There is a world of articles, books, and information out there when it comes to Christianity, but we are mostly stuck with rhetoric and double talk when it comes to our relationship with the Lord, our new identity as believers, and the security and finality of the work of Christ. Are you getting everything you need spiritually from your church? Or do you find yourself feeling hungry for more? Join Lenny as he unpacks what Scripture really taught about our Lord Jesus Christ in context and why this matters to you. Wake up, wake up, wake up to grace.

Welcome back, everyone. We just wrapped up our series on abiding in Christ today, and we'll be asking the question: Is Jesus working in my life? In Christian circles, we often hear it said that the Holy Spirit led me to do this, or the Spirit of God caused me to do that. This is a powerful proclamation that can build us up in great confidence as we go about life. But how can we really know that the Holy Spirit has guided us to do something? It's my opinion that we must know and understand the work of the Holy Spirit in order to have a gauge of what he's doing in our lives. First and foremost, we should probably know whose Holy Spirit it is that actually directs us. The Holy Spirit is not just some arbitrary thing. From the context of Scripture, we learn that we have a triune God. Our Lord is three persons and one being. Now don't try too hard to understand this one, your head will certainly explode. But the key takeaway is that we're being guided by the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit, according to John 14, 23. It is the Spirit of God which guides, therefore we're actually being guided by our Lord. Further, we're told that He will guide us into all truth, John 16, 13. It would then follow that if we're not living by truth, that we're not following the guidance of the Holy Spirit, would it not? Well, how might we figure out if we're living in truth? How might we know what the Lord wants us to do? In the fourteenth chapter of John's gospel, we see an interesting exchange of words between Philip and Christ Yeshua. In John 14, 8 through 9 we read, Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it's good enough for us. Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say show us the Father? Based on this, does it not make the most sense to learn who Christ Yeshua was and what he called his followers to do? And even more importantly, what calling did the apostles receive from the risen Christ through his life-giving spirit? In other words, what did Christ's apostles teach us about him after receiving divine knowledge? If you haven't investigated Christ Yeshua, you owe it to yourself to do so. I'm not talking about learning through the great vine of the thousands of church denominations. Take time on your own to study the New Testament and the words of Christ before you carefully discern what is being said by any commentator. That includes me. Take advantage of what the Reformers did for us by the grace of God in the sixteenth century. Read your Bible for yourself. You have to remember we're to be guided by the Spirit and to truth. So pray for this and don't rely on one of the thousands of denominations to tell you what to believe. If you rely on the system, you'll be a product of the system. We are called to be a product of Christ Yeshua. It's in this time of year that we often take a moment to relax and watch holiday movies, such as a Christmas Carol. The story of Ebenezer Scrooge drives our emotions into what we call the Christmas spirit. We're left with old Ebenezer being saved from his cold and selfish ways and proclaiming that he will always honor Christmas moving forward and keep its memory all year round. As good as this message may appear, has it helped our culture to love unselfishly? Do we keep this memory all year long? We couldn't keep this memory all year long financially, could we? In the Christmas Carol storyline, we have what appears to be a land riddled with poor people who have very little. Scrooge is portrayed as angry and greedy. But there's one chilling thing that he says that's hard to hear. Scrooge says, Christmas is a very busy time for us, Mr. Cratchit. People preparing feasts, giving parties, spending the mortgage money on frivolities. One might say that December is the foreclosure season, harvest time for the moneylenders. You see, Scrooge here is calling out what we celebrate as Christmas in a way that's not so flattering. No one would ever want to admit this, so the concept gets placed on the villain. There are few people that you can actually call poor in America today. We live in a very different environment than that in the Christmas Carol story. Our government forces us to pay taxes in order to decide for themselves who deserves our hard-earned money. Now this is only hypothetical, of course, but if our government focused on giving our money to the lazy among us and finding ways to benefit from it for themselves, what might that look like in the future? Just look at Illinois. It's getting bad out here. One thing that cannot be argued is that our government displays horrible financial stewardship by spending the money they have taken from us in the most ridiculous ways that we could even imagine. It's Christmas all year long for them, and it never ends, does