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In this episode of 'Playmakers' Matt & Nigel talk to Christine & Mark about how we, as believers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, go on the offensive. Using the game of American football as a metaphor for life we ask the question what is the best form of attack we have in our playbook when the sins of the flesh try to tackle us? We talk about eating, we talk about alcohol. We even talk a little bit about pornography in this episode. We hope you enjoy this first episode of a six part mini-series exploring the concept of grace within the New Testament book of Galatians
At the beginning of Galatians, Paul sets out his testimony as evidence of the truth of the gospel of Jesus and it's the same with us as disciples. The gospel of Jesus is true and our testimony of life is part of that evidence which illustrates that it's true. As Jesus says in Matthew Chapter 7 :16 "By their fruit you will recognise them."
So as we think about the message of Galatians in this Playmakers podcast, we're talking to real people and thinking about how the gospel of Jesus has transformed, underpinned and built the lives of men and women of God, men, and women in our community. How do they live in freedom and guard that freedom in Christ?
These are not the testimonies of people who are far away, but people who sit next to us at CCBS on Sundays and in small groups, real people who show that Jesus is Lord in their daily lives.
At the beginning of Galatians, Paul sets out his testimony as evidence of the truth of the gospel of Jesus. And it's the same with us as disciples. The gospel of Jesus is true and our testimony of life is part of the evidence which illustrates that it's true. As Jesus says in Matthew six, by their fruit, you will recognize them.
So as we think about the message of Galatians in this Playmakers podcast, we're talking to real people and thinking about how the gospel of Jesus has transformed, underpinned and built the lives of men and women of God, men, and women in our community. How do they live in freedom and guard that freedom in Christ?
These are not the testimonies of people who are far away. But people who sit next to us at CCS on Sundays and in small groups, real people who show that Jesus is Lord in their daily lives.
In this episode of play makers, we talk about offense. That's in the American football sense of the word offense in American football means attack. So we talk about what. Best form of attack. You have, when the sins of the flesh try to tackle you. We talk about eating, we talk about alcohol. We even talk a little bit about pornography.
Um, it's a really good episode. We really enjoyed the conversations. And especially because we were talking to mark and Christine who are a lovely couple amazing couple from our church. If you don't know them, go and say hello to them. When you get a chance to, and we hope you enjoy the episode.
Hello and welcome to the Galatians podcast.
I am your co-host Matt. Thank you for joining us. We are really excited to be joined by a number of people today. We have Christine and mark, and of course our co-host Nigel. Welcome everyone. Hey guys, so can you just very quickly. Let's just go around the room. Let's just tell a little bit about ourselves.
I'll start so that not everyone's nervous, but as I said, my name is Matt. I've been part of the community church here for, I think it's about 12 years. And my claim to fame is that my wife, Esther was the first person to be baptized in the baptistry in the care center. So beat that Nigel .
So, uh, I'm Nigel.
I am a co-host as well, although I'm not saying very much at the moment. I've been at the community church for about three or four. I'm not sure which it just kind of melds into one and I have no claims to fame with the community church whatsoever. And I'll leave it at that.
hi there. My name's mark. My claim to fame is I'm married to Christine, so, wow.
That's really easy enough, 10 years. I'm part of this group and I've been at the church for Ooh, six years and I'm married to Christine and I'm from south Wales origin. and moved here when I married my lovely wife.
And
on that note, I'm Christine. Hi everyone. I have been at the car center more than 20 years.
Let's leave it at that. I came to the Carus all at a very F very difficult, challenging time in my life, but I've learned. There's been a few more since, and they take me on hire and better places.
Guys. We are so pleased to have you here. And we've got a big, a big, big topic to discuss tonight. And so I am gonna introduce the big question.
So today the question is. What is the first line of offense or offense, especially when dealing with acts of the flesh. So should we
break this down a bit? Hold on a minute. I've been hanging around churches and very many years, and there is an awful lot of offense. I've seen people take they normally take it when I make a joke or when a prophecy comes along.
So what do you mean by offense, Matt? I, I think when,
I mean, offense, I mean, how do we proactively. Go against the acts of the flesh. And I suppose actually it might help to try and define what we mean by that. So when you hear the term act of the flesh, what immediately Springs to mind.
Sexual immorality, Hubba Hubba.
