Pastor Podcast - Acts 8:1-25 - Persecution, Proclamation, Proof, & Pride

Pastor Mark is on vacation for July but the Sermon Reflections keep rolling!  Jarvis & Nate sit down this week to reflect on Pastor Mark's sermon yesterday from Acts Chapter 8!

Grief hits the early church like a wave, and Acts 8 refuses to skip past it. Stephen is gone, the pressure rises, and believers are forced to scatter. We sit with that reality and talk honestly about what it’s like when you’re trying to walk faithfully and life still hurts.

From there, we trace a surprising theme: providential persecution. What looks like setback becomes spread. The gospel moves outward through ordinary people, including Philip, and we connect that to the hard seasons many of us know well: job loss, family change, unwanted transitions, and the kind of disruption that makes you ask what God is doing. We also talk about persistent proclamation and why believers around the world who face real persecution can expose how comfortable faith in America can become.

Then the passage gets even more personal. The Holy Spirit’s work in Samaria raises questions that require careful Bible study and context, not quick assumptions. And Simon the magician forces a heart check: he “believes” and gets baptized, yet still tries to buy God’s power. We wrestle with what true repentance looks like, why religious habit can mimic real faith, and how humility marks a genuine relationship with Jesus.

If you want a thoughtful sermon reflection on Acts 8, Christian persecution, the Holy Spirit, and the difference between admiring Jesus and surrendering to him, press play. After you listen, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so others can find it too.

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Transcript

Welcome And Weekly Sermon Reflection

SPEAKER_01 0:20

What's up, Life House family? Welcome back to our weekly time to reflect on the sermon. And you're probably wondering where the video is, but Pastor Mark is on vacation this week with the family, taking some uh well-deserved time to R, but I am joined Jarvis did okay last week. So having Jarvis back, he did the interview. So he and I wanted to do some tag team and uh man just keep our sermon reflection going.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

So two weeks in a row, man. I know I appreciate it. It left me behind on vacation. So I'm home by myself. Yeah, my kids left, my wife left. How's that going, man? Lots of solitude listening to I'd like to mow the grass all day after. Yeah, so it's been good. It's just, you know, I'm just using using the tractor, you know, doing what I gotta do. So that's good. God'll use the time, right? That's right. Listening to the Lord. I was listening to podcasts and everything. So, you know, quiet.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Fantastic. Well, for the Life House family, you know, we like to take this time each week just to dig a little bit more into the sermon. Pastor Mark brought us a great word as we kind of rounded out this series in Acts, which was really focused on seeing the birth of the church, the movement of the Holy Spirit. We've talked about it's really about not the Acts of the Apostles, but the Acts of the Holy Spirit. And so we see kind of bringing this series to a close in chapter eight, much more that we could read, but uh what we wanted to focus on. So just taking it through this week, the points that uh we walked through yesterday are the providential persecution, the persistent proclamation, the Pentecostal proof, and the prideful presumption. So any kind of thoughts on how how things started, Acts chapter eight that you saw yesterday.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

I

Stephen’s Death And Providential Persecution

SPEAKER_00 2:02

mean, I think coming off of last week, right, you see this beautiful, right, but also tragic death of Stephen where you have this man who's a servant of God who proclaims the truth, right, and is serving in this way and is killed, right, and is murdered. And I I think what's valuable about what what eight happens is it picks up right from that. Like it doesn't just leave to another thing, like it literally picks up like like you're there, you know. You can feel the you know, as you think about, I was reading a book a couple days ago and I was saying, like, don't just read the the words, like feel what the people in this in this situation would be feeling. So as you're thinking about the end of seven, like these are people who are hurt. I mean, they're there these are people who are you know down and out because a guy that they knew was killed for the faith in the first, right, of those that were killed from the for of the faith, you know, after Jesus ascended, right? John the Baptist, but in a different way. But you get to this, I mean they're they're feeling it. You could you could just imagine, right? The death of a of a loved one, the church is booming, everything's going well, they're all sharing, they have everything in common, and then this happens. And I think when you think about the the reality of the spirit and how how the spirit will move and work in light of what we will talk about today, I think that's a a primary thing that I I understand, right? As Pastor Mark mentioned, the one through eight, right? Like seeing the acts of the spirit through the working of the apostles, and then also through the working of soon-to-be apostles, right? Like in in some way, like God uses what the enemy meant for evil, he meant it for good, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:42

