SPEAKER_00: 0:08

Welcome and thanks for joining us on this episode of the Midweek Podcast, brought to you by a Fresh Wind Church. Each week, our team brings you new content to help you take steps towards Jesus and discover more in Christ. Today's episode is hosted by Pastor Ryan.

SPEAKER_03: 0:27

Hey, welcome back to the Midweek Podcast. Pastor Ryan joined with Pastor Tim, and we are in week two of our sermon series Grow, and we are talking about getting rid of and putting the poison away. And uh damn, this has been uh this has been two rough weeks in a row.

SPEAKER_01: 0:45

Yeah, it's it's been rough, but but you gotta talk about these things. I think uh the way Peter placed it right there, saying, if you want to grow, you gotta get rid of these things. These things right here are stunting your growth. Yeah. And uh it's something that we have to deal with. And unfortunately, a lot of these things are just how we live life, how our culture lives life, and it's really tough. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:14

As we've been studying this, our life group we went through. Um, oh, I think it was Colossians, we just wrapped up. You start seeing the same list there. And so these these little lists, you if you start paying attention, it's like, oh man, they're kind of all over the New Testament, these little, hey, you need to get rid of these things. Um, and these, you know, here's five different things. Um, they start popping up all over the place. And you start digging down into it, and you're like, Holly, that's that's me.

SPEAKER_01: 1:44

Yeah, they're in every conversation, they're in every thought. Yeah, they're in every movie. I mean, it's just it's continual. And and they're jokes, you know, um, how mad you get at the TV, you know, your malice, people throwing stuff at the TV when their sport team doesn't do well, and and you you, you know, I I heard uh coming out of the malice sermon, a lady said he wants the other team's quarterback to get hurt all the time. He's like, no, I don't. Just mostly hurt. So uh yeah, those things uh it's just it's just life. And uh Jesus is this comes out in a way that I don't think we understand. You want abundant life. Get rid of these things. These these things stop your growth, stop the abundance, and stop me pouring into you. So if you get rid of these things, your life is gonna change. You're gonna transform and you'll be able to hold more of me.

SPEAKER_03: 2:48

Yeah, that's uh man, that's so important because and I I touched on this a little bit in my sermon yesterday, um, or on Sunday, was you know, a lot of us we're afraid about what God's gonna ask us to give up. And especially if you're not following Jesus, that's one of the hangups for a lot of people is well, he's gonna tell me to quit doing this and he's gonna tell me to quit doing that. Um, but when you see, man, when you you let go of these things, um, this is this is the key to abundant life. God's not trying to hold you back, right? He's he's not trying to to make you live like a monk, you know, just locked down, you can't do nothing. Yeah, he wants you to have life to the full. Yeah. Um, and this is how you do it. And and if you'll get rid of these things from your life, you'll be happier, you'll be freer, you'll have more peace, you'll have more joy, um, your relationships will be better. And if we'll just cooperate with what God is saying, um, man, I think it would change a lot for us.

SPEAKER_01: 3:51

Yeah, uh, especially uh what you talked about uh yesterday, Sunday, this is a this is a big deal because this is malice doesn't really bring you a lot of anxiety, you know. You want to bring anxiety on someone else. Um but deceit and hypocrisy, I think America lives of like a life of I don't want anybody to find out, you know? And so we look at our politicians, we look at our um singers, you know, all the what am I looking for? What's the word am I looking for? People who are popular and they're they're stars, you know. Uh we all know stuff's going on. You can't have that much money and not have stuff going on. And when it comes out, it's like Diddy. It's like, wow, what? Yeah, what what is going on? And then all the people that we look to as stars that are involved in what he did, and it's like, you didn't know, you didn't know. Are you gonna tell me you didn't know? And you know, they're walking around knowing that they've been involved all this their entire life, and the anxiety that that brings should um as it's gotta cripple your personality. It really does. And I think what we see in our famous people is this I gotta hide, I gotta hide it all. And uh, you know, there's a few out there who kind of live a different life and they're they're not hiding anything. And that's what we want. We want to live a life that's free. That we're not looking for someone to sneak up behind us and say, remember when you did this, though. And uh I think I think that cripples a lot of a lot of people, and they don't even know it. They're they're wondering, you know, I'm so anxious, uh, doctor help me. You know, you go to a you you go to a therapist, but you don't tell them these things. Of course you don't tell them these things. Um you want to hide them, you want them to go away, and it it creates an anxiety in you uh that suddenly you've used up your ability to deal with this anxiety, so normal day anxiety pushes you over the edge.