That immediately comes to mind to me, I guess I'm going off at the deep end. Am I
gonna go for it. but that is
the first thing people think of. Isn't it? Yeah. I mean, you know, this is, I am fighting every bone in my body against making inappropriate jokes so I apologize in advance if I do make any, but that's the acts of the flesh that most people think of.
But are there others
I've been thinking about this? I think you could say that perhaps. Even greed. And when I say greed, I mean, gluttony, I mean, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but you know, you want to, you want feed your flesh. And so it's a good thing. This isn't
a visual podcast, right? Isn't
it.
yeah, it is. Has anyone brought any cream cakes? Um, but, but like again, yeah, like Glu and greed. I think for me, I would, I would class that under. Acts of the flesh. Again, I'm quite happy for someone to disagree.
You're getting a bit close to the mark, cuz they're the ones we'd rather not talk about because I think we all struggle with it.
Well, I do anyway, because let's say if I eat a bit too much or if I work a little bit too hard, that's not really grieved and Glu. But I guess when you break it down, it kind of is, but there's a
good old fashioned word in it, which is gratify. I think an actor, the flesh is something that gratifies the flesh.
So we do it for ourselves. It's a selfish thing. We do it as a response to maybe some kind of inner calling that makes us wanna do it. I, when I feel stressed, I eat, which is why I look like a, we. Um, but you know, there are different things as well. There are far less edifying things that I've done and do when I feel stressed as well, but we might get onto that later.
Hopefully not in too much detail. Yeah. I so
wish you guys hadn't brought that one up, cuz I thought it was a really good Christian until you mentioned that and started breaking it down.
So Christine, tell us about your sins. No, sorry. So .
So you, you said we were jumping off the deep end and again, with, um, when you talked about, you know, sexual immorality, I think one of the biggest ones.
Just come to mind. Pornography is huge, absolutely huge. And we, one of the things that we, we did say when we wanted to do this podcast is we wanted to talk about the difficult stuff. And I think we can't talk about dealing with acts of the flesh without even mentioning pornography. So again, let's, let's just, let's just kind of clarify what we said.
So we talked about sexual immorality. We talked about greed or gluttony. We've mentioned gratification or self gratification, and we talked about pornography. And so when, when we look at this question, what is the first line of. Offense. So how do we, how do we proactively, uh,
so the reason attack, well, the reason the offense thing is brought up is because the Galatians, the overall thing in Galatians is that Paul is writing to the church in Galatia.
And he's effectively saying you had the gospel, you had it. Well, you understood it and you've been drawn away from it. Why have you been drawn away? This is how you get back into it. You concentrate on what we taught you. Follow what God says. Jesus is the salvation, not the law. It's by his salvation on the cross that you are saved, not by works.
And so in this case, what we are talking about is the acts of flesh, correct me. If I'm wrong is really the things that are. Temptations and drives that, draw us away from where we are supposed to be, which is in the presence of God, because nothing in pure or disgusting or horrible or unkind or wrong can be in God's presence or can be born in God's presence because God is perfect.
God is Gracey. His love he's light. So sorry to get all theological, but that's the first line of offense. Therefore is what. That we use to fight these acts of the flesh, that we are tempted by drawn towards.
If I may interject here. I think for me, the acts of the flesh are that instant gratification, like you said, but it also takes me away from Christ.
So even though it might feel good in the moment, if I continue to do it, I then start getting up by guilt. Which begins to convict me, not condemn, just convict me and I should be better. So there is a kind of that moment of decision when I can change, but actually it's so much easier just to carry on with what feels good.
So I think for me, Over time you learn the instant gratification. Isn't worth it. It's not the worth, the pain of coming away from God to offend him just because you wanna feel good in the moment. And actually, is it really making you feel good?
You see if I'm completely honest about it. I know that to be true in my head.
I know that to be true and I do it anyway, and I, I feel. Shame. I feel disgusted. Uh, myself, I've struggled. I mean, I'm being completely authentic here. I've struggled with pornography since I was a teenager, I still struggle with it. I'm better off than I was. As a teenager. I struggle with food habits because I eat a lot.
I struggle with anger, all of these things in honesty for me, they're acts of the flesh because they are. Often the first line of defense I go to when I feel rubbish and then I feel even more rubbish because I've done them. And then, and it's just this thing, how absolutely. How do we get through that?
It's interesting that other conversations gone, because the one thing that comes to mind. Self control and how we practice self-control. I remember years ago, uh, when I first became a Christian, there, there was a conversation in a preach with one of my old pastors from Cardiff. And he was telling a story about, you know, it was to do with sexual IOR morality and, and things like that.
