Episode 52: New Thinking = New Behavior

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Brenton
This is further a weekly show for the people of Harmony Bible Church, where we seek to revisit and expand on Sunday sermons with the goal of growing deeper in biblical truth, the transforms our lives. Welcome back to Further Britain, Graham. So this last weekend we had three different people preaching. We had Nathan Williams in Burlington, we had Christian Farai in Danville and we had Jeremiah Landon in Fort Madison.

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Brenton
So this week I have two of the three which will have to work. I have Nathan Williams here and the first time his voice has been on this show, actually. So a new voice to the show is Jeremiah Landon. So, hey, guys, how's it going?

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Jeremiah
Hey, thanks for. Thanks for having us. A joy to be here on the podcast. Joy to be able to share my voice via podcast.

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Nathan
Yeah, absolutely. Good to be here.

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Brenton
So we covered Romans the end of Romans 13, which was eight through 14. And Nathan, I'm going to start with you. You had titled your message New Thinking Equals New Behavior, meaning that to change our behavior, we must first change our thinking, right? So for people that didn't hear your sermon, can you kind of give us an overview of this concept?

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Brenton
Why? Why is this the case and how do we accomplish it?

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Nathan
Yeah, even for those who might have heard my sermon, to be quite honest with you, maybe I didn't explain this really good. But I'll tell you why I came to this. And because I read that passage, and you know what I mean? You know the title, which isn't actually scripture, but the title, the ESV. People have put it above that passage is fulfilling the law through a love.

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Nathan
So all it's like, love, okay, we just got to love everybody. We have fulfilled the law, you know what I mean? It's great. You know what I mean? And I just love everybody. But but that's not me by nature and that's not me. And if we back up one chapter and two weeks ago when Matt Mitchell was preaching on on the marks of a true Christian, as it's titled in the ESV versus nine to the end of the chapter in chapter 12, the NBE entitled Titles That Love in Action.

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Nathan
And that's a section that I just don't like that section. I mean, I could almost use the word I hate that section and not that I hate scripture. So let me clarify what I'm really mean here is, is everything that says goes against my sinful human nature. I mean I mean a love one another worth blood, brotherly affection Must love must be Jaime, I think.

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Nathan
Okay, that sounds great. But then outdo one another by showing honor and bless those who persecute. And now we're getting real. Real. It's like, No, no. Why do you think we love vigilante movies? Because our sense of of justice and honor, someone comes in and does something mean to my family or my village, and it's like, okay, I'm just going to go take out the enemy.

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Nathan
And then it goes down further. And he's he says he says, Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay, like now I want to do this. So. So I'm just being honest here that that's that's my buying nature. And I think we're all honest. We kind of have that. So so this goes against our and we've got to learn to think a different way about this.

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Nathan
And if we don't learn to think about this a different way, we don't by nature love. But if we can come to this point and I think it changes, we learn to love this passage. And it's so simple going back to the beginning of Roman Romans 12 actually sets that that that sets it all up for us in verse two.

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Nathan
Or he says, Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world. I mean, by nature, that's what we do. We act like the world. Someone does something to me, I'm going to do something worse to you just to get my I want to be the one that carries a vengeance. And then he says, But but be transformed.

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Nathan
Your actions need to be transformed. The way you act, the way you treat others need to be transformed by the renewal of your mind. So. So that's kind of where I was going. How do we how do we get to the point where we can love others and how should we love them as ourselves? And we've got to do it by a new way of thinking, because if we change, we are thinking to God's way of thinking.

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Nathan
Learn to love that that last part of Romans 12 instead of hate it, then our actions are going to follow suit and I'm going to be able to love my neighbor as myself.

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Brenton
Yeah, yeah, that's really good. I appreciate the honesty there. You kind of sound like me last week with the the government topic, but yeah, and I think that, you know, love is it it can be such a abstract topic to us too that it's just kind of, you know, it's kind of just up to our interpretation, what love means and how it and how it plays out.

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Brenton
And, you know, scripturally there's just not the case. Like we we have a definition of what love is. And, you know, I think we we always repeat the love is a verb, but it's true. I mean, that's it has to play itself out some way.

