The Parable of the Tree and Its Fruit

[00:00:08] Speaker A: Hey, everybody, it's Rick and Rob. Welcome back to the Nomad Pastor podcast. [00:00:12] Speaker B: It's been a minute. [00:00:14] Speaker A: Well, you know, that's what happens when you have exactly. [00:00:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. And there's been a lot going on in both of our lives lately, man. [00:00:21] Speaker A: It's been crazy. [00:00:22] Speaker B: It's been crazy. [00:00:23] Speaker A: Well, I mean, I should have showed you before we came up here, but got a new puppy. [00:00:27] Speaker B: Oh, you did? I hadn't seen the new puppy, lord help me. Are you going crazy? [00:00:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:00:32] Speaker B: You realizing how old you are? [00:00:33] Speaker A: Well, we ain't had a puppy for 20 years and a kid for 28. [00:00:36] Speaker B: Well, I get that. [00:00:40] Speaker A: It's a whole new world. [00:00:42] Speaker B: It is. [00:00:42] Speaker A: It's a whole new world. [00:00:43] Speaker B: What kind of puppy did you get? [00:00:44] Speaker A: A little dachshund. [00:00:45] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:00:46] Speaker A: Little chocolate dapple. [00:00:49] Speaker B: OOH, I bet that's cute. [00:00:50] Speaker A: He's adorable. [00:00:51] Speaker B: I bet, yeah. [00:00:53] Speaker A: Little man. Tate. Do you ever see that movie Little Man Tate? [00:00:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:00:57] Speaker A: Well, he's super smart, so little Man Tate. [00:00:59] Speaker B: Little man. Tate. [00:00:59] Speaker A: There you go. [00:01:00] Speaker B: I have a cash. My brother has got a it's like a milk chocolate. His name's elfo. [00:01:07] Speaker A: Elfo? [00:01:08] Speaker B: Cool dog. [00:01:09] Speaker A: That's awesome. What you been doing? [00:01:12] Speaker B: Work. A lot of work. We had our dragon run this past weekend, and it was a lot, a lot of fun. We went out to Mountain, North Carolina, and had a great weekend. Had a good know out there and back. Everybody was know everybody from my crew. [00:01:36] Speaker A: Even better. [00:01:37] Speaker B: Yeah. So it was fun. It was a lot of fun. We got wet on the way home Sunday morning. We left in the rain. So leaving the top of Black Mountain and going back down the mountain, the first thing you come into after Asheville is the gorge. Right. It's kind of a Lazarus crew thing. In forge brotherhood to blister the gorge. Just absolutely blister it. And so we love to do that. Yeah, you can't do that in the rain, especially when it was raining as hard as it was when we were coming back through and I was getting splashed from the other side of the median from puddles and stuff. And you come around a curve there in the gorge or two or six, and there's a puddle of water that's 60 yards long. It ain't good to hit it when you're trying to bless the weather. [00:02:34] Speaker A: Last week was rough. Well, I got lucky. [00:02:38] Speaker B: But yeah, the beginning of the week was cool because it was kind of cool. [00:02:42] Speaker A: But Saturday was not saturday was not. [00:02:45] Speaker B: But Saturday in the mountain. It was like, I don't know, 75, 77, something like that. It was nice. [00:02:52] Speaker A: Till the rain came. [00:02:53] Speaker B: Till the rain came, yeah. But the cool thing about it is we get to the other side of the gorge Sunday morning, headed home right before we got into Knoxville and it cleared up, I dried out my rain suit. Rain suit completely failed. Yeah, completely. [00:03:10] Speaker A: I've had some of those rain suits that did. [00:03:12] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, this one I taped up the legs on it with some calf tape and duct tape. [00:03:20] Speaker A: At that point, you just might as. [00:03:21] Speaker B: Well take it off. [00:03:22] Speaker A: It ain't helping. [00:03:23] Speaker B: It wasn't helping any at all. [00:03:25] Speaker A: I think I've had four or $550 rain suits. [00:03:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:30] Speaker A: And all of them fail. [00:03:31] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, they do. [00:03:33] Speaker A: They may work the first time. [00:03:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:35] Speaker A: I remember one time Tod and I were coming back from Louisville, and it was a Sunday morning. We were trying to make it back before church, so we left at like, 06:00. A.m. Sunday morning? [00:03:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:47] Speaker A: And it is just raining cats and dogs. And the rain suit he has is it's only the bottom pants, I think. And it was frog toggs. [00:03:59] Speaker B: Oh, man, those don't last long anyway. [00:04:02] Speaker A: They were like shredded flapping in the wood by the time we got to yeah, yeah. I'm like, what's going on with that? Oh, that's my rain gear. Yeah, it looks like, you know, I. [00:04:14] Speaker B: Even have boot covers and the boot covers even know I have Harley boot covers. Yeah, that's what I'm getting. [00:04:21] Speaker A: I mean, even though I ride an Indian now, harley rain gear is the way to go. [00:04:25] Speaker B: It