Yo, what's up people? I'm your host Jay Will and I would like to welcome you to inspire guys people where we balance faith and business To guide you to your purpose and today. I want to talk about how God is good, but good is not necessarily God Let's do it good. It's not God.
So first things first. Let's just think about this whole idea of like God is good What that means right? It's like okay. God is good.
That's typically because we you know associate good right with something positive In nature, so we think like yes God is positive God is good I got you right cool and obviously from a biblical perspective God is good But what I want to talk about is the word good and what that actually mean and doesn't mean where maybe the different ways We can look at what good is because I think that is the foundation for what I'm focusing on alright So cool if God is good right why is good not necessarily God? Well, it's because of the question of what good is and sometimes from a human perspective right as human beings We just have a natural feeling about things you get what I'm saying is like hey that feels right that doesn't feel right Sometimes we question God based on what feels good or right to us. This is where you'll have people ask a question sometimes like hey Why does God allow the kids in this country to you know go and be starved? It's like okay?
That doesn't seem good So then you use your good to question God right was good to you There's a scripture in the Bible I quoted all the time There's a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is death right this path of going down this path of like What's right to me based on my own opinion could be a very dangerous path to travel, but yet at the end That's a lot of times the way we see good now What is up happening is a lot of the ways that we naturally see good based on our own opinions and what good actually is based on What God has outlined let's be real a lot of times those things just like overlap like even if it's not on purpose It's kind of like look at it like this the Bible talks about you know being a cheerful giver or you know taking care of orphans In the widows right so the Bible talks about charity So cool like if I have a charity that's given on giving money to widows then that's good those things intersect You get what I'm saying my view or feeling of good and what God actually considers good based on the word of God those things We'll intersect which I think also adds to this whole great area of is good God. I got you all right cool So the reason we got to look at this I believe is because if we don't properly as believers define what good is and at least understand how to view good Then what will happen is we'll beat on that intersection between the human point of view of good and God's point of view of good And when you cross that intersection things can get a little blurry Right and what I mean by that in particular is you could be a believer thinking because you're doing good based on what you feel And you see that at least intersects with God's good Then you can always think that I'm in God's will right and and you could really become a self-righteous person to think like I'm in God's will I'm doing the right thing you ever hear this term. He's a good guy, right? I see this a lot of times with athletes whenever people are critica athletes sometimes maybe about personal decisions or celebrities What ends up happening?
I'm when I say I see this I mean like the talking heads on TV right the Announcers and analysts they'll tell stories when you watching a game about the player and how he gives to charity and Different things and they'll be like, you know, he's a good guy. Yeah, he choked out that guy on TV last week But he's a really good guy in his community. No, that's what I'm saying like at the end of the day He can be a good guy, but that doesn't mean he's a guy guy And I think sometimes our intention is to please God But we're not realizing that that intention is based on an internal perspective and point of view of who God or good even is All right, so let's jump into the Bible real quick because I actually read the story a couple weeks ago On one of our last podcast episodes and I just happened to you know come back to this story and thinking about is good God In a different perspective and that's one of the things I love about the Bible We got to keep reading it keep researching and peeling back the layers because you might read it one day and you know Be blessed to see or hear something particular out of a story that God has to stand out and you go back to it And there may be something deeper to it. So let's go to Matthew.
I think this is chapter 19 I'm gonna share my screen real quick Matthew chapter 19. Yeah, buddy. Let's go. How do I like to know?
It's the way I like to share it. There we go. All right, Matthew chapter 19 now Pete this verse 16 Someone came to Jesus with a question teacher. What good deed must I do to have eternal life?
So this is what's crazy about this right off the top this person is attaching good to eternal life, right? Attaching good to God. We know God is good But this person is saying what good must I do to be connected to God, right? To have salvation cool, right?
And he's talking to Jesus. Look at Jesus is response Why ask me about what is good? Jesus replied there's only one who is good But to answer your question if you want to receive eternal life keep the commandments So right here Jesus is telling you like you asking me about what is good or what good can I do? Jesus is really defining his perspective on good, which is like, oh, there's only one who is good Only God is good, right?