It, it was really interesting anecdote. He said that a lot of the pastors that would go on the road preaching to different churches and whatnot, when they would stay in hotels, it would. the concierge or the reception to take the television out of the room. Mm-hmm so they weren't put in that situation.
Yeah. And I think that sometimes we need to put things in place to help us with self-control. You've had my phone before Haven with, so I've asked Christine before to put a password in my phone. So there's no, I don't get access to adult content. When we are entering into a covenant together as husband and wife, I'm repenting of the sin that I've committed by watch porn on the other occasion.
And I've gone to my wife and actually said, right, okay, we need to address this. So can you put a password on my phone? So I can't access it in, in a moment of weakness. And I think self-control, we can put parameters in place where. To, to help us with self-control cuz it's that teachable moment. It's that split second decision that we go down the wrong path.
And if we physically turn away from the SIM, we're about to commit, you know, in that split second, or we can put practices in place that allow, help us to do that. Then I think it's gonna help us with self control and help us with fighting against the acts of the flesh.
Yeah. I mean,
it sounds a bit draconian, but it's not at all.
It's about changing habits and creating new and better habits because as Nigel was saying earlier, we don't actually like the end result. Anyway. Very, very simply. If you think about, I know Matt and I go to London quite a lot or least we did pre COVID just very simple London bridges. To stop people, jumping have literally put bushes spiky fences to stop jumpers.
And you. If there is an obstacle to getting to what you want to do, and you have a moment to think about it. It has actually reduced the rates of jumpers of bridges. So from a practical point of view, it's just about creating better habits and behaviors.
Yeah. I, I think the other thing, because you talk about habits, but I think.
Communication is a massive, massive one. You talked about, you know, being married and how you've dealt with that. I remember being a, a single man. It was even worse. You know, you have lots of time on your hands and, and so finding effective strategies to help with that. Were extremely helpful, like blockers, like blockers on, on that.
You can, you can go to your, your internet provider and, and make sure that actually nothing can get through. There was even, I remember I, I downloaded some software and I had two people to, uh, two people that I trusted that was accountable to. And if I searched for certain stuff, the software would literally send them a copy.
Of what I'd, what I'd
looked at. It was covenant
eyes or something. Something like it was something like that and it was completely free. I'm sure. I'm sure they still still do it now, a group that wasn't a WhatsApp group. This was before WhatsApp was big, but me and a couple of my friends were, were single, uh, in our twenties.
Um, we wanted to honor Jesus. We had our little club and we called it lust busters.
Okay. Love it. and what it, and what it. Was, if,
if we were feeling tempted, all it was is we could just send a, uh, a text out to say, lost busters or something like that. And we call one another and we say, right, let's go out and do something or let's go out for a run because it was it, you know, a lot of time, it was just boredom and being on your own and thinking, like you said, getting that instant gratification.
And so having those things in place. Like you said, like they have them on, on the bridges. It just gets you to think, do I actually wanna do this? Mm, one final thing that I, I found very helpful was I read a book called I kissed dating goodbye by a guy called Joshua Harris. And, and he had written in one of these, these passages that God has basically got a house for us in heaven.
And every time I choose. Those websites over honoring Jesus. It's like the blueprints change. Mm it's. Like that you lose the square footage. Now I'm not trying to guilt myself into that, you know, but at the same time, knowing that it made me want to choose what God had the blueprint for rather than the instant.
Right. Let's let's have some fun.
Yeah. Yeah. And what comes to mind when I hear that instant gratification, I love your what's that love busting group that you got lost busters. Oh, lost busters. instant gratification is depending on you keeping it quiet, keeping it in the dark. So it's almost like that by getting it out there, talking about it, exposing it almost dispels.
It's not even mystery it dispels the secrecy and it actually, it demystifies demystifies it and some of the attraction, believe it or not goes, mm. Yeah, you. Then that's the thing came over when you were saying that it's really, I hate to say it, bring it out of the dark and into the light or it's not just me,
everybody struggles.
At some point we have to move on from pornography. However, I remember I was about 31, 32 and God. So I had been, I've been a minister in the past, so I'd been a URC minister at the time, and God really convicted me about pornography. And it was only an occasional issue because before the internet went absolutely mad.
