announcement: 0:01

Hello and welcome to the Waking Up to Grace podcast, where we celebrate and explore the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Tune in to the Waking Up to Grace podcast on every major platform. You can also listen to our episodes and read our full transcripts at wakinguptogracecom. And now here's Lenny.

Lenny: 0:22

Are you out of fellowship with God? If somebody asked you right now, how does God see you? What would your answer be? Do you desire to be truly right with God? Would it be a blessing to know that God always hears your prayers? Well, this message just might change your prayer life forever.

Lenny: 0:44

Stay tuned while we dive into this fellowship issue. I wanted to let everybody know that there's a study guide for this episode that we're going through. Melissa and I are going to be following this study guide and answering the questions as we go. This is designed to be a weekly study. If you guys wanted to use it as that, you could use it for yourselves in studies personal studies, group studies. However you'd like to use it as that, you could use it for yourselves in studies, personal studies, group studies. However you'd like to use it, it's free and it's all. At wakinguptogracecom, if you go into the episode's description, you'll find a link to the study guide right there.

Lenny: 1:17

If you've been a listener for a little while and you like what you hear, please leave us a review. You can consider it your way of spreading the gospel, because those reviews are going to help us get found by others in the algorithms. So you're going to help us reach more people by doing that, so we really appreciate you leaving us a good review if you like what you're hearing. If you want to pause it right now, go to the review section. This would be a great time to do that. So, without further ado, let's get started.

Melissa: 1:45

In the first chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans, in verses 9-10, we read For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing, I mention you always in my prayers.

Lenny: 2:02

And in today's episode we'll continue to look through the window we have into Paul's prayer. In our scripture, in our Romans passage, we see Paul saying that he prays for them without ceasing and is always mentioning them in his prayers. We've been exploring what that might have looked like as well as the frame of mind that Paul had in his prayers. We left off on a passage in Corinthians last week 1 Corinthians 1, verses 4-9.

Melissa: 2:29

I give thanks to my God, always for you, because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless, in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Lenny: 3:02

We concluded that Paul spoke to the Corinthians here in a way of reminding them of what they received when they believed the gospel at salvation. In other areas Paul prays that the churches comprehend the depths of the love of Christ and the depths of spiritual knowledge. Why would he tell the sinful Corinthian church that they were enriched in all speech and knowledge? Tell the sinful Corinthian church that they were enriched in all speech and knowledge? I believe it was to bring them back to the knowledge they had at salvation. We read in Paul's letters to the Corinthians of all kinds of issues, ranging from sin to errors in belief. It seems clear to me that he was encouraging them back into the love they received from Christ Yeshua.

Lenny: 3:41

In the beginning Many were drifting away from their grace-living mindset and going back to a carnal way of living and, according to Paul, even going beyond what was considered acceptable in their society. Many in the church had gone as far as taking pride in the sinful behavior that would have made most people in their culture cringe. I find it very interesting in light of their struggles with sin, paul opens his letters reminding them that they're holy people. He reminds them of their identity in Christ, then reminds them of the complete knowledge they received in the gospel of grace. If that isn't enough to cause today's Christians to raise an eyebrow, he goes even further in verse 9 and destroys the doctrine of positional fellowship that so many hold to today. Paul did not tell them to get right with God. He actually does the opposite. He tells them they are right with God and affirms God's faithfulness to them. What we are about to witness here is something you will likely never hear your pastor say about a people indulging in such deeply sinful behavior.

Lenny: 4:45

Verse 9 reads like this God is faithful, by whom you were called into fellowship with his Son, jesus Christ, our Lord. Okay, this is a loaded passage due to the understanding we have today about fellowship with God.

Melissa: 5:11

Before we break this one down, let's go back to the beginning to be sure we're getting the context right 1 Corinthians 1, 4-9. You were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless, in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Lenny: 5:43

Paul is certainly letting these Corinthians know that they have all things in Christ and that he will sustain them, isn't he?

Melissa: 5:50

Yes.

Lenny: 5:51

Yeah, I mean he's really comforting them with grace here.

Melissa: 5:56

All things.

Lenny: 5:57

Yeah, to the point of being guiltless. Yeah, let's jump into the next verse now and see if the context remains the same. The verse that we were just reading, verse 9.