So you may have these good deeds or these things that you're viewing as good But from Jesus point of view is like, oh, there's only one standard for good Now this is important as believers because like I said as you go throughout life You will see that there is good from a human point of view good from God's point of view There is an intersection at times between the two But many times when you peel back the layers the two are not the same and something that intersects on the surface needs and requires further Looking sometimes because once you peel back the layers, you will realize like, oh, I thought I was doing good based on God because my good Intersected with God's good, but the good I'm doing ain't doing God good. All right cool So let's go verse 18 which one is the man acts like see he like which commandments and Jesus reply you must not murder You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely.
Honor your mother and father. Love your neighbor as yourself Now, Pete my man's response to this. I've obeyed all of these commandments. What else must I do?
So again, this man is looking at it and saying yo, I'm good Like you talking about this eternal life that you know, I'm supposed to be able to get or that's out there Like I'm gonna tell you like this, bro I'm already doing good Like tell me what I got to do to get it and she's just like well keep you up keep the commands my man like well Which ones because I'm such a good guy that I'm actually doing everything right Jesus lays out all the things he must do and my man like oh, yeah, I'm passing that says buddy I do all of that now what now keep in mind on the surface at this point. It looks like he's good good It's God. That's what it looks like at this point because everything that the man is looking at it asking about good It's aligning with God. It's intersecting with God and so he's like yo all good is God everything I'm doing is godly.
I'm doing all these things I should have eternal life and let's be real real real real round Let's be real as human beings. That's how we look at it a lot of times. It's like God. I'm doing this.
I'm doing it I'm doing this. Oh no in that now. Tell me why you ain't blessing me not tell me why I'm not thriving Tell me why I'm not prosper because I'm doing everything that I see to be done Here's the thing sometimes we got to be careful when we keep going to God and asking questions because that answer You might get might cause you to dig a little deeper than you already have done IP Verse 20 I've obeyed all the commandments the young man replied what else must I do Jesus told him in verse 21 If you want to be perfect go and sell all your perfect possessions and give the money to the poor if you want to be Complete and you will have treasure in heaven then come follow me now What I love about this is all that good that that man had done had not completed him This is why I say good is not God because God is complete God is about salvation and eternal life And that man was doing all that good. He was obeying commandment commandments He wasn't murdering people he wasn't committing adultery and you could do all that good and still have not received God now in his particular instance There was something that he had possession of something that he was holding on to more than he was holding on to God Which was his money even though?
He was doing good now. This is a very tricky thing because from a human perspective good should be enough to be God in our mind Let's just be real like that's how we feel like I'm doing good That should be enough. I just I'm a good person I'm like the reason I know we think like this outside of the fact that it's in the word and it's telling me that and showing me that is because Every time not every time that's an exaggeration so many times when you see things about people in the media or things happen The first defense is he's a good guy. Hey, I'm a good guy.
I don't harm nobody dot dot dot. Yeah, buddy But you ran into my car off the road. I don't care how good you are you caused some disruption right here We always go to good when we want to defend ourselves because we view good as God. All right, let's keep going Jesus tell my man.
All right. I see all that good you doing but give up these possessions now Here is the part in verse 22 that gets tricky, but when the young man heard this he went away sad for he had many possessions Mmm. See Jesus asking some of us to give up our possessions I'll give it all up. I'll give you my car my house in my full bank account It's like okay, buddy.
You drive a $6,000 car You rent a house which ain't sure so you can get out of here You have thirty six dollars and fifty cents in the bank like that like so yeah, God I'll give you everything I'm not like this rich young ruler no, but Jesus is asking for that which you have many of right That's where it gets tricky for us because a lot of times we hold it on to something more than we hold it on to God Let's keep going Then Jesus said oh this the other part in verse 22 the young man heard this and went away sad Could you imagine leaving the presence of Jesus sad because you're holding on to something that you're holding above eternal life crazy verse 23? No, no, I want to go to okay verse 25 I love this the disciples were astounded then who in the world can be saved they asked see what I'm saying the first thing We do to defend our self-righteousness or ungodliness is we depend on our good They're looking and saying he's doing so much good Like if you could do all this good and still not have God then who can be saved? I love Jesus's response. He looked at them intently and gently can I look at you on the tinley hold on?
