Sign up to get updates from us
258: Pastor Plek, Catie Sas, Devan Bice, and Pablo Mota recap Sunday’s sermon Exodus 17:1-8. Pastor Plek clarifies some confusing points from his sermon and also answers some questions from our listeners.
Faith, Culture, and everything in between.
Scripture References:
Exodus 17:1-8, Numbers 20:1-13, Luke 9:30-34
Questions:
Can you further go into what an apology with no changed behavior is manipulation, means?
Can you be a Christian and be an unbeliever?
Got questions? Text us at 737-231-0605!
Like, share, and subscribe! We love seeing and responding to your reviews and comments.
Support the show: https://wbcc.churchcenter.com/giving
Speaker 1:
And welcome back to pastorplex podcast. I'm so glad all of you are joining us of we're recording live here from Austin, texas, and in the studio today is none other than Mrs Katie Sass. Welcome back, mrs Katie.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, thank you so much.
Speaker 1:
And then also is someone very special and near and dear to all our hearts, is Devin Bice. Welcome, devin.
Speaker 3:
Hey, so happy to be here. I'm really giddy because I love this podcast. Even though you all are my friends, I feel like I'm an honest celebrity show.
Speaker 1:
Oh we're totally a celebrity show. We have dozens of people to listen to us nationwide. All right, pablo Moda, also with us in studio. Grateful to have you here, future pastor.
Speaker 3:
We're super excited about yeah.
Speaker 1:
All right, hey, listen, this week we talked about Exodus, chapter 17, and numbers 20 and Luke nine. So I did. I do what I do. I always tell preachers not to do. Do not Bible surf unless it has purpose. Okay, we only Bible surf with purpose. And what we were talking about is what it takes to believe God's word and then act on it. And the reason why I think a lot of us don't believe God's word is we kind of we feel like we have this, we can do it ourselves. I don't need God's word. And I gave the illustration of a Ikea bed, and there have been many times where I put together the Ikea bed not following the instructions. It's just pictures for crying out loud, and so I get going and then all of a sudden I get there. I have to drill more holes into the Ikea furniture or take it apart, take it apart. And that's the worst. Or sometimes we don't believe God's word or trust God's word when we think our sin is justified and we lash out in anger I don't know if anybody here's ever done that. Or we don't trust God's word because we just got into a place of futility and we think it's sort of hopeless. Can any of you relate to any of those three sort of like options that you don't, where you feel like you can do it yourself, your sins justify or God's ignoring you? Which one of those appeals to you, Ms Kitty Sass?
Speaker 2:
Oh, the first thing that's coming to mind is feeling like my sin is justified, but I don't know if it's connected to the sermon at all. Like it's not like God gave me this conviction, or it was. My husband, basically, was just talking to me like a month ago about wearing shirts that are longer than my butt when I wear leggings.
Speaker 1:
You know, I had that exact conversation with my wife today.
Speaker 2:
Today.
Speaker 1:
Exactly. Is this appropriate? I go no, she goes what? And then she went to like eight different things and I was like do you want my opinion or do you not want my opinion? I said, and then she's like what I said, you're basically naked.
Speaker 3:
And then she's like because her shirt was shorter.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and she's wearing leggings and the both sides and I was like, no, and she's like, but that's what they were at the gym. I said, oh, so is the gym the standard?
Speaker 2:
Oh, and I never wears leggings. Right, she had leggings on.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, she wore that today and then she went for like a shirt that's about as long as a dress, and I was like that's fine.
Speaker 2:
Well, it's kind of hard, Well. So that was my excuse was when he was like hey, I just, I just really want to talk to you about, like when you wear leggings and like I'd really love it if you wore shirts that were like past your butt, yeah. And and I looked at him and I'm like, but you realize that I wear leggings to the gym, right, like I work out in leggings, I am not going to work out in shorts because it's uncomfortable. And and he's like, yeah, and I was like I'm not going to run in a freaking tunic, babe. Like I'm not, that's not what I'm gonna. I'm not going to go for a run in leggings, in a tunic, that's just not what I'm going to do. And it took me some time into the conversation to stop trying to justify this like very honorable request that he's making, because he's like we have a daughter. She's going to start looking at what you wear. She's going to start wanting to wear the things that you wear. And it's like if, if she comes out you know, as she gets older, if she comes out and she's wearing leggings with a tank top or something like I'm going to have to say, hey, sweet girl, you can't wear that. And then if she comes back at me with but mommy wears this, how am I supposed to combat that? Like what am I supposed to say? And I'm like it's not, like I'm cause it was very hard to not like get real irritated.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, well, I think, and this is what I keep on Sorry.
