Nothing says Christmas like a water buffalo. For a poor family in Asia, getting a water buffalo is like getting a farm tractor to pull a plow, or getting a milk truck full of delicious milk, or getting a stand at the market to sell cheese. A water buffalo opens the door for work, food, and income. More importantly, it opens the door to talk about Jesus.
And nothing says Christmas better than that. This is Rodney from the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we explore manhood within Jesus Christ. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds.
Sit back, enjoy it, share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. We want to pause a moment here to thank one of our program supporters, and that's High Point Financial Design over in High Point, North Carolina. Just like to say thank you to our friend, Ronnie Kleinert and his son, Brad Kleinert, and all of the folks at High Point Financial Design for their positive feedback and encouragement of our ministry. We appreciate High Point Financial Design and their special focus on intentional planning and abundant living. Continued blessings, both from and to, to High Point Financial Design and If Not For God with Mike Zwick. Welcome to If Not For God, stories of hopelessness that turn to hope. Here is your host, Mike Zwick. If Not For God today with Mike Zwick. And Mike, you've got a heart for Romans 6 today.
I do. You're going to look at the CSB version and it says, what should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply?
Absolutely not. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore, we were buried with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin. Since a person who has died is freed from sin, now if we died with Christ, we believe that we also will live with him because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him, for the death he died, he died to sin once for all time, but the life he lives, he lives to God.
So you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. I've actually been reading a book by Charles Spurgeon. Can't be a Baptist without knowing who Charles Spurgeon is.
I mean, this guy... Well, if you want to say Charles Haddon Spurgeon, you'll sound like a Baptist. It's actually in the first chapter of his book. It's called Being God's Friend. He says that the obedience of faith, he says, and it's in Hebrews 11 8 he talks about, by faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed and he went out not knowing whether he went. And he says that obedience, what a blessing it would be if we were all trained to it by the Holy Spirit. If we were perfected obedient, we would be fully restored. If the whole world would obey the Lord, it would be heaven on earth. Perfect obedience to God would mean love among men, justice to all classes, and peace in every land. Our wills bring envy, malice, war, but if we would only obey the Lord's will, we would receive love, joy, rest, bliss. Obedience let us pray for ourselves and for others. And what I'm kind of reminded of is that, you know, we've always talked about, I think it's Ephesians 2 8 through 9, where it says that we're saved by grace through faith. It's not of ourselves so that no one may boast, but in this book that I'm reading by Charles Spurgeon, he says that, you know, we're good Protestants, so we say we're saved by grace through faith.
And a lot of times we think that's it. But for me, one of the examples that I've thought of is that my dad has now passed away, but I love my dad and I always wanted to please my dad. This is my earthly father. And so that I would do things in a way to try to please my dad or try to make my dad proud.
I wasn't afraid that my dad was going to throw me into hell. As a matter of fact, I knew he didn't have the power to do that, but I wanted to please him. And so I think, how much more in my life do I want to please my heavenly father?
And we've talked about this. I'm not trying to please God because I'm saying, oh, gosh, if I don't do something today, then he's going to throw me into hell. But I want to live a pleasing life to God because I know how much he loves me. I know how much he cares for me and that Jesus died on the cross for my sins, for your sins, Robbie, and for everybody who's listening. And it said that he died not because we were great, but he died for the ungodly. And because he did that, because he died for our sins and because he loved us, then we love him.
It says in Scripture that we love him because he first loved us. And I was talking a little bit about before, Robbie, that you actually do something, you work with children who have autism. And when you go and you do that, is it because you're afraid if you don't go in there that day and do it that God's going to throw you into hell?
Is that what kind of pushes you to do that? Well, actually, if I were completely transparent, which I want to be, those people are real. I mean, they love you.
They both have some autistic and some down syndrome. But if you want unconditional love sometime to people that, you know, they don't, they look at you, they hug you, they love on you in ways that only they can. And when they worship, it's, you know, I often think God put me with that class to teach me, not the other way around. It wasn't my version at first when I first went there, but no doubt that where he went with the Abraham idea. Right. Because you think of all the ways that Abraham ended up obeying God right up to the point of taking a knife to his son's throat to give us a picture of what that would be actually for God to do that.