Melissa: 6:07

God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Lenny: 6:16

Does Paul's statement God is faithful follow the theme of the preceding passages?

Melissa: 6:21

I would say it absolutely does.

Lenny: 6:24

It's all about God's faithfulness, isn't does?

Melissa: 6:26

It is Exactly Because of God's faithfulness they can be faithful.

Lenny: 6:38

Amen. Whose faithfulness is greater, yours or God's?

Melissa: 6:44

God's by far.

Lenny: 6:45

But we hear people saying I have great faith. Whose faith would you rather have pulling you along through your life?

Melissa: 6:54

Yahweh.

Lenny: 6:55

Without his faith, we really don't have much at all, do we?

Melissa: 6:58

No, but I suppose we can say we're faithful if he's living in us. Yes, and we're faithful because he's faithful inside of us.

Lenny: 7:07

Our faith matters, but, as Paul wrote to Timothy, when we're faithless, he remains faithful. So his faithfulness is what secures us and keeps us in his grace.

Melissa: 7:20

And what a gift that is.

Lenny: 7:22

Yeah, so whose faithfulness called the Corinthians into fellowship with Christ.

Melissa: 7:28

Yahweh's.

Lenny: 7:29

Exactly Yahweh's faithfulness. It says God is faithful or Yahweh is faithful. By whom you were called into the fellowship of his son? Our Lord called you into the fellowship by his faithfulness. That's how you got into fellowship with Him. The next question would be does this calling require anything of us? Is it subject to our behavior at all? We were called into this fellowship with Christ. Did that have anything to do with us? Melissa?

Melissa: 8:02

It did not require anything of us and it is not subject to our behavior.

Lenny: 8:08

I would agree with that. Based on this, would it even be remotely possible to be out of fellowship with God? According to this passage, written by Paul, Well, let's see.

Melissa: 8:19

God is faithful. That doesn't change. By him, we were called into the fellowship of his son, jesus Christ. He calls you, you're coming and you're staying.

Lenny: 8:31

I would agree. That seems pretty clear to me and we'll dive in even deeper just to make sure that that's correct and that's not just our opinion. We see the same Greek word, kaleo, interpreted as called here, used by Paul in his letter to the Romans. You want to read Romans 8, verse 28, melissa.

Melissa: 8:52

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good, to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.

Lenny: 9:03

We discussed this word in episode number 39, if anyone missed it, we concluded without a shadow of doubt that those called by Yahweh in our first passages of Romans were saved Period. If God calls you to salvation, you receive it and it's yours to keep. That's the promise he makes to us.

Melissa: 9:23

Amen.

Lenny: 9:24

So the question is who are those who love god? In our romans 8 passage here it says and we know that god causes all things to work together for good to those who love god. Who are those who love god? Those are those he called his children yeah, they're christians, they're believers, they, they're regenerated, the new creation, anything you want to call them, they are saved.

Melissa: 9:47

Those who have the Holy Spirit Signed, sealed and delivered.

Lenny: 9:49

These people are Christians.

Melissa: 9:51

I'm yours.

Lenny: 9:53

So if you're called according to God's purpose, as this passage states, is your salvation now secured.

Melissa: 10:01

Absolutely, because we know, once saved, always saved.

Lenny: 10:05

We know that. But we also know that God's purpose is what happens. If God purposes for something to happen, it happens.

Melissa: 10:16

You can bet on that.

Lenny: 10:17

He doesn't make mistakes, he doesn't take gambles.

Melissa: 10:20

And he doesn't break promises.

Lenny: 10:22

So if you're called to God's purpose, you have been called to salvation. Now going back to our Corinthians passage that uses the same Greek word for called.

Melissa: 10:33

God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Lenny: 10:41

So, if we compare this calling to the context Paul used in Romans 8, is our fellowship with God secured? It is, it has to be. What is the basis that allows us to rely on this? According to the passage, god's calling, god's calling and God's faithfulness. So are you going to question God's faithfulness?

Melissa: 11:04

Not this girl, if it's based on God's faithfulness, not this girl.

Lenny: 11:06

If it's based on God's faithfulness, should we be doubting it?

Melissa: 11:09

No.

Lenny: 11:10

Paul then continues in his letter to the Corinthians 1 Corinthians 1.10.

