The Every Day Christian Podcast
The Every Day Christian Podcast
88 | Faulty Christians
Have you ever felt the weight of needing to appear perfect, especially in your faith journey? In this enlightening episode of the Every Day Christian Podcast, we pull back the curtain on the struggles Christians face when admitting their faults, particularly those in leadership roles. Through scriptures like James 5:16 and Proverbs 28:13, we navigate the crucial balance between striving to be Christ-like and embracing our human imperfections. Personal stories and reflections underscore the importance of creating a church culture where honesty is a strength, not a weakness.
What we forget about is the word strive, and the word that we forget about is the word try. We are not Christ-like. We are striving to be Christ-like. I'm reading about different ways I need to stop having pride. I'm reading about different ways I need to treat people. I'm reading about different ways. I need to avoid having anger. Welcome back to the Everyday Christian Podcast, where we apply scriptural principles to everyday Christian lives.
Speaker 2:I'm your host, john Rich, and I'm Sean Sloggett. Today we're going to be talking about faulty Christians. I usually start off with reading some scriptures, and you guys are going to have to forgive me. Already I'm in a swivel chair and out of habit, I just start swiveling around, so if that bugs you watch, your eyes closed, you start seeing me swivel on camera.
Speaker 2:If you see me just doing a little circle, just bear with me, I'll come back around eventually. Yes, faulty Christians. James 5 and 16. Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And then Proverbs 28 and 13. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Pardon me.
Speaker 2:All too often Christians have a hard time admitting they are wrong or admitting to their faults. This is something that has bothered me for quite a while. I don't know how long, but it's something that I've seen a lot growing up and that I believe a lot of us in the church world has seen. If you haven't, thank the Lord, but my dad evangelized for several years and I saw a lot of it in and around different churches. We are taught honesty until it comes to our actual church circle and I don't understand why. An example this is something again that I have seen personally.
Speaker 2:A young man thinks he's called to preach, so he starts preaching. After a short time he starts to rethink it and realize maybe he was a little overzealous, maybe he just missed the calling completely, but he missed something somewhere and then they're afraid to admit it, for all the backlash that comes along with it. Yeah, because he has to admit he's wrong and preachers and deacons and leadership and even church members are not supposed to admit it. Church members are not supposed to admit it. They start questioning if this minister is backsliding. They start looking down on them because they quote-unquote missed the will of God. When I felt the call to preach, I had two different ministers tell me if you feel sometime down the road that you missed it, do not be afraid to admit that you were wrong and move on. But several times I have heard of the exact opposite of that and that's very disheartening. I agree the ministry is very sacred. It should be taken very seriously. But you can miss it and others can miss it too. Why can't we be honest, brother John?
Speaker 1:You know, I don't even even preparing this like lesson, this podcast. I didn't think too often about what you just said. But it is very true, like you don't, you don't realize how many individuals are sort of pressured into ministry or pressured into doing some sort of work in the church or work in the mission field etc. And it is hard I believe it would be difficult to sort of accept that call or to accept that ministry and then, years down the road, realize maybe I was just a little zealous, maybe I was overzealous, rather, maybe I was just heavily influenced and peer pressured into this.
Speaker 1:But it's a point now where it's hard to give up, like it'd be hard and difficult to stop doing that, brother Sean.
Speaker 2:Or maybe that you just didn't quite get it right. Right, you know I know people that would make and not that it's up to me to decide but I know people that would make great preachers. They wouldn't be horrible Sunday school teachers. And I know some great Sunday school teachers that would. I'm not so sure they'd be great preacher. Yeah, I know great song leaders, but they're probably not a preacher material. Yeah, maybe it's just that they wanted to do something and that's what everybody gets pushed into. Yeah, are you going to join the ministry? Yeah, going to Bible school. I'm sorry, I was just about to mention that I don't.
Speaker 1:I was just about to mention that I don't. I was just about to mention that yeah.
Speaker 2:I have nothing against Bible schools, yeah Right, but when people go to Bible schools seemingly and I didn't go, so I'm not making accusations that I know nothing about- Well, I did so, here we go.
