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 as always with Pastor Tim, and we are in week three of our sermon series Marvel, and we're talking about living lives that please God. And uh Tim, I've it's been really cool uh each week as we've been preparing, or I've been preparing. I think you're getting ready for to preach this Sunday. Um, but just how these are all kind of building right on top of one another.

SPEAKER_01: 0:50

Yeah, I don't think we understand. Uh we go to church, um, we night might not hit every Sunday. Uh they might be preaching through a book like we're gonna do in in the summertime. We always preach through the book of the Bible, and and we don't ever pull these things out, put them on a big uh board and see how they go together. And uh this sermon series has has been uh walking up faith, obedience, righteousness, how they all um are like holding hands with your wife. You just they all go together, and uh this lays it out for you to where you can you can actually track it. Yeah and it's good to get it all together. So if you missed any of these um sermons, you need to uh jump on and and grab a hold of them and uh because these are are really lining up in a way that'll help you understand the Christian life as a whole instead of an aspect of the Christian life.

SPEAKER_03: 1:52

That's good. Yeah, I was I shared with you before we hopped on here as I was preparing for this past Sunday. Um I had the whole sermon written out, ready to go, and as I was going over it, and I think this Saturday, you know, I'm trying to go through it a couple more times, get it all in my head. I'm just like, man, I've I've got a lot of good content in here. Um I I think it, you know, I'm trying to define what righteousness is, and it's kind of this double-sided coin. We'll talk about that. But I'm like, I I've I've not given anybody a glimpse of what their life could look like if they would take this serious. Um because sometimes, man, we can we can hear these sermons and it can be this religious idea. Okay, that's important. We can take notes on it. I need to know that. I need to know what righteousness is, I need to know why it's important to God. And I had talked about all of that in the sermon, you know, as I'm studying it. I'm like, I got all those pieces, but man, I was like, I want people to see the difference this could have in their life. Um, and and I think how this whole series is kind of building. Um, man, if you would take these things and just start applying it, it would change your life. You'd live differently, you'd be the kind of person that heaven marvels at and that God can use. Um, and we've talked about that a lot in our sermons, in our podcast, about being prepared to be used by God, you know, and so we've said, you know, you need to you need to study scripture so that when you're in those situations, God can bring those things up. Um, and we've talked about these things, and so on Sunday I that's kind of how I ended it was trying to give the vision of this is the life you could lead if you started saying yes to Jesus right now.

SPEAKER_01: 3:38

I think when we think about that, we I don't know what it is. I while you were speaking there, I was trying to think what causes us to take that one thing and say no? You know, that one thing that you uh don't want your wife to find out about, that one thing you don't want uh your kids to know about you, um anger, racism, whatever, whatever those things are, that you just say no, I'm not gonna lay that down. I'm not gonna treat that person this way. And it has a lot to do with bitterness and hurt and all that kind of stuff. I don't want to drill down too deep. But what would life be like if there was no guilt? Yeah, you're gonna make a mistake, but you're gonna confess that, say you're sorry, and and and move on. But there are some things we just take take a hold of, which is I'm not gonna let you have that, or I've given enough, I don't want to give any more, that we that we grab a hold of that we we live in guilt for you know, most of our lives. Just this is the thing. I feel guilty about it all the time. I'm I'm waiting for somebody to find out about it. I you know, what would it be like if you just didn't have to live that way and just laid it down and and uh and that I know it's a crazy word, that's righteous living. Yeah, you know, just saying uh that's not as important as Jesus. So I'm gonna I'm just gonna lay it down. And to live that kind of life is a life of peace. And I know we we talk about how is God gonna use you? They were gonna raise John the Baptist, you use um Zechariah and Elizabeth. Uh they were gonna raise John the Baptist, which is a big deal. Um, but coming up to that point, they lived righteous lives and they were free. Yep. And you you might not ever raise a John the Baptist, but you can live free and in peace and know that um you don't have anything between you and God.

SPEAKER_03: 5:56

Yeah, I you know, I read that verse from the prophet Isaiah. Um he said the result of righteousness will be peace. That's what it is. If you will live this way, you can have peace. And then he says, the effect of righteousness will be quiet confidence forever. And man, as I was reading that, I could feel it in my bones, you know, that that longing to say, God, I want that quiet confidence. Not the boastful confidence where you gotta try to like prove something to someone or um maybe even to yourself, you know. If I I gotta I gotta prove this to me. No, no, no, that quiet confidence that in any room, in any situation, whatever's going on in the world, whatever's going on around me, I know I'm on solid ground. That quiet, sure confidence.

