those things that belong to him.

[00:46:18] When we act by sight and not by faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. So when we start to pull back from our tithing because we can't afford to. That doesn't please the Lord. It's violating his word and there will be consequences. Those consequences may be financial. They may be in other areas, but there will be a withholding of blessings and therefore the introduction of curses because he will discipline his people to correct them to go the right way. Would you agree with that?

[00:46:58] Well, I do.

[00:47:00] Ok, so now let me ask you the question again. I tell you I was going to ask is, did you try during bad times? I know you gave me your opinion originally. Has your opinion changed or how?

[00:47:10] Oh, well, I absolutely will.

[00:47:14] Ok. So. So here's this kind of wrapping up. You know, this whole thing of financial stewardship, it's really a it's not so much about money. It's about faith. It's about how we see God, how we believe his word and how we choose to obey him, because tithing is a choice. You can either. Obey, which is acting by faith or disobey, which is acting by sight. And this is kind of where I'm saying that living by faith more than anything else is simply a choice, is choosing which one we believe and therefore of which one we act on. Any thoughts on this? Any insights that hit you? Before we wrap up the call.

[00:48:05] Just change of change of perspective and just sort of seeing it all come together from beginning to end. And the promise of blessing. That's the biggest thing, is focusing on the promise of blessing if you're doing it the way the Lord designed. And not living in fear of there not being enough. Because if God says there would be. Then I have to try that faith part.

[00:48:35] Well, the next session, we're going to talk about offerings and I'm share some really cool stories on that, just as testimony to how good the Lord is and how much he can bless when you honor him faithfully by his word. So on. So we'll get there on the next session.

[00:48:56] Sounds great. I look forward to it.

[00:48:58] All right, well, we'll wrap up this call and look forward to the next one.

[00:49:05] I did, too. Thanks so much, Beatty.

[00:49:07] All right.

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[00:00:00] This is the Get Radical Faith podcast. And I'm Beatty Carmichael. This podcast is all about stepping out by faith and trusting the Lord in your life. Get more resources on our Web site.

[00:00:11] Get radical faith dot com. And now here's the next episode of our podcast.

[00:00:18] Today, I'm excited that we're going to be talking about another topic, a radical thing. Beatty, would you like to give our listener here a little disclaimer? Well, what's is going to be about?

[00:00:29] Yes, I would. And also one little disclaimer for those who've been listening. These you'll notice that Penny is not Caroline. So we're excited to have you on these calls moving forward. As far as today's topic. So most of our guests, Ella, is calling you topics, as you know, is all about getting sellers calling you. Today's topic is not today is all about Jesus. OK. So if that offends you, feel free to turn off this particular podcast and listen to the next session. When we talk about business, but otherwise, we're going to talk about a personal relationship with the Lord and how to live by radical faith. How's that for a good disclaimer?

[00:01:08] I think that's awesome.

[00:01:10] I love it, too. OK, so let's see where we've been going.

[00:01:14] So the last topic I was talking about, the topic of kind of getting out of the boat and the source stepping out in a radical fashion with faith. And today, I want to talk a little bit about what it means to believe in faith a little bit different. But there is this conflict between the natural and the spiritual. And there's there's always this conflict. And I guess the kind of focus, the kind of message on this is actually going to be sort of a short topic. But living a life of radical faith is a constant conflict between choosing to focus on God's promises and trying to ignore what we see in the natural does.

[00:02:02] Does that make sense? Penny?

[00:02:06] Well, any and I'm catching you off guard, but any personal experience come to mind that might kind of clarify that in your life or maybe how you have battled the same issue in your life?

[00:02:19] Oh, for sure. I think, first of all, this is where my feel like there may maybe just the old dry cell phone in Italy. So based on what I can see in the natural because the natural is in my day every day, it's best that I see the bills that keep coming. Well, you know, the finances might not be there that lines or something. You know, things like that that are just easy to take my focus off of what I should be looking at. It's easier to look at the natural and be distracted by what's going on in the natural and really to lose sight of the fact that I'm working even though I caught you with my eye.

[00:03:04] So true. In fact, for you mentioning that there are two stories that came to mind.

[00:03:08] One is actually at your church and one is a friend of mine who used to work for me years back. So the lady at your church, her name is Yvonne, and she went on a missions trip with a group called Global Awakening. I think it is. And just had a great time over in Kenya. And so they're taking another trip down to Brazil. And he really wants to go. But three thousand dollars and she doesn't have the money. So she's been praying for it. And she was sharing with me this past Saturday that a friend at work called her up at work and said, hey, Yvonne, can you meet me downstairs? And she said, yes. So she went downstairs and met him.

[00:03:46] And he said, you know, he's just an average worker, not no super special, super high income. We see my wife and I've been praying about your trip to Brazil and we'd like to help you out with. And he gave her an envelope and she said, oh, thank you so much. Thinking is it gonna be, you know, maybe 100 couple hundred dollars? Now, the trip to Brazil is like three months from now, two or three months from now. So plenty of time to try to raise money. She gets back a fair and open set and there's three thousand dollars in cash.