Speaker 1:Okay, if it's right, he can back me up If I'm not making accusations that I know nothing about. Well, I did so, here we go, okay.
Speaker 2:If it's right he can back me up, If I'm wrong, he can rebuke me. Seemingly, they are all pressured into the ministry which is preaching. But what about the song leaders? What about the Sunday school teachers? We need those as well, and sometimes you can miss it that way.
Speaker 1:I would say you know, majority, at least when I went. No, those are actually. I was thinking of two sides to the same coin here. When you talk about like Bible school, for example, like first of all, not everybody has to go to Bible school. Okay, so that's one part where I think a lot of young people are pressured into doing and I get it. You know, I used to be that way where I've had that mindset. It's like I think everyone should go to Bible school at least one year. I think everyone should go to the Bible school at least one year and I'm not dogging you if you have that thought or have that desire to tell someone that.
Speaker 1:But there is that pressure to go to a Bible college, to go to Bible school, otherwise you won't get this proper education that you need in your life, which simply is not true, by the way. But as far as Bible school preachers inadvertently meaning there was never a minister or a teacher that got up and said you have to be a preacher. There was no one holding a gun to our head, but the pressure certainly was there and I'd say, luckily, but blessed for me I felt called to preach long before I went to Bible school personally and felt called to teach too. I mean, I felt all these drawings to leadership, I guess you could say and I didn't really have to experience a lot of that but I did see several people that they were fit for a lot of things and it's not that they were bad or less people, but they simply weren't fit for those types of ministries, and nothing wrong with that. I want people to understand that there is nothing wrong with not being a preacher, there's nothing wrong with not being a missionary or a minister or a teacher.
Speaker 1:But I feel like a lot of people who didn't really have a lot of leadership qualities were pressured into trying to obtain those characteristics and those leadership qualities were pressured into trying to obtain those characteristics and those leadership qualities and not dogging. You know, I went to Ozark Bible Institute. I feel like there's a lot of incredible people there. Better than Figbee. I'm just kidding. If you went to Figbee, I'm just teasing Shots fired.
Speaker 2:Shots fired.
Speaker 1:I'm just kidding. I know a lot of great people from Figbee as well, a lot of great people at Ozark Bible Institute. I'm just kidding. I know a lot of great people from Figbee as well, a lot of great people at Ozark Bible Institute. I don't want to ever take away from that, and the experiences I had there were great. I experienced a lot of great things. I experienced a lot of not great things, but the pressure certainly is there and I do feel that in a lot of the Bible schools at least, hopefully. Now here we are, 13 years later, I feel like a lot of them have tried to stray from that, to be more welcoming of teaching, but also be more welcoming of people that just aren't called to ministry but also still want to learn about the Bible or want to learn what it takes to be in a ministry. Brother Sean, Go ahead.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it takes to be in a ministry. Brother Sean Go ahead.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sorry, you were on a roll, I was on a roll, I'm learning, so that's sort of one aspect of it. You know, you think about the pressures that we get to do different things for God and accepting those not real callings, but accepting those pressures and then later on deciding, hey, this was a mistake. I think that what Brother Sean's trying to say and I'm going to reiterate that here is there's nothing wrong with admitting to that mistake, or there's nothing wrong with admitting to that fault or admitting that maybe I didn't meet the right calling or maybe I missed the calling here. But there's even more to than just that. When it comes to being a believer, to being a Christian, there's several things that we don't like to admit that we're wrong on or that we have fault in. You know, I think about our youth group, and there's been times where I have just told them flat out I was wrong there. Let me take a step back and reiterate this or what I said there. Ok, I apologize, that's this. Or what I said there. Okay, I apologize, that's not what I meant. Let me go back and say something else to make it clear or to make it mean exactly what I was intending.
Speaker 1:And a lot of times, preachers, teachers you have an issue with going back, you have an issue with admitting fault, and the reason you have an issue with admitting fault is because you don't think you have faults or because you feel and we're going to get into some of this but you feel as though if you admit those faults or if you backtrack, or if you try to redo or start over that, all of a sudden you lose credibility or all of a sudden people have lost faith in you.
