Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:01 Hey, Brian Phillips here with you today. Welcome back to the grease ops podcast. We're going to be going into part two with a guest that we have of pastor Phillip Williams is he's from our local region here. So it's Philip Brian, Evan and I, and we're, we're discussing how grace empowers us to conquer darkness. Some takeaways of just practical things we can do spiritually to fight kind of darkness and within our inner man. And then also how we can fight darkness, a tangible darkness that we find in the earth through the physical, how do we fight physical darkness as well? So that's the discussion we're having love for you to, to, uh, join us on our social media platforms at gray SOPs to 12 also would love for you to consider partnering with us. If you believe in the vision, we are going to go global with this thing. So we'd love for you to help fuel our projects and just kind of help us keep fuel in the tank for the vision to, uh, to move full time into this. So if you want to partner with us, you can go to gray, sops.net/partner and sign up there.
Speaker 0 00:01:15 And then you look at what did he do? He came in, he called 12 men to follow him. He started a community and then he tells this community, um, which actually grew up to over a hundred people at one time, a hundred, maybe even over 120 or so. And then at the John six message, you know, eat my flesh, drink my blood. They're like, whoa, you're crazy. He loses like a hundred disciples in one message. And how does a man value the presence of God or value salvation is that we have to first see, we, we all know this. We all know our own depravity. We all know our own. We all know how dark sin is. I don't, we don't have to talk about that a whole lot. You know, we've got a whole culture now, political correctness and LGBTQ who's redefining all the terms and trying to, and all that is, is man's way of justifying sin.
Speaker 0 00:02:08 That's all it is. And it's complicated because we've allowed a hundred genders to be written down on paper. I mean, who can even who can even keep up with that type of nonsense, it's just absolutely ridiculous. And then obviously there's somebody out there hearing me say this now who's just inflamed with anger calling me a hater. And you know, because cause God forbid you disagree with somebody that's redefining biblical terms. But, um, that's the thing though, is the S the essence of what you're seeing is that we have to see, we have to realize our own depress. We can't save ourselves. Um, I love the Eastern mindset. I'm not saying I don't like the Western mindset, but I like the Eastern mindset more probably because I live in the Western mindset. The Eastern mindset says this, Phillip and Ryan says, I'm going to assume that there's a God and discover what he's like.
Speaker 0 00:02:59 Western mindset says, uh, prove to me there's a God, and then I'll follow him. Right? And so the Eastern mindsets are way better at just assuming and believing in. But when I came against my own self, in my own battles with pornography, back in my teen years, I felt that bondage, I felt the slave driving. I even felt the dirtiness of, of those images and just the stuff that you would subject yourself to. And I felt that the, the slavery of it all, I felt the bondage of my life. Now it wasn't drug addiction. It wasn't alcohol addiction. Um, it was an addiction that basically everybody kind of dealt with back in that day and even in this day, but who was I going to talk to it about my coach? You know, who is, what is he going to tell my dad? Like, who am I going to talk to about this?
Speaker 0 00:03:52 You know, people would be like, well, that's normal, right? Like, they'd laugh it off. Um, who's going to help somebody to get free from porn. We're all, you know, it's, it's so normal. We all do it, you know, whatever. Um, but I had to feel that. And then when I heard like the, what you were saying earlier about the passion, the power and the clarity of the gospel, I heard declared to the gospel and I heard Christ say, I want to save you, but I also want you to come die for my name. I heard all that in the gospel message. I heard that it just, the spirit of God drew me in. And I found that to be way more fascinating than anything I had ever found in my life at that point. So at 17 years old, I decided I decided forever. I was going to give my life to Christ, no matter what I did occupationally, I wasn't signing up to be a pastor or anything, but I just knew forever.
Speaker 0 00:04:39 I'm going to do this thing called Jesus. I'm going to do this. And I agree with you. So to find that value, we've got to see our own, we've got to value the cross. We've got to value the depths of what Isaiah talks about, how by his stripes we're healed and how he took upon us. All the chest Heisman that we deserve, you know, the cat and I, those was my cat of nine tails. I was just on Facebook this morning. And somebody I'd never seen this before, but somebody said, write a sad story in four words. So this was my sad story. My sin killed him.