[00:04:15] The entire trip totally paid for. And just thinking, you know, how we look in the natural and you go, how in the world can I afford this? And yet God has already made her way in that kind of go, oh, that's so good.

[00:04:29] He saw that movie before he even really started to panic about the.

[00:04:33] Yes. And I won't tell you another story.

[00:04:36] So my programmer years back, he's since gone off and start his own business. But he he and his wife moved into this house and it was a rental house initially. And then they wanted to buy it, but they needed thirty five hundred dollars for a downpayment. And they did not have thirty five hundred. So in the natural, there is no way we can buy this house. And then they go to church one day. And this is the most amazing thing. A couple walks up to him. No one knew about this house and said the Lord put it on our heart that he wants us to give you this money. And it was a check for thirty five hundred dollars. Exactly what is needed further down now?

[00:05:20] Yeah. And this is what's so cool about the Lord is we can't keep our eyes focused on the natural because the natural is ruled by the supernatural. What happens in the natural is real by God's truth of who he is. And all the goodness that he has and all the promises that he makes are not going to be seen in the natural until he chooses to manifest it. And so when we look in the natural and say, this must be my reality, that's not true, because God's truth trumps reality all the time. And if we want to walk by faith and live by faith, we have to believe in faith, which is to believe his word first before we believe our eyes.

[00:06:01] And there's a passage. Second Corinthians 5 7 says we walk by faith, not by sight. And I think this is really kind of what it means is we can't live our lives based on what we see and believe that to be truth. What we see is true because it's our reality, but it's not fixed. Truth is fixed. Jesus says I think, what is it? I think we call it the high priestly prayer. John, 17, Jesus is praying to the father on behalf of the apostles. And I guess all of disciples of his. And he says to the Lord, you know, your word is truth and truth is fixed.

[00:06:42] And that's why we can step out by faith. You know, if we go back to Hebrews, see love in one. Okay. We're gonna test your Bible knowledge real quick. Any other way for those listening to us? This is pennies, if you've figured out first. Radical faith call and speed. She doesn't know quite how much I push back on her. So do you recall he briefly loving one by chance, is talking about faith?

[00:07:09] I believe that that talks about faith being the reality of what we hope for is the thing that we cannot see.

[00:07:18] Bingo. It is the reality of what we hope for now. In the biblical terms, hope is different than what we express as hope. You and I, in the natural, we say I hope it doesn't rain. Okay. And what that means is our desire is that it doesn't rain, but we really don't know what's going to happen. Does that make sense?

[00:07:41] Whoa, whoa.

[00:07:43] In the biblical term analogy, hope is when God is given a promise. And now we look forward expectantly toward it as a truth yet to be manifest. So if God said it's not going to rain today, then we say, you know, my hope is that it does not rain. But it's not going to rain because that's a biblical. How does that make sense, manmade kind of can confuse that a little bit warmer than that. OK, so so faith is the reality of what we hope for. It is the reality of what's actually going to happen. And as the evidence of things that we have not seen. And so this whole idea of faith is, is we root our root our eyes in God's word, which is truth. And it overcomes everything going on that is conflict with what we see. Now, I want to give you just a couple examples scripturally on this. Do you by chance have your Bible handy? I do.

[00:08:46] Great. Let's look up Exodus 34 21. Just a short verse as you bring this up. I'll give people kind of background so access. This passage in Exodus is part of the what we'll call the Mosaic Law. And. And in this particular section is another law called God's Ten Commandments. OK, now we're no longer under law, but under grace. But that doesn't mean that the Ten Commandments are not the law we're under. OK. Those are spiritual laws that always rule. And and this is one of the laws. And I want to talk about it just a little bit. So Exodus 34 21.

[00:09:30] And read it when you're ready.

[00:09:33] I think, though, it will for your ordinary work, but then you must stop working even during the season of the plowing and harvest.

[00:09:42] All right. So let's talk about the significance of this. So plowing harvest, when you start to plow, there's only a limited time available in between range and between a few things. We can get all of your plowing done. This is your entire livelihood. You have a small window of time before rains start coming again and you can no longer plow. Harvest time is the same thing. There's only a short period of time when you can harvest, when all the fruit is ripe to be harvested and you have to harvest quickly before the rains come again and cause it to mildew in moulding and cause it to right. So harvest time in plowing time or the two times that everything is put aside. This is the time you do your work. Does that make sense?

[00:10:34] Yeah. So here is the problem. God's word says you work six days. And you rest the seventh even during plowing time and harvest time. So in the natural. It makes no sense. This is the time I've got this. In today's world, I've got this huge sales presentation due on Monday morning and I've got to prepare for it on Sunday. Right. Because I've got to make this thing happen. Is that what God's word says? Seeing the natural reality says, I've got to prepare for it because the God's truth says, honor me first. And this is where I'm talking about there's always this conflict between sight and faith.