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Nathan
And, you know, it's easy. While everyone I love, as long as they're agreeing with me and they're loving me. But when that changes, you know, I really think, Paul, when you're writing this, you're probably thinking the Jesus Sermon on the Mount, when he says and pray for those who persecute you, you know, blessed are those who are, you know, mean it's like just counter-cultural to our normal way of thinking.

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Nathan
Absolutely. It's like, wow, I got to really change my thinking process if I'm going to be able to love other people as I love myself, especially, especially those who are my enemies and Romans 12 that says, If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he says, they're my neighbors, Yeah. And that doesn't come natural for me. So I got to think.

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Nathan
Change my way of thinking. Yeah, right.

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Brenton
Yeah. Jeremiah Did you kind of come to that same conclusion as you as you were studying?

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Jeremiah
Yeah, I would say that as as I went through this passage specifically at the at the end of this, my mind goes to, goes to Romans 12 to the we need a, a new way of thinking because that's, that's not what we're it's not the way that our, our sinful nature wants us to go. We want to we want to love ourselves.

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Jeremiah
We want love to be an emotion. We want love to go as we want it versus the love that God shows for us, the love that Christ showed for us. And so we need that new thinking, which is only found through through the gospel.

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Brenton
Yeah, Yeah, exactly. I mean, we we see Romans five eight says, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, he died for us. And so that you know, we see we see an action. We see we see sacrifice. We see really a difficult thing, right, to to sacrifice ourselves. But that that's the example that we see of Christ loving us.

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Jeremiah
I mean, you take a look at what is Paul use in the first section of this. He he doesn't use feelings. He uses actions like in in the commandments. Their actions don't commit adultery, don't murder, don't steal, don't covet. Those are actions. Those aren't based off of feelings. Yeah.

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Brenton
Jeremiah, on Sunday, you said we can never defeat sin by just managing it or putting defenses around it. It's only defeated when it's replaced with something. And that thing that we need to replace it with is a love for Christ. So can you talk about this a little bit? What what are some examples of managing sin?

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Jeremiah
Yeah, it's a great question. This would be kind of looking at the second part of Romans 1311 through 14, where he's he's talking about making no provision for the flesh, but the lead he says put on Christ and then you're going to hear Romans 12 to come back up again because really that's where he's going at with and he's driving that point home.

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Jeremiah
Don't be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. In other words, are you going to be molded to look like the world or are you going to be molded to look like Jesus? And the world's answer when things go wrong is to to manage it to to change our actions to to change our behaviors.

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Jeremiah
And so just pursuing those things may help for a while, but they don't truly address the deeper issue, which which is the heart. Whereas if we're transformed by the gospel, we're addressing the heart issue where we're not living for ourselves, but we're living for for Jesus, we're transformed by the gospel, which is what Romans 12 one says in View of God's Mercy, which is all of Romans one through 11 is is setting that up, God's mercy.

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Jeremiah
And then we start to in having a new heart, we have a deeper affection for for Christ. And then we know that we have a helper, the Holy Spirit, who helps us to look more and more like Christ. And then we don't solve the same problem by just approaching it the same way as the world does. But as Paul puts it here, like putting off the old self and and putting on Christ.

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Brenton
Yeah, yeah. And you mentioned that, you know, that's that's how the culture of the world can deal with things at times. But I don't think that Christians are immune to that either of just kind of managing our behavior rather than getting to the root of what the problem is. I guess either one of you, what's the problem with that?

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Brenton
How how does that usually end up? How does that play out if we just kind of manage our behavior is rather than actually getting to the root of the problem.

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Nathan
Managing your behaviors is the saying, I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to I'm just going to force myself. I'm not going to think about that. And then remember back to what Paul was saying we struggle with and Romans chapter seven, he says, The more I say I don't want to do something, the more I want to do it.

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Nathan
You know what I mean? So so it's and it's funny how he brings in the commandments here. You know, he says he says rather than you know, he said, don't do these things, but instead love one another quote. And then Jesus Jesus said, actually, in in in John 13, verse 34, a new commandment, I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you.

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Nathan
You also are to love one another. So, so, so this commandment. And I think that's the point of Paul's making here. If you love one another, you won't be tempted to break the other commandments. So, so. So, Brenton, if I love you, I'm not going to be jealous of whatever you have and I'm not going to be there for when I get jealous and that coveting, I'll be tempted to steal it or whatever.