I mean, you know, it was an occasional issue. So, um, I remember that happening and I remember going to a pastor friend of mine, very mature Baptist minister, and saying, I think I need to talk to Sophie about this Sophie, for those of you that don't know is my wife, she's the much nicer, one of our couple and I think I need to talk to Sophie.
And he said, oh no, you don't want to do that because that just puts pressure on her. That's not right. Just deal with it between you and God. And I remember. I've learned such a lot from that, because that is so wrong. Shame finds its way through in the dark. The whole thing about keeping things in the dark.
There's a passage in the scripture. I can't remember where it is. I'm sure Matt will know. Cause he knows the scriptures off by heart. there's a passage in the scripture that says he's got, was in the dark, must be brought out into the light. And I remember. Telling Sophie that I've got this problem. I've had this problem since I was a teenager.
I struggle with it and wrestle with it. Most of the time, it's not a problem, but when I feel stressed, that's when it comes through. And I remember confessing that to her and I remember how awful it felt at the time to do it, but how much better it is now that when I've had it as a problem, I can turn around and say, Sophie's happened again.
And she'll say, I'll pray. And that was so important. And then the next week I preached about it in church. Wow. And, uh, that was an interesting day that very brave of you and half the men came forward for prayer. Mm. I mean, at that time, none of the women came forward for prayer and it's coming out that women too, it's not an issue just for men, but it was.
Wow. That is under the surface. It doesn't take much scratching. And by putting shame on it, then we are just making it negative. Yeah. Making it impossible. And it is not a matter of shame. There is a difference between shame and conviction. Shame only leads down the rabbit hole and only re leads away from God.
Conviction leads to healing. If we follow God's conviction of us, it leads to healing Matt in his God, G brain has found this passage
with the help of an iPhone. Yeah. John one, five, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. And, and that, that's the thing, isn't it. When it's brought into the.
The darkness cannot have any power anymore. And that's that? I totally agree with you, Nigel, actually, a similar story with myself again, the, the, when you know that you have to confess that to somebody be that someone you respect, if a guy's another guy or a ladies, another lady, but actually to confess it to your partner.
I think if anything, or
to everyone listening well, yeah. On a podcast,
but, but, but yeah, yeah. yeah, yeah. Too late. Everyone knows now um, but to, to do that, you know, there, there have been times where I've had to do that and, and as you said, Pray praying through it. I think it's a common thing, but it doesn't get spoken about enough.
I mean, you, you, two guys, you are married, like care to
jump in on this one. um, well, a little segue away from pornography. I mean, yeah, please. Yeah. So I don't have a problem with pornography and I'm glad that Nigel mentioned women, cuz I think the age of the internet makes it easier because you've got explor.
So since of the flesh, we talked about pornography, sexual immorality, greed, gluttony. What else?
Well, personally, I've dealt with drunkenness in the past, you know, and obviously my wife knows that I'm a, was an alcoholic. Um, six years ago when I came to Bishop Stortford and met Christ. , I didn't even know I was an alcoholic, but, or I was in denial of being an alcoholic rather, and I was a functioning alcoholic, so I had just binge drink.
And this was something that I sort of tried to keep to myself. Really. I was in denial, which most alcoholics are really, to be honest, you, they are, you know, you you're in denial of your, your lifestyle. What, how it affects you. It was a real problem in our marriage, early doors and nearly ruined, well, we nearly didn't get married because of this problem.
And, you know, I had to come to the end of myself, but with Christine's help being extremely graceful and loving me more than anybody's ever loved me before. Do you know what I mean? And we battled through. You know, it took, it took a while, but I had to stop drinking. I, it come to a point where it was, well, no, I can't just binge drink every couple of months or every six months.
It was like, no, my marriage is more important than this and I need to. Again, show self control. And I had to, the drink was controlling me, so I, I had to, I had to stop.
Yeah.
How did you deal with it, Christian? So I think for me, mark says the marriage, his marriage was more important. The way I saw it is probably the way God saw it.
That mark was more important than this. And so all the time that mark thought he was functioning, I had seen way before we'd got married, all the good things that God had planted in his life had turned around his life from the, um, revival income brand. And, but what mark didn't realize by giving in to this acceptable social drinking to excess that he was actually keeping himself away.
For what God had for him and God, do you see mark today? I don't think mark could have envisaged what God had for him, but God had spoken to me that mark had a drink problem and I'm not being the heroin here. um, that's a whole other problem. yeah. Um, so God really spoke to me that there was an issue that mark had to deal with and mark had to own up to.
