Do People Who Commit Suicide Go To Heaven?

You could ask me any question about any topic and I just answer it. Like me and you are friends and we're driving on the road and you say, hey, can I run something by you. I don't have a bunch of notes in front of me, I have this iPad that has your questions chewed up from ant Man.

And you know, I look at this as a conversation, and I look at this podcast as a way to encourage people to think, and I want them to think in a way that they could kind of step back from being in the middle of the problem, because we have a tendency to get inside our heads and look at it the problem from a microscope instead of stepping

back and seeing the full picture of it. And so ultimately The goal for me is not just to answer your questions and move on and then that specific question is answered, because I'm not always right on these, but more so that we could all together learn to think about them together, so that we could answer any question that comes up. I think that's kind of the point here, because I have learned in two hundred and sixty one episodes.

This is number two sixty two. I think I've learned that there are only seven to ten real questions, and everything else is a nuance of those seven to ten questions. So let's dive into this once again. The email is podcast at grangersmith dot com. And another thing I've been encouraging on this is if you go wherever you're listening right now. My preference is Apple Podcasts. That's where I

listen to my podcast. Sometimes I listen on Spotify. You could also watch the video that I'm recording on Spotify, but I also put them up on YouTube and X and Facebook. I think I know for sure X. But on YouTube, if you go on there, you could actually comment below the video, which is kind of cool. So if you have a question wherever you're listening from about what I say on this episode, not a new question,

but a question regarding an answer that I give. Go to YouTube and comment below on this episode, and then we'll scan through that and see if there's anything we need to double down on. That's kind of how we started this series, Marshall and I when we were doing the Good Church series How to Find a Good Church Part one, Part two, and I plan to have them back for a part three and maybe even more to continue this, but right now we're starting from scratchies or

brand new questions. The first one says, Hey, Granger, I love what you're doing with the podcast. I was a huge fan of your prior career as well. My name is Justin and I'm married with two wonderful children. My wife and I have been married for ten years now. We recently attended a worship night in our area. During that night, I met a worship leader from another church. We began to small talk. I left my church to begin attending her church. I have grown feelings for someone

I don't even really know. My wife has started talking about divorce as she thinks I'm cheating on her with this other lady. I'm lost, confused and worried. What should I do? Comes from justin, justin, thank you brother, thank you for emailing. And here's my reaction to this. You know, it makes me think of there's a scene from this Stephen King film, which I'm not recommending on this podcast, but the movie is called it. Surely most people have

heard my kids. Obviously, my kids have not seen this movie, but they know what it is. It's that crazy clown. You know. It's like I think it's I think it ends up being an alien or something that eats humans. But here's the scenario. Here's the story. In the newer version of this, this creature dressed as a clown hides in a gutter I stuck a drain like a storm train storm drain, and holds her little balloon that comes

out of the storm drain. And the clown is inside the gutter and a kid, a boy, I think a boy or a girl, sees the balloon and walks up to the to the storm drain and wants to take the balloon. And this this clown says, take the balloon. Take it. You know, I haven't seen it personally, but I'm telling you the story. Take you know, take it. So pretty. It's a beautiful, innocent little balloon. You're gonna

love it. This is This is a beautiful toy. And the child in the movie takes this innocent, little, sweet little balloon from this clown, and the creature in the clown grabs the child and rips the arm off of the child, completely rips the arm right out of the socket and takes it down into the storm drain and eats it. Your story reminds me of that story, and your story is actually worse than the movie it. Here's

another one. Whenever we go duck hunting in East Texas, we put out these nice pretty decoys on the water, and we put those decoys out there because it looks like a pretty little duck, peaceful and calm and relaxed on a lake. Hey, look, all ducks, all mallards, look right here. There's this pretty little little mallard sitting here on this little pond. Nothing going on here. And then here we are with our shotguns waiting to kill whatever comes in for this decoy. That story also reminds me

of your story. And look, brother, I'm telling you this right now out of love, because justin right now, you are still that innocent child that hasn't taken the balloon yet but you you're now attracted to it. And you said, I've grown feelings, which which this is what makes it very difficult. You've now grown your feelings for this woman. But I promise you there is only death on the