[00:11:24] There's always this conflict between what God's word says that we should do and what our logic tells us that we should be doing as well. Want to share another example is actually a personal example from years back. So back in I think is about I think it was November 2001. Set the stage for you real quickly. Or just before November, we're moving through a period of time. It was a tough time in our business and I'm going without a paycheck. During this time, we brought on an account or trying to bring on an account is consuming a lot of resources to get set up.

[00:12:05] We we empty all of our bank accounts to keep things going. We start drawing on our lines of credit and we drawn everything on our line of credit. We actually we are now at a point of crying wolf, not crying wolf, but crying help because we have no more resources and I've got no paycheck. I have three months left, OK, in savings. And at that point, there is just absolutely nothing more to live on. And the business is consuming every bit of cash and more than we have.

[00:12:38] And I'm not. I'm preparing on a Wednesday night to give my stewardship testimony at church the next Sunday, and I'm going to talk about how, you know, you live by faith, how you give. I say, thank God, always meet your needs. Okay, so here's the scenario. I have three months left where we're maxed out on all of our lines of credit. And I'm about to tell people that you cannot out give guys ability to take care of you. And and in this slow process, I'm working on some kind of roleplaying, what I might say on Sunday morning and part of process is sometimes, you know, I always say some will come up to me, say, hey, Beatty, I just lost my job, my car broke down and my water heater busted. What do I do? My standard response at that time was always, well, increase your giving because God's word says we'll talk about this in the next couple of sessions. God's word says you cannot out give guys ability to take care of you. And so when I was going through this role play, Penny, the Lord spoke to my heart and said, do you really believe what you're about to tell these people?

[00:13:48] And have you ever had these conversations with the ward where he talks and you talk him back and forth? Have you read it?

[00:13:54] Yeah. OK.

[00:13:56] So I'm doing that and say, well, yeah, I really do.

[00:13:58] And then Laura said, Well, then why don't you increase your giving then? I said, well, hold on. Because at that time we're giving a lot of money. I won't say the amount, but it's like someone's paycheck each month and we're giving a lot of money because we have these commitments out there and I've got three months of savings remaining for our family expense wise.

[00:14:21] As a bit lower, I'm are giving all that I got and more. What do you want? He said, do you really believe what you're about to tell those people? I said, Yes, I do. So well, then why don't you increase your giving? I said, OK. Make sure it's you talking and not me. Right. We're gonna do a little test. I said, Here's what I'll do, Lord. No one has asked me for any money in months. Normally they're calling me all the time because they know I give a lot. And I know once they ask me for any money in months. So here's what I'm willing to do. I've got three months of savings left tomorrow. If you want me to give, then you have someone or multiple people call me and I'll give. I'll give. I'll meet their need. Entirely up to everything I have in savings.

[00:15:11] And and so I kind of got excited, I'm thinking I'm going to go into work tomorrow on Thursday and someone's going to ask me for a lot of money and I'm going to empty out my savings account and trust entirely on the Lord. Does that sound exciting?

[00:15:26] Mm hmm. So, um. So I got to work. And there was a voicemail.

[00:15:33] A guy named gushed. The name totally slips in.

[00:15:38] But he's a guy at our church who manages relationships and things of that sort with different organizations. Chuck Morgan. And. And now I got this voicemail. Lady, this is Chuck over the church. I've got an organizer and this is how he started. Sorry, hymns and haws. There is an organization that's looking for some money. Need some help? I don't know if you can help a little bit or lot or just whatever the law may put on your heart. I'm going. OK, Chuck. Okay. How much do you need? I'm ready. How much do you need? And he said and they need three hundred and seventy five dollars. I laughed. I picked up the phone. I called and said, Chuck, you got your three seventy five. What do you want me to send it? I stroke a check for three hundred seventy five dollars then. And then I I was excited all day. OK, Lord, send me the next one. Finally. The next one. And guess what happened?

[00:16:28] Nothing came.

[00:16:30] Nothing. Exactly. So then I went home. I'm thinking, OK, they're gonna call me at home. And guess what happened at home? Nobody called. Nobody called at ten or ten thirty at night. I'm going back before the launch. I thought of what happened. I was ready to give it all. Why did you make it so easy on me?

[00:16:49] Does that sound like a fun way to be?

[00:16:52] Hmm. And then the first vision I've ever had, I get this low vision, just a fleeting moment of a ram's horn caught in a second. And as a laudable frequently do with the vision, as I'm kind of learning, is he gives you the entire meaning of that vision all instantly at the same time.

[00:17:10] And the meaning was, I made it easy on Abraham to talk about the sacrifice of Isaac. And and that's.

[00:17:21] And that taught me a lot. Okay. But this is what I'm talking about. It's it's been willing to step out firmly on God's word, even when it makes no sense. And this is what that passage in Exodus talking about. You know, during plowing time, in harvest time, the most important critical time for you to labor and labor from crack of dawn until dark.