Lenny: 11:31

Can we conclude that in this verse, Paul changes the subject from what he was talking about before. I see a shift of subject. He's not talking about the same thing anymore. They actually change the heading in our Bibles too, so I think they recognize that accurately. But what is the subject he's talking on now? He was talking about you were called into the fellowship, you were called into grace, your identity is in Christ. You have all these things in Christ. What's he talking about now? I see Paul here talking about their fellowship together, person to person, their fellowship as believers. He says I need you to agree, so there's no divisions among you, that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. He's talking about their fellowship as believers. To believers. He shifted from their fellowship with Christ and now he's talking about how they're acting towards each other as believers. He shifted from their fellowship with Christ and now he's talking about how they're acting towards each other as believers. And then the letter goes on. Case in point he's shifting the focus.

Melissa: 12:34

I see, I see what you're saying there.

Lenny: 12:36

Well, the only reason I bring that up is because somebody might say look, he's talking about fellowship. He means fellowship in that last passage too. But they're two different fellowships.

Melissa: 12:47

I think he's saying that all the brothers should be depending on the Lord and looking to him.

Lenny: 12:53

Yeah, being of the same mind. He's telling them what they should be thinking in their minds first, and then he's saying you guys should be agreeing on this stuff so that you can have better fellowship with one another. We can mess up fellowship with each other, but we can't mess up our fellowship with God. He's always there.

Melissa: 13:14

Right.

Lenny: 13:14

But we can make other people upset with us and we can cause problems in the church and we can have problems forgiving people even, but God doesn't have that problem.

Melissa: 13:24

No, and I think if we're all looking to him praying, pending on him, then there's going to be less divisions instead of trying to go rogue.

Lenny: 13:32

Precisely. So can we conclude with certainty that Paul refers to an unbreakable fellowship with God and that we can never be out of fellowship with Yahweh, despite nearly every Christian denomination on earth proclaiming such things?

Melissa: 13:48

Absolutely.

Lenny: 13:49

There is no such thing as being out of fellowship for the Christian, For the non-Christian. You're always out of fellowship. You've never been in it. But once you enter into Christ, you are in fellowship.

Melissa: 14:02

You're in, like Flynn, with him, yeah, but when it comes to your Christian brothers, we so often take our focus off of the Lord and start thinking for ourselves.

Lenny: 14:11

Right.

Melissa: 14:12

And lo and behold, you have the denominations that we talked about were some 400, some 1,000 different Christian denominations. That's a bunch of Christians going rogue.

Lenny: 14:24

Yeah, so I think we should go just a bit deeper. Let's go back to the very beginning of Paul's letter to the Corinthians to be sure of what we're seeing here. We've been studying verses four through nine. Let's shift back to the first two verses, shall we?

Melissa: 14:39

We shall.

Lenny: 14:41

Let's see how he started.

Melissa: 14:43

Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Sosthenes, our brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints, by calling with all who, in every place, call on the name of our Lord.

Lenny: 15:02

Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours, According to Paul, if you were called to be a saint, have you been sanctified?

Melissa: 15:13

You have, you've been set apart.

Lenny: 15:15

He was called as an apostle. Wasn't he an apostle? He sure was. And then he calls them saints by calling yes, and they've been sanctified by that calling. This is the same letter that we are pulling verse 9 from. This is the beginning. These are verses 1 and 2. We are reading verse 9. He's using the word called here, just like he did later in the letter. In this context is sanctified meaning set apart for salvation. Keep in mind what we hear from Paul a few verses later Our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless, in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Melissa: 15:55

So it seems this is set apart for salvation.

Lenny: 15:58

Yes, so these people who were called to be saints were set apart for salvation, weren't they?

Melissa: 16:05

They were.

Lenny: 16:06

This wasn't something they could be in and out of, was it? No, they couldn't be out of saintness, they couldn't be out of sanctification anymore. They've been set apart.

Melissa: 16:17

According to the way Yahweh works and his promises. Yes, they're good to go.

Lenny: 16:22

Okay. So the next question is if we're called by God's faithfulness into fellowship with him and we're also called into salvation by him and set apart by him, I would say absolutely. I don't know how much more the same they could be Agreed, especially in regards to where you are at all the time. You're always in salvation, you're always in salvation, you're always in fellowship. Can we also conclude that the same Greek word used by Paul for fellowship would mean the same thing if John used it in 1 John? My answer would be that it would absolutely mean the same thing. It's the same word.

