You're listening to KFI A six on demand. Joe, Welcome to the Jesus
Christ Show. Hey, how you doing. I'm good, Joe? What's
going on? We got a question for you? What does the Bible talk
about? You know, how do you go about forgiving someone for you feel
like they're living a whole lie? I mean, my question to you is
that I've got a seventeen year old daughter, okay, and where I'm living,
she decides that she's grown and she wants to run off. Okay.
I don't have a problem with people growing up and leaving the house. Sure,
I got a problem with when I go to clean her bedroom and how
she's doing it. I find liquor bottles in her room. I found a
diary that talks about having all these different affairs with all these boys that she's
keeping notes of. Because of that, I can't even bring myself to talk
to a kid. And you know, I just don't know her. I
mean, how do I go back dealing with that? Well? There,
you you still have to be the example. Either you trust the tools that
you gave her or you don't. Do you feel like you you gave her
your best as you raised her? Yeah, but I like that. Well,
I just feel that that everything that you know this she is alive.
I mean that I don't even know her. Okay, well there's there,
but there's there's things that you rebelled against, and there's things that you did
as as a young person, and there was it didn't mean that, you
know, throw the baby out with bathwater. But can I can I can
I say something? Of course to the argument to that is is not really
because I know everybody says this, but in reality, I was a good
kid. I never did any of that stuff. And your parents, your
parents would say amen to that, Yes they would, good they would.
Is because this I ever since I was nine years old, I wanted to
be a pastor. That's all I ever did is dream, read and eat
Bible. But this situation just throws me for a loop. Okay, well,
then do you feel that you're a bad parent? Yes, I do.
Okay, Then there there's there's the flaw that you didn't give her the
tools. Maybe maybe your diet was a little too condensed if you were eating,
sleeping, and drinking the Bible. So it's basically my font. No,
she's a free creature of free will. What I want you to receive
is because you're the one calling. Is something that we can we can do
with you because she's not calling she doesn't want help or doesn't care. Oh
no, she do. One time she ever calls is when you know she
wants to curse at her mother, or she wants something you know, or
or something. And I just really be honest with you, I don't know
how to deal with it. I can't even I can't even talk to the
kid. Well you can, you can forgive and not reconcile. I mean,
you can forgive her because I don't want it to eat away at you.
It's not going to help you to have this festering. And you you've
got to trust that you gave her the best tools you can and if and
if there's a delayed reaction to the tools that you've given her and she's not
receiving them now, uh, then she'll receive them later. You know,
heaven willing. But you you you know, maybe the fact that you were
strict, or maybe that you know when people are forced certain things, they
you know, down their throat, they tend to throw up. So you
don't know what she's going through. You consider down and you can you can
find out if it has to deal with you say, I'm just curious.
This is this is not the way I raised you, and if I failed
you, I want to know to make me a better person. I understand
that, Jesus. But my thing is is that you know, I don't
know how you would have dealt with it because I, on the other hand,
you know, she moved fifteen hundred miles away from me and now she's
living with some boys. And I'm telling you, I don't know that I
would have did anything different than Joe. Every every Joe, every single one
of my children went astray, every single one of them. Boy, you
appreciate your time, and I'm trying to deal with this and you are,
but don't don't beat her up for being individual. You know, I gave
people free will and there some of them are going to use it in the
wrong way. And you all you have to do. But if you if
you become an introvert, if you reject her. Now I'm not saying you
condone what she's doing. I'm not saying you give her a platform to do
it. I'm not saying you give her the tools to do it. But
if you cut off the only door to healthy living in her life, then
you give her to the wolves. So and that it sometimes is the right
thing to do, but it's a rare exception. So you have to continue
Joe with your wife the strength of you two as her parents. Be good
parents, be strong, reminder that you love her, Remind her that that
you house is a sanctuary. But that the reason why you've taught her not
to do those things, or the reason why you tried to steer her away
from those things, was for her own protection, not to be a killjoy,
and that parents are human too, and you only want what's best for
her. But if she makes those decisions, if God respects her to make
those enough to make those decisions, you have to as well, as hard
as it is for a parent, Joe. But the fact that you'd pick
up the phone and call shows you care, shows that she's important. Remove
that before it becomes sin to you, though, don't let don't harbor that
anger towards her. Hate the things that she's doing, but do not hate
her. I know that saying is often used and confused. As far as
you know, hate the sin, love the sinner, and people go,
how can you separate the two, Well, God did it, so can
you? You can find a way to continue to guide her through your action
and your actions of love. One Peter three, p. Fifteen says that
people will ask you questions about the hope that lies within you because of the
way you live. You live a certain way. People are going to look
at you and say, well, how can you deal with that? And
she knows what she's doing is wrong. She's not stupid, she's rebellious.