SPEAKER_03: 6:21

Yeah, it's definitely not just A-list stars. Um I man, I I can remember even being in, you know, middle school, high school, and I think a lot of teenagers probably go through this where you try to so much to protect the the image that you've you've developed or that you're trying to develop. You want people to think of you a certain way. And so you're you're curating this whole thing. And man, I would not do things because I was like, man, someone's gonna think this about me if I if they see me doing that. Or if I try that thing and I'm not any good at it, then someone's gonna think these things about me. So then you, yeah, you begin to develop this whole thing. And I I think we end up in this spot where we're like, man, I don't know if anybody really knows the real me. I have I've developed not just one mask, I got a mask for every situation. No matter what group of people I'm around, when I'm around the football team, I gotta, I got a mask. When I'm around the band people, I got a mask. When I'm around the theater people, I got a mask. When I'm around my family, I got a different mask. Um we got all these masks that we can just put on. And I think a lot of us were we're so used to hiding behind those things. We get to this spot and we're like, does anybody know who I really am?

SPEAKER_01: 7:45

My poor wife, six months into our marriage, she looks at me and says, Who are you? And I said, I'm the person who acted a certain way till you said yes. At least you're honest about that. And now you got me, and here we are. So I I we do it all the time. We do it um with our wife, our wife's friends, and then when we're with our own friends, we're completely different. And that living that deceit, sooner or later, it's it's gonna all come together. And most people get through that okay, and they learn some hard lessons. Uh, but the Lord says, hey, let's be proactive and let's pull the mask off and live an authentic life. That's what everybody wants. So I want him to, oh, he's so authentic. Um, is he? Uh the only way to tell if he's authentic is if you start being authentic too.

unknown: 8:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 8:44

So Peter, he just goes ahead and he writes this for us. We need to rid ourselves of these things, this deceit and this hypocrisy, um, to remove the things that are that are poisoning, poisoning us. And so on Sunday, I define deceit as the lie you live, and hypocrisy as the mask you wear. And I think they go together, but they're different. Um and so that's that's what we got a chance to talk, talk through um Sunday during the sermon. And so let's uh let's dive into deceit again a little bit here and and break this down a little bit because deceit isn't just lying to others, it's lying about ourselves. Um and Tim, I I can just I can look back over my life and just see it. This is this is where I tried to to deceive people about who I was, um, to make people think a certain certain way about me. Um and it's whether we're trying to gain love, approval, whatever whatever it is, um to protect a reputation, uh it's it's that thing. Um, it just eats away at us until we lose who we are.

SPEAKER_01: 10:07

Aristotle, well, they pin this on Aristotle. I don't know if he the one that actually said it. Uh says that a mature mind can um how is it worded? You can think a thought without receiving that thought. That's a mature mind. You can you know, you don't have to, oh, I don't want to think about that. A mature mind can say, let me think about this. That's wrong. I'm not receiving that. That's that's a mature mind. When we deceive ourselves, that is the more we do it, the more we begin to believe that lie about ourselves. And unfortunately, um we forget that that's not our true identity. And and then when something's going on, we think, well, I I shouldn't be upset about that. Why am I so upset? Because your true identity is very upset, and you've been trying to pretend that this doesn't bother you. And it's simple. Men don't cry. Well, that's dumb. Men cry all the time. Yeah, but true men don't cry. Okay. Um, how how do you not cry? You cut onions, you're gonna cry. You know, you're biologically made to cry. You know, I'm talking about emotions. You're still feeling those emotions, even though it doesn't come out as crying. I mean, you can't get away from that. And uh so we we build up these personas that, okay, now I cried, I'm a failure. It's like, don't be ridiculous. It's 2025. We all get it. That John Wayne, I don't cry thing is ridiculous. And we all we would we would all say that, but we've learned that lie and we try to live that lie, and suddenly my husband is so remote, you know, he doesn't, it doesn't matter what happens. Nothing affects him. He don't care about nothing. He don't care. And that's because you're you you've caught your husband living a lie that he believed. And that's and that's just a a little thing. And as you get older, uh, especially if you're following Christ, he'll just keep punching you in the face until you cry. He's like, Oh, you're not gonna cry? I wept for my people and I'm God. You need to weep a little. Well, Lord, listen, I just I'm that's not the kind of guy I am. And that's that's the way I was for the first probably 20 years of my adult life. And the Lord said, No, we're gonna turn on the waterworks. Yeah, he set you free from that. He did. I cry, you know. I when the light turns yellow and I have to stop, I cry. It's terrible. But that that was a freedom from a lie, I believed, you know? And uh, and I got my uh lie in the reverse. Um my he said, my dad said, I taught my first two boys not to cry. Uh, real men don't cry. And I was wrong. And you need to learn to cry. And and in my mind, I was like, okay, dad, that's cool. I I get it, but I don't want to be like my brothers. I'm not gonna cry. And so it's it's it's an odd thing. But then we we we start adding these uh deceits about our generosity. And then, you know, your wife's like, oh, so we're generous now. Okay, we're gonna be generous, and and she starts, you know, helping people, helping her sister, her mom wants a loan, and all of a sudden you realize I'm not generous at all. This is crazy. Everybody wants everything, and then you start to burn, you start to burn, and uh nobody knows why. Why are you so angry all the time? Well I'm trying to live the lie that I all that I want you guys to think of me, and it makes me mad, it makes me angry and uncomfortable. And those and I use those examples because we've we've hammered the the uh little lie, the white lies, and all that kind of stuff, and how that can develop into mistrust and you can lose your integrity that way. But these are the kind of things that I think people are uh dealing with all the time. Uh I want to be this way, I'm I'm gonna pretend I'm this way, I'm gonna fake it till I make it, and then but you're you're looking down in your soul saying, Hey, I am not this way. This drives me crazy. And here I am pretending that I'm the most generous guy, and now I've got relationship problems with my entire family.

