Hello and welcome to the gospel truth project podcast.
I am your host Jason.
Once again, I am by myself.
I do not have my co-host Dylan with me and I was trying to get a guest or a special guest
to help out but I ended up not being able to.
But that's okay.
I know it's been really busy.
My schedule doesn't line up with other people's and other people has different schedules and
it's been kind of chaotic.
But you know, in the long run, I am happy to come on here, record and have a pretty
straight vision to record episodes talking about the blog posts that we do.
Both myself and Dylan do post on there for blogs.
So if you don't know what that is, you can actually go to the gospel truth project.com
and you can actually see the blog posts that we do there.
We do that a lot more often, if I'm being honest and upfront.
And I do like doing the blog posts because it's really easy to sit down, do study, check
references, go through notes.
So it's actually really helpful for me to be able to go on there and then kind of paraphrase
what the blog talks about to translate it into an episode.
And we do need another episode out.
And so here I am.
I'm doing another solo episode for the moment for the time being.
Anyways, it's going to work out.
I'm actually pretty excited to for today's topic.
I do miss having Dylan on here and we will have them on here again.
For those who don't know, he had a baby.
So him and his family have been very busy with a new kid and one already like a younger
child as well as now the new baby.
So they've been very busy, very, very busy, and I totally understand that.
And he's been working a lot of hours.
And when he's off, he's taking care of the baby.
You know, they take turns.
It's really cool to see how they're managing parenting, et cetera, et cetera.
So really, really blessed them both, both him and his wife and his family.
Bless them all.
And it would be good to have him back on here.
And I know we will soon.
Anyways, so today we're actually going to be talking about what the Bible says about
the chosen.
Before I get started on this topic, no, I'm not talking about the TV show, The Chosen.
I'm talking about the concept in the Bible where this has been a really kind of back
and forth argument is that you're chosen by God.
So if you don't follow Christ, then you're not chosen.
There's only select chosen people that follow Christ.
And what does that what is real?
What are we talking about here when we talk about the chosen in a biblical context?
The concept here is that God chose specific people to follow him.
Right.
The ideology brings up a lot of questions and has some backing when brought out of context.
But today we're going to deep dive together and see what the Bible says.
And does it actually line up with scriptures?
The idea that specifically chose people to follow him.
Period.
Kind of thing.
So it's either you're chosen or you're not.
Anyways, we're going to get into that topic.
So I hope you're ready.
I will be quoting scriptures and referring to scriptures.
So feel free to follow along with the Bible or go back, write them down, go back and read
those.
Use the study Bible that kind of talks a little bit more about those verses because I really
don't want you to just take my word for it.
I never want you to take my word for it.
It's always good to go in and read these things firsthand and read study Bibles that talk
about the actual context of these words because English is such a rough language and really
watered down language compared to Greek or Hebrew or Aramaic and other languages out
there.
They're more like more ancient languages.
They have a lot more depth to them.
Like in Hebrew you have a word that each letter is a each stroke of the word itself has meaning
to it to explain what that's talking about.
It's really, really cool.
And that's something that we lose in English.
It's not like I could say, oh yeah, you're loved.
And then L stands for something else.
Dance or something.
V means this because they're the letters, the letters.
And that's it.
You can say you love mac and cheese and you love your significant other and you use the
same word for it, but it has completely different meaning because the context.
So English is really difficult to correlate specific messages from the Bible or from Hebrew
and Greek in general, especially those two coming over to an English translation.
That's why you need to recommended study Bible.
A lot of there's that's why there's a lot of different branches of Christianity, et
cetera.
As a lot of that comes down to, well, I think this and it's like, no, no, no, you need to
study anybody in leadership.
Study, read, and actually study the Greek and Hebrew and understand what that language
entailed and why context is important for this because it can have a whole different
meaning if you just take it at face value for the word itself.
So back into the topic.
Like I said, this is all coming back down to studying.
So an important thing to know about the Bible because it's really easy to kind of not think
this way, but the Bible was not separated by like chapter or verse.
This came later to help people study, refer to passages and sections of scripture, et
cetera.
This is why it's important to know again, the context of verses to fully understand
what is being said and why.
So this blog post that I am reading from that I'm getting this information from it's kind
of lengthy.
It's kind of, it's very thorough, but it's because I want to make sure that we cover
all the bases to what the Bible says about chosen by God, what that means, what that
looks like.
And people who say you have to be chosen to be a real Christian, et cetera, we're going
to get into it.
Let's, let's just, let's discuss what the Bible says about this topic and then come
to a conclusion based upon the Bible and also its context.
So I'm going to start off with the common section, which is Ephesians one through four,
which says, blessed is the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who had blessed us
with every spiritual blessing in the heaven in Christ, where he chose us in him before
the foundations of the world to be holy and blameless and love before him.