is. [00:04:26] Speaker A: I mean, Indian may be okay, but I ain't spending that money again. [00:04:29] Speaker B: Well, if you don't have don't I. [00:04:31] Speaker A: Don'T care that it says Harley. Half my wardrobe still says Harley. [00:04:35] Speaker B: Well, my rain suit was a built from cycle gear. They're not bad, but this is just I mean, it's just worn out. It's four or five, six years old. [00:04:46] Speaker A: Well, it was time. [00:04:47] Speaker B: It was time. Anyway. [00:04:49] Speaker A: So today we're going to jump back into a parable. [00:04:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:52] Speaker A: Right. We're going to do a Tree and its Fruit. [00:04:54] Speaker B: We're going to be in Luke, chapter six. [00:04:56] Speaker A: You want me to read it? Yeah, I am going to read it from the NIV version. [00:05:02] Speaker B: Okay. [00:05:04] Speaker A: So it's Luke, chapter six, verse 43 through 45, right? [00:05:09] Speaker B: Yes. [00:05:10] Speaker A: Says, no good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes or grapes from briars. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart. And an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart, for the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. [00:05:37] Speaker B: I read a book one time. It's called the air I breathe or the air we breathe. It's a giglio book. And I love gigglio. You do? He's a bring it kind of guy that brings it at a level that I can understand. [00:05:58] Speaker A: Right. [00:05:58] Speaker B: This is what I call a bathroom reader. It's palm sized, about 100 pages. [00:06:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:04] Speaker B: Session, session and a half in a bathroom. You know what I mean? [00:06:07] Speaker A: Yes. [00:06:08] Speaker B: One of the things that stood out to me from this book and has stood out to me for years has been you can look at what a man holds dear. You can look at what he cherishes and ultimately follow it to what he worships. [00:06:29] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. [00:06:31] Speaker B: And I think this passage kind of ties into that, especially the last part of it ties into out of the mouth, the heart speaketh. And I think when you look into what a man does and we talk about all the time, you hear it all the time. Well, you don't know his heart. You don't know his heart. Nobody's actions speak that. [00:06:57] Speaker A: Yeah. His actions show where his heart lies. [00:06:59] Speaker B: Right. And I think about that. I think about that thing that sticks with me from that Giglio book, and I think about what I portray out on the street, in my job, in my home, in my church. What am I portraying? Am I portraying good fruit? Am I portraying the man of God that wants to grow, that wants to continue to flourish in his relationship with Christ? Or am I just giving it lip service? Do I talk a good game or do I walk a good game? [00:07:44] Speaker A: We never plan these things. For those wondering, we sit down about two minutes before we press record and. [00:07:52] Speaker B: We say, let's do this. [00:07:53] Speaker A: What are we going to talk about today? And we do that on purpose. [00:07:57] Speaker B: We do. [00:07:58] Speaker A: But you know what's crazy to me? It's not crazy to me. I don't know why I always think it's crazy, but when it talks about no good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. This morning in group, we were talking about what about our generation? What do we want our generation to leave? Right? And what do we have to impart as convicted men on our generations? [00:08:29] Speaker B: The way that conversation goes outside of just what our morning Bible study was this morning, I haven't had a chance, really, to talk to anybody. Well, I take that back. I've talked to a couple of guys, but I haven't really had a chance to get into some serious, deep conversation about what our Bible study was this morning outside of our Bible study. [00:08:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I haven't had that chance either. [00:08:56] Speaker B: But the conversations that I've had, I've seen it all come back to that and then this the exact same way. [00:09:06] Speaker A: All right, God, I hear you. [00:09:07] Speaker B: Yeah, I completely got you. [00:09:09] Speaker A: I got you. [00:09:14] Speaker B: I've had this conversation two or three times this week, and I put this out to my club today. I heard a new term, and the Holy Spirit's been kind of dealing with me with this term. Simplicity drives consistency. And you think about, know what makes a good meatloaf consistency. [00:09:37] Speaker A: And it's simple. [00:09:38] Speaker B: It's simple. [00:09:39] Speaker A: It's meat. [00:09:40] Speaker B: It's meat with maybe some onions and pepper, salt and pepper in the meat. And then you form it up and you put either tomato sauce or ketchup on top of it. Throw it in the oven. [00:09:49] Speaker A: That's right. [00:09:49] Speaker B: Right. Now, some people like to make little muffins out of it and put a little cheese in the middle or something like that. But when you go mucking it up, what happens? [00:09:58] Speaker A: Well, it's not