Practically Christian Podcast

legal is ummm.....

August 22, 2018 Debbie and Josh Season 1 Episode 27
Practically Christian Podcast
legal is ummm.....
Show Notes Transcript
In this episode Debbie and Josh discuss the sometimes blurred line of legalism. Need more Practically Christian Podcast? Head over to sent.church or follow us at Sent Church Volusia on Facebook.

https://www.missionsent.org/

Speaker 1:

Practically Christian podcasts, the Ministry of Sent Church, this is a podcast dedicated to taking all that information, You've got all up in your brain and giving you real practical application.

Speaker 2:

Hello and welcome to practically Christian podcast with Josh and Debbie,

Speaker 3:

and that was a very formal introduction. What'd you want me to say? Thank you so much for taking the time to download or stream this podcast. The only thing we ask in return, could you please share it? Could you please share it? You know, please help us spread the. I mean you guys are the only advertising we have.

Speaker 2:

We know you listen and love us if you share it. Does that sound bad? If it does not my intention.

Speaker 3:

It does sound bad though. People's share picture. Love me. You would. Oh, stop it. You know that does sound bad. Oh, that sounded bad. How the tide tables turn the tide tables on the office for more information. Head on over to sent.church or check us out on sent church Volusia on facebook. On on. Sounded like you were buzzing. I was. I was trying to gather my thoughts. We love hearing from you guys though, so even if you're like all I have as a comment head on over the sent church Volusia, you can pick any posts and comment on it. Um, preferably one that's tagged to a podcast would be the best, but anyway, any posts, one post. So I've been thinking a lot this week about what it means to be in the world, but not of the world.

Speaker 2:

How many times did we hear that as children in the world? Not of it, but I know

Speaker 3:

you heard it more than I did.

Speaker 2:

I heard it, yes I did.

Speaker 3:

But with that I've been thinking about like what it means to be holy. Oh Man. So like, yeah, like deep thought.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 3:

So it. But I mean if we're going to be a city on a hill, if we're going to be lights to a dark world, right? We should definitely not conform to the ways of this world and insane all of that. Most of those words I just used or straight out of the Bible. Correct. I mean, there's so many places in the Bible that tell us to be different than what we see around us and in my previous and what I was just saying with all that, when I was like, oh, that's in the Bible, you know, I'm quoting Jesus and Matthew Five and Paul in Romans 12, and I mean, those are just two examples that like quickly flew out of my head, right? The problem comes in for the, the practically Christian. However, when we do not view sin the same way God does. Oh yes, I see where you're going. So we look at like our sin and we go, well, it's not that bad. Like, yeah, that's wrong. Your sin, my sin, our sin, the sin that put Jesus on the cross. I mean we could blame the Romans, they were the ones who killed him,

Speaker 2:

but what I think gets lost is people think of really, really bad sin and go, Yep, that put Jesus on the cross. Not just, okay, I lied to my employer about going to work right, or lied to my spouse or I hit something or I lied to my kids or kids lined whatever. Some things that people think is small is just as bad as what you think is big, but I'm gonna kind of go a different direction with. Oh, okay. See, I was.

Speaker 3:

We're really good at going. My Sin has been forgiven.

Speaker 2:

Oh, we're really good at that. Let me guess. Are you saying what we're not really good at saying someone else's sin has been forgiven?

Speaker 3:

No, we're not really good with because Jesus died on the Cross and forgive all my sin. Past, present, and future. Right. What we're not good at is not sinning so I mean this is Paul's message in Roman six. Should we continue to sin so that Grace May abound by no means.

Speaker 2:

Okay. I don't know what that was for

Speaker 3:

because there's an exclamation point. If we're going to read scripture, there's a reason why they put this.

Speaker 2:

He would say by no means by no means you. I can't. No, I can't, but the problem comes in for the practically Christian that

Speaker 3:

we believe that our sin isn't that bad in, you know, well, I'm not perfect. Like that's everybody's go to. Well, I wouldn't do that, you know, but I'm just a human. I'm not sure

Speaker 2:

I'm gonna make a mistake. I'm not perfect. You talking about people that don't, when they don't strive, when we don't strive, when we go, hey, it's not that bad.

Speaker 3:

Right? And the other problem is, is some practically Christians out there believe that what they do leads to their salvation.

Speaker 2:

That's scary.

Speaker 3:

There are plenty of people who believe being saved is Jesus and

Speaker 2:

right Jesus and being good enough Jesus and going to church enough Jesus and having enough people over for tea and crumpets. People don't have tea and crumpets. Nope, because we're not in England. You sounded Irish that didn't even sound English.