So this is commonly used to show that Chris, that Christ chose people and not, and only
the people he chose understand him period.
And the context here is actually Ephesians one, three through 14.
These two verses state, like they start the context of the beginning of this context of
this chapter, basically, or the context that this is referring to.
So Ephesians one, three through 14, praise is God for the blessings he has provided.
Paul ties together the idea of predestination, God's glory, the salvation of his people,
the rights we have as children of God in particular, believers are blessed because God chose before
creation to save us humankind.
That salvation came at a great cost, the death of Jesus Christ.
And as children of God, we can be confident that God will give us what he promised, namely
an eternity with him in heaven.
I think overall, this is, this is going to be a lot about the predestination stuff.
That's kind of what I'm getting at.
So if you heard that terminology, this is, this is where we're going to get into is the
idea of predestination.
So and it's important to know that these words have tremendous implications regarding the
wisdom and plan of God.
His wisdom and power are so great that he knew the present even from the beginning.
Likewise, he knew the end before it start before the start.
God exists outside of time and created time.
He is the only being able to know all things because he created all things.
This attest to the divinity of God and his all knowing might.
He knows how everything will work out before it even began.
And yet we do have the free will.
This is actually something our minds can't really wrap around.
I know this is going to be a little bit off topic to a degree, but we're not going to
get lost, but to help wrap our minds around this concept.
This helps me kind of wrap around.
We'll never fully wrap our minds around it because it's beyond anything we can imagine
because our brains can only handle so much.
But to help me kind of understand this and my personal, this is a personal opinion.
I always had a visual of a tree and tree grows many branches, you know, which are representing
different choices in life.
And those branches have clear direction.
A branch cannot suddenly grow two feet to the right off of the tree out of the air.
It's all connected, right?
Like a random branch just pops up in the middle of nothing and it's not connected to the tree.
This is the way like I visualize our life in the many different interactions and decisions.
Everything we do, everything that interacts with us affects our tree.
I see this as a way potentially that God sees us, but at a more infinite level.
Imagine seeing a tree and knowing what it is thinking about and what branch to create
next and what that one will go.
Some people can visualize this differently, but this is a great way to help me bring some
sort of idea how he knows all and we still have free will at the same time.
It's like seeing the whole 360 path that you could go at any given second at any given
time and how it will go and you can kind of see where it was coming from.
Basically they kind of get an idea which way it's going to go.
That's just how I wrap my mind around the idea.
Obviously that is not a, I wouldn't say it's a biblical idea because the Bible talks about
like we don't know.
Like he is all knowing except that at face value.
And for me that's how I can see it because we still had that free will to do things because
he is limiting the power that he has so that we can go and do what we're free to do.
So kind of continue back on the topic.
Matthew 22 14 is a very known and used verse for the concept that certain people are chosen
like predestination.
Matthew 22 14 says for many are invited but fewer chosen.
Okay, that's pretty pretty straightforward.
But this is the last verse in the context.
In this situation it's Matthew 22 1 through 14 is the full context of what's going on.
This actually contains Jesus's parable of the wedding feast.
Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a king who threw a banquet for a son.
The king's chosen guests refused to come to the point of violence against his messengers.
So the king fills the wedding hall with common people he finds out and about.
Some bad, some good.
One guest is thrown out in the darkness though for trying to attend the feast without wearing
a wedding garment.
Jesus summarizes the message with the famous phrase many are called but few are chosen.
The parable touches on Israel's rejection of the Messiah and salvation by grace.
This touches on the very similar theme to those of the parable of the great banquet
in Luke 14 verse 12 through 24 but with critical differences.
So this passage especially including this verse contributes to a sense of tension between
two ideas.
Scripture seems to counterweight two concepts which are not contradictory but which overlap
in complex ways.
On one side it's God's choice of those who will enter the kingdom of heaven.
On the other is the mandate for people to accept the invitation and receive the gift
of God's grace by faith in Christ.
Even in Jesus' parable some willingly refuse the invitation, some accept and fully engage.
One seems to accept the invitation but not entirely.
Jesus concludes by saying that many are called to come and participate but few are chosen
to stay.
So let's complicate things a bit and look at this a little bit deeper.
In a later passage, right, Jesus will refer several times to a chosen group called the
elect.
You can see this in Matthew 24 verses 22 verse 24 verse 31.
It is clear from the gospel that everyone included in the elect, all those who are chosen,
receive the gift of God's eternal grace after trusting in Jesus.
Ephesians 2, 8 through 9.
You can read that.
God calls to everyone to come to him through faith in Christ, right?
In Acts 4, 12.
Just to give an example.