Speaker 2:
Well, so no, I was just a fun, I was like but I'm going to work out in this, like it's, I'm not prancing around half naked Like I don't even know. I was like my normal dress is very modest, but when I work out, yeah, I'm not going to like look like a nun and he just he was like you're not getting what I'm saying and I he's like I'm not trying to attack you and I and I'm. So I had to like calm down and be level headed and like understand his heart in it. But and so now I wear shirts that are longer, that cover my butt when I wear leggings, because I like even there's, because there's part of me that's like no one cares, like literally, if I go to the gym looking at your butt.
Speaker 3:
They care.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
Cause I'm, I'm like but yes you, zach tells me sometimes he's like it's hard, it's really hard not to look at the butts and that's why I love you. Bless you.
Speaker 2:
I feel bad for y'all because he's he's like whenever over the summer he would like become a member of the gym. We do Well, we don't do it anymore, but cause we can't afford it anymore.
Speaker 1:
But it's really expensive.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and he's like chicks are like half naked there and I, I know I'm like, but I don't go to be looked at by the dudes. I dress super modest compared to all the other girls that go there. Like I'm wearing actual clothes that cover my body when I go to the gym, but yeah, they might be leggings and a tank job, but like I'm not wearing a sports bra and bloomers, you know. And so I was just like I was offended because you have the audacity to tell me that I'm not being modest but at the same time, I can't just go. Well, this is a category of my life that I can be in modest Right.
Speaker 3:
Like I, sorry when the Bible is offensive. Like Paul says, you will offend people, Right yeah, Keep talking. The gospel is the gospel is offensive.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, there's like, but I so. Anyways, to your question of like have you ever justified your sin? That is the first thing. Yeah, I have no idea exactly how that fits.
Speaker 1:
So Moses is going, the people are grumbling they already did it twice with the water and they're hungry. And they start grumbling about water again. And to which Moses like why do you test the Lord by yelling at me? And then they're like well, you just want to kill us, which I thought is hysterical that they start judging the motive of Moses. You don't want the best for us, moses, you want to make our lives hard and Thirsty. And Moses, like I just work here. Like, well, you know. It's like what do you want from me? And then he goes to God.
Speaker 2:
Just trying to be a good husband.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, you know, I'm doing the best I can for crying out loud. And then Moses goes to God. He's like they're trying to kill me and they there was no mention of them Try. In fact, they were thought that Moses trying to kill them, so Moses thinks they're gonna kill him. I mean, everybody thinks they're gonna kill everybody and I think maybe we all think that. Is that true? Do we all think that everyone's trying to kill us, or is this just like they live in super exaggeration land?
