You didn't believe in miracles before Saturday, you better be believing right now. Thank God Almighty, that we live in a country that still believes in the King of Kings and the Lord of lords. The Alba have the Omega, and our God, our God still says, he still delivers and he still sets free. Because on Saturday, the devil came to Pennsylvania holding a rifle, but an American lion got back up.
On his feet, and he you know who that guy is. I don't either. A few more here on Saturdays. I start laughing when I hear the music that they put like contemporary worship. All right, then, of course we're going to finish with this one. This is the one we've seen this, uh computer animation. All of us have seen it at some point lately. You Okay. So I got that one because I just thought it was interesting that it said one proof that God exists. And here's the proof,
a computer animation of Trump turning his head. So three videos here, and those are just I literally found those thirty seconds ago as you're walking up up the stairs to come here, meaning I didn't have to look hard. I didn't like archive a certain one because that's more special than others. But I've been I've been fascinated with a few things regarding this whole attempted assassination. I've been
fascinated with the God aspect to it. By the way, Marshall Canalis, pastor at a Mais Church with me today, as you've been with me many times, and not just pastor of a Mais church, but my pastor the church that I attend in Georgetown, Texas. And if you ever want to see me or Marshall, you just go there. That's where we are on Sundays. But this topic has
been surprising to me. Maybe it shouldn't be this idea of God's sovereignty that's now on full display apparently because Trump turned his head, because there's another video I didn't record that talks about the angel Gabriel did that turned Trump's head at the last second so that the bullet missed. And God either did that, according to these videos, because it apparently he needed to intervene, or he did it in a way that would put on his put on
display his sovereignty in front of everyone. Depending on these couple different viewpoints. It's a deep well to talk about, and I think you and I could hit briefly on this first break answering the question the general question did God save Trump? We can answer that, and I think that's probably somewhat of a title for this podcast. Did God save Trump? Or God didn't save Trump? Or God
did save Trump? However we end up answering that, And then this other idea is how this idea of evil continues to be brought up as if there is there is an evil political party and a righteous political party, and the forces of evil are behind one side and the forces of righteousness are protecting the other side, which that in itself is a true idea, but not in political idea, not in political realm, In a spiritual realm,
that's a true idea. So first let me ask you, not that I don't know, but for everyone as we have this discussion from you, what is what does God's sovereignty? What does that mean? And and and what are we to do with this? What does the Bible say about it? I guess we should say I have some verses here.
Sovereignty just means that he has absolute rule and reign over everything in the world. Nothing catches him by surprise, nothing happens without him, first, ordaining it, and so he has absolute control over everything. And so you know, so the question about Trump, in some sense, I would say, yes, God did spare his life, Sure, agreed, But God forbid
the bullet had hit Trump and he had died. God still would have been sovereign over exactly, and so his sovereignty is not contingent on the outcome of the event that took place. And so I can in good conscience say, yeah, the Lord was over that. But I don't want to dig into the second part of the question yet about evil forces and divine forces behind different parties or whatever.
But there is a sense where God nothing happens outside of God's ordained control over what's going to take place in the world.
And so.
When I see events like Saturday, no matter what the outcome is, I have to trust that the Lord was over it and did what he deems best in the moment for his glory and for our situation here in the world. And so so, yeah, all of it was under his control. None of it caught him off guard. So it wasn't like God looked down, saw the shooter on the rooftop and thought, oh, I gotta I gotta get Gabriel down there quick to turn Trump's head.
Right, That's where I was hoping you'd go. Yeah, he wasn't like the Secret Service. Yeah yeah, he's this guy going to take a shot. Yeah, am I gonna need to come in last night?
Right? So he So all of it, All of it happened as God had planned it to happen. And that's not popular when we think about negative things in the world. But I can't go against what I see happening in scripture, where God is in control of everything. It's actually uncomforting to think of worshiping a God or a being, worshiping a being who does not have absolute control over everything, because then really I'm not I can't really put true trust and hope into a being who does not have
control over everything. And so so that's why in one since I can say, yeah, God saved Trump by sparing his life, but again, had a different outcome happened, I would have sat here and said God was still in control of what happened, And everything happened the way God wants it to happen because He's in control of it and nothing can port his ways.