This demonstrates the limits of human understanding, which in Isaiah 55, 8 through 9 talks about
like I'm saying it's beyond what we can understand.
Mysteriously and in some interrelated way, only those elected by God will believe and
yet those elected will believe by their own choice.
So only those who truly believe, John 3, 16 through 18, those who sincerely and deeply
obey the call are the chosen ones.
So let's uncomplicate it.
The best I can.
God calls all to receive the gift of salvation after trusting in Jesus and elects those to
believe by their choice and true absolute following of Christ as chosen.
This is just another point to show that we do not have the full capability to fully grasp
the divinity and absolute plan of God.
If we did, we wouldn't need him.
And we then are we then not all called to follow God through the teachings and understandings
of Christ?
Yes, so we're all called to follow Christ.
And we don't accept them.
We're not chosen because we by our own merit chose not to choose, which makes us not chosen.
So let's let's let's go into a little bit further.
I do want to bring in second, second Thessalonians to 14, which if you want to know the context
is 13 through 17, but in 14 he says he called you to this through our gospel so that you
might obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So the context presents a stark contrast to the preceding passage.
Previously Paul wrote about the evil man of lawlessness, his wicked deeds and the dreadful
consequences that await him and his followers.
Now Paul here addresses the Thessalonian believers with a positive uplifting message about their
salvation and encourages them to take a defensive posture against false teaching and to adhere
to what he had taught them.
He concluded with an uplifting benediction and which he called upon the Lord Jesus Christ
and God the Father to encourage the Thessalonians and establish them in every good word and
deed.
Now in this verse, Paul reminds his readers that God used the good news of salvation to
call them for a purpose.
He called them to share the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
When Jesus was on earth, he took Peter, James, and John up to a high mountain and was transfigured
before them.
You can read that in Luke 9, 28-36.
His inner glory shone through his body and later John and Peter reflected on what had
taken place.
And John, he wrote, we have seen his glory, glory as the Son from the Father, full of
grace and truth.
You can see that in John 1, 14.
Peter then wrote, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty, for we were with him on the holy
mountain.
2 Peter 1, 16-18 is the context that I'm referring to.
In his letter to the Colossians, Paul said Christ and believers is the hope of glory.
You can see that in Colossians 1, 27.
And now we hope to share in Christ's glory, but when he appears, we will appear with him
in glory.
You can see that in Colossians 3, 4.
So let's talk about two very important verses on this topic.
So first is going to be John 6, 37.
So John 6, 37 says, every one the Father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to
me I will never cast out.
Right?
Various theories exist on what exactly this means.
Some interpret this as a hardline determination by God.
Others see this as a reference to God's sovereign choice in the issue of salvation.
This might imply that God works to bring people to saving faith, but not necessarily that
he withholds it from those who are not saved.
Secondly, let's look at John 6, 44, which says, no one can come to me unless the Father
who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day.
So like verse 37, this text also touches on the question of predestination.
The idea that God is the one who ultimately decides which persons are saved and which
are not.
Here the language seems fairly specific.
Only those drawn by God can come to Christ.
In verse 37, though, it was stated that those who were given to Christ by the Father would
be saved.
Of course, in the wide debate over predestination, there are alternative theories of how, who,
and when exactly God draws people.
Right?
So let's go ahead a bit to John 12, 32, which says, as for me, if I am lifted up from the
earth, I'll draw all people to myself.
The context here, if you want to go check it out, John 12, 27 to 43, huge context.
So that represents the end of Jesus' public ministry in the Gospel of John.
After being approached by non-Jewish people who believed in God, Jesus seemed agitated
as he anticipates his impending death.
A voice from heaven affirms his mission, but to most people it simply sounds like noise
or thunder.
What Jesus means as a reference to crucifixion is misinterpreted by many as a prediction
that he'll be exalted to be lifted up.
The people struggle to understand his message and Jesus will leave them after warning that
their time is short.
This confirms Old Testament prophecies, reiterates how far some people will go in order to defy
evidence of God in this instance.
So why this verse?
The expression lifted up is a metaphor for crucifixion.
The great Jesus we'll be experiencing very soon, which we see in John 12, 23 to 24.
This is something Christ alluded to when speaking to Nicodemus back in John 3, 14.
And there Jesus referenced an incident from Numbers 21, 4 through 9.
The people of Israel were suffering from a self-inflicted plague and could only be saved
by looking to a bronze serpent held up on a pole.
That moment foreshadowed the concept of salvation by grace through faith, with the eventual
Messiah as the one lifted up for others to look to to be saved.
So the parallels are there.
This act of being lifted up will draw all men to Christ.
So the context of this drawing is a conversation Jesus is having with a crowd in Jerusalem
in John 12, 20 to 22.
The people had mixed reactions to an overt voice from heaven, which you can see in John
12, 28 to 29.