I don't know. I don't know if I could do it. Jesus looked at them intently and said humanly speaking it is impossible But with God everything is possible Okay, I love that First first first you got to think about this idea of Jesus saying that humanly speaking It's impossible That's telling me that if I base salvation on myself and all of my goodness I can be doing all the good in the world and as a human being in and of myself cannot be saved But the scripture says based on Jesus's response with God Everything is possible now the reason I think this is so important is the with God part and it's the part that in my humanity I lean on good as God I point to the good that people do to prove that they are godly while not having the ability at times to critically think and spiritually Critically think through a scenario and say I see a lot of good in this situation But I don't see God a lot times we take the scripture and we take it out of context and we say you know what God everything is possible Right and we might be talking about you know When in a race then don't get me wrong like God can give you the strength and all of that But in the context of what this is saying with God anything is possible is actually something much different It's saying that I need God to do what I can't do for myself and save me Ah, that's heavy me. It's what up cuz I'll appreciate you man.
Appreciate you That's heavy to acknowledge that I need God To cover my good because my good isn't enough then that would tell me as a human being I need to be careful about always pointing to good and Associated with God so that means that I need to be able to have discernment beyond the surface and there may be good that people are doing Good that people are showing but this there's there's not God in there, right? All right cool a couple more things I want to say self-righteousness I think this is really about self-righteousness at his core because when we try to determine what is good We're asking ourselves what is righteous, right? And the thing is from a human perspective It says Jesus literally says it's not possible for your good to be righteous, right? It's not possible for your good to save you as a human being from the human point of view But with God you add God to the good that you're doing doing the good to his glory and all of a sudden that good gets like Enhanced to godliness and righteousness now again What is good is asking what is righteousness if righteousness is in and of myself Which some people believe or some people behave as oh they believe if righteousness is in and of myself I don't need God to be good But if righteousness is based on God then I need him I want to look at something real quick You feel what I'm saying God cover my good something quick.
I gotta do this quick before I go. I got five minutes Now peep this I got to share my screen again. This is crazy I asked myself like I didn't ask myself to me quit line a few years back maybe 10 12 years back I was studying Satanism and I know that sounds crazy But in studying Satanism one of the things that is interesting to me about Satan is is learning that they don't actually Worship Satan all the time and from the modern perspective. They really don't You know worship Satan you feel what I'm saying and so let me let me say this before I even share I thought that to be a Satanist meant the same thing in opposite contrast of what a Christian is Christian is following God and worship in Jesus I thought a Satanist worships the devil and it's like confusing.
I was somewhere worshiped the devil But in reality a Satanist is many times in modern culture someone who worships themselves Because Satan really worshiped himself now I don't know that this is their intention necessarily but whether directly or indirectly they're worshiping themselves by saying Satan is our symbol This Satan is our symbol to disprove God and if I don't believe in anything I'm following my own righteousness So even Satanist could be self-righteous because they think they think that there is right in what they're doing Okay, I'm gonna read listen, bro We could be a Satanist and not know it you can be worshiping yourself to be self-righteous, right? Now this is crazy, right now. I want to go to this. This is actually deep I'm gonna read this real quick.
I'll just go through this article. This is from 2022 by Rebecca Shapiro who is a self-proclaimed Satanist She's a graduate of Columbia and Yale Law School. So very very smart woman I would assume based on human Intellect and she published the little book of Satanism, right? So I wanted to explore this topic quickly through the lens of someone who's pro this topic And that's one of the ways that I try to learn about things sometimes not always learn about things from the standpoint of people who are Against something but I'd like to hear what I what does a Satanist?