And it wasn't for me to go to mark and say, you've got to give up otherwise, because God had to do the work for it to yield the right results. And so I think I prayed, I showed grace and you did, when mark finally told me that he had a problem with drinking, cuz he'd go for weeks without it. So he could have looked like he didn't have a drink problem, you know, a football game would go on and then that would.
you know, and it would be acceptable. So mark had to come to the conclusion that he had a problem. And then it was for me to support him because God had already told me this, but I wasn't gonna be a doorman if anybody knows me. So
what you said, you, you, you showed grace, what does that mean?
So for me, that was not to bully.
Somebody into what I wanted them to do, even if I could see that's. God had for them that was to allow him to come to that place on his own. And that I was willing to walk that journey with him and with God. But part of that journey was me, him and God, not the boost. And it, it was. And the way it happened was really almost so instantaneous.
Cuz you'd think, well, how am I suddenly gonna give it up? You know? And I was playing avoidance tactic. I remember even at the wedding sort of like going always, all right, for me to have a glass of champagne or is it right? But mark would actually. Actually pour me a drink and I'd like, oh, is that alright?
Am I doing? And he'd be saying, I don't actually want it. So what God did was like real miraculous. And I think in that me giving mark space and God's space to work, you did a better result because I think if I thought I could do it again, me acting in the flesh who wouldn't have had the same result. He would've given it up for a bit, something would've happened, a trigger would've happened and he would've drunk for a bit, but allowing the space for God to do it.
And I actually had a good conversation with God and said, do you know what what's acceptable to me? And what's acceptable to you. If it doesn't, if mark doesn't wanna play by those rules, this is done. And I, you know, I didn't want a wreck relationship. I've been single for 15 years, but for me, I had to, um, Say to God, I trust you that you want what's best for mark and you want what's best for our marriage and have to leave it there.
So sometimes with grace, there is this absolute yielding that God knows best, and he will
come full for the best result. Did you feel that grace mark, like,
definitely,
definitely because you know, it didn't happen overnight and we revisited. On a numerous occasions where I'd, you know, something would trigger me from my past.
I remember once that we, something, this is really stupid, but Christina had gone to sell a mobile phone on her, on Facebook, on Facebook. Yeah. On Facebook. And this. Really dodgy guy was insisting on coming to the house to pick this phone up. And it was a really dodgy deal. And I dunno what this guy was gonna do, but he was, he, he was coming from London and it triggered all the violence in my past.
And that I've been through and I knew this guy was up to no good. And I knew that he was coming to our house and it, the thing is with trauma, it triggers, it brings the past right into the present. So after I dealt. The guy and told him, you know, you're in anchor into my house. You know, I went next door, got a baseball bat.
I reverted back to my old, and this
is what God needed to take out of mark. Cuz mark went to get a baseball bat and I went to the bedroom to pray. And mark said to me, why you so calm? And I said, because you've told him not to come and I've prayed God, I've prayed to God that he will protect us. And mark went and got a baseball.
For me as a Christian, that was irrational because I went, but I've prayed. And the fact that I said, I've prayed, mark, couldn't get. And that just spiraled
him. Yeah. And you know, that triggered then obviously the guy didn't come in the end because I managed to stop him from come in, but it was hang on a
minute.
I prayed to God. That's why he didn't. sure I had faith. You were running you're in
the baseball. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're
right. You're right. He didn't come and yeah, you're right. It is because it is. God's doing, you know what I mean? You know, sometimes I don't give him enough credit for the stuff that we never.
See him do it, but the point was that after I'd come down from that heightened state, I went and had a drink, you know, and it, that trigger then sent me on a, a spiral for, I think it was two weeks. Wasn't it? It was. And I don't think that was the last time, but. You know, God's healed me. Do you know what I mean?
And it's, Christine's had to be graceful in that period of time while I've healed physically, emotionally, spiritually, you know, mentally, you know, I don't get triggered anymore because God's healed me. I don't suffer from the traumas of my past anymore because God's been a father to me. Yeah. But along that journey, Christine had to be very, very patient and forbearing, and.
Graceful and understanding and show peace. And the other thing that the thing is with Christine, she's always full of joy as well. And it's surprising how that can count a balance. Yeah. But no, but you know, I say this to you all the time though, through me, you are. You carry so much joy it's and living in a house full of joy every day is, you know, that must have healing properties.
