Is Jesus Your Life Coach…or LORD?

All right. All right, everybody. Welcome back to the King's Council. Man, oh man, it has been a minute since we've been back with you here, but, man, I'm so stoked to be back. This is the first of many, many episodes. As you guys know. We have been, we've been on a little bit of a call it sabbatical, I guess, but we took a break for really going on almost a year now. And it's for good reason. For those that don't know, I actually adopted a baby boy. We brought him home from the hospital last August and just turned one now. And so my focus has been family. It's been just an incredible season of life, man. And God's just done an amazing work within me, just personally within the King's Council. You guys got me solo today, but better believe it. Christian Edwards is going to be back with us here on many episodes here, coming on up as we're going to just continue, guys, to dive in. We're going to be the voice here of the kind of a biblical perspective. We're going to do teachings every single week on how to walk this life out, right? And the King's Council is ultimately, we're here to disciple, disciple entrepreneurs. And if you guys remember, I really believe everybody is an entrepreneur when it boils down to it, because the root word of entrepreneurship is entreprandre, pardon my French there. It is a French word, but it simply means to undertake, right? So if you're, if you are willing to undertake the task at hand, whatever that is, you can be a stay at home mom, you could be a plumber, you could be a electrician, you could be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, a digital marketer, whatever, you name it, if you're undertaking that task at hand, you are an entrepreneur. And so I want to welcome you. If this is some of you that are joining us for the very first time, we're streaming live on a number of different channels. We're going to do this every Friday, 11 o' clock central standard Time. We're going to be streaming live and then all other channels as well. You'll be able to, to listen to us, whether it's via podcast or our YouTube channel, the Dear America Channel, on, on Rumble, you name it, you name it. We are here for you guys. And so starting this, this first kind of episode, if we want to call it that out, I am doing it solo, like I said, but it is, it's been something that's really just been on my heart. I actually Did a, a pod a number of years ago, a couple years ago in which I titled it. Is Is Jesus your life coach or your Lord? And it was, it was something that just kind of sprung up it within me one day as I was just driving home and God just laid it on me. I came home in the studio and I just hit record, man, and I just, I just started to rant. But I really felt like it was just a, a time in life. It was obviously during, know, a couple years ago when just life was chaotic for a lot of people and it might still be for some, for some currently, but things are, seem to be getting better, right, as far as, you know, politically and things along those lines. But there's still so much chaos happening in the world and, and I think a lot of it boils down to us as a church, right? Church being the body of believers, the, the, the true followers of Jesus Christ and you know, really means to, to have Jesus as, as your Lord versus just what I think a lot of American Christianity is, is like they just want a life coach, man. They just want, they want to go to church on Sunday. They want to check the box and it makes them feel good, right? It's like if any of you have life coaches, even, even within the King's Council, we started out as really a coaching company. Something I never really thought that I wanted to do. Because I mean, if you are a life coach, this is no, no offense to be taken on this, but my thought was like, man, those who, who can't always want to teach. And that is like, what do I need a life coach for? Especially when a lot of them out there, like, you just got to look for the fruit in their life. And it's like, well, do I want that? Like, I don't know. I mean, there may, I'm sure there is some out there, right? And again, if you are a life coach, but it's not to take, I don't want you to take that offensively, but it is just like, man, if you're gonna, if you are going to give anybody coaching or advice, like, how are you doing in that area? And this is something that I've, you know, I've always kind of tied to. It's just like I'm never going to go ask somebody advice on something they haven't done or haven't gone before me, right? Like, I don't ask a fitness instructor how to train if they're less fit than me, right? I don't, I don't ask a financial guru what to do with my money if they don't have the fruit in their own life to actually, to prove, to prove that they've been there, done that. Right? And so I think this is where a lot of us as Christians, as, as believers, we, we want to look to other people for, like, life coaching even. Maybe it's even your pastor. It's just like, I just want to. I just want to, you know, feel good about myself or like I'm heading down the right path here and all that may be hunky dory and good. And I'm. I'm talking to those listening to this. I'm. I'm under the assumption that you are a believer, right, that you are a follower of Jesus Christ. And I think some of this might even be challenged on this topic today, because I'm going to challenge us on what does that really mean? Right? Because this is something that in my life that God has radically transformed over the last six years. Radically for some, that may have been listeners for quite some time. You know, we started this podcast back in 20, 25 and a half years ago. Now. It's crazy to think how time has flown, but it was started, the King's Council in general was just started out of like a complete, just unfulfillment in my own life because I was pursuing business, I was pursuing what, what I thought was success. And ultimately, you know, that was to make a ton of dough, right? I wanted to be rich. And God really did a work in me over the, over the last five, six years on, on what that really means, right? What is true success in life. And most all of it, I can attest to this, that it comes back to this topic right here on lordship, right? I actually, I had received Christ as savior of my life, or so I thought. I don't know. I don't really know. This would be a topic for debate, I guess. At the age of 16, no question, I had a radical experience at the age of 16. I jokingly say, like, I had given my life to entrepreneurship at the age of 15, but then I received Christ as savior at the age of 16, and I started to really just you know, dive into the Word. I had. I had no discipleship in my life at all. And this was really to nobody's fault but my own. But I