And so, yeah, just a brief overview of that. Yeah. No, and I think, like you say, we see right here in verse 2, you know, that great lamentation was made over him, and they took the time. So I think we can definitely learn grief is real, you know, and we shouldn't dismiss, you know, the hard things in life. You know, this is loss, and like you said, really being faithful. You know, a lot of times that can be the hardest times in our walk is when we feel like we're walking faithfully and and bad things happen. And so we shouldn't, you know, we can take from God's word, like that should not be something that surprises us or catches us off guard. Yeah, which you said ultimately, as we read through the verses, we'll see how God uses that, but we don't diminish the feelings and things. So I think we can definitely, when we walk through hard times, when we experience change or difficult circumstances, this is where our faith really shapes us and how we can apply it to look for where God's working. You

Seeing God’s Care In Hard Seasons

SPEAKER_01 4:43

know, I've kind of learned you can go back, I know both of our testimonies are on the podcast. You can go back and listen to mine. Like we had a time where I think we moved, I was writing it down during the sermon, like six times in ten years. Wow, you know, so like Ash, my wife joked, we were like in felt like we were in the military or something. It's like, man, like what is going on? But when we look back, we saw where God was taking us deeper every time. And it kind of felt I in no way would want to compare our persecution, quote unquote, to what's going on in acts, but it was like I lost my job and I had to move to another state, and then I had a horrible boss who, you know, didn't care for like he and I didn't see eye to eye, and so I had to go leave for another job. And then, you know, similar circumstances, you know, like the government and and just the bureaucracy getting to me and God moving us to a different position. And so again, these are more, you know, US, but comparatively, what we saw is every time we moved, God had a purpose behind it and ultimately coming to Delaware. So I don't know if you can relate to some of those thoughts.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

I mean, I think the yeah, obviously, like what we're going, what we're mentioning isn't necessarily persecution, right? Like it's hardships and and struggles, but I think seeing the providential care of of our God is what I think we're seeing in that, in that God used and and was acting in providential care even in persecution in this moment. But I think you know, for myself, there's so many. I mean, I I think, you know, just even the hardest some of the hardest situations in my life of like, you know, my mom, right? Like, and and having to move with my grandmother because my mom lost custody of us, and you know, stuff like that to where you know you're moving from another state to live with someone, you know, that's not your parent. But looking back, like my grandmother worked for Evermared at the school, and that's where we the church met, and that's where we got invited, and that's where I got saved. And so it's like if I wasn't, I was supposed to move move to Wyoming in my sixth grade year, and so if I I was if I was in Wyoming, you know, so all these different things that I think God providentially does, and even you know, working working here, like it was I started as a facilities guy, and it just was like, what am I doing? I'm cleaning toilets, and you know, like, but God used each of those things, I think, in the progression to I won't give me uh give me to where I am now, but knowing that Pastor Mark said yesterday, as all and everyone knows that cliche hindsight is 2020. But when we look in the past, we see and we can almost like a chessboard, right? You can see the moves and what is played out and why it makes sense the way it does. And I I think in some way, I I see that here, right? I and I know that's the first point, so it's like you shouldn't think, but like Paul being the one to approve of the execution and then to go on to write you know half of the New Testament, I I think is is on I know is on purpose, right? Like I God providentially has that in play. And I think the first point of them being persecuted, I I think is so important because you see exactly what they went through is exactly what Paul will go through for through the r for the rest of his life. Right. You flip to chapter nine, right, and you're seeing the conversion from Saul to Paul, right? Like you're seeing that. And so then from that point, he spends three years somewhere, right, like learning and then growing. So then for the rest of his life, right? Like he has three years kind of in a calm, but then from three years after that on, I mean, he's spending time in prison and being beaten and being shipwrecked, and like the worst of the worst, and then ultimately you know that he was beheaded, like he his head was cut off, and so it's like the same, it's it's just like one of those like God used his persecution of the Christians to I think inform his receiving persecution, and he calls it a blessing, he calls it really a

