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Real conversations about following Jesus when life doesn't slow down — from a pastor who's still figuring it out too.
So here's a question I want to ask today. When is the last time something you read, heard, believed actually changed the way you live? Not made you feel something, not inspired you, but actually changed something. Because if we're really honest with ourself, the answer to that is kinda uncomfortable. And that's the question we're gonna tackle today.
Pastor Greg Rains:Well, hey there. Welcome to the God Made Podcast because Sunday doesn't fix everything. This is a conversation that me and my wife have just about the gap between scripture and maybe what we learn in a sermon on Sunday and what it looks like when we actually live it. And and this week, we're in James chapter one, and James chapter one has some very uncomfortable things to say about that gap in our lives. So this is my wife, Christie, and she's gonna discuss this with me and see if we can help you guys out and help us ourself out as we go through this process.
Pastor Greg Rains:So
Kristi Rains:Alright. Well, number one, it was a really, really good sermon. I know you don't like me to brag on you, but it was it was convicting. You mentioned in one of your sermons, I mean, one of the services Sunday that you hated the book of James at the same time it was your very favorite book.
Pastor Greg Rains:Yeah.
Kristi Rains:Tell me why that's so contradictory.
Pastor Greg Rains:It's not contradictory at all. What are you talking about? Now I love the book of James because I love the way he writes it. He him and Paul are my favorites, but James is just so blunt. And, he just lays it out there, you know, without doesn't doesn't cut around anything.
Pastor Greg Rains:He just lays it on the table and says, this is the truth. And I love that because
Kristi Rains:It's you.
Pastor Greg Rains:Because it's very similar to how I am. Yeah. But at the same time, he just lays it out on the table, and that's very hard sometimes. And even me, I've I've been exposed to the book of James for a long time. I've never preached it before, but I have taught it in a youth group.
Pastor Greg Rains:And I go through it with my discipleship groups just about every time I start one. And even after all those times going through it, it still is just exposes so much in me. So kinda makes you hate it. But at the same time, I love it just because it's so blunt, and I know I mean, it shows me what I need to change in order to be a good follower of Christ.
Kristi Rains:Right. It talks about looking in the mirror
Pastor Greg Rains:Yeah.
Kristi Rains:And then walking away and forgetting what you see and comparing that to hearing the word and doing the word. You hear it. You don't absorb it. You don't do anything with it. Talk about that in our regular lives.
Pastor Greg Rains:Well, I know I could give all kinds of examples about how I've heard the word and then didn't didn't follow through with it. I mean, James is not just James. The Bible is a mirror. Hebrews talks about how it's living. It's active.
Pastor Greg Rains:It cuts you like a two edged sword, and it does. It is a mirror. It exposes in us things we don't want to be exposed within us. And when we see that, it's not always a pretty picture. But on the other side of that, it also gives us that that image of what it looks like when we're really in Christ, you know, that that follower of Christ, and that's a beautiful image.
Pastor Greg Rains:So you see what you're called to be, and then you see what you actually are, but most of us don't wanna see what we actually are, so we just kind of avoid the mirror. And maybe you'll hear a few words, especially like if you're a churchgoer, you'll hear it preached on a Sunday morning, but you don't want to expose yourself to it anymore. So you just kinda walk away. And as soon as you walk away from it and you're not engaging, you kinda forget what all it exposed in you. And that's where what James is getting to.
Pastor Greg Rains:This will expose you, but when you walk away from it and it's not like a big part of your life getting into scripture, then you're not gonna remember what the mirror even had to say about you.
Kristi Rains:Do you think that we don't wanna be exposed because we're just ashamed? Or do you think and we just wanna cover that up? Or do
Pastor Greg Rains:you That's a good question.
Kristi Rains:Do you think that's we just don't wanna deal with God stuff right now? We I remember but prior to I was saved, I used to I remember saying this multiple times when Christian friends would try to reach me. I would always say, I'll get to that God stuff later. I don't wanna do that right now. Yeah.
Kristi Rains:And I think I was being convicted of by the Holy Spirit to move toward him, but I didn't want a thing to do with that yet.