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Nathan
Therefore breaking multiple commandments along the way rather than I'm thinking, if I'm loving you as myself, I'm thinking about what I want. If I was Brant and if I can do that for you, I'm not even I'm not thinking about managing, shall we say, my sin. I'm thinking of conquering it by overcoming it with love, by loving you.

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Nathan
And therefore, I'm carrying out this new commandment which which Trump, shall we say, all the the old commandments of the don't with the do, right. Yeah.

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Brenton
It's really interesting. As you were talking there, I was when you said, if I love you, my mind just immediately to train to go to the like if you have affection for me right like that. But but how you said it later was if I am loving you, if, if what I am doing, if my actions show that I am loving you like that, I think that is the better way to think about this and a better way to judge whether we are, you know, actively loving others.

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Nathan
If I care about your well-being.

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Brenton
Yeah, for.

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Nathan
Sure. If I want the best for you, that's that's an act of showing love to you. And I know we use that loving in a messed up kind of way today, but. But, yeah, it really is. Show me. I care about you.

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Brenton
Yeah. So you specifically, I think would be a good one to answer this year. You are heavily involved in R right. And, and I think that when we think of these kind of 12 step programs, that's kind of the the definition of those right. For the most part is like how do we change behavior? How do we get you to stop doing this?

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Brenton
What have you seen in your experience that C.R. or to to kind of how do you guys approach it differently? Maybe I'll ask that.

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Nathan
Yeah, it really boils down to this. A lot of the steps and see our is practical things we can do, like making amends, going to people and saying sorry for the things we've done to hurt them or stuff like that. But ultimately it boils down to this is none of that stuff is worth anything. If we haven't realized that Jesus has loved us.

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Nathan
Yeah, if we can get that, that he's loved us and only because it is love, can we even begin to love other people and begin to understand what it's like to forgive those who have who have sinned against us. You know, Ami love, forgive one another, even as I have loved you, you know, you even as crises forgive one another, even as Christ has forgiven you.

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Nathan
If we haven't experienced that forgiveness, we can never even begin to understand what it's like to forgive someone else. And I think that's one of the things that I always like to point out to celebrate recovery is is like, if Jesus is not in this picture, forget it. You're just you might be able to work out things for a while, but ultimately it's just going to come crashing down.

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Nathan
So he's the key that brings it all together.

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Brenton
Yeah, well, and even if you accomplish your goal of, you know, getting clean or whatever that looks like, great. Good. Good for you. You're still where you were.

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Nathan
And a lot of times without Christ, it's temporary. Yeah. You know, it really is, because he's the one that can really just do the healing and, you know, and it boils down to this. It's a change of heart. And I can act good on the outside for a while. But as I know, it's like, say, say, for instance, I've got foul language or whatever, you know what I mean?

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Nathan
And I can put on a good mouth around all the people that I wanted to be around. But but sooner or later it's going to slip out because as you Jesus, you know, what's in the heart proceeds from the mouth and what's in you, whether it's whether it's an addiction to alcohol or pornography or whatever the case may be, unless unless Jesus does a work and changes my mindset and changes my thinking, my heart is still going to come out unless it's the heart of Christ, which has been changed.

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Nathan
Which really brings us back to this. You know, I mean, the only way I can love other people if I've got the love of Jesus in me because and therefore put on Jesus, he says, put on Jesus. We got to put a dress, put on the armor of light, which is and says, Put on Jesus. So when people see me do they see Jesus?

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Nathan
Are they seeing Nathan? Because hopefully they don't see the old Nathan and hopefully the new Nathan is going to look more like Jesus. I'm going to reflect him.

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Brenton
Okay. So this this was a common phrase through your sermons was was put on Jesus right? And I think that's verbatim from Paul there. Yeah.

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Jeremiah


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Brenton
What does that mean?

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Jeremiah
Yeah, I went to Colossians three and he uses this, which it's a common theme that he has in his letters. You see it in Romans 13 here. You see it in second Corinthians five. You see it in Galatians five, you see it in the Ephesians four, Philippians three, Colossians three. And like in Colossians three, like we see a couple of different things.