[00:17:45] All day long, because this is your entire family's livelihood. God says. You shall rest on the seventh day. It makes no sense in the natural, but in the supernatural, in the spiritual. It doesn't have to make sense because God's truth trumps everything. Was this kind of making sense?

[00:18:07] Yeah.

[00:18:09] So then we we ask the question, why is there is this conflict? Why is there always a conflict between what we see by sight in the natural? And what we see they face. In the spiritual. But our eyes are telling us what is true versus what God's word is telling us what is true. Why is there always this conflict? The simple answer is because that's what faith is. Is the conviction of things not seen? We got to walk by faith, not by sight. And and it gives us an opportunity to truly prove whether we trust the Lord's word over.

[00:18:57] What our eyes tell us is true. So do we trust man? Or do we trust God? Do we trust fight or do we trust God's word? Which one is unsure, unshakable, immovable? And which one is nothing but sand and stubble? So on, so kind of the bottom line with all this is if you're scared. But God's word tells you to do, and it doesn't make sense. And it seems like you're going to fall apart. You're going to be clobbered. You're going to lose it all. Whatever the issue. Then that's OK, because that's the way it is.

[00:19:36] That's the conflict between faith. And the natural. Any thoughts on that?

[00:19:45] Actually, yes. I mean, this is just all so good. I'm enjoying this a lot. And I was actually reminded so much of this story in the book of the first came after 17. And that's where Alija is going to the woman and telling her about the flower and the oil. And she says, well, basically, I don't have enough left. And he he gives her command from the Lord. And he says, if you will do this, if you'll just make this one little make a meal for myself and you and your son, then the Lord will always make sure that you have enough flour and oil left. You'll never run out. So she obeyed that word. And because she did, there was always enough flour and oil left in her containers. And so I'm just reminded of the fact that in the natural it didn't make sense. It didn't make sense for her to use all that she had left to prepare for somebody else and for herself and her son.

[00:20:44] But when she obeyed, when she stepped out in faith and said, OK, I'm going to do it, then God came through on his promises. And I just think so much of what you said, Beatty, about seeing things in the natural. If we if we see things in the natural, then that's really putting the focus on ourselves and our own effort. It's easy to see with our own eyes, but it takes faith to trust the Lord for the things that we can't see.

[00:21:12] It does. We're going to talk on another session about faith and belief and kind of the mechanics and mechanics may be the wrong thing, but to really get a clearer, more accurate picture on that. But let me share one other thing that also comes out with that story. So just to give people the background check for those who may not be as familiar, there's a king of Israel named Ahab. He's at the time the most wicked king Israel has ever had. Alija is his nemesis because Elijah is God coming to the wicked man. Tell him he's always wrong. And so Alija calls for a drought. It says the righteous, the prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much. And Elijah called for a drought. There was a drought for three and a half years in Israel. And during this drought, God sent him to Zehra fast to this widow that you're talking about. And so he goes his airfare. And. And the Lord sustains him and the widow during the drought with that jar of oil and a little flower, low jar flower as well. What's interesting with this is we see a very similar dynamic as we see in this passage in Exodus. We talked about you shall work six days and on the Psalms, you shall rest. The reason we rest is because it's an honor to the Lord, because the Lord works six days and rested on the seventh.

[00:22:41] So he's called us to honor him. That's what he did. And where to do it? The same throughout all the scripture, Old and New Testament. There is also the overall theme that you give to the Lord first, that you serve the Lord. First, that you give him the first fruits. In fact, even the first born the first born male that opens the window is dedicated and belongs to the Lord. I mean, all of these things. And so when you have a life, you're talking to the widow. Elijah says, give to me the man of God, i.e. give to the Lord to make a bread cake. For me first and then you can have what's left over. We're gonna talk about this. God first and then we keep what's left over in the next session when we start to talk about financial stewardship. It's really, really amazing. But every time we see the Lord wants us to honor him first, to put him first, to trust him first. And this is where this concept of living by faith, serving him first, giving in the first of what we do. Giving him the best of what we have. It's all one and the same in essence, because it's all focused in the same direction. Does that kind of make sense or did I'm confused?

[00:24:02] No. That made perfect sense. Absolutely. Yeah.

[00:24:06] So it's really neat. So what I want to do right now is there's some questions that have been asked over the years as I've taught this, and they're good questions. And because we have some time because as I mentioned, this is a short lesson. So this is where we're going to do some frequently asked questions. I want to give them questions and then give some thought to those questions, because I think this will help probably clarify a lot of what we're talking about and maybe answer some questions that have been out there as well. So one of the questions that was asked is apply radical faith to illness or sickness. Sometimes all the faith in the world won't prevent death.

[00:24:49] Does that question or statement make any sense to you, Penny, and any thoughts about that before I go into kind of my thoughts on it?