Right, So there's a slight nuance between what you said, and that's how the Bible represents God. And then there's another way to use sovereignty. For instance, in the Muslim world, Allah is known as sovereign. That's one of his main attributes. But it's not a personal sovereignty. It's more of all power almighty. But without the inner dealings of people, there is no personal dealings with the people, and so that's a big difference. We'll start with Psalm one of Three's nineteen.
It says the Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all. Very famous. These are basic verses, very famous. Proverb sixteen nine. The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his step. That is, so you have a kingdom, a rule over all the kingdom. But proverb sixteen to nine brings in a personal aspect to it, a step of a man
that's very personal. I say forty six y to ten, declaring the end, from the beginning and from ancient times, things not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose, not just the big things, not just the ultimate the end things, but all the things that lead up to the big things. In fact, it can make a really good argument that it's nearly impossible to only establish the big things without establishing all the little things in between.
Yeah, it's exactly right.
Because the big things only happen because a lot of little things happen, including a head turn by the president, the former president of the US.
I mean you could even take it look deeper than that, with not just the head turn but the wind strength. Yeah, the you know, the gravitational pool of a bullet as it travels, like all that stuff. He has his control over all those little things.
So, yeah, it's wild. And this is such an idea that's largely rejected by people. In fact, people are probably listening right now going, I don't know, I'm not a puppet. I dropped the pin. To those who know the reference Daniel four thirty five. All the inhabitants, inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing. And he does according to his will amongst the host of heaven and amongst the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say to him, what have you done? Ephesians one
to eleven. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined, predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the council of his will, which we know is good Som. One thirty five six. Whatever the Lord pleases, he does. And then it extends in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the deeps everything. There is nothing outside of this kind of sovereignty that we're talking about. Proverbs nineteen twenty one.
Many are the plans in the mind of a man, But it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand as they have fourteen twenty four. The host of the Lord of Host has sworn as I have planned, so it shall be, and as I have purposed, so it shall stand, which that verse gives us. Really in that context, it gives us an idea of that everything is planned. It's not a last minute adjustment or some kind of compromise or recalibration because of something that, because
of some evil or anything. Uh. And then, of course, famous famously, Roman's nine is such a deep well where we see things like for he says to Moses. Paul writes, I have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion and then so then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy as we as we
work through. And by the way, I would recommend not not studying the Bible in the way that I'm presenting it right now, where we're just we're just shooting at these different verses, but instead reading through consistently some kind of some kind of way moving forward through scripture with some kind of consistent starting point, and then you see these ideas. Really through the entire canon of the Bible, you see these, you see sovereignty ideas, and you also
simultaneously will see the call for human responsibility. It would be wrong of me to actually do this podcast with you and only talk about the Lord establishing steps according to his purpose and his plan, and not say that the Bible also teaches that we have a responsibility to respond to him. So why is it now that everyone goes, now, this is proof of God because Trump turned his head.
I don't, I mean, it's only it's only certain people who are saying that.
It's only certain people. It seems like a lot of them.
It is a lot of them. But I don't know why this would be the moment that they do it, because one one act in history can't be the definitive proof that God exists. Yeah, because again, if if Trump had died on Saturday, would that have been proof that God doesn't exist? I don't think so.
I really guide you went there. That's where I wanted you to go. And that's what what I want people to think for themselves through this.
Yeah, because you got to think the reverse. You know, if he had if he would have died on Saturday, would that have been proof God didn't exist. Speculation as to why people probably lean towards this is proof God exists is because they've elevated Trump to a status he probably shouldn't be. And I'm not saying that because he's Trump. I'm saying that's that's true of any person. No person
should be elevated that way. Like if somebody came into our church on Sunday and in the middle of my sermon pulled out a gun shot and it and it grazes my ear and the guy's tackled by our safety team and everything's taken care of. If a member came up afterwards, go this is proof God exists? I would be like, no, I no, I mean, I'm thankful God spared my life, but this is not proof that God exists. Just because the preacher, because you're the pastor and became
I'm the pastor of the church. That's not proof God exists. That might be proof of his mercy and his grace towards me, but that's not That doesn't mean He's not those things if I die, because then this is where a belief in God's sovereignty is is is necessary, is in that moment, whether I live or die does not
affect who God is. And it's and this, I mean, this goes into a deeper point of it's it's really dangerous to to see God through our situations instead of seeing our situations through how God's revealed himself in scripture. So if you know, you can take this really small.