Speaker 1:We're going to get into some of that in this episode. Sudden people have lost faith in you. We're going to get into some of that in this episode. But I think, in regards to that, you know, there's so many levels to this as far as believers go, but that's another thing we sort of take and we want to be so perfect that if we do backtrack, all of a sudden we're imperfect or all of a sudden maybe we didn't hear the voice of God like we should have and we don't want to display that to other people. Brother Sean, he's already going.
Speaker 2:I'm still in his notes.
Speaker 1:He's already going through all my notes. I've got a mirror behind him that I'm taking.
Speaker 2:Going back to James 5.16, you know, confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed. That doesn't mean that you have to get up from behind the pulpit, confess everything to everybody that you did. I've heard that done before. I don't exactly believe in that. Believe that that has to be done because there are times where that may do more damage than it does good, but it's going to the person, or going to the ones that you had fault with, admitting it and working through it, just because you're a preacher, deacon, faithful church member. Whatever wrong is still wrong.
Speaker 2:And, like Brother Jonathan, I can admit that I have went into my Sunday school class before taught a lesson, or they would. You know some of you all know this already that I let them. If they have questions, they can ask questions. There's most Sundays we just show up and somebody will ask this question and we'll study it out and we'll do a little bit of lesson on it and then you know, right there in class, and then somebody else will have another question and then we'll go, you know, jump onto it. We've.
Speaker 2:I mean, some of the questions that I've been asked have been pretty deep stuff that some other ones that weren't so deep, yeah, but I have answered those questions only to go back home and start questioning them myself. So go do a little more studying and realize I just told my kids something that was wrong. Maybe I misinterpreted the Bible, maybe I didn't study it well enough or know enough about it to answer, but I was wrong. That was my fault and it hurt my pride a little bit, which is probably a good thing, especially to admit it. Yeah, but that very next Sunday we stood up, we prayed for class to start and before anybody asked any other questions, I admitted to them hey, sister, so-and-so asked this question last week and I told you guys something and I was not right. It's hard to do. I understand that. The sad part about that was some of those kids in my class were genuinely shocked when I told them I was wrong yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I think that hurt me worse than having to admit I was wrong. If I'm being honest, I've said that like three times now as if I'm a lie, a couple times in here, if he's being honest. But it bothered me that I was not allowed to be wrong in some of their eyes because that's how they were taught, that's how they've been raised. Leadership isn't wrong. If you are wrong, then you just kind of sweep it under the rug and move on Right. And I know I've mentioned leadership quite a bit and I'm not. I'm not attacking leadership, don't take it that way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but a lot of a lot of Don't take it that way. Yeah, uh, but a lot, of, a lot of times it seems to go that direction. Yeah, wrong is still wrong. Yeah, if you're wrong, you have to apologize for it. Yeah, romans three, 23 for all Right, have sinned and come short of the glory of God, all of us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I want to interject something real quick right here. Take off. There are three words in the English dictionary that a lot of leaders and ministers and a lot of believers do not like to use in the same sentence, or at least put together. And those three words are Brother Sean knows. Most of you probably know I don't know, I don't know. And the problem is when we get you know. This is two sides of the same coin, because I've been where Sean is and I've also been at a place where I want to seem like I have the answer all the time. I want people to see me as someone they can look up to and go to all the time.
Speaker 2:And on the flip side, you know, some of that falls on us as church members as well. Yeah, because we put that unnecessary burden on leadership that, if you don't know, I'm going to start questioning what's wrong as well. Yeah, because you're. Yeah, you should be studying the Bible 24, seven. So why don't you know?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that you know, we, a lot of preachers and ministers, study the Bible over and over and over again, and I think the problem is is they don't we talk about like, not like wanting to preface things and not wanting to say things that get us in trouble. But I genuinely think that a lot of ministers and preachers and leaders and teachers and whatever you want to call yourself, and we get to say these things because we are those things and we also have those faults. But I think a lot of times they don't want to have young people ask those questions because, a, they don't want to do the research and, b, because they don't know. And so what happens is, yeah, the church sort of lifts us up as people who should know everything and then at the moment we say I don't know. It's sort of another. In a way, it's sort of admitting a fault as well, and I think that we have to sort of flip the script on that, like on one point as church members and church goers, we have to understand and realize that pastor doesn't know everything, that teacher doesn't know everything, that leader, that person that's been saved for 40 years, does not know everything. They are still learning things and they're still trying to learn things in our culture today, because our culture is constantly shifting and constantly changing, and there's things that they have to deal with today they didn't have to deal with when they were 30 or 20 or 16 or whatever. So there's that side of it or 30, or 20, or 16, or whatever. So there's that side of it.