unknown: 15:16

Yep.

SPEAKER_03: 15:18

I shared on Sunday in the sermon one of my uh favorite quotes from your dad. Um and there's you know, I never got to meet the guy, um, but there's so many things that I've heard you say that he said that I'm like, oh, I love it. Um but you you you would say, um, your dad used to tell you, Tim, don't believe your own bull. Um I thought, man, that that would fix so many problems in our country if people would just quit believing their own bull. Um and you you feel this way, you want to do this thing, that's fine. That's not who you are. It's America, it's free country. Right. You can do it. But that's not who you are. And the rest of us aren't gonna sit around and pretend that that's who you are. Just don't believe your own bull. Um, I thought, man, that would set people free if they would just live that simple simple truth. Don't believe those things. You you can't you can't lie to yourself and deceive yourself into thinking something that's not true, and it happens all the time. Um and it you you end up just dead.

SPEAKER_01: 16:28

My dad would say when you do that, you get lost. You get lost, and then the only person who can uh find the truth is the Holy Spirit because the heart is deceptful uh deceitfully wicked and no man can know it. Only the Holy Spirit. I mean, it was David who came to the Lord in Psalm 51 and said, uh, you know, search my heart, find any wicked way in me, because we can't find it. We've lied to ourselves so much that we don't even know when we're wrong anymore. And my dad said, If if you're gonna do wrong, just do it, receive the consequences, but keep it straight in your mind. Not all this justification, not all this they made me, and um I was watching a video one time, and a guy was telling a a story about his neighbor who was hurting his wife, just knocking her around. Okay. And he came out to stop it, and the guy looked at him and said, Look what she is making me do. And that's a lie that that guy believed. He believed she's making me do this. And and he was he was gone. How do you fix that? No, this is completely your responsibility. No, but it's her. No, it's you. No, no, I'm convinced it can't be me. And that's one of those things that uh we struggle with, one of those deceits in our life is that I couldn't have done that. You know, I uh I'm not that kind of person. I didn't do it, has to be someone else's fault. You know, and that's one of these identity things that we deal with in this country every day. It's someone else's fault that I'm the way that I am. And uh that's something the Holy Spirit will not stand for. He's gonna be working on that all the time.

SPEAKER_03: 18:39

One of the dangers or temptations, I think, um, at least living in our country, we got this American dream, this um aspirational idea picture of the life that we're we're supposed to live. And then if you're you're following Jesus, you know, then you got this, man, God's got a plan, he's got a will for my life, and I'm supposed to do big, amazing things. And we come across scriptures, you know, Jesus said that we'll we'll do even greater things than he did. And we're like, yes, that. And and then we look at ourselves and we're like, I'm not capable of any of that. Right. And so I think some of our deception comes where we're trying to put on this front, you know, and maybe it's as simple as you lie on a job application about your qualifications or work experience, um, so that you get the job that you think that you're supposed to have or that you deserve because it's gonna get you the things that you want. Um, one of the things that came up, and I don't know if I ever caught this before, and I mean I knew God had chosen Jacob. Um, and you still step back and you're like, for what? Right. Um but everything that that Rebecca was trying to help her son orchestrate, God had already promised. And it was never supposed to come through deceit, it was never supposed to come through manipulation. And I think she had this idea in her head of the person that Jacob was supposed to be. God had told her the the younger son is gonna rule over, the older son will serve the younger son. And she's like, Well, he's getting ready to get this blessing, and Isaac's gonna give him all this stuff and tell all this. And and blessings were a big deal. Um she's like, I we we can't let that happen. God has already told me that that Esau's gonna serve Jacob. I gotta, I gotta get in here, I gotta do something about this. And so she jumps to action. Hey, concocts this whole plan. And in that one moment of deception, it fractured her family. She never that we know of never saw her son again. I mean, she she's no, I gotta, he's gotta be on top. He's God told me this. Um, and I gotta work. And and we where else do we see that? We saw with Abraham and Sarah, right?

SPEAKER_02: 21:08

Yep.