SPEAKER_01: 6:49

We talk about how this all goes together. Um Jesus just he made it plain, my peace I leave with you. What is that peace? Total confidence that God's in control and he's got me.

unknown: 7:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 7:06

And um, it doesn't matter what's going on, that's the peace that we're all looking for. And and Jesus had that, he said, This is my peace, I want to leave my peace with you, not the world's peace, which is you know, lack of conflict, or I got enough money, I think I can get all the way to the end of my life with it, or something like that. Jesus said, No, I want to give you a confidence. And uh and the way we get that ties into how we live, our righteousness. Now, when we talk about righteousness, we get this idea that you know, I'm all I'm always gonna be something wrong. Um, there's something I don't do or I don't want to do, and and um so I feel like I've always got something going on uh between me and God. But I want you to understand that Jesus Jesus knew that. He didn't come for the righteous. He said in um Matthew, I'm sorry, Luke chapter five, it is not those who are healthy. Excuse me. It is not those who are healthy who need a doctor, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. That is the exciting thing. Um I think we don't understand. Um He's not here for the righteous, he's come for the sinner to make them righteous.

SPEAKER_03: 8:32

Yeah, he's he's gonna do it. Um scripture talks about how he is going to sanctify us through and through. Um, he's going to to accomplish this thing. And and it's, you know, as I was trying to talk about righteousness, because man, there's people have a lot of ideas, things they've read or grew up with, you know, depending on what church, denomination, whatever. Um when it comes to how righteousness and how that plays out in in the Christian life, we got a lot of preconceived ideas, I think. And you know, I I remember a couple years ago we did a sermon series, um, and it was about, you know, living in obedience, these things that God um expects from his people. Um, and ticked a couple people off in that series. They're like, um, no, you can't add stuff to salvation. I'm like, well, that's that's not what we're doing here.

SPEAKER_01: 9:29

No, that's not what we're doing at all. I think, I think we have a uh we need to be that way. We need to protect the way we think about salvation. Um when we're saved, we're saved. And then God begins the sanctification process. It's always it's always happens that way. You're not living righteous to keep your salvation, right? You're living righteous to have peace and confidence in the Lord all the time. Uh, when you don't live righteous, you're all you know what Hebrew says about uh father who loves his children. A father who loves his children uh will not um spare the rod, you know. He's going to uh try to bring bring you into alignment of his will for your life.

SPEAKER_03: 10:20

He disciplines those he loves.

SPEAKER_01: 10:21

That's absolutely right. And we have that we get this idea that, okay, now me and God, we got this thing. And that usually comes from the way you were raised, you know. Uh we get this idea of God who's like the the person who had the most power in your your raising, you know. If uh God uh if your dad was kind of distant, you feel like God is distant. Uh or if your dad was heavy-handed, you feel like God heavy-handed. And so we we begin to live in this culture of um I I gotta I gotta hide, just like Adam, Adam and Eve, right? I gotta hide. Uh, and we we spend a lot of t uh a lot of our Christian life hiding when the Lord is like, no, just live righteous. I was in trouble one time with my dad and um I had lied to him and he found out. And uh I finally he was walking away at the end of the argument and the spanking, and I said, I don't want to live afraid of you. And he turned around in a in a and is almost vicious. And he looked at me, then live right and you have nothing to be afraid of. And it it's it's it affects me to this day. I'm 60 years old. And and that's that's the truth. Live right. You don't have nothing to be afraid of uh when you're living in alignment with what God has for your life. And I know a lot of people, well, you that's not saving you. Absolutely. You are correct. That is not saving you, but it is giving you uh the precious life of peace and uh companionship with our Savior and Lord. Right. And to live without it, once you live with it, to live without it is just not worth it anymore. I think uh 2 Corinthians chapter 5 uh really uh lays it out for us. He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him, now get this right, we gotta be in him, right? Yeah, we might become the righteousness of God. And uh that's what God's doing in us, and we need to cooperate with that. Get your life in alignment and start fighting those things that are uh are your rebellious uh parts of your life that you wanna you wanna hang on to and and start saying, Lord, I need the want to to lay this down. Not that God helped me lay this down. You need the want to. God help me want to lay this down.

