When you are at war, you commit great sins. What does God think about me since I've committed these sins? Welcome to the podcast. Special guest Bernie is back. It's in fact, you're not even special anymore. We're just normal, the non special uh normal normal guest Bernie. And you were on a few weeks ago and you were you just finished or you were just about to go on this run, and then everyone was worried about you, thinking you might die, and so they were emailing like how's Bernie?
And then people are talking to me at meet and greets like how's Bernie? Haven't heard anything? So can you give a little recap?
Yeah, yeah, I'll give a brief little recap and you can follow us on Instagram. It's at Burn and Coco and then well we have a lot of stuff from the race on there, and we're actually going to start doing these little segments called Coffee with Burn where it's me just kind of talking about the things I call you and talk about like these little nuggets that I find in the woods that are like, oh man, I wonder if the world needs that. So yeah, I go follow us there and keep up. But oh man, there's
so much I did make it. I ran a good race preparation for.
The people that don't know how far was it.
So it was thirty four miles, there was over five thousand feet of elevation. It was on a single track, you know, trail run in Cleeborn, Texas. It was awesome. It was really awesome. I went in with a good kind of race plan, and my plan was stay humble, don't go out too fast, and try to finish strong.
And I think that, especially this being the first ultra of this link that I've done, there's always and maybe this is true for life in general, but there's always a tendency to just go out too fast, and when you get into an ultra marathon, just can't do that. You're gonna burn out, you're gonna blow up, your muscles are gonna crash, and you're gonna have to DNF and
not finish the race. And so, man, it took everything in me those first you know, twenty or fifteen, sixteen miles to just let people pass me and just kind of find my pace and be like, okay, this is it.
Set the ego aside.
Set the ego aside, And oddly enough, I didn't put this together until I was actually on the trail, but months earlier. You know that I take like a verse and I'll just like rest on that verse for like a month or two. Well, I was on Isaiah forty thirty one. But those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They will rise up on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not grow tired. And I had been on that, so I got on the trail and all of a sudden,
all I heard was that verse over and over. Just wait, just wait on the Lord, he will renew your strength. And you know, for whatever reason, I got to about mile twenty six and some I mean, I can't explain it, like it was euphoric. I felt like I was running the first mile, and I ran that last eight and a half miles fifteen minutes faster than the previous eight and a half miles. It was like some of the fastest of the race. And so there was this constant
like just stay humble. My mind is telling me, dude, you need to push. You got more in the tank, keep going, but it was like no, just wait, just wait. And then I felt like the time came and I pushed and I finished strong, and it was a really great experience. It likely, Lord Willing, won't be the last one that I do.
And yeah, I just.
Had a blast.
So first meal you had when you finished, first meal was what a burger order?
It was a huge like, uh, what's the spicy, sweet and spicy double cheeseburger, French fries.
A milkshake.
No, I don't think I did a milkshake. I could have done a milkshake, but I ate so much for the next week, like I kind of said, you know what, just let let yourself go a little bit, you you know, kind of pushed her in training. So I ate what I wanted. I drank what I wanted, I slept in, I didn't I didn't really exercise. I did like a few three mile runs just to kind of like shake out the muscles. But yeah, it was. It was a good burger. I'll tell you that, I'm bad. I had earned it.
Bernie over here, David Goggins, Now.
No, not even close. But I appreciate the support, guys.
It was.
It was really cool fun to hear from you.
Guys. Everyone was because you literally did this podcast a few weeks ago and then went and did that run, and then I came back and did a solo podcast the next week and they were like, oh, how's how's Bernie. I'm glad get the recap and I think some of the knowledge that you learned on that run will come out in the question today. I'm positive they will at some point. And that's what we do on this podcast is answer your questions, and you could email your questions
to Grangersmith podcast at gmail dot com. If we don't have anything in front of us, we're just going to talk it through like we're just friends. Okay, I'm going to randomly go through these in the first one with the subject line of this one questioning God's plan, Hey Grandeer, my name is Toner. That's the last name I'll go by. I'll be thirty five in September and I've never had a serious relationship. All my friends are getting married and
I feel like I'm just left on the sidelines. Everyone asked all the time, when am I going to be next? I have a fear that God doesn't have anyone planned for me and that I should be forever alone. I've been on several dates, but it was with the wrong girl. Am I supposed to pray for God to give me patience or just trust he has a plan for me.