SPEAKER_03: 21:09

God came to them and said, Hey, you guys are gonna have a child. And Sarah's like, yeah, that's ridiculous. And then it's not happening. And she says, Well, why don't you take you know my servant and you can you can do it with her and start this whole thing? I didn't mean that. Don't look at me that way. That was bad. I meant offering God's plan. You can do this whole plan through her. That's why I don't go off script again. Um, I don't even know how to continue this. I tell people all the time, men are just 12-year-olds uh in bigger bodies. This is what we're talking about.

SPEAKER_01: 21:49

That's right.

SPEAKER_03: 21:50

But we see it, we see it there too, right? The people trying to usurp God's plan. We we gotta get involved. We see what God's calling us to, we gotta make it happen. And and Rebecca turns to deception to try to fool her husband, and it worked. They took advantage of him. He was blind and couldn't see. Um, and over and over, I mean, you could just see Isaac so confused. He's like, Man, you you sound like Jacob. Are you sure you're Esau? Are you sure? I mean, he asked like four times, right? And and Jacob just walks into it like, yeah, no, I'm I'm Esau. Um, and then here's the other thing is Jacob from the moment he was born, scripture tells us that he came out grasping the heel of Esau. And there's something about names in scripture, and I almost wonder like, do they wait to name these kids until they're like 12? I know. Because their names are so descriptive of their personality and who they go on to become. And so Jacob means heel grabber, but it also could mean deceiver. And Jacob over and over again lives that out. And I but I just wonder how many times growing up did did Esau look at him and say, You're just a deceiver. This is who you are. And he even says it here. Now he's done it twice. And I wonder if part of the deceit that Jacob lived out is just because he bel he believed a lie. This this is who I am.

SPEAKER_01: 23:18

I think well, the etymology of of the word deceiver um came from the Jewish language, which was he was a grasper, you know, that was that was his name. But then he lives this life, and that grasper becomes turns into deceiver, and it that's the word. So if you were writing in Hebrew today, you use Jacob's name for the word deceit or deceiver, and that's that's crazy that that's your reputation, and you're walking around thinking you're not, you know. And uh, I think that's uh that's a that's a great example of what we're talking about here, that know what you're showing is a completely different thing. And I think um later on that the focal point, he's wrestling with the angel or with uh God. And um the angel says, Let me go, and he says he says, No, I'm not gonna let you go until you bless me. He's grasping again, right? And what's he say? He says, What is your name? And then Jacob has to say, Deceiver. I'm Jacob. And then the Lord says, No, I'm gonna give you a different name. And he gives him a new name. Which isn't all that great either either. It was Israel, they named him Israel, and that means those who wrestle with God, but uh but it was descriptive of who he was. But God can take that deceit you're living under, that mask you're living under, and give you a new name, a new identity. That's what we're talking about here. Yep. Transformation, a new life. Old things have passed away, all things have become new. I'm doing gestures. So think of me as I'm talking that I'm actually.

SPEAKER_03: 25:25

I'm guessing we're gonna need a video podcast.

SPEAKER_01: 25:28

People can see all this. So this is what this is what God wants to do. This is what Peter is talking about. No, you've got to you've got to lean into transformation, you've got to cooperate, get rid of these things. They are pushing you away from your new life. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, and I think I think uh that whole Jacob, that story is is there on purpose. You know, you don't have to go through all this stuff for me to give you a new name. You just cooperate. And how hairy was Esau that he you can put on a goat skin and and think, hey, this is my son. It's like, what was going on there? Anyways, I'm sorry that popped into my head.

SPEAKER_03: 26:18

Careful going off script. You see how that works for me. Um here here's one other thing before we we talk about hypocrisy. When it comes to this deceit, I want to encourage you, especially parents, dads in particular, but moms too, be very careful about the things that you speak over your kids. Um I think Jacob had heard a lot about his grasping and probably wrestled a lot with that feeling second, and having to work and manipulate, try to get things his way and all this stuff. Um, and man, just imagine the weight, especially when when all your cousins start using your name, you know, right, um, to mean deceiver. And it that's a hard thing to come out from under, man. And you you start to internalize that. That's who I am.

SPEAKER_01: 27:10

Um it'll isolate you.

SPEAKER_03: 27:12

Yeah. Be very careful about what you speak over our kids. When I when our kids are in the middle of something, we you know caught them in a lie, or we we caught them being mean, or maybe they said something at school to someone that they shouldn't have said. I'll look at them and say, That's not who you are. Right. That's not who you are. What you did did not live up to who you are. Um, because I want them to know this is not your MO, this isn't your standard operating procedure. Right. No, this is inconsistent with who you are. Um, it's that's an important thing. So be very very careful. And and know this Jacob didn't win or wasn't changed by winning the lie. That's the problem with lies, that's the problem with deception, is they build, and we got to keep trying to build and build and build so that we look like we finally overcame it. It was when he came to that moment. What is your name? And he had to come face to face with this truth.