Persistent Proclamation Through Real Opposition

SPEAKER_00 8:36

privilege. And so I think when you think about what we uh walk through, and even if it is uh uh persecution in some sense, or you're fired because of your Christian beliefs, or you're ostracized ostracized because of you know your stance on abortion or you know, things like that, like those things are hard because of what they separate you from, right? Relationships or finances or whatever it might be, but like God uses those things in great ways to refine your faith, but also to impact those that experience it. You know, like you think of the the church in China right now, like they're under this deep persecution where they're literally I heard a story, and maybe I can't I can't remember if it was Pastor Mark, I heard someone say there's multiple like if they're trying to go to a church, there's there are people going multiple different ways. Like none of them are going the same way to this house to get there so that no one can track them on the same patterns to this house so that they can worship together. Or maybe he said it was in India. I'm mixing up my things, but then he said there I don't know, I was a uh I was listening to a podcast and he said it's just in India, they're going multiple different ways to get to this house, and then they're in silence because where they're at, if they were to sing loudly, they would be they would be killed. And so like he gives them a sheet of paper that doesn't have uh he's not singing to it, all he's going is mouthing verse one, and then they're they're thinking and meditating and just singing in their minds these words, because if not, like they would die. And and so like the But they're still finding a way to worship, right? And like I think that's what I think often in America we lack, right? Where you know in China they're they're ripping out pages of the Bible and they're folding them up and putting them in like cookbooks and stuff because they can't have a full Bible, but yet we're never reading the Bible on our thing, or you know, we're we're going to church once a month, or you know, like and I think that's a real downfall that I think America has.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

And I think that's the second point, the persistent proclamation. Like, how will we react in tough circumstances? And to your point, there's many more difficult circumstances around the world, people literally being persecuted. A lot of times we're very soft, you know, we just deal with hard times and we're crying out to God, and you know, like, God, what are you doing to me? I've lost a job or whatever. And not to diminish tough circumstances, we acknowledge hey, if you are going through job loss, loss of family, having to move, challenge like those are real challenges. But then how will you respond? Will you still praise God in those circumstances? And to your point, I remember hearing a podcast where it was, I think it was in Russia, you know, during the communist regime and the underground church, exactly what you were talking about, and the Soviet Union was falling and crumbling. And so they were talking to some of these pastors, and they were actually very worried about this for the reason hey, when the persecution goes away, we don't really know who the true believers are. When there's persecution, we find out how strong our faith is. And it was a C. S. Lewis book, it's called A Grief Observed. I think I may have mentioned it a long time ago on this podcast, where at various times I share it with people, it's when C. S. Lewis is going through the loss of his wife and he's going through a real kind of crisis of his faith. If you know C. S Lewis, strong believer, you know, very much one of our, you know, we go to C. S. Lewis a lot of times for a lot of wisdom, but he's really challenged in his faith. But he comes to the realization that if this hard time causes my faith to fold or I lose my faith, then my faith was never really faith. It was just a house of cards. And he comes to the realization, God knew how strong my faith was. I didn't. It's these hard times that help me understand what I believe, how much I'll lean into the Lord. So will we persistently proclaim Christ as our Savior even in those tough times, or will you walk away? Yeah. And I think we see that when Jesus has tough preaching, you know, he's like to the apostles, you know, now the apostles say, Where are we gonna go? You got the words of life. We're not going anywhere else.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

