In episode 96 of the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, host Greg Ryan expands on the theme of faith and personal responsibility for salvation. He begins by examining Peter’s interaction with Jesus in John 20:20, emphasizing that each believer must "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" rather than comparing themselves to others. Ryan then illustrates God’s focus on the heart over outward appearance through Samuel’s anointing of David in 1 Samuel 16, reinforcing the idea that true worth is internal. He presents Matthew 6:33 as a foundational principle—seeking God’s kingdom first—as the seed that, when planted, requires diligent watering, cultivation, and personal study. Using the analogy of a pastor as a seed‑planter, Ryan describes the process of spiritual growth as a garden that needs preparation, watering, and ongoing care. He further defines faith as a bridge—a substance that must be walked upon—linking the spiritual and physical realms, and stresses that faith without works is dead. Throughout, he shares personal experiences of hearing God through Scripture, the role of the Holy Spirit in guiding study, and concludes with a heartfelt prayer for listeners. The episode ends with a reminder to return for the next discussion.
Welcome to episode 96, 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 96. I want to continue on the talking about the faith and salvation, your salvation. It's a personal responsibility, and it's your personal responsibility between you and God to get your salvation right. And I want to take you to a scripture, a couple of things that when I was reading and praying about what I was going to teach this week, a couple of things kind of showed up and I wasn't ready for, but one of them was with— it was with Peter. And you know how I like the Apostle Peter, the way he does things. He kind of jumps in and he messes up. He's kind of messy, but you know, he gets things done. And I just like Peter. Maybe you suffer with this a little bit, maybe you don't, but let's go to John 20:20, and this is where Jesus was talking to Peter about feed my sheep, tend to my sheep, feed my lambs. You know, he asked him if he loved him 3 times in the previous verses. But then Peter, Peter chimes up and he looked at the Apostle John, who— this is in the Book of John, actually John's writing. Now I want to preface this because I didn't read the previous verses, but Jesus had told Peter how he was going to die. He told him that he was going to be led away and, and crucified, really, is what he told him. And so now Peter just heard those words, and you know, Jesus said, 'Follow me.' And so Peter heard those words, and then he— then Peter was like, 'Well, I wonder what's going to happen to John.' Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple who Jesus loved, who also had leaned on the breast at the supper, and said, 'Lord, who is the one who betrays you?' Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, But Lord, what about this man? Jesus said to him, if I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow me. And I want to stop there. You know, for Jesus— for people to think that Jesus is some lovey-touchy-feely, you know, just he's nothing but love and never got on to his disciples— he got on. He— this was Jesus getting on to Peter. And he told Peter, look, that's none of your business. You do you. And I mean, I'm trans— I'm paraphrasing, obviously. Jesus told Peter, look, you work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. This— you walk your walk. And I think a lot of times if we start comparing ourselves with other people, or, you know, how this person's doing or what this person looks like— and again, I'm going to go back to the seeing with eyes that see and ears that hear. If you're judging people based on what they look like, that's so far away from the way God judges people. Remember when King David was chosen by Samuel when he was anointed king, where all the brothers were standing, were, you know, were in this banquet and they didn't even think to invite the guy who was going to be king. He's out there with the sheep and all of these men, or these sons of Jesse, are standing up in front of the prophet. And the first one that Eliab, I believe was his name, and I'm going by memory, but it is in 1 Samuel 16. Samuel looks at him and he says, "Surely the Lord's anointed stands before me." I mean, I'm paraphrasing, but Samuel's looking at this, the oldest, and he's thinking, "Man, this is a good-looking young man. Surely this guy right here is it." And then the Lord said, and let me just go to that, 'cause I wasn't planning on doing that, but that's just how God takes me sometimes. And let's read 1 Samuel 6 and 7. So it was when they came, he looked at Eliab and said, "Surely the Lord's anointed is before him." But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him, for the Lord does not see as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord," looks at the heart. I think that's where I wanted to go with this right now is again, we're using our eyes, kind of how God see, God looks on the inside of a man or a woman. God sees the heart, he sees the interperson. And Christianity, I think, is more of the, from the bottom up and from the inside out. If you can kind of think that and get this, this teaching that we grow from the bottom up and from the inside out. And the best scripture that I have for that is Matthew 6:33, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." And remember, we've talked about this. I know you're probably tired of it, but this is an important truth that we need to get into our toolbox. This is one of our weapons. This is one of the keys to the kingdom, is that we got to know that God's way of doing things is seed, time, and harvest, And it's a process, and it's about— remember, we got to dig that soil up. We got to get our heart right, because if our heart is right, if we have humbled ourselves and we have presented ourselves a living sacrifice and we've died to self and we're ready, our heart is soft and it's ready for the word of God. And when your pastor comes and he preaches his sermon or his message that he's taken time, he's prayed about— and I don't know if you've ever been around a pastor, but they work. You know, it maybe looks like— have you ever seen a duck on the water? It don't look like a lot's going on at the