started just to pursue what, again, what I thought was successful. And, you know, over the next decade, 15 years or so, I found myself. I'd made a lot of money, I'd gone through a divorce, and I did a lot of stupid things, right? But from the outside, looking in, from the world's perspective, I heard this a lot, that it just, it must be nice, right? And little did they know that I was so broken inside, partly because I didn't understand what it really meant to be a Christian because I struggled with this concept of like, could I even be, could I even be a good Christian, right? Quote, unquote, good Christian and still pursue business, still pursue making money, Could I be even successful? Because every Christian that I knew, for the most part, especially growing up in South Dakota, every, every Christian that I, that I knew, right against, I'm just stating this as like self professed Christian, they were broke, they were broken and they were defeated. And so I developed this mindset that in order to be a, a Christian, I had to be broke, broken and defeated. And I struggled with this because I felt in my being like, I remember at the age of eight having just this moment where I just, like, I was walking in my driveway at the age of 8 years of age and I just felt God like, speak to me. And I didn't even know, I didn't know any, like God was just some guy in the sky right at this time. But I just felt like, okay, you are going to, you're gonna make a lot of money in my life. And so for that point in time, I'm like, sweet, I'm gonna go get all the candy, I'm gonna get all the whatever I, you know, whatever I wanna do. When you're eight, like your eight, eight year old mindset. And I completely forgot about that until a couple years ago. And it, but this was, I think, just instilled within me over the years of just growing, of call it even maturing over the years of like, okay, what does this mean to, to pursue success, right? And really, what is that? Because the world's concept or perspective of success is far different than God's. Completely different, right? They're almost opposite. In fact, a lot of things in the Bible, when you start to understand the kingdom, the concept of the kingdom, it's upside down, baby. Like, this thing is, is, is crazy. It's like in order to live, you must die. If you want to be first, you must be last, right? In order to, to receive, you got to give, right? If you want to reap, you got to sow, right? Like, and so a lot of these things are just like opposite to what the world says, right? Because it's like, take, take, take. I'm gonna go get mine and the heck with everybody else. And, and again, this is just a process that I've gone through. But coming back to this topic of this episode, I want us to really understand what it means because I think a lot of people in America want Jesus as savior, but so few of us want him as Lord of our life, right? And, and when this hit me, I'd mentioned, and I did this episode a couple years ago, it hit me because, you know, I was driving home and I, I went past this church that had this huge rainbow flag flying in front of it and it was just like this just feeling of like, anger. I want to think of it as a righteous anger inside of me, though, where it's just like, what is going on? What is going on? And, and I thought of Isaiah 5:20, where it says woe to those who call good or evil good and good evil. Right? And, and there's just such a, an apostasy that's, that's obviously been taking place within the, the Christian community since literally Jesus. I mean, we can read about it and, and you know, Paul addresses in, in some of his epistles and things, but, but it hasn't changed a whole lot, right? Like what, what we're seeing a lot today still, it happened in the very, within the first 30, 40, 50 years of, of Christianity, if we want to call it that, right? And so, and I think a lot of churches, these huge mega churches and things are, and nothing against being a big church, right? But a lot of people have, have just accepted here in America what I think is just this consumerism Christianity, and, and they want just what they want, right? They treat Jesus as, or even church itself as, as this event. And it's like this buffet that they get to go to and pick off what they want and they don't take what they don't want, right? And, and at the end of the day, that's not what it means to follow Jesus, to pick up your cross daily and to follow him. That's not Christianity, right? And, and, and I don't even love the word Christianity, but that's not being a disciple of Jesus. And ultimately that is what we are called to do, right? This is above and beyond anything else. Jesus has given us this, what we know as like the Great Commission, right, To go and make disciples. A lot of people just think that it's, it's about preaching the, the Gospel, which, yes, we are called to preach the word, right, and, and, and to advance the kingdom of heaven in that manner. But what I think is missing, unfortunately, a fair amount here is just this understanding of what it means to be a disciple, right? If we are to go and make disciples, it's not a. You respond to an altar call, right? It's not just evangelism which might get, you know, a lot of the what in, in the Christian circles and world. It's like we think of the Billy Grahams, right, Or evangelists. It's just like, or even a lot of Sundays. A lot of Sundays are just used as evangelism events nowadays. And at the end of the day, like that's not church, right? If we look at what the true understanding of. Of church, right? And what was modeled in the New Testament, like it, it is about ironing, sharpening iron, right? It is about holding each other accountable. It is, it is challenging each other, going deep within the word, holding each other to, you know, a, a bar that G only Jesus has actually set, right. But the bars that, that we have, have put in place now are so minor or minuscule. It's like you just show up, you want to feel good, have a good message. And truth is not necessarily being preached a lot on Sunday services, right? A lot of Sunday services are just these cotton candy, make yourself feel good. And there's not actual discipleship taking place. I'm not saying this is all churches. I'm sure there's some amazing churches that, you know, it's Sunday is more than just a evangelism event. But church is actually taking place, right? And this is what I want to just dive into with this of like what does it mean? Am I looking to Jesus if I'm a follower of Jesus, right? Or I've received as your aspect. I did at the age of 16 and I, and I started like I had a love. I had a love for the Lord. I had no clue. And understanding what fear of the Lord meant. I had no clue what I was supposed to do. I was just starting to trying