But a lot of people left, you know. So yeah, I I think too, I I think I'm gonna it's scriptural, right? Like it just you look at 1 Peter 1, right? He talks about how those though you have met various trials, like these trials, and that church in 1 Peter, like they're going under the reign of Nero, who's literally burning Christians alive, like burning them in the streets, and like he he burnt his own house town and blamed it on the Christians and like just terrible stuff. And yet, like he's saying, though you reach these trials, like these trials are gonna refine you as gold is refined by fire, and then what they'll produce is a greater faith in Jesus. And so it's like when we walk through the things that we do, James too, counted all suffer or counted all joy when you meet the sufferings, right? When you meet trials, like when we go through those things, God is just so intentional and and purposeful in them that like they ultimately then, like you're saying, produce in us a greater faith. Like we're able to know, like, God, what are you doing? Okay, I don't understand, but God, I know that you understand. And I I was preaching in Psalm 100 on Thursday and talking about the beginning of it talks about how he says, make a joyful noise, all the earth. And excuse me, and it says, verse 3, he then he says, Know that the Lord is God. And it's like, okay, well, what is the what is the purpose? Why is he saying, okay, like the Lord is okay, what's the purpose of having Lord and God, right? Are they not the same? And it's saying yes, but he's also what he's doing there is he's separating the Lord, L-O-R-D, as Yahweh, and God as Elohim. And what he's trying to communicate is that Yahweh is the covenantal God of the universe. Like he he came into covenant with Israel, he's intentional, he's personal, he's relational. But then the God portion is translated to Elohim, and it's emphasizing that he is the supreme creator, sustainer, provider of the universe. And so when I think about those things in reality to persecution, it's like we have a supreme God who is in covenant with us and yet uses these things intentionally in our lives, just as a parent would to like help discipline and refine us into greater faith and greater character and greater Romans 5 says, right, when you meet these things, right, it grows in your endurance and perseverance and character and ultimately in hope, because we know that hope in Christ doesn't put us to shame. And so I think in the persistent aspect of it, we see like these things cause us to proclaim God in a greater way. Like when we see like, okay, I've been brought low. Paul says in Philippians like four, eleven through twelve, he says, I've been brought low, and I know how to bound, but in all things I'm content. I know the secret. Exactly. And like that's what I think we see in verse four through through eight is like he says, now those who were scattered were uh went about preaching the word. Like they're scattering from the persecution, they're scattering after just witnessing their friend to die, their friend being stoned to death. And what do they do? They don't like hush hush and figure out they literally go out preaching the word, like they're persistent in proclaiming God. And he uses that. I mean, he he uses that throughout this, but then I mean, we'll see kind of throughout the rest of Acts, like that's when they meet persecution, they don't shy away, they don't bow out, like they continue to go persistently proclaiming to use the point in a great way.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

I think

The Spirit’s Work In Samaria

SPEAKER_01 16:03

that leads to then the Pentecostal proof. Like in those times, as we learn to trust more, as we lean in, you know, when hard times hit, our reaction should become okay, Lord, I'm looking for where you're working, and we'll just see amazing things. And so will we see the same signs and wonders? It's a different conversation for a different podcast, you know, some of those kind of ideas, but you will see God's hand in those times. And I know when we look back and you're just seeing amazing God moments that that's why journaling can be beneficial. You know, I think if you listen to our podcast where we had Rob and Steph talking about their adoption and how that was like a three-plus year journey and that impacted my wife and I because we're on a similar journey, but you just see God start to open doors, close doors, just his hand working. And I think that's we start to see the spirit and we start to understand more of God will prove himself faithful through those times. For sure.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