Pastor Greg Rains:Yeah. That that's an interesting the way you said that because that that is two different things. It probably is shame. I mean, if you mean, I when somebody shines a lot on things you're doing that aren't wrong and you know that they were wrong when you did them, that usually brings up shame, especially for followers of Christ. And at the same time, we do those things because we like them.
Pastor Greg Rains:I mean, it's not like I I talk about it all the time. Sin's enjoyable. That's why we sin. If it wasn't fun, you wouldn't bother doing it. So you don't want to change, and at the same time, you probably feel guilty when you're exposed.
Pastor Greg Rains:I hadn't put the shame part into it, thinking about it. I was looking at it more from the angle of, do you want to change or don't you want to change? But there also is that. You don't want to be exposed. It's like, I don't look in the mirror looking for my fat rolls.
Pastor Greg Rains:I don't want to see those. I don't like that, so I don't want to see it. So I avoid it. But I do want to change it, so that's kind of two sides of it. I hadn't thought about the shame side.
Kristi Rains:Sorry.
Pastor Greg Rains:No. That's good. I'm glad you're bringing that out because I'm sure there are those out there who that's the way they view it. And, I was just looking at it from are you willing to change side of it.
Kristi Rains:Alright. But you mentioned in your sermon about, who is Jesus to you. It's I forget exactly how you worded it.
Pastor Greg Rains:Something along the lines of what difference
Kristi Rains:difference does does your Jesus make?
Pastor Greg Rains:Yeah. We all have a version of Jesus in our head, and none of us have a correct version of Jesus, not a 100%. But when you look at that question, I think it's important for all Christians or and especially those who claim to be Christians because some aren't that claim they are. We can talk about that later if you want to. But is Jesus really changing anything in your life?
Pastor Greg Rains:Because if there's no fruit in your life, then you've probably not got the gospel in your life. Is Jesus changing the way you view the world? Is Jesus changing the way you interact with the world? Does Jesus make you love other people? Does he make any difference at all?
Pastor Greg Rains:When when you go to work tomorrow, is Jesus gonna change the way you interact with your coworkers? Is he gonna interact with the way help you, interact with the way you do your job? You know? I mean, not cutting corners, doing it the right way. All things to the glory of God.
Pastor Greg Rains:Does he make any difference? When life sucks and you're hitting a wall and you're in a valley or whatever it is, does he change anything for you? Does your life look any different than whoever's walking down the street next to you that may not believe in Christ? That's the question I think we've all really gotta consider. Has Jesus really changed me?
Pastor Greg Rains:Because if he's not, something's wrong.
Kristi Rains:Right. There's people who you mentioned this again in your sermon. You were talking about people who you know, James wrote this to Christians. And there's people who have been saved, and then they never went any further than that. They took that gift that Jesus gave them, but they never were they never were discipled.
Kristi Rains:They had discipleship on the table. They never grew. They never learned. What do you say to these people? And how do you know that you really are saved and you just haven't discipled versus you never really had salvation in the first place?
Pastor Greg Rains:Yeah. We'll start with that part of it because I heard a podcast, I think it was yesterday I was listening to it, from another pastor by the name of Josh Howerton. I know you've listened to him before. I think some of our church people have listened to him before. And he was addressing that question that someone had asked him, you know, how do I know for sure?
Pastor Greg Rains:You know, I I keep doing I forgot how he worded it, but I keep doing dumb things, basically. I keep sinning. So how do I know I'm saved? And he said that's how you know. That's a very good indicator anyways because they have guilt.
Pastor Greg Rains:And the guilt is evidence that the Holy Spirit's working in your life, changing the way you view the world. Right. So when you do things that you know are wrong, does it really eat at you? Does it bother you? Whereas, do you go and do things and you just don't care?
Pastor Greg Rains:If you don't care, then you're probably not saved. So that that's a that's a good indicator to look at it. You you mentioned the discipleship side of it. That's a big reason people don't change. They never get discipled, and that is a huge failure of the church.