SPEAKER_03: 13:16

Well, thankfully, I mean he promised his his Holy Spirit will give us the desire and the power. He'll give you both of those things. He'll give you the power you need to lay it down, but he'll also give you that desire, the want to to lay those things down. Um you know as I was again as I was studying, I I came across this passage in Ephesians, and and Paul's talking about don't give your bodies over to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. Instead, you need to give every part of you to God as a weapon for righteousness. And man, I was like, why use the word weapon there? You know, um, yeah, it it doesn't seem to make sense. What are we talking about? Why? But then this just reminder, man, we're we are in a spiritual battle every day, and how we live becomes a weapon, and we can wield that weapon towards unrighteousness, or we can use it towards righteousness. And Paul's like, man, don't give yourselves over. And we think this isn't that big of a deal, and I'm not hurting anybody, this you know, whatever, whatever excuse we come up with to justify that thing that we refuse to lay down or or whatever. And he's like, Man, that is you're you're offering yourself as a weapon for unrighteousness. But if we would choose to lay those things down, however tough it is for you, you know, whether it's um a deeply ingrained habit at this point, you know, you've just got those those grooves in your brain, this is just your default state, which it naturally falls into, or you think that thing um brings you more pleasure or happiness. We've talked about that a lot in the series. That the reason we struggle with a lot of these things is because we trust that that it's gonna bring me more happiness than than living God's way. If we'll just say yes to Jesus, we will make ourselves a weapon for righteousness in our families, in our workplaces, in our homes, in our community, in our churches. And man, it's you know, scripture says don't don't give the enemy a foothold, but talks about that idea. Uh, we we we don't even want to give him the opportunity here. Um and man, righteous living is the thing that protects us against that, um, to build a wall um that the enemy can't break through. And and we need to live righteously. It's so important to the Christian life. And when when we try to discount that, I think uh I think we set ourselves up for a lot of heartbreak.

SPEAKER_01: 15:50

Yeah, we were talking in our um life group about that verse in Hebrews. Pat Pat brought it up, he leads our life group. It says, In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And we're like, okay, what's this mean? Who's gonna shed blood over sin? I mean, if the Lord said, Look, you need to stop watching our rated movies, and um or I'm gonna cut you. You know, that's that's uh so we were talking about that, and um Tim Olney was uh talking about you know struggling with sin, and then um Rich Seth jumped in and was talking about it was talking about it and I was sitting there thinking, man, I don't struggle with sin at all. I'm awesome. I don't I don't have this struggle. So I told him, I said, I you know, I don't have this struggle anymore. I don't struggle with sin. I don't struggle at all. I jump in both feet. There's there's no resistance at all. If it's something I want to do and I know it's wrong, I and I'm just I'm gonna do it. And there's no struggle at all. And uh of course they looked at me like, okay, you're the pastor. And uh there are there are um some things in my life that have always we call them struggles, but it's not a struggle. You've already made that decision, right? It's not I feel bad. That's not a struggle. The struggle is don't let me fall into that anymore, Lord. I'll do whatever I can. And uh so there are some struggles with sin. And then there's some sin that's you don't struggle. And that's where we got to get the Lord involved in the Holy Spirit. Make me want to not do that, make me want Jesus more. And I think sometimes uh one of the things that when we talk about righteousness, our vernacular in the English has changed over the years. It's one thing you you if you grew up on the King James Bible and you see the word righteousness and unrighteousness. Now, if you look at some of the later translations, more modern translations, they say wickedness instead of unrighteousness. It's because our vernacular has become, if I'm gonna be righteous, then that means I'm gonna read my Bible, I'm gonna go to church on Sundays, I'm gonna I'm gonna do all the churchy things, I'm gonna share the gospel with people, I'm gonna do all those things. Don't let that the vernacular, when we when we say the word righteous, um, that it has to do with doing church things. No, no, no. You are responsible for your whole life. Your whole life needs to be uh righteous. Um what we were at Cole's um uh trying to find a bathing suit for me because we're going on vacation and uh I'm looking out the we're in the podcast room, I'm looking out the window and there's snow blowing all over where and I'm like, I gotta get out of here. And uh, but when I buy those uh shorts, I need to make sure that they're a righteous pair of shorts. What do you mean? Churchy pair of shorts? You you're gonna start wearing long pants in the pool? Uh no, but I need I need to know that this pair of shorts is not gonna mess with my ability to share Christ with someone else. That's what we're talking about um being righteous. I need to be a person who uh doesn't have those things that um say that I am of the world. Because I am not of the world.

unknown: 20:02

That's right.