SPEAKER_01: 28:05

He had to call it out.

SPEAKER_03: 28:07

I'm the I'm the deceiver.

SPEAKER_01: 28:08

That was his confession.

SPEAKER_03: 28:10

Yep. And so come clean before the Lord and and he'll give you that brand new name. Like you just said, old things passed away. He's made all things brand new. And so we said, Deception is the the lie you live, hypocrisy is the mask you wear. Um, it's this is man, like I said, these things go together so good. Um, it's like no wonder Peter wrote these things down the way that he did. He's a smart guy. Um but so when we we turn to hypocrisy, this mask of trying to look like you have your life all together, like we put on this front, we're we're performing holiness without actually pursuing holiness. Um and we make it look like this is who I am, when on the inside we're living something completely different. Um and man, I I can again, I can look back and go to you know, middle school, high school version of Ryan, and I can see the hypocrisy baked right into my life, and I'm sure it exists. There are some today too. But um, and I was going to going to youth group. Um my youth pastor told me I needed to learn guitar because he needed a worship band. And so I learned a couple chords on a guitar, they're probably still the only four chords I know. Um, I started singing on the youth worship team, then they put me on the student leadership team, and so now I was helping plan events and um sermon series and all this stuff at at the youth ministry. And then outside of that, I was living this complete other life. And so I was going over to my buddy's house and doing all kinds of stuff on the weekends that um if I found out my kids were doing, it would be bad. And man, I remember um my youth pastor had asked me to preach uh a sermon one time, and the Lord had called me out of all that stuff, so I had walked away from from living that stuff, but this was a time I was gonna share my kind of my story and the journey that God had brought me on to the youth ministry. And so I had written this whole sermon about kind of this old life, how God called me out of it, and and how I was living and the life that God had called me to. And I stand up that night to to preach this sermon and I look out into the audience, and my mom decided to come to youth group to listen to me preach. And I thought, oh crap, my mom doesn't know. She didn't know about all of this stuff. I had hid my this hypocrisy from her. I had lived one way for so long, and my mom thought, you know, every time I went over so-and-so's house and asked for pizza money, she thought I was buying pizza. Wasn't buying pizza. Um, and now she's getting ready to hear it all, and she's in a room full of my youth group friends. I'm like, this, what do I do? And in a moment, I was like, Well, I either gotta throw this whole sermon away and try to write something else on the fly, live in front of everybody, or I just go ahead and I admit this thing and I come clean right in front of the Lord, all my youth group friends, and my mom. Um, and so I preached the message that I believe the Lord had me preach that night. My mom was there, um and I came clean about all this hypocrisy that had been in my life. But I had pretended for so long in church, I was one way. I was the youth leader, I was the one all the you know kids looked up to. Um all people in the church trusted me. Um, all this stuff. And on the side, I was living completely different. Um Man, I wish I would have known this before I hired you. I well, you're finding out live first time on the podcast. This is the the hypocrisy that that we're tempted to to live, man. Um we want to project this image and we want the world to look and see us a certain way while we live, continue to live and operate a completely different lifestyle.

SPEAKER_01: 32:27

And it's very sly. It's very because we do it in the church too. Yeah, I'm I'm calling out church right now. We we want to teach our people, okay, guys, you guys need to uh perform so that you have a good witness for people around you. Um and we don't we don't encourage them to pursue, we do pursue Christ and He'll change you and transform you, but we want you to behave first so you don't embarrass our church, you know?

SPEAKER_03: 33:03

And we're talking about all you people with road rage and your freshwind stickers on the back of your car.

SPEAKER_01: 33:08

Okay, there it's leaking out of you again. So I no, I'm I'm calling the church as a as a whole. We get this idea that oh no, we can't have anybody here that looks bad. Well, no, that's who we're supposed to be attracting, is people who are sick of it and uh and want to transform. And so ministry is messy, there's just all kinds of things going on, and and we can't be transparent about some things because it's not about us, it's about someone else. But we we need to understand that this stuff is it's it's all over the place. And you know, and we've got a um a secular society that demands you guys say you're this, so we demand that you be that every minute of every day. And we're like, okay, um, we're we're trying. And and we even say, no, we're a church full of hypocrites. We are. And and now that's become a badge, you know. I don't know, you know, you hypocrite you all you Christians are hypocrites, and we say, yes, we are, uh, because we know that the truth about our mask and so forth and so on, but now it's become a mantra. Yeah, we're not supposed to be, though. We're supposed to be living a life of integrity. And quit just accept accepting the coding there and do something about it, is what Peter is saying. You're you're never gonna experience it until you put your foot down and say, I'm gonna live an authentic life. Um, whether anybody else cares or not, the Lord cares and he wants me to be authentic. So here I go.