Speaker 3:
I don't know. Whatever we're in extreme circumstance.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and I guess you know, when you just cross the Red Sea and you've basically barely survived that and all the plagues, you somehow got out of that. Mana from heaven quails. I mean, you've got all this stuff happening miraculously, maybe, like no, he wants to drop us on our head once we just go. I've got you right where I want you. Whoa, all these miracles, and now you're gonna die. And it's sort of wild to sort of think like that. But they just couldn't believe God's word that he would protect them, that he would take care of them. They wouldn't believe. And then Moses Couldn't believe God. Ultimately, 38 years later and this is the part that that Pablo got confused on, so I want to apologize to everybody when I was talking about they're in the first two years of the exodus and then I jumped to 38 years later, so some of you may not have picked that up and I talked about the scenic route through the hill country of sear it's kind of like the hill country of Austin, just actually way starker and more deadly. And a bunch of their people died there in the desert, not because they weren't fed, but because they got old and died because of natural Occurrences, not because they starved to death. And so they finally come back to Cades Bar, near the place where their unbelief was truly seen, and they're they're like we're gonna die of thirst here again. You don't care about us. And then Moses is like, oh, you gotta be kidding, all right. And then he goes do I do I? He goes to God. God says, hey, go talk to the rock and then Tell what water to come from the rock. Well, he does. Instead of going and talking to the rock, he smacks the rock a couple times and out gushes water. And then God says because you have not believed in me and I thought this was strange God tells Moses because you have not believed in me. It's not like like Moses became an atheist, it's not like he's like mad I'm believing God anymore. After 38 years of him providing miracle after miracle, I'm out. No, it's. He did not believe in him to regard him as holy, and I think there's a lot of Christians that we wouldn't say we don't believe in God anymore. We just don't want to do what he says and we let the our vengeance you know vengeance. His mind says we let our anger, we let our frustration Overcome the spiritual side of us to believe that God's got us. He literally spent time, the presence of God, his glory, in the moment, which is the heaviness of God. So he feels that he experienced that and then he walks out in anger like, hey, here now you rebels, do we? Should we bring water from this rock? Whack, whack, and out gushes water. And they did not regard Mosin air, did not regard God is holy. In that moment, they gave into their anger and they lost earthly reward of leading the people into the promised land. In that moment, hey, and I think that's where the have there been a time, pablo Devon, where you did not believe God as holy? Definitely and then that prevented you from earthly reward. Thoughts Devon probably Like.
Speaker 3:
This is where.
Speaker 1:
Katie's great.
Speaker 3:
She thinks about these things all the time oh it's like it's hard to know what I'm missing out on, because I'm missing out on it. Okay, yeah, I'm missing earthly reward.
Speaker 1:
Is there any earthly reward? You've missed out on Pablo because you gave into anger or lust or anything and not believe you knew God's word. You believe God's word, but you're like now I'm good, okay, what about you?
Speaker 2:
can you like explain what like?
Speaker 3:
earthly reward. It's like how do you know you're missing out? Okay, like a baby.
Speaker 1:
All right. Well, okay, how about this? If lust is your issue and then you go Take, satisfy yourself through lust as opposed to satisfy yourself with your wife, then that deteriorates your sex life. You miss out on the earthly reward. If it's, you do something for financial gain and it works temporarily, but then you miss out because you get fired ultimately. And then you did the dream job. You got kind of fades away.
Speaker 3:
That just takes a lot of wisdom. You have to realize that you've foregoed your walk with Christ and that you've turned from him and that you've lost it because of that. I feel like that takes a lot of wisdom. Right, that's where we might not be able to connect the door.
Speaker 1:
I could say that and there's obviously God is sovereign in that. I think I spent a lot of my 20s circumventing the plan of God because I was in the lust of the flesh and not thinking about spiritual things and missed out. Now, granted, god knew that and provided a wife for me that was nine years younger, and so that really worked out.
Speaker 3:
She was so gorgeous, it was funny. You won, yeah, I totally won.
Speaker 1:
I think I missed out on honoring God in a bigger way, and not that I could have had a much bigger ministry, but I made so many mistakes that I had to learn from and by mistakes I mean sin that I had to repent of. And I think I missed out on opportunity after opportunity, after opportunity, because I was so in the flesh.
Speaker 3:
I have a story for you. Okay, hit me All right, that spurred it. There it is All right. It was kind of like a Sarai in Hagar situation. I met Zach at the haunted house on Halloween and then we dated for three months and then he just ghosted me, before this was even a term. I was like this man just stopped talking to me. I was so devastated. I called all my friends the night that we met and I said I met my husband. When he just ghosted me I was pretty mad. And then I just went to this guy who I knew liked me and then I started dating him and then five months later he asked me to marry him and then three months later we got married and it was a crap show.
Speaker 1:
It was bad Wow I realized this story.