to read the Bible and it's like, you know, for the first time by myself is difficult. I didn't have all the chat GPTs and all the places to go ask questions at that time. Heck, I had a, I had a, an accordance like a freaking like 16 pound book that I could look up words and things like that. But it was difficult at the time for me to really understand this. And so we have, we have no, not today. We have no excuse of why we wouldn't be pursuing the word of God, right? And, and actually doing it. Right. But I think a lot of Christians again think that they falsely. I unfortunately think that they are saved when at the end of the day they're going to be sorely disappointed. And, and I think this is even, even where I was. It wasn't that I didn't experience, you know, even just like miracles and things taking place in my life at an early age. But as I pursued things of this world and, and pursued again, chasing after what I thought was success, I started to put, you know, Jesus in my relationship with him. And it was the complete back burner, right? I was not living for Christ by any means. And, and it, but I still thought, even at that time, I thought, well, I got a ticket to heaven, right? And that's all that matters. And because nothing else matters, because I didn't understand the Bible, I didn't, I didn't dive into the Word and truly understand that, that, you know, there is a difference between looking to Jesus as Savior versus looking to him as Lord. And the, the, the unfortunate thing is those two cannot be separated. It's, it's, it's. They don't, you don't get to pick, right? And this is what I think is happening oftentimes, especially here in America, I'm sure, all throughout the world. But people think they get to just pick what they want, right? So what does it mean for Jesus to actually be Lord of your life? Like lordship, if we understand, like what lordship actually is? Because also, even when you look in the Bible, most of the references, if there's anything to Jesus as Savior, it always says Jesus as Lord and Savior, right? And so it's, again, it's not a, you don't get to pick which one. It's, it's all or nothing, right? As I said before, this isn't a buffet that you get to just pick this thing is. This is a box lunch, baby. Like, that's what being a follower of Jesus actually is, right? And so many of us, they want a savior, right? Because the idea of, of hell sounds bad, right? But the, the, the reality is that this thing is a package deal, right? So if, if you, if you're calling yourself a Christian, but you're consistently doing some shady stuff, right? And you have no holy conviction, like a conviction of, of what you know is wrong, right? Whether that's, it could be anything, literally anything. I don't need to go down the list of all the sinful things that we do, right? If there's not a conviction happening inside of us, there needs to be a question of man. Am I really a true follower of Jesus, right? Am I a disciple, right? Meaning disciple coming from the word discipline, having discipline in our lives to actually choose right from wrong and choose truth versus just doing what we want to do and then one day thinking we're going to get to heaven, right? And I'm saying this out of love. I want this. I know this is our first episode back, but I, I, this is just where my heart has been of just man. When I say I'm saying this out of the love too, I say true love, right? Like what, what is the truth of love? Truth of love is not acceptance of anything. Of like, yeah man, there's your truth and my truth. And like if, if you want to be a girl or you want to be a boy. No, no, no, no, that, that's not true love is being able to say the hard things, right? Because the reality is I'm at a place in life right now where I, I absolutely cannot passively sit by and let people casually enter eternity forever separated from God. I just can't do it. I can't do it. It breaks my heart. Because forever is a long time, is a long stinking time. And I'm beyond the point of really giving a rip about what people may think of me because at the end of the day, what I'm looking and growing towards is in the sanctification process, right? Because again, this is the process, understand? If you're a Christian, if you're a believer, you are justified, right? There's this justification that takes place, meaning you are, it is just as if you were not a sinner any longer, right? We know you're still going to make some mistakes, right? But when we are justified, we are also sanctified, meaning we are set apart. But sanctification is a process that isn't, it's not a one time event, it's, it's that whole concept of now and not yet, right? It's like we are continually being sanctified. So there's justification, there's sanctification and glorification, right? Like when we leave our flesh shoots, we, we are going to number one. If you're, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you, you, you get to bypass this great white throne judgment, right? Which is, that's what unbelievers are going to actually experience of essentially do they spend eternity with God or eternally separated, right? And if you are a believer, then there's this, a secondary judgment. And when I say believer again, even the demons believe, right? They believe, right? They know. But believer meaning a full fledged follower of Jesus, I've received him as Savior. And he is the Lord of my life. Okay? So when I say believer, I'm referring to Jesus being Lord of your life, right? You're gonna face what's called this bema seat judgment, the judgment seat of Christ. And this is, we are gonna be rewarded for everything that we did on this earth, right? Every idle word that we spoke. And this is where I love it. And I think it's in First Corinthians when Paul talks about, are we building things out of wood, hay and stubble, or are we building with gold, right? Are we building things that are going to last through the fire, Right? That is an eternal concept, right? And this is where just in thinking through this, like, what can we build in that manner? And it's not like I can't build a house, I can't build a business that's going to last into eternity, but I can build relationships and I can build my character. And that comes back to even just this sanctification process of fully what God has been doing in me for the past six years. But it took this. It took a long time, right, for me to understand that there is a true difference between Jesus as Savior versus Jesus as Lord. And the reality is you can't get one without the other, right? This is. You cannot get one without the other. And if you, if you're falsely thinking that you can, I'm just telling you, you. You are mistaken. Okay? This is, this is you. We have to understand this concept, the grace that Jesus gives