Jesus pointed out that such evidence were meant for their own good in John 12, 30.
So as signs to point to them to the truth, John 20, 30 to 31, the message of the gospel
focused on Christ's death and resurrection is one that calls to all people, which you
can see in John 6, 35 and verse 40.
Unfortunately, not all will respond in John 6, 44.
So the aftermath of Jesus' death proves the literal truth of the words, all men.
And if you ever look up the Greek word for men in this instance, it's mankind, right?
So men and women, both.
He will be executed under a place card, sarcastically proclaiming him as king in multiple language.
You can see that in John 19, 20.
His death will shake the world of a pagan soldier.
You see that Mark 15, 39.
Witnessed by both followers and enemies, Mark 15, 29 to 32, John 19 to 25.
And then he will die in between thieves, which you see in Matthew 27, 38.
Only one of whom will believe, which is Luke 22, 39 to 43.
His body will be attended by both loyal disciples and secret followers.
Those are both low and high class.
See that Matthew 27, 57 to 61.
And woman will be the first to learn of his resurrection.
In Mark 16, 1 to 6, Gentiles will be converted.
You see that in Acts 10, 44 to 45.
And hardened enemies will become missionaries.
You see that in Acts 22, 6 to 8.
And social barriers will be broken.
You see that in Galatians 3, 28.
In eternity, those redeemed by Christ will include members of every nation from all tribes
and peoples and languages.
You see that in Revelation 7, 9.
So why all that?
So this is to kind of continue with this concept of understanding these things showing Christ's
divinity and your say through him.
So we can kind of go into Hebrews 4, 16, which the context is actually only for 14 to 16.
Therefore let us approach the throne of grace with boldness so that we may receive mercy
and find grace to help us in time of need.
You can see the context here, like I said, 14 to 16 is among the most often quoted passages
in the Bible actually.
And is also one of the clearest expressions of Christianity's unique nature.
Jesus, the son of God, has experienced all of our struggles, temptations, and sufferings.
And yet, he did so without succumbing to sin.
For this reason, we can look to him as our perfect example.
We can rely on him as our perfect substitute.
We can come to him as our only high priest, and we can trust in him as our source of help
and healing.
Knowing that Christ fully, personally understands what it means to be human gives us confidence
when we bring him our failures and needs.
So here's our choice in this aspect of following God, because we need to, it's part of it.
This topic causes a lot of debates within Christian faith, and we can see that this
is more complicated than we are to understand in the idea and the grand scheme of predestination,
and the idea that you're chosen, you're not chosen, what's that look like, et cetera.
So we are to understand the very basics of this, which are God is divine and knows everything.
Faith in Jesus leads to eternity with him.
Yes, God was said to draw people and to receive this gift of salvation, right?
And Jesus claimed that after his death, all humankind would be drawn to him through his
death and resurrection, but not everyone will answer the call.
Yes?
Okay.
So our choice is to answer that call and draw near to him as he has called us.
Make sense?
So this is kind of what I'm getting at, right?
Under the covenant of Christ, and I don't want to get at my personal opinion.
I took time to read into this, look into this, what these verses say, what's going on, what's
the message here, but under the covenant of Christ who died for us and draws us all near
to him to accept the gift of his death and resurrection, which covered the penalty of
sin, which was death for us.
We can see every, even today that the people are drawn to churches, to the Bible and to
faith.
The issue we deal with is that people distort the truth.
They misunderstand the truth and they choose their own truth.
This is a great way to reflect back to Matthew 22, one through 14.
This is the parable that Jesus uses.
Even a guest accepts the invitation was still thrown out due to not wearing the wedding
garment, right?
We also see that this in later verses about how Jesus can know us, can know us in Matthew
25, 11 to 12, right?
We are called to have faith in Christ, repent, turn from sin, follow Christ, know him and
do what he tells us is right.
I wanted to reiterate this right a lot and so that I can try to help bring these concepts
a little bit more visual with the biblical scripture, with understanding, with kind of
a more, let's talk about this a little bit deeper.
So that more, so we can kind of draw more to him and get closer to him.
We should be working together as brothers and sisters in Christ for the glory of his
glory.
And I think the whole point of this specific post that I made and I'm making a podcast
for was that we can grow together by giving verses, giving ideas.
Here's this, here's that.
Let's discuss, let's talk and let's go forward, right?
And I was talking to a friend about this because the denomination there from is very much
so you're predestined.
If you believe in Christ and you were chosen and that was kind of the concept of it, but
how they proclaimed it and how they talked about it was that if you tell somebody about
Jesus and they're instantly shooting you down and they don't accept and they're not chosen.