other side of the storm drain. There's only death. And on the other side of this decoy on sitting on the pond, it's it promises life, It promises beauty, it promises prosperity, it promises happiness, it promises that. This is a This is a good way to go. Your kids are going to actually just adapt to the to the new mom. There's going to be no problem. Your wife, You'll tell yourself, probably wasn't happy anyway. Maybe she'll just find somebody new. It's been ten years, you should know

by now. She could find somebody new. You could have this wonderful new clown woman with the red balloon, and she's so pretty, and you could just marry her, and then maybe you could have kids with her and then split time. This is death. This is going to rip your arm off. This this is going to end. You're gonna end up completely mutilated, and there's no other way around it. The world makes this very normal. The world makes this seem like this happens all the time. It's

no big deal. People fall out of love the brother. I would encourage you to see what the Bible has to say about this. The Book of Proverbs Solomon writes extensively about this because he knows from experience. I would like you to read David's experience with this and Psal I'm fifty one, and every other piece of the Bible that says do not commit adultery, don't do it. There's death on the other side of it. I feel like there's not a better way for me to say it.

So maybe now the question is, well, how do you how do you do this? Justin you've gone, you're in, you're attracted to the balloon. What do you do? You immediately seek counsel from godly men, and you brought it to this podcast. It's interesting that you brought it to the podcast, not being anonymous and just given me straight facts, which is encouraging and interesting that it's not a secret, almost as if your wife already knows about this. But

I would seek counsel immediately. I'm gonna go to your wife and say, look, I've been wrong. If you thought. I've been talking to this woman and I had feelings for her. I am reversing that now. I am turning to you. I'm repenting, turning to God with my sin. I'm sinning against God himself, and I'm turning to God, and I'm gonna stop it right where it is, right now, kill it. Stop it right now. Turn away from the storm, drain, turn away with your wings flapping, and get away from

this pond as fast as you can. You've gone this far, so be it. Stop it, turn around, seek wise, counsel, get around, other men, go man. I was blinded by this sin. Because what you need to realize justin I'll say this last thing. I'll say this is a spiritual attack. You are under attack, the clown, the hunters. With the guns they have, they have tracked you down. They have pinned you into a corner. They have outnumbered you. They

have fooled you, have been a fool to them. They have outwitted you, overpowered you, blinded you, and now they're about to kill you. You have to know this is not about this woman. She's just a pawn in this game. But you've been hunted by an enemy that you cannot compete against seek wise counsel, seek the Lord, repent, turn back to him, tell your wife you will never leave her,

and then come back to this podcast in email. But I'm sorry if I'm being harsh, but I don't think I think it requires that much severity in what I'm saying. Next question is anonymous, It says Granger. As you know, the comment section can be quite divisive on videos, So my question is based on what I've read on various videos.

What would you say about those that say that Catholicism is the only true Christianity, or that Protestants do things the right way and Catholics involve too many traditions, etc. Would this be another case of the devil trying to distract from the Gospel like the End Times debate. Could the conflict over Baptism's role in salvation be included as well? Anonymous, Hey, this is somebody that's used to this podcast. I like that.

So you're obviously referring to things that have happened on this podcast over our previous episodes where I have brought up the fact that when it comes to end Times, people talking about the mark of the Beast and six sixty six and the anti Christ and the rapture, and is it happening right now? Do we see it in the world today? And I've said many times that the point of all of that, really, or the point that

we're missing, is that Jesus says, be ready. And so the point is secure yourself with scripture, learning to know who God is and understand the Gospel and what Jesus did for man to bring them to reconcile them. The Bible says, back to God, because we've sinned, we've turned away from Him, and Jesus comes to die for sin and through his righteousness bring us to God from what he did on the cross. He takes our sin upon his body on the cross and credits us with his righteousness.

We credit him with our sin. That's the Gospel, and so anything other than that begins to distract like the end of times. And yes, I agree with this synonymous comment that the debate of Catholicism and Protestants tends to break away and distract from the truth of the Gospel. And yes, I believe the Baptism's rule and salvation and all these other things our divisive tactics by the enemy, just like the clown with a red balloon in a different way. This is a different kind of sin. And

we're under spiritual constantly. This is spiritual warfare. We do not battle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against authorities, against cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places Ephesians six twelve. We are in a war, and people are getting taken out all the time. Justin is an example, and then anonymous here is bringing up another example. And