How do they think? What do they say? So this was an interview in Columbia magazine and it says your book debunks a lot of common myths about Satanism But perhaps the most important one to understand is that the modern Satanist don't actually worship the devil if that's so what do Satanist believe? Exactly right There are many different kinds of Satanist but most don't actually believe in Satan and don't worship him as either a god or a force of evil For the most part Satanist or non-theist and view Satanism as a modern as a personal liberation from traditional theistic beliefs We value non-conformity and revolt against the ideas of superstition and arbitrary authority Modern Satanists are non-violet and interested in the pursuit of reason justice and truth I love the last part because the last part shows me that even as a Satanist she's seeking good It's just that she's seeking it apart from God Okay Then the question is asked why you Satan is certainly a controversial idea or figure essentially Satan is a metaphor We believe in the historical idea of Lucifer as a light bringer a principal rebel angel willing to stand up against arbitrary rules of authority in Western countries in particular Christianity is so dominant many people who identify as Satanists were raised in religious restrictive households and made to Fill a press because they were different in some way so by using Satan as a symbol we're taking that narrative back and making it our own alright are y'all seeing that like Satanist actually in some ways are seeking truth and this idea of being a rebel They view Satan as someone who was standing up against God because he was standing up against tradition in order And what I see in our world today a lot of times is that there is people there are people groups who seek good and They view they're good as their righteousness But they're saying I want to strip away the idea of everything that God has put in place I want to strip away God's family because Satan she called him a light bearer who was standing up against God in tradition And there are many people that we're calling light bearers today There are many agendas that we're calling light bearers because they are being rebellious and standing up against tradition What is tradition tradition can be God's family God had a family there was Adam and Eve from the beginning God took he looked at Adam and Said he needs help took from his rib and formed a woman and gave him Eve God had a vision for family God says it said in the Bible plenty of times that there should be man should have one wife Right so that might speak against a lot of things a lot of different perspectives Right when you have to go down those rabbit holes But at the end of the day there are now people standing up against God's point of view and in some ways are they being considered light bearers are they being considered these radical truth bearers because they're standing up against tradition and standing up against order and what I would Warn us on based on the word of God is that we have to be careful not to be aligning our good and worshiping our good as God because we could be a Satanist without even knowing it All right cool.
I'm gonna finish this up here. How did you become interested in Satanist Satanism? I think this is important I've always been interested in Gothic fashion and dark subcultures when I moved from Vancouver to New York for college My friends and I would hang out in the East Village at places like the pyramid club and see heavy metal There's a lot of overlap between those scenes and Satanism. So that was my first introduction All right now the reason I wanted to specifically call that out is because this young lady is speaking to her origin She already said that many Satanists are they grew up in religious households and they became rebels But then she talked about these dark subcultures these scenes that she hung out on that was her introduction into Satanism Now what's in particular the interest in to me is that she mentioned heavy metal and that there's a lot of overlap now A lot of times in the world today.
We will say that music is just music What's the big deal is just music they just having fun They just whatever because we don't understand the dark subcultures But based on the point of view of a Satanist something that we might just view as a music genre She said has a lot of overlap with Satanism now. What is my point? My point is I think this goes beyond heavy metal I could look at hip-hop today. I could look at pop today I could look at a lot of music genres and industries today and say these music genres are getting darker darker That was her word right that was her vision the way she viewed it was darkness That's interesting to me because she is a Satanist says she works up has this idea of Satan because they've used Satan as a light beer But yet she identified her introduction through dark subcultures All I'm saying today is we should be careful as believer Under believers understand the subcultures that we were exposing ourselves to these music genres that on the surface look like people are just having fun But can be introducing you your children your family to dark subcultures that are introductions into Satanism Satanism self-righteousness Good within myself good outside of God the good that makes it impossible to be saved But with God all things are possible.
Thank you all so much for checking out this episode today. Hopefully you enjoyed it Been blessed by it. Please share like subscribe follow us on YouTube at inspire guys people I drop inspiring videos almost every day And I'm gonna be doing more videos like these coming soon. God bless y'all.
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