Speaker 1:And then the other side is as a minister, you need to explain or convey this message to your congregants and to your people that, a you don't know everything, but B you know how to find out, but B you know how to find out.
Speaker 1:And that's the problem is, you're asked questions, you're told things, people debate you, people argue with you and you want to stand your ground on a scripture that's taken out of context. You want to stand your ground on something you heard someone else say, instead of just saying you know what, I don't know, but if you'll give me a couple of days, I'll come back to you, or if you'll give me to next Wednesday, I'll come back to you. I think that we need to sort of cultivate that culture of we don't know everything but we can find out, and I think that that means more to young people and it means more to congregants and people that are under your teachings than anything else. To know not that this person doesn't know, but this person knows how to find out, I think, is what's most important, and that's the mindset we need to start and begin to have with how we think of ministers and with how ministers convey themselves to us, because I mean to add to that because it brings a level of relatability Right.
Speaker 2:Too often we put in you can deny this all you want. It's the truth. Yeah, we put them up on a pedestal. Yeah, and we can't relate to them. And it's harder even just to go talk to them sometimes, yeah, you know if it's a visiting minister or you know the minister that's preaching the meeting or something like that. It's harder to relate to them, yeah, Because we've built them up to be this some magnificent, wonderful know-everything. Again, they're just humans, like each and every one of us are. You know, going back to the Romans 3.23,.
Speaker 2:Some of us need to remember where we came from, Not some of us, all of us. We all need to remember where we came from and that we were hell-bound sinners, just like those around us. Some of us may have been in worse situations than others. Some of us may have been addicted to drugs or alcohol, or whatever the case may be. Some of us may have been raised in church, but we were all lost and dying, going to hell. We had to ask forgiveness. That was a fault. It's always pretty easy for us to look back and say, oh, we got that one fault out of the way. We're saved now and then we're ready to move on with our life Right and you can't admit fault anymore, but we're still faulty. Yeah, Just because God saved us doesn't mean that we can do no wrong. We aren't God, we won't be God. And just because you're a child of God doesn't mean you inherited his perfection. Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 1:Brother John, I think that we, you know I talk about cultivating that culture, but accepting our faults and failures, and there's a couple of reasons behind that, and we can dissect each of these reasons together. But, by the way, you're probably wondering why we're in such a strange room. It's because my office that we usually have this podcast in is so hot right now, and now we're in this HMA conference room and it is so hot and I feel like I'm sweating bullets.
Speaker 1:It's not any better. So I apologize if you see sweat dripping down our brow. Yeah, there we go Fan ourselves off. But there are a couple of reasons why we try to cover our faults and I want to go through each of these. But, first of all, we don't think we have faults. Second of all, we don't want others to know that we have faults. And, thirdly, because we don't want to believe that others have faults as well.
Speaker 1:And I want to look at each of these in more detail. You know to think we don't think we have faults, especially after we're saved. As Brother Sean said, christ does make us perfect, but he hasn't made us perfect yet. Until I get to heaven, I'm not perfect, and you need to realize that and understand that. And the stigma yeah, the stigma, especially as leaders, that they have no faults or failures is one of the main reasons why people either leave the church or lose confidence in those who won't admit to those faults. But in all seriousness, I do believe, as though many Christians believe they're faultless without even thinking, and it's because of how they present themselves or what they say. But the other thing is we don't want others to know that we have faults, and here's what Brother Sean was saying. I wrote this down that word striving is huge, but if your pastor or leader does not admit his issues, doesn't take responsibility, does not show his congregation his shortcomings, I would reconsider it.