SPEAKER_01: 20:02

I'm just here for a little while. So don't get don't get trapped into that thing that when they say we need to live righteous, it means you got to go to church and serve in the nursery. That's part of it. That's a big part of it. But if you're if you're working a job and you can't serve here and this is where you go to church and you can only show up one Sunday a month, that does not mean you can't live a righteous life. That means your righteous your righteousness uh is lived out in every day, saying yes to Jesus every day. Uh you brought up what would Jesus do. And when that came out, I was a lot younger man, and I thought, wow. What would Jesus do? That is just trite. That's a little that's a little thing. Um for the kids to run around with a bracelet on, I thought, man, I guess that's okay. But now that I'm 60 years old and I find myself in these situations all the time, I think, what would Jesus do, right? I mean, it is the best question you can ask yourself. And um, I think I was mad because I didn't come up with it myself. Right. But uh but that is that that is the question uh that we need to be asking yourself. And it it as you grow in righteousness, God changes your heart. He doesn't um just change your behavior to where you're in that struggle for sin that I don't have a struggle with because I just jump right in. Um matured so much. Yeah. You're um you're not in that struggle with sin because you want to do what Jesus does. That's how he's changing you. He's changing your want-tos. So this is not in this at all, but um I had a question one time, how do I know I won't sin in heaven? I said, You won't sin in heaven, you don't have to worry about that. And he says, the angels were in heaven and they sinned, right? And I said, Yes. How do I know that I won't sin when I get to heaven? And I was like, I need a definitive biblical stance on that. So I started uh digging and I came up with um and I teach a class that has a lot of this in it, uh, which is we will be like him. At the end of all this, we're gonna be like Jesus. And could Jesus, Yahweh, the King of the universe, our great creator God sin in heaven? Yeah. He just don't want to. You know? He is that is not who he is. So it doesn't even cross his mind. And you're like, well, God can't sin. You're right. He can't because that's not who he is. When we get to heaven, that's who we will be. And that that is the righteousness he bought and paid for on the cross for us. And I, man, if you can get a hold of that, you won't sin in heaven because it won't even cross your mind. Because you will be like him. And he's calling us right now. I'm gonna help you be like me right now. We sing that song. Um Praise Him like you're in heaven. We sang it yesterday.

SPEAKER_03: 23:50

You know that you're there in glory. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 23:52

Praise him like you're there in glory because right now he's just as holy. Yep. So are you. So are you. And I man, I praise God for that because I don't have the struggle some people have. And I I need that struggle. Lord, my dad used to say, you pray that God will change your want-tos. Don't get him, uh, don't pray together, God will change your priorities, your values, and you know, your life, all this stuff. Pray that God will change your want-tos because that's how he changes your life.

SPEAKER_03: 24:31

I mean, we're we have a podcast outline here. We're so far off of it. But man, years ago, you you preached a sermon, and you even brought this up actually, uh, in a sermon you preached recently. Um, you you brought this idea up again. You know, God is in the forever now. Um, and so he's with me right now celebrating my birth, but he's also with me on my 10,000th anniversary in heaven. He's he is outside of time, which means whatever you're struggling with right now, God is already celebrating the day when you get past that thing. And it's no longer a struggle for you. And when I heard you preach that, and I mean, this is years ago, it changed how I prayed because I started saying, God, you're already celebrating my victory. I want to join you in that. And now I'm not praying with my eyes focused on my sin and all that that comes along with. I'm praying with that, my eyes towards Jesus in that moment of victory. He's already secured, he's already in, he's already celebrating that thing for me. And I'm saying, God, I want to, I want to join that celebration. When scripture says there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, man, so many of us we we look at our sin, we just are we're so focused on it. And it's no wonder we struggle to live righteously because it's all we think about. Man, I gotta stop sinning. I gotta stop sinning. I know I'm disappointing God, I know I'm disappointing my wife or my kids. And and it's all we look at. And the problem is we're running headlong into it because we're staring right at it. Right. If we would start focusing on Jesus, the author and the perfecter, the finisher of our faith, and say, God, you're already celebrating this thing. I want to join you in that celebration. It changes how we view the whole situation. Right. Um man, he he you're already over it. He's already celebrating that. Why don't you join him in it? And how do you do that? Just say yes.