Stop and say that one more time, because those people need to hear that.
Yeah, just there's a real danger in viewing our or viewing God through our situations instead of viewing our situations through how God has revealed himself in scripture. Because if you take this super small to a smaller scale, if somebody loses their job and they go this is proof that God doesn't care about me. Well, now we're taking our situation and letting that dictate who God is, when really, every time God talks about himself in scripture, that's really
a gift to us to help us see our situations rightly. So, if I know Scripture says God is good and that he's in control of everything because he's sovereign, that nothing is outside of his his ordained will, then when I look at situations, whether good or bad, that prevents me from over celebrating them and also becoming becoming overly anxious
about them in either in either direction. Because God is Who God is is not determinative based on my situation, right Because I might be having the worst year of my life, the guy down the street from me might be having the best year of his life. We might both be professing Christians, we might both be pastors. Who's whose situation do we then use to base who God is? If we're through the same time, both profession Christians, both might be pastors in solid churches preaching the gospel, but
our two experiences are drastically different. Couldn't be more different. Who whose situation are we then supposed to take and go that that's how we're supposed to see God. You just can't do it. That's so good and so so like with the Trump situation, I am thankful the Lord spared his life. But if there was an attempt on Biden's life, I'd be thankful if his life was spared. So this is not a political thing of whose party
am I more in support of. It's a I think death is a result of the fall and sin, and so I can't find enjoyment in death. I don't celebrate it. It is a natural consequence of sin. And so when lives are spared in moments like that, I'm thankful the Lord he's spared lives in that I grieve the loss of the life that that was lost on Saturday by the bullet and so and then so there's there's ways to grieve that without celebrating it.
That's actually a nice point to the idea that God there I the angel Gabriel uh intervened at the last second and diverted a bullet that then killed another man. Yeah. Yeah, that's a very strange theology to think about. Instead, what the Bible says, and what you're saying is stop looking at our situations and then through the through the Bible, but instead the Bible, let that would be the lens. We look at the situation and that and what we see in the Bible is that all of our days
are numbered. Before we were even born, we had a certain amount of days. So Trump has a certain amount of days. He has a day that's designated for him according to God's purpose. And so did that that man that stood behind him, that took that bullet. Those were not accidents and whatever. You and I both we have an expiration date. There is a there is a level of comfort knowing that that. It's profound.
Yeah, yeah, and I mean I think that's that's something we can learn from Saturday. Yeah, right, yeah, where we can just be reminded of our mortality. And yeah, and like like you said, with the it's a weird theology that Gabriel would one. I don't think that's how angels act. So that's a whole another topic.
Gabriel also spoke to Mohammed, so right, yeah, so aparently but to like turn Trump's head but not protect the guy behind him, or why didn't Gabriel act two minutes earlier?
So you know, some some critiques of the secret service right now could really be critiques of Gabriel. Really in some sense could be critiques of God.
That's true, that the whole Angel staff needs to be evaluated.
Yeah, why wasn't the guy's tire flattened on the way driving.
To the gabler rallies where you're at, bro?
Yeah, the title for the podcast, but you know so you could you could ask those same questions of Gabriel in that sense or God in that sense.