Speaker 1:I know I've said that several times in the last few episodes. Some of you are upset at me. I get it. We should never leave church that we're at. I understand that. I don't agree with that, by the way. I don't agree with that, by the way, and a couple of reasons why I have a hard issue.
Speaker 1:I have a hard issue with leadership that doesn't want to admit failure or doesn't want to admit shortcoming or doesn't want to admit fault. It will eventually end up hurting someone and it eventually cause them to leave anyway. And that can be avoided if you were just upfront and honest with them them to leave anyway. And that can be avoided if you were just upfront and honest with them. And the problem is that when you give the image that you are perfect and people buy into that lie, the moment that you fail, you lose all credibility, you lose all trust and faith and as a leader, as a believer, you should aim to be an open-minded or open book with other believers.
Speaker 1:People need to hear who you are, but people also need to see who you are as well. If what they see does not align with what they hear, you're going to have issues Every single time. You're going to have issues, so why not change that? Why not help them realize and I get it we're not talking about like the most immoral failures. I have some of this mentioned here, but I'm not talking about if you come out as like somebody who slept with multiple women and you're a pastor and you have one wife. I'm not. Those are obviously different situations. Yes, you need to come clean about that. No, you shouldn't be a pastor anymore. But aside from that?
Speaker 2:No, it should all be announced from behind the pole.
Speaker 1:Dude, don't step on Jimmy Swagger now, man, he did that. Let me mess with my Jimmy Swagger now. I'm just teasing Um, and I can hear people say that now. Well, if I show them my shortcomings, then that means that they will have an image of me that is less than pastoral. Great People need to have that image of you. People need to have an image of you that is more human and less pastoral anyway. And I'm not saying you don't need to lead. I'm not saying that you don't need to preach or teach against things. I'm not saying that you don't need to pastor. I am saying that you should lead by example.
Speaker 1:Don't expect your congregants to be an open book and not hide stuff when they know pastors hide stuff. Don't preach against things that you claim are sin, only to find out that you're probably doing them. You know, I had a man. I'm going to get a lot of trouble. I had a individual I won't tell you who it is, it's a family member who did not believe in having a television in their home. Okay, the reason they didn't believe this is because preacher preached against it. Preacher preached against having a television because it was a sin, it was wrong, et cetera. And one day one of the congregants came to this preacher's house to clean. I can't remember what it was that they had ended up doing dropping off something. This is back in like the sixties and seventies, and they kept hearing this noise in this preacher's home. And they're walking around listening, trying to figure out where this noise is coming from. And it turns out that the attic is where the noise is coming from, and so this congregant of course they're being a little nosy anyway but this congregant gets a chair, looks up into the attic and notices that there is a TV up there with a VCR and it's got the news on or something like that. And so come to find out, this minister, this pastor, was preaching against this, and all of a sudden they find out that he has the exact same thing that he's preaching against. Don't preach against things that you claim or sin, only to find out that you're doing them. Be an open book, be someone who admits fault and I'm not preaching against or for TVs, move on from that but be someone who takes responsibility. You may lose some people doing that, but I promise you you're going to gain more people doing it.
Speaker 1:The other side of the coin is the fact that you don't want other believers to know that you have faults, either because they look up to you or because they may judge you. But it goes back to the first point. We all have struggles, we all have shortcomings. We aren't Christ, but we strive to be Christ-like. And the problem is that, while we agree with that statement, the word we forget about is the word strive, and the word that we forget about is the word try. We are not Christ-like, we are striving to be Christ-like.
Speaker 1:I'm reading about different ways I need to stop having pride. I'm reading about different ways I need to treat people. I'm reading about different ways I need to treat people. I'm reading about different ways I need to avoid having anger. And the problem is that, while we agree with that statement, we forget about the word strive and we forget about the word try. We don't want to tell others our shortcomings. We don't want to tell others and share with each other our struggles, because we're leaders and because we're ministers. But I'm telling you that if you have a mindset that is open with your people, I promise you you're going to have a lot less trouble, a lot less struggle. You're going to show people A I can be a leader, and so can you, because I'm human just like you're human, brother Sean.