SPEAKER_03: 35:01

It's about you know, we we even make these you know mantras, do as I say, not as I do. Um don't follow me, follow Jesus. And we we do. We have excused ourselves and we've embraced this, well, yeah, we're hypocrites, we're all hypocrites. Um yeah, but but you're not supposed to be a hypocrite.

SPEAKER_01: 35:27

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 35:27

Right? And and we do. We've almost in the church, I think we've kind of rebelled against it. Um, and and the world's used it against us. The world has thrown it in our face, sure. And and they say, you know, following Jesus is for wimps. I'm like, you have no idea what it's like to wake up every day to look yourself in the mirror and say, you have to die so that Jesus can live.

unknown: 35:48

Right?

SPEAKER_03: 35:48

John said, He must become greater and greater. I must become less and less. And in that we find life. We do. Right. Absolutely. But you don't know what it's like to have to lay down your desires and your goals and your dreams to pursue Christ. Right. Now, eventually, as you start following Jesus, your goals, your desires, your dreams start to become the things that he dreams about and the things that he cares about. David was called a man after God's own heart, and he'll do that for you. But especially in the beginning, it's man, it's rough. But man, it's we we rebel against because I think the the world threw it in our face. You guys are a bunch of hypocrites. We're like, yeah, we are, we are. And then we just started to embrace it, just like Jacob, embracing the whole deceiver thing. Yep, we're hypocrites, this is who we are. And so, oh well, don't do what I do, just do what Jesus does. Um, yeah, don't talk like me, talk like Jesus. Right. And we have excused ourselves, and Peter says, No, no, no, no, no. If you're gonna grow in Christ, you need to get rid of this thing. Absolutely. You've got to take the mask off.

SPEAKER_01: 36:53

And I think the way he does it, and I think we might have missed this a little bit because we get into the big words, you know, malice, deceit, um, hypocrisy, envy, slander. That's gonna be a fun one to preach about. Um but he tells us in 1 Peter 2 uh verse 2, desire the word. That is the antidote to the poison in your system. That's right. Is to is to receive the word of God in your life and not build a resistance against it. That's what you're talking about. We're building, well, how are we gonna fix hypocrisy? Let's just accept it and move on. No, no, no, no, no. The word of God won't let you do that.

unknown: 37:42

That's right.

SPEAKER_01: 37:43

And uh so every deceit you're living, God wants to dig that out and say, okay, I want you to be authentic here. And um, just like my wife, six months in, who are you? Uh you should be having those moments in your life as God changes you, you know, and and you choose to be our your authentic self. Now that doesn't mean be authentic in a negative way, but to to let your family know, hey, I'm struggling here. What? I never thought you would ever struggle in that situation. Yeah, I need some help. I need some accountability. I I need you to to uh hold me accountable here. Now what that does in a in a secular community is gives you a name. Gives you the Jacob moniker, you know. Oh, he is this thing, he's struggling with this, so he's one of those. But no, that's not what it does. That means when you confess, you free yourself first of it first of all from that anxiety of living an unauthentic self to a person who struggles in this area, and if I got you to help me, I don't have to struggle anymore. You know, we do it with drugs, right? We find someone who's mentally ill and we say, if you just take this pill, then you're not mentally ill anymore. And we accept that in society, but we can't accept I need an accountability partner here.

unknown: 39:14

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 39:14

You know, so um that's hypocrisy too. Oh my gosh, it's everywhere. So we need to we need to be people who are are truly wanting to be authentic. And and we need the word of God to keep pointing those things out to us. We want to grow, and as we grow, those things will fall away. I tell people all the time from the stage listen, if you do these things, you won't know it, but next year, when you look back, you won't be the same person you were. And uh I think that's uh that's the struggle we all have. You know, how do I know this is working? Well, look back. We've got short memories. The things you were struggling with last year are gonna be things that you think, huh? I don't care about that no more.

SPEAKER_03: 40:06

You know? Yeah, Christian life is a lot like a diet in that way, you know. And the reason a lot of us give up on diets is you started it and in a week you didn't look a whole lot different. So, like, well, this doesn't work, this is crap. And so you you give up. Well, spiritual growth is the same way, you know. You you you start doing these things, you start ripping this thing out piece by piece. And then a year from now, if you'll stick with it, you're gonna look different, you're gonna be different.

SPEAKER_01: 40:35

Yeah, and it's even more complicated than that because a year from now you hit a plateau and you haven't lost weight in a while, and you're all discouraged and whatever, but you never look back and say, Well, I've already lost 50 pounds, you know. I I've already done that, but no, you're like, I can't break through this this goal, I can't reach it. And but that's kind of like the Christian life. Yeah, you you don't look back and see what God has already done in your life. You you just look forward and what you're struggling with right now, and um the Holy Spirit knows that, and sometimes you just gotta encourage yourself in the Lord that God is working, even though you can't see the results.