I've recently felt a calling back into student ministry, and it's been fun helping out youth as a youth pastor by being a positive influence and sharing my testimony because a lot of stuff I went through there. This is this is now on a deeper level. I also have tickets to your show in Tulsa, Okay, Toner, Let's focus on that first part. Thirty five years old and single.
This is what's interesting, Bernie. This is what he says, like there's always a line in one of these questions after by the way, one hundred and ninety, that's the episode one hundred and ninety. Oh, so after one hundred and ninety of these, there's always sentences that pop out to me. And you probably know which one I'm talking about. It's the one that says, I have a fear that God doesn't have anyone plan for me and that I should be forever alone. So let me just ask you
back another question. If God has a plan for you, which here's your sentence, God doesn't have anyone plan for me? So if that is God's plan, would you reject his plan? Would you consciously revolt, rebel against his plan? It's an interesting thought. I'm not it's rhetorical, but this is us, you know, this is what we do. We go, we go. I trust God. I see this so many times in
the questions. Somebody's typing a question right now as we speak, and it's saying, I trust God, but there's always a butt but but I don't know this or I'm fearful of this. So what do you say to this guy? Burns as he says, maybe I'm going to be single forever, forever alone and that's God's plan, and I fear that.
Right first, I think it's I think it's okay. These what you're feeling is legitimate.
You're human.
We've talked before about these, these things of fear and faith, like it can sometimes it can be both. But I think Granger's hitting on this idea of contentment that he's talked about many, many times on the podcast. What if that is God's best for you is to live your life without a wife, without a partner, or whatever are you?
Would you be content with that? I guess the other thing, the other question would be, like Granger said, or would you kind of rebel against that and not accept that and and ultimately that would come down to not trusting that he loves you and has your best at heart in his plan. I think that this is a place where Toner just has to kind of spend some time.
And I think it's okay to wrestle. You read through the Psalms like David wrestled with God a lot about and question things, and so I think the best thing that you can do is kind of wrestle through this. If there is that desire, you know, continue to pray about it. But I think there's a bigger heart I don't want to say issue, but I think there's a bigger opportunity for you to understand your heart and the current position of your heart towards God through what you're
feeling right now. So I would just press in, Yeah, I mean you're thirty five, like I want to say, you're still young, because you know.
Yeah, he might have expected us to just go straight in and be like, no, you know, you'll find somebody, you're young, You're everything's gonna be okay. And so but before we do that, and we might we might agree to that, but before we say that we got to first just say, but would you be cool being part of God's plan? Period? Like nothing else after that? Would you be cool with that? It's like this, you know London, My daughter, she doesn't do good with dairy products, but
she loves them. And so when me and Amber are saying, now, you can't have ice cream tonight. You can't because you're gonna wake up in the middle of night with a belly ache, and she's like, no, but I want ice cream. Am I never gonna have ice cream the rest of my life? And we're like, listen, we're talking about tonight, and you cannot have it tonight. This will affect you. You will wake up with the belly ache. And she
doesn't remember that, and she can't see that. We say that because we love her, because we care about her, but she doesn't see it. She doesn't trust it, she's fearful of it. And it's the same thing. We do this with God all the time. It's interesting. Bernie brought up the psalms and David wrestling with God. I heard Tim Keller this morning saying in a book that he wrote that having doubt in you would be like having
antibodies in you. It's like basically what he's saying is you don't you don't want to be someone that's that has zero doubt at all, zero fear, zero doubt, nothing, because that's like a body without antibodies. And you then are very open to an attack at some point because your whole belief system could come crashing down because what that small sliver of fear in you does, and I don't want to promote fear, but what it does in you is it makes you wrestle with it makes you
attack it. It makes you dig and learn and read and think like Bernie going on this, you know, thirty mile run and he's thinking and he's wrestling with verses, and revelation comes through that wrestling. If you don't have that, if you're like, no, I'm pretty it's like spiritually I'm pretty perfect. Like you don't have I don't have anything that all the scripture just I'm on good with it all, then you're in a really dangerous place at that point.