this is another tactic by the enemies. Just distraction, disunity, discrediting, just argue about these things and forget about the Gospel. So what happened in the Reformation when when the Protestants split from the Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic Church. What happened? That's often misunderstood. And it's not that a new denomination was formed or a new religion was formed. It's not that it was a reformation, meaning it was a it was reforming back to the basics. Really, you could say

it that way. It things had things began happening in the church, in the Catholic Church that were leading it away from the Gospel, and there were groups in France,

in Germany, in England, different pockets. Their Reformation wasn't all Martin Luther in Germany, but there were different park pockets that around the same time that started sparking up, speaking out against the indulgences, against the Catholic Church, charging people to to to bring their family members out of purgatory to save them, things that were unbiblical, and people were like, hey, this isn't I don't think this is right. I don't

think this is right. But they were all Catholics saying this. They were all Catholics. And so what really made it the spark flame was the printing press. And when the printing press started, then these writings spread like wildfire and everyone was able to consume and think to themselves, think for themselves, and think to themselves, Oh, yeah, I've been seeing this is a problem. I've been seeing this and

I thought this was a problem. And this guy's bringing it to light and he's using the Bible is the example of the truth. And so that's what took off. And it wasn't that it was a new idea. It was a hey, I think we're on a wrong path. Let's go back to the basics. Let's go back to what the apostles taught us. That's what the Reformation was, and so that the idea was never to break off from the Catholic Church. The idea was to reform the

Catholic Church back to the way it was. Hey, let's get back to the basics, right, Let's get back to the fundamentals of the faith, because we're starting to lead people straight by doing these all these things that are not biblical. But the reaction from the leadership of the Catholic Church was this is heresy and were excommunicating you.

We're pushing you out. So the people that were once the once loved the church, that were part of the church, were then excommunicated and pushed out, and then the Reformation became its own thing. What's interesting is that when the Reformation broke off, when the reformers broke off from the Catholic Church once again, not because they were trying to, but literally because they were pushed out threatened. When they did break off, it didn't take but just a few

years before divisions within the Reformation started. The first one was in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. People started disagreeing on what this what the Lord's Supper meant. And so there is the divisiveness of the devil, the enemy coming in right at the beginning of the Reformation going I'm gonna you guys divided. Now, I'm gonna divide you over this, and it's just constantly a distraction from the Gospel.

The Reformation started to reform back to the way of what things were, to the fundamentals, and as soon as it reformed, it was breaking apart again with things that weren't fundamental. You could see the pattern. You could see the red balloon right in the in the storm drain. You could start to see these tactics of disunity as it as the enemy comes in and attacks with pride

and ignorance. The Reformation was based on the five Soul laws, which is, we're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone, according to the Bible alone, to the glory of God alone. That's five and all of that is it's not a man made idea. It's what we could trace through scripture that were saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone according to the scripture, the Holy Scriptures alone, to the glory of God alone.

Anything else really is a distraction an argument. There could be Catholics that believe that that believe the gospel. There could be people that disagree over the role of baptism and salvation, but still the Gospel has still taking root in their heart and their Christians. And so while we could disagree, and it's okay to disagree. You know, I like blue, you like red, I like country music, you

like rap music. It's okay to have these nuances. But when we start getting from the doctrine of salvation, of rebirth, of regeneration, of justification, meaning how we're saved. We're saved by grace. God does it. God does it. Salvation is of the Lord, the Bible says. When we start getting away from this, then it gets muddy. The waters get muddy, and the red balloon gets taken and arms get ripped off.

Another reminder here on the podcast, if you have someone that you just don't know what kind of gift to get them coming up into this holiday season, consider cameo. Go to cameo dot com slash Grangersmith. And what that does is it allows me to get a message from you and then I pull out my phone, put it on selfie mode and record you a video message to whoever you want it to go to. I get this all the time when people say, hey, can you can

you give my neighbor a shout out? It's her birthday, her name Savannah, she's turning ten years old, and so I'll get it my phone out and say, hey Savanna, it's Granger Smith. Hey, I'm thinking about you. I wanted to sing you a happy birthday, and I hope to meet you one of these days. Well, you could do anyone could do that. If you got a cameo dot com slash Granger Smith, leave me a message and I'll send you whatever kind of video you want. Again, that's

cameo dot com slash Granger Smith. Okay, next question. These have been good so far today, Josh says, Hey, Grangeer, I'm in my early thirties. I've been married to my wife almost ten years, and we have three kids. Currently, I'm a youth pastor in a small town outside of Lubbock, Reckham. I was called to ministry in high school and have been pursuing that call ever since. Recently, my wife told me that she feels a strong call to missions overseas.