SPEAKER_03: 41:16

Right. Well, this week uh I want to challenge you to do a couple things. One identify a deceptive pattern that that you need to confess. Where are you deceiving and not living um living the truth in a situation and and confess that. Confess it to the Lord if if it has affected somebody, which it generally does, even though we try to tell ourselves it doesn't, confess it to that person too and ask for their forgiveness. Um next, find an area where you're performing instead of practicing. Where are you wearing the mask? Is that at work? Is that at home? Is that at church? And and begin to take that mask off. And I when we talk about taking the mask off and living your authentic self, we are not saying you get to be the rage monster that you really are. That is not what we're talking about. Um, but we need to start peeling back those layers and say, man, this this is who I am. And I do in this area, I'm gonna need some help. Um, and be be authentic. If you know, we we used the story of of that couple bringing, you know, selling that field and bringing an offering uh to the Lord. Nobody was mad that they kept some of it back. What grieved the Holy Spirit was that they lied about it. Right. They wanted the perception of generosity without without the the surrender of it. And it would have been enough to say, hey, we just sold this field for a hundred grand. Here's ten bucks. And everybody went, thanks. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01: 42:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 42:49

But they made it look like the ten bucks was all they sold the field for. Find those areas in your life where you're you're putting the mask on, you're trying to get people to believe something that's not true, and and begin to pray and ask God to help you to live without the mask.

SPEAKER_01: 43:03

Um my dad had a I think it's a great way to do it, but it was it was rough on everybody, you know, because we had an idea of who he was. But he just started confessing those things in prayer right in front of everybody.

SPEAKER_03: 43:24

And um It could be a shock to the system.

SPEAKER_01: 43:26

Yeah, it was. Like he'd be driving someone cut him off and said, he'd say, Lord, I confess I want to kill that guy. I'm I'm sorry. Take take that feeling away from me. You know, instead of erupting in rage, he went straight to confession, and everybody's like, He wants to kill who? What? What's going on? You're the pastor, you shouldn't be talking like that. And uh and but he would he would confess those things. And and I I'm like, Dad, is that really you really want to share that with everybody? He goes, I I don't want to deal with the shame. And if I just lay it out there, then it's done. You know, I don't have to deal with it, I don't have to fight with it. And that's what confession does. It uh it reduces our shame and that reduces our anxiety. And uh so what what Ryan is talking about is so important. Just confess those deceits, confess those masks and ask God, Lord, take that away from me. I don't want that to be a part of us. You know, my relationship with you. As long as I harbor that in my heart, it's affecting us. Right. And uh it's not just about your horizontal relationships, those around you, it's your vertical relationships, your relationship with God. And that's that's a rough way to go. You know, you don't want to be driving in your car and look over and see a pretty girl and your wife's riding next to you, and you say, Lord, take these thoughts away from me. Um don't cause problems, but confession is something that uh we need to do, and you can do it silently in your car at that moment. Lord, what am I thinking? You don't want me to think that way. I don't want this to affect us. So I confess it is sin.

SPEAKER_03: 45:27

As you do that, and you do what you and I talk about on the podcast all the time, is you take every thought captive and then you make it obedient to Christ. Right. That's not consistent with who you've called me to be. Help me think differently. Um I'll tell you this a lot of us we fear confession, we fear the taking off the mask because what will people think? Will people still love me if they if they really know this about me? Um the answer is in almost every situation, yes. Yes. I had a guy come to me recently talking about some things he's been struggling with. And I just look at him like, man, you you just told me all that. And here's the truth. I don't think any differently about you than I did before we we sat down in that talk. Still love you as a brother, man. I'm still here for you, I'm still cheering you on. Um and what you've shared hasn't changed that at all. And that's true for for most things, right? So, so just come clean with it. Take the dang mask off, and you can start to find freedom. And man, it's you know, when you take that big deep breath and you just feel like that big sigh of relief. It's like that. When you take that mask off and you find out, oh my gosh, they actually still love me for who I am. I don't have to pre I don't have to wear this every day. It is so freeing. It is. So take it off.

SPEAKER_01: 46:43

Um Christ doesn't shame us into honesty. He invites you to be honest. He already knows the truth about you, and he chose you anyway. So think about that for a minute. That's awesome. That's crazy. And growth begins not with perfection, with behaving, but with truth. And Psalm 23, uh Psalms uh 139 to 23 says, truth in the inward being. You've got to live in truth. That's right. That's right. And you gotta quit believing your own bull.

SPEAKER_03: 47:27

Well, I think uh, you know, the one of the ways I said it in the sermon is we've got to let our um private walk fuel our public witness. Absolutely. We gotta be the same. And when you have that level of consistency in your life, and when you're out in public or when you go to work or with when you're with your family or the in-laws come over, whatever, and you don't have to, I gotta get that mask out. Oh, I gotta, I gotta remember all those things that I told everybody.