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Jeremiah
We see that we we remind ourselves of our new identity starting in verse 12, put on then as God's chosen. So we're reminding ourselves that we have a new identity, holy and beloved, we're emulating Christ Christ character because he's the one that lived, is out compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another. And then we're actually like putting these into practice.

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Jeremiah
And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you. So you must also forgive. And so we're we're reminding ourselves of of our of our identity. Were were were his chosen ones, were his sons and daughters. We're were were emulating Christ by living that out and then we're actually like we're actually putting those things into practice.

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Jeremiah
And he gives us a great example of forgiving each other like we remember that Christ says forgiving us. And so out of the outpour of what He has done for us, we we do that to others.

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Nathan
Yeah, I said earlier, I think really think Paul is talking about thinking about the Sermon on the Mount when he's when he's writing. There's you know what I mean? And also in Matthew chapter five, you know, Jesus is talking about salt in laces is as you're the salt of the earth the year the light of the world, you know, and and here in this passage in Romans, he says put on the armor of light.

00;18;58;01 - 00;19;22;29
Nathan
And then the next day he says, Put on Jesus, put on Jesus. You know, when when we put on Jesus. In other words, when people see Jesus in us, we should reflect him. I mean I mean I mean, when people look at me, they shouldn't see grumpy, irritable, back biting. Nathan. They should see someone who loves their neighbor.

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Nathan
And actually I use this illustration is something that actually happened last Friday. And I was I was I was supposed to be off and I was going home. I was I had to go in to church for something, but I was leaving out the side door so I didn't have to talk to anybody because I had a date with my wife.

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Nathan
Right. And and that's that's Nathan. That's loving Nathan. That's loving myself. Right. And this young lady comes walking across the parking lot. She didn't have any shoes on, just sucking feet. And she had a hoodie up. You know, she almost like she was trying to hide. But but and I'm like, just look, car don't make eye contact, you know?

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Nathan
Nathan Just. Just see. Yeah, I anyway, I'm like, okay, I better just at least say hi. So I said, Hey, how are you? Jesus, We got services here today. And I'm like, No, no, it's Friday. You know me. And I'm like, Don't carry it. Don't get into a conversation. Yeah, I got to go. And it's almost like God was saying, Nathan, you're going to be preaching on this Sunday.

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Nathan
I mean, and you are not loving your neighbor as you love yourself. You are really just loving yourself. So anyway, I ended up Do you want a cup of coffee? I said. So we went in and and April was there and Bo and a lot of people were there. But we went into the room right there inside the door and just start sharing the gospel, whether, you know, I mean, and as it turned out, you know, this young lady who was just so depressed, so angry, so good, just tears rolling down her face, you know, I mean, and it was like 3 hours later, I thought it was about to a president.

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Nathan
No, no. You were in there for at least 3 hours. But 3 hours later, she would finally, finally let me pray for her. And she had a smile on our face. Now, she didn't trust Christ. She still had a lot of hang ups. Right. But but but there was a gospel seed planted. And that was because God convicted me that I was not loving her as I love myself.

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Nathan
My natural propensity is love myself, Go, don't get stopped. But as it turned out, it was such a blessing really, to actually give in and love my neighbor as myself in this case. Yeah.

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Brenton
Yeah, that's good. I was reminded as we kind of talk about this putting on Christ idea of Romans six. Paul's Paul's asking the question, Are we to continue sin? The grace may abound. And it's his answer is, is, you know not No it's it's how like how would you do this? And given that you are now a new creation, he says, how can we who died to sin still live in it?

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Brenton
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? And and it's just this idea of like, No, you, you are you are a new creation Now. You you are not what you used to be. And so I think that just this, this idea of putting on Christ is it's in itself kind of a deep well of, you know, who what our identity is in in Christ, what it used to be and, and how we need to continue to, you know, put effort into into living out this new identity that the Jews has given us.

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Nathan
I mean, Jesus loved his neighbors. I mean, think about him when he was on the cross. I mean, he was literally he could have literally them just with one word. And yeah, what did he do? He prayed for them. Yeah. And I think that's taking on Christ. Putting on Christ is saying, how can I act like Christ? Because by nature I don't.

00;23;23;15 - 00;23;38;17
Nathan
The only way I can do is taking on Christ nature, the only way I can to clothe myself in the armor of light and put on Jesus is when when people see me, they're seeing somebody who loves her neighbor. Yeah.