I've been praying and thinking about ways to help her pursue her calling while also pursuing what God has called me to do. When we talk through what pursuing her calling looks like, sometimes it comes off like my job and my calling is more important than hers. My question is how would you handle a situation where husband and wife have different callings in industry? Josh, Hey, thanks for

the email, buddy, appreciate you. Brother. I want to say that oftentimes we think that we have different callings from our wife, when in fact we are one flesh. The Bible says when we become husband and wife, we become one flesh. And so instead of thinking of she has her calling and I have my calling, instead you should think of it as your calling is always through her calling, and her calling is always through your calling. They're intertwined.

They don't they don't split off and go into nothingness. They are the same. They're nuanced, and you have different

giftings within it. But your calling, to say, youth ministry may go through her overseas calling so that you do overseas missions, you do youth ministry in overseas missions, or her calling is through your calling where she host a missions outreach in your church with your youth group so that people how you house overseas missionaries that come through Lubbock and they stay with you and get trained to

go out or something. But but you see, there's a and I could say that ten different ways how your two callings could could intertwine. First question I would have if you're with me, as I would say, hey, where is your senior pastor in this? This is this is something that has to has to be talked through with your elders, your overseers, your pastors, your fellow pastors have to be part of this. They do. This is not something you wouldn't make a decision like this or try

to think through this in a vacuum. Nothing in Christianity happens in a vacuum. It's a brotherhood, it's a sisterhood, it's a family. You are the church. The church is not a building. It is a gathering of people. And so when you think through this, don't think that God's going to write something in the sky. You intensify your prayer life about this. You focus on your daily scripture reading for your own devotional time. You bring this to

your leadership and you start praying through it. Say hey, guys, I want to pray through something with you or can you be praying something with us? Because my wife has a strong calling for overseas missions. And as you bring that up and you say, and then I have my calling. I don't know honestly what you're calling is you say you're a youth pastor in a small town outside of Lubbock. I don't know specifically what you want to do, because

a calling is not much more than a want. You desire something, And if your your will is aligned with the Lords, then then his desires are yours and he gives you the desires of your heart if you're seeking him, if you're close to him, if you delight yourself in the Lord, he will give you the desires of your heart. And that's the calling. There's there's It doesn't have to be mysterious. A calling is your desire as long as so long as you're close to the Lord. And so

what do you desire to do? Is it youth ministry? Do you want to be a senior pastor one day? And so I would say why is that? Why is that different than what your wife wants to do? If she she has a strong call to missions, overseas. Would you not want to be a pastor overseas or a youth pastor overseas? Would you not want to take that there? So I want you to think of it in this way. I want you to think instead of hers, she has hers, I have mine. I think that's dangerous and I think

it's wrong. I don't think the Bible speaks of a husband and wife having callings in different ways. You too, are called to each other for the Lord, to each other for the Lord, serving each other as one one flesh. I don't know. There aren't kids mentioned here, but that would be another component to this. But I would be I would be just with your your the pastors of your church in prayer a lot about this and trying to get clarity through discussion and through prayer on what

her overseas mission work looks like. Is it short term stuff? Does she want to move to China? Regardless, you guys should should do with your praying. You should do a few trips to whatever people group she feels called to. Sometimes we feel called, we feel called to a certain kind of people. Every missionary I've ever talk to has

said that they have general mission work. But then there's always a specific people group that you say, I really feel called to the Saharan African culture, or I really feel called to the Latino culture, or I really feel called to the Chinese culture, or the Vietnamese culture, or the Filipino culture, or the Romanian culture or the Irish culture.

Usually you feel strongly about one or the other. So I would test your wife with that and whatever she comes up with, whatever her answer is testing that her motivations are not self driven instead God glory driven. She wants to out of the abundance the love, the abundance of her heart, the overflow of that, she wants to love God's people, and she wants to do that overseas instead of propping herself up. She just wants to do something really cool. There's a lot of things to test through.