Pastor Greg Rains:I think it's a huge failure of the church I've been a part of or the churches I've been a part of my whole life. There was not a lot of focus on discipleship. I would only focus on focus on how many said yes to Jesus and got baptized. That that was all that really mattered. How many people raised their hand and walked the aisle and all those kind of things.
Pastor Greg Rains:That's all that mattered. But that's not how you measure success. How many of those people are walking faithfully with Jesus? That's all that matters. Are we making disciples?
Pastor Greg Rains:The Great Commission doesn't say go baptize people. I mean, that's part of it, baptizing in the name of Jesus, but it says make disciples. Disciples mean you are the whole idea behind discipleship is you are becoming more and more like Jesus. So we've left that out there where we don't there's not an expectation of discipleship, and that's that's on the church for not putting that expectation on there, but it's on you, not you particularly, but it's on the believer, when the opportunities are there, we don't take advantage of it. It's our responsibility to grow.
Pastor Greg Rains:It's the church's responsibility to help you do that.
Kristi Rains:Right. You can't play victim about it. If you were saved, you've gotta make the effort to be discipled, find somebody to disciple you, Dig in. Yeah. Yeah.
Kristi Rains:It's I think if people are fully surrendered to the Lord, and the Lord is their Lord, and Yeah. He's in control, and they let their selfishness go, how how do you, as a person who isn't fully surrendered, how do you how do you get there? How how do you say, okay. I wanna do that. I just don't know what to do.
Kristi Rains:Because I I've talked to people like that. It's like, I don't know what to do.
Pastor Greg Rains:Well, that's the first step, admitting that's I mean, if you really wanna get there, you need to admit you gotta do something that is not just gonna happen.
Kristi Rains:Gotta move.
Pastor Greg Rains:Gotta move. So the first step after you do that, I mean, you need to get in your bible, but you need to have someone who walks through that with you. So find someone who is further along in their faith than you. They don't have to be real far along, but further along in their faith than you. How are you doing this?
Pastor Greg Rains:Read scripture with that person. Be held accountable with each other. Find a group. I've got a group of guys that I meet with every single week, and then you hold hold me accountable too. We talk about scripture all the time.
Pastor Greg Rains:You need to have those people in your lives. Get in a good bible believing church if you're not in one. And if you're in a bible believing church and you're still not getting fed and getting engaged, have a conversation with your pastor. What can I do? How can I take this step?
Pastor Greg Rains:Because I wanna go further. Because I guarantee your pastor, he wants you to go further. And sometimes, I can speak from experience, we we don't know why you're not or why people aren't growing. We need to hear. You know?
Pastor Greg Rains:I need this. And we'll help you take those next steps if it's a pastor worth anything. I know there are some out there that probably aren't. But first step, get in your bible, find somebody to do it with and get in a church, to start growing. If you're in a church and you're not growing, you need to talk with your pastor and find out what's going on.
Kristi Rains:So what are characteristics of a fully surrendered Christian? Like, some you know, like, if you're gonna describe them, what does it what does it look like?
Pastor Greg Rains:Well, I mean, could stick with the fully biblical answer and I think it it gives the fruit of the spirit. You gotta be full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. And it's not, you know, I've talked about it before, that's not fruits of the spirit. They've all got to be present. Maybe different degrees.
Pastor Greg Rains:Are those growing in your life? Do you love Jesus more than you loved him yesterday? And do you have compassion for other people? I mean, think that's that's the essence of being a surrendered Christian. I'm gonna do what it takes to live this out, to have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.
Pastor Greg Rains:I'm gonna make sure I'm doing what it takes to grow closer to Jesus, and I'm gonna care for those who who are outside of me, who are outside even of my family. James addresses that in chapter one. He talks about, you know, caring for the orphans and the widows, and it's not just orphans and widows. That's the example he used. It's caring for those, loving those who can't give anything back to you.
Pastor Greg Rains:That's what it looks like. It's a life of sacrifice, a life that's really driven. Everything's driven by Scripture. Everything you do, the word has an opinion on Jesus has the right to tell you this is how you need to do your job, this is how you need to do your family, this is how you need to do this and this and this. Everything, Jesus has an opinion on.