That's so classic. Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him as righteousness. In other words, because Abraham listened and because he obeyed, it's a critical thing. And you may know, I love the 119th Psalm, much the foundation of that Psalm, King David recites back because he realizes that it was, it was Abraham first that said several words and phrases that are repeated numerous times in the 119th Psalm. It may seem like it's repetitive, but it's not. So you're going to hear a bunch of times where he talks about statutes and ordinances.
Right. And what they call commandments. The reason why Abraham got what he got and it says because he kept my commandments, my ordinances and my judgments. That passage right there is the basis from which King David did so much of this Psalm and all had to do with just simply what you're talking about. Abraham loved God.
He listened and he obeyed. What a beautiful thing. I love the way you put that when we love our wives. Well, why we're going to do what they want because we want them to be pleased.
You know, we want them to live a happy life. And if we can possibly, babe, my wife is big on washing your hands, you know, and I'll be honest, it's a little annoying. Right.
You know, when the first time I walk in the kitchen when I get home, wash your hands. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. If anybody, even people who are not Christians probably know, and you're in the nun right now and it's Psalm 119 and starting in verse 105, but even people who are not Christians, many of them know this verse. And I'll start in this verse. It says your your word is a lamp for my feet and a light onto my path. I have taken an oath and confirmed it that I will follow your righteous laws.
I have suffered much. Preserve my life, Lord, according to your word. Accept, Lord, the willing praise of my mouth and teach me your laws, though I constantly take my life in my hands. I will not forget your law. The wicked have set a snare for me, but I have not strayed from your precepts. Your statues, your statutes are my heritage forever. They're the joy of my heart.
My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end. And one of the stories that I think about is the beginning of the Bible. When when you look at Adam and Eve and God's God told Adam and Eve, he said you can eat from any any part of this garden that you want to, but you are not to eat from the tree of knowledge and evil, or you are not to eat from the tree of good and evil, depending on which version you're reading. And so they were going to eat from all the other trees, and they knew not to eat from that tree. And the serpent, it says, came up to them and the serpent said, oh, God God knows that once you eat from that tree, then you'll be able to know the difference between good and evil. And that's why God doesn't want you to eat from that tree.
He says, go ahead, have a bite. And so it's interesting that so many times in our lives that we think God is setting up these rules for us because he doesn't want us to have any fun. Oh, he's telling us that, you know, we're not supposed to have sex before we're married, or we're not supposed to commit adultery, or we're not supposed to lust in our heart after another woman or after another man, or we're not supposed to be in a relationship of any sort of with somebody of the same sex, or we're not supposed to do this, or we're not supposed to do that, or whatever it is.
And we think, well, gosh, man, he's just a – or we're not supposed to get drunk. I mean, you know, that God is just a killjoy. But then when I look at the second part of what happens to them, after they do what they're not supposed to do, now they're able to see between good and evil, and now they know that they're naked. And God didn't want them to think or to know that they were naked.
He thought that they were beautiful just the way that they were, but when they were able to – when they did what they weren't supposed to do, there were consequences, negative consequences from their sin. Now, Eve and everybody since then has been able to – has had to have pain through childbirth, and that's part of the sin. And by the way, we have – I have some friends who are saying that they're – that when their next childbirth comes, they're not going to have any pain, because that was part of the old curse. And so, hey, if that works out for them, and I'm praying that it will, that would be a great story, okay?
I get it. But what I'm saying is, is for the most part, people have a lot of pain during their childbirth. My wife, when she recently went through childbirth, the doctors kind of messed up.
They messed up the COVID test, and she ended up having to give birth without any epidural, so she felt the whole thing. And so it was rough, but, you know, they – there were – and then they – Adam and Eve ended up dying. I mean, as far as I know, before they ate from that tree, they never would have died.