I'm just trying to throwing some things out, but at the main point is you don't have two different callings. You're married. Your calling is one. Next question comes from John says, Hey, grad Guoman names John, my wife Amanda, and I got the opportunity to meet you in Boston on your farewell tour as a Christian family. Your words of encouragement and advice is very appreciated. We struggle as god fearing and loving parents to shield our kids from the world. My son Levi is convinced that Mav is

his brother. Huh. They love your family videos. The question that I have is something that is very heavy on my heart. I own a towing company that is struggling. I've worked construction my whole life, running heavy equipment. I've had to put my business that I have spent the last six years building on hold. I've had to hold I've had to go back on the road. In quotes working construction. I'm gone from Saturday night to Friday night. I always grew up in the mindset of I must

do whatever it takes to provide for my family. I'm missing so much being gone. I'm really struggling with the work family ratio. I've done a lot of self reflection on how we as a family have gotten to this point, and my son is too. We just welcomed our daughter, Emma into the world on Monday. I grew up with a father who was an over the road truck driver. I barely knew him growing up as a father and head provider for my family, I'm really struggling with this.

I love any thoughts and ideas on the subject. God bless the Innis family. All right, John, appreciate you, brother, Thank you for the email. Has this been all guys today? I feel like it's been all dudes today. Okay, it's the brother chat man. John. I appreciate the vulnerability, and I understand the difficulty. I see it. I see what you're saying, and I want to point a few things out. One I think you know the answer. I think you know the answer. That's why you emailed me, because you've said,

you said here, I'm really struggling. I'm missing so much being gone, you say, And I'm really struggling with the work family ratio. So I think you know what to do. I think you know you need to be home, and you don't need me to tell you that being gone Sunday night to Friday night is a long time and it cannot be good. I'm not just thinking only about your kids. I'm also thinking about your wife. She needs you there. And I want to point out that you said I've grown up with the mindset of I must

do whatever it takes to provide for my family. I want you to think about what it means to provide for your family. And that doesn't just mean financially. It doesn't just mean they're going to pay the bills and pay the car payment and have food on the table.

That's not just what it means. Providing for your family also means emotionally, from a leadership standpoint, from an encouragement standpoint, from a discipline standpoint, you providing for your families, not just from the pocketbooks, not just from the bank account that you be in there. It's a loving father as a loving husband, giving instruction, lifting them up, giving them encouragement. No one would ever define a father is someone who

provides financially and then end it right there. I mean a big calling as a father is to protect right, to protect your family from all different things, not just physically, but from all different things spiritually is a huge one. But how could you do that if you're gone six days every single week. How could you do that? You can't, And so you wouldn't defy and a father as just financial, It would be the protector, the leader, the spiritual head,

the one that nurtures and loves and holds together. These are all definitions that you work together with your wife on and with you gone, it can't be good. You know this. You don't like I said. I don't need to be the one telling you that you already know it. I could hear it in your words. But the problem is, how do you pay the bills? That's what you're thinking.

You're thinking, this is all I've ever done. You justify it by saying, my dad did it to me, and I guess I turned out okay, even though I didn't really know him. I don't want to be that guy. But how else am I going to do this? You think there's no other options, and so that's what I hear. And sometimes we get stuck in these situations where you think I could only do one thing, or we think I've done something for so long there's no turning back

from it. Now, I've already I've set the precedent on this. I've built my relationships, I've built my skill set, I've built my resume. And if I do something else, that's like starting over. And how old are you? You didn't say, but you don't want to start over. You don't want to build the resume from scratch. But I'm here to tell you that most likely the story pans out and

you could attest because your dad did this. Twenty years go by, and your son is now twenty two and your daughter's twenty and they don't know you, and it didn't really matter. And you always had a roof over your head no matter what, and you always had a vehicle to drive, you always had food to eat. And yet you've lost a relationship with them, and you and your wife. Perhaps she even leaves you over this because

you've you've more or less abandoned her. And you could justify it by saying that, look, I always I always gave you everything you needed. I always provided a roof over your head. I always gave you food on the table. And your wife says that's not enough. Every wife listening right now goes, that's not enough. Most would say, I would rather live in a cardboard box and have you than have all this stuff that we don't need and not have you. But somehow, this this disease has gotten

into our heads. It's Americans in the West that we got to have stuff, and we got to provide for our families. And that's that's the number one factor of a father is to provide for a family. And it's just never been that way, and we've got to break the mold and flip the script and instead we say, look, I want to provide, and I'm gonna work my butt

off to do it. I'm gonna get out there. But I have decided family that we might have a little bit less, we might need a smaller house, we might need to get rid of that nice car and go to a lesser car. But I've decided that the more important thing is for you guys to have a dad and a husband that's around every day. That's what I've decided, and I guarantee you everyone in the family goes great. No one goes oh, you got to get rid of the car. I mean, Dad, go back on the road.