Yeah, and that's a great analogy. Those antibodies are what are killing the virus. Yeah, so there are these these untruths in your head, the wrestling, the antibodies, this this, this is actually what kills the things that are not true. So but here's here's the last thing I'll say to Toner.
What if.
You decided you made the choice God, I am all in, I'm I'm content in you, and maybe maybe I'm not right now, but give.
Me that heart.
And all of a sudden God started to speak to you. He started to reveal things to you, and you started to write those things down and you started to develop this heart that was so passionate for the gospel that He took you on these adventures that you never thought. That you published books that were best sellers, that you that people knew who you were because of this mission that you were solely focused on. But you were single. Much like Paul. This is the same story of Paul Right.
He was solely focused on this message and it it took him to places and it brought things out of him that we still read and we still are inspired by today. Toner, what if that? What if that is your story? But you're too busy focused on suburban two and a half kids with my family just live in this, you know, typical American dream life that you're gonna miss out.
He says, like everyone asks all the time when I'm gonna be next. No, stop that, stop listening to that, You're gonna miss out that you can't follow social media and listen to all these people. Bernie's right, Granger's right, All right, let's look to another one. Uh. This is interesting subject line savior complex. Hey Granger, my husband and I are a big fan of your podcast in the Smiths and recently went to your show in Louisville. I want to ask ask a question regarding my brother in law.
He is a very kind hearted and selfless person and has been a Christian since he was a young kid. About nine years ago, he began a relationship with a woman who claimed to know Christ, but is very clearly not living a christ like life. She goes out to bars four to five days a week. She also spent a year in a rehab program from meth and alcohol. My brother in law has a savior complex and has paid for everything for her, all of her nights out to the bars, her rehab, and even some of her bills.
She talks to other guys while out and has cheated on him multiple times. This is very She is very clearly using him, but is also very clearly controlling him. She gets angry at him for spending time with his family and we don't get to see him very much. What can we do as his brother and sister in law to help him get out of this situation? So thank you. This is Ashley. Thank you Ashley. This is similar Burns to a question that we got a few weeks ago about the son in law who was to say,
some Satan worshipers. Yeah, right, yeah, And we could probably give a similar answer. In fact, the Gospel is going to always be the answer. And sometimes Bernie and I will say that very clearly, and we'll go straight to like the actual cross, and then sometimes we'll say it more metaphorically and what the implications of the cross mean? What am I talking about? Right? Let me get to the point. The only way that this that this woman
is going to be healed is through the Gospel. The only way that your brother is a brother in law, brother in law is going to have his eyes opened to the world is through the Gospel. So what do you do? You speak the Gospel, you live the Gospel, and you love like the Gospel. You love as a person that has been redeemed a person you I'm speaking to you Ashley. You don't deserve Christ, you don't deserve Heaven. You don't deserve a relationship with God. You don't deserve
to be worthy of any of that. Now, neither do I, neither does Bernie, neither does anybody. We were born rebels, we were born sinners, We were born not worthy of heaven. But God and his grace and his mercy sent his son to be a substitution for us, so that in him we are worthy. We are full of grace, we are full of hope. Right, that's the story of the Gospel. So you look at her and you skid. She's in rehab and she's tearing him down. She goes to bars four or five. I go, Yeah, you could do anything,
including worshiping Satan. Like we heard a few weeks ago, you could do anything when you're outside of Christ. So what you do is you appropriately speak truth to them. That is your only answer. And now there's a thousand ways, a million ways to act that out, but that ultimately at the bottom of the foundation, that is your only answer is to do this in love.
Yeah, that's really good. I For some reason, I'm reminded of something that Tyler David at the Stone said this was probably a few months ago and it was just kind of the opening of his his sermon, and for some reason it's really stuck with me. And I think we talked briefly about the bridge, right, like, you know, we go we go to Sunday service, and we hear these these things about Jesus, and we about you know, propitiation and about you know, sanctification. We hear about Heaven.