The head angel needs to be fired. Yeah, title podcast. All right, we'll take a break and get to some questions. If you have a question for me, email podcast at grangersmith dot com. Hey, if you want to get a hold of me, go to cameo dot com slash granger Smith. You will find me there and from there I could build you a video message. I get your notes, and what you want me to say, like happy birthday, happy anniversary, a word of encouragement, congratulations, good job on the graduation,
or why did you not make graduation? Whatever you want me to say. I'll read those notes and I pull out my phone and I record a video message and I say whatever you need me to say to whoever you need me to say it too, and I send it right back to you. It's super simple. It's a great gift for the person that you don't know what to buy for. Again, go to Cameo came eo dot com slash granger Smith. Okay, we're going to get into some emails now once again. The email addresses podcast at
grangersmith dot com, and Julia is the first one. She says. How, my name is Julia. I'm twenty years old from a small town in northern Mexico. I've been blessed by your podcast. In fact, they are part of my conversion story. So I'd like to start off by thanking you for your time and effort putting them out, and as as a symbol of my belief in Jesus, I desire to get baptized. However,
my Midnight Church practices the effusion method. When I told them that I would like to get baptized by immersion, they told me that they would take it into consideration, But they are talking about it more or less, talking about more or less a year until that might even
be possible. What is your opinion on various methods? Since baptism is an immediate sign of obedience to God, should I go ahead and get baptized now or wait, I want to do it glorifies God most and be a blessing to others, but I'm not sure what that looks like for me. What are your thoughts or your advice? Hey, thank you so much. That's Julia. I'm so glad that you're listening and thinking through these things before I before we get started at all. You got the right guy
with Marshall here. I'm going to give you an email Brooks Marv B r O O K E S m A r V at gmail dot com. He is our Minnonite brother and he would love to talk to you about maybe deeper into the Mennonite faith. And I trust what Marv says, So I got that for you. Encouraged by Julia here, it's encouraging that she's she's thinking through these things and she seems to have a good heart posture about desiring to do what glorifies God most and a desire to also be obedient to the authority in
her church leadership. So she has I just Julia, I see so many emails that I've seen so many emails for eight years, and usually you see something like this where they say I'm leaving my church, or I'm going to do it my Church's way, not the Bible's way, or there's it's just some extreme and it it always
ends up feeling a little a little self centered. So if if if Julia came to a MAIS and so, look, I'm visiting, I'm on vacation, i have some cousins here in Georgetown, Texas, but I'm going back on Monday to northern Mexico. What would you what would you want to equip her with as she goes back to Mexico. Yeah?
Uh so we practice at full immersion at a mais. Seems to be what we see in scripture pretty consistently. That being said, I have friends Marv, yeah, Min and my brother. I have friends in the Presbyterian Church where they don't practice full immersion at least in all of them in the way that they do baptisms. And while I would encourage them to reconsider that, I can't say that person is not a Christian because they didn't do it. So, first of all, you gotta we gotta recognize there's no
saving power or aspect to baptism itself. It is an act a person does to profess faith in Jesus or not too, but a nact somebody does to visually represent what's happened spiritually to them.
And sounds like Julia understand.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just wanted to clarify that. And so, especially when we see the explanation of baptism and scripture being buried like Christ risen with Christ, there's a symbol aspect to it. Mostly when we say full immersion, you're getting dunked in water coming out, So there's part of the symbolism there. But because there is no saving aspect to baptism itself, I can't tell somebody they're not a Christian because the baptism didn't happen specifically the way it
was supposed to. And so what I would want to ask her is one, if it is her conviction that it's by immersion, which is what I would encourage, are there any solid churches around her that practice that that she can connect to there, Because one thing we tell people at our church visiting our church is if you disagree with what we teach, then let us help you find a gospel preaching church that agrees with this secondary issue, which.
Is what it is everyone.
It's a second secondary issue. Let us help you find a church in our area that preaches the gospel that holds the same convictions on the secondary issue. You do because you don't want to cause contention in the church. And so that's one thing she needs to wressful with. Is she fully convinced and convicted that this is the right mode of getting baptized. But one thing we say in our membership class when we talk about baptism is that the most important things related to baptism are was
the gospel? Is it in a gospel preaching context? So was the gospel preached? And then was it done after conversion? So for us, a true baptism is in the gospel preaching context after conversion has taken place. So those things seem to fit her situation. But as far as what I should tell her to do for her church leadership is if you're at a church, you submit to the current leadership there. I can disagree with the church leadership on secondary issues. As a pastor of a different church
and different denomination. Doesn't mean that they're heretical, does not mean that they don't believe Jesus. It just means we disagree on secondary issues. But if it's a conviction of hers that she needs to be immersed, then she needs to get plugged into a church and connected with the church where she can affirm what they believe in what they practice.