it? Sorry, I can't always keep from talking about our ridiculous leadership in the USA. I try, but it always finds a way in. Getting back on our topic, if we take the Scrooge theme and try to apply it to the American people, we don't see a bunch of Mr. Cratchits or Scrooge converts. We see a terrifying reality that's not being addressed in the church or our culture. We're obsessed with entertaining ourselves and our children to the point of complete insanity. And this doesn't stop at Christmas. This is a spirit that many remember all year long, isn't it? Americans don't have time to worry about what the Lord thinks about it, and frankly, I don't think they really want to know. As the old rock song titled Oh Well proclaimed, now when I talked to God, I knew he'd understand. He said stick by me, I'll be your guiding hand. But don't ask me what I think of you. I might not give the answer that you want me to. Are you afraid of what God would actually think of you and how you honor him with the freedom he's given you? This isn't a guilt trip. We shouldn't be afraid to answer this if we're living by grace. Living by grace is living by the salvation that we received. We wanted to be saved from the perils of this life, didn't we? Is salvation only for the heavenly realms? Or is it right now? Are you asking the Lord to save you from worldly vices or just expecting comfort when it all falls apart? I think we'll find that we'll not be saved until we seek this salvation. Many don't realize that the word salvation in Scripture is often referring to this life and not to the next. We need it right now. We have a lot of things we can be afraid of in our society today. As men, we have to fear what might happen if we lead our household. Why? Because we're told that men are not leaders. That would be toxic. What television shows don't show women ruling over their husbands? And further, what TV shows display men that aren't total weenies? We can say the television doesn't influence us, but then what is it that's happening out here? We're also taught that children need to constantly make decisions for themselves, and parents shouldn't intervene. They need to express themselves in order to learn. Sorry, this is so ridiculous, it's funny, but is it not happening all over? And to further exasperate the problem, we're pressured to allow our kids to live the lives of Hollywood stars and cater to their every need, keeping them in an almost constant state of entertainment. Another thing we can find in a multitude of American households. And why are all these things so hard to put a stop to? It's fear. Yes, fear is the reason that these things never end and only get worse. To further put salt on the wound, when you give in to the fear you get praise for it. You're held in the highest regard. It's not hard to tell when our woke overlords are behind something, is it? But we can't blame them for our fear. We're afraid to do what's right because we'll receive rejection. If we ask the Lord what we should do, he wouldn't give the answer that we want him to. Love as taught in Scripture is never based on a fear of rejection. A fear-driven purpose is not a fruit bearing purpose. If we discover that we're operating our lives from motives of fear, we'll also find that we're in bondage to it. In John's first epistle he writes There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. The description of love that we've been given by Paul the Apostle is not unclear. We hear it at almost every wedding. Paul describes the love that comes from God, the love that we'll see when Christ is involved. In 1 Corinthians thirteen three we read If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude, does not insist on its own way, is not irritable or resentful, does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Can we honestly claim to be living by these values? It's not about doing our best or striving for personal achievement. It's about desire to be led by Christ. Scripture teaches us to ask and it will be given. As we've been studying in our Abide series, this applies to God's will for us. Are we asking for God's will in our lives? It's just that simple. He tells us it will be given to us. That's how hard it is. Our culture is moving in strong opposition to God's desires. This is the pattern of the world, I suppose. Should we fear the world or stand for what is good and holy? Should we not reject the world view of love in favor of the love that we see clearly communicated in our scripture? Paul says love does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Are you rejoicing in truth or living in error? Are you afraid of what those who you love would think of you if you told them the truth? Now I don't simply apply that nothing other than this can be gained from our classic Christmas carol tale. In our story of Ebenezer Scrooge we witness a visit from three spirits the past, the present, and the future. If the Spirit of God came to you and showed you your past, present, and future, would you be happy with what you see? Would you be afraid of who you've been and what you might become? In the here and now, are you living in fear of doing what's right, in favor of pleasing people in your life? Are you afraid of losing relationships if you don't give in to the selfish demands of others? If we look at our