And their idea was that if you talk to Jesus about, talk to anybody about Jesus, that if
they rejected it there on the spot or they chose it would determine if God chose them
or didn't choose them.
And again, I am not trying to speak for God's plan, his vision and how this whole thing
works, but we can see that post Christ death and resurrection, all are called.
So imagine, imagine this is a way that I put it to him just so they try to help visualize
this.
So God died, came down as man, Jesus, Jesus died.
I said God died, but Jesus died, which Jesus is God.
He's just another person's of God and God is one God.
There's not three gods, it's one God.
We'll get into that in another podcast, which we kind of already did go back and listen
to it, but Jesus died in place of our debt, which sin, the death of sin is death.
And if you don't know or don't know the fullness of that, we have a podcast episode about that
too about salvation because we all fall short of the law of God, which makes us all sinners.
Sinners is just someone who breaks the law.
Just like in the U S we say, someone has done something illegal, the same concept in the
same way that God says that we are sinners.
So if you steal something and that's a break against the law, you broke the law, right?
So if you steal something and that's against God's law, you broke, you're a sinner.
That's the definition or the defining term that's there.
So we all fall short.
We all do it.
Everyone has either lied, has stolen, has cheated, has done something along the lines
that we can't live up to the perfection that God instills and wants for us.
And so that's why Jesus came, felt everything that we ever had in terms of sin or sorry,
in terms of temptation as grief, et cetera, all that stuff and took it, died, and then
came back to life three days later to show that he is the divinity that he was claiming
to be.
And so they kind of get back to this.
The concept I was sharing with them is that post Jesus, he, when he died and rose again,
the concept is that everybody in the world, he's like, I have a ticket to be with me.
And he goes to every person anytime that someone's introduced to it.
I got a ticket.
Will you accept to be with me?
Will you come with me?
And they say no, they move on.
They weren't chosen.
Okay.
But if you say yes, he hands you the ticket.
You get the be with me, experience my presence.
Here's my Holy Spirit.
Let's be together.
Let's work this out together.
You're chosen.
So it's not necessarily that that person who said no will never come back to God or never
actually give God a chance.
Cause I've seen it where, you know, they might argue against Christ, but the thing is, is
that once they keep hearing that and keep thinking about it, you want them to see that
that God is there and Jesus is there and alive and the Holy Spirit is there to help you because
life sucks.
And the world is hard out there and it doesn't get easier for the most part and Christ makes
it to where you're at peace.
And during those times that you feel joy through him, not through the things going on.
And so with this, you see an easy way to understand that we're all drawn because he died for us.
Right?
He paid that price.
Imagine if you're at a grocery store and you're just trying to get groceries and the person
in front of you says, Oh, I'll pay for their stuff.
And you sit there like, are you sure?
Yeah, no, I am glad to do it.
And they're like, I'm paying for it.
And you're sitting there like, thank you.
Would you just look at them and say, no, don't, don't, no, I don't want this at all.
Bye.
Like, don't, nope.
Not going to let you do that.
I'm walk away like that.
That's kind of, I would say kind of the concept, but let's get a little bit more hardcore concept
here.
Court case, you are guilty before you even go in and you know you're guilty.
And the lawyer looks at you and say, wow, that's hard evidence.
Like you're guilty on this one, aren't you?
And it's just hardcore evidence where it's like, wow, we probably will not get anywhere
with this case.
We might be able to get you less time, but the penalty for the sin is all the time.
So yeah, it's not going to be good when you end up in front of the judge.
Right?
And let's say someone comes up and says, Hey, I'll take your sentence.
And you say, yes, you're considered chosen because he chose you had that mutual.
Yes.
And then, okay, I'm doing this.
This is for you.
And I am covering your debt.
Right.
And I'll take the punishment because I already did, but it was yours to choose if you, if
you want to be too.
And so follow me.
At that point, I'd be following that person so hardcore.
I'm like, you saved me from all time away from goodness, like a locked away, forgotten
basically.
And I would follow them and really be there with them at all times and learn about them,
why they do this, what's going on, et cetera.
That's the kind of concept with Jesus is that he's like, Hey, you're guilty.
I couldn't, I wanted to give you a way out of guilty.
And this is the way out is through me, but it has to be through me because no one can
rightfully live life without sin from start to finish and not be guilty.
If you think you can, then you're guilty.
And that's where Christ comes in.
And so I driving these points was kind of hard in general, because again, it's a concept
that's beyond our understanding.
And I know I have friends that do say like, you know, predestination is a thing.
I'd have ones that say that it's not a thing because we have free will and predestination
friends of mine are like, yeah, we have free will, but you're predestined to be of God
or not.
And I would, my, my argument to that based upon what we just went over today is that
Jesus died, rose again, and everybody for all time is now drawn towards him.