Lenny: 17:06

If it didn't mean the same thing when John said it in his epistle, how much sense would that make? If we read John's epistle and he's talking about fellowship with God, specific to God, it would mean the same thing. You can't be out of that fellowship. And would this change the way we understand 1 John completely? Now, this question is going to be specific to people that have read 1 John. If you've never heard of 1 John 1.9, if you've never been under a teaching that teaches you that1 John 1.9 teaches you that you have to be asking for forgiveness constantly, this self-cleansing cycle that people go through, all pulled from that passage, but they use fellowship to try to teach you that you can be in and out. They use that same word, fellowship. So my point here is that if Paul is using it in a certain context, why would it be any different when John's talking about fellowship with God? Are they talking about two different fellowships? Is fellowship with God different from Paul to John, or is it the same?

Melissa: 18:07

I would say it's the same.

Lenny: 18:08

It would have to be the same. And John certainly understood fellowship. He never taught that you could be in and out of it in his epistle. That's just a man-made error. I've done several episodes on 1 John and have another in the works, so we're not going to cover that here. But we have to realize that our fellowship with God is unbreakable in order to fully grasp His love. Without unbreakable fellowship, your prayer life will be based on works. Without unbreakable fellowship, your sin has not fully been forgiven. Without unbreakable fellowship, sin will cause God to not listen to your prayer requests. Do you understand how holy God is If your prayer life depended on behaving in line with the Sermon on the Mount? How many of your prayers is God hearing? If you think he's answering your prayers based on your behavior, I think you have a misunderstanding about his holiness. Do you really think missing a sin here and there is going to fly with Yahweh? If you're asking for forgiveness is necessary to staying right with him?

Melissa: 19:15

Absolutely not. He's a perfect God, yeah.

Lenny: 19:18

I mean, if he required you to ask for forgiveness for your sins, if that was one of his commands, you better be doing it perfectly, because that's the way he rolls.

Melissa: 19:27

That's why you have to do that blanket statement we talk about.

Lenny: 19:32

And do you think that would be pleasing to God that you used a blanket statement just to get through, so that you could quickly pray to him and be in fellowship again?

Melissa: 19:40

No.

Lenny: 19:40

Please, God, just forgive me of everything I did today. That doesn't sound like a lot of effort when you compare that to what they were doing under the law for forgiveness of sins.

Melissa: 19:49

Right.

Lenny: 19:51

We need to really consider these things if you're going to take on a religious practice that's not found anywhere in Scripture. Paul didn't teach us to self-cleanse in this way, because it's not a holy practice. It does no honor to God to ask for something that was fulfilled by His grace. Realizing our sin and asking God for more forgiveness are not the same thing as most suppose. Being sorry or ashamed of sin and not asking for forgiveness are two different things. We don't need to include the desire for more forgiveness. It's an unholy practice that Paul never taught. Why? Because it cast doubt on the very thing that we needed the most Reconciliation to Yahweh.

Melissa: 20:36

Exactly If you desire more forgiveness. If you're asking for more forgiveness, then you are displaying uncertainty that you ever had it.

Lenny: 20:46

Yes, you're actually displaying unbelief with your mouth.

Melissa: 20:49

Yes, and your mind unbelief with your mouth yes, and your mind.

Lenny: 20:52

We shouldn't do that. This changes the way we pray. It changes how we see God, it changes how we see ourselves before God, it changes how we see others in Christ, and it constantly and repetitively reduces our confidence before our loving Father when we're asking for more forgiveness.

Melissa: 21:10

It changes, grace.

Lenny: 21:12

It's not grace thinking, it's not grace living. Is that what we want? Is that what Paul wanted for his church? Is that what God wants for you?

Melissa: 21:21

Absolutely not. That's why he forgave us past, present and future.

Lenny: 21:25

By definition and in context, if you're called to salvation, you receive salvation and it's yours, you don't lose it. The truth about your fellowship with God is the same. There's no difference. The separation of fellowship with God and salvation from God is a religious view, not a Christian view. So, based on that question one, can we be in and out of fellowship with God? Based on behavior, no, we cannot.

