In episode 213 of the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, host Greg Ryan opens with a traditional Pauline greeting of grace and peace, then moves into a passionate exhortation for listeners to adopt an "all‑in" mentality toward the kingdom of God. He frames the kingdom as a pearl of great value that demands total commitment, using the metaphor of selling everything to obtain it. Ryan explains the theological basis for Christ’s incarnation—God the Father sending Jesus as the spotless Lamb—to underscore that believers must look to the Father through the Son. He warns against division, describing the enemy’s strategy of sowing discord within the body of Christ, and emphasizes that Christians are either slaves to sin or slaves to God, with no middle ground. The core of the sermon centers on Revelation 3:14’s warning to the Laodicean (lukewarm) church, where Jesus wishes believers were either hot or cold, not tepid, and calls for repentance, zeal, and a personal opening of the door to Christ. Ryan then ties this New Testament admonition to Old Testament mandates, citing Exodus’s command to have no other gods and Joshua’s calls to serve the Lord wholeheartedly, illustrating that Scripture consistently demands a decisive choice of allegiance. Throughout, he interweaves personal prayer, encouragement, and a closing benediction, urging listeners to pick God’s side, stay in the Word, and rely on the Holy Spirit for spiritual victory.
Welcome to episode 213, 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 213. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, if you are just joining me or have joined me recently on this podcast journey that we're walking down together, you may wonder why I start every episode with grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I just have read multiple letters that Paul wrote, and that was how he started each one of his epistles, or every one of his letters. My lightning-fast mind was thinking, you know, that would not be a bad place to start if we were going to choose a greeting to have somebody say, hey, every time that you listen to this, I want you to be reminded of grace and peace. So that's why I'm doing it. And so there's no other mystery about it. I'm not trying to be overly spiritual. I am really just trying to read the Bible and try to get that into my soul. And grace and peace are a wonderful thing, and Paul knew it, and he started every letter with that. So with that said, I want to dig into, or continue to talk about, what we've been researching and what we've been talking about in the last few episodes. And this is an all-in mentality. We need to seek and keep seeking and ask and keep asking and knock and keep knocking. And that pearl of great value, that we sell everything when we find this pearl. We sell everything that we have. Where Jesus talked about the pearl of great value, and he was talking about the kingdom of God, and it was just talking about that the kingdom of God— when you find the kingdom of God, you need to go all in on this thing. And that's all I'm trying to do is encourage you that there— the stance that you should have is that this God that is in the Bible and that who Jesus is and who he— the Father that he represents and that he talked to daily and all the time, he was in constant communion with the Father. And Jesus said, you know, I don't do anything unless I see the Father doing it. Jesus was the perfect representation of Father God. And if you look back into the Bible, if Father God showed up you could not look on him. If you were to see Father God, you would die immediately.
Your—
our human form, in this form right now, we could not look on the Father. And so God the Father sent his Son Jesus to represent him, and he sent Jesus in an earthly form. He sent him into the form of a man. God created man We're not going to get in all of the intricacies of all of that or get into the weeds, but God had to become man to become the spotless Lamb of God to take away the sin of the earth or the world. Jesus came, he had God's blood in him, and there's certain things as you read the Bible and as you dig into this, there are things that you know, we're not going to argue about that. We can all have different opinions on, for instance, the rapture. Is it pre-trib? Is it mid-trib? Is it post-trib? Or any of that. It, it's gonna happen. I think we could all agree that we're one day closer to whenever it happens today than we were yesterday. And that's why I'm not— I try not to get into a big long discussion on things that would divide us. The whole purpose of this podcast is to help you understand and get into the Word of God and the unity that comes with that. It's not about being divisive, it's about being in the same family. And the Bible also talks about us being the body of Christ. So we are the same body, and it— and if you take a hammer and you mash your toe on purpose, say your little right pinky toe Just think of— take your shoe off in your mind, just mentally take your shoe off and take your sock off and grab a hammer and then look at your little toe and take that hammer about knee-high and then just bring that hammer down and mash your little toe. And I want you to think about the pain that would come from you mashing that little toe. Why in the world would we do that if we are all part of the same body Why would we take on purpose, take something in our hand that would hurt our own body? It just does not make any sense. And that just proves to me that there is an evil enemy that comes against us and tries to divide us. And if you can't see that going on with the world system, if you can't see that going on in your own flesh and in your carnal mind and thinking, then you're not paying attention. We have an enemy whose whole modus operandi is to divide the body of Christ, and we have an enemy who is very good at deception. He makes it seem really smart and really cool to be on his side, and he uses sin as his bait And it says that sin is fun for a season, but what, what sin, the ultimate end of sin is death. He knows that if he traps you in sin, then he's got you. And the Bible is clear that we're either a slave to sin and the, then the enemy, or we're a slave to God and righteousness. So there is no middle of the road in this biblical worldview that I'm exposing. I don't even know if that's a word, but what I'm talking about, there is no middle ground. And that's why I want to go to this scripture that Jesus told John