And those who accept, you don't just say, Oh yeah, I believe Jesus is real and he died
and rose again for me.
That's the whole idea of going to the wedding and you're not in the garments because the
garments were the idea of dressing yourself, clothing yourself, representing yourself,
right?
To change yourself, what you're wearing, what you look like, how you present yourself.
So the idea is that when you accept Christ to be that bride, to be a part with him, that
there is an understanding that you're to follow him.
And that the beauty of all this is that we were gifted the Holy Spirit when we accept
Christ.
And this is what I love about this is that you experience the Holy Spirit and it, sometimes
people don't understand what that looks like, but you can tell that the Holy Spirit is with
you because in Galatians five, it talks about if the Holy Spirit is with you, these are
the fruits of your labor, the fruits of your life, right?
And the things that you experience within your life, no matter what's going on in your
life.
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self control.
All those things you experience because the Holy Spirit is there to help you.
And the best part about this, because a friend of mine, another friend of mine, I'm not giving
out names, so I'll say friend a lot.
I apologize, but yes, a conversation I had with them was they'll know who they are because
it's a conversation I have with them, whatever.
I'm not using names because of this or times or references, et cetera.
But a friend of mine came up to me and was asking me, you know, like I keep on sinning.
I keep going back.
I keep failing.
I keep falling short.
Like I keep going back to God asking forgiveness.
A lot of times it's the same sin.
Just a lot of times it's the same crap.
I don't know.
Like am I actually saved?
Like am I really saved because I keep dealing with this?
I'm like, yes.
What do you mean?
Wait, why do you say yes like that?
And I said, well, okay, think of it this way.
If you are saved, you have the Holy Spirit with you and it's to guide you, teach you
and show you truth.
Right?
What's right?
And the fact that you fall short and you're angry about it and that you're devastated
and that you understand that it's wrong right there shows that the Holy Spirit's with you.
And the only way the Holy Spirit's with you is if you're saved.
And that's the way we could see who is saved and who's not saved is if they have the Holy
Spirit.
That's the whole point of the Holy Spirit on top of like being the presence of God today
and to help you and to assist you.
But you can see that that is part of the Holy Spirit is that it is given to you once you
accept Christ into your life and it's to help you assist you and make you stronger in Him.
So if you don't have the Holy Spirit, it's really easy to just keep on sinning because
that discernment's like, eh, you know, I'll get drunk every night.
I'm fine.
It doesn't bug me.
You know, I go, you know, I go overboard on moderation on all these other things and it
doesn't matter.
I go and have sex on a daily basis.
Doesn't matter.
You do things and you're like, it's okay.
God loves me.
He'll forgive me.
And that's like the person that gets thrown out of the wedding.
It's like, look, you weren't clothed.
You did not understand the Holy Spirit is there as a gift and you didn't accept the
gift.
You accept that Jesus is the one who died and rose again for you.
And you might understand that and say, oh, okay.
So he forgives me always.
And then just go on living your life as if nothing's wrong, that you don't need to do
anything, change anything, reborn, like regain who God is as your center.
And that's why it's the whole idea of like being reborn again, because the Holy Spirit
comes and you're like, oh my gosh, like it's surrendering, surrendering your whole life
to Him.
And then the Holy Spirit helps.
And it's like, you know, I remember I was driving.
I'm not going to say the territory, just in case people are listening and kind of know
me a little bit better, but I was driving a little bit north of where I live.
And I remember I was at a stoplight and I saw a homeless person and he was asking for
food, you know, and I looked over and I remember seeing that.
And I was like, he's not asking for money.
He's asking for food.
I was like, oh my gosh, I need to help him.
And I looked and I know I should have stopped and helped them.
This is something that bugs the crap out of me because I didn't.
I kept on going because I was like, I'm left home late.
I'm running late.
I need to get to work.
Like I can't be late today that we have this really important meeting.
It's really busy at work.
And I was just so flustered.
I was like, I need to help this person though.
They're asking for food.
They're asking for water.
They're asking for supplies, basic human needs, you know, and it would be so awesome to bless
this guy.
And I couldn't do it because of my own insecurities about like, God didn't come first that day.
And I know that and that bugs the crap out of me.
It really hurts me internally because I was like, I oh, like it breaks my heart kind of
thing.
Right.
Because I wanted to help.
I wanted to be there.
I wanted to do the right thing.
And in that moment, I didn't.
But here's the thing.
If the Holy Spirit wasn't with me, I would have just been like, ah, another homeless
person and keep going.
Not even to care in the world, except to go to work, get my stuff done, do what I need
to do.
And it would not have bugged me.
But because I know the Holy Spirit's with me and because I know he was calling me to
help that dude, whatever he was going on with, whatever was going on in his life, he needed
that.
