Bible is clear you need to pick a side. God or Money

Welcome to episode 216, In the Beginning Was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.

Welcome to episode 216. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I am continuing on our little journey together here in podcastville, if that's even a place, but I am going to continue to dig into this single-minded, sell everything, pearl of great value. This one thing I think God is just jumping up and down on my head is we have to be all in. We have to be fully committed. There's no more lukewarm Christians. There is either hot or cold. If you are in the middle of the road, you are gonna have Jesus vomit on you when he comes back. He said in Revelation 3 that, "I wish that you were hot or cold, but because you are not hot," nor cold, but are lukewarm, I am gonna vomit you out of my mouth. And I don't know about you, but I don't think I wanna be vomited out of God's mouth. I just contest that we need to be in the word of God. Here comes soapbox moment. But we also need to dig into this thing and just commit to knowing that this is all there really needs to be in life. I know we have a bunch of other things going on, But this one thing, this first thing, is seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. If you want things in your life like a car, like a house, anything, like retirement, if you want any of these things in your life, I believe the best way to get it is to seek first God's way of doing things. And then it kicks in all these other promises. It is incredible if you start looking at the Bible for really what it is, and that we have either God or money. And I'm not here to jump up and down against God. In fact, I'm going to go read that scripture right now so I don't screw it all up. Matthew 6:24: No one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. And this goes hand in hand with the two scriptures that I've been talking about before in the previous episodes. Let's go back to James 1:5. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives it to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. And we've talked about this before, James 1:5-8, with Matthew 6:24. No one can serve two masters, and a double-minded person should not think he's going to get anything from God. With all of this said, this picking a side, I just need you to pray about getting all in on, on God. I mean, and I think it's going to be wonderful. The, the ride that I'm on right now, it gets better every single day. You just got to take my word for it. It's not peaches and cream every day, and I'm not saying that little unicorns follow behind me every step that I take. I mean, I'm not talking about some pie-in-the-sky thing, but I'm talking about the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guarding my heart and my mind. I'm talking about just walking through this chaotic world with just a supernatural peace on me, and I believe it's because I'm just walking on the side where God's on, and I'm not going over to the punk side. Now, I occasionally— and I mean, I'd like to go on record to say that I don't just intentionally set in my mind that I'm going to go sin against God, but I have got to tell you that I am not perfect, and I'm not claiming to be perfect. Heck, if you've listened to this podcast for over 200 episodes, you're going to know that English really isn't my first language. I really try hard to communicate properly, but it's just sometimes a struggle with me because I get the wrong word in there or I say the wrong thing. But that's not going to stop me from giving the glory to God, and that's not going to stop me from getting on this podcast and just telling you and encouraging you that, look, you need to be in the word. You need to get the truth inside of you. And as God is opening up his word to me, all I'm trying to do is just get you thinking. That, that is my only job here, is to just get you thinking and maybe connecting some of these dots that God is connecting for me. And when he says he wishes we were hot or cold, that he don't— he can't stand lukewarm, that's middle-of-the-road stuff. That's a double-minded man. That is somebody that does not have their mind made up. So you can go either side. And I don't know if you've ever been around people like that, but they just kind of just irritate you. And I'm not even talking about spewing them out of your mouth. I'm just talking about you can't— you don't ever know where they stand. And somebody that's a flaming liberal or someone like myself that is just an ultra-conservative, you at least know where we stand. We're going to be on one side of the issue or the other. And I would argue, I know a lot of— I say a lot, I know a few liberals And I think for the most part, I mean, we probably differ on how things should be go about, but I don't think any of these people that I know hate their family. I don't think any of these people that I know want something really bad to happen to people. I mean, I just don't believe that. Now, they— some of these guys are a little more angry than I am, and some of them go at it a totally different way, but I think that's because the standard that I have is the fruit of the Spirit, and it's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. When I find myself getting a little bit on the irritated side, I go back to that fruit of the Spirit, and I try to react how I would think the Holy Spirit would act. Now, I don't do it perfect. I'm learning. I am just trying to walk through this Christian walk and I'm trying to do the best that I can do. I can't stand the thought of anybody going to hell. And if somebody that sees me as a quote Christian and they know that I'm a fanatic and they know, maybe they do or don't know that I have a podcast and talk about the Bible, but I want them to