Let's talk quickly about the first tier issues. This comes up nearly every podcast in some way a second or third tier issue. Baptism is second. So what does that mean to someone? Because a lot of people get really tied up in that, and so we should probably continue to establish what are the issues that if that's not taught,
that's not considered Christianity at all. And we would usually start with the trinity saying God being one being, existing as three persons, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, same in purpose, different in role, which is why the most common argument I see is Jesus praying to the Father in the garden. He is submitting to the Father in his role as the son. So any anyway, the Trinity, that whole concept being revealed throughout the canon would be a first here issue.
You disagree with that, you're gonna have to leave the church. And it's not it's not christian The divinity, divinity, and humanity of Jesus has to be established if a church believes any less than Jesus's manhood or his divinity, either one hundred percent man one hundred percent God. It's not Christian to think any other way, not because we've established it that way, but because that's what the Bible says,
and that's what the Bible teaches. Third, we would say the inerity of the Bible, the scriptures divinely inspired, and we believe them to be correct as they have revealed themselves once again, not because we're establishing them to be correct, because they themselves testify to themselves that the Bible is completely inerit. What I'm missing? What's the fourth one? We have trinity, we have we have divinity, Community of Christ, we have the ineranity of scripture, and we have.
I mean I would if I was categorizing, I put salvation.
Oh yeah, yeah, that's the fourth one. Salvation. You're saved by grace through faith in Jesus alone.
Which is which. So baptism can bleed into a primary issue if somebody is arguing that baptism is part of what saves you.
Correct.
So if there is some salvafic act to baptism that could make it a prior primary issue, that's because it's bleeding into what we're saying is the only means of salvation that is through faith and repentance in Jesus Christ alone. But baptism itself is in the way that it's practice, whether it's by you know, pouring, sprinkling, full immersion, that that would be a secondary issue.
Yep. So those four. Let's remember those four, Julia, I think you're fully equipped. Email Marv. I think what Marshall told you is great, and let's always remember that the four top tier issues. If we're not breaking one of those four, then then let's think through this with church leadership and other believers around you. If it breaks one of those four, then we're gonna say you have to leave the church immediately. And it's just not it's not
even Christian, all right. Anonymous says, Hey Granger, a little background. I'm thirty two, my wife is thirty one. We have a beautiful daughter that is two, and a son due in October. My wife wants to put her house on the market this week and move to her family's property. She says this is temporary. I'm extremely hesitant about moving near family in general. I've lived near my family before and want to move away completely, to have something that
is ours. I'm just wanting wondering what your thoughts are on living within eyeshot of family in general. Thanks Anonymous, so much information I don't know about this question. Is this a financial move? What's the purpose of this? She wants to put the house on the market and move onto her family's property. Are we moving in because it's
a cult, because money's a little tight. Look, because I don't know so much, I'm gonna have to say, Anonymous, I'm assuming you're the husband establishing ltablishing some concrete guidelines. I don't want to say rules, but you're gonna have to say, look, according to the knowledge that you don't
that I don't know, but you do. You're gonna have to say, we're looking at this amount of dollars saved, We're looking at this property that we're looking forward to, or this neighborhood that we were trying to get into. Once we established this amount of money that we could put aside so we could have this monthly payment, and then this is going to happen in October of twenty twenty five at the latest, We're gonna have to move out.
If you feel this convicted about living close to your family to her family, you're gonna have to do that otherwise. Otherwise it sounds a little strange that your wife is deciding where you guys are going to live, and she's the one saying that this is going to be temporary, and it sounds through this email that you are just kind of following her lead. Would sound like it's going it's going to be a problem eventually, and that's why you're emailing me.
Yeah, not much to add other than really just in general, my counsel is don't make big decisions based on preferences. So if she if she's made if she's presenting a case where this because of facts, so like financially, this actually helps the family, and you just would prefer not to live close to family, don't make a big decision not to do it just because your preference would be different. Great, So don't make big decisions based on preferences. Look at facts.
Hey, you're very blessed if you if you actually have the opportunity to live on your on this family's property. Because it's a money issue, that's great. Take it. Just put a deadline on it.
And the other thing I was gonna say is when people tell me they're gonna do something temporary, I always tell them, okay, well, temporary means you you'll have some sort of steps in place where you say, once these things have been hit, that's when the temporary's over.
Good.