Speaker 0 00:05:13 Wow. There you go. So yeah, to, to value the presence of God, you have to see the value of what his holiness brings to us. And it's far more powerful than anything I've ever experienced in this earth. It's far more fascinating as far more it's mysterious. And it's, it takes, it takes a lifetime to figure out. And then even then you're only scratching the surface. But so the things of God are far, you know, living a disciplined life and agreeing with the Bible is a far better way to live. And you want to find God's presence. It's right here in holy scripture, he wrote his word right here to us. You can find God every day in the word. That's how easy it is to find God. Yeah, but you have to have ears to hear. And that's why you have to have community. I feel a repetitive theme coming on here. So you guys go ahead and talk. I don't be a mic hog. I'm surprised Ryan's out of my car. Cause he's a drummer. I always make fun of him. Cause he's a drummer because we all know drummers are the true rock stars of any band. Right? Very true. It doesn't matter who the lead singer is. The drummers like I control this little love. Get a little love, got this hot sweaty seat I'm sitting on this whole time.
Speaker 1 00:06:37 You're like waving to your friends outside the glass. You have no idea. You've never been in that box. You have no idea how hot it gets in here. Oh, I opened
Speaker 0 00:06:47 The door once and instincts in there, man. You almost need to take a shower for you. Play drums. When I was playing, I'd say two. Um,
Speaker 1 00:07:01 You know, it's like, it's like, you got both camps out there. You've got the academia camp, you've got the, uh, you got the experiential camp. And the beauty of all this is it's the tensor tension in both. You know what I mean on that really gets us there because we we've got to experience the goodness of God. You know what I mean? Like, like, like what you were saying, Philip in order for this to be valued, right? Like if, if it's just words on a page and it's just study, if it's academic purposes that I'm reading through the scripture, um, but not experiencing, um, his nature through those words. Right. And being able to, to find him as I go to the grocery store as I go to fill up gas at the pump and I'm experiencing his presence, um, we're gonna fall short too.
Speaker 1 00:07:47 You know? And I think that the big thing too, is like when we're walking in community with one another, um, you know, like, like, uh, th the ability to, you know, we, we exp it's almost as though we experienced his nature through others in ways when we're operating in it rightly you know, when we're able to extend grace and enable to extend mercy, understanding that, Hey, like I've been caught in that past those, those loss will passions too. I've been caught in worldly passions. I've been caught in sin. I've been led astray by my own desires. You know what I mean? Like that it allows us to have grace and mercy and, and be that extension of the presence of God, because of what we've come out of, you know what I mean? Um, that, that we can help lead others out of, you know what I mean, that thing. And just being able to walk with people, um, and, and do it graciously, do it mercifully, you know, um, and do it with the same kindness that led us to repentance through Christ, you know?
Speaker 2 00:08:46 Yeah. Well, that's good. Excellent, man. Both of us, you guys both said, you know, Brian, you, you just shared your story and your shared your experience and how that impacted you. And you made that change. Right. And Ryan, what you just said about the importance of doing just that, like sharing your story, your testimony like that is that's a ministry in and of itself, you know, by you doing that, that gives a person, another person, an opportunity to see, Hey, you know what they were going through. The same thing that I was that I'm going through right now. And they found a way out, you know, man, maybe I don't have to listen to the devil's lies the same that I got, you know, I, I'm going to totally out of control for the rest of my life. And there's no way like that is powerful. Man. Talk about the grace of God right there, man.
Speaker 1 00:09:43 And we don't, we don't, we don't need perfect leaders. You know what I mean? We don't need perfect leaders. We need transparent leaders. We need leaders who know the way, you know, and, and even when I looked through scripture and it talks about Jesus has gone before me, you know what I mean? It doesn't say Jesus never struggled. It says, Jesus never sinned. He never gave into temptation, but he was tempted. So he can at least identify right with that feeling of temptation that, that, that we go through. And yet he said, he says, I go before you, I'm going to lead you out of this. You know what I mean? I'm going to show it, show you the way. And when we can adopt that as leaders, rather than trying to paint a picture, um, in our discipleship as though we have no struggle, there is though we, you know, we were just, you know, high on a high, high up there in the heaven, heavenlies, you know, like just doing our thing when we, when we're transparent and we're authentic and saying, I know that feeling of temptation, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 00:10:38 Like I know what it feels like when, when, you know, for me personally, when my anger starts rising and I want to lash out, I want to get violent, you know? Um, and so I can help you navigate that. You know what I mean? I can help, nah, I can help you navigate this. And it get back to that place where you can show grace where you can show mercy where you can, it, you know, extend joy, you know? And you know, I, I think it's just something that we need in this day is, is, is like, I don't want the Instagram pastor. I don't want the Instagram leader. I want to know that there's, there's a leader out there that she's down in the, in the trenches and saying, Hey man, this still isn't easy. And I still haven't mastered it, but I'm on, this is where I am in my journey. And you can follow me. You can walk with me, you know, and that's, that's how we got to do it.