us. Isn't this just ability to freely, continually sin? It's like, okay, I checked the box. I said, yes, I said this prayer. I raised my hand, and now I'm going to just go back to my old lifestyle. No, no. That is not believing wholeheartedly. That is not repenting, right? And having a change of mind or a change of, of like to literally turn around and, and walk the other direction, right? And that's what it means to follow Jesus, to pick up that cross daily and to follow him, right? And it just to. I want us to really just know what the difference is or how we have to think about this. From a looking to Jesus as Savior as Lord concept, as I mentioned, it's. It's not a package deal. Because if you are looking to Jesus just as Savior, right? This is. It's like you're. You're. You're trying to limit him to only save you from hell, but not saving you towards anything, right? So you're. When you're, when you're saying, okay, I just want to Be saved from hell, but I want to do whatever I want here, right? You're, you're putting the limitation on him, right? And again, this isn't how this works. There needs to be a full hearted commitment, right? A surrender and not even a just surrender, but a submission, right? Because when I think of surrender, I think of like you wave the flag, it's like, I surrender. And it's like begrudgingly. I don't care how you do it, right? But I, I like to think of submission, of. It's not like I have to do this, but I get to do this. I'm gonna, I'm gonna become submitted. And this is where lordship takes place. When there's full complete surrender, but also submission that then follows into obedience, right? Into then intimacy with God and then to the ultimate fruitfulness, right? And I just had, had coffee with a gentleman that laid those four things out for me the other day. And I thought, man, that is really good. That's like the, the four parts of what this walk is of when you, when you surrender to God, right? You, you submit to him, you, you ultimately then you, you read the word, you dive into it and you become obedient to him, right? Not because I have to, because I want to. Because if you even look at like all the, these commandments and rules and regulations, if you're that way, because this is how I thought of what Christianity was. It was like, man, these are all the things that I don't get to do anymore. So it's like I have to do these things or I don't get to do these things. And it was like a restriction when at the end of the day I, all of these, these commandments, the laws that were in place, the 600 and some of them, like, if you look at this from a new lens, right, of that, those aren't things that I don't get to do, but those are things that if I follow those, life is going to go well, life will be better for you, right? Just you can think of the first, the Ten Commandments, right? Like, just follow those. Life's going to be a whole lot better for you at the end of the day. If you just were obedient to those, right? And that then develops this intimacy with God and, and, and then ultimately we are able to bear fruit, fruit that will last into eternity, right? So again, back to just if we're, if we're looking to Jesus just to save you from hell, but he's not saving you towards anything, like what is it actually, what Were we doing? Right? John 10:10 tells us this, like the thief comes only to steal, to kill and destroy. But Christ came to give us life, but life abundantly, right? So if, if we're looking to be saved from hell, what are we saved for? Right? Saved from, but what are we saved for? And this is this abundant life that we actually get to do. And this is a new mindset. This is why Romans 12:12 2 tells us that we are to be continually transformed by the renewal of our minds. That's not a one time situation, but continually means continually like daily, multiple times a day I have to remind myself of this. Continually be transformed by the renewal of my mind, right? And, and I become renewed at this mindset when I, when I come into alignment with him, right? It's by Christ, in Christ alone, that, that, that who makes us righteous, right? We're in right standing with God. And, and it's, it's amazing when I start to spend not just read the Bible, but study it, when I study this Word, it's, it's, it's amazing how your will, what you desire and what you want starts to be transformed into what he desires and he wants, right? You get into this alignment of ultimately, how do I walk this thing out? Not just walk, but how do I run this race as Paul says, How do I run this race? Well, right? And not aimlessly, but with an intent, with a purpose, right? As Paul says, he doesn't just beat the air box the air aimlessly like he's running with an intention and with the purpose full well knowing like what is in intentions are. And, and when we again come back to just not Jesus's Savior, but as, as Lord of our life, then we start to, to understand what this purpose and this intention actually is in our life, right? Because again, asking Jesus to just be Savior, but not Lord, what that indicates to me is that you are still the Lord of your life, right? Because you want to control the areas you don't want him to, to tell you what you can do or what you're, what you're not supposed to do, right? So that that's a false salvation that, that you think you, you have, right? It's, it's, it's Jesus as the Lord and Savior of your life. Okay, I think we've got that. So think of this even, just like I like analogies, right? Think of this even like Monopoly, right? I've used the reference of taking up your cross and following me, right? And when we do this, this isn't just a in Monopoly, you know, you get the get out of jail free card. This isn't a get out of hell free card, right? If we're playing Bible monopoly here, right? So it doesn't mean that we can just keep going around the board and you know, doing everything with, with what we want to do, right? Because at the end of the day, our flesh, we are wicked, man. We, we want nasty things. Can I be real with you guys? Right, like that, that's just we, that's just our flesh, right? We are born into this, a fallen world and we desire. We just. The, the fleshly desires can be overwhelming at times, right? And the only way that we can overcome them is to feed our spirit and starve the flesh, right? And so if your desire is like, okay, is just on your self interest, right, you're going to be going around this monopoly board, right? Not allowing Jesus to monopolize every part of your life, right? And when Jesus becomes Lord, it's like, all right, you are now Lord. You are going to tell me where to go back to Monopoly, what properties to buy, where to put houses and hotels, things like that, right? Think of this life. I like to gamify things. This life