meatloaf. [00:10:00] Speaker B: Exactly. It's not the same. [00:10:02] Speaker A: It's something else. [00:10:03] Speaker B: Right. And the same thing goes with even the conversation that we had this morning, as well as what this scripture is. It's simple. A good tree is going to bear good fruit. [00:10:18] Speaker A: Yeah, but how do you I probably know what your answer is, but just. [00:10:24] Speaker B: For people ask it anyway. [00:10:26] Speaker A: How do you maintain and continue to be a good tree? [00:10:33] Speaker B: Well, there's got to be maintenance. [00:10:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:37] Speaker B: I mean, you have to case in point, I have an apple tree and two peach trees in my yard. The peach trees probably next spring will start bringing some peaches. The apple tree, I have some apples on it this year, but they're full of insect bites and they're little because I wanted the tree to have a crop of apples before I sprayed it. [00:11:09] Speaker A: Right. [00:11:10] Speaker B: And then I can look at what the apples are doing so I can know how to spray, I can know how to treat the tree, I can know how to do I need to put more lime around it? What fertilizer do I need to put at the base of this tree? And the same thing, to maintain a good tree, you need to know what that tree is going to produce in order to be able to figure out how to maintain it. [00:11:40] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:11:41] Speaker B: So I know next year I got to get X, Y, and Z in order to have a healthy apple crop out of that tree. But at the same time, I have to plan for the best time to apply X so that it doesn't overrule Z and so that Y doesn't get washed off with the rain. [00:12:00] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:12:01] Speaker B: And the same thing applies in our lives. If I know what I need or I can find out what I need through accountability of what I need to be that good tree to bear good fruit. You may come to me and say, hey, I see this in your life and I think you need to pray about X. Or somebody from the club comes by and say, I see this in your life and you need to apply y or you should repent of Z. Yeah. You see what I'm saying? Absolutely. It's an easy formula, and simplicity drives consistency. We see this, I think, too many times we try to muck things up because of all the things that are going around us. [00:12:55] Speaker A: Well, I think the world tries to convince us it needs being mucked up. [00:13:00] Speaker B: It does. [00:13:00] Speaker A: Right. [00:13:01] Speaker B: It does. [00:13:02] Speaker A: The world is trying to convince us that all of these things that are going on are not evil. [00:13:12] Speaker B: Right, exactly. [00:13:13] Speaker A: That these things in the world today, the flesh of the body, are human nature. [00:13:21] Speaker B: Right. Well, that all goes back to the garden. When the serpent asked Eve, did God really say that's? [00:13:28] Speaker A: Right. Are you sure? [00:13:29] Speaker B: Did you hear it? Did you hear that right? [00:13:32] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, he told the man. [00:13:36] Speaker B: So does that apply to you, too? [00:13:38] Speaker A: Right? [00:13:41] Speaker B: We allow things like that. I want to say intercept. Really? Intercept what? Our pure thoughts are coming from scripture for us to be able to maintain that good tree. [00:13:56] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree. I think that for me personally. [00:14:05] Speaker B: The. [00:14:05] Speaker A: Way that I maintain it says a good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart. And the way for me to keep good things in my heart is to keep God in my heart. And for me to do that, I got to be with like minded people. I got to be in fellowship with other Christians. I have to be in the word. Right. That doesn't mean that I'm not going to go, you know, forge brotherhood has a mission. BFC has a mission. Ours is we want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell. I'm going to go bad places. [00:14:45] Speaker B: Right. [00:14:45] Speaker A: But I'm going to go with a team. [00:14:47] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:14:48] Speaker A: Right. I'm going to go with an army. I'm not going to go alone. Right. And I'm going to be prayed up. I'm going to be prepared. [00:14:58] Speaker B: The preparation is so important. It's vital. [00:15:04] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think that's, in my opinion, that's one of the things it's trying to teach us here, right. That a good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart. [00:15:16] Speaker B: Let me read to you the ESV of that verse. The good person, out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil. For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks. [00:15:33] Speaker A: So I like that version better, actually. [00:15:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:38] Speaker A: Or that translation, I should say, right? [00:15:41] Speaker B: Translation. It's not a version. [00:15:44] Speaker A: I like that translation where it says treasure, because I get that treasure from spending time