And I said, no, I pulled a Jonah and did the wrong thing.
And then what?
That's that's something I live with.
And that's something that I understand and see that I know now, if I see that situation
again and that comes across my table or something like that comes around to take care of him,
to do the right thing, to follow God first, put God as the center, put God as the priority,
put God as the middle of my universe so that I can live the life accordingly to what he
wants me to live life like.
And I can't do that if I don't understand the basic fundamentals of what God loves and
God loves and God likes and God wants me to live like.
I don't study, but I'll read if I don't get into it.
So I guess I'll wrap this up because I know it's a shorter episode.
That's OK.
It's it's just myself.
So I don't have anybody to talk off of and going to go back and forth.
And I tend to go off on tangents.
And I understand that I get that we're coming back around.
So the concept of predestination, I won't say that to people because people who don't
read the Bible and don't understand God's position will look at that and say, you know,
will look at that and be like, hey, you know, you're destined to be part of God.
OK, well, then I'm not because I don't follow God and then immediately shut down towards
anything biblical or God or Jesus, especially for future.
They're just going to be like, I wasn't chosen.
And I think that's the wrong way of doing it, because it's also I've seen it bring pride
in incorrect situations where, you know, I remember I used to go to a lot of different
churches not because I was like, I need a new church.
I was wanting to bring the churches together.
Hey, you want to be a part of like a regional worship night.
Your body of Christ.
Let's do this together.
Worship together.
You know, you have your band up there.
We can take turns with bands weekly, whatever, blah, blah, blah.
And without any doctrinal teachings that you may or may not agree with, it's just worshiping
together as a community, as a body in Christ, as one unit towards the father.
Right.
And that's what I did.
I did that a lot.
I went to a lot of different churches and I talked to a lot of different pastors, a
lot of different preachers like, hey, look, this is what we're doing.
This is what I want you to be a part of, whether it's here at this church at that church.
We can host different different churches can host this night or this night, this night,
etc.
I just do worship together.
I might try doing that again, but outside of that, that is what I used to do.
So I went to a Baptist church and I remember talking to the youth pastor and then some
of the cause I was young.
Some of the college kids and stuff like that were there and you know, they were very arrogant,
like prideful, very, very prideful, arrogant where a lot of it was.
Well, a lot of it was the whole I'm chosen, like that kind of arrogance, like I am special,
like I am special and that church, I went there on a Sunday after that week kind of
talking with the pastor and showed up on Sunday to kind of see what they're teaching and they
were talking about predestination that Sunday.
I don't know how often they do at that church, but it just so happened to be the Sunday that
they were talking about it and saying that everyone here is chosen.
We're all chosen by God to be drawn to Jesus and this is what it looks like and this is
what we had to do and that means that we need to go find others like us and I was like,
what is this?
Like why?
Well, like it hurts the message because if the family there, someone new to that church,
not Christian, just kind of learned, they're like, wow, okay, people were chosen.
Well, I guess I'm chosen now.
So let me go see if my family's chosen.
Hey guys, you want to go into church with me?
No, we don't want to go to church.
We'll never go to church.
Okay.
Well, they're not chosen.
Move on.
Like, and that's it.
Huh?
So what's the point of the great commission that people are chosen and not chosen?
They're going to be part of God or not a God unless you think God cannot succeed.
There's a place to where, like I said before, you can see it where it's like, yeah, Jesus
died and rose again and paid for everyone's debt, which means that there is a gift there
for people to accept through Christ, right?
The gift of salvation through grace, grace through faith.
And that itself is drawing anybody.
It draw, it includes everybody in the whole world can be drawn to it.
Right?
And so that the great commission is for all of us to go out and talk about it.
Jesus loves you.
Jesus died so you wouldn't have to.
You're guilty just as guilty as I am.
I'm humbled by God to understand that I am not special.
I am bottom barrel.
I have failed.
I have fallen short.
I am nothing without him.
Nothing.
So my whole thing is to be something with him through him.
Christ, through me, reaches out to people and I experience a life worth living with
him.
Right?
And I experience this love, this joy, this peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithless,
gentleness, self control, all these things I experienced in my life, no matter what's
going on in my life around me.
Like there's been times where we've been dollar to dollar, week to week and been very, very
poor and like with my family and stuff and trying to get through it day by day.
And it's just like, oh man, I have so much peace about the situation because God loves
me.
You know, if I end up on the street under some underpass, God loves me.
Like it will be hard and suck and really, really be a bad day, bad who knows how long.
But this world doesn't matter.
It matters what we do with our relationship with Christ.
And it's not group people that get to go to heaven based upon the group.
It's the individuality between each individual person and their acceptance of Christ and
their following of Christ.