is a game, man. In this, this board of life that you're on, when you come into to alignment with him of Jesus as Lord, it is your entire soul. It is your, your, your finances, right? Your, your private life that you think nobody else sees and knows. It is, you know, all the relationships that you have. It is, it is literally everything that Jesus, you are Lord. And I'm going to live for you from, from here on out. And here's a big differentiator between the two. If you think of the 12 disciples, I love this. I'm gonna actually pull this up. In Matthew 26, so Jesus had 12 disciples, right? And we know that he had. There's one bad apple in the group, right? In Matthew 26 specifically, if we go down to like verse 20 and I encourage you guys just to re read this entire section, but this is where it's the Passover with the disciples. Jesus is with his disciples right now. And Starting in verse 20, it says when it was evening, he reclined at the table with the 12, right? All 12 disciples are right there. And as they were eating, he said, truly I say to you, one of you will betray me. And they were very sour, sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, is it I Lord? Okay, they begin to say them, is it I, Lord? Is it I, Lord? Is it I, Lord? And he answered, he who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me, right? So again, it's somebody here within this 12. He goes on and says this. The Son of Man goes as it is written of him. But woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. We all know he's talking about Judas now, right? But he says it would have. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born. Judas, who would betray him, answered, is it I, Rabbi? Every other disciple said, is it I, Lord? Is it I, Lord? Is it I, Lord? Is it I, Lord? Judas is the only one that says, is it I, Rabbi? Right? So Rabbi mean teacher, right? And if you think about Judas man, dude, he, he experienced some miracles. Miracles, right? Like he was there when they fed the 5,000, right? He turned two fish in, in the loaves, fed five, I mean, 5,000 men. So upwards of 12, 15. I don't know how many thousands of people were actually there. He was there when he saw him walk on water, right? He was there with. He saw people being healed, literally like paralytics actually was getting on the up, taking up their mats and walking. Judas saw all of this, yet he still only looked to Jesus as a teacher, as a rabbi and every other disciple. He was their Lord. And this is where, coming back to the topic of today, it's like, is Jesus your life coach? Is he your teacher? Is he a rabbi, or is he your Lord? That's a. A hard question to sometimes even, even ponder because even if you go back down in, in further in Matthew or and still in 26, picking up though at the actual betrayal ver, it says while he was still speaking, Judas came one of the twelve. With him it one of the twelve. And with him a great crowd with swords and clubs from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now, the betrayer had given them a sign saying, the one I will kiss is the man, so seize him, right? So this is Judas, you know, telling them in advance, the one I'm going to kiss is, is. Is the, is Jesus, so seize him. He came up to Jesus in at once and said, greetings, Rabbi. Again, not Lord. Jesus was not lord of Judas's life. You would think up until this point, like you would think Judas is a Christian, right? You would think because he's done all the things, he's participated in, all the activities, he's gone to church every Sunday. He's even a part of small group. He's out feeding the homeless. He's done all these Things yet he has still only considered Jesus as a teacher, as a rabbi. He has not come into full surrender submission. He has not come into to full like obedience and ultimately that, that intimacy to actually produce the fruit. Right. He was the bad apple of this whole group. And I really believe that it comes back to this lordship concept. And how many of us are Judases? I mean that may sound harsh, but how many of us are like that? And question yourself. This is just a self reflection of like what does it mean? Is Jesus actually Lord of my life or am I just thinking like I'm going on Sunday to get you know, a good message to feel good about what I'm doing or is he actually Lord? Right, because there has to be an understanding. And again back to if you don't have the holy conviction of that of, of wrongdoings that you know are blatantly wrong. Right. Maybe there's plenty of gray areas that, that God will work through us and he's going to convict us individually of things. But there are, there is clear black and white on certain things. And, and you know, I've, I've ran into a number of people, self professed Christians, if I can even be, be blunt. The only person that's people it's happened multiple times that have ever actually like screwed me over in business are self professed Christians. Right? Everything looks good. Hunky dory. Yep. And it by the way too, if anybody leads with, with Jesus, leads with Christianity. That's a complete red flag. I should know you by your fruit, right? You shouldn't need to tell me. I, I should know by, by just observing and witnessing your life and how you treat people in your generosity. Is it, is it, Is there like a com, a complete submission to Jesus being Lord of your life, right? That's where the fruit will actually take place. Okay so side note on that, but this is the challenge again that, that I want us to have today is like is Jesus my Lord? Is he or am I just. Have I been looking to him as just like a way to, to feel good? And, and at the end of the day when, when my body, my flesh dies right in my soul, my spirit is before Jesus at the judgment, right? The Great White Throne Judgment. For I think is going to be a lot of people that, that think they believe, they think they're Christians, but are they really right? Have they just have they have they only listened to a half a gospel, right? That's the gospel. Is, Is, is. Oh there's a package deal, right? They, they want the Savior component, but not the lordship component. And, and if that is you, if that's been walking out, been walking out your life, I, I, my prayer is that this would be a conviction for you to really come to terms with this and understand like, okay, what is, what does this mean, right? And, and not necessarily again to do it out of fear. Right now the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, right? The fear of the Lord is, is, is the greatest thing. Is, is what all of us should actually have. Not the fear of man, right? And so many of us are walking in this fear of man, of what are people going to think or what are they going to, how are they going to respond? What are they going to do? Like, I don't