with God. [00:15:50] Speaker B: Right. [00:15:51] Speaker A: I get that treasure by spending time with you, by spending time when we do our Friday morning group, by spending time with my brothers, by spending time with my wife, by going to church and talking with my pastor. I can't do this alone. I can't have good things stored up, or I can't have good treasures by myself because left to myself, the flesh. [00:16:16] Speaker B: Is going to oh, that's where Meism comes in. [00:16:19] Speaker A: That's right. [00:16:21] Speaker B: There you go, by the way. But seriously, because I want mine. And until we realize that we are not built to go at it alone. We're not built to run a solo race. [00:16:42] Speaker A: That's right. [00:16:43] Speaker B: There's going to be times when obviously we're going to feel alone. But running that by ourselves is not the way that we're supposed to be. [00:16:55] Speaker A: No. And it never was. [00:16:56] Speaker B: It never has been that way. [00:16:58] Speaker A: That's right. [00:16:59] Speaker B: So realizing what that verse is saying in that version or that translation, the good person, out of the good treasure of his heart produces good. I get good treasure to place in my heart through the accountability, through the encouragement, through the admonishment of guys like you. [00:17:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:26] Speaker B: Of like brothers that have come along beside me all these years and have been willing to live life for me, live life with me. So that what I'm storing in my heart is good treasure. Had a conversation earlier this week, and it's a continuing conversation about how we live out our mission statement and ford's brotherhood. MC's mission statement is to glorify God by building spiritually, mature brothers to send out to the motorcycle club world. How do you define that? How do you walk that out? How do you make that happen? How does that flesh out in individual lives? [00:18:11] Speaker A: That's a lot. It's simple. Right. [00:18:15] Speaker B: It is. You can't do it without by yourself. [00:18:19] Speaker A: That's right. [00:18:21] Speaker B: You can't. [00:18:25] Speaker A: Ever. [00:18:26] Speaker B: Right. [00:18:27] Speaker A: Ever. [00:18:28] Speaker B: Because how are you going to build somebody up if there's nobody there to build up? [00:18:30] Speaker A: That's right. [00:18:31] Speaker B: How are you going to be built up if you're not making yourself available to be built up? [00:18:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:36] Speaker B: We have this thing called four equals two. And you know the pecking order. [00:18:40] Speaker A: That's right. [00:18:41] Speaker B: God, family, work, club. [00:18:43] Speaker A: That's right. [00:18:44] Speaker B: Right. So number four is club. Right. How do you make number four your number two family? How does four equal two in that you can't do it by going alone. [00:18:56] Speaker A: No. [00:18:56] Speaker B: You got to live life. No. [00:18:58] Speaker A: And you can't do it by not showing up either. [00:18:59] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:19:00] Speaker A: Right. [00:19:00] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:19:01] Speaker A: You can be part of something and not be part of something. [00:19:03] Speaker B: Amen. Amen. Same thing with a church. [00:19:06] Speaker A: Oh, no. It's absolutely accurate. Right. [00:19:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:08] Speaker A: Church, ministry, family it doesn't matter what it is. [00:19:13] Speaker B: Right. Look, I learned the hard way what the detriment of that is with your family, because all those years that I was out running all those years that. [00:19:27] Speaker A: I was out doing stuff we shouldn't do Meism yeah. [00:19:33] Speaker B: Doing things that I shouldn't have been doing in the first place. [00:19:36] Speaker A: Living for me. [00:19:38] Speaker B: Yep. [00:19:39] Speaker A: This last line for the mouth speaks what the heart is full of I don't know what the ESV says. [00:19:47] Speaker B: It says for out of the abundance of the heart. His mouth speaks similar. Yeah. Very similar. [00:19:55] Speaker A: Just worded different. When I read that, I think about if you're doing stupid stuff, right. If you're watching porn or whatever you're taking in, it goes to your heart. [00:20:13] Speaker B: It does. [00:20:13] Speaker A: Right. If you're hanging out with people that drop F bombs every other sentence, it's going to come. [00:20:20] Speaker B: It's corrosive. [00:20:21] Speaker A: Right? [00:20:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:22] Speaker A: It's that fleshly world. And so if you're associating with it and I'm not saying don't associate with it, because we got to minister to people. [00:20:34] Speaker B: Right. [00:20:35] Speaker A: I'm saying don't live it, live it, don't idolize it. Don't make it more important. [00:20:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:43] Speaker A: Right. [00:20:44] Speaker B: Have you ever been asked, would you still minister if you didn't have the patch? [00:20:48] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:20:49] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:20:50] Speaker