We want the car. This is his reality. I appreciate the email, buddy, Thank you. Next email comes from Dax. He got your. My name is Dax. I'm nineteen live in Waco, Texas. I have a question I want to run by you. My grandpa recently passed by suicide. Side my grandpa recently passed by suicide and my father also did the same. My grandpa was in Vietnam and left with some PTSD. He was taking a new medication for some heart problems, and one of the side effects was depression.

Nobody knew until he ended his life from it. What is the best way to deal with this from a Christian standpoint? He says on a different note, I've also been struggling with lust for years, and I've tried so much and wanted to know if you have figured out what the best way? What is the best way to get out of this? My heart desires it, but I don't know how to change my heart. I would like to hear your thoughts. Sorry for my bad reading. Yeah, Dax,

thanks for the email. Brother. This has been the Brother podcast. This has been all good, all dudes. First of all, I'm so sorry that here you are as the third generation man and the previous two generations have died by suicide. That is a tremendous pressure to put on your shoulders as a nineteen year old, and I'm truly sorry and

wouldn't wish that for anybody. It is significant, and you shouldn't and I shouldn't diminish the fact that it's gonna be tough, not just the loss of them, but the way that you lost them, and how that weighs heavily on you, and it would be hard not to think at some point, uh am I am I on the same path. So from a Christian standpoint, this comes up a lot on this podcast, and this question comes up a lot. I think you're asking. I think you're basically asking, Hey,

is Grandpa going to heaven or Hell? I think I think that's what you're saying, because that's what usually when you boil these questions down, that's the salt at the bottom of the boil. And so I would say, like I always say, you're we're saved by grace through faith and Jesus alone, and that's came out of the Reformation, you know, that's that's the idea, that's what the Bible teaches.

And so being saved by grace through faith is understanding, believing in Jesus, and repenting of your sins, believing and the finished work that Jesus did on the cross for sins, taking sins on his own body as the sacrifice, the sacrificial lamb for the sins of his people, so that his perfect righteousness, his goodness that he earned by divine right and lived out perfectly on this earth without sin, is then credited to you. The Bible sometimes uses and

theologians sometimes use the big word imputed. His goodness is imputed onto you, so that when you come to judgment day and God looks at you and says, well, you are a criminal. You have broken the law of God, you have rejected his mercy, and so the sentence for your crime is death. And then the judge comes in and goes, hold up, Hold up a minute. This man of a hero, who is perfect, is offering his death

in place of yours. So do you accept this? You say yes, Well you still live a life in rejection of me, and you say no, and he says, then therefore you're free to go. You're free to walk. That's what's happening here. That's the gospel. And so suicide, where does it come into plays. It is a sin, It is murder. Suicide is murder. We shouldn't think of it any other way. And murder is a sin, horrible sin

which with horrible consequences God. It only takes one sin to be a transgressor and to be a criminal, to be to be on the wrong side of God. But we also should recognize that different sins have different consequences. And the adultery the first question we had has huge consequences. Murder has huge consequences. Murder of yourself. Suicide also has huge consequences through other people, for instance, the grandson that's

worried about this. It's a consequence. But Jesus went to the cross to die for sins for all who repent, turn from the sin and turn to Him in faith, who believe in him, who believe in Jesus, you're saved regardless of sin. But you would think that if someone is going to commit murder, that wouldn't be a fruit of repentance, right. That's why people say sometimes way and amen, grand Are you telling me that I could just accept

Jesus and repent and go do whatever I want? And I say no, because true repentance and true faith would birth the fruit of someone who genuinely desires to please God in his actions, which is why faith and obedience are always together. Faith comes first, but always true faith is always followed by true obedience, never without it. You never have true faith without obedience, and you never have true obedience to Christ without it being preceded by faith.