Speaker 2:It has been proven time and time and time again, trying to hide your faults or your sins are way harder than admitting them and moving on. Yeah, we are in a political year right now. Everything's going on right now and it's political world, church world, your home life, anything. Try hiding something and as soon as people get half a chance, they're digging every skeleton out of the closet, saying well, you never told us about this, well, you did this, well, you did that. And it always leads to more trouble, just like Brother Jonathan spoke about. Let them know, you're human, you can be a leader. You can be a song leader, a Sunday school teacher, a preacher, whatever it is. You can be it too. But these people, they get built up, built up, built up, and then there's some huge downfallfall and everybody turns their back on them. Right, everybody starts. It just turns into a giant mess. Yeah, has any of you ever tried hiding a secret? Yep, it's nearly impossible For some people. It is impossible. Yeah, but it's so much harder to deal with.
Speaker 2:Some friends of yours are planning a proposal. He tells you about it. Don't tell anybody because it's supposed to be a surprise. Now, for the next three weeks, every time you see him, and every time you see her you can't say anything about it. It bam, I mean, it's right there in the back of your mind. You're like, oh there's. Oh, man, I gotta be careful, be careful, be careful, be careful the thought, try and get it out. Hide the goofy smile that's coming over your face. Man. I please, sean, be careful with what you say, because if you say something that tips are off that maybe this is coming at yada, yada, yada. It goes on and on and on for three weeks, everything. And you don't know who knows you. You know you're one friend that knows, but you don't know if he told any of his other friends, so you can't say anything around them.
Speaker 1:So now you have to watch what you're saying not just around him and her, but around.
Speaker 2:It's miserable. I hate keeping secrets yeah, not that I'm bad at keeping secrets, but I don't like keeping. And then, after the proposal, you're just like oh man, I can act normal now, I can be myself. Just be yourself, get them out of the way. Whatever your faults are, get them out of the way. It's so much easier. It's so much easier spiritually speaking.
Speaker 2:If we aren't honest with ourselves and this is something huge if we are not honest with ourselves about our sins or our faults, I believe wholeheartedly that we are selling ourselves short of the God-given potential. Yeah, he can show us our faults and he can show us what we need to do, but it's up to us to fix them. Yeah, it's still up to us to admit them. Oftentimes, I wonder what's holding me back and that causes me to reflect. And have I done something recently? Have I done somebody wrong? And I mean I started taking, I mean a deep look at my life to see what's going on. Right, because I believe that God will bless you for being honest and being upfront. But if he can't trust you with something, with little things you know common phrase here if he can't trust you with the little things, what?
Speaker 2:makes you think he'll trust you with the big things. But if he can't trust you, to be honest with yourself, what makes you think he's going to trust you with a Sunday school class or a congregation or whatnot?
Speaker 1:I think we don't want to believe that we have faults, but we also don't want to believe others have faults. I think that's where the other side of the coin is here, and I think this one hit close to home for many of us. About a year ago it was around this time actually, probably three or four weeks off we did a podcast about imperfection and ministers, and one of the things that we discussed is our inability to talk to each other, confess things to one another. But another thing we discussed was the fact that we place so many men and women on such a high pedestal like Brother Sean was mentioning that they aren't allowed to fail.
Speaker 1:We don't want to believe that a preacher can cheat on his wife. We don't want to believe that a Sunday school teacher can struggle with an addiction. We don't want to believe that a Sunday school teacher can struggle with an addiction. We don't want to believe that the song leader uses curse words from time to time under his or her breath. We just want these people who we look up to to be role models to such an extent that it pains and shocks us when they are less than that, and I get it. I'm going back to the immoral side of things versus the things that are like character flaws.
Speaker 1:I guess, and obviously character flaws or different things like that can easily be forgiven. But you've got to understand that man. There's pastors out there that struggle with things that you don't realize, and there's youth pastors out there and with things that you don't realize. There's youth pastors out there and you don't have to know it. And you don't have to know it, You're right.