give a rip about that anymore. The only fear that I carry is the fear of the Lord, right? Because that ultimately that day when I meet my Savior face to face, when I meet him, it is only because I have made him Lord of my life. I know I do not want to hear away from me. I never knew you. Matthew chapter seven is like probably the scariest scripture I've ever read, right? Those that performed miracles, they literally said we, we did all these things in your name. Jesus, how is it that, that you don't know me, right? He says, I never knew you, I never knew you. There was no relationship, there was no lordship in their life and they were cast out, right? So, so I, I'm saying this now as a, as a, as a warning, as an intention of like we have to self reflect here. We have to really understand and I don't want it to be out of again fear of I only want to get to heaven. But this should be out of an anticipation or an excitement of what it's like to actually walk with Christ. What is it like to actually have this life that is, is fulfilling right to have joy, unspeakable right to have in the midst of trials, let alone there is going to be when you pick up your cross and follow Jesus daily, buckle up buddy, because there's gonna be trials, right? There's going to be testings. And this is this part of sanctification that we get to go through. Because this little life that we have, this 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, however old you think you're going to live on this ear drop in the bucket, it is a blink of an eye. It may seem like a long period of time, but compared to eternity, compared to eternity, it is nothing that should scare you that really should of like, where am I going to spend that Eternity. Where am I going to spend when I die? Have I received, truly received Christ as Lord and Savior of my life? Or is it going to be, I never knew you? And if you're. If you're playing Christianity, if you're. If you're playing the game of. Of consumerism, Chris, Christianity, right? Like we think it's about us, you are still Lord of your life. You are still Lord. If. If it's more about the accomplishments that you can have and can do and the good name that you can have, if it's more about the legacy even that you leave, if that's what's more concerning to you than true success. Because this is true success, guys. This is maybe my opinion on it. True success is not how much money you've made, the name you've even made for yourself. True success was obedience to purpose. Obedience to purpose, right? Because you can be successful at a lot of things and still still feel unfulfilled, still feel like blah, right? And this is what happened in my life over and over and over again. I've used this analogy a lot. I have an extremely successful treadmill in my basement at holding my clothes, right? Like, it's extremely successful that that treadmill holds my clothes. I can hang the clothes right on there. It's very, very successful. But the owner of that, the manufacturer, the creator of that, did not design it to hang clothes, right? It was designed to be a treadmill. And every single one of us, God has given us an assignment that he has prepared in advance for us to do, right? And just to be clear, we are saved by grace through faith. That is it. It is God's grace, right? And just understand it's His. It's his mercy, meaning not getting what we deserve. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. Grace is getting what we don't deserve. I'm gonna say this again. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. Grace is getting what we don't deserve, right? So understand the difference between the two. And it is by God's grace. So getting what we don't deserve through faith, okay? And faith without works is completely dead. James tells us that, right? He says, you show me your faith, I'll show you my works. And so that's where. If you continue to read on, this is the Ephesians 2. I believe I may be incorrect on that. But Ephesians, when. When it says that by grace we are saved through faith, right? So. So that no one can boast, okay? But it. Then it goes on. This is. It's a very quoted Bible verse that we know it is only by grace, through faith in Jes. Christ that we are saved. But it goes on to the next verse and it says that we are saved to do good works in which he has prepared in advance for us to do. So what are those good works? What are those good works? And if God says they're good works, man, they're good. They are good, right? So if you've, if you've received Christ as savior, even you're questioning that, like, let's, let's, let's wrestle this, right? Scripture tells us that we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. This fear of the Lord, this awe, this reverence, right? Of, of who he is, the Creator of the universe. The dudes, he's stretched the sky, place the stars, the planets, right? All the way down to the gravitational pull to the exosomes and chromosomes and DNA and all like the, to the biggest things, to the tiniest things. Our God created those things, created all of that. And he created you of all time and of all place. You're listening to this in 2025 as I'm recording this, right? He's, he's placed you here and now for a purpose, for an intention, for good works. And those good works aren't for God. I really don't believe that. Like, yes, we are, everything that we are to do, we're to do it for, for him, as if we're working for him, not for anybody else, right? Meaning that's a call to excellence in everything we do. If you're a janitor, if you're a house painter, if you're a professional football player, whatever, you, you are to work as if you're, you're doing it for Him. So it should be nothing short of excellence. And if you, if you're, if you're half button, any activity that you're doing could be making your bed in the morning. Like, is that excellence? Is this call to excellence, right? And this is just again the posture of a heart of like, okay, I'm committed to this thing. I'm going to be obedient to what scripture says and I will develop that intimacy and ultimately that fruitfulness with God, right? But the good works that I believe that he has prepared in advance for us are for others, right? So if you're a business owner, right. If you're again, may a stay at home mom, what those are good works that you are doing to, to express again as an ambassador of Jesus Christ, to show his love, his kindness, his mercy, right? His Patience, every fruit of the Spirit, right? This is what we get to do now because he has saved us by grace through faith alone, right? Faith, being it is, works, right? Not that we're not gonna do any works that's going to get us any more into heaven or out more into heaven, right? But everything we do after you've received Jesus as savior, he