A: Patch means nothing. [00:20:52] Speaker B: It doesn't. [00:20:53] Speaker A: First, I love bikers, for Christ, so I just say the patch doesn't mean anything. [00:20:59] Speaker B: The patch doesn't affect my ministry. [00:21:00] Speaker A: The patch doesn't affect my ministry. [00:21:02] Speaker B: Right. [00:21:03] Speaker A: It doesn't mean anything in the big picture of ministry. [00:21:06] Speaker B: Well, let me rephrase it. [00:21:09] Speaker A: It does open doors. [00:21:10] Speaker B: That's where I was going. [00:21:11] Speaker A: Right. [00:21:12] Speaker B: That's where I was going. [00:21:12] Speaker A: It does open doors. [00:21:13] Speaker B: It does aid in that ministry. [00:21:15] Speaker A: It AIDS in my ministry. In your ministry. [00:21:17] Speaker B: Right. [00:21:18] Speaker A: It does open doors because people recognize I've been where they've been. [00:21:23] Speaker B: Right, exactly. [00:21:25] Speaker A: You can't just go online and buy a patch. [00:21:27] Speaker B: No. [00:21:27] Speaker A: Right. You can't just go online and buy a patch for forge brotherhood. It's a process. [00:21:32] Speaker B: Right. [00:21:33] Speaker A: And it's a process that I understand from before BFC. [00:21:38] Speaker B: Right. [00:21:38] Speaker A: Same with you. [00:21:39] Speaker B: Same with me. [00:21:40] Speaker A: Right. And so that patch has opened doors, but it's still my responsibility to nurture those relationships. [00:21:53] Speaker B: Sure. [00:21:53] Speaker A: The patch doesn't nurture relationships. [00:21:56] Speaker B: Right. [00:21:57] Speaker A: The patch doesn't do evangelism. [00:22:00] Speaker B: But let me say this. It's also my responsibility and your responsibility to maintain the integrity of earning those patches. [00:22:09] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:22:10] Speaker B: You know what I mean? [00:22:10] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:22:11] Speaker B: So in maintaining that integrity, we have to hold ourselves to the be. And I don't want to say a higher level, but there's a cross on our back, folks. [00:22:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:22] Speaker B: And I have to represent that. So when you see me, the Bible. [00:22:26] Speaker A: Says teachers and preachers are going to. [00:22:27] Speaker B: Be held to a different exactly. [00:22:29] Speaker A: It's not like you're saying something God didn't tell us. [00:22:31] Speaker B: Right. [00:22:33] Speaker A: And as a motorcycle ministry, as a Christian motorcycle club, we are teaching and preaching to the motorcycle community. [00:22:42] Speaker B: Right. [00:22:43] Speaker A: And we have to honor that. [00:22:44] Speaker B: Yes. And the traditions, protocols, and cultures that go along with that. [00:22:49] Speaker A: That's right. [00:22:52] Speaker B: The beauty of it all, though, is in earning what we wear, that being recognized, there is a level of respect that is gained and earned because of what we have walked through to get to this. You know, Joey Mcadonuts off the street can't walk into the no, no. Especially walk into the clubhouse and minister. [00:23:20] Speaker A: Yeah. But just having the BFC patch on, people recognize that my heart is good, I believe. [00:23:35] Speaker B: Right. [00:23:35] Speaker A: Unless I show them something else. [00:23:38] Speaker B: Exactly. That's the thing. Because they're expecting it. [00:23:41] Speaker A: That's right. They expect to be a certain way. When you talk about a tree and its fruit, the expectation is that I'm going to produce fruit. [00:23:50] Speaker B: Right. [00:23:51] Speaker A: That I'm going to have a good. [00:23:53] Speaker B: That you're going to have that right. That you're going to bring forth the good fruit. [00:23:56] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. [00:23:57] Speaker B: Yeah. And that you're going to maintain yourself in order to continue to do that. [00:24:03] Speaker A: Yes. [00:24:06] Speaker B: I 100% agree with that. [00:24:08] Speaker A: Yeah. It's not always easy. [00:24:14] Speaker B: No. [00:24:19] Speaker A: There are times that I'm like, man, it would be a lot easier if I wore a different patch. [00:24:29] Speaker B: Yes, sir. [00:24:29] Speaker A: Right? [00:24:30] Speaker B: Yes, sir. [00:24:30] Speaker A: I was just in a secular class. [00:24:32] Speaker B: Yes, sir. [00:24:33] Speaker A: Right. I could still be a preacher, but it'd be a lot easier. Now, that is the world lying to me. [00:24:42] Speaker B: Exactly. Right, exactly. [00:24:44] Speaker A: I know that. [00:24:44] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:24:46] Speaker A: Remember I said you got to cover yourself in prayer, right? [00:24:49] Speaker B: Amen. [00:24:50] Speaker A: Your brothers cover yourself. [00:24:51] Speaker B: Got to start and finish in prayer. [00:24:53] Speaker A: Amen. And so there are times where sometimes you're like that world's trying to get a hold of you, right? That world's trying to say, come on over here. [00:25:03] Speaker B: So let me ask you something. [00:25:04] Speaker A: Let me show you some evil. [00:25:07] Speaker B: Speaking