Speaker 3:

Well, I'm Irish. I'm not English, so I mean technically you're English Irish technically on everything. Like my ancestors were world travelers. I think tomatoes, I don't know because I'm not giving my DNA. You hear that ancestry, you're not getting it. Ancestry.com, I think it's pretty cool. I don't. I think when they sent dog DNA in and still got like, oh, this is where you're from. Did they really hold the dogs? Family could have been from there. Really? I don't know. I know nothing about DNA. I just think there's something wrong when you have a German shepherd and you find out, oh, it's actually from England do. But anyway, I mean Ephesians two is very clear. We had nothing to do with salvation. It was all God. We're dead in our trespasses and sins to someone who has been around a lot of dead bodies.

Speaker 2:

Okay. Please clarify why you've been around dead bodies.

Speaker 3:

As a cop, as someone who has been around a lot of dead bodies, I will be the first one to tell you they don't do stuff in a move that will. Some of them do. Do they speak like if there's like nastiness going on like la, not lava, lava, but then I met maggots and like stuff like that. Yeah, same, same field, but they don't do things. They don't make choices that don't go, Hey, I'm going to go here, I'm going to go there. Right? Triply. So just like we were dead in our trespasses and sin, guess what we didn't do? We didn't make a choice to go, oh, I'm going to believe in God today.

Speaker 2:

Well, I was gonna say it triply has that Song Lazarus, that talks about that, which is really cool.

Speaker 3:

It is. It is. Hashtag, triplee Hashtag Trip lee One, one, six clique He's coming to rock the universe. No, Jesus is going to rock the universe. What are you talking about? Listen, Super Christian. Keep going. Ephesians 2 paints a very clear picture that Jesus saves and we have nothing to do with that, but Jesus also says the same thing in John six, 44, John Fourteen, six John Fifteen, and then it's also said in Romans five, eight. Romans three, 23, Romans six, 23, and the list goes on and on and on. There are many places that show us salvation is a free gift there. Nothing we could do to earn it. So I can't go to church enough to earn it. Nope. And is bad at like, I mean, as a pastor, I'm not discouraging anyone from giving, but you're tithing isn't going to save you either. Nope, never sow into practically Christian podcast. You're still in God's family.

Speaker 2:

Can I tell you something, and I know you haven't listened to it yet, but one of our favorite preacher man said something similar to this weekend, that you're not gonna hand got a hundo and he's just gonna

Speaker 3:

Great. Your blessing. No. Like last time I checked, God is not in the business of making money

Speaker 2:

He's not in my debt and he's not in your debt. And I think people, well, you know I gave. So I expect God to do. I expect God to do whatever he's going to do,

Speaker 3:

but what we should be striving, everything we are is to be different people, not to earn salvation, but because of salvation, like salvation in the Greek is so serious and, and that literally means to be delivered from what have you delivered from. You're delivered from a life of Sin Yourself, right? You now have the ability to go, no, not doing it, not today. Satan, however. So the balance between, oh, I can do whatever I want, you know, as Paul would say in Corinthians, all things are permissible, but not all things are beneficial and Jesus in me is the reason I am saved, but I think there needs to be some clarity on the permissible and w. well hang on because where I want to go with this though is there is a balance between those two things and that balance is a word we like to call legalism and legalism. This word is describing the thought of having to follow the rules to gain favor with Jesus. However, where is that line between that obedient life to Jesus because of who he is and what he has done and I'm trying to gain favor through my good behavior they can think of. No, I don't even know what you were doing that for. I'm trying to gain favor through my behavior might drop. That's tweetable. It's not treatable. Actually. It is pretty tweetable. One clump up. One passage that that I came up with was Martin seven, one through 13 and and you can go and read it. The synopsis of it is, is that the pharisees came to Jesus and they go, dude, why don't your disciples washing their hands before they eat? This was not mind you. This was not like a cleanliness issue. It was a wire, aren't they doing the ceremonial washing before they eat? And Jesus says, and Jesus answered them by saying you would rather throw out the commandments of God and follow commands of men. He's going to go on to say you will die in your trend traditions. This is an easy trap to fall into though. Um, and it can be a gruesome like, seriously, if you're doing this and you're like, Oh man, this is Jesus is just sucking the life out of me. I'm not allowed to commit adultery. I'm not allowed to steal. I'm not allowed to lie. Not Allowed to have idols like this. This isn't something you should enter in and look at it and go, Oh, here's a list of do's and don'ts and I have to do more of the news that I do. The dome. Jesus made me get off the train, right? I mean, on one hand the disciples of Jesus would have been told how to live pleasing to God and I believe Jesus was serious about that. Like, you know, he didn't say don't send for reasons like, and I believe Jesus says in Matthew five that if your right hand causes you to sin, you should cut it off. And I know you genuinely believe that Jesus means I do think commands that literally like that's how much you should hate your sin right now. For those of you listening, I have both my hands. So obviously I did not follow it to that extent. Um, but this isn't just a hyperbole that didn't, that didn't come out, right. Hyperbole that Jesus is trying to give. Like I think he was dead serious about this. Like he's sitting here and going, it is better to enter into heaven with missing a hand. It needs. Say that that's how the rest of it goes and we should be willing to do that. Now, no one out there cut off your hand because you heard your own private and broadcast. We're not recommending you cut off anything. However, on the other hand, Pun intended, do we should also know if we are following Jesus or man, you know, for instance, the one thing that's always asked, is it a sin to drink alcohol? Do I think it's the same answer? I'm going to give you my answer and I think anything you do that causes you to. How do I say this with words? Thank you. I think if you have a glass of wine and you're not inebriated more power to Ya, I don't think you need to go have a bottle of wine and stumbled to your car. I think you should still be in control of your devices. Absolutely does that, and that's what I was going to say. The answer is in a simple yes or no, depending on the person. And if you are an alcoholic, can control the amount you drink. Yeah, it's a sin if you can't drink without getting drunk, but if you were responsible with your body, then no, it's not a sentence. Right? Paul even tells Timothy in first timothy five to drink wine for his stomach. Right? Alright Paul. Paul's not going to go, Hey, go sin, so you're telling me doesn't hurt. However, drinking might not necessarily be a sin in and of itself, but it could lead to cause you to be in the sinful situation, and so the question shouldn't be about specific actions. There's a reason why we don't find like, okay, this is the list of sins. This is what you're allowed to do. The reason is is it's about our hearts, like before you do anything, just ask yourself a simple question.