And so there were all of these other problems that Adam had to work by the sweat of his brow, and you think about it. I mean, you know, when alcohol, if you read Proverbs 31 – Proverbs versus 31, it says it looks so good, and if you can use alcohol in moderation, which we've talked about, that's not a sin, okay? But if you are somebody who struggles with alcohol – and I'm talking about addiction, getting drunk – so many times, when you first started to do it, it was something that was fun, but now you've gotten to the point where it's no longer fun. It's an addiction. It's causing liver problems. It's causing – you may have lost your job. You may have lost your family. And it's – your health has been deteriorated, and you see all of the negative effects of this. If you're somebody who said, hey, I want to sleep around, and it could be homosexual, heterosexual, whatever it is, but I'm somebody who wanted to sleep around, and now you've got maybe sexually transmitted disease, and it's something that you have to deal with. You're seeing the consequences of that sin, but – and Robby, you know this – all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
But there is some good news, too, right, Robby? I mean, you've gotten to the point of Romans 6, which I think of the 16th Psalm, I think it's the fourth verse, it says, the sorrows of those who chase after other gods will be multiplied. Their being – in other words, if you chase after whatever other god you want to chase after, your sorrows will be multiplied, but the good news is that is driving you to where?
The bottom of the foot of the cross, right? Because once you see, okay, this has led to death, it's led to death, it's led to death, it's led to death, that's the idea of repentance, right? That's the idea of, oh, man, I get to turn back towards God.
I'm on my way to the steak dinner, right? The prodigal son, like, here we go. And all that sin and death leads to, right, this place where you see that there was a reason that Jesus had to die, and it was for me.
Yeah, it was. You know, I recently heard this, and you could probably expound on this a little bit more, but I heard somebody say, they said in order for there to be a solution – There's got to be a problem. And so one of the problems that we've seen, and maybe you're not a Christian today and you're listening to the radio station, and you don't know why you've tuned in, or you're listening to the podcast and you don't know why you've tuned in, we believe that God has you listening for a very specific reason. You hear so many people say, well, I'm a good person, and as long as I do more good deeds than I do bad deeds, or as long as I'm not really bad, then I'm okay and I can make it into heaven. But that's not what the Bible says, right, Robbie? Yeah, there is the eternal heaven, but then there's also, you know, hell on earth, right? Because as we chase after whatever god that may be, other than the one that we can obey, you know, your sorrows will be multiplied. And it was designed that way that we get an opportunity to die, just what it is said in Romans.
In order to be buried in the likeness of his death, well, we have to die to self. And that self for all those lessons and desires and all that stuff, and put them there, and actually we get to do that daily and continually. Yeah, yeah, I mean, as a matter of fact, when we're talking about this, one of the things that I think of, it's a quote by C.S. Lewis, and it says that God whispers to us in our pleasures. He speaks in our conscience, but he shouts in our pains, and so maybe you're listening to this today and you're dealing with an addiction. I've got a friend of mine, a good friend of mine down in South Carolina, I've known the guy for years, and he's a Christian, he said, Mike, he said, I've been dealing with an addiction, I've struggled with this. And one of the things that I could tell you is that if you're struggling with this, if you're struggling with something, or if you're dealing with maybe a fallout of a problem that you've had, maybe you've committed adultery and your marriage has deteriorated. And you say, well, gosh, why did all of this happen to me?
Well, usually so many times from that quote in C.S. Lewis and also from the Bible, that many times when things are good for us, when we see things are fine, when we see things, you know, there's not a problem, we're not really looking up. Many times, not always, many times we're not looking up, but maybe if you've fallen into sin or you've decided to go your own way, you can go your own way. Well, and you can, I mean, but if you've done that, then, and you're dealing with some of the consequences, maybe God has you listening today for a reason, and maybe you're exactly where you need to be. It says in Psalm 34 16 that God is close to the broken hearted. What do you think?
Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, there's some I love Psalms 13 what it says, right? It actually starts out with, you know, how long? Oh, Lord, will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me? Well, if you've been there in addiction, if you've been in there in some sin, that's exactly how you feel. And the next line is, you know, how long will I seek counsel in my soul, having sorrows in my heart daily? Well, the thing about that, back to the nun section that you just described of the 119 Psalm, in my soul, where am I getting my counsel?
If it's me, what's the result going to be? Having sorrows, right? And then, you know what he says?
What's that? He says, how long will my enemy be exalted over me? And then he says, consider, Lord, and hear my prayer. Listen, lighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. In other words, light my candle, God. Lighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death.
And my enemies say he's prevailed against me. So go back to the 119 Psalm, what we just read. The beginning of the nun, and the nun in its own way is a candle, okay? And so, and your soul is considered in Hebrew a nafesh.
Maybe you've heard that word. And that nafesh begins with that letter nun for a reason, because you're a candle, right? And so when you get your candle lit, this is the opportunity that we're talking about right here, right?
How long will I seek counsel in this dark place, my own soul? But he says, lighten my eyes. Give me the light. Well, once you light the candle, now the candle is, it reflects the light. It isn't the light. It's like, you know, Jesus is the light.
We just get a chance to reflect the light. So once we get our candle lit, then all of a sudden we can begin to see things that will make sense of all the struggles of the addiction. Like, God didn't allow that stuff in your life for no reason.
He allowed it in your life because he wants you to get the real deal. Because I heard this today, and it's a beautiful quote. It says, if we can be ourselves, then God can be himself with us. But if we can't be ourselves, we don't live in our true identity, then God can't be himself with us. Well, he's dying to be himself with you, but in order to do that, we've got to overcome that God that has taken control of our life, whatever that addiction is, and he's made a way for that to happen. But you've got to go to the cross.
You've got to go to the cross, and that's a great point. One of the things that I was thinking about with this is, you know, I had a friend of mine when I was kind of, I was having a tough time with myself, and I was saying, I'm struggling with this, I'm dealing with this, that, whatever. And a friend of mine named Laurent, he said that, he said, Mike, don't beat yourself up. Don't beat yourself up. And, you know, I'm reminded of the story of, there's a guy named Father Damian. Have you ever heard of him, Robbie? No, I'm excited to hear it.
Okay. There's a guy named Father Damian, and you can look this up, but he actually went down to Hawaii, and he was Catholic, but he taught the Catholic faith to the people of Hawaii. And he actually worked with lepers. He actually preached to the lepers of Hawaii. But after 11 years of helping and working with the lepers, he actually became a leper himself, and he ended up dying. But, you know, I can imagine him down there where he was always working with the lepers, and I'm sure they appreciated it, they loved it, and they said, man, I appreciate this guy doing it. But there was one day where he actually went among the lepers, and he took his shirt off, and he said, see, I'm one of you.
I'm like you. I'm a leper just like you are. And what I'm reminded of is there's a verse, and it's in Hebrews 4, verse 15, it says, For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet he did not sin. So if you're struggling with drug addiction, remember the Bible says that Jesus was tempted in every way. When Jesus went out to the wilderness and Satan came to tempt him, it says that Jesus was hungry. And Satan said, turn this rock into a piece of bread, into bread, and then eat it. And so what that tells me is if he was tempted, he kind of wanted to do it.
I mean, it said he was hungry. As a matter of fact, you know, when the Satan came up and he said to Jesus, he says, throw yourself off the tallest building. And he used Scripture to justify it, saying that the Lord will send his angels to catch you or whatever. But that's not what Jesus was supposed to do because it may have been a pride thing.
And then Satan said, bow down to me and I'll give you the whole world. Well, I mean, can you imagine that many of us today, we have many of those temptations as well. We have the temptation to eat or to overeat. I mean, we have the temptation of pride. We have the temptation of lust. And so, but the good news is, is the Savior of the world, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, says he was tempted in every way like we are.
So why don't you, and this is just something I'm thinking, cry out to Jesus, cry out to him and ask him to help you with this, because he understands how you feel. There was a song that was recorded. It was by Third Day.