There's a difference. So she's going to wonder, how can you still love
her? Because maybe she has issues with herself? How can you still love
her when she's when she doesn't even love herself, when she's going through her
own issues, And that's going to be an important lesson and tool for her.
But you can't just want to control her because that's not godly either.
Troy, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Good morning, How are you
today? I am well, Troy? How can I help you? Well?
My situation is is that I have a father that he confesses to be
a Christian, and which I am as well, But for as long as
I've known him, he's been addicted to alcohol and drugs, and to date
he is estranged from the four sons he has left, and I'm the only
one that has tried to reach out to him, and I've tried to say
everything that I could say to get him to see how the living the life
that he lives is contrary to what it means to be a Christian. Okay,
so when you point something out to him, how does he respond?
Not very well at all. He at different times he flips out and calls
me every name that he can think of, and other times he just he
comes back with other Bible verses and oh, yeah, that he knows,
he already knows it all, and that I don't need to preach to him.
But I could be like my other brothers and just disavow him and never
talk to him again. But the Christian in me and I feel a strong
urge to reach him at some level at some point. But it's just like
nothing that I have said or done has has worked at all and has only
had the totally opposite effects. Yeah, you probably know the verse well,
Mark six' four. I said, a prophet is not without honor except
in his own town, among his relatives, and in his own home.
So even if you have good words for people and things that are helpful to
them. In your own home, no one listens you could you could go
out somewhere and preach on a on a corner and people just come to Christ
in hoardes and then go home and no one listens to you. So it
is really difficult to be in a family situation and have someone listen to you.
The likelihood of it coming from you is slim to none. But it
doesn't mean that it's not a righteous endeavor to continue to be an example.
There's no trickery or magic to it. It's about honesty and persistence. It's
about love and care. Not not trying to teach him, but show him
being being the good person, keeping those things out of your life, doing
something that shows him that you care, And you can ask him point blank.
You can say, you know, if I was living this life,
I was doing these things, if the roles were reverse, would you care
about me? Would you would you want me to stop? Would you ask
me what would you do? And tell him say, I will do exactly
what you tell me to do. The relationship that I've had with him,
there was a time where I was right there in it with him, and
I wouldn't say it's a spiritual awakening, because I've always had you in my
life. But there were times in my life where I ignored you and I
went on a path of basically did what I wanted when I wanted, and
it didn't really take any sudden impact of anything to happen to bring me back.
I went through treatment, and since I totally have been born again and
repented and has lived my life towards your way, and I witness to him.
The miracles that have happened in my life and with my wife and my
children and the life that we have today are a direct response of listening to
God and following his will for our lives. Okay, so so so let
that and and praise God. That is wonderful. So what did your dad
have to tell you to make you do that? My father didn't tell me
anything exactly exactly. So God still spoke to you, right, Yes,
God loved you through the whole thing. Yes, then why aren't you trusting
God to do that with your dad? I never thought of it like that?
Be an example. Thank you. Be strong. He sees everything that's
going on. He's not a stupid man, and he sees and he knows
that God loves him, he is distant from God. You're absolutely right.
There is nothing you said that is incorrect. You're absolutely right about everything you
said. You're absolutely right as to what he needs to do. You're absolutely
right about all of that. But it doesn't matter. What matters is where
his heart is. And sadly, he may reject God God's hand throughout the
entirety of the process, and it may end poorly, but it doesn't have
to. And I didn't with you, and God reached out to you over
and over again, and eventually you heard. It didn't come necessarily from a
person, and it didn't come from him. It came from your relationship with
God that even when it was holding on by a thread, it was still
there. And God loves him more than you ever could and vice versa,
and he will reach out to him and you need to trust that. Thank
you, You're welcome, Go in peace, and I'm very proud of you.