of evil yeah. Okay. In the good fruit versus bad fruit scenario yeah. Do we give the Devil too much credit? Let me explain my question a little. [00:25:23] Speaker A: Okay. [00:25:25] Speaker B: The Devil made me do it. Or, boy, Satan's attacking really hard. [00:25:31] Speaker A: Oh. I think a lot of people use the adversary as nothing more than an excuse. [00:25:41] Speaker B: I agree. [00:25:42] Speaker A: Right. I've seen a lot of great Christian people say I shouldn't say great, but devout Christians, people who claim to be, like, potentially great. Potentially great. Yeah, well chewed on. My wife. Devil made me do it. Look, you're a grown man, right? [00:26:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:07] Speaker A: Is the Devil trying to ruin our lives? Absolutely. Is the Devil trying to win at all costs? Absolutely. But you're given a choice. [00:26:17] Speaker B: Yes. [00:26:18] Speaker A: The most courageous thing you can do is follow God. I saw this on Facebook the other day. It's a brother that, you know I'm sure. I know you do. Right. But from a secular club, and he posted this meme on Facebook. It said, if you can't be loyal to your old lady, what makes me believe you're going to be loyal to I saw that. I'm paraphrasing. [00:26:50] Speaker B: Right? Yeah. [00:26:51] Speaker A: But it's true. [00:26:52] Speaker B: It is true. It is true. [00:26:54] Speaker A: It is true. So, yeah, I think we put too much on the Devil. The Devil made me no, come on. You're a grown up, right? Be courageous. [00:27:03] Speaker B: Right. [00:27:03] Speaker A: Say no. [00:27:04] Speaker B: So in that frame of mind, in that thought process of someone who we expect to see good fruit out of but leans to excuses like that or the attack is just immense right now. It's just huge. Does that taint the fruit to change it from good to bad? [00:27:34] Speaker A: I think it depends on what they do or how they react to that scenario. [00:27:38] Speaker B: Okay. Right. [00:27:39] Speaker A: And so let me tell you what I mean. If you got somebody who's like, they're going through it and they're like, man, the adversary is working overtime right now. The Devil is working overtime now, you and I both have been through periods of our lives where the Devil's worked overtime. [00:27:57] Speaker B: Amen. [00:27:57] Speaker A: Right. When I came to Christ and I walked away from my worldly self, it was like World War Three. Sure. Right. [00:28:07] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:28:08] Speaker A: He had won before, and he didn't care. [00:28:10] Speaker B: Right. [00:28:11] Speaker A: But once he hadn't won, he was like, I'm going to do everything I can. Right. I'm going to interfere with your marriage. I'm going to interfere with your work life. I'm going to interfere with family life. I'm going to do everything I can. I could have taken the stance of Devil's working hard and let him win, or I could have got on my knees and said, God, I need help. [00:28:37] Speaker B: Right. Amen. Exactly. [00:28:40] Speaker A: I didn't let him win. [00:28:42] Speaker B: Good. [00:28:42] Speaker A: Right. [00:28:43] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, obviously, we're here, right? Yeah. [00:28:46] Speaker A: But I think far too often, people are like, oh, the Devil's, why'd you let him win? [00:28:51] Speaker B: Right. [00:28:52] Speaker A: And I apologize to anybody listening that know why you let, like, get on your knees and get through it. [00:29:00] Speaker B: We know how it ends anyway, right? [00:29:02] Speaker A: Yeah, I've been there. I know what you're going through. You've been there. Batman's been there, right? [00:29:07] Speaker B: Yes, I have. [00:29:09] Speaker A: At some point, you have to say, the Devil ain't that powerful. [00:29:17] Speaker B: That's exactly right. There's not any new tricks. No, he doesn't have any new way to now, there may be some different direction that he comes to us with a temptation. [00:29:32] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:33] Speaker B: But it's all the same. [00:29:34] Speaker A: So you asked, does it taint the fruit? I think it depends on how you respond to it. [00:29:42] Speaker B: I like that. [00:29:43] Speaker A: Now, look, we both know, right. Paul said in Philippians that some people are going to preach for the wrong reason. Who cares? What's important is they preach. I mean, that's what says. [00:29:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:30:00] Speaker A: Right. [00:30:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:30:02] Speaker A: So you got the guys out there, Joel Osteen, right. Prosperity gospel. I don't care about saying his name. Yeah, right. But there was a period in my life that I needed to hear that. [00:30:12] Speaker B: Hear the prosperity gospel or hear loving yourself. [00:30:16] Speaker A: Just hear what he was saying. I'm not saying prosperity gospel, but there were, like, when I first came to Christ, and I didn't really know, and, you know, well, it's different. What about this Mormon thing? And what about this Christian thing? And what about right. And I'm just trying to figure it all out. I just needed to hear the message of