[00:24:59] It does make sense to me, and I, too, have been asked that question so many times. Why does God heal some and not heal others? And the best answer that my husband and I have ever come up with. And honestly, we've heard that the great Bill Johnson and several others sort of in the same way is that I don't know.

[00:25:20] I don't have it. But my my job is just to pray.

[00:25:24] My job is to believe that that's the nature and character of my good father, is that he is a healer. Yeah, that's my thought on that.

[00:25:34] Yeah, I think that's a great answer for me. I won't give up. I kind of give a high level answer.

[00:25:42] That's at the big picture of what's going on. And then I won't give more of a prepared answer. I prepared for this person who would ask this question. So at the very highest level. Why does not. Why does God not heal? Some people. I had my pastor asked me this question when I first started to pray for people and start to see God heal a lot of them. He asked me because he's a he is what I would call a secessionist. That gives a feeling those type of things have ceased. He doesn't he doesn't believe that God doesn't heal anymore or miraculously can heal. He just believes that a gift of healing. So and it may be more semantics, but in this conversation I'm talking about, you know, at this very beginning, one third people fully heal, one third partially healed and one third nothing at the time. And he was saying, well, why do you think not everyone was healed? And based on how the conversation was going, I know what he was driving at. And I wasn't going give him that pleasure. So I. So I simply gave the most accurate answer. I said, because I'm not Jesus. Think about it.

[00:26:54] Oh. Right. Because if Jesus had prayed for those people, they didn't get him. Do you think they would be healed?

[00:27:02] What are you saying? Yes or no? And here is the question. OK.

[00:27:07] You have the people that I prayed for that were not healed. If Jesus had prayed for those same people, would they have been healed? Absolutely.

[00:27:18] Ok. So what we see real clearly is that the heart of the father is to heal. Jesus never turn anyone away. They came to him for healing. So the question is, when I pray, why are they not healed? We can say, well, must not be God's will, but yet God's will was clearly seen in Jesus. So there's got to be a different answer. And here's the best answer that I've come up with, and this is borne out of some things the Lord has shown me that will again talk about on another session a little bit more deeply, but ultimately speaking. Jesus is God on Earth. Jesus only did what he saw the father doing, which means every miracle that Jesus did, every healing and raising some from the dead.

[00:28:04] They'd already been healed and raised from the dead in the heavenly places. And Jesus merely manifested that well in the earthly places. Does that make sense so far? Okay. So then the question is, what's different between Jesus and me? Well, yeah. Jesus, this guy. But but Jesus was on earth as a man as well. So he was fully man, fully God. So is it simply because he's fully God? Yes. That definitely has a lot to do with it. But I think it goes a little bit deeper from an intrinsic understanding. Jesus there is because Jesus was fully surrendered and yielded to the Lord. Then the Lord could do completely, 100 percent the Lord's will through him, so everything he did, it was as if, you know, Paul talks about.

[00:28:58] I think it's in Romans that we are a branch, the gentiles are a wild olive branch grafted into the tree. And what he and then is the tree that produces the fruit, not the branch. But what happens is the tree produces the fruit by sending the fruit in and a non fruit form through the branch. And when it comes out the other side, it buds in the fruit. So it's like that branch is simply a conduit between the tree and where the fruit is going to manifest. Are you following me so far? Well, okay. So, Jesus. Is the exact representation of God has no resistance to God's will because Jesus, his entire will is God's will and therefore God is able to bring supernatural from the heavenly realm. Through Jesus, into the earthly realm and completely passed his will through Jesus. In fact, it says that so Jacob's ladder. There's something I read in my quiet town this morning that finally made sense. Jacob's ladder there's a ladder connecting heaven and earth angels going up and down on it. And John, first, first. John won it. Jesus is telling his disciples that, you know, you will see angels going up and, you know, up and down, ascending and descending on the son of man. What does that mean? I think what it probably means. Okay. Just my opinion right now is that Jesus is connecting the heavenly room with the earthly realm, bringing God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Right. And so God's will is for them to be healed. And for them to be raised from the dead. But we. Resist God's will. And therefore swore like that that if you if we talk about that branch on the tree and if we want to make a very simplistic, not totally theologically accurate, it's but close enough for for understanding purpose. If we were to take Jesus the man. As a branch grafted onto the tree, then it would be a hollow branch.

[00:31:14] Absolutely no resistance. So that the tree could then produce and push all the fruit out. When we get grafted on, we got a lot of junk in our life that impedes that fruit. That fat from going from the tree all the way through us and more were yielded to the Lord. The more we surrender turned, the more we get the flesh out of the way so that we live by the spirit, then the less resistance we have. Allowing God's will to flow through us is just kind of making sense.

[00:31:42] It probably does get poorly paid to what you were talking about earlier, which is that the whole faith being in our faith has such a huge part in healing.

[00:31:56] It does.