What a wonderful story. Steve Stephen, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.
Hey Jesus, how are you? I am good, sir, how
are you? I'm very well? Thank you very much. I just had
a really quick question about about laws that are made by holy people or supposedly
holy people, and how we're supposed to integrate them, integrate them to our
lives, like early Church father type stuff, for exactly like the Pope making
up the Seven Deadly Sins, or or Dante's version of Hell in the Inferno.
Strangely enough, Dante in the Divine Comedy, they actually regurgitate the same
seven deadly sins exactly. You know, But are they listed anywhere in the
Bible? Is my question? Well, here's the thing. There's there's a
difference between is it in the Bible and is the truth the truth? I
mean, there are things, there are things that are true that aren't in
scripture, but they're still true. So as far as them being the seven
deadly sins, No, it gets confusing because people think, well, first,
are they truly deadly? Does that mean that these are unpardonable sins?
No, there's only one unpardonable sin in scripture, and that's referred to as
blasphemy the Holy Spirit, and essentially that's rejecting God unto death. They so
it's a misnomer that they're deadly sins in that sense. However, Scripture talks
about in Proverbs sixteen through nineteen, it says, and you've probably heard this
a dozen times, there are six things the Lord hates, seven that are
detestable to him. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent
blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush
into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a man who
stirs up dissension among his brothers. But that's not the seven deadly sins.
No, so you know, vaguely, some of them might fit in.
The interesting thing is there is never, there isn't a list anywhere in scripture
of those seven deadly sins being referred to as the seven deadly sins. Absolutely
right, But every sin, just about every sin that you could commit,
falls into one of those seven. Yeah, so in that sense, yeah,
they're true. It was. Here's here's my here's my thought though,
I mean, wouldn't we be in a constant cycle of sinning and then an
absolution? Would we have to go through the whole process if we commit one
of these sins or or something to that effect. I'm just it's just an
actual If we go out and we tell a lie, I'm not I'm not
saying that that it's it's going to happen. But let's say we do something
that's wrong and then we go and absolve ourselves, and we don't learn from
and we do it again, we'd be in a constant cycle of Yes.
As a matter of fact, some of the early Church was If you read,
you know, some of the epistles, you'll find that some of the
concerns of the apostles at the time were identical to things that go on today,
and much of it ties into that concept of wait a second, So
as a Christian, you've got like a license to sin. You just got
to say sorry after every time exactly. And no, that would be a
huge problem because the concern would be that it's now it stops being the original
sin that you're practicing, whether it's lying or whatever, and now it becomes
rebellion. So if you are constantly in that state, then you start falling
into feet that are quick to rush into evil, and a man who stirs
up dissension amongst his brother and a false witness who pours out lies that are
different from just lying, because lying is going to occur, You're going to
tell lies and that's part of your sin nature. You're going to be You're
gonna you're going to sin in this life. You're not gonna stop sinning ever
in this life. But your desire is to seek a path that isn't filled
with sin. So in that process, you are constantly pointing, you know,
pointing to true north. But your compass is gonna, you know,
go off. If you are in a state of rebellion. It's like a
parent. I mean, if if a kid crashes the car, uh,
then a parent goes. You know, there's accidents happen. You're okay,
the other person's okay, it's fine, Maybe they'll get them another car.