We hear about these very high and lofty things, and then we immediately we go to lunch. And it probably takes till Sunday evening or Monday that the very like earthy and real tangible, taking kids to soccer, to school, relationships with our brother in laws, like the these things start to kind of like they feel so separate, they feel so different. It's like this, this is eternal and lofty and this is like here and now, and I
don't know how to go through this. And so what Grangeer and I have been talking about is, Okay, well, how do we how do we communicate a bridge? What is the thing that bridges this what can seem like a gap between these two. For some reason, I'm thinking about that with you, Ashley, and how do you take the things that Granger has said and bring them into just like the earthy humanness of relationship with the brother in law.
One.
I think you you could just start with praying. I don't know if you have prayed for this guy, have prayed for this relationship, prayed for her and prayed like, God, what do you want me to know about this? And God, what do you want me to do? Don't over complicate it. But I think when we can be humble enough to just kind of sit and wait on the Lord, like, God,
what do you want me to do? Just practically and maybe it you know, like we want her and we want him to hear the gospel and for it to change. It's probably not going to happen outside of a relationship that is covered in grace and love and mercy. It's the same as our story. So if you can have that lofty eye idea in mind, but then bring it to something that's very Hey, do you want to come home for dinner and just have that dinner be so significant to them, for them to feel so provided for,
for them to feel protected, that was a safe place. Hey, you want to do this next Sunday?
Next Sunday, night.
I guarantee you if you begin to just practically earthy hands and feet serve them and love them and show them grace and a safe place. In that way, it will provide the opportunity to either show them or to speak truth into their lives. But even if it doesn't, this is what the word calls us to do. I think we so often like, Okay, well, we got to do this in order to get this opportunity. It's like, no, God just calls us to do this part. Allow him to do the rest.
He might.
He might not move in any one of these people, but that's not our place. That's not what we do. That's not what we're called to do. Just be the hands and feet of his grace and allow him to do the rest, and and just rest in that.
Ashley, let me tell you something that you might not know. Your brother in law knows that you hate his girlfriend. You might not realize that, but it's obvious in your email that this consumes you. He knows that. So what are you gonna do with that? What are you gonna do with the fact that she he knows you don't approve of this at all? And this has been almost a decade. Have you ever built him up? Like, have you ever been out with him and just been like,
you are a good catch. You're such a I mean, you're handsome, you're smart, you you're really good at this, this, this, these talents you have, you're you're just you're just a good guy. Have you ever said that to him? Have you ever built him up? Or is it always she's doing this and she didn't the blah blah blah nine years of this mess that you've gone through. I wonder it's just questions I have. So what Bernie's saying is, how do you act that out? Can you act out
out with love? Can you invite them over for dinner? Can you put aside all of this anger that you have for this relationship in general and this woman? Can you just stop it and see it looks like you've probably tried everything else you might consider trying love.
Yeah, one last thing I'll add, And this is like a nugget from the trail when I was running, just thinking of life. We've heard it's not a sprint, it's a marathon. I don't think it's a marathon. I think it's an ultra marathon on a trail and here is why.
You know a few things.
One, it's really long guys, you know, even a short life. It feels like, man, there's a lot of suffering that's going into this if we're doing it right. It's not a straight line. There's there's paths in this relationship that will wind ways that you don't really know, and there's going to be a bunch of climbs and a bunch of descents. But also on a trail run. Much in life, you always always have to be aware that there are snakes on the trail. And I don't know these people.
I don't know y'all's relationship. But if there is a sense that you have that there are boundaries that need to be put in place, that's okay. That's an okay thing to recognize and to put in place. I'm not calling these people snakes, like please stop sending your email back to us like I don't know. I'm just speaking generally that we do need And this is something I've personally experienced and learned from, is that it is okay to have boundaries with people that we feel like.