Lenny: 21:52

According to Scripture? No, there's nothing in Scripture that teaches such a mindset or a practice. Question two If we know we are always in fellowship, can we pray more confidently and more honestly? I can say confidently and honestly from experience that, yes, absolutely.

Melissa: 22:13

We can be ourselves, can't we?

Lenny: 22:14

We certainly can. We can completely be ourselves. We can be honest about ourselves. We don't have to try to hide something from God which is like the silliest thing in the world. You know, you think you're going to kind of bend the rules and slip the radar by only sinning this way and not that way. Just be honest with God. You can be honest with him. You're not going to get punished.

Melissa: 22:37

And it's just so important to be able to come to him in times of trouble, in times when you did act a certain way you're not proud of and you want to talk to him about it. You don't have to feel ashamed, you can come right to him. I just think that's the craziest thing. In the times when we need him the most, we're supposed to believe that he doesn't want to hear from us. He's turned his face from us and we're not friends.

Lenny: 22:59

Yeah, exactly. And then if we think we're doing everything right and we're not sinning, and we're doing really well, why do we even need him in the first place? Well, that's the best time to be thanking him for all the grace he's given you Right? Not thanking yourself and puffing up your chest.

Melissa: 23:19

You know that really reminds me of a family member situation, right, because, let's say, our earthly father. They're always going to be our earthly father. There's nothing that they could do to ever not be our earthly father. But they can disown you. They can not talk to you for the rest of your life if they don't like how you're behaving. You can have zero relationship with them here on this earth. Yet you're always, in forever, their child. Are we really supposed to believe that the god of our salvation is that's how he is turning his back to us yeah, saying I'm not talking to you you have been too bad.

Lenny: 23:52

You have drawn the line. I'm not looking at you anymore. Well, under the old covenant maybe that was true, but what good is the gospel of grace if it didn't change our standing with god like they said it would, like the apostles declared that it did, like Christ declared that it would. What good is the gospel if we're not right with God? So the next question do we become more thankful when we know that our heavenly father fully accepts us?

Melissa: 24:20

Absolutely.

Lenny: 24:21

Does that make you more thankful when you know that the sacrifice of Christ Yeshua covered every sin you could ever commit and made you right with God, and that you can't get yourself out of that rightness with God?

Melissa: 24:35

Oh, that's peace that surpasses all understanding. That's ultimate confidence. Yeah.

Lenny: 24:42

I believe it's that understanding that changes our behavior and that truly changes the heart of our being, changes the way we think and behave. It's when we know our freedom and we choose to love Christ in return, not because we're going to get punished or get some special reward. We already recognize the reward that we have and we live thankful in that.

Melissa: 25:07

Yes.

Lenny: 25:08

Rather than looking to achieve by our works. That's not the way God laid it out. That's not what I see in Scripture.

Melissa: 25:15

And that doesn't sound like eternal rest in him.

Lenny: 25:19

No.

Melissa: 25:19

He is our Sabbath.

Lenny: 25:21

So the word repent is a word that tends to get us thinking in the way of guilt and needing more forgiveness, isn't it? When we see its appearance in Scripture, we're like whoa repent, but the definition of repent in context is a change of mind. So, based on that, if we see repent as meaning to turn away from, what would we be turning away from?

Melissa: 25:47

well, in scripture, the way of believing in the old testament, um the jews would be being told to turn away, like john the baptist would have been telling them to turn away from their old way of thinking yeah and turn to christ as the savior.

Lenny: 26:01

Yeah, so turn away from the basically the self-seeking side of humanity that we're born with thinking that way. Turn away from that thinking On studying Paul's prayers in our last episode, number 47, did Paul give us something to focus on instead?

Melissa: 26:21

Yes, the gospel.

Lenny: 26:22

Yeah, the gospel of grace and Christ. You turn away from your sinful mindset and you turn towards Christ. It's not a matter of stop sinning, it's a matter of change your thinking, because if your thinking changes, the behavior follows.

Melissa: 26:43

Yes.

Lenny: 26:44

If you don't change your thinking. What good is a change of behavior? That would be something that would happen from punishment Somebody just physically drags you away from what you're doing and throws you in prison for a little while. When you come out, did you change your thinking or did they just stop you from behaving poorly?

Melissa: 27:01

The latter.