SPEAKER_01: 26:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 26:34

Just say yes to him.

SPEAKER_01: 26:35

I I think that's part of the uh everlasting now is the the fact that we are righteous, we're holy. We've already been declared holy. I mean, that judgment has already been made on who's ever accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. And if you've received Jesus, he paid for your sin on the cross and has declared you righteous. And this is the promise, okay? Even though you're struggling, even though you're addicted and you can't let it go, um, and you're struggling you're in that uh mental struggle, Jesus said, I'm gonna give you God's righteousness. You will you will have God's righteousness, and I never fail. I never fail. That's right.

SPEAKER_03: 27:40

You know, especially for a crybaby. Another sermon you brought up, and and I almost did this yesterday, I probably should have because it helped me so much. Um, again, probably a decade ago. There's been a couple of your sermons over the years that have impacted me, just a few.

SPEAKER_01: 27:58

I loved your one, your one yesterday. You know, you know when a pastor loves a sermon, when he's back there writing notes saying, I would have done it like this, and I would have done it like that.

SPEAKER_03: 28:08

You know, um, one of the the best compliments, um, because I think we all we still, however old we get, we still want to impress our dads, you know. Um showed up to my dad's house yesterday and he said, Man, I just want to let you know the past two sermons have been incredible. He goes, I they've been so insightful and they have just been they've been great. Um and so even though I'm in my 30s, hearing that from your dad is still pretty awesome. Um but sermon you had preached years ago, um, you had taken some piece of paper or paper towel or something and you got it all stained up and dirty and stomped on it on the stage and you picked it up and you said, you know, man, this is our life. And it's full of stains, it's full of holes and mistakes and regrets, all this stuff. Um, but then you took your your Bible and you put that piece of paper in there and you closed it around that piece of paper. You said, but when God looks at you, he doesn't see that. He sees the perfect spotless Lamb of God. So I used that terminology yesterday. I should have done the whole illustration because I can I can picture you doing it right now. Um, that's the truth. Jesus gave us that parable about the prodigal son, and when he comes home, that his dad takes his robe and he wraps it around him, he puts a ring on his finger. Man, that's that's your God. And so he doesn't see, oh my gosh, you just crawled out of the pig pen and you stink. Oh my gosh, you smell horrible, you're filthy. No, no, no. He puts a brand new robe on you, and when he looks at you, he sees Jesus, he sees perfection, he's declared you righteous, he's paid and bought that for you. Right. And then now that you're part of the family, he expects us to live rightly. Right, exactly. You know, it's and that's that's what I try to hope, and I'm hoping I did a good job with that. Um praying the Lord works all that out for people. Because these are big doctrinal ideas, and I and I want to help people understand practically, okay, yeah, this is great in a textbook, but what does it mean in your everyday life? Right. Um, and so I'm hoping the Lord works all that out, but it's it's not either or. It's a and both. He he clothes you, he wraps you in that righteousness, and you stand justified before God. Scripture says we can come boldly before the throne of our gracious God. Imagine what that means. You know, that we can we have access to him because of what Jesus has done. Now go and sin no more.

SPEAKER_01: 30:39

I want to jump in there, but I've got a cough, and I don't know if I should start talking or just cough.

SPEAKER_03: 30:44

Here, let me pause or mute your mic and then you cough away.