Pastor Greg Rains:Are you saturating everything in your life with scripture? So I said a lot there, but it comes down to that. Saturated in scripture, fruit of the spirit, love Jesus to let people.
Kristi Rains:That's a good answer.
Pastor Greg Rains:Well, there you go. How about that?
Kristi Rains:I think we're done.
Pastor Greg Rains:She said that's a good answer.
Kristi Rains:In James, it says it talks about being quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger, what's that look like in our twenty first century lives?
Pastor Greg Rains:Well, anger's the most dangerous one because there is such thing as righteous anger, and that righteous anger is always in defense of God or the things God loves. So that's the first question. What's that look like in your life? Are you angry all the time? And if so, why?
Pastor Greg Rains:What are you defending? Are you defending your own pride, your own selfishness, your own desires? Are you defending the name of Christ? Are you defending the gospel? Are you defending the truth?
Pastor Greg Rains:What what are you angry about? Is it just? Is it righteous anger? Slow to speak? Slow to listen?
Pastor Greg Rains:I'm pretty good at slow to speak. What's that?
Kristi Rains:Quick to listen.
Pastor Greg Rains:What did I say?
Kristi Rains:Slow to speak. Slow to
Pastor Greg Rains:Yeah. Slow to speak, quick to listen. I am pretty good at the slow to speak part. But when you're good at the slow to speak part, you can fake your way through the quick to listen. Just because I'm not speaking don't mean I'm always listening.
Pastor Greg Rains:And that's in relationships, but it's also when you're engaged in scripture. And really what that means is you come with an open mind to a conversation with someone or every time you open your Bible, and you're not coming with the answers already there. You are listening for what the Holy Spirit's saying, and you're slow to respond to it until you feel, I've got the answer. Does that make sense?
Kristi Rains:Not the second part.
Pastor Greg Rains:We explain what what doesn't make sense about it?
Kristi Rains:Waiting for the Holy Spirit or waiting to respond.
Pastor Greg Rains:Yeah. I mean, if you if you come with a response already formulated and you're quick to throw it out there, you're not listening to God. You're listening to yourself.
Kristi Rains:That's okay. I get that. I get that. Okay. So quick to listen, I think you said in your sermon, that's not that doesn't mean you're a good listener when someone's talking to you.
Pastor Greg Rains:Yeah. And I'm not a lot.
Kristi Rains:What? Yeah. What what does quick to listen mean?
Pastor Greg Rains:It means you're actively paying attention to what they're saying and what's I mean, in the context, a lot of what James is saying is actually engaged in scripture. Mhmm. And it's I'm not just reading the words. I'm letting the spirit actively speak to me through these words. So you are actively seeking to listen to what the spirit says.
Pastor Greg Rains:But that happens in your day to day life too. Are you actively seeking to listen to your wife or your husband or your kids, even though that one's hard sometimes? Are you actively listening to your boss? Or have you already made up your mind what the answer is gonna be? Do
Kristi Rains:you think it all just leads back to selfishness? Yeah. When I hear the descriptions of this and think about Oh, I don't know, about the anger. When I get angry about something, it's normally like, I deserve more than this. I I I I and it has nothing to do with the Lord.
Kristi Rains:I'm not and it's not righteous anger. It's very rare that I have to defend God in in my world. So I think we're just a selfish bunch of people. Myself.
Pastor Greg Rains:I mean, all sin, truth in lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and that's all selfishness. I'm gonna get what I want because it feels good. I'm gonna get what I want because I want stuff, and I'm gonna get what I want because I'm I'm me. I'm better than other people or I deserve it. So, yeah, it's all rooted in selfishness.
Pastor Greg Rains:Every sin is self. So Alright.
Kristi Rains:In your sermon, you talked about the two it's a story that you heard, the two dogs Yeah. That everybody has, and they're always fighting each other. What are they fighting about, and how do
Pastor Greg Rains:you Yeah. That was a story I heard in a sermon, and it was this story about a Native American elder who lived a long life. He was looked upon with tons of respect because he was just a good, honorable guy. Reading the story or listening to the story, there's no evidence he was even a Christian, but he was living a good, honorable what we would call a good, honorable life. And he was asked in his old age by a reporter who was interviewing him, because, like doing a profile or something on him, how have you done it?