Speaker 0 00:11:23 And then that's what we had in the apostle Paul. He said, the things I want to do, I don't do the things I don't want to do. I do. Like, he never said what they were, which I think is brilliant. We all have our different struggles and stuff, you know? And he, he had his store in his flesh aside a messenger from Satan and you know, all that stuff. I mean, Ryan, just yesterday, uh, to our core team, Julie sent out a article. I don't know if you saw that, but how Facebook now wants Facebook now wants to partner with the church. This is a big announcement. Do you see that you want to partner with the church to, uh, create online church, uh, to remove, uh, people from coming actually there, then this, they talk about this very openly, that we want to create such an online experience for the church that it, they don't, they don't want to gather together physically anymore. The church, the church is about to explode. The actual real church is about to explode because all these pressures are going to cause people to crave. The reason why we actually gather, I mean, in the remnant style churches, like we, we run, they're going to explode. I mean, we're not gonna be able to handle the growth that's coming in.
Speaker 1 00:12:33 Well, and I'm personally, I'm looking, I'm looking forward to a persecution. I know that sounds weird, you know, in some circles, but man, we we've gotten so, so far away from the gospel and so far away from, uh, I mean, w w when we look at what, uh, the, how would I say, like, th like the, the, the different tensions that arise in the church that, that are so minuscule that are so petty, um, that like, there's just days where I think about, like, you know what, like, I feel like persecution is the only way that we rise up and actually be the church. I like that. I don't think that we can operate with the blessing of God. I would like to think so that, that we can operate in the blessing and still be the church. But there, you know, I'm not that persecution, isn't a blessing because there's plenty of room for that as well.
Speaker 1 00:13:28 But just what we deem in America as a blessing of being, you know, being, uh, you know, wealth and health and all these different things. And, you know, but, but I, I personally, any more these days, I'm looking forward to days where it's a little harder to say, I'm a Christian, it's more than a, than a, than a box. You check on your Facebook status and, you know, or, or Facebook info, but then it actually would cost you something. Uh, because I think in those days, that's when people are going to be United as one, you know what I mean? Like the church will be one because we have to be. Yeah. And right now,
Speaker 0 00:14:04 Whether we, a lot of people don't want to talk about this stuff. And that's part of this podcast. If you, if you disagree with political correctness or any of the big agendas that are out there, I say, talk about it in a kind way. Um, you know, we have to talk about these things. We have to actually voice, um, you know, how we feel about these things. But, uh, I fully agree with you, Ryan, you know, persecution is already among us. I mean, it's already happening. And you know, when you've got states telling churches, they can't gather, um, and wherever you're at on COVID, I get it. But, um, I'm not, I'm not ignorant enough to think that it's not real, but I also believe it's been politically weaponized against the American people when you've got 99 statistics of people who recover. It's like really, and we're going to all have to be vaccinated for this, you know, because I don't want to be vaccinated and I'm, I'm going to be like, yeah, I won't do it, but they're going to make it to where it'll be impossible for you to do something.
Speaker 0 00:15:06 And then you'll have to, they're going to force us all down that path. And, um, and maybe not, maybe we can all, maybe the bright type of pushback will come, but, um, I want to throw out there to students. I agree with the persecution. So we talked about the present, the gospel, the presence of God we've talked about becoming, um, how do we value salvation? Um, you know, this passage in Titus talks about how do we, uh, how grace trains us in the word renounces there. I think that's important for us to highlight for a brief moment that grace will train us to renounce. And that word renounced actually means to make a formal declaration with your mouth and, and, and it's, uh, it actually means to formally declare an abandonment. So what grace is training us in is that we would formally declare maybe even every day, as often as you need to that.
Speaker 0 00:16:03 I've, I formally renounce how I once partnered with worldliness and ungodliness, worldly, passions, and ungodliness. So that covers basically everything, right? Like if you struggle with pornography in the last day or two, you can wake up and you can say, okay, God, first repent, I'm sorry, father, bring me into your salvation. Like Psalm 51, renew a right spirit within me. And then we want to renounce that, that act that we did too. So we want to say, you know, spirits of luster, spirits of darkness, I renounced the fact that I partnered with you and I'm, I'm making a formal declaration right now as a son of the living. God that you no longer have any authority over me, and I'm no longer partnering with you or cutting you off and cutting that off. That's right there in the scriptures. That's what the word renounced actually means.
Speaker 0 00:16:51 It's actually, it's actually like a legal act. It's like closing a door, you know? And so, um, it trains us to renounce to parts of death, but it also trains us to, uh, live three parts, live self-controlled upright and godly lives. And the last thing I want to highlight is we, we, we saw a few more minutes. We'll kind of wind this down, but, um, the last thing it gets to, if you go a few verses down, it says, um, it talks about how, um, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself, a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. And so we have to remember that good works. Don't save us. Okay, good works. Don't save us. Good works. Don't save us. Good works. Don't save us. Right? Like what good works, prove that we're saved.