see my actions and I want them to see my heart. And it's not because I need them to think like I think. I mean, I don't care. My God has told me, he has commissioned me to make disciples, and that's what we're going to talk about in the next episode is the commissioning of you and I to not make babies, and I think a lot of the church, I mean, they get fired up about salvation, which there's absolutely nothing wrong with salvation. In fact, that is your first step, but that is only the first step in this Christian walk. You have got to be saved, before you can be a disciple. But God knew that the easy part— and I'm putting air quotes up— the easy part of being a Christian is becoming a Christian. The rebirth or being born again, that part is the easy part. And then comes the growing. Then comes the discipleship. And if you've ever reared— I think it's reared, or I don't think you raise kids. I think you raise crops. If you've ever reared children, you will know that it is a daily process. It's day in, day out. And I don't know my kids— my baby is 23 years old, and I can't tell you a day where I wasn't her daddy. I mean, I just honestly am always her— gonna be her father. And until God calls me home or puts me in there— well, actually, God's not gonna put me in the ground. But he's gonna call me home, and I will then not be her daddy. But while I'm here on earth, I'm always gonna be her father. And that's how it is with God. I mean, he is always gonna be our Father, and he's gonna lead and guide and direct us. But the path is kind of messy. If you've ever had kids, they don't do right. At least mine didn't. But they, for the most part, they did the best they could do. And we tried real hard not to make little robots. And I think God is exactly— he is the perfect Father. I am the imperfect father. But I tried to just let them be themselves as long as they stayed within a certain guideline. You know, again, I talk about this where God is not a prude. He puts the law out there to keep us out of trouble. He can see the end from the beginning. And he knows every time we start where we quote sin or break the rule, that it's going to lead to death. And if you live on a busy intersection or a busy street and you've got a little toddler, you don't just let them walk out of the house when a busy street and yeah, you're on the phone, I ain't got time for that kid, and you just let them walk out the front door and walk into this busy street. Nobody does that. Or no one should do that. So what you do is you set boundaries, or you shut that door so they can't get out. God's the same way, except he's perfect and he's loving and he gives you free will. And when you mess up— and the wonderful news is that now when we mess up, we have a Savior who's sitting at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us. Father, I remember being down there, and it's kind of tough in that body. It's kind of tough down there. And so Jesus has become man, and he knows what we are going through. And that, that's what makes God so cool, one of the multiple things, that Jesus Christ has walked this earth in a body just like you and I have. Now, he was perfect and he was sinless. He made absolutely no mistakes. And that is phenomenal. But we make mistakes, and he was tempted just like you and I have been tempted, and he did not fall. So he knows what we're going through. He knows how dark the world is, and he knows that we are distracted. At least he knows I am, and he loves me anyway. And I just want to encourage you, I think this is one of the most important lessons that we can learn is we need to be hot or we need to be cold. We need to be in or we need to be out. We need to love God or we need to love money. We can't try to do— play it both ways. And I just think we can't be double-minded anymore. We have to be all in on Father God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit. And that's what I'm here to help you with. And I thank you so much for being a part of this podcast, this episode. And if you just tuned in, I'm sorry, I'm kind of a fanatic. I love Jesus and I love God's Word, and I just want to encourage you to get in it and to let God use His Word to change you like He's changed me. God is not a respecter of persons. If He did it for me, He will gladly do it for you, and He will probably have something better to work with, with you, and it'll be quicker and it'll be easier than with me. It is a wonderful ride. It is a wonderful journey and adventure, and I'm so glad that God has chose me to have this podcast and to be his— in his family. And that's enough for right now. Let's pray. God, I thank you so much for the person listening to this podcast. I thank you, Lord, that you came to die for this person listening. God, you came for me. You destroyed sin for the whole world. That is wonderful news, Lord, that all we have to do is reach out and accept what you did by faith, and we will be saved. Lord, we will declare you Lord like I have. I pray that this person, if they have not declared you as Lord and Savior of their life, that they would do it, Lord, that they would be encouraged that you love them and that you died for them and that you want a personal relationship with with the person listening to this episode. And if they have a relationship, Lord, I pray in Jesus' name that they would start getting deeper into you, Lord, and you know, the knowledge of you and just to know you and to have a relationship, Lord, a deep and loving and kind relationship with you. And I pray that you would just encourage, empower, and inspire them to live their best life. Lord, we thank you.

We love you.

We ask it all in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I look forward to visiting with you on the next episode.

Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.