Pastor Greg Rains:How have you lived this good, honorable life? How have you made sure to live in a way that people respect and not responded to all the negative in life. I mean, everything you've gone through, all those kind of things. How do you keep from being bitter and angry and respond in a good way? And he says, I I don't.
Pastor Greg Rains:It's fighting me all the time. He said, I got two dogs inside, and one is fighting with anger, pride, selfishness. The other is leading me towards love and humility and respect of others. And the reporter asked him, how do you ensure that that one's going to win over the anger? And he says, the one that I feed, that's the one that I'll win that wins.
Pastor Greg Rains:You look at that as a Christian, we've all got that. We've all got that sinful side that's really pushing us towards selfishness, and if you're a believer, you've got the side that Jesus has made you new, so he's wanting you and the Holy Spirit's making you into that new person who loves other people, and those are in conflict with each other. So which one are you feeding? And how do you feed the dog that's going to make you humble, love other people, honorable, all those kind of things? You feed it by engaging in Scripture, by making sure you're being a disciple, by sitting under the preaching and teaching of the word, in prayer, you'd I mean, corporate worship and private worship.
Pastor Greg Rains:A lot of people miss the private worship thing, and that's sometimes some of the most powerful worships when you're on your own. Constantly looking to feed that side of it and not that side that's making you angry all the time.
Kristi Rains:Okay. I want to get to this because this is a really important part of the sermon and of James chapter one, you asked the question, what do you think about when you think about God when you're by yourself? It was a quote from a d a a
Pastor Greg Rains:w a w to answer. Yeah.
Kristi Rains:So what do you think about God? Not the theological, churchy answer, listing all his attributes. What do you personally think of him when you're by yourself?
Pastor Greg Rains:Wow. You had to ask me that one.
Kristi Rains:And not necessarily you personally. I mean, you used that as transforming how we think about ourselves, basically.
Pastor Greg Rains:Yeah. Well, how you view God when you think about God, what do you really think about? It kinda tells you where you're at with God in your life. So do you view God as a judge? He is.
Pastor Greg Rains:But is that how you view him? He's always looking at me like
Kristi Rains:You're a mess.
Pastor Greg Rains:Greg messed up today, and I'm so disappointed in Greg. Do you view him as just a rule maker? God has made all these things I gotta do and I gotta stick to if I'm gonna make him happy. Do you view him as sovereign? Does he have control over my life, and do I let him rule every area of my life?
Pastor Greg Rains:Is he my lord, my king? What do you think of when you think of him? Do you think he loves you? I mean, those are all important things we've got to understand about God. All of it's true.
Pastor Greg Rains:God loves you. God's sovereign. God is a righteous judge. But it's not true when you start looking at it, those things by himself, and you say, God's a judge. Because if that's the only thing you think about God, you start thinking, God hates me.
Pastor Greg Rains:I'm not good enough. If you look at it and just say God is all love, then you start looking at him saying, oh, I can do pretty much whatever I want to do. He's gonna forgive me. What do you think about when you think about God? I mean, do you really think about the God of the Bible, or do you think about some idea of God that makes you more comfortable with it?
Kristi Rains:And then you followed that up talking about that, what God actually says about us.
Pastor Greg Rains:Yeah. What does God think about when he thinks about you? Yes. Which is kind of the incorrect way to say it because you're always on God's mind. But it fit with the Tozer quotes, that's why you say it that way.
Pastor Greg Rains:But what does God think about when He thinks about you? He thinks about two different things. Number one, He either looks at you and says, You're my enemy. If you're not in Christ, if you've not accepted his son as your savior, then he looks at you and it's a hard hard word. You're his enemy.
Pastor Greg Rains:And if that's someone who's listening to this, who's never accepted Christ as their savior, that is the reality of their position before Jesus. You are the enemy. And it's not because he doesn't care about you, it's because you have chosen that. You've chosen to be on the other side of it. If you are in Christ, no matter how many times you messed up, even if you mess up today and tomorrow and the next day, when he looks at you, he says, you are beloved.