We need to have boundaries for it. Let's take a Break, Beer It Back podcast is sponsored by Better Help. You know, getting to know yourself could be a lifelong process, especially because we're always growing, we're always changing. We see from these emails in this podcast that somebody's always going through
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slash granger. Getting so excited we're getting closer to August first. That's the day Like a River comes out my book, and I am just so pumped. I actually just finished reading the audiobook and I looked at that. It's one of the best parts of this process is being able to read the audiobook and show my inflections in the places that I wanted to show it. So anyway, I'm just I'm so excited for anybody to read it or listen to the audiobook. It's available everywhere August first, all
the places that you love to get books. You can get more details right now at grangersmith dot com. That also has the links on where you could pre order to have yours ready to go in the mail. Plus, the pre order package comes with a few little extra nuggets you can get right now, including a downloadable chapter of the book that you could read right now. That's pretty cool, plus some extra little things. You could pre order that book right now, like a river at grangersmith
dot com. All right, if you have a question for me in this podcast, email Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com. Could be about any subject. We're gonna walk through it. We're not always right, but we're gonna walk through it as friends would and discuss whatever is on your heart, whatever's on your mind or in your life. And we see that it's kind of all over the place.
Did y'all hear that?
He said?
Any subject you can get as creative anything you would ever want to ask granger Smith.
Go for it. Here we go. Subdecline says a high school junior who loves someone. Hey, Grainger, my name is Joshua. I'm seventeen years old. I'm a junior. I hope your day was good. But there's a girl. There's the question, right. But there's this girl that I went to prom with and it was fun. But I asked her out and she said she'll think about it, and then next week she got with my best friend. This girl means a lot to me. This was back in March. But should
I keep waiting or try and move forward? I don't really know what to do. Thank you for taking your time reading my email. I hope you have a good rest of the day. Joshua, thanks for emailing, brother.
So I'm gonna go back to Somerset earlier. We always advise to wait on the Lord. We do not advise to wait on seventeen year old girls. Not for a minute.
Oh it's so good. Yeah, that's the new theme of this podcast. Wait on the Lord. Don't wait on your girl to be seventeen again to have this kind of problem. Buddy, you were going through something that you must go through and you that's really interesting actually, because I'm actually writing a paper in seminary and the paper is going to be called there must be Battle and you. Not only is this is this a scenario that's possible for seventeen
year old boys to go through. Not only is this something that is suggested that maybe it could help you, but I'm gonna suggest to you that you have to go through this at seventeen or somewhere around here. You have to know what it's like to be rejected or to be hurt or to see her go to another guy, because this is gonna work for you. It's gonna matter to you later in your perception of girls and relationships and so so you can't see it now, but I
want to encourage you that this is actually good. This is a good thing. And the fact that she goes to your best friend, hang on. You asked her to prom. You went to prom. That's kind of a big deal. You go to prom, right and then the next week or you asked her out. She said she'll think about it. Then she went with your friend. Buddy, this girl is not for you and you shouldn't wait on that. There's a lot more girls.
Yeah. Yeah, I'm gonna give you, Joshua, the greatest advice for a seventeen year old boy that has ever been given. Learn to play the guitar. You learn to play the guitar, and you are gonna have girls all around you. And you tell her eat your heart out. Baby. You had your shot.
At the kid.
You only get one and you just sing and sing. Dude, pick up a guitar, buddy.
Learn the guitar. Bro. That's a great piece of advice. Let's move on here. Septicon here, says friend in need. Hey, Granger, I've got a friend that's a war veteran and he's been looking for an answer to a question of his. The question is, when you are at war, you commit great sins. What does God think about me? Since I've committed these sins. He's been searching for an answer for quite a while, but has yet to find a good answer. He's read the scriptures, he knows the stories, but he
has not heard a message from God. I cannot help him, for I am not a Christian myself, but I know and can see that it causes him distress to think that the sins he has committed can never be redeemed, and that pushes him towards that pushes him from Christ. He feels that he is a wolf in sheep's clothing, but only to protect the flock from other wolves. If you can give an answer to this and show him on the podcast, that may give him some consolation. Thanks.