Those two things are always together, And so you would think if someone murders, then that's coming out of bad fruit and coming out of a faith that is broken. But the nuances and what we see so many times with suicide is that, like you said here, he was taking this medication for heart problems and the side effect

was depression. So that depression from the side effect could have clouded his mind enough for him to carry out the act of suicide from a repentant heart, from a true heart of faith, blinded and taken out by the enemy. So that's where that's where you go. I don't know. We pray for we pray for anyone that's struggling with suicide or depression. We pray for their salvation through faith in Jesus. We pray that they repent from their sins

and turn to Him. And if they go ahead and carry it out, at that point, we don't know what happened. We don't know their heart. We don't know that. We don't know, and so I can't no one. I can't give you an answer, and no one can, no one can even begin to give you an answer. Besides, we know how you're saved, and we know that the fruit of murder is rotten. But with this guy being clouded in his mind, you could say well, maybe he was messed up because of this drug, but he had actually

he actually had a repent in heart. You see, that's why I can't. I can't tell you. That's the Christian standpoint. But then you go and then you flip the script, buddy, and you you take me to ask to this new question of lust. And I run into this quite a bit. I had it. I spoke at a men's group recently, and I usually ask people to stay and talk to

me afterward, and this one guy stays. Three guys stay past everyone else, very last three guys there, and two of them say, hey, we're just they're asking some kind of evangelism question. And I answered the question. And then the last guy says, I want to talk privately, and I said okay. And he says, I struggle with lust with pornography. And I said, did you talk to your other two friends about it? He says no, I haven't told him yet. I said, okay, Well this is where

it starts. Look, if we don't bring these sins into the light, if we don't shine the light on them, then they will just fester and fester and grow. So the best thing we could do, and that usually the first thing we do is flip the light on in the dark room, meaning you go to your two bodies.

And this is what I told. This guy said, go out there right now after this, and I when you say, hey, guys, I just talked to Granger, and I want to tell you I'm struggling with lust and pornography and I need you two to stand with me because we can't do it alone. And the Bible speaks about this. It's very clear, don't do this alone, don't walk alone, don't try to battle sin alone. So I want you to tell these two guys, I say, I want you to keep me accountable.

I want you to check in and say, how'd you do last night? Did you look at poorn last night? Yes? I did? I did. Okay, then we're gonna help you. Now what was the source of it? What, what made what? What was the trigger for it? Let's let's help this brother, because if you go down on next, let's stick together in this. Right. So that's my first thing is flip the light on the house, turn the light on in the dark room. And then practically there's I mean I've

mentioned this a month on the podcast. There's a there's a website called Covenant eyes dot com. And if you go to Covenant eyes dot com and you enter your IP address in their server, and then you put your accountability partner on the on the the server as well, could be your mother or your sister, or your wife, or your friend or your pastor or whoever, and they will be notified. As soon as your device hits a

porn site, it notifies your mom. Now, come on, tell me if there's not a better way for you to be motivated not to go to that site knowing your mama is about to get an email with the exact site that you just saw in the time stamp that you did it in. Right, Hey, you want to fight this or not? This is what I say. Make war on it. Declare war on your sin, because sin, in its full maturity leads to death. Don't let this sin mature into death because it will kill you like that

clown in the storm drain. So declare war out loud and say I make war on this sin. I decide with my own self discipline that I will not do this. Instead, I will turn to God. I will accept his mercy, see and his grace, and I will look to Jesus and what he did on the cross. And that, my friends, is repentance. That's what it means to repent. It doesn't repentance doesn't mean you're free of sin. It doesn't mean you don't slip up, you accidentally do something, or you

you mess up one day. It's not what that means. It means you make war on it. And sometimes you lose a battle, but you're still fighting a war and you hate it. You hate the sin that lives in you, so you want to kill it and turn away from it and turn back to God. And it drags you back in and you hate it, and you strangle it and you turn back to God again. That is the battle, the ongoing war of repentance. It is ongoing. It's not

something that's not a decision you make one time. That's why it's so hard for me to go to churches when they say that we had so many salvations this year. We had three hundred and thirty eight salvations this year. You don't know that because because faith is a walk, it's a walk of obedience. Repentance is an ongoing thing, so the fruit of it takes time, not just one declaration at an altar that says I'm a Christian. I accepted Jesus, I'm done. No, it's a walk, it's a brotherhood,

it's a family, it's endurance. Now the Lord saves you by grace, but you know that you're saved through the fruit of repentance. When you just you begin to develop this idea that I can't stand this anymore, can't stand living this old way anymore, because it's eating me away like acid. It's corroding me. And so my brother, I say this fight it. Love you, guys, we'll see you next episode. 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.