But if the person continues to crash the car, they probably don't care about
the parents, nor do they respect them, nor do they care about the
actual car itself, or the importance of physical goods and what it takes to
actually create them and all of these things, and you would consider them to
be in a state of rebellion, and it's not. It's no longer a
state of love. If you are in that place, then you find it
you kind of fall into that Hebrews six four context of somebody who never really
came to an understanding or have a true relationship with God. You just profess
it with your mouth and say it, but don't actually believe it. Yeah,
you don't. Actually you haven't put it into place. And therefore it
says in scripture in that context, if you fall away, you will never
come back because you were never there. And so you know, you kind
of you know people in what you never had. Sure, there are people
you know in your younger days and you meet somebody and you fall in love,
and you think you're in love, and you may have some of the
emotional you know, brick or brack of love, but it's not truly,
you know, unconditional, this kind of as far as humans can do this,
this kind of understanding of one another. Then if you get into a
bad relationship and it falls apart, there's a lot of young people that feel
like, I'm never going to love again, I'm never going to get it
in that relationship because it doesn't work because they've never experienced it. So those
that kind of have partial relationationships with God are the hardest ones to bring back
because they always felt like they were in it knee deep. So that's what
scripture talks about now as far as people that are in love with God and
seeking God's will and still sin, they it's not that you should flog yourself
or you know, consider yourself to be a horrible person. All sins have
been paid for. Every sin you'll ever do has been paid for. It's
a matter of understanding who paid for it, and the purpose and what took
place on the cross and all those things, and being in that state of
appreciation and the desire to always wanting to please God and find God's will and
that type of thing. It's not about having some sort of you know,
get out of jail free card. Now I'm going to go do whatever I
want, and you go do whatever you want and go be absolved in the
year you're free to do it again. That's just not the way it's going
to work. If you put God through through the test like that, it
says, do not test your Lord God. If you put God to the
test like that and make him jump through hoops, then it comes down to
the point of you not caring about God to begin with, and the relationship
is broken. So it's kind of a vicious circle there that yes, you
through true repentance. The word repentance meaning to turn away from that. If
you're not truly trying to turn away from it, then you're not in a
state of repentance, and therefore you haven't received God in the first place.
Well, thank you very much for all your help. I appreciate it.
You're welcome. I was a very good question. A lot of things happen
like that, Steven. You'll get a lot of things that kind of are
taken from scripture and the early Church fathers, you know, Popes and Protestants
alike. They condensed a lot of things in Scripture into ways that were palatable
or easily understood because there wasn't necessarily a lot of literacy, so a lot
of people didn't read. And you know, the Catholic Church takes a lot
of hit for this too, because of statues and imagery, imagery in the
buildings. A lot of that stems from people not being able to read.
The desire of the early Church to teach using symbols and images. Now,
some people may argue that it's got some parts of the Church have gone too
far and it becomes idolatry or what have you. I'm saying that in its
earliest stages, the desire was to help people understand and to learn principles in
scripture by using physical imagery to encapsulate an entire thought into a picture. And
Protestants and Catholics alike did those types of things where they condensed teachings or understandings,
you know, even like the Sinner's Prayer or something like that, which
is really scattered throughout the entirety of the New Testament, not just one particular
scripture to help people understand. And the Seven Deadly Sins kind of is that
falls into that category. You're not going to find that particular list in scripture
as a list per se, but certainly are is that truth or the truths
about those seven deadly sins I've talked about in scripture? Yes? Are they
deadly because they you cannot be saved from them? Or God did not die
on the cross and when I was nailed there and bled for you didn't pay
for them. No, that's silly, that's they're not deadly in that sense.
They're deadly in the sense that they will pull you away from God if
you continue in a path that is lined with them. Brian, welcome to
the Jesus Christ Show. Yes doing Jesus I am well, Brian. How
are you? I'm doing well. I've been struggling with alcoholism for about the
last the five six years of my life. Oh I'm sorry to hear that.
Thanks, And I'm doing the best I can to work through it.
I've gone through AA groups where they told me to find a higher power.
I've tried going through my church groups, which is celebrate recovery to do that
portion of it. And I've even tried to go through medical detox and everything
else. And I'm finding abilities to get myself through some time. But the
thing that keeps dragging me down, in my opinion, is I don't find
forgiveness, and I'm having a trouble connecting with Jesus and God, who could
potentially help me, in my opinion, help me kind of forgive myself for
everything that I may have done bad during my struggle. So how do I
try to rebuild that connection when I know I have let God down, and
my family down and everybody else down. Your relationship with God is not based
on how bad you are, but how good God is. So when you
limit God and you say, okay, I know God is gracious, God
is all knowing. God died on the cross. Prior to me ever doing
any sin, God knew every sin I was going to do. If you
look at it in the reverse and not how bad you were, but how
great God is and how big and how good God is, then things come
into focus when you start. If you start a spiritual journey solely by looking
at yourself, you're still making yourself the God of your faith. You are
not God. You are going to make mistakes. In Scripture, it's very
clear that a righteous man is not a man that doesn't fall, but a
man who falls seven times, and seven times gets up. The key.