Interesting question, But I know that this is probably European. This is not American because of the name here. Floky Flo Okay, I so, okay. There's so much packed in here. It's very interesting and one of the interesting things about it is the fact that I'm pretty sure you're not American. And only only in America would someone pretend to be a Christian in this email. And only outside of America would they say, can you help him? Because I'm not a Christian? And so, first of all, kudos to you
for calling it like it is. And then there's something else that's kind of facked into this question when he says he's been searching for an answer for quite a while but has yet to find a good answer. Let me just hang there for a second. He's searching for quite a while yet to find a good answer. How many of y'all have said something like that. Here's what's interesting about truth. It is objective. Truth is truth. It is objective, So we don't search for the best version
of the truth. That would be strange to search for a subjective truth. And what it almost sounds like is that he's been asking the question but no one's given him an answer that he agrees.
With, even the scriptures, because it says that he he's read the scriptures and he knows the stories, but he has not heard a message from God that is a message from God.
Yeah, yeah, so floky without knowing it I hope you're listening to this podcast, by the way, because I'm giving you a lot of credit for calling this just like you see it and not pretending to be a cultural Christian in this email. But what's interesting is the email. This question might be for you more than your friend, but I hope that you hear it and need to
relay this information to him. What Bernie's saying is there is maybe a misconception that hearing from God and reading the Bible are two separate events when we know now that hearing from God comes through reading the ever living, breathing Word of God, which is the Bible. So when you read the scriptures, you're hearing from God, whether or not you like the information you're reading or hearing or not. Right, So that's an interesting concept. You don't even have to
be a Christian to hear from God. If you read the scriptures. Now, your ears might not be opened, your eyes might not be open to what you're seeing and hearing, but that doesn't change the fact that you are hearing from God. So this is what I'm saying. We haven't even gotten to the question at all, but there's some interesting things packed in here. So truth is objective. There
is only one truth. So when we search for truth, we're not looking to find the best version we like to hear or what makes the most sense to us. There is only one truth, and in the truth, the Bible is going to say that your sins are forgiven, no matter the cost, because it was paid for by the most precious resource in the universe, and that is the blood of the Son of God. So if you say friend, if you say war veteran, I don't even
know his name. But if you're saying that your sins are so great because what you committed in war, then Christ death didn't wasn't all encompassing. It didn't matter for everyone. That just mattered for some or maybe even most, but not for you.
The death or some sins but not some sins liked.
Not this bad at sin. So you're saying that Jesus died on the cross, I'm not even speaking about my belief. I'm just speaking about the story as revealed in the scripture,
the story of the resurrection and the crucifixion. What you're saying is going against two thousand years of church doctrine and teaching that that knows the objective truth of what that word says that Jesus, once again, regardless of what you believe, this is what is claimed by Jesus himself that when he died and was resurrected, all sins were forgiven. It was totally finished. He said, it is finished, all of it. It was done in the death of the
Son of God followed by the resurrection. So you come in war veteran and say, but not my sins. It wasn't totally effective because there was some leftover sins here right right then. I'm not even speaking from my own faith. I'm just saying this is what the scripture says.
Yeah, if your friend happens to be listening or I would love to hear more from them on this. Like one thing that you said that they feel is they feel like a wolf in sheep's clothing. I think I feel like what is happening and this is a war vet and I I'm guessing that there has been probably some trauma that he's been through. I don't know that he's worked through with a counselor with a Christian counselor if he is, you know, a believer, but I think
that I have. I think I've mentioned this song by Shane and Shane on here before embracing accusations. And there's a line in this in this song that's from the Scripture that says, you know, the devil is singing over me this age old song that I am cursed and gone astray, and and what he's referencing is the Old Testament, like you know, all who have gone astray are cursed in And the song goes on to say, but he's he's singing the first verse conveniently over me. He's forgetting
the refrain that Jesus saves. And so I think that you may have the enemy in your ear war veteran saying like you did this sin, You're you're cursed and God can't save you you because his word says this, and you you did this and that's it, instead of hearing the refrain that Grangeer is talking about, which is
the gospel like Jesus saves. And I don't I feel like this guy we were talking earlier about Paul with Toner, right, Ye, Paul is another character that we can look at that that dude killed a lot of people and probably in a very different way than you did. So if you're reading these stories. I hope that there is some hope in reading the story of Paul and what God did in his life and his you know, went on to use him for.