[00:31:57] So let me kind of not to bring light to me by any means, but as I've pursued this further and trying to understand it and as my heart has pursued the heart of the father a lot more, there is a deeper intimacy. What I've seen is really interesting. When I first started to pray for healing, we'll probably have a whole session sex session on Mondays. As you know, I prayed for healing, but one third would get fully healed, meaning all the symptoms that they experience, pain or sickness or tightness would be completely really. That's my definition of healing. OK. For this very simplistic purpose. One third for one third partial. One third nothing. Today when I go out, it's like 80 percent or 90 percent full and only the remaining percent partial. What happened?

[00:32:49] Ok, it can't be that God's will has changed because he's the same yesterday, today and forever. So it's gotta be something within me and within me is have I matured more in faith, renew my mind, more of the Lord renewing my mind? Have I gotten more my flesh out of the way? You know, there's a lot these things going on. So anyway, that's kind of the big picture. Now, let me tie it back into some scriptural stuff, because I think this is pretty interesting. Back to the original question. Apply radical faith to illness or sickness. Sometimes all the faith in the world won't prevent death. My answer, the prepared answer is wrong. All it takes is a little faith to prevent death. But this is what we're talking about. Faith. You got it. You've got to be there, okay? You've got to allow God's will to flow through you because faith is not an action. It's a being. Faith is a substance, it's not. It's not your thinking. This is where we're going to talk on a little bit late on another session. But I want to show you some passages with Paul and just kind of show you great men of faith.

[00:34:03] And what happened with Paul, so let's pull your Bible out real quickly and Act 20.

[00:34:10] Versus nine through 12 x 20 versus nine through twelve. Can you read those for us?

[00:34:16] Mm hmm. 1912. OK. As Paul spoke on and on.

[00:34:22] A young man named I Can't Even Pronounce You is sitting on the windowsill, became very drowsy. Finally, he fell sound asleep and dropped the rape story to death below.

[00:34:39] Paul went down, bent over him, took him into his arms. Don't worry, he said. He's alive. Then they all went back upstairs, shared in the Lord's Supper and eat together. Paul continued talking to them until dawn, and then he left. Meanwhile, the young man was taken home, alive and well, and everyone was greatly relieved.

[00:35:03] So. Wow. Yeah.

[00:35:05] Well, simple statement, Paul. By faith. Raise the debt. Would you agree with that? Absolutely. All right. Now, let's look a little bit later. Act 28 versus 89.

[00:35:19] X 28 versus 89.

[00:35:33] And that rain. As it happened. Probably his father was ill with fever and dysentery, all went in and prayed for him and laying his hands on him. She healed him. Then all the other sick people on the island came and were healed as well.

[00:35:55] So Paul by faith heals all of the sick that came. Would you agree with that?

[00:36:02] Well, okay. Now let's turn to Philippians. This is Philippians 2.

[00:36:10] Versus 25 through 27.

[00:36:19] All right. Three twenty five and twenty seven, meanwhile, I thought I should send you a for dieters. Back to you. He is a true brother, co-worker and a fellow soldier, and he was your messenger to help me in my time of need. I'm sending him because he has been longing to see you. And he was very distressed that you heard he was ill through 27 boxes. And he certainly was ill. In fact, he almost died. But God have mercy on him. And also on me so that I would not have one sorrow after another.

[00:36:57] All right, Paul had no faith to heal his friend. Would you agree with that statement? Well, for now, we start to see a question. Why could Paul raise the dead, heal all the sick on this island, but he couldn't even heal his own friend, whom he loved dearly. Something's going on here. Let's look at one other second, Timothy for 20, second Timothy 4, verse 20.

[00:37:33] Ok. Rested, stayed at Corinth and I left Trofimov sick at militant.

[00:37:41] Yeah. Why do you think Paul would leave his friend sick? If it could heal people.

[00:37:49] The first word that came to my spirit was distraction. So perhaps he was distracted on another goal. He was sidetracked. He was thinking about something else and he he had not. Being with a father did not spend that time with the father. Like he said, had the first thing that popped in my mind, and that might actually be it.

[00:38:11] My answer is a little bit simpler. I don't know.

[00:38:17] I don't know.

[00:38:19] What I do know is if Jesus was there, Jesus would have healed him. Paul, being purely a man born of sin with a seed of sin as opposed to see that is sin less as Jesus was born then.

[00:38:33] There's something there that prevents God's will. From always occurring. And so anyway, I don't know the answer to it. All I know is. I'm not Jesus. And that's why not everyone is always healed.

[00:38:52] That's a good answer. Yeah.

[00:38:54] So another question that was asked, how do you draw the line between faith and presumption?

[00:39:01] And that's a good question.