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Brenton
Yep. Okay, so another thing you said, Jeremiah from Sunday was how We Love Others shows a deeper reality of how we love God. And so can you expand on this a little bit?

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Jeremiah
Yeah. You know, individuals or things that we have a deep affection for are the things that we give ourselves to. And oftentimes we actually even start to look like them. You think about sports teams, think about athletes, music icons, movie stars. As we have a deep affection for them, we actually start to look like them. Caitlin Card is a great example of this.

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Jeremiah
As you watch any Iowa women's basketball games, how many people are wearing the number 22 shirt or jersey? And we also start to act like them. People start to sing like the singer that they idolize or they start to do the iconic move that the athlete that they idolize does. And the same thing we see Jesus talk about.

00;24;42;13 - 00;25;05;29
Jeremiah
And John 1334 and 35 where he says, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you, you are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. And so disciples at the heart love God. You think about the the Ten Commandments, Jesus.

00;25;05;29 - 00;25;34;25
Jeremiah
And Matthew 22 talks about how it's it's summed up in these two things loving God and loving others. All the other commands are fall on those. And so at the heart of it, disciples love God and then, as they respond by grace to His gift of salvation through faith in Jesus, and because they love God, they follow His rules and they follow his authority.

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Jeremiah
And so anything you want to add, Brenton or Nathan, curious.

00;25;39;20 - 00;25;45;03
Brenton
What your favorite athletes movies Tik-Tok Dance.

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Jeremiah
Got anything for me? I don't got anything for you.

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Brenton
Homer Nathan has too.

00;25;50;15 - 00;25;52;15
Jeremiah
Many soccer and soccer players.

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Nathan
I've got I've got a lot of favorites. Probably my favorite is Lucas Moura, but soccer, of course, now he's a great player, but he loves the Lord. So his it's south that's Here you go.

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Brenton
One of Paul's commands in this passage is to make no provision for the flesh. What what would you say that means? And how do we do it?

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Jeremiah
Yeah. So provision, how the definition means to act, the act to providing. So it would be giving ourselves opportunities for our flesh to be to be gratified. And our flesh has desires that long to be gratified. They continue to grow. And as we give in to them, the desire continues to grow. And so I'm kind of like, how do we how do we how do we do that?

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Jeremiah
Like, how do we make no provisions for the flesh? Is that kind of where you're going? Yeah. Asking.

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Brenton
Yeah. I mean, so if that's a command the Paul's giving us, how do we fulfill that?

00;26;54;03 - 00;27;23;13
Jeremiah
Yeah. So I was thinking about, I think just logistically here it's asking yourself, what are the things that I'm providing for my four center rule in my life? What are And as I look at the sin in my life, as I look at, I need to look at the tendencies around it. Are there certain times, are there certain situations or are there certain things that are causing me to sin?

00;27;23;15 - 00;28;03;04
Jeremiah
And I and then it's asking yourself and maybe it's asking the help of a brother or sister in Christ, and how can I like how can I guard myself from those things? How can I take those things away and then start putting that into practice? And so I think one I know I talked about this a little bit, but like cell phone usage is, is one of those things where like, do I have a do I have a accountability filter accountability software on that?

00;28;03;06 - 00;28;29;04
Jeremiah
If not, think about doing that because of the fact that that allows for the flesh to be gratified and maybe like, are there certain times where I know that I'm by myself and I do something and putting things around me so that the flesh does not have provision to to be gratified?

00;28;29;07 - 00;28;51;25
Nathan
Yeah. So I think of it like this A I want to go on a diet. I want to lose a little weight. But I got all these chocolate bars and everything in the cupboard. But, but you know what? I'm not going to touch them, but you know. No, no, no. If I want to make no provision for the flesh, I'm going to take them and I'm going to not just throw them in the trash can, they're in the kitchen.

00;28;51;25 - 00;29;08;00
Nathan
I'm going to take them out to the garbage can out by the street and make sure it's buried under all the other garbage, because I want to make no provision, no reason for me to think, well, you know, because I'm going to be damned if it's there. I'm going to be saying, well, you know, I've already spent the money.