But I don't know. Yeah, buddy, let me say, let me kind of flip the script a little bit too, because first of all, you say, his quest is when you are at war, you commit great sins. Let me change the sentence and make it also accurate. When you are a human born of a woman, you commit great sins. We are all sinners from birth. We are infected with the disease. Yeah.
I think he's got a misconception.
Yeah, we are all infected with a disease. There is a cure, and his name is Jesus. Here's the next, here's the next. This is fascinating, Okay, and I'm not going to hold anything back on this, But you say, what does God think about me? Since I've committed those thins, those sins wrath, the wrath of God is upon you and everyone. If you're not under the grace of Jesus, you're under the wrath of him. It doesn't matter what you've done, because sins are sins, and you are born
a sinner. You're born a rebel and you were born. We said, last break not worthy, undeserving, but through the blood of Christ, who accomplis who defeated death in one moment, completely destroyed it. In trusting in that you have been redeemed and restored and ransomed from your old self. You became a new self, a new creature. So you turn from your old ways. You turn. That's called repentance, and
that's a response from the salvation. So that's how you know the salvation worked because you seeing yourself starting to hate it. So my question to the veteran Bernie would ask the same thing. If we were live live podcast, we would say, those sins that you committed in war, how do you feel about it? And if he says, I hate them, let me go good. That's exactly where you need to be. Yeah, and we should say that about everything are idolatry. You think the things that I start
becoming that become an idol in my life. I start idolizing certain things in my life. Do you think that's not any worse to a war crime to God? Idolizing something other than your own creator. When I do that, that is tyranny, that is sabotage, that is blasphemy, and so God doesn't look at that differently. We are rebels until we are under the grace of Jesus. So flee to him. Run to him as fast as you can.
Turn from the old self, turn from the old war crimes or whatever crimes that you've committed, because we all have them, and run to him. Run to him. He wraps his arms around you metaphorically, and the grace of Him is on top of you. God no longer sees your sin. He just sees perfection in his son. That's the gospel.
Yeah, Floky, I guess is the persure. Maybe you could just sit and read the scripture with your friend and maybe you guys could like talk about it together and wrestle through. You don't believe, so no harm, right, but you're doing it for your friend. Maybe you guys could just sit and talk about it. You could ask him questions because your view of that could help him to understand and like really study it together. And your eyes may be open to eternal life, which would be awesome too.
So wouldn't hurt. It's good? Nice question. See what you're doing there burning? I see through your way.
I just say it's just a you know, just an option idea. It's what could have.
Hurt seb Decline says, what's your view as a dad? Hey, Grandeur, I'm twenty two years old. I'd like to remain anonymous. There's this guy and he's thirty six. He has expressed that he likes me through letters and sending me gifts, but he hasn't even talked to my stepdad or my mom to see if it's okay. He recently came all the way from California to a church event that we had in our hometown and he even and even then he didn't even talk to me what. I'm not interested,
but I'm not sure how to tell him. I know God has other plans for me, and he is not one of them. My pastors say they are okay with it, but my parents and I both agree that's not their place. My stepdad has really held back from telling me telling them anything, and he has told me that God will see me through. But how do I tell this guy to leave me alone without hurting him? Thanks? I'm sorry for the long message.
This is the kind of stuff I'm talking about. You guys, sin in love it. There's so much going on that I don't understand in color to this email. This is beautiful. Let's break it down.
Jennifer.
So, she's twenty two, he's thirty six.
Yep.
He lives in California.
Yep.
She lives in I don't know, somewhere not California, yep. Right, this whole thing was starting off like.
She loved him, I love him, and they don't.
Understand, and you know, Romeo and Juliet style, right, take a turn, but like, I don't know what the problem is. You don't like him?
Yeah, so you know what this probably is. It's probably a product of a like a dating app or social media of some sort. That's what I'm thinking. This is a product of a dating app. And they met, and they he decided to make a trip to from California to the hometown to the church event, and then he was awkward. He didn't really talk. You've got she's got all these people speaking into her life, like pastors and parents and step parents.