[00:39:06] So. And you weren't here on the previous topics on this, but we're talking about Ramus and God's kind of spoken word to. So faith is acting on God's clearly defined will as he has directed you. Okay. That's the bottom line presumption is acting on what you hope God's will is not hope in the biblical sense, but hope in the natural sense. So real simple story. Kind of a tragic ending. There were some teenagers this is over in South Korea and at the church they go to. They talked a lot about faith and stepping out and walking by faith. And these teenagers were going to a rural area to share the gospel. And they came to this raging river and they're like three, 3, four girls and two, three, four guys, and the girls were saying, look, this is God's will. And we have faith. We have faith that we can walk across this raging river. Just as the Israelites walked across the raging Jordan during flood season when they came across to Jericho to conquer the promised land. And so we're going to step out by faith. And go into the river and God's going to protect us. And guess what happened?

[00:40:34] They got hurt.

[00:40:35] They found the bodies three days later downstream. Wow.

[00:40:40] Yeah. And so that's presumption. Had God told them, specifically made it really clear. I want you to step out into this river and I will stop it. Then that stepping out by faith but simply trying to connect dots and acting in the natural. That's presumption. And so that kind of leads me into the next question that was asked. You say guy told me. Sometimes you get different answers. Have you ever had that happen with you any more?

[00:41:12] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:41:15] Okay. So here's a here's what I like to suggest.

[00:41:17] You never have gotten different answers from God.

[00:41:22] You've only gotten different answers that you heard, but God's answer is always gonna be the same because we know that God is never changing. His will is always the same. His truth is always. Fixed his will for you is always fixed in any situation. And the key is that we're listening to the right voice. And so. So back to this.

[00:41:49] You say, God told me sometimes you get different answers. You only get the different answers when your self gets in the way. And I remember reading a book about George Mueller. Does that name ring a bell? Do you know who George Mueller is?

[00:42:03] Sounds familiar.

[00:42:05] Ok. So he is a real old godly man. Eighteen hundreds to nineteen hundreds. Right. In that timeframe, he was over in Bristol, England. And the Lord led him to start an orphanage at the peak of what he did. They were printing, printing and getting out millions of pamphlets a year. This is like in the late 1980s, 90s, millions of pamphlets a year supporting a couple of hundred missionaries and had an orphanage that housed 20000 children. And he never once asked anyone for any money to support the cause. Everyone was all amazed and and he would also he would have a prayer book and he would write down the prayers that he had and almost every single one of his prayers were answered. And so he became just one of those people, you know, across the Western world. How do you do it? And people would seek him out and he had a very simple formula.

[00:43:18] And how do you know God's will? In other words, how do you know what God is telling you to do versus not? And the first step, he said. Well, you got to get your will out of the way. You have to get to that point in your heart where you have no will of your own. For example, he had this ministry, 20000 children in the orphanage. And doing a great work. And he felt maybe the Lord was telling him to shut it down. Think about that. You have a ministry. You're providing the livelihood of 20 thousand children who have no parents. And the Lord telling you to shut it down. That's a pretty hefty thing. You've invested your life for the last 10 or 20 or 30 years in that orphanage. So you just like your Beatty that you've grown up and now into a mature adulthood. And the Lord is saying shut it down so you can imagine a lot of emotional tension tied into that decision. Could you would you agree?

[00:44:23] Oh, absolutely. I cannot imagine the weight of that kind of decision. You know, feeling I should say, feeling the weight.

[00:44:31] That's it. I can't either. But yet he said, you've got to get to that place in your heart where you have no will of your own.

[00:44:40] Kind of what we're talking about with Jesus totally surrendered, totally yielded no will of his own. He was only doing his father's will. And so the first step in hearing God is you had to have no will of your own in the matter. And this is the hardest part for most of us, because apart the things that we want to hear the Lord in the most are those things that are most important to us. And as long as they're most important, we can never be absolutely certain that we are hearing God's word, God's will, God speak to us because our will is so wrapped up in it. So I'd say that's really the kind of the first step, the second step in hearing God's word and being able to discern his word over someone else's has to do with the natural. So much of what happens in the natural mirrors, what happens in the spiritual and penny that you guys have children.

[00:45:37] We do. Yeah. We have a 60 or 70 year old and a 13 year old.

[00:45:42] Ok, I want you to go back to the time just before you had any children back then. If you're in a room full of young moms and they had all their little babies there, you've had no babies have your own. Could you easily discern one Beatty's voice from another or do they all sound the same?

[00:46:02] Prior to my children, they all sounded pretty similar.

[00:46:07] Yeah. So now advanced a year or two. Now you have a Beatty of your own and you're in a room with all these other children, all the other moms. And then your Beatty cries out. Can you discern your Beatty's voice clearly among all the other babies?

[00:46:23] Oh, my God. Yeah.

[00:46:25] So what different what's different, how could you discern your Beatty's voice so clearly when just previously you can discern one Beatty's voice against another?

[00:46:35] Because I was with my Beatty all the time, I always spent time. Lived in the same house. I mean, you know, just in the same room together, just always spending time. So is like constant hearing them.

[00:46:53] So that's how you can this know that you're hearing God's voice. When you are intimate, so intimate with the father because you spend so much time. Pursuing him. Involved with him, not just your law. I got my 30 minute day, you know, quiet time in. I read the Bible some I'd prayed a little prayer and I'm off flitting around doing my own sector in the day. I'm telling you about pursuing intimacy in long gated extended periods of time with a father.