Pastor Greg Rains:You are my child. That's all that really matters. That's all that matters. Mess up today. You are beloved.
Pastor Greg Rains:You are my child. Mess up tomorrow. You are beloved. You are my child. You do something really big.
Pastor Greg Rains:You are beloved. You are my child. He may be disappointed. He may hope more for you, and he is making a new you if you're letting yourself be discipled. But when he looks at you, that's what he thinks.
Pastor Greg Rains:You are beloved. You are my child.
Kristi Rains:You're gonna make me cry. I just automatically think, because I put everything in terms I can actually comprehend in my brain, but you think about your own children. There's nothing that they could do to make you not love them. You're always gonna love them no matter if they mess up royals royals I can't even say it royally or or if they're having a great day and they're doing all the things that you want them to do. But, so I know God's a lot bigger than normal
Pastor Greg Rains:here. Our feeling towards our children it's hard for me to comprehend it because and I know you're the same way. I would do anything for them. And that pales in comparison to Jesus for us.
Kristi Rains:You said something. I don't even know if I have it in my notes. You said, something about a good father tells their a child their the truth. Yeah. No matter if it hurts them or not.
Kristi Rains:Talk about that with our relationship with with be God.
Pastor Greg Rains:Yeah. Well, God has something for us that's greater than what we already have. He's molding us into something, and sometimes that hurts. Somebody shared with me, I think it was one of our deacons shared with me a story about kinda similar to that. And they asked, who was the artist that sculpted the the statue of David?
Pastor Greg Rains:Do you remember who that was?
Kristi Rains:Was it Michelangelo?
Pastor Greg Rains:I think he said Michelangelo. And and that the question that was asked apparently a long time ago was how did you form that into form that block or that marble or whatever it's made out of? How did you form that into the image of David? And he said, I took away everything that wasn't David. And that's what God's doing to us.
Pastor Greg Rains:He's taking away everything, chiseling it all away if it's not in the image of Jesus Christ. That's who he wants us to be, and sometimes it's very painful. But if he's not honest with us and points out the flaws and points out our weaknesses and points out our sins, that's not love. Love has to be honest. And and because he wants more for us, sometimes it hurts.
Pastor Greg Rains:It hurts really bad sometimes. It may offend us. If you've never been offended by the Bible.
Kristi Rains:Haven't been reading it.
Pastor Greg Rains:Yeah. Haven't read much of it. You definitely haven't read the book of James because it hurts, and and that's that's what a loving father does. You think about it in in your own life. If we're not honest with our kids and tell them right and wrong and when they make mistakes, point them out, they're not going to become better human beings.
Pastor Greg Rains:And if Jesus doesn't expose those things in us, we are not gonna become fully formed followers of Jesus Christ.
Kristi Rains:I don't know where our time is, but that's a good way to end it.
Pastor Greg Rains:Well, yeah, our time is actually up.
Kristi Rains:Is it? Wow.
Pastor Greg Rains:Yeah. So that was that was good timing. So well, I hope that, you all have enjoyed this, and I hope that maybe, the Lord has spoken to you through this. I think we've had a really good conversation, had a little fun doing this, still trying to figure out what a podcast looks like. But, hopefully, hopefully, you're getting something out of this.
Pastor Greg Rains:And if you did, please do us a favor. Subscribe to this channel. It it helps more than you know. Subscribers, likes, make a comment. Comments help a lot.
Pastor Greg Rains:But the biggest thing, share it with somebody who needs to hear it. I know there's other believers out there who are struggling just like you and me who just need to hear the truth of the gospel, maybe need to be brought back around. And maybe there's someone in your life who's not a believer, and they just need to hear there's some hope. So share this with them, and we'll be back next week. We're gonna be continuing through the book of James.
Pastor Greg Rains:We're jumping into chapter two next week, and let him beat us up again. So until then, we will see you next week. This is the God Made Podcast because Sunday doesn't fix everything. See you next week.