Lenny: 27:02

You paid a penalty. God teaches discipline by training us for the future. He doesn't need to punish and have consequences in order to get results.

Melissa: 27:13

Paul tells them to take their mind off the law, which focused on their sin and behavior and their self-cleansing efforts, and focus on what Christ did and rest in him.

Lenny: 27:24

Exactly so. Could this concept be compared with the analogy Paul uses of walking by the Spirit versus walking by the flesh? Galatians 5.16, we read.

Melissa: 27:35

But I say walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Lenny: 27:42

That sounds like a way of thinking, doesn't it?

Melissa: 27:45

Walk by what you know is true of Yeshua.

Lenny: 27:49

Yeah, so walk by your knowledge, walk by your understanding of grace.

Melissa: 27:53

And if you're doing that, then you are resting in him, you are depending on him, you are praying.

Lenny: 27:59

So does Paul say that you'll stop sinning if you walk by the Spirit? Does he say that you're just going to stop sinning? You're going to end up turning away from all sin? He doesn't say that, but it sure sounds like you're going to do it a lot less yeah, you're not going to gratify the desires of the flesh, you're not going to put fuel on the fire right these fires are going to probably get extinguished pretty quickly compared to the way they did before yeah, because you're not fueling the fire.

Lenny: 28:26

It's kind of like that big red button. If sin is off limits and you must stop, don't press that red button. What do you want to do? But if somebody showed you a bigger red button that had better benefits, what might you do? Focus on that bigger red button, that little red button is probably not that significant. You're probably not going to push that as often yes because you have something better to focus on.

Lenny: 28:52

What does paul say will happen if we walk by the spirit? Well, we already talked about that. We're not going to gratify the desires of the flesh, it's not going to be as interesting. We are absolutely not going to be gratified by it. I would say, when we're gratifying the desires of the flesh, we're gratified by them. But if you're focused on Christ and you're focused on holy things, unholy things are just not as fun.

Melissa: 29:16

Right, they're not going to suit you anymore. Like we've talked about, we're a new creation now.

Lenny: 29:20

Yeah.

Melissa: 29:21

We have new desires. We can choose to turn our back on that truth and forget about it for a moment and try to go back to the flesh.

Lenny: 29:29

But it's going to feel awkward, but we want to grow in holiness, so we walk by the Spirit.

Melissa: 29:34

Yes, and I think that also has to do with who we're spending time with, who we're talking to, who we're hanging out with, because if you're just constantly hanging out with people that are telling you that you need to be asking for forgiveness, for example, and you need to be focusing on your sin, well then you're not walking by the Spirit, you're being distracted.

Lenny: 29:53

Would you say that if we focus on holy spiritual things, that spiritual things will happen in our lives?

Melissa: 29:59

Yes, we know that to be true.

Lenny: 30:01

I think that's the whole theme of Paul's writings, what he's trying to tell them when he says walk by the Spirit. He's saying focus on holy things. In episode 47, we just saw that over and over he's not saying get cleansed from your sin, get right with God. He's saying focus on holy things, Do good things, Think of ways to please God right.

Melissa: 30:22

Right.

Lenny: 30:23

So far in our studies? Do you think that Paul wanted our primary focus to be on sin or unholiness?

Melissa: 30:29

I never see him telling people to put their focus on sin no, put it away.

Lenny: 30:33

Peter said put it away and say meditate on it. Quite the opposite like get it out of your way and focus on holy things. The more you think about it, the worse it gets it. It's like a cancer.

Melissa: 30:43

Yeah, by contrast. Actually, Paul is constantly wanting the believers to increase in the knowledge of Christ, increase in what's true of him.

Lenny: 30:55

So do you think it's possible to replace a sinful habit with a holy habit?

Melissa: 30:59

Absolutely, it's possible.

Lenny: 31:01

I guess in another way you could say instead of just focusing on stopping a sin, shouldn't we focus on replacing that behavior with something better?

Melissa: 31:10

I would say absolutely.

Lenny: 31:12

Amen. Would you say that when we look to Yahweh for guidance, that he'll provide what we need, whether through the body of believers or through a change of mind?

Melissa: 31:22

Yes, yes, he does.