Speaker 0 00:17:50 So they're still very important and God wants us to do good things, good deeds, uh, be kind to even our enemies. So when I look around the world, when I look, you know, the question that very beginning this podcast was how do we fight spiritual darkness? Like an inner man? And how do I fight darkness? That's actually around this communist style of evil, governmental leaders and all kinds of stuff. It's in our school systems. I mean, how do I start to push back and fight one is you talk in a kind way. Don't let your mouth just be muzzled. Don't let it be mast, right? Like the mask, right. Two would be, um, go get involved, you know, go love on some of these people go have coffee with some of these people disagree with, go try to have a conversation with somebody. Politicians go, uh, go to the school boards, run for sheriff, right.
Speaker 0 00:18:39 I mean, like don't just sit back and think somebody else is going to do that. Right. Like run for the school board, go get a seat at the table again. I mean, that's, there's a whole national movement of this, right? Like I'm not this isn't like an idea of Grace House came up with. Um, but Grace House is going to champion the idea that, uh, I learned about it. Maybe I will share the official page and all kinds of stuff. I can't remember. They're the group that did this, but there's a whole national group of people who are helping, uh, all kinds of communities. Just go get a seat at the table, so your voice can be present. So I think we've got to talk, we've got to, um, you know, we've got to have conversations with people and then we've got to go get involved. You might actually have to take some of your time and take some of your money out of your bank and go run for some office and actually make a difference.
Speaker 2 00:19:25 Yeah, no, I agree. I think that's good. Um, those are some practical, I think those are really practical ways to make those steps forward and, um, you know, take action as regards to, you know, how do we implement the scripture in a practical way in our lives? Well, yeah, just like you said, open your mouth and communicate, but do it in, in love. Right? Do it in love, like you said, um, uh, getting involved, right. Also I think a way that we can really, um, take action is stop feeding the beast, right? So like, if you already know, like if you already know that there's something that, um, is contributing to this madness, right. You know, maybe it's a product that you use or a service that you use and you know, that the proceeds of that is going directly to, to something that totally goes against what you even stand for.
Speaker 2 00:20:28 Why do you still keep spending your hard earned money? You know, it's a that right. And I know you're just one person, but it still matters. Right. You know, it's, it's, uh, I don't know, like I know that the company and organization that I'm a patronizing supports the LGBT community. I'm not going to keep supporting that. Like, I'm not going to encourage other people to support it either. I'm going to, I'm going to make that declaration, Hey, I'm not even gonna spend my money on that thing. Right. You know, that's just not the, for me personally, that that I'm doing is like looking at, you know, why am I contributing to them if they're going to blast me, God, you know, when I, so as I turned the TV on and I got to jump through 50 different titles blasting in the name of God, just to get to the one thing that I want to see, it's like, how is this even worth it personally? I don't know.
Speaker 0 00:21:26 Well, we have to live with a heightened sense of tenderness. And I think you said it earlier, right? Like, um, the be harmless as doves and be wise as serpents, you know, that's, that's the strategy of this hour is to be as harmless as a dove to our culture, but also wise and crafty, uh, like a serpent is a know how to kind of maneuver around some of these, these issues in, because really what we're talking about when we bring up, uh, LGBTQ or the political correctness, or what we're really talking about is we're talking about ideologies that are not fair ideologies it's they don't allow, uh, multiple voices at the table. And so, uh, that's why we're talking about it because the voice of the believer is no longer welcome in these conversations and school districts are being taken over by these ideologies and local governments. And so, yeah, I call that darkness and, uh, I say, we're, we are to conquer that darkness. Um, and with love and, and that's the persecution we're up against right now. And so we have to know how to craft a really like a serpent handle this and harmless as a dove handle it. So it's, that's kind of a good way of saying good luck.
Speaker 0 00:22:45 So what guys, we've had an amazing conversation today on the T2 12 culture. Uh, I'm actually going to break this down into two parts. So, um, these we'll be releasing here soon, but Hey, you guys, any closing thoughts before I wrap it up? No, I'm good. Ready? We had a good discussion. Hey guys, thanks for your time. Uh, thanks for your, your passion and your devotion to, uh, to the, to the kingdom of God. And so, Hey, everyone on our podcast, we love you. We have a really powerful growing audience, continue to help us share and spread the grace SOPs culture around be greatly appreciated, uh, check out our website, grace house.net. And until next time, make sure that you live upright.