Don't claim temporary on something. If it's kind of an indefinite thing, that's great. Put markers there of when these things are hit. That's when we know temporaries over.
This is great, Candy says hi, mister Smith. I want to say how grateful I am for your podcast. It's affected my daily life and my faith. My name is Candy from Arizona. I've recently started listening to your podcast after my boyfriend introduced me to it, and I have nearly listened to it every day now. In hopes that you read this, I ask for your wisdom regarding my situation. One week ago, I felt my relationship was in a healthy place until I discovered my boyfriend of two years
has been addicted to porn. This tore me to pieces and I was set on leaving. However, I decided to choose forgiveness for our love. I've decided to choose forgiveness and love over letting evil win? She says that was not easy. Once I did, we both decided to be saved by Jesus and work towards recovery while strengthening our faith. It has been an emotional roller coaster, and I question a lot in this new relationship and what is even right anymore? My question is what advice do you have
for us as a couple? Also? Should I be more cautious with our renewed relationship? Thank you, and have a blessed day? Was it him? Was it the same boyfriend that introduced her to the podcast?
That's what it sounded late.
Man, I'm glad you still listen to the podcast. It seems like you would just take all of his advice and say, I'm not doing that anymore. So I'm grateful that you're still listening through this. She say, Oh, oh, she is. I'm assuming pretty young, like I'm assuming low twenties. I don't think it says say that interesting questions here? You know what your question sounds like you are you're having questions about this. I don't think you would have
emailed me. Should I be more cautious? If you aren't already something stirring within you? And you're feeling, you're feeling some kind of some kind of entanglement right emotionally. Let me repeat your own words to yourself here. You say, once I did as a forgiving You said, once I did. We both decided to be saved by Jesus and work towards recovery while strengthening our faith. It has been an emotional roller coaster, and I question a lot in this
new relationship and what is right anymore? I say, why? Why has it been emotional? Why do you question things? That's telling me things are weird? Yeah, and pretty superficial. We've said here a whole bunch in fact that Marshall actually preached about forgiveness recently, and sometimes so many times, so many times on these emails, I see people confusing
forgiveness with trusting. You chose to forgive, you say, to let love win over evil, you say, And it sounds like you're saying, I'm choosing to trust him in a renewed relationship. That's a big difference between forgiving right. Once again, we're dealing with with so so many things we don't we don't know, but it's it sounds like you're in a place where you're this is not you're not ready to fully renew this relationship. You're of course, you're in
a place where you can forgive. That's not in question here. You know me, I would love to zoom in on what this means that you decided to be saved by Jesus together. What do you say, Marshall about two people that decide together that they will be saved by Jesus? What does that mean?
Usually I have a lot of questions, but I'm not gonna say it's impossible that two people can get saved at the exact same time. Because God can do anything he wants. I would say that is extremely, extremely unlikely and rare if it happens. But hear me say it is possible. The Lord could do it. But I have follow up questions because even the wording of it, we decided that we we were going to be saved by Jesus. That's not really the language I see the Bible using
when it talks about salvation. It's not really the language I would encourage Christians to use when they talk about getting saved, because it kind of makes it sound like Jesus was just sitting there and kind of like, hey, you can get saved to any point you want, and
that's just not how scripture really presents. It's the reason I say it's it's it would be extremely rare for two people in the exact same moment to get saved is because the Lord works in our hearts and changes our hearts to accept the salvation that's been brought through Jesus. Which is why I said it's possible the Lord could do that in two hearts at the exact same moment, at the exact same time. But it seems like what's been being said here was contingent on a response to
an exposure of some sin that happened. So I mean follow up questions I have to this. Okay, well, if you're both professing Christians, now are you in a church that's going to help you determine if one of you or both of you are actually Christian. People will pour into you two that'll help him by getting plugged in with other guys to call him out in the sin. Three just follow up questions to this. Was he asking for forgiveness and sorry because he got caught with this?