Lenny: 31:24

So I think the whole point that Paul's trying to teach people here is that the Spirit of God will guide us. If we're seeking the Spirit's guidance, it's not about stop doing this, stop doing that. It's about seeking what is holy. I don't think it's as hard to do as we think. Pray about it. We seek it from the Spirit because we know the Spirit lives within.

Lenny: 31:47

Paul said don't present your body to sin. Present yourself to God as those alive from the dead, as instruments of righteousness. And then he says be transformed by the renewal of your mind. I mean just that statement alone be transformed by the renewal of your mind. He's saying that you had a mind renewal and it's continuing. And he's saying be transformed by that. Doesn't that sound a lot like walking by the spirit? Yes, be transformed by the message of grace. And that's what we were reading in that first part of Corinthians. He's telling them about who they are in Christ, what they have in Christ. Be transformed by that, he says in another place. He says it in different ways, but it's all the same thing. What we believe when we receive the gospel of Christ, we don't automatically live by that belief. As Paul said hold fast to what you've believed. That's not a call to be afraid of losing your salvation. That's a call to holy living, a holy living that is Christ-centered. It's not all about your behavior. It's about your focus.

Melissa: 32:57

Yes, it's about focus.

Lenny: 33:00

We see that all through Scripture, these comparisons Walking by the Spirit, walking by the flesh Hold fast till the end. These are all things that are describing holy living based on your belief.

Melissa: 33:12

So it's all about where we put our mind. It seems, a lot of times when the word behavior comes up, you could replace it with focus.

Lenny: 33:20

Yeah, because that's the only thing that produces it. Whenever Paul's speaking on behavior, he was right before that and right after that telling them about grace and what their focus should be. The whole premise of the letters was about holy living, and holy living does not come from ourselves. The Spirit is within us, but we can ignore that and we're blessed if God wakes us up to the fact that we're ignoring it. We're blessed if he causes some event to happen that shakes our paradigm, wakes us up if we're in a slumber. In that way, he'll do that because the Spirit's in us. He can do that. Right, he also lets us be ignorant. Let's try to do like Peter said make every effort, make every effort to focus, make every effort to pray for these things.

Melissa: 34:05

I think it would be true to say make every effort to rely on him for everything. Exactly, we do need to rely on him for everything, but we need to be conscious of that, put our focus there, not just take our focus off of him and, in the background, rely on him because we're going to stumble around. So really, I see it as this that we can, in a sense, decide that we don't want to be friends with God.

Lenny: 34:32

We can be total jerks.

Melissa: 34:33

Right, we can turn our backs and we can ignore him for days, weeks, years, but every time we bring our focus back around, he's right there. He never left, he never stopped a friendship, he never stopped loving. That makes me think of the prodigal son, even though I know that's jew and gentile.

Lenny: 34:53

Well, it still still applies to god's love and mercy.

Melissa: 34:56

Yeah, it's like we never left, so we can act that way, but god never acts that way.

Lenny: 35:03

That's's really important and that makes you humbled to realize. When somebody wrongs you, especially another Christian, you get upset at another Christian. You think how irritating, why are they saying that or why are they thinking that or why do they believe that? And then you just think about yourself for a minute and how God's had to put up with you your whole life. You hear Christ saying love, as I have loved you. How can I stay mad? There's certainly not a single person out there that God hasn't had to be patient with including the Apostle Paul.

Melissa: 35:36

Yes, yes.

Lenny: 35:37

We at least know, prior to his conversion, that God was very patient with him. He could have just wiped him out.

Melissa: 35:45

Absolutely. What a comforting message to realize that God's focus never shifts. God's friendship never ends, just like his salvation is never going to be taken away. It's us that need to focus. We just need to realize we need to keep our focus on him, and then this life can actually be a blessing that's what we got for this week.

Lenny: 36:08

We'll see you guys again next week for our next episode. In the meantime, don't forget to leave us a review on your favorite podcasting platform and don't forget to check out these study guides. At waking up to gracecom, you can click on the episode link in the description section on your podcast platform to check out those study guides, or just go to waking up gracecom to our podcast episodes page and check them all out.

announcement: 36:36

See you guys next time have a great day out there thank you for listening to the waking up to grace podcast brought to you by the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you enjoyed today's episode, we would love to hear from you. You can send encouragement our way right from our episodes and transcripts page or reach Lenny privately from the contact form at wakinguptogracecom.