00;29;08;00 - 00;29;28;26
Nathan
I'm as well. You eat it. You know what I mean? No, I want to make no provision for the flesh. You know, carry that to to this to the sinful level of the loss and desires of the heart. And I really, really think that every single one of us has a propensity to sin in a different area. You know, for some it might be gambling, for some it's alcohol.

00;29;28;26 - 00;29;50;01
Nathan
For some it is pornography. Yeah, for sure. You put it that. And if that is the case, I'm going to make the case here for for Paul really studying the Sermon on the Mount before he read this because back in the Sermon on the Mount again, chapter five Jesus and saying about lust. You ever heard of that said you shall not commit adultery.

00;29;50;01 - 00;30;10;05
Nathan
But I say to you, anyone who looks at a woman with lust, a lustful intent, has already committed adultery with her in his heart. And then he says, okay, make no provision for the flesh. And and of course, Jesus is a radical kind of a guy. And he says, if you're right, I causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.

00;30;10;07 - 00;30;32;16
Nathan
You know, for it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And then he says the same about you. Right? Right on. The point is, what is it? What is it that I can identify in my life that that that's causing me to go astray? What is it in my life if I'm an alcoholic?

00;30;32;19 - 00;30;58;29
Nathan
I just don't go to the bar. I mean. but my friends are there and I'm not going to know. I just don't go. Am I saying nobody should never go to a bar? I'm not saying that. Right. But if that's where my sinful nature is and you can pick out the same. I love the movie that came out a few years ago at Fireproof from the message that it was given, and this was with a guy that was struggling with pornography and he did all the things that you're talking about, Jeremiah.

00;30;58;29 - 00;31;25;25
Nathan
He put on the safeguards on his phone and and the firewalls and all this stuff. But, you know, the heart is always there and we're going to find ways around it. And Paul says it to Timothy and in second Timothy 222 Flea from Youthful passion. I mean we wanted to go as far away as we can and the end of that movie Fireproof rather than saying, okay, I'm done.

00;31;25;29 - 00;31;54;10
Nathan
He takes his TV and his computer and his phone and he brings it out and smashes it with it. He says, I'm making no provision for the flash. Not going to do it. It's done. Gone. Boom. Yeah. So Jesus says, Be radical. And I think we've got to be ready if we find ourselves continually going down a path that's a continual sin that we're tempted to do, we need to be radical, make no provision for the for the flesh.

00;31;54;13 - 00;31;55;21
Nathan
Yeah.

00;31;55;23 - 00;32;22;02
Brenton
Yeah, I think that's good. And I think seeking out, you know, godly wisdom on on things too don't, don't hide it in the dark if there is something but to follow up off of your second Timothy Passage 222 he goes on after he says so for youthful passions and pursue righteousness. Yea faith, love, peace along with those who call in the Lord from a pure heart.

00;32;22;02 - 00;32;40;23
Brenton
So it's not it's not only the negative side of it, it's not just No, try harder. Just stop doing this. It's, you know, there's a positive side to this too. You kind of what we, what we said earlier, what Jeremiah was saying earlier that we need to replace that with with something else.

00;32;40;25 - 00;32;41;03
Nathan
yeah.

00;32;41;04 - 00;32;43;06
Brenton
We can't just we can't just leave a whole.

00;32;43;08 - 00;33;00;28
Nathan
That's the whole idea. The empty vessel. And Jesus talked about that. He says if a demon gets cast out of man, right. And he goes into the wilderness and and that that the vessel gets cleaned out and then the demon comes back and says, there's nothing there. And he brings back even worse. And then it was and the man is seven times worse than he was to start with.

00;33;01;05 - 00;33;23;10
Nathan
If we don't replace it, if we don't replace it with righteousness is kind of what you were talking about in recovery programs. If Christ doesn't come in, we're going to be worse off than we ever started. You know what I mean? We can put it aside for, but we've got to fill it with righteousness. Absolutely. No, no. The thing you said is, is got to be out in the open.

00;33;23;12 - 00;33;51;16
Nathan
Got to be out in the open. I love some 32 because he literally David says it says when I kept silent, my bones wasted away. But but when I when I acknowledged it and put it out in the open and the words he says, you forgave me. And there's something really healing about that to you, too. If we've got a sin that we're dealing with, that's what are these sins here that I'm trying to keep a secret and I'm ashamed of it.