is Lord of your life, now we get to work for heavenly rewards. This is something that I believe is not talked about enough. I actually preached at a. A church in West Virginia of a few months ago on this exact top, exact topic of what are these heavenly rewards, right? How do we experience an abundant entrance into heaven? The scripture tells us that there are crowns that we are going to receive at this judgment seat, the bema seat of Christ, right? This is. There's crowns that are going to be received, the crown of life, the crown of righteousness. And, and Scripture lays these things out for us. But I don't think this is well known enough. If you don't study the Word, this may be a new, new understanding, right? And to me, as I mentioned, I like to gamify things a little bit. So this freaking excites me, right? Because everything that I do, every decision that I make, every idle word that I speak, I have to give an account for. Scripture tells us this, that one day we are going to give an account for every idle word we even spoke, right? And it's not going to be, did you, you know, did you receive me as. As Savior? That's the. The great White throne judgment, right? If you've received him, now we get to bypass. Next we get to go to the bema seat, baby, the judgment seat of Christ. And it's gonna be, what did you do with what I gave you? What did you do? Parable of talents is a prime example of this, right? Like the Master just gave them 1, 2, and 5. And he came back and he. He gave an account. They had to give an account for what they did. The one who doubled it with the guy who had five doubled it. He said, well done, good and faithful servant. The guy who got two doubled it said, well done, good and faithful servant. The guy who had one simply buried it. And here's a key point to this, and I would encourage you to go read through this parable because there's so many nuggets in this thing that God will speak to you as you just meditate on this. And what I really realized in this, as I've just been meditating on this, that the one who Got one. What prevented him from actually multiplying, it was his perspective of God. Because when he came back, he said, I knew you to be a hard man. I was afraid. I was afraid. I just. I just buried it, right? So I didn't want to lose it. So his inaction was the result of his perspective of God, and he blamed God on his inaction. And here's what he said, right? The Master said, man, at least you could have put that on. On loan with the banks, right? You see? At least you could have earned interest, but you just buried it, right? He called them wicked. He called them lazy. He said, get out of here. Go where there's going to be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And this is the judgment that we are going to actually have when we meet Christ face to face. And we have no clue when that time is going to be right. We have no clue when. When we're going to punch our ticket. Only God knows that. So I want to live my life. I want to live every single day with a sense of urgency. With a sense of. Of. Yeah. Urgency in the aspect of like, not. Not anxiously, but urgency in the. In the aspect of like, I. When he returns, I want to be working, baby. I want to be. Because maybe he'll return before I get, you know, die on this earth, right? I don't care when the time's going to be. But I want to hear this. And my encouragement and hope for you is this as well. I want to hear this, well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful with a little. I'm going to put you in charge of much right? In Luke, he actually puts him in charge of cities, which is a whole nother. Like, we. I could go dive into this topic for a whole nother episode. Maybe we'll do that sometime. But it's like, these are the rewards in heaven, right? If you're not faithful with a little that you've been given now, whatever that is, it could be 13 cents, right? It could be the relationships with your spouse or your kids, right? What if you're. If you're not faithful? Meaning I've choosing an attitude of excellence. And. And what does it mean to be faithful? I really means, is like, I'm here to multiply this thing. If we come back to the original commandment in Genesis 1:28 is to be fruitful, to multiply, to have dominion, right? To advance the kingdom here on the earth. That. That's what we're called to do. So whatever that is, whatever it is, you don't have to go build a massive billion trillion dollar business. It could be to steward well the four guys that I oversee at my job because I'm their manager, right? It could be to steward well the customers that you service. Maybe it's the small group that you lead, whatever that is, right? Are we going to be faithful with what he's given us? Because these are all of the things that ultimately we are going to be accountable to one day. And this I hope doesn't scare you, but I hope it fires you up where it's like, yeah baby, yeah. Like if you have any little bit of. And it's not even competition of with other people, but it's competition within myself, right? Because I want to be the best version of myself. And it used to be in an arrogant way. It used to be in a way I want to be better than everybody else. But now it's like, no, I want to present myself. This, this is our spiritual act of worship, guys, is to present our bodies as living sacrifices. That is, that is what worship is. Worship is not singing songs on a Sunday morning worship. This is true worship is to offer your bodies as living sacrifices for him. So this is in your job, in the marketplace, in, in your family life. Like are you living, are you operating as a living sacrifice for your creator, Right? That is what true worship is. When you sing songs on a Sunday, that's praise. That's great. Like you can, you can praise as a, you know, kind of a tier under worship. It's a form of. But it ain't. That isn't the end all be all of worship, everything you do. Actually the first concept of worship in the Bible is work in Genesis, right? It. And so this is like the work that we do that is our worship to the Lord. Are we doing this in excellence? And when Jesus becomes your Lord, if he's not your Lord, hit us up. Go to, go to joinkingscouncil.com we, we don't, we don't sell programs. We don't do any of that. The King's Council is, is a ministry, right? Every Wednesday morning we do a Bible study. Christian Edwards leads the majority of them. Every now and then when he needs a little break, I'll come in and rip it. But, but it's an incredible atmosphere, an incredible environment for you to come in and just ask questions, right? Every Wednesday morning we do that at 7 o' clock Central Standard Time. It's kingscouncilbiblestudy.com join us. Right. We stream it on our YouTube channel. So if you don't want