SPEAKER_01: 30:49

And we're back. Thank you. Thank you so much. Um, I forgot what I was gonna say. Now, here's here's the important about that. Not only does God see you that way, the rest of the universe sees you that way. The spiritual world, whatever is in there, sees you that way. And that's why uh when you said righteousness matters, I man, that's one of my uh catchphrases, and I love it. And I love to hear other people say it. And if somebody said you probably have heard that from you. I was claiming it, probably. You go ahead and claim it. I want everybody out there to claim that righteousness matters, because righteousness becomes a protection in your life against the evil one, against temptation, against all the things in the world that wants to distract you, even your own selfishness, even your own sinful desires. Righteousness protects you. And it's it's that's why um Paul, when he's talking about it in Ephesians, he says, put on the breastplate of righteousness, protect your heart, protect your organs, protect all the stuff that makes you alive with righteousness. And man, it's just it's it's important. And and I such good imagery. Yeah, and that's uh yeah, Paul, he's just amazing with that kind of stuff. Yeah, you gotta attack with, but you need to protect your organs. And the way you protect that is with righteousness. Yeah, that's that's great. I don't need to say any more than that because his his was the best. Just go read what Paul wrote. Yeah, I I I think we've the world has and I I think it's satanic, um has changed that word. That means churchy stuff. Church stuff, yeah. Yeah. And uh but the Lord saying no, when I say talk to that person on the elevator, and I say no, that's unrighteous. When I say yes, it's righteous. When I go to the hospital visiting people, I always see someone walking down the hallway like look like they just got hit by a bus. You know, there's always someone in there, and I'll say, Are you okay? Are you okay? And I I don't say that um because I feel like the Holy Spirit's telling me to say that. I say that because I'm afraid the Holy Spirit might be telling me to say that and I don't hear it, you know? And I'm like, Are you okay? Can I pray with you? And and invariably there's someone I can I can pray with. And so I'm looking for what God wants me to do in those situations. Um the hospital is a battleground. Emotions are high, bad things are going on. You wouldn't be there if there weren't. And uh so um when you get in those battlegrounds like hospitals, funerals, um at the end of church, when we're when we're drawing the net, when we're doing our invitation, will you raise your hand? That's a battleground. And you need to clear your head of all you're thinking about, win the ball games, and pray and live righteous in that moment. Well, how do I live righteous standing in church while Ryan's praying? By praying with him, by saying amen, by paying attention. Um, those those are the battlegrounds uh that we need to be, we need to come alive in, um, because that's when righteousness matters the most. Not doing what the church says to do or live like the church says, but to live like Jesus is telling you in that moment.

unknown: 34:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 34:55

It's this is so powerful. And I and I hope I hope you take this and begin to to apply it to to desire and then to practice living righteously. It'll change everything, you know. Um I I said on Sunday, it'll your your family will feel it, your home will experience it, you know, um, your workplace will be different. If we would be righteous, I mean just imagine it if you live righteously and we talked about peace, we talked about that quiet confidence, and these moments come up, you know, especially if you're a boss, a manager, um, you got to fire somebody, whatever that would be. And then the question is, well, you know, man, can our company handle if they go and they start talking about us and all. Imagine if you had the confidence to say, man, we've treated that person well. We treated their family well. We we did good by them. They don't have any ammunition. That's quiet confidence. That's what righteousness produces. You don't have to live in fear and say, man, I want what, oh, if that gets out, oh, if people heard about that, oh, if if someone, you know, no, man, you you're free to make the best decision in any situation because you know, man, I've lived righteous in that moment. I I have the breastplate of righteousness and I've protected myself. I've not given the enemy a foothold. I I've I've not I've not gossiped, I've not been talking behind people's backs, I've not been, you know, cutting a little bit for myself off the top, skimming some off the top. I've not been doing those things, I've not been taking pens from the break room, you know, I've not done anything because I want to live righteously. And then whenever these situations come out, you don't have to be afraid. You don't have to like all these politicians, I can only imagine all of them wondering, oh boy, if someone hacked my account, if someone got in there and saw, if someone looked at my DMs, you know, all this, because you know, people, I mean, there are people paid to go and find the dirt on you. Right. Imagine if you lived in a way where there was no dirt.

SPEAKER_01: 37:01

And there was there was some congressmen. I know it's hard to believe that when they were invited by Epstein, they said, No. No. No, I'm not going. Live that way. No, that'll it'll be great. Let's end on um my dad. We talk about him a lot, but I don't know if you know much about my dad, but he was into everything.

SPEAKER_03: 37:25

You should probably just rename the midweek podcast, the El Royal Holt Show, because man, he is he's made a big difference.

SPEAKER_01: 37:32

Um but a lot of where he makes a big difference is um what you're thinking about doing, he's done and then paid the price. He was a con man. Now, uh the definition of con man is a confidence man. They earn your confidence and then they steal you blind. Okay, that's what a con man does. So um one of the cons that my dad had is he had this ring. It was worth no back in the fifties, um like two thousand dollars, which makes it a twenty thousand dollar ring now, probably. And um he got that ring, and then he had a jeweler make him another one made out of glass. That looks just like it. And uh he would get someone to have some confidence in him, and then he would say, Oh man, I'm in trouble. I need to I need to hock my ring, and um and uh pawn chop won't give me any money for it, and I know they'll just take it and sell it. And um he says, I need to borrow money, I can give you this ring. And he'd say, No, no, no, I want you to know it's real. So he'd take him to a jewelry store and have that guy price that ring out so he knew. And um and then he'd ask the guy to loan him money, and the guy would loan him money and he would give him the glass ring and then leave town. So um that's a confidence game that uh I said, Well, how do you how do you keep out of that? And he looked at me and son and he said, Son, you cannot cheat an honest man. And I I'm like, What are you talking about? He said, There are some honest men out there that you can't get past their righteousness. He said, You have to to fall for these things, you have to have a little larceny in your soul. And those are the words he used. You gotta you gotta find the guy who's got a little bit of larceny in his soul. If you find a righteous man, he'll either just give you the money and tell you to keep the ring, or he'll just say no. And he says, I run into a lot of them. They're just honest men, and you can't get past that. What righteousness does for you. It protects you from all of Satan's schemes and um and and protects uh you in a way that I I don't think we understand spiritually.