Yeah, I mean, and and I think too, thinking about this this kind of section of verses, right? Like just the the way that the spirit, like, like you said, is evident. Like he moves, he works. And as I was thinking about, right, just it it is a little confusing, right? Like you're like, what do you wait, why is this? I thought we got the spirit then, and you know, but I think just the reality that like God works in mysterious ways, He does things, especially in the early church. I think sometimes what happens is as I'm thinking about the text, like we can always we can look at the first eight chapters or even more and say, like, well, this is what God did here. It's like just because God did it here doesn't mean that's what he does or prescribes for us all. And I think that's kind of what we see in this in this moment is like God's using unique uh instances in order to make and bring about glory for himself in this moment, right? Like, and to show the the importance of the ends of the earth, really. Like in my mind, like I'm thinking through as Pastor Mark mentioned yesterday, thinking about Samaria and how the Samaritans were like these hated people because of their like crossbreed of like Christian and pagan. And so I I like I believe why that that is is like God was using He He sent the Apostles to him. One, like He like He sent so I personally so that they in my mind so that they would see that like even the Samaritans can believe, which then I believe sets up, you know, you get into Acts 10. I believe it is, Acts 10, 11 or 12, one of those where Peter has the dream and he goes and he interacts with the Gentile. And like, like I believe God's doing these things. Uh all of it, I think goes back to the point one, like it's all providential. Even the way that the Spirit is poured out in this instance is providential in the aspect of it, it's setting Peter up. Because Peter came, he was one of the like he came and he laid hands, and then he's going to have this dream. And and so I think it's it's an interesting reality to think through. Like, I think that's why critical thinking in Bible study is important, right? We often kind of just read the text, and then it's like, well, that's what it says, and it's like, yes, but like what is the context of the of the the scripture saying? Like, why is it saying this? What is the background? What will happen later that you know will kind of inform this and what happened before? And so I think it's it sounds confusing, but it's not fully confusing when we think about that. And I think God does those things kind of in a roundabout way, right? Like in in in our lives, right? Where things that don't necessarily make sense make sense in the moment because of God's personal nature in in the instance. Now I don't think anything will deviate from scripture or deviate from like God's character, but like what he does in someone else's life, he might not do in yours. What he does in someone else's situation, he might not do in your situation, just like he didn't do you know the outpouring of the spirit anywhere else that I'm I'm aware of at this moment, like anywhere else in that in the later portion that he did in Samaria, like where it's just not necessarily re replicated in the same way. And so, yeah, it's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

Yeah, kind of that progressive revelation, and as you say with scripture, when we really look at kind of the people involved, you know, God had as much for you know Peter and John to learn from this as well. You know, their eyes, like you say, needed to be opened to God's plan for the Samaritans, ultimately the Gentiles. That, like, hey, and I would also say here, you know, seeing like, oh hey, Philip, you know, he's just a deacon, he's not an apostle, but God is working through him and through this persecution and what God is doing in people that we in our pride or blindness might not see. You know, so he's just continuing to open to how he cares for the Samaritans and and can work and and how when we are walking by the Spirit, you know, things and through prayer, yeah, that these things will start to open up.

SPEAKER_00 20:53

And that's a good I was yeah, like thinking about Philip was a deacon, like he was another one set up in that same regard. Like it was Stephen, and Philip was in that list. And so you could imagine like the fee, the fear that this dude's feeling. He's like, wait a sec, like one of my one of my guys was like the guys that was right with me, you know, he was killed, like, and yet his first actions like is to go and preach, and then you see later in 26, like he went and he shared with the Ethiopian eunuch, and like the Ethiopian eunuch was saved, and like yeah, like the the the persistence in trusting that the Lord was faithful in all of his ways and that his word will not return to that people will believe. Yeah, so interesting.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