Speaker 2:

Why am I doing this?

Speaker 3:

Is that what it is? Is that the question? The first is, is will this bring glory to God? Oh, it's close. If the answer to that is no, don't do it. Don't do it.

Speaker 2:

Well, even in class, I, I, when I talked to the kids about glorifying God, that was the first day we do all things will reflect God. You can do your math work to glorify God because you're doing your best.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely. So the first question you asked is, will this bring glory to God? And at the answer is no. Don't do it. Right? The second question, let's say yes, this would. The second question is, will this weekend my testimony? So if this will cause a person to take away from what I preach that I don't do. If this is something that definitely contradicts the Bible, don't do it,

Speaker 2:

and I, I take a step, a little, a little step further, I'm going to do something that I know is gonna put someone else in a situation that they're going to sin because they're weak in an area. I think I'm just as wrong.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely. And that's what I mean. Like his drinking. I said, no, not inherently. It's not a sin. That being said,

Speaker 2:

if you're a recovering alcoholic, you don't go to a bar

Speaker 3:

or let's say someone from church walks in, we're at Chili's where it's, you know, two for one or buy one, get one free, buy 1:50 percent off. Sorry. Inside joke. Hmm. But needless to say, 50 percent off is buy one, get one free tomato, tomato, frank. I'm sorry. But anyway, if I'm at Chili's and someone from church walks in and they see our table and all they see are these empty beer cups, what does that mean for my witness? Especially your testimony, right?

Speaker 2:

When people go born to a weekend alcoholic, like

Speaker 3:

what happens, but I'm just a fall off the wagon and and I'm not making jokes about people who relapsed. It happens, however. Does that build up the church? Does that build up my testimony? Does that bring people to Jesus? No. And as far as the line for legalism goes, it's simple. Jesus says in Matthew Twenty two, which when he's asked by a lawyer, mind you which commandments the greatest? And he said, you should love God with all your heart, mind, body, and soul. Love God with everything you have. And the second is like this. You should love others. As you love yourself. And in doing this, you will keep all the commandments of the prophets and the law. So yeah, there's, there's a lot of things. If we wanted to get into it, we could debate, is this a center, is this right? And I'm always here. If this is a debate, you want to open up. No, you don't like debating. No, not me, but understand the Pharisees, the Ten Commandments, and turned it into 613. We couldn't keep 10. How on earth are you going to keep 613? However, it isn't that complicated. If I love God with everything I am, I will want to live a life that pleases God. I will want to follow what the Bible tells me like if I love God with everything I am, then I'm going to. David says in the Psalms, I will delight in his law and if I love others the way I love me, well, I'm not going to sin against others either because you really love yourself out. We should love your heart, should always be doing what is good and right and holding on that in Romans 12. Anytime I think what I am doing is making God love me more than I am chasing legalism and not god very good. Any time I'm doing something just because my sin is forgiven and I might as well be crucifying Jesus all over again, right? That's all tweetable by the way, Hashtag Oh yes, and practically Christian podcasts and love is a verb and we are set. Other than that, you can hashtag it whatever else. So this week I challenge you, Chase God, Live for God as First Corinthians 10, 31 says whether you eat or drink, do all for the glory of God. Yes. If you are following Jesus, you have the power of the Holy Spirit to know right from wrong. Start listening to it. So until next week, keep striving and moving forward. You want to ask questions or make statements head on over to church, Volusia and let us know. Love you. Love you guys. Bye.

Speaker 4:

Thank you for listening to practically pushing. Please rate, comment, and share because we cannot do this without all of your love and support. For more information, go to that church. Until next week, keep running the race set before you and we love you.