to talk to anybody and you just want to like test the waters and check it out, go to our YouTube channel, right? If you want to participate though kingscouncilbiblestudy.com you'll, you'll be in a zoom room with multiple other people all over the country, even all over the world that hop on this. We dive into the Word of God. God. Like this is, this is what we get to do, right? And, and this is just part of what it means to have Jesus as Lord of your life. Like, I wanna, I want to learn, I want to consume this, this Word of God to an extent where it's just, it's overflowing within me and, and it. So again, if you want to just be a part of our community and be updated on events that we're going to be doing over this next couple years or get that, that email reminder every Tuesday regarding Wednesday morning Bible study, just go to join kingscouncil.com I think there's a place to enter your information. We have other resources and things on there and we'll just keep you up to date of everything that we're doing within the King's council here. And what God, I believe is really going to be doing here over the next few years in this community is going to be incredible again. This last year that we've taken off was a season of what I believe was refining, right? Not necessarily pruning, but more of like really honing in on God. What do you want us to do here? And, and as, as I personally have been working out my, my salvation with that fear and trembling, like, I want to invite you guys into this process of what it actually means. Like, is Jesus just my life coach? Is he, is he like, who I'm looking to only as Savior, because I don't want to go to hell. Well, the reality is the only way that happens is when you make him Lord of your life, right? When you become surrendered to him, you submit your life to him, you, you develop obedience, right? And obedient to what? Right? What is it? Well, we get into the Word. We get into the Word and understand, okay, this is what it means, right? This is, this is again how life will go well for you. The Bible is literally our instructional manual. If you, if you read it that way, if you're reading it as like just these old stories and, and you've never spent time in this thing of like, man, these are incredible concepts and, and wisdom and, and God speaks to Us through His word. If you're one of those Christians that's just sitting back and saying, you know God, if God wants me to do something, he'll tell me, right? Here's the thing. God, God blesses your footprints, not your butt prints, right? And, and what I mean by that is it takes your action because God's sitting there saying, I'm waiting on you. I'm waiting on you, baby. Come on, like, let's go. Right? Because Scripture tells us when we draw near to him, he draws near to us. He is constantly pursuing us. But he is not a controlling God in the fact that he's going to make us do certain things. He wants relationship. He wants. He wants to, to hug you and hold you and, and love on you. But you have to come into that, that submission, right? To develop that obedience, to develop that intimacy with him and ultimately that fruitfulness, a fruitful life. What does that really mean? And I'm going to dive more into that with you guys on some, some next upcoming episodes. So that all being said, guys, it is amazing to be back, right? So I'm gonna, just gonna leave you with this because I love this, this quote. Actually, Leonard Ravenhill actually said this. And here's, here's what he says. That's what I'm just going to leave you guys with. Is what you're living for worth Jesus dying for? Is what you're living for worth Jesus dying for? Because Jesus already did it. He already, he already, he did it. He paid the price. And he's given us this ability now to walk in that, to walk within the kingdom, right? Kingdom mean meaning his rule and his reign in our lives individually and collectively as a body of believer. Right? That's what the church is. His, his rule and reign collectively as a body believers. If, if is what we're doing, is that is. Is how we're living worth Jesus dying for? I think that's the main question. Like, what are we doing? Jesus has, has given us everything to live that abundant Life in John 10:10 that he tells us. But the, the rest of it, it takes our part, right? This isn't a. He did it so that you can get to go, do you got this. You get to ride this grace train and do whatever you want. No, no, no. Our part is to come into alignment with his will, right? To become obedient to His Word, right? To stand for truth, to fight for truth, right? And to actually walk that out, to be his ambassador here on this earth. Is what we're doing, Is that worth Jesus dying for. That being said, guys, once again, we're back here every Wednesday, or excuse me, every Friday. Every Friday, 11 o' clock central Standard Time. We're going to be going live here. Would love for you to join us and get active in the chat within here. This has been amazing, guys. If you listen to recordings, you can find these on every other platform. Podcasts, different things like that. It's the King's Council podcast. Or join us live here every Friday, 11 o' clock central Standard Time. That being said, is what you're living for worth Jesus dying for? We'll see you guys. Next week is going to be incredible again. This last year that we've taken off was a season of what I believe was refining, right? Not necessarily pruning, but more of like really honing in on God. What do you want us to do here? And as I personally have been working out my, my salvation with that fear and trembling, like, I want to invite you guys into this process of what it actually means. Like, is Jesus just my life coach? Is he. Is he, like, who I'm looking to only as Savior, because I don't want to go to hell? Well, the reality is the only way that happens is when you make him Lord of your life, right? When you become surrendered to him, you submit your life to Him. You, you develop obedience, right? And obedient to. What? What right? What is it? Well, we get into the Word. We get into the Word and understand, okay, this is what it means, right? This is, this is again how life will go well for you. The Bible is literally our, our instructional manual. If you, if you read it that way, if you're reading it as, like, just these old stories and, and you've never spent time in this thing of, like, man, these are incredible concepts and, and wisdom and, and God speaks to us through His Word. If you're one of those Christians that's just sitting back and saying, if God wants me to do something, he'll tell me, right? Here's the thing. God blesses your footprints, not your butt prints, right? What I mean by that is it takes your action because God's sitting there saying, I'm waiting on you. I'm waiting.