Speaker 2:That's something that I wanted to preface and I didn't. I'm cutting you off, but you don't have to know everything that's going on. It's not your job to know everything that's going on. It's not your job to know everything that's going on Again. I mean, go back to James 5, 16, confess your faults one to another. If the pastor feels, or the Sunday school teacher or leadership feels they have problem with you and they want to come admit it to you, that's one thing. But they don't have to. If it's not your problem, stay out of it. What's the other comment Is A-B conversation. See your way out of it, peace Go. You don't have to know, right.
Speaker 1:I think that that's where my mindset sort of is going to, is like no, you don't have to know. For some reason things like that always come out anyway. We could do a whole other episode, and we have done one before about gossiping and spreading things that you don't need to spread obviously and spreading things that you don't need to spread obviously. And so there are different immoral failures that you know I believe should remove someone from a pulpit or from a pastorship. You know, don't get me wrong, but then there are some characteristic failures. You know, there are some things that people, men and women, struggle with that would probably shock some of you and that they need deliverance from you know, I believe that there I've been in men's retreats where men would just stand up and say I've been struggling with porn addiction and they'd say, but God delivered me from that and I'm like, praise God for that.
Speaker 1:But you have no idea, when you talk about struggles, you talk about shortcomings and talk about faults and mistakes, etc. On and on and sins. You know, when you talk about sins, the aspect that we forget about oftentimes is that everybody is a sinner. Everybody is a sinner, no matter how great, no matter how small. Everybody is a sinner, no matter if you're a mechanic and no matter if you're a pastor. Everybody is a sinner, no matter how great, no matter how small. Everybody is a sinner, no matter of your mechanic and no matter of your pastor. Everybody is a sinner.
Speaker 1:But what's great about all that is is how they use that. God can forgive them and I believe that God will forgive them. But then God can also use those faults and turn them into something good. You know some of those guys, you know at the different conferences I've been to men's conferences that I've been to that have admitted to some of that stuff and struggles. You know what they can do. God can use, though, that thing that they overcame, that fault that they admitted to, and he can use that to be a testimony that could also change someone else and help someone else. But we see them in such an extent that when they do those things, it shocks us when they are less than perfect.
Speaker 1:And the thing is, what's funny is I was thinking about we do the same thing for, like actors and actresses, because they're displayed in television or movies as such perfect people, and when they're displayed in television and movies as such perfect people, and when they're displayed in television and movies as such perfect people. When we hear something that they've done, that's immoral. Man this actor over here beat his wife. Man this guy over here cheated on his spouse. Oh, they broke up here and they divorced for the fifth time and now they're married over here and it's like. I really liked that dude. He played in the Avengers, or like he played in this comedy show. I really liked him, but all of a sudden he did this thing.
Speaker 2:That was immoral or they play such a great fun loving, lovable character yeah, and like a dad or something somebody meets him in person and like this dude's a jerk, complete jerk.
Speaker 1:You're like dude, there's no way I saw him in this movie and he was dude. Uh once. Once I get Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man man, he's apparently a complete jerk to everybody.
Speaker 1:I've heard that, but he's a cool guy like in the movies and you look up to him growing up. You know what I mean and I know that this is a very what's the word I'm looking for Secular thought process, but we treat people the same way in the church. We've been watching this television show or movie for so long in the church that it paints the preacher as someone who is perfect, and when they fail, our whole world crashes down. We do that because we compare ourselves to their lives and we see that they are better, so we feel that they are perfect. I've got news for you Two sides of this. Number one, if you're a minister, you need to admit to your congregation that you're not perfect. And number two, if you're a congregant, you need to stop believing and thinking that these people are perfect.
Speaker 1:What have I told you? That those ministers, those women of God, those song leaders, those teachers and everything else what have I told? They wake up the same way that you do. Some of them have 50 alarms. Some of them have one alarm. What have I told you? They put on the same types of shoes and clothes that you do. What have I told you? That they have issues and mental struggles and different anxieties and different aggravations, like you do. What have I told you that sometimes they fallations, like you do? What have I told you that sometimes they fall short, like you do? What have I told you? Sometimes they wake up on the wrong side of the bed, like you do. What have I told you? Sometimes they cut people off on the road, like you do. What have I told you? They have pride sometimes, like you do. It would probably shock you, it'd probably make you think well, I don't want to be a part of that.