love, and I felt like listening to Joel Olstein, even though I didn't really understand what prosperity was at that time. [00:30:39] Speaker B: Okay. [00:30:40] Speaker A: Right. [00:30:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:30:40] Speaker A: I needed to hear him to get me where I am today. And I think people don't recognize that when you have somebody who's new to Christ. [00:30:50] Speaker B: Okay, I understand your point. [00:30:53] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:53] Speaker B: And I'm not saying I disagree with your point. [00:30:56] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:56] Speaker B: Okay. But where do we that's not the way I want to ask it. [00:31:07] Speaker A: Well, let me say this before you ask this question. [00:31:09] Speaker B: Okay, go ahead. [00:31:10] Speaker A: But I do believe that if you truly spend time with God, I was at a place that I had to hear that message, but the more time I spent with God, I recognized that wasn't the message. [00:31:22] Speaker B: That's where I was going. [00:31:23] Speaker A: Okay. [00:31:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:31:24] Speaker A: You can choose to be stagnant. [00:31:27] Speaker B: Right. [00:31:28] Speaker A: And just I'm going to listen to this preacher, and I'm going to do everything this preacher says, and I'm not going to read the Bible because there's a lot of people that I know that claim to be Christians. And if I said, have you read your Bible? No. [00:31:39] Speaker B: Yeah, right. Yeah. [00:31:41] Speaker A: You don't need to read the Old Testament. I have heard people say, you don't need to read the Old Testament. [00:31:45] Speaker B: Me too. I've heard a lot of people say that. [00:31:48] Speaker A: And so I was at a place that I had to hear that. But as I learned, as I truly wanted to understand, that wasn't the message for me because that's not God's message. [00:32:01] Speaker B: And you're seeking the full truth and seeking for what righteousness means and seeking to be a holy, led child of God. You understood that what you were being fed at that time, where it was sustaining for your spiritual life at the moment, wouldn't be what you need to grow and wouldn't be what you need to build your faith or to work out your salvation. [00:32:43] Speaker A: Correct. [00:32:44] Speaker B: Okay. So that's where I was going with that. When we allow ourselves to just stop with all right, I've heard this. Let me walk this. No, because James says test the spirit. [00:33:01] Speaker A: That's right. [00:33:01] Speaker B: Test every spirit. [00:33:03] Speaker A: That's right. [00:33:04] Speaker B: Right. So I go back and fact check my pastor. [00:33:11] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:33:12] Speaker B: I fact check the elders with Scripture. And I hope, folks, that you all do that with Rick. And I absolutely like, I tell people. [00:33:22] Speaker A: And you've probably heard us say this before here, but do not take our word for it. [00:33:27] Speaker B: Do not. [00:33:28] Speaker A: I tell people all the time. Right. If they're asking a question, I'm like, don't take my word for it. I do not want you to take my word for it. I want you to go and do your research. [00:33:39] Speaker B: Yes. Search it. [00:33:40] Speaker A: I want you to go and understand it for yourself, because your faith has to be your faith, not mine. [00:33:46] Speaker B: Right. [00:33:47] Speaker A: And I think far too often, kids growing up, they have their parents faith, right. That it hasn't been instilled in them. I know I didn't do it for my kids. Right. That it hasn't been instilled in them. That you need to walk this out. Right. That you need to study, that you need to understand that you need to have a personal relationship. [00:34:10] Speaker B: Yes. Because it was more important. What I was going to say is in the generation that we grew up in, in the time frame that we grew up in, it was, you do what you do what I say because I said it. Because I said exactly. [00:34:28] Speaker A: Well, why do I have to this? [00:34:29] Speaker B: Because I said because I said so. This is where we, as Christian men, Christian fathers and Christian husbands need to and I hate to use the word morph, but I think we need to realize that as we move into this, that because I said so is not the ultimate authority. [00:34:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:59] Speaker B: It's scripture and what we learn from Scripture and the desire to want to walk out, what God commands us to do because of our love for Him and our desire to know Him more and seek his face. [00:35:16] Speaker A: Absolutely. Morph is probably actually the right word, but it's like we need to decide to do it. [00:35:32] Speaker B: Yes. [00:35:32] Speaker A: Right. [00:35:33] Speaker B: I agree. Yeah. [00:35:34] Speaker A: I think it's a decision, right? [00:35:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:35:36] Speaker A: Now, today, I will not just placate one of the kids, right. They're all adults. I ain't going to lie to them if they ask me a question, sure. Right. And I think we even talked about it. [00:35:51] Speaker B: We have. [00:35:53] Speaker