Do you know what I mean? I really believe that
you might as well get with the program or get annoyed. So he got with the program. Yeah. And for me, as mark said that for the two weeks that he spiraled out out after that, if I thought grace was the soft touch. He probably would've carried on. He had to know that my boundary and God's boundary was, if you want to keep repeating this cycle, you are gone.
And for me in a new marriage, that was difficult, but I had to trust God. Yeah. And I would've gotten a. Wouldn't have got this man is in front of me who was hungry to grow and do things for God. Yeah. But God always knew that.
Yeah. And the things we value so often we hold him as more precious than God does.
But the reality is God holds you guys more at his heart and a Palm of his hand than anything. I think it's really important that we remember that. This stuff is a process. You know, there is a, there is a, a streaming Christianity and a streaming faith that says, well, you come to the Lord and everything's better.
I have a name for that. And I don't want to be the second person in this podcast to beep out it's just rubbish. The reality is that this is a process. I remember there is, there was somebody who said, um, if salvation is the only purpose for our existence, why are we still sucking air? Why aren't we taken to heaven?
The moment we come to faith, and the reason is we are given the privilege, the blessing to grow God. God's purpose is growth and its transformation, and we are given the purpose to grow and all of us sitting around the table here. I mean, I, I, I can't speak for everybody else. I am just gobsmacked at how much God has done in my life.
How mature he's made me how I am still nig. I'm still the same person, but I'm just more Nigel than I used to be because I'm, God's Nigel more than I've ever been. And if we do this in three or four years time, I'll be even more like that. Never. I just think God's so good. Yeah.
So let's, let's start something up then.
Cuz we, we say quite a lot, um, let's go around and, and see. Okay. So what is the first line of offense? When it comes to dealing with act to the flesh, mark
self control, definitely self control. I think that if we can practice self control, it's just a starter. It's that teachable moment. It's that moment where you just maybe either count to 10, if you're angry or pause, if you're flicking through your phone and you come across something that could lead you.
To watching something you shouldn't be watching or it could be getting cut up in traffic, in your car, whatever it is. It's just that split second trying to practice. Self-control that's what I
think. Can I have two go on then gentleness and kindness coming back to what you or Nigel were saying earlier on.
If you are more gentle kind to yourself first, actually, you're probably not gonna want that instant indulgence. Yeah. You know, cuz you feel good about yourself. Yeah. And when you feel good about yourself, you wanna do good to others. Yeah.
Yeah. For, for me it's joy and finding where I get joy from. Yeah. You know, and choosing actually.
There is so much more joy in knowing that I'm gonna hear the words well done. Good and faithful servant mm-hmm than it is from a quick high, by going on a website that I know is not good for me and not good for, for
others. See, I I'm gonna sound hyper spiritual now, cuz I'm not gonna refer to the fruit of the spirit court.
I'm gonna refer to a verse, a few verses before it's in, uh, Galatians five and it's the second half of verse six and it says the only things that counts is faith expressing itself through love and love is one of the fruit of the spirit, part of the fruit of the spirit. And it's that love of God. It's being in God's place.
The, I always find when I fall and when something's gone wrong, when I'm feeling rubbish about myself and I'm not the happy go, lucky Skippy kind of bloke that people see from the outside, I'm quite intense. And I'm quite melancholic when that happens. And I find myself drowning. It's always because I haven't been in God's presence.
It's always because I have lost. Of who God says I am because I am a child of God and he loves me and I love him and he loves what I love and he hates what I hate. He just loves me so well, yeah. Sorry to sound super spiritual.
No, that's great. Well, look, thank you so much for your honesty. for sharing your time with us.
And I just wanna thank you to everybody listening as well. Hopefully we've got your brain to ticking over this question and maybe you'll find your own answers to, to that question once. What is the first line of offense against the sins of the flesh. Thanks again for listening. Bye-bye
we hope you found this episode of the Playmakers podcast worthwhile. It's so important for us to know that we are not alone as we follow Jesus. We're all in it together. If there are things that the podcast is highlighted and you need some support or follow up, you can reach out to the church office or to your small group leader.
If you're not in a small group, try and join one, if you can. They're so good for support and friendship. Next time on the Galatians podcast, we're gonna be thinking about a different question. And the question is when life hits you extra hard, how do you get up and carry on in faith? We look forward to seeing you then.