Ep. 42 - Too Good To Be True Victory!

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Worldly point of view. Though. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. And then it goes to verse 17 that says, if anyone's in Christ, he's a new creation. And what an amazing thing is, it is. Our eyes used to only see things in light of. Yeah, the world in a worldly point of view. And even Christ was viewed in that way. But now, what's the change inside of me? It's the Holy Spirit. I can see things differently. I. I have the mind of Christ. Hello again, Carl. And I, Zach here welcome you to another episode of let's Talk Life. This is a podcast where we talk about our journey and we talk about how we journey with other people into this revelation, this incredible mystery of Christ in you. Colossians 1:27, and really all over the place. I'm not, I guess, fully certain why we're doing this, but I know this for sure that our discussion leads to more discussion, which leads to, more importantly, discovery. And as believers, we don't live for God. We live from a present reality that we live in, and that God is for us and with us and in us. And the more that we discover this truth, the more alive we feel. And so every single day, I think, is full of new discoveries of who we are in Christ. [00:01:31] Speaker B: Oh, that's good. Yeah, yeah. It's a living relationship. It's. It's encountering God in a new way, in a fresh way. [00:01:40] Speaker A: Right. [00:01:41] Speaker B: Because it's. Because it's a new day. You know, it's very similar, Zach, of the Old Testament with the Israelites. Every day they had manna. Every day God gave him food. And it's like every day they had something new. Every day they had something new. [00:01:55] Speaker A: Yes. [00:01:56] Speaker B: And I think that when. When we just want that old, stale stuff, you know, we want. We want that. Yeah, we want that. We were just talking off. Off camera about. About those things, and it's like, oh, I want to be comfortable. I already know that. You know, you're not even that phrase that I told you, maybe even off camera. The pastor who had said about a few months ago, said, well, we've lived in this city for two years, and we haven't learned a thing from the pastor. And it's like, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Stop. You're like that. You're. You're saying that. Do you not realize what you're saying? You know that, right? You know, just. I. I'm. I'm sick of it. And. And again, just the Pride. And it's like, I want to be open. Right. I want to be God, teach me God. I want to be humble. I want to be humble. I think that maybe that's what was so great is we were, we were having all these conversations, you know, weekly or every other week. And I was like, man, we should record them. [00:02:54] Speaker A: Right? [00:02:54] Speaker B: And maybe, maybe you'd bless someone. Maybe it would help someone in the journey or someone come alongside and. [00:03:00] Speaker A: For sure, for sure. It's, it's. I mean, it's been fantastic. And I think it ministers to the people that we are already ministering to. It gives them a little bit more of a in depth understanding of the things that we're talking about and walking through and experiencing and yeah, whatever God wants to do with it, you know, we're wide open to it. And it's not, it's not like it's a. Yeah, it's become a priority, I guess, to, to want to do it every week. But also we know like coming weeks out, we might not be able to decide it's okay. [00:03:32] Speaker B: Right. [00:03:33] Speaker A: It's not that earth shaking that so many people are going to be disappointed. I don't think we have that many followers to disappoint, so. And that's okay. [00:03:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:44] Speaker A: But too good to be true. Victory is the title. [00:03:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:49] Speaker A: Today. And man, it is. What we have in Christ is almost seems too good to be true. And to be honest, whenever we find things in this life, in this world, I guess I should say. [00:04:02] Speaker B: Right. [00:04:04] Speaker A: You. If there. If it's too good to be true, it usually is because it's too good to be true. And so we generally just stay far away from that stuff. But the reality is total freedom, total healing, total victory. It can it really be true for us, and it truly is in Christ. But what does that, what does that look like? Yeah. [00:04:25] Speaker B: Wow. [00:04:26] Speaker A: So that's what we're going to kind of dig into a little bit today. I'm excited about it. You brought up Romans 6 last week too. We were talking about it in general, but you asked a question about Romans 6 that I thought was so intriguing that. Have you ever. You asked me, have you spent a whole lot of time, all these years of preaching God's word and bringing messages and teachings? Have you spent a lot of time in Roman 6? It's like, no, there's a bunch of different, you know, verses that I would have picked out of there and used, but the whole of. Of Romans 6 I would have not dug into. And that tells me right there the reason Why I really missed out on this total freedom. Because it's, because it's there. And I don't