They accept Him, they follow Him, they're gifted the Holy Spirit and they can live a
life that God finds pleasing because He died for us.
And salvation relies on our faith in Him that He died and rose again and that He covered
the sins for us.
And then that faith brings the good works in our life that we get to share with others
and get to show others and get to live life correctly.
And it brings good works and brings good fruit because it's life changing to be saved by
Christ and everybody has an option to accept Him.
Not everybody will choose Him.
Those who accept Him are chosen.
Those who don't are inherently not.
So predestination, the idea and concept of it literally comes down to being handed a
gift.
And if you accept it, you're chosen because you were given the gift.
He's been chosen.
If you deny it, it moves on.
It's not, it's just there.
Obviously, people throughout their life, they might be able to come back around because
someone talks to them about God.
That's great.
And then once they accept the gift of Christ, they're chosen.
Like you're chosen.
Here's the Holy Spirit.
But it's not predestination.
It's a free will to fall into that calling that God has through the death and resurrection
of Christ.
And so it's our choice to say yes and become chosen because we've affirmed that He has
died for us or we choose not to and live our whole life until we die saying no, then we
are not chosen because we did not choose to affirm that salvation through Christ.
And that's why Jesus says he's the only way, the truth and the life that no one could ever
get to him except through the Father.
That's why we see that you will never know.
We'll never experience the Holy Spirit or God's presence or the heaven unless we choose Christ.
We need to choose Christ.
We need to accept that he died and rose again.
And now I will say this because I know I'm running out of time.
That's OK.
That choose to believe in him is not about saying if he was a real person or not a real
person.
Historically, he is.
We'll go into that in another episode.
But this is a saying thing saying that he you're accepting that he died for all of your
sins and that you are giving your life in return for what he done for everything he's
done for you.
You're giving your life over to him and he blesses you with the Holy Spirit and you're
gifted the Holy Spirit.
And now your life is to follow him and live the best life you can through him in the sense
that he wants you to live in.
So not saying like you're going to make millions of dollars.
We're not prosperity preaching here.
We are strictly saying that you're gifted the Holy Spirit to help you no matter what
situations are going on around you in life.
Sucky or better, you praise God, thank God and pursue God.
Right.
And you follow Christ.
And that's kind of where I want to leave the episode off of.
It's been an interesting one.
I know I usually make them shorter episodes of It's Just Me and I kind of did ramble a
little bit that tends to happen with me.
I know.
It's been a lot.
But yeah, we're going to go ahead and call it good here.
So I will say thank you everyone for joining this podcast episode.
I know by myself, it's a little bit different than if we have, you know, awesome Pastor
Dylan here and I'm always happy to have him here and I would love to have him here more.
But at the moment, it's a little bit harder just because he, you know, brand new baby.
So I thank you everyone for joining, sticking in.
If you made it this far, awesome.
This is not, I want to reiterate with both myself and Dylan both agree that this is not
our ministry, that we want to continue God's ministry.
I know a lot of people do that.
So that's awesome.
This isn't about my ministry, their ministry, etc.
We are trying to continue the gospel of Christ, which is his ministry.
So we're here just to help and hopefully help bring better understanding of God and Jesus
and the concept of Christianity in general and answer the hard hitting questions and
the topics that a lot of people kind of go back and forth about a lot.
There are probably some people who listened all the way through and do not agree with
me and that's okay.
It's a concept beyond our understanding for the most part, any of the stuff outside of
what we can see is going to be harder to conceptualize.
But we can see in the Bible, Jesus referring to all are drawn.
We can see that he talking about the wedding that some people said yes, and they still
said yes to go, but then weren't wearing the robes.
And we know from other verses and other Bible passages that putting on something in a sense
that it's parable is like putting on the armor of God.
We see that in the Bible talking about belt of truth, etc.
And then we see clothing yourself and righteousness.
We see that terminology a lot.
So it's that living that life once accepting Christ and understand that he lived and died
for you, you follow him.
So yeah, I'm going to end it there.
Thanks you so much for joining.
I do pray God bless you and anybody listening.
I do pray that the Holy Spirit was here that with you guys that if you haven't accepted
Christ and if you really want to, I say reach out to us on our Twitter, like just add us
or comment or send a message.
The messages are open.
We'd love to walk you through that and answer questions.
If you have them, check out gospel truth project.com.
You know, that's a great thing to go through and kind of read the blogs and kind of a foundational
strong point of biblical values and kind of biblical belief and help hopefully answering
some hard, hard topics and talk about hard topics that are really uncomfortable for people
to talk about but need to be talked about because otherwise we don't know where to go
with those topics.
So yeah, thanks so much for joining and God bless and we will see you on the next episode
and hopefully with Dylan, I'll keep you all updated.
All right.
Give 널 thanks!
Bye!