Which

Simon’s Pride And A Heart Check

SPEAKER_01 21:34

brings us to Simon and some prideful presumption. This one can like you say, this is a passage important to really think about, reflect, look rightly on, because you know, Pastor Mark talked about yesterday. Like, was Simon saved? Was Simon not saved? And we see here in scripture it says he believes and was baptized, but then still has these heart issues. You know, he's thinking kind of legalistically, very worldly, that I can buy. Power from God. I can I've heard it put well, I think, by Tim Keller. You know, it's like we somehow still think we can put God in our debt, which shows our heart doesn't really fully comprehend the grace and the gospel if we have this mindset. So I know we were talking before we jumped on the mics or some different different opinions. You know, was Simon saved? Was he not? Will we see him in heaven? Will will we not? But we definitely can take away, you know, that understanding of making sure it's both. I always think Romans 10, 9, you know, it's confess with your mouth, we need the understanding and the belief, but our heart needs to be postured right before God. So any kind of thoughts, reactions you had, or yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:39

I mean, I I do think it can be confusing. I mean, uh yeah, like you said, like it isn't, I mean, to see the word believed, and then you're like, wait a sec, why is he acting like that? You know, but we But you know, even the demons believe exactly they understand what Jesus is. Yeah, yeah. You think you're like, okay, like why why is that? And why and I think like you mentioned, like, I don't think we'll ultimately fully know, right? Like that I don't think it's possible. I have my own belief. Like, do I believe he was saved? I don't think so. Like looking at he says, repent, and he says, you know, you have the gall of bitterness and in the in the bond of iniquity. And so I don't I don't think so, but I think what it does is it shows us, like you said, that we can believe, but not actually believe to use the the same word. And I I feel like I use it often, right? Like where there's a difference between like belief and and and an emphasis, belief where yeah, I can I can acknowledge something and I can you know even ascribe it as good and even maybe kind of structure my life a little bit around it. But when you truly believe it causes action, like it it causes a new work. Like when I was saved, it did a new thing in me, like it changed my life. And then it's Corinthians 5.17, like you are a new creation in Christ, the old has passed away. And so I think with Simon, what you see is this reality that like I think what he saw was good, right? And and a part of me, like I don't know, he he saw that this was a good thing, he saw that it was working in mysterious ways, and you know, and I think there was an aspect of him that yeah, believed in it, but yet uh never was truly converted personally. That's what that's my stance, but was never truly personally converted into it, but yet and which is why I see I think he he responds in the way that he does, right? He almost re reverts back to his old habit of like magician, right? Like, wait a sec, you can do like kind of sorcery too, like with you know, giving the spirit, like give that to me, like I want that, you know. And I think it it kind of as we think about maybe some application. One, I think there the application is like check your heart, right? Like, what do you truly do you actually believe? Or is it just something that you ascribe as good and you you think is valuable and you see other people benefiting from it, so you think, yeah, I I should believe in that, and so yet I'm gonna I'm gonna kind of follow in what I think is the right way. Or is it like, no, I'm confessing with my mouth and I'm believing in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God, that He is who He says He is, that He was raised from the dead, like that He conquered conquered sin and death, and because there's a distinction, right? It's it's almost like And this is gonna be for those parents who don't like Santa Claus, this is maybe if your kids are listening and you do you might want to turn it off.

SPEAKER_01 25:23

Warning, you can pause the the audio now.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

Um I was a kid I believed in Santa Claus, right? Like I believed that he brought presents, I believed that he came down the chimney like the whole nine. We put out cookies, like I believed. I still believe in Santa Claus, right? In the ass like I found out at like I don't know, I was I was old, I was like 12 or 13. My family had had a little rough, you know, financially, and so I was like, I don't know who was bringing us these presents. But like I I found out and I was like, okay, then I shifted my belief from like a real belief to like yeah, I just generally believe in Santa Claus because like it's a cool thing to believe in, right? It's good, it's uh whatever, you know, like and so I think there's the distinction in like true belief, in like I can believe in something as good, but not actually truly believe in what's real, you know what I mean? And I think sometimes that happens in uh in us in in in the church where it's like, yeah, I generally believe in in the principles and the values, and it's good, but to say that I have true repentance and belief, I I think a lot of people would say that they don't, or maybe they would be confused to say that they don't. And so I think it it's a valuable to say, check your heart and and see what is is true in you. And I think that's why Pastor Mark emphasized yesterday. Like, have you truly received the spirit, right? Do you know that you know? And I think when you truly believe, you will know that you know, right? You'll you'll sometimes battle assurance, right? And because the enemy lies. But first John 5, 11 and 12, it says this is a testimony, right? That God has given eternal life, that life is found in the Son. He who has the Son has life, and he who does not have the Son does not have life. So if you have the Son, you have life. But do you truly have the Son?