know. What do you think? What do you think about total. Can we actually have total? Is it true? Is it true for us in Christ? [00:05:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I mean, it's just really good news. You know, just keep coming back to this. The gospel is good news. Now. When I'm not. When I'm not experiencing the life changing, transformative power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, then I don't believe it's true. I believe that somehow it's great that God forgives us. Right. It's great that somehow he loves us in some theological sense that I know my sins are forgiven, I'm going to heaven because I believe Jesus is the only way. The bloodshed of the cross, the resurrection is the only hope I have. [00:05:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:53] Speaker B: And. And there it is. So someday. So someday I'll. I'll experience something good. But right now I'm just got to keep getting through life and making it and managing and try harder. [00:06:05] Speaker A: Right. [00:06:05] Speaker B: So I don't understand freedom. I don't understand victory. I don't understand. [00:06:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:10] Speaker B: Christ in me, none of it. I just. Someday I'll get that golden ticket to heaven. [00:06:14] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Right. [00:06:15] Speaker B: I think that's some. That's how I lived. [00:06:18] Speaker A: Wow. Yeah. And I. I don't remember what, what passage. Pastor Brett here is our church. Our church pastor that here in Venice. And he. I'm. This was a number of weeks ago that he mentioned the word hope and he related it to the word certainty. [00:06:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:38] Speaker A: And I love that. I love that mentality. I think of that all the time because it's not just some future hope. It's not something I'm hoping for. Like, oh, at some point, yeah, we're gonna get this. And that's what my hope is. An absolute certainty of not even what's coming, but also what I have right now. [00:06:58] Speaker B: What I have right now, it's my reality. Right. [00:07:00] Speaker A: Yeah. And so, man. [00:07:03] Speaker B: Yeah. So the question is, right. Can it really be true? And is it possible? [00:07:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:09] Speaker B: I know that you were thinking about Romans 6. [00:07:13] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, for sure. So I think that. I don't know, I. I always. I don't know. I think I stayed away from it primarily because it was scary. I was, I was afraid to, to preach or teach on things that I didn't really totally understand. And there's so much of the Bible that I didn't understand. And so. But I think it was scary because it would just seem so unrealistic. Can. [00:07:41] Speaker B: Right. [00:07:41] Speaker A: Can I really be free? [00:07:43] Speaker B: Right. [00:07:44] Speaker A: Because I didn't. Number one, I didn't see myself that way. [00:07:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:47] Speaker A: I saw myself with a wicked heart. So that's how I sure thought of myself. And I couldn't possibly accept this reality. [00:07:56] Speaker B: Wow. Right. [00:07:57] Speaker A: I thought, too, that it was just prideful to proclaim that I am totally free. I don't know. There's all kinds of different things, but I think that the world too, life in this world kind of produces in us this thought that, man, it's just a dream to be totally free. That's just. It's just this wishful thinking that it's something that we certainly hope for and it might be for the. For the few people that really have their act together, but it's certainly not me. You know, like, that's. And it's funny because that's pretty much where everybody. What everybody thinks, yeah, I'm not there. [00:08:32] Speaker B: Yet, but maybe someday I'll get to be like that guy. [00:08:35] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, we play this comparison game, and that's. It's such a wicked game to play. It's a. A wicked hoax is what it is. [00:08:42] Speaker B: Back to what you said in the past two weeks is we get disillusioned, we walk away. [00:08:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:08:47] Speaker B: And so then. So then those in the church just berate them or beat them down or look down on them. [00:08:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:08:53] Speaker B: And. And just say, man, there's so many, so much of us walking around wounded and hurt. [00:08:58] Speaker A: Right. [00:08:59] Speaker B: Not experiencing freedom, not experiencing the abundance of life, not experiencing the riches of Christ in me. [00:09:04] Speaker A: Well, and that was even a revelation as we re recorded even last week of, like, that Titus 2 passage. Like that has been my favorite verse, but I never really understood it. [00:09:15] Speaker B: Right. [00:09:16] Speaker A: And. And like you, you brought that to attention, that that's because your new heart, your new identity in Christ was actually longing to understand this. [00:09:24] Speaker B: Yes. [00:09:25] Speaker A: And I think that's really where most people are at. Like, yeah, there's this message that's being taught. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ, that you're a new creation. You read these verses. We've known them for all of our lives, really, because we've grown up in the church and went to Bible college, served in the church. So we know a lot of these verses, but we never taught them or understood them for ourselves in the context of what they really genuinely mean because we couldn't accept them about ourselves. We just. I couldn't see it as being true for me. But, yeah, According to Romans 6, verses 6 and 7, I mean, every Doubt every fear, every. About this true and total freedom really are proven false. And I, I think if I think logically, yes, it doesn't make sense if I think according to my feelings. For sure, it doesn't seem to line up for me. But that's the reality is we're not talking about logic. We're talking about the goodness and the grace and the love of God and He loves us anyways. [00:10:32] Speaker B: And there's. Go ahead. [00:10:33] Speaker A: Oh, I'm just going to go off of that same thing with feelings. We don't live by our feelings. We live by the reality of God's love for us and His. His grace. [00:10:42] Speaker B: Yeah. And there's, there's a mystery aspect of our spirituality. There's a mystery aspect of God that I am so okay with now. Like, like I'm just right, just. And I marvel and it makes, it makes me worship him in, in every aspect of worship where he is worthy of everything. And, and that's, that's, that's the aspect of life. Christ's life. Yeah, I think that that's what I was missing. You know, I knew he was the way and I knew he was the truth, as you mentioned earlier in our conversation. [00:11:20] Speaker A: Yep. Yep. [00:11:22] Speaker B: I didn't know him as life. [00:11:23] Speaker A: Didn't know him as life. Yeah, for sure. So it's, it's so interesting. And this is, this is where I'm kind of at is like, what. What do we do with this reality that there is total freedom? And the real question is not even that. The real question is what are we choosing to believe? Am I gonna. [00:11:45] Speaker B: That is, that is. Think about the way you just said. [00:11:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:50] Speaker B: Choosing what? [00:11:52] Speaker A: What. Choosing what to what am I going to believe? Am I going to believe my feelings, my flesh? Or am I going to trust and believe in what God has. Has said? [00:12:02] Speaker B: And also I would say choosing my sin and shame or choosing the one who has died and rose again for. And now. And now I am, as it says in the first Roman 6, I've been crucified with Christ. [00:12:17] Speaker A: Right. [00:12:17] Speaker B: I've been identified with his death, identified with his burial, and identified with his resurrection so that I can walk in. [00:12:22] Speaker A: Right. [00:12:23] Speaker B: The newness of life. [00:12:24] Speaker A: Oh, the newness of life. That's Romans 6, 4. That's verse 4. That you can, you can walk in newness of life. And I love this. I, I keep going back to a lot of the same words, but they're so such key words to understand. And I love that it pulls out here in, in verse six as well, that knowing this yeah. Knowing this, it's like, well, if I don't know, how do I know? Simply ask God that. That was my beginning journey was God. You give me this revelation. You give me this understanding. It's you. And. And when I can understand this reality that I. That our old self was crucified. This is Romans 6 and 7. Yeah, verses 6 and 7. [00:13:06] Speaker B: Right. [00:13:06] Speaker A: That our old self was crucified with Christ. That the body might be set free from sin's power so that we should be slaves to sin's power no longer. He who has died to sin has been freed from the power of sin, man. [00:13:26] Speaker B: So, so if Christ died, right? If Christ died to sin, and now he's in me. Guess who else died to sin? [00:13:34] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's. That's what I really love. Like, there's this timeline. I don't know how to do a timeline on video and certainly not on audio. But presently, this is where we're at. And we can go back in time to when we were born. And then in between here and when we were born is some point in time when we were saved or we had faith to believe in Jesus. And the reality is at that moment in time when we truly had faith in what? In the finished work of Christ. Here's our beginning point. But we actually went back before we were even born to the point and we were crucified because that's what galatians20 says. I have been crucified with Christ. Well, when was Christ crucified? He was crucified way back before I was even alive. But I've been taken back in time. It's just. [00:14:21] Speaker B: Right. [00:14:21] Speaker A: That's. That's why we can't comprehend it. It's like, how in the world do I piece this together in my mind? I can't. And that's. That's the walk of faith, really. [00:14:31] Speaker B: So there is. So there is a discovery aspect to this faith, huh? [00:14:35] Speaker A: There is. I love that word discovery, because that's. That's what it is. Is every day just. I got. I don't understand this, but I'm. I'm willing to. To learn. And. And I'm. I'm putting my. My attention to you