A: If they ask a question, I'll be like, this is how it is. Right. You don't have to believe me. Go do your research. [00:35:59] Speaker B: Right. [00:36:00] Speaker A: But I'm not going to hide behind it. I'm not going to try to modify it or whatever. I'm not here to sugarcoat it. The Word is what the word is, and it's strictly from God when you think about that. Right. The mouth speaks what the heart is full of. My heart is full of God. [00:36:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:36:26] Speaker A: So I'm going to speak it. People may or may not listen. [00:36:30] Speaker B: Well, I heard something this past weekend is the gift of free will is one of the best and worst things that could ever happen to a man. [00:36:39] Speaker A: Absolutely. I agree with that. [00:36:42] Speaker B: And so God given us the gift of free will to make our own mind up is a blessing and a curse if you use it incorrectly. [00:36:52] Speaker A: Absolutely, it is. But I would much rather have that blessing or curse than be a slave. [00:36:58] Speaker B: Amen. [00:37:00] Speaker A: Right? [00:37:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:37:00] Speaker A: I think people forget to think about that. Really? People be like, well, why did God allow that? Well, he didn't allow that. Yeah, but did you just want Him to force you to do it his way? Because he could. [00:37:14] Speaker B: He could. We can all be robotic. [00:37:16] Speaker A: Why don't you praise God that you get to do whatever you want? Whether you agree with God or not, whether you believe in God or not, you're doing what you want to do because God allowed it. Maybe you should say thank you. [00:37:29] Speaker B: I think we underappreciate and overreact to the things that we're afforded. [00:37:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:41] Speaker B: Just my two cent worth. [00:37:43] Speaker A: So when we talk about the tree and its fruit and we talk about good and evil, I think the way I would land this is that you have to put in your heart what you desire to come out. [00:38:02] Speaker B: Right. [00:38:03] Speaker A: If you desire goodness to come from your heart, you have to put goodness in it. And that goodness comes from God. [00:38:11] Speaker B: Yes. [00:38:12] Speaker A: So I love anybody who's listening. Hopefully you get a message out of it. [00:38:19] Speaker B: I hope so. I pray so. [00:38:21] Speaker A: But what I want more than anything is you to spend every day with God. [00:38:25] Speaker B: Every day. [00:38:26] Speaker A: If it meant you couldn't listen to the podcast because you spent time in the bible with God. Do that. That's more important. [00:38:32] Speaker B: It's much more important. We're not looking for numbers. [00:38:35] Speaker A: No. [00:38:39] Speaker B: Let me say this. We appreciate every single listener. There's times when we plug the show, plug the podcast and say, if you have a question, email us at [email protected]. That's genuinely not just to get the podcast out there or a plug for it, but it's genuinely because we have a desire to see people walk in. So if there is a it's, if it's something that you couldn't like Rick said, like what you just said, if you couldn't listen to the podcast because you were searching for an answer in the scripture somewhere, or because you were in your prayer closet working out business with God, fighting for it, right. Let me champion with you. [00:39:34] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:39:35] Speaker B: And let me pray with you through that. [00:39:37] Speaker A: Yeah, for real. [00:39:39] Speaker B: Let me put a hand on your back and say, I'm here with you, brother. I'm 100% always foremost, always willing to sacrifice something of myself for somebody else's spiritual welfare, because that's what we're here for. That's what drives me. [00:40:08] Speaker A: That's why we're sitting at this table. [00:40:09] Speaker B: Amen. Amen. [00:40:11] Speaker A: Look, I love doing these podcasts, but the reason we're doing it is for that. Right there. [00:40:16] Speaker B: Right there. [00:40:16] Speaker A: Right there. We're not here. You don't ever hear us ask for money. [00:40:20] Speaker B: None of this is all of this. [00:40:21] Speaker A: Is just because God said, go do this. [00:40:25] Speaker B: And we're going to follow what God tells us to do. [00:40:28] Speaker A: Well, he is the boss. [00:40:31] Speaker B: That is true. That's true. We start off the show, we start off this podcast by saying two minutes before we start, this is when we decided on a topic. And I have always enjoyed our conversations. I've always enjoyed the way that God leads us through these podcasts, and today is no exception. But I do want to lay it out to everyone to know that if you have a question about either the content of this podcast, if you have a scriptural question, if you looking for a church, if you have a question about Bikers for Christ or Forge Brotherhood Motorcycle Club, send us an email at [email protected]. And we scan those and go through those often, as often as we get them, and we'll get right back with you. And in the meantime, we want to encourage you to love God and love people.