SPEAKER_01: 47:53

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 47:53

When that, when you don't live under that pressure, you're free. You can have peace, you can enjoy your relationships, you can laugh and and enjoy people and and not worry about, oh man, am I holding up to that? Did I did I keep that story consistent? Did I did I tell it the same this time as last? You can be free and out from underneath all that. And it is it's free. Um you'll you'll begin to truly enjoy life again. So um lot lot we've covered um today in this series. We've got a lot more coming up. I'm glad you get to talk about slander, not me. Um but uh right before we pray, um we made another announcement on Sunday, and I just want to to remind everybody again on the podcast, uh coming up on December 21st, um, we are launching a second service. Um, so that's Christmas Sunday, but we're not doing it just for Christmas Sunday. We're doing it um for hopefully every week after that. And so uh we're we're making room for more. Um every week, parking lot is full. We don't we're packing parking people in the backfield. We don't can't fit any more cars in here. We bought, oh golly, 60 some more chairs this week just to try to fit everybody, um, get the kids off the floor. And so super excited about all that God is doing here at A Fresh Win. And uh some of the things that we're we're asking you to do is one, um, get involved. If you haven't volunteered yet, um please find a way to volunteer. If you're already volunteering, we might need you to volunteer again. Um, this is an all hands on deck thing, but we we truly believe um God's doing some great things here, and it's uh it's a privilege to be a part of it.

SPEAKER_01: 49:38

Absolutely. I think God is is just telling us we're ready to accept more, and uh we need to take what God is offering right now, and that's what we encourage you to do every week here is to just take what God is offering. And and God says that look, I trust a fresh win with more people, so here they come.

SPEAKER_03: 49:58

Yep. And so we're saying yes before we even get started, before we even feel 100% ready, we're saying yes. And so you're seeing us live out what we tell you every Sunday. Um, and so we'd we'd love for you to get involved. Number two, um, is I encourage the church, so if you miss the sermon, um, set an alarm on your phone for 1221 p.m. I don't want it to wake you up in the middle of the night, but 1221 p.m. every day. And when that alarm goes off, we would love if you would join the rest of our church in prayer, just praying for God's favor, for his protection, for his wisdom and blessing as we get ready to launch this new service. Um, you know, there's some things that I know as just as your pastors that that scare us. Um, and not in a in a bad way, but man, we've we have really grown and and developed a great church by by the Lord's grace. And I one of the things I love most is the culture that we have here. Our people enjoy coming to church together and going to two services. Um, I'm like, man, Lord, can we keep that culture? Can we still keep that? Um, and I and I trust that we're we're going to, but I would love for you to be praying for us and pray for our leaders and our teams, all the volunteers that's going to take. It's going to be a long Sunday for some people. Um, but we'd love for you to join us in prayer on that. And then number three, we're not doing this because we want to put it on the sign or on the website that we have two services. Um, I told our team we will hold out as long as we can. So this is not a pride thing, this is not an eco thing. We're doing it kind of kicking and screaming. Right. Um, but here's what we believe as Pastor Tim just said, God says a fresh wind's ready for more. And so we want to make room for more, for more people, more families, more teenagers, more kids to discover more in Christ. That's that's what this is all about. And so I want to encourage you, invite, invite your friends, invite your family. We're doing this so that there's more opportunities for your friends and family to discover more in Christ and take steps towards Jesus. And so uh we love for you in one of those three ways to, or all three of those ways, even to be a part of what God's doing here. So, Pastor Tim, will you pray for us?

SPEAKER_01: 52:03

Father, we confess that we don't know if we're ready. And uh, but you say we are, so we're gonna we're gonna rest in you, and we know that we can do all things through you who strengthens us. And we want to be ready uh to accept more when you're ready to give more. And Father, I pray that you'll just pour it on us. And uh, Lord, I know you're gonna send people uh that we need to help us, and you're gonna raise up people that are already here to help us, and uh, we're just we're looking for you to uh do wonderful things in the lives uh of the people here at A Fresh Wind. Give us a great unction for your spirit to rule here, and we bow our heads as we sang on Sunday. If I make it uh only to the feet of Jesus, I made it as high as I can go. And that's where that's where we want to be, is at your feet when we do all these things that uh you're calling us to do. So give us the power, give us the strength, give us the attitude, and Lord, I pray that you'll just give us more. Give us more in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_00: 53:18

Thanks again for joining us for this episode of the Midweek Podcast. We'd love to hear from you. Let us know how God is using this resource in your life or send any podcast questions or topic ideas to podcast at a freshwind.org. If you would like to support this ministry financially and help us continue offering new resources that equip you to discover more in Christ, simply text any amount to the number 84321. We're so grateful for your support. Make sure to tune in next week for a brand new episode of the Midweek Podcast. Be blessed and have a great week.