and to your word as you continue to teach me. But, man, it does seem too good to be true. And so in that mindset, you know, we hear all kinds of things. Like in today's world, you know, just from dieting to politicians, to the salesperson that comes to. To your door with a great spiel about this or that. It all makes Sense that I just know. Too good to be true. I'm not interested. But it's a whole different, you know, how, how do we believe in it in spite of our experience and our feelings of being disappointed and disillusioned and just whatever. And the reality is, it just, it takes time, really. Journey. It's a journey. I love the word journey too. We journey with other people. We're all on our own journey to discover these things. [00:15:39] Speaker B: Right. [00:15:40] Speaker A: But at the center of who we are is, is our spirit and, and that's our identity. And we can come to Romans 6:6 and say that old sinful spirit was crucified with Christ and is dead. [00:15:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:56] Speaker A: That starts to change everything. You get to 6 11, it says. [00:15:59] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, you know, and so I want to go back to what you said about freedom. [00:16:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:04] Speaker B: It begins when I am in agreement with what God says, that. That I see him and I see myself, who I am in Christ. [00:16:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:15] Speaker B: So. So going back to that thinking I choose each day, am I going to see myself and through my sin and my shame. Right through myself, through Christ in me. [00:16:25] Speaker A: Yes. [00:16:26] Speaker B: If I see myself through Christ in me, then that, that is freeing. So, so think about this. So, so as a pastor or a missionary or, you know, if there's a ministry leader listening right now, you know that when we get so caught up in what other people think about us. [00:16:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:44] Speaker B: You know, especially in support raising because like, okay, do our supporters like me? Do I, you know, do I keep saying things that they'll pay me or, you know, that they won't fire me? You know, if you're a pastor and it's like, man, it's so freeing to say. And again, we quickly go to, well, it doesn't mean you can be a jerk. No, I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is that we are free to love, we are free to serve. Because the Father sees his son is how he sees you. Then he's pleased with you already because you received this up. So it begins with our thoughts every day. [00:17:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [00:17:16] Speaker B: Freedom. [00:17:17] Speaker A: Yeah. I love that. And because there is a reality of, okay, what are we free from? We're free from the power of sin. But then it also takes you into a new venture of what am I free to. And that's, that's what's really amazing is, is what you just shared is that I'm. I'm free to, to be me and to serve as me. And to know that I'm. I don't have this wicked heart that I have A need and yes, spirit and new heart within me and that I can trust that heart and I can live from there. And that's where, you know, Romans 6:11 is, consider yourself to be dead to sin and alive to God in Christ. And wow. That. That's what we need to know. That's. That's the knowing. And what takes place of that old man is this new creature that God has made us. And I love that. Know. 2nd Corinthians 5:17 says that. That we're a new creation in Christ. [00:18:20] Speaker B: Right. [00:18:20] Speaker A: And I just even. Well, first of all, like, I. I love. This is the NASV version. It says if anyone is in Christ, he's a new cre. Creature. The old things passed away. Behold. I love this word behold. New things have. Have come. Behold means like to see and to observe and to know this truth, this reality. [00:18:41] Speaker B: And. [00:18:42] Speaker A: But I. I backed up this week. [00:18:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:44] Speaker A: To the verse before it, and I thought this was so amazing. And this is actually still, I think, from the niv, I kind of mixed up two different versions, but it says, so from now on, we regard no one from a worldly point of view. [00:18:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Though. [00:19:00] Speaker A: Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. And then it goes to verse 17 that says, if anyone's in Christ, he's a new creation. Create creation. And what an amazing thing is, it is our eyes used to only see things in light of. [00:19:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:17] Speaker A: The world in a worldly point of view. And even Christ was viewed in that way. But now, what's the change inside of me? It's the Holy Spirit. I can see things differently. I. I have the mind of Christ. Yeah. And I can see things in a completely different way. And that's a beautiful picture. [00:19:40] Speaker B: We have a different realm. Right. We live in this spiritual realm, looking. [00:19:43] Speaker A: Through a different filter, looking through a different lens. [00:19:47] Speaker B: Going back to episode whatever many