SPEAKER_03: 40:13

So righteousness your life becomes a weapon, man. Yeah, it does.

SPEAKER_01: 40:17

And righteousness matters. They can um Satan can pull all hell out, put them, line them up like soldiers on a field, and you can walk right through the middle. And that's that's what it does. Um you gotta get let the Lord change your want-tos, get that larceny out of your soul so they can't trick you into living a life that's not worthy of the gospel. Man, I can talk about this all day. You better shut me down, brother.

SPEAKER_03: 40:46

I don't know if if we're gonna get to Job in this series. Um but imagine living away in such a way that God looks at Satan and says, Have you considered my servant Job? There's no one else like him. There, and we think, man, this the this is too this is too impossible. You can't live this way. No way you can live like this. Um maybe, maybe pastors, and I'm telling you it's not any easier for us. Um you you think, man, pastors and priests, maybe, but this ordinary people, we can't live this. Job was an ordinary man. And God said, There's no one else like him. We can live this way. You can live a righteous life, and it's gonna take the Holy Spirit for sure, changing your want-tos. It's gonna take getting into God's word and allowing God to renew your mind, um, to transform it. Um it and if you'll cooperate, but man, you we can live righteously. And then in these situations that come up, we become the kind of people God can use in any situation. So that when you're walking through the hospital, God can tap on your shoulder and say, I need you to go pray with them. And and you'll be ready. And and when you're on vacation at the beach and everyone's living wild and crazy and whatever, doing whatever they're doing, you can show up in your righteous shorts and say, Hey, you know what? I need to share the gospel with you, and you'll be ready. This is if we would take this serious, we become a weapon that God can use in the world for righteousness. And man, I wonder what God could do in your family, what he could do in your home and in your workplace, in your community, in our church, if we would get serious about this. And I man, I I'll tell you this. I am so grateful because God has people here at A Fresh Wind, and they live this way. They do. They do. He has given us an example of some men, some women that I can look at and I know I've seen their stories, I've seen how they live, and I can say there's someone who lives righteously.

SPEAKER_01: 42:59

Some that didn't live that way, and now they do. I'm gonna I'm gonna end this uh podcasting. I'm gonna read you a passage of scripture inspired by the Holy Spirit, written to the church for all the ages. His word shall stand. And this comes from Peter, who I feel like I'm closest to. And um I'm gonna read it to you, and then you can you can pray for us. Yep. His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness. You can change that word to righteousness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. By these he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in this world because of evil desire. For this reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The person who lacks these things is blind and short-sighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins. Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election because if you do these things, you will never stumble.

SPEAKER_03: 45:07

Imagine picture living that way. You'll never stumble. Quiet confidence, peace. This is what God wants for each of our lives. And if we'll if we'll take righteousness seriously, this will be the life that we we lead. And man, generations, generations will be changed because of it. Father, we thank you for your word. Lord, I thank you for um Zechariah and Elizabeth, who were righteous in your sight, blameless, according to all the laws and regulations. God, they they're people that we can we can look at and say, man, this is possible to live this way. Just two ordinary people. And Father, I thank you for the people in our church who I can look at. I know their stories and I've seen their lives. And they they have chosen to live this way. And Father, for those of us who are struggling saying, I just don't know how to do it, Father, I pray that you would give us the desire and the power, change our want-tos, transform our minds so that we can think rightly about these things and then act rightly. Make us righteous so that we can be a weapon for righteousness in the world. In Jesus' name.

unknown: 46:21

Amen.

SPEAKER_03: 46:22

Amen and amen.

SPEAKER_00: 46:23

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.