Did he just come to you and admit, like, hey, this is something I've been struggling with and I really value our relationships. I want to get out of this. I want to stop being addicted to these things and I need help. Yeah, and then just else, like you're dating, so don't act married. You don't have a promise to this guy like a wife would to her husband, and he doesn't have a promise to you like a husband
would to his wife. And so if you don't see this going anywhere in a direction towards marriage, and just break it off. And I would say that whether you guys were having problems or not. But I agree with as you were reading it, it sounds like there's deeper issues. I agree with the forgiveness doesn't equal trust. So one of the points I made in the Sermon on Forgiveness a couple of weeks ago was that there's a difference
between forgiveness, reconciliation, and restoration. So Christians, this is unpopular in culture, but this is what the Bible says multiple times, almost word for word. Christians are required to forgive. I don't know how to get those verses out to everybody, but if you look it up, Christians are It says you must forgive as you've been forgiven. And so there's not a choice. I mean, I was preaching on the parable of the unforgiving servant, and the endpoint was, so
you have to forgive. That was Jesus's point in giving the parable. But forgiveness, when we equate it to trust, means well, I'm just supposed to pretend like nothing happened, and I'm just automatally supposed to trust you hundred percent. That's not true. Forgiveness is kind of the doorway into reconciliation, which means we're going to figure out. So when forgiveness takes place, and then the person who offended does repenting asks for forgiveness, so one forgiveness can actually be given
even if the person doesn't ask for it. But that doesn't mean reconciliation happens. Reconciliation only happens when forgiveness and repentance are in play, and that's you working together to figure out how to to just be to people who are kind to one another and how do you grow from that. Once reconciliation's taken place, then a process starts towards restoration. So this is why with married couples, when something happens, forgiveness takes place. But reconciliation is a process. Okay,
how we're gonna actually live together's husband and wife? After this has been committed, I'm not going to hold it against you by constantly bringing it up again. So that's one thing with forgiveness is we don't keep bringing this situation up once we've forgiven. But there also are consequences to sin. So what does life look like as I face the consequences to my sin and as we agree on those and work towards those, that's the reconciliation that's
taking place, and Lord willing. When reconciliation is going well and progressing forward, it then produces a restored relationship. But there are some situations. This is more about forgiveness than her specific question.
No, I think this is. I think it's helpful for everyone listening.
But there are situations where the sin is so heinous that forgiveness can be done by a Christian. Again, because scripture tells us we are required to forgive, and that's more than just saying okay, I forgive you, So there's much more to say about that. But that doesn't necessarily mean we just go hang out with the person the sin was so heinous it means restoration is never going to be possible.
And I think you also said in the sermon that you could be in their reconciliation process and still restoration. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's a lot for this I dig in deeper.
But I think that a lot of that's also helpful for other people listening that are not necessarily in this same position. But I think that also works for Candy in this situation. I think you're not married, don't act like you are. Is great. Saying language like letting our love win over evil is a little strange in a
dating relationship. And the only way I'm buying that we were both saved by Jesus is you would have to say something like we went to we went to church and the message cut us so deeply, like we would see in the Book of Acts when multiple people would be saved at the same time. It was from hearing a gospel message. And so it's not you're speaking in terms of making a decision like you guys decided to get married, Like we both decided to get married and
to work towards recovery. That's instead you used saved by Jesus. Instead, we decided to be to get mad maried, and so I think I think, I hope that's helpful.
And to clarify my point, I do think multiple people can get saved under the same gospel preaching. Like yeah, I just meant from the situation she is describing, for two people to say, yeah, we're just driving in the truck together and we both just decided then and there.
We talked it out and we decided, hey, let's put our faith in Jesus.
That's the more extremely rare situation I'm talking about.
Yeah, Yeah, I think I think extremely rare is actually being generous and that okay, So Candy, I hope that helps. This is going to be the last email of the of the podcast, and I think I don't. I don't trust this guy, and I don't think you do either,
and I think that's why you email me. And I think if you get anything out of this, if you we said a lot, if you get anything out of this, I think that the most important thing through it is is joining a local church where you could, like Marshall said, be surrounded by people that affirm your faith for one, this profession of Jesus that you've made, and they could help hold him accountable and you accountable at the same time, and help you walk through what does forgiveness mean? What
does letting love win? What does that mean? In a biblical sense? And in a local church, will do all of those things for you and help you walk in your singleness towards Lord, willing your marriage partner that you'll have one day. Yeah, yeah, thank you guys, see you next Monday. Thanks for joining me on the Grangersmith 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. Yii