Speaker 1:We all have faults. We all have imperfections. We all have failures. We all have things that we struggle with. We all have different demons that we face. But when we confess one to another, when we confide in one another, in someone that's not going to spread it to everyone and their mother to spread it to everyone and their mother, when we get under the understanding that not even just ministers set them aside for a minute, not even just teachers set them aside for a minute, but when we get under the understanding that every believer is imperfect, that every believer falls short, that every believer needs God, I think that we change the tide, we change the mindset, we change this. Oh, they went to this movie, they went to this concert. Everybody is growing, everybody has their own sanctification that they're working out, and I think that when we think that way and believe that and we realize that normalizing faults is a good thing, I think that we'll overcome a lot and I think that we'll keep congregants in our churches.
Speaker 2:Brother Sean, For those of you that are already thinking it, I'm going to go ahead and put a bullet hole in it. Already thinking it, I'm going to go ahead and put a bullet hole in it. We're not okaying just consistently doing these things and consistently messing up. Faults happen, people mess up. Brother Jonathan said that we're growing, we're learning as we go and as you learn that don't do it again. We're not okaying. You can. Every week you're fighting the same fault. That's a little different, but it is okay to have faults.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And to fix them and to move on.
Speaker 1:And if you do struggle, real quick I'll interject sorry. And if you do struggle over and over again, or someone you know struggles over and over again, forgive them how you would want to be forgiven, brother Sean. Forgive them, move on to be forgiven.
Speaker 2:Brother Sean, forgive them, move on, don't hold it against them. Do you have anything else, smith? No man Ready to close it out. All right, it's hot in here we're sweating. We want to thank you all for listening in again. Yes, I've been doing it about a year and a half now. Yeah, man, I've enjoyed it.
Speaker 1:It about a year and a half now. Yeah, man.
Speaker 2:I've. I've enjoyed it. I've enjoyed doing it. Hopefully we get to do it a lot longer. Yeah, don't forget about the tumblers. If you guys want any of them, we do make them. It doesn't have to say the everyday Christian podcast. If you have something that you want on there, shoot us a night, you know, say hey.
Speaker 1:I'd like to say If you want to etch my face in one of them, I totally would understand that. Hey, we need to do one with.
Speaker 2:Trump and the fist up. I may do one of those now. Put you mist underneath it. I've been seeing some of that going on. Oh, that'd be so good. One of those mugs would be great. Anyway, I'm waving this water bottle around.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not the mug. That's not the mug we're talking about.
Speaker 2:If you guys want anything like that, just let us know. We've got options, we can do it. I want to thank you again. I don't know all of the links to watch this, so I'm going to throw that one over to.
Speaker 1:John, yeah, real fast, I'll close this out with that. If you want to join our virtual class that's another thing I just thought of where we just teach in-depth things about the Bible. Like, right now we're having conversation and we're talking about things and this, these lessons are going even more in depth on that. So if you want to be a part of those conversations we're going to talk about, is it okay to have piercings and tattoos in our next one? So if you want to be a part of that, please message us and let us know. You can find us on the podcast platform of your choice by searching the Every Day, Every Day, or two separate words Christian Podcast. I knew that part. Or you can find us on the social media app of your choice as well. We're on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook we need to make one for Truth Social, Anyway by searching at podcast4him, that's, at podcast, the number 4him. And again, we want to thank you all for listening.
Speaker 1:We're all the liberal, we're all right, now we're on the liberal sides. We're going to we're going to start going to the more of the right wing sites as well, just so we have some different flavors there, but we want to thank you all for listening. We're going to get into a cool car and possibly a swimming pool or something now, but I'm actually headed over to one. Yeah, so God bless you all and thanks again.
Speaker 2:Thank you, you, thank you.