weeks ago. [00:19:52] Speaker A: Right. [00:19:53] Speaker B: The different lens. [00:19:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:55] Speaker B: I just want to say this because, you know, you. You. I always go back to the cure. It's one. [00:20:00] Speaker A: The. [00:20:00] Speaker B: The original. The original. But I know you're doing it with some guys recently, but going back to the word freedom, and I love how they say this. They say Paul's teaching on freedom is not from sin, but to something. It is the freedom of those who are free now go about life in a free manner. When we miss that point, we look for individual sins that we're free from, but trapped into a management of sin that robs us of the freedom of who we are. How much better to live in the freedom of love than to try to live free from sin. [00:20:37] Speaker A: Right. Wow. [00:20:39] Speaker B: And I just love that because when you start thinking, oh, I'm free from one thing, then I'm thinking about how I'm controlling it or I'm managing it. And it robs me of the true freedom of joy, the freedom of love and the freedom to serve others because I'm so consumed with self, with. With whatever. [00:20:58] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that's exactly what it is. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So true. And I just love this. I wanted to say this about, you know, I shared this off the camera, but the Holy Spirit part of the Godhead really is. Is frightening. It's scary. Maybe not to the not, maybe not to the charismatics and the people that are on that side of things. And that's okay. And I've always had an appreciation for them because of that, which is interesting. So I'm just trying to piece together this whole journey that I've been on. It's just been so neat. But yeah, the Holy Spirit has always been kind of frightening. So that we can. We in my circle anyways. And what. And for me personally, I kind of just. Just stay away. [00:21:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:42] Speaker A: Just kind of ignore that a little bit. Don't talk too much about it. But here you have the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And the third part of the Godhead is what we kind of neglect. And then I go to John. This was kind of a revelation for me in the last year too, that John 14:6, Jesus is saying, I am the way, the truth and the life. So you have this kind of the set of three things again and again. This is another aspect of my journey. I always taught and understood, you know, that he's the way I always taught and understood. He's the truth. But I always stayed away from the life because I didn't know what that meant. [00:22:18] Speaker B: Yeah, heaven maybe. [00:22:20] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Some. It's a future life that I'll have someday. Something so. But I look at it very similar to kind of a three point sermon that you put together. You know, the bulk of your time is on point number one and there's shorter time on point number two because, you know, have you, have you been. [00:22:35] Speaker B: Have you been listening to my sermons for the last 25 years? [00:22:39] Speaker A: Isn't that true? That's exactly kind of how it goes. And so that's where the, the third part of the Godhead, the third part of what Jesus was saying, the Holy Spirit, the life aspect, it kind of gets the less amount of time. We just kind of gloss over it. And but our message, I think now what we're doing, I can and maybe speak for you too on this. You're here so you can correct me if I'm wrong, but our message really begins with what's been forgotten, neglected, ignored, feared. [00:23:08] Speaker B: Oh, 100. [00:23:09] Speaker A: And that's the part of the message that really brings total freedom and healing and victory into your life. [00:23:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:15] Speaker A: And so praise God that we actually can start right there from the victory line, from the finish line and rejoice in that. It's just a pretty beautiful picture for sure. So. Wow. We are a new creation in Christ. And that's mind boggling to think about. And the problem always is sin, his sin and sins. And I think we brought that up. Maybe we need to talk more, more specifically about that because there is still sin in our members, things that we do. But we're just presenting ourselves too, but right, man. [00:23:54] Speaker B: So we're free too. Right. We're. We're free to present our. We are as righteous. We're free to. We. We get to. [00:24:02] Speaker A: We get to. Yeah. It's such a great perspective and it does change everything. God gave us that. That new ability to see. I don't wear glasses, but I have these. Like we can put on a different. [00:24:16] Speaker B: Oh, nice. [00:24:17] Speaker A: A different lens to see through. [00:24:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:21] Speaker A: I don't know if I look good in glasses. I'm gonna start wearing them every day. God, thank you for that goodness that we can. Like Romans 6:11 says, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God. We just. We can declare that because it's true. [00:24:40] Speaker B: Beautiful. [00:24:41] Speaker A: Rejoice in that. Amen.