past through the lens of truth, we have to agree that we cannot change it. Our past is behind us. We have to let it go. There's nothing more futile than living in the past. It's over and done. We'll never be able to do anything about it. That's a fact. Good luck making that a subjective opinion. God can only actually be with us in the present. We can only be guided now. The future is only in our minds, so we must rely on trusting Him with that. The Lord does not exist in our fantasies that we play out in our thoughts. If we trust Him with our lives now, we can let go of the fear in our future. We'll always find purpose in the Lord if we ask. If we stopped all the entertaining in our lives, what might we have left? Think about it. If we took away all the things that we do to entertain others, what might happen? This reminds me of the old black and white film about Martin Luther's life titled Here I Stand. When asked by his overseer, if we were to put Bibles in the hands of the simple laype, what do you propose would happen? To which Luther responds, Well, we might have more Christians. I don't propose that entertainment is altogether bad. It's just yet another thing that takes the place of Christ in our lives if we let it. If we're afraid to trust the Lord with every aspect of our lives, we continue in self-effort in those areas. Self-effort is selfish and does not display the selfless love of our Lord. I detail out in message number 54 how easy it is to get lost in the freedom of grace. And just as easily we can follow the old saying, ignorance is bliss, and continue utterly lost in ignorance, not asking God what he thinks of us. Remember that this old saying did not come from our Lord. Our Lord never proclaimed ignorance as a positive or spiritual attribute. Make no mistake, ignorance is bondage. We are cherished and fully accepted by our Lord because of Christ Yeshua. But that doesn't make our behavior fully accepted and cherished by our Lord. We're called to be guided by Him, not our own selfish ambitions. If we fail to desire this, we will suffer and cause suffering upon others. Our Lord will be there to give us peace when we need him. Christ Yeshua will always be at work in our lives in some way. But we are not promised worldly mercy for our ignorance. What good is guidance if we don't ask for it? So if we want to be guided by truth, can we find it outside of Scripture? As we all know, AI has taken the world by storm, and nobody's asking us if we care. But being that it does a pretty good job summarizing content, I thought I'd ask the question, am I being guided by the spirit? And see what Google's Gemini would come up with. Now we can't guarantee there's no bias in the algorithms. In truth, algorithms are only as good as the person who programs them. But based on the content it takes from us at will from our internet behavior, this is what it said. Gemini AI. Being guided by the spirit often feels like inner nudges, meaningful coincidences, synchronicity, strong intuition and a pull towards love, peace, and compassion rather than selfish desires, often confirmed by recurring signs like dreams, sounds, or repeated numbers, and a consistent sense of alignment with a higher purpose or divine word, according to spiritual traditions. It's a subjective feeling, but generally marked by increased inner peace, wisdom, and a strong moral compass guiding you away from harm. How beautiful is that, huh? We see that Gemini's analysis begins and ends with feelings and experiences. It's a subjective feeling, but generally marked by increased inner peace, wisdom, and a strong moral compass guiding you away from harm, it says. What would a subjective feeling be? Well, it would be a feeling based purely on opinion. This is laughable, but I do think Gemini represents the view of most in our society and sadly, even many Christians. Let's be honest in our thinking. There's no strong moral compass when it's based on human opinion. Think about the church in Corinth. What would their opinion be if it weren't for Paul directing them to truth? One thing that we absolutely must understand as Christians is that there is little to nothing in our scripture about feelings and emotions. In Scripture we find objective truth. The object of the truth is Christ. Sorry, Gemini, you're always going to lose to Christ. But what then would the moral compass be for the Christian who actually has the potential of being guided by the Holy Spirit of God? Ever try to understand Matthew 5 through 7? How can we even claim to know the Lord if we haven't made every effort to understand his words and his moral teaching? As I discuss in message number 24, we absolutely have to discern the context of the words of Christ Yeshua. But if we never hear his words for ourselves, we may never truly understand who he is or how he might be guiding our lives. Yes, it can be hard to understand the Bible at first, but the reward is far greater than the investment. Don't live your life relying on church leaders to do all the work for you. We're not to be guided by the spirit of the church institution, at least not according to those sent by Christ to teach. The biggest problem in church that I see is that we learn little to nothing about Christ Yeshua. You could go there for years and even decades and not be capable of