The key is that you're getting up. Can't You can't outdo God. You
don't have God. You have me on the cross going I die. I
died for all sins, well not this guy's, because those are just too
heavy for me to take. H go ahead? Does that kind also come
in effect? Because I that that that's just home, and that hits hard,
But that knowing that I started to make that connection, I start to
feel back together. But somehow I find myself back in that liquor store.
I find myself buying that bottle, and I find myself doing that same effect
again. Uh, will you see that as a slap in your face because
I under I try to understand that, I try to live that, but
yet I repeat that same bad behavior that is against your wishes for me.
Well, you're not dealing with rebellion in the same way your body is.
You know what's interesting is the word for sorcery that's translated into sorcery in scripture
from the Greek is pharmacia. Now, pharmachia sounds like the word pharmacy,
Yeah, And the reason why it sounds that way is that's where you get
the word pharmacy. Is sorcery in scripture is talking about drugs, mostly people
that were using drugs for mystic reasons. So you are under the influence of
something in your life that you are battling with. It is not only a
spiritual battle, it's a physical battle. It's an addictive battle. And so
you can't fight it only on one front. You have to you know,
how you become an alcoholic. You become an alcoholic one drink at a time,
Yeah, and then one drink became six drinks, and six drinks became
twelve drinks, and you kept doing that. And the reversing of that process
is difficult. It's always easier to gain weight than it is to lose it.
Right, so now you're reversing that process at least one drink at a
time. And so I'm not asking you even to look at this as if
you've got to stop. It's more like a chisel away at it and say
today I'm today, I'm not gonna drink. Maybe tomorrow, And then when
tomorrow comes, today, I'm not gonna drink. Maybe tomorrow. You're slowly
you have to do that. But when you're not drinking, your mind is
clearer to have a stronger relationship with God, a focused relationship with God.
But don't beat yourself over. The devil loves this. The devil loves it
for you to beat yourself up because the more you beat yourself up, have
you ever owed someone money and then a week becomes a month, and a
month becomes a year, and then all of a sudden you don't want to
see them anymore because you're embarrassed by it. Well, you stop asching that
phone, call, all that stuff, and maybe it's twenty bucks and you're
gonna throw away an entire relationship over twenty bucks instead of picking up the phone
and going. I feel like a jerk. I never paid you back.
I'm embarrassed, and let's build a plan. You know, I don't want
to I don't want this to separate us. I cherish your friendship. And
it's gotten too bad, too far. But people don't do that. They
beat themselves up and then they run away from it. Now the enemy knows
this about humanity. So the enemy says, Gosh, you've really really done
some horrible things. You've really hurt God. I wouldn't go around him right
now, And that's a lie from the pit of hell. God wants to
see you. God wants to hold you. God wants to kiss you and
embrace you. And as you go through you know, detox as your body
kicks this demon out and gets the chemical stuff out of your system and the
habit and break down the habit, and God wants to be there with you
in cold sweats and ugliness, in sadness and depression, all of that.
And the devil doesn't want you to know that, because once you know that,
that's how you get better. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Thank you. You're welcome. Now, now go apply it and know
that God is sitting with you. And God is holding you, and God
wants you to kick this demon. And every lie of the devil needs to
be thrown back in the devil's face. And even if you each day don't
drink to spite the devil, that's a victory. Every drink you don't take
just to spite the devil is a victory for God. Find a program that
works well for you, that makes sense to you. Apply that program.
Know that God loves you, forgives you, and died on the cross for
you before you ever did any of this, knowing you would do all of
it. And in that have peace and strength, and God be with you.
KFI on demand