SPEAKER_01 27:03

You know, so I think a lot, and this can be a particular warning. You know, if you grew up in a Christian household, praise God. Yeah, big blessing. But I think what we see Simon here too, Simon kind of follows the crowds. Yeah, you know, we see that Philip preaches, many believe and are joyful. And these were people who used to, you know, kind of worship or you know, look up to or admire Simon, and now their lives are changed.

SPEAKER_00 27:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

So like, and I think to your point, like, why do you believe what you believe? Is it, well, this is what my family, my parents believed? Is it I just think church is a good community that I want to be part of? Or is it truly because you have recognized your sinfulness, you have humbled yourself? Yeah, I think that's the prideful point here is are you still prideful? And so we have to continue to kill pride, you know. So we could argue maybe he did get it and he was just still caught in a godly belief. Like you said, we kind of like we kind of get left a little bit because we're gonna learn something. Because otherwise, if if God kind of finished the story here, we might just think that's the only way. Exactly, instead of truly seeking the heart, like you said, and and checking our hearts before God and understanding like we should seek to make sure our hearts are right before God. We need to repent of old beliefs and allow God's word to conform us to continually. And I think that was something again, we kind of see here. Simon, you know, Peter tells him to repent, and he just says, Well, pray for me that this won't happen. Like, I don't said one. That's kind of a worldly concept, like I just don't want the consequences rather than I need to repent. So again, I'm kind of on the fence. We'll find out when we get to heaven. Find out how I can kind of see both. Yeah, you know, we're a hard number. So I think that's the importance of have you repented? And and that is that we're in community, but we all our community won't save us, our church won't save us.

SPEAKER_00 28:59

It's that personal heart posture that we have for God. Laying on hands won't save you, church attendance won't save you. None of those things. Yeah, true relationship with Jesus. Why do you believe what you believe?

SPEAKER_01 29:10

That's right. I do what I do because of what Christ has done for me. I've felt that forgiveness, and and that's I know we talked about a little bit too, like people who don't feel they have the Holy Spirit necessarily, but have you felt in your heart that repentance, that need? That's right. And that's what drives us forward. And again, pridefully here, Simon's looking like, I want to be the super Christian who can do all these things. And if we truly understand Christ, it's a humble, God use me in whatever way, you know, whatever gifts I have. For some it'll be preaching, for some it'll be just encouraging, for some it'll be ministering, serving. Yeah, we all have gifts. So there's ways that we will then be moved forward in that direction.

Takeaways And How To Respond

SPEAKER_01 29:50

So a whole lot to unpack. You know, Life House family, we hope. I'd say I'd recommend me wrong, you know, like looking at our circumstances rightly, how we can understand the hard things in life, as well as making sure we're looking for God in the circumstances and keeping our heart right before Him. So it's good. So big takeaways. Hopefully, again, Lifehouse Family, thanks for joining us. We like to keep this going on a weekly basis just to give you a little bit more digging into the scripture. Don't let it stop on Sunday, but continue through your week just meditating on God's word, what we can learn, how it can continue to change us. So Jara, thanks for joining me. And Lifehouse Family, thanks for taking some time with us. We again hope this continues to encourage you through your weeks. We'll look forward to seeing you next time. Thanks for tuning in to the Life Talk Podcast. If this episode encouraged you, please be sure to like, comment, subscribe, and leave a review so others can find this content as well. And we'll look forward to seeing you next Monday for another great episode.