And you said her name.
I know, forget that, I said that.
Okay, So here's the deal, Anonymous. If you don't like this dude, communicate that to him clearly, and he must respect you. If he doesn't, you need to talk to somebody, like the police, like the police, or you know, is she living with her mom and dad? Well, okay, yeah, talk talk to somebody and tell him, like, hey, this dude, I met him on this app and we met this one time. But like I have made it clear and he is being aggressive and he won't let it go.
You have got to say something and he must respect you one way or another.
You know what I do like about this? I do like that you I kind of almost criticized it, but I like that you have a lot of people speaking into you, and it seems like a lot of people that love you are speaking into you, and you're you're kind of getting advice, which you could take with a grain of salt, but you're still You're feeling the love around you and you're not just isolated. And this situation
could get bad if you were isolated by yourself. I don't like the age difference, to be honest with you, I don't like the fourteen years between you two. It doesn't make me feel comfortable. Your subject line says, what's your view as a dad? I'm wondering if you mean like dad of her?
Yeah, that's a home, it's a note.
Sure, for sure, he's fourteen years older, lives in California, and he's probably you found him on a dating app. I'm like, no, so Bernie's right, you need to say it. How he reacts to it determines your next step. But you could say it with grace and kindness, and you could say you could say whatever your name is. I just want to be completely honest with you. I'm not interested romantically or in a friendship, and I appreciate you
caring thus far. I think you're a sweet person. I am not interested at all, and there is nothing I am interested for in the future.
You're just in all caps.
You're cutting it off completely and you say best of wishes with the rest of your life.
Okay, bye bye.
Yeah, but we think we have time to hit one more in just a few minutes. Let's do it.
Let's do it.
Okay, this is gonna be a speed one.
You guys doing okay out there?
Thinking handle one? How about one that's called girl Trouble. Hey, Grangdeer, A big fan of yours, and I would like to remain anonymous. Yes, I'll remember that. I'm from Utah. I've been listening to the podcast while my friend recommended me listening to this podcast a while back, and quite recently, I have discovered I still have feelings for this girl that I have known for eight years. We met in the fourth grade. I've had deep feelings since we met.
Seeing that we will be graduating the twenty sixth of this month, I feel like I should go and ask her on a date. But at the same time, I'm confused because I have been single for a while now, and it seems that I've decided to I haven't decided what to do. I deeply believe in God and that he has plans for each of us. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time and advice. God bless you and your family. Okay, well, thank goodness.
This is the question we get just a couple of minutes because we we're going to say, go for it, man.
Yeah, go for it. Are we scared?
Go for it?
I don't know why he threw the last part in. I believe in God and he has a plan for all of us. Okay, that's great.
Too, buddy. You need to be vulnerable and be open, and I think I think girls are attracted to that. If you just come out and say can I take you up for coffee? And then she says yes, and then you go at the coffee place, you're like, actually, you're from Utah, so maybe lemonade you could say? Can I be honest with you? I am so intimidated by you because you're so pretty, and I've liked you for a long time and I just have kind of put off asking you because I just think you're You're really pretty.
And I even emailed Granger Smith to ask him what he thought about the situation. So he told me to.
Do it, and I'm doing what he said. Yeah, and then player the podcast and you guys go for a little drink, lemonade, whatever.
Yeah, Yeah, that's all I got. Man, go for it. Go for it. We love you. Go for it.
Y'all are the best Granger Smith fans or the podcast fans.
If you want to see guys travel and do a live version of this in your town, let me know comment below or hit me up on Instagram and let us know where to go. But we'd love to go travel and bring the podcast live to you do live Q and A. It would be so fun. Love you guys, so you Yeah, thanks for joining me on the Granger Smith Podcast. I appreciate all of you guys. You could help me out by rating this podcast on iTunes. If
you're on YouTube, subscribe to this channel. Hit that little like button and notification spell so that you never miss anytime I upload a video. If you have a question for me that you would like me to answer, email Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com. Ye