00;33;51;16 - 00;34;14;09
Nathan
I don't want anyone else to know. It's like, that's a dangerous road to go on. Because. Because I'm just. I'm not eradicating it, shall we say. I'm just hiding it over and uncovering it. And it's my pet. It's my piece of chocolate that I've got in the closet or in the cupboard for, for, for an emergency. It's like, no, I shouldn't have any emergency backup.

00;34;14;11 - 00;34;17;02
Nathan
Get rid of it. Yeah, yeah.

00;34;17;05 - 00;34;42;14
Brenton
Yeah. I think around this conversation there, there's always kind the danger of, of that kind of legalistic, you know, just try harder. Just stop doing this. And, and I appreciate you guys as you as you went through this. You know, there there is a side of that that is true. You know we we do need to try harder on these things and Paul says we need to give no provision.

00;34;42;14 - 00;35;07;08
Brenton
We need to give no quarter to our sin. But if that's if that's not presented with, you know, there's there's grace. And especially, you know, the people that the leadership in in a church, the people that are trying to help people through like there needs to be grace there. There needs to be, you know, okay, yeah, I recognize that you failed here.

00;35;07;11 - 00;35;27;17
Brenton
It's okay. Let's go. Let's get back on. Let's let's keep going. And so there's an encouragement there. But all right. Yeah. We need to kill sin. It's. It's vitally important in our lives. But. But the solution will never be just try harder. And so I just appreciate you guys going through this and kind of given that.

00;35;27;17 - 00;35;58;01
Jeremiah
Side of it and and hopefully like what people take away from this is that the the church isn't where everybody has it together. Yeah. And, and, and then it's like, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this. But rather I've heard it this way that the church should be the hospital for the hurting. Like we we all are sinful fallen people and we all are in need of that grace And that includes everybody here on this table, that includes all of our pastors.

00;35;58;03 - 00;36;17;13
Jeremiah
And and so like, we want we want to be that place where where people come and can can share those burdens and can can fight that fight those sins and and pursue righteousness in that.

00;36;17;16 - 00;36;47;01
Nathan
Yeah, this whole thing about this sin and grace and everything, first of all, we got to recognize that sin and we we've got we've got to eradicate that. But, but it starts with the repentance prayer. And that's why I love I love the Sons of David. Some 32 Psalm 51 were in both of these his repenting and he's asking God you can literally not literally, but you can imagine the tears that are on the page as he's repenting.

00;36;47;01 - 00;37;07;26
Nathan
But but in some 51 after his sin with Bathsheba and all that and and verse 12, by halfway through, he's kind of changes the tone and he says, restore to me the joy of just salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I love this. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you.

00;37;07;28 - 00;37;30;20
Nathan
God still got a purpose for us. Even if we've fallen. Even if we've if we repent, He's got a purpose for us. And it's not the. That's what you were talking about. That grace, that that that God still has a purpose for every single one of us. And he's not done with us until he calls us home. And we need to be to keep that in mind.

00;37;30;20 - 00;37;47;11
Nathan
So for anyone here, this lesson this hour, that's too late for me. It's not too late. It's not too late. And yeah, kill that scene and get back going again. And. And will you fall again? Possibly. But you know what? It's okay.

00;37;47;13 - 00;38;06;19
Brenton
Yeah. Yeah. I don't know how we made it this whole episode without it. Maybe we did, but talking about repentance, I think that I appreciate you bringing that up because, you know, and, and you guys listening, if you're not familiar with some put you on, go read it. I think that it's such a a good example of what a repentant heart should be.

00;38;06;22 - 00;38;31;12
Brenton
And that's really a like a good a good model for us that when we are in that, you know, that position of of confession and repentance, that there there is a time for a contrite heart and there's a time for recognizing that there's grace and there's step forward. And so, yeah, I just encourage you with that. Go go read Psalm 51.

00;38;31;13 - 00;38;48;06
Brenton
I think it will be helpful to this conversation. And guys, I appreciate you coming in. Appreciate your work on your sermons this week. And also to Christian, even though he couldn't make it today. So thanks a lot. And we will talk to you guys next week.

00;38;48;09 - 00;38;49;09
Nathan
Sounds good. You take care.