[00:47:25] When you become as intimate with the father as you were with yours, with your child. Then at that point, you can easily discern your father's voice from all the other voices. Does that make sense?

[00:47:37] Well, absolutely. I totally agree.

[00:47:41] So then the simple question and this just be a real short answer as we move on, because I've got a couple other questions before time runs out is how do you become intimate with the father? I think, you know, there's probably four things that. I don't wanna say these are the first steps to becoming intimate because intimacy is all about the heart, but there are four things that are involved in that process. Number one is you study is word a lot. You just eat it up. You want to know everything he has to say about everything. So you get to know him. Second is you praise, spend time and praise and worship all the time with him in your quiet time, because that's. What he wants you to do and as you praise and worship is like his spirit comes on and comes home more richly involved in your life. You spend time in prayer. Prayer is not just petitioning him, please do this, please do this. You know, it's not a checklist. It's talking to him spending time and then it's fasting. By the way, I have to tell you this one story two weeks ago, we go out. I'm taking a man that I led to Christ and we're going on praying for people.

[00:48:55] And I saw more healings and more dramatic healings on that outing in a short period time than I've ever seen. As I'm out there praying for people. And I've seen broken bones healed. I mean, you know, names are just torn apart because of it. You know, ligaments torn, totally healed. You know, big old dude, 300 pounds almost doing deep knee bends after he walks in with crutches in excruciating pain, all kinds of things. Now it's asking the Lord why. And just prior to that. Um, about a week prior, I'd spent six days consecutive days in fasting, preparing for a very special event, and the Lord spoke to me and said, is the fasting? I don't know what it does. All I know is there's something spiritual about it. Okay. So, uh, those things studying his word, praise and worship, prayer, fasting, are those things that create a real intimacy with the Lord. And you can start to hear his voice much, much clearer. So last couple of questions. I think I've got three left on this. How long must I have faith before my trials end? What do you think is the answer to that one? How long will I have faith before my trials in?

[00:50:11] I'm going to answer that question with a statement. The statement is there is no time in the spiritual realm, though, right?

[00:50:22] Oh, I'll give a little bit more natural answer. Sorry if you're living a life of faith. Trials will never end because that's the whole thing about faith is.

[00:50:35] It's always a trial because it's always a battle between your flesh versus your spirit, between your eyes naturalize versus your spiritual eyes, between what reality says is true and what God's word says is truth.

[00:50:51] Trials will never end as you live by faith. Does that make sense?

[00:50:55] Yeah. Jesus even said that, you know, you're going to face trials of many time.

[00:51:01] Yeah. So last two questions, one is, why is my face so weak? How do I learn to live now by faith? How can I better apply faith in my everyday life? How can I increase my faith? And, uh, my simple answer on this is faith is a muscle. It's like a muscle. If you don't exercise it, it doesn't grow. If you want to increase your faith, you better start stepping out and doing something really bold. By guys clearly defined word and use and boldness, it for me is to find that utter destruction unless God actually shows up and does what he says he's going to do. You can't grow your faith living in the comfort zone. You got to be in the battle zone and and be willing to step out like that. So this session we just did last time that you were on when Caroline was here. We talked about Peter getting out of the boat. You know, takes a lot of faith, too. You got raging waters.

[00:52:06] Two and three foot swells. The wind blowing hard. Peter says, Lord, if that's you, command me to come walk. Jesus, come on, man. And so Peter steps out of the boat.

[00:52:19] That takes some boldness. You can't do that in the comfort zone. So the only way you're gonna increase your faith, know strengthen your faith, so to speak. You just gotta get out and do it. And the last thing that question is, how do I determine the balance between faith and planning? And I want to rephrase this question because I think it's wrong. This question is saying how do I balance obeying God versus obeying my own wisdom? And that's why this is a wrong question. How do I determine the balance between faith and planning? The better question is how do I balance? Planning and faith, and the simple answer is. You plan on your wisdom. But when God tells you to do something different, you follow God. Okay. Even if it goes against your planning. And I'm doing that right now in our business for some things. I'm going. Are you sure? God. Because it makes no sense and goes up because it makes no sense. But trust me. Okay, God. And that's it. So that was the lesson for today. Was it a good lesson?

[00:53:32] Oh, great. I really enjoyed that. Let's get reminders. So much of that, you know, changing your mindset and really focusing your attention on the Lord.

[00:53:48] Yes. Yes, it is.

[00:53:50] So long time to wrap up, so hopefully if you're enjoying this, please be sure to subscribe. Sorry for the airplane out there and tell others about it. Hope you're getting a lot out of this and hope you go play it. You'll have a blessed day. Thanks.

[00:54:10] If you've enjoyed this podcast, please tell others about it. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Get more content to help you walk by faith at our Web site and get radical faith dot.com.

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