in Revelation. And let's go to that now. I made mention of this scripture in the previous episode, but this is found in Revelation 3:14, and it's titled in my Bible— and I'm sure you may or may not have this title, but this is called the Lukewarm Church. And he said to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans, write these things, says the Amen, the Faithful and the True Witness, the Beginning of the Creation of God. I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,' and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich, and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, and anoint your eyes with eyesalve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Now I just want you to picture Jesus talking to this church. There are 7 churches that Jesus talks to, and he gives each one a different word, and he corrects some. And there's the Church of Philadelphia, I think he doesn't correct them at all, and he gives them nothing but praise. But you can go back in Revelation and look at that. I think it's in Revelation 2 and Revelation 3. But I want to concentrate on Jesus saying that you were— he wishes that you were either hot or cold, and that lukewarm, this middle-of-the-road Christianity, this, yeah, you know, I'm for everything, God is love. And I'm not going to argue that God is not love. God is love. God is patient. God is kind. God is all of those things. He is gentle. He is good. God is all of those things, but he's also a God that demands to be first. God wants to and demands that you and I put him first. And if you go back to Exodus where he said, you will have no other gods before me, and this is a calling out of Israel, and this is— he, he selected Israel his people, and he did this on purpose so they would be called out from all the other nations, so that the nations of the world could see that there was one true God, Yahweh, and that Yahweh was over every other god. And he told all of his people, do not worship other gods, do not, do not go after them. This is the demonic realm, that the spirit realm, where you, you've got to pick a side. You cannot stay in the middle of the road. You either have to be for God or against God. There is no neutrality in the kingdom of God. In a biblical worldview, you have got to pick a side. And that's the only thing on this episode that I just want you to be thinking about as we walk into the weekend. I want you to know that we have to pick a side. And And Jesus is saying to this lukewarm church, this is not gonna get it. This being lukewarm is not gonna get it in life. You cannot walk through this world and be flippant. You can't. You've got to pick a side. You've gotta be for God. Or if you say, I'm not for God, don't believe, that's why agnostics and atheists, even by not taking a side, you take a side. So I just want to encourage you, and I know that if you're listening to this episode, if you just stumbled across this, this is just some yahoo that's just talking, but I strive to just get into the Word of God every day, and I try to pray, and I try to seek the Holy Spirit's guidance in my life, and I try to then, when I kind of get a thought or when I feel like that, man, God really just wants me to know this, then I come and talk to you about it. And I really think that God wants you to know that we need to pick a side and we need to be all in. We can't be middle of the road. If you've ever seen things in the middle of the road, normally they're flat. Things get run over, things get crushed, things get killed in the middle of the road. And God is saying, I wish you'd be hot or cold, but this lukewarm mess that I'm seeing out there it is just not going to get it. So God is loving, God is kind, and he wants you to know that you need to pick a side, and I want you to pick the right side. And I want to go to Joshua to finish this up. Joshua 23:9: For the Lord has driven out from before you great and strong nations, but as for you, no one has been able to stand against you to this day. One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the Lord your God is he who fights for you, as he promised you. Therefore, take careful heed to yourselves that you love the Lord your God. And then I want to go to Joshua 24:12. I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out from before you, also the two kings of the Amorites. But not with your sword or with your bow. I have given you a land for which you did not labor, and cities which you did not build, and you dwell in them. You eat of the vineyards and of the olive groves which you did not plant. Now therefore fear the Lord, serve him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the river and in Egypt. Serve the Lord. And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourself this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. And I just wanted to end with that. This is a picking of sides, and Joshua states it pretty clear. And if you want, one of you, one man shall chase a thousand, for the Lord your God is he who fights for you, as he promised. God was with Joshua in the Old Testament, and I have got to tell you that the New Testament promises are so much stronger and so much better that if one man chase away a thousand, what can one, what could you do? With the Holy Spirit and with the power of the name of Jesus inside of you and in your mouth. I just want to encourage you that this battle— again, I've talked to you, it is to the death— but the good news, the great news, is that Jesus died and was resurrected. There is no longer— if you've accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, your body may die, but spiritually you will live forever. And I just want to encourage you with these words. God does not want you to be in the middle of the road. God wants you to pick the side, and he wants you to choose his side. He is begging you. He sent his son. He sent me to tell you. This yahoo in Louisiana is saying, hey, you need to pick God's side. You need to stay in God's word. You need to pray to the Holy Spirit, and you need to be in the body of Christ. God, I thank you so much for everything that you've done in my life. God, I thank you for this listener. I pray in Jesus' name that you would encourage, empower, and inspire them to get into your word and to talk to your Holy Spirit and to grow deeper relationship with you, because that's really all you want is a relationship with each one of your kids. God, 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.