And the song is I Need a Miracle. And what it tells is the story of a guy who had lost his job. He felt like he had nothing to live for. He took his truck, went out into the woods. He stuck his, he stuck his gun up to his head, was about to blow his brains out. And he says, I want to hear one last song. And he turned on the radio and guess what song was on the radio? Cry Out to Jesus by Third Day.
And he heard that song and he decided not to do it. But just like that guy who's out in the woods, maybe that's you in a different way. Maybe you're listening right now and you say, I feel like I have nothing to live for. I feel like nothing is going right, that you have somebody and his name is Jesus Christ.
And he can understand how you feel. Yeah, I was quoting all those verses from the 13th Psalm, but the best is up the last, right? And when you listen to the last couple of verses, it blows my mind to see them in Hebrew, because what he actually says after, right, he's been tempted and he's asking God to lighten his eyes. And he says that my enemy won't prevail against me and that those who trouble me won't rejoice when I slip pieces. But I have trusted in the Lord's loving kindness. The word is hesitant Hebrew. So that's a big problem. Most people don't trust that Jesus and God are actually loving and kind.
But believe me, that's that's the definition of what they are. He said, but I have trusted in the Lord's loving kindness. And he said, and in my heart, I'll rejoice in your salvation is the word in English. But if you were to read the word salvation in Hebrew, it says Yeshua. OK, OK, which Yeshua may sound familiar to some of you. That would be Jesus. OK, so in Hebrew, so in my heart, I will rejoice in your Yeshua. Well, who is Yeshua?
The King David. Yeah. Right.
I mean, yeah. And that was his posterity. In other words, he knew that all generations would be blessed through his, you know. And so just think how cool it is that in my heart I'm going to rejoice in your Yeshua. And then he says, I'll sing to the Lord who was dealt bountifully with me. And of course, who sang the Lord more than King David? I mean, it's an absolutely beautiful thing.
And if you take a guy, I mean, you can't miss it. Did he struggle? Yeah. Did he struggle? Did everybody in the world come after him? Did did he not have his own issues with his own family, his own son? You know, the whole you know, all these things that are in King David's life show us that here was somebody who completely he could relate to a lot of the shenanigans that I've enjoyed in my own life, including within my own family. Yeah.
Yet he completely trusted. And again, if you spend a lot of time in one hundred nineteen Psalm, you'll see that time and again where he goes, when he doesn't have an answer, he goes to prayer is like, I can't. This is over my pay grade. I'm going to you, God. God, you're going to have to handle this. God, you're going to have to fix this.
God, I'm counting on you because I got nothing. Right. And at the end of the day, they couldn't be more true, right?
Yeah. I mean, as a matter of fact, you know, I'm reminded of the story is that if you realize there's a problem and you realize that you're looking and you realize, hey, there's a problem and you're looking for a solution, you're halfway there. I mean, we've told this story before, but it's like the the group of students from class, they go for a hike one day and they're going up the mountain and teacher finds out who did their homework and who did it. And so the kids who did not do their homework. The kids who did their homework ended up carrying the bags of their own bags. Plus, they carried the bags of the kids who did not do their homework. And at first you said, well, that doesn't that didn't make any sense.
But as they were walking up the hill, the kids who did not do their homework hated it because they hated to have somebody else have to carry their burden. And so many times with us, the problem may be pride is that we're not willing to just reach out and ask, Jesus, I can't do this on myself. I need you to save me.
I need you to help me. And then once we do that, then we've taken the burden off of ourselves and we've put the burden on Jesus. And he says, come to me, all you who are weary and laden, and I will give you rest for my burden is light and my yoke is easy.
And we hope that you cry out to Jesus today. Hey, I just want to thank one of our sponsors, Greater Love World Outreach Center over in Burlington, North Carolina, at 537 South Ireland Street. They have services Sunday at ten thirty in the morning and they have a Wednesday night service at seven. Pastor Ron Harris, he's been on the station before. We love to have him on. If you want to feel welcomed, made to feel like you're at home, go visit Greater Love World Outreach Center over in Burlington. This is the Truth Network.