top, but underneath, those feet are just going crazy just to keep him afloat. But the pastor is constantly working, and they are in the Word. They have got to get into the Word of God, and they're praying because they're held accountable. They're held accountable for what they teach you. So they're praying, and they're trying to figure out what we're supposed to teach or what God wants them to teach. And so then they hear from God, or, you know, or think that, well, look, I need to, I need to be on this. And so they start teaching. It's his job to preach it and throw the seed out there. It's your job to have your heart prepared when you get in there, and then the growth happens. Once that seed is planted in your heart, then you start watering, you start tending it just like a garden, and you start watering what he planted, and you start listening to other things, you start reading other scriptures and you start for the next week or so, I would want to encourage you to take what your pastor has taught on, look at some other similar scriptures, or think about what he said and how does that apply my life. You know, start meditating on it. And that's really why I'm here, is what I want to do is encourage you, to give you an idea, a thought for the day, and then just kind of let you just, you know, just let it dig around in your mind for a minute and, and just get it inside of your heart, we start watering, we start digging this out, and we start letting it grow and taking roots inside of us. Because I promise you, the incorruptible seed of God is so much more powerful than any kernel of corn or any lima bean seed or anything that you can plant in the ground. If you can get a picture in your mind or in your heart of taking this one word, like, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you." If you can get that one seed and you start planting it, and then you start reading your Bible with the idea that we're gonna do this one thing, and then with the personal— because God, the Holy Spirit, knows right where you are, and God is gonna lead you where he wants you, based on his word. That's why when I say that God talks to me through his word, it's not that he says, "Greg, read this chapter." He doesn't say any— he doesn't sound like that either. He does not talk to me like that. I'm— as I'm reading the Bible, I get thoughts in my head, and it's hard to explain how God talks to me. It's not a verbal voice in my head. It's a thought that comes in, and it, you You know, as I'm quiet and I'm reading his word, and then when I kind of say it jumps off the page, something, I don't know how to explain it, but something kind of quickens inside. I mean, I don't know if it leaps, you know, I think that's a little much, but I think it's something that, you know, it kind of stops me. And then I go back and I read it again, and then I just stop and I just start pondering it. And I start wondering, well, now what are you trying to say? And then I ask the Holy Spirit because he's right there. Holy Spirit is with me all the time. He'll never leave me nor forsake me. So I just ask him, God, is that— is this something you want me to dig in on? Sometimes I get a little bit of an affirmative, like, yeah, get— go a little deeper on this one. You know, I'll start looking at some of the references in my Bible, and I start doing a little bit of research. I'll write that scripture down, and then I'll just start looking at different verses that go with that scripture. And then I'll listen and, and I'll read that scripture, and then I'll read— like today I read the whole book of Philippians this morning. The way that he talked to me in Philippians this morning was different than he normally talks to me because I was looking at this scripture in John 20:20 where Peter said, you know, what about him? You know, where he's comparing. And that's why I think this is where I want us to go, is that personal responsibility Your personal walk in Christ is your walk, and regardless of what happens to somebody else, regardless of what your wife does or your child does, your personal walk is between you and God. The Bible says that he is a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path, that he will light your path. And if you will just listen and you will look, God will show you which way to go. He will show you which direction you need to take. Again, I'm gonna use this analogy. God doesn't steer a parked car. If you're not moving, I think the Bible is pretty clear on this. It says, "Draw near to me and I'll draw near to you." You take the first step and then God says, "Oh, he's coming towards me. Well, all right, if he's gonna do that, I think I'm gonna go towards him." I think we have to take our first step. And that's what I believe faith is, a noun and a verb. We're gonna open that up in some of the other episodes, but to, for right now, faith is the substance of things hoped for. It's a substance. Faith is the substance. I see faith as like a bridge. Faith is something that you actually walk on or you cross over and you use that bridge to bridge between the spiritual realm and the physical realm. And so I'm gonna kind of dig that out just a little bit later, but it is, I see faith as a bridge. That's the substance, but you actually have to get on it and you actually have to work. It is— faith without works is dead. So you've got to do something, and we're going to look at what the disciples did. We're going to show examples of how Jesus had them do something before he was able to exercise the faith that he had. And if God couldn't do it because of their unbelief, what makes you think that we can do it? Well, let's stop right here and we'll pick it up on the next episode, but I want to pray for you. God, I thank you so much for the person listening to this. You know right where they are. And I pray in the mighty name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth that you would just reach out and give them a spiritual hug, Lord, if they need it. Or Lord, strengthen them if they're feeling weak. And Lord, I thank you for the promises that are in your Bible, and I thank you for your word, and I thank you for coming, and I thank you for dying on the cross for me and raising up the third day so that I can have salvation. God, I thank you for being faithful. And I thank you for loving us, and I pray 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.