answering the most basic questions about your Lord and Savior. You may know some basics, but you don't get what matters most. This is not me speculating here, this is a fact. But most Christians don't go to church to seek truth anyway. If you ask someone a question about their church, you'll find the biggest gripe is nearly always about the entertainment. The sound of the music, the way the pastor speaks, the quality of the coffee. We go there to feel good, not to worship. Contrary to popular belief, the volume of the music doesn't actually prove the presence of the Lord. It just makes us feel like it does. The reality of the institutional church is that it sends us out to live for the Lord, but we don't even know what that means. We need them to tell us what to believe. To the church, knowing who Christ is seems so unimportant. They cater to your feelings while withholding critical facts. Let's face it, nobody really wants to get all into the Bible and be weird like that. We just want to be entertained, and the church provides us with everything we need to sit back and enjoy the show. We don't have to actually think for ourselves or do anything uncomfortable. We can be cool like everyone else in the world and still follow Jesus. Well here we face another reality. Most believers are afraid of being too Christian. Just like our institutions, we want to be praised by the world for our good deeds, not rejected for our belief. Doing what the Lord wants may not be as easy as going with the flow, but it bears much fruit over time. Your church is probably not going to help you much with this, unfortunately. Churches worldwide prove their fear of trusting the Lord through their legalistic doctrines and feel good entertainment. But by far the most obvious and troubling indication of their fear of trusting the Lord is in their financial structure, the structure that they thrive on, preaching a law-based tithe in order to keep revenue coming in strong. This alone proves the faithless motives that drive their people pleasing business. If you're bothered by what I'm saying, please understand I'm not telling you to go or not to go to church. I merely want you to know the truth about your church, so you might help others, or even set yourself free from the obligation of going there in order to make God happy. It's quite arguable whether we can even call what we see in our church as worship. If Christ was here right now, I believe rather than saying you can't serve God in money, he might say you can't serve God and the institution. In Scripture we never see a gospel that was pleasing to the world. Has our church lost its focus? Getting back to the subject of fear. In Antioch, Paul Witnessed a troubling event when Peter's fears of men came to surface. In Galatians 2 11 we read, But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. Before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles, but when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. Where do we even begin to avoid falling into the trap Peter fell into? I think it's pretty simple. We begin by ditching the people pleasing in our lives in favor of what is pleasing to the Lord. Again, all we have to do is ask for his will in our lives, and it will be given. Let's end by looking at some of these passages and see what the Lord would have us know. Galatians 1 10. For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. Second Timothy 1 7. For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control. Psalm thirty seven four. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Jeremiah seventeen seven. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit. But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. Ephesians six six through seven. Proverbs twenty-nine twenty five. The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe. Matthew six one. Beware of practicing your righteousness before the people in order to be seen by them. For then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. Our Christian walk isn't about hanging on every little sin. It's about how we use our freedom to serve the Lord. Sin will always pull us away from belief. But we have a better alternative in our Lord Christ Yeshua. I always like the old saying, if we want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans. And this may be true. But if you want to see God at work, ask him what his plans are for you. The Lord uses our plans to teach us, and his plans to heal us. Do you need more Jesus in your life? Ask and it will be done. This is a promise we can count on, according to 1 John 5.14. But it seems we're not promised an answer to a question we don't ask. That's it for this week, guys. Don't be afraid of people. Learn from Peter's mistake in Antioch. Desire a life led by the will of your Lord. The content of this message can be found on my blog post at waking up to grace.com. My writings include linked references and visual aids, which will give even more valuable insight, and it's always free of charge. The comment section below each message is a place where we can share mutual encouragement and insight with one another outside of the social media ad. My blog post is always a click away, linked right in the description section of each episode in your podcast ads. And don't forget to support us by leaving a review.