Speaker 3:
I forget all the time that you were married before. It was so fast. I forget that I was married before. It was a life that went in the blink of an eye. We survived that marriage for three months. It was so bad. I cried every day. I even tried to drink because it worked for my mom and I just don't like drinking a lot.
Speaker 1:
Is your mom like an alcoholic? My mom's an alcoholic. You were like you know what. Maybe it works for you it works for her?
Speaker 3:
No, it really doesn't. It really doesn't, but I just thought maybe there's something to this numbing situation. It was such a bad marriage but I got into it because I wasn't trusting that God had a man for me. And just to let God do his thing, I thought I need to take the reins. I'm sick of this. Who am I going to date? Am I ever going to get married? I come from a broken home. I'm an only child. I wanted a family so bad. I wanted a man to just stay by my side. I wanted children. I wanted the home. So you were impatient. I was so impatient, just like Sarai, and I continued to see myself as Sarai a little bit here and there, and I have to continuously ask God, pull that out of me. I don't want to be a Sarai. I don't want to be impatient. I don't want to not trust in you and your ways. God is gracious. He still gave me Zach and I got married without God's permission. God was telling me not to. We can talk about that later. But I also divorced two really big sins, and yet he still gave me my husband and my two beautiful children.
Speaker 1:
What I love about that is grace.
Speaker 3:
It is grace. Here's the cool part about that.
Speaker 1:
Here's the cool part about that. So you missed out on Earthly Reward, but then God somehow buys grace, redeemed it, and that's exactly what happens with Moses. So, on the amount of transfiguration, in Luke 9, you see Jesus in a glorified state, transfigured, and then Moses and Elijah standing with him, representing the law and the prophets. Well, the wild thing is they're standing in the promised land. And then, what's even more cool about that, it says they were speaking of Jesus's departure that he was about to accomplish. And remember, moses didn't finish the Exodus, but he's with Jesus in the promised land physically, and he's also talking about the promised land that Jesus is going to accomplish with the departure means Exodus, or it means it's transliterated as Exodus, so Exodon, exodus, and he's about to finish it, and which he does. So he's going to lead the train of captives to the promised land, ultimately heaven. And that is just such a wild thing that he gave Moses the gift of standing in the promised land with him, as he's talking about him ultimately leading all of those enslaved to sin to freedom, which blows, blows my mind. Okay now watch this, and this is I want now bringing everybody back in Can you be a Christian and an unbeliever? And I think that this comes from this Sunday where we or this sermon where we talked about how Moses believed in God. I mean, I don't think there was any part of Moses that was like I don't believe in God anymore. But can you be a Christian and unbeliever? He did not believe God to be holy. So I would say here yes, but I don't know if this is fully what they're asking. I mean, you could be a Christian who does not believe in moments, right, and I think that's what we're saying here. But when you hear that question, can you be a Christian and an unbeliever? Give me your response to that, because there's their second part of their question is can you go into, go further into, what an apology with no change behavior is? Is that manipulation or what? So let's just walk that through. So I know it's a heavy chunk right. So first question can you be a Christian and an unbeliever? Let's walk it through.
Speaker 4:
I think the way they worded it makes it sound like it's like can you be the person that goes to Sundays but you don't really believe, like you're just labeled as a Christian Right, but I think their intentions is kind of like what you're saying is like you're. There's unbelief in a moment, right.
Speaker 1:
But let's address it the other one, because I like what you said there. I think the classic Billy Sunday and he was at New Angeles in the late 1800s what he said is being in a garage does not make you an automobile. But, like you know, just because you're standing in a car doesn't sorry, sorry. Just because you're standing in a garage doesn't make you a car. Just because you're in a church doesn't make you a Christian.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, well, as my wife likes to say, satan believes in Jesus like he knows that he's God, right, but he ain't going to heaven, right, right. So I think and I don't know, I could be wrong about this but a lot of people are like, oh, to go to heaven, you just need to believe in Jesus. But I think there's a deeper level to that, where it's like Jesus needs to be Lord over your life for you to go to heaven, because anyone can say, oh, I believe Jesus died. So, they can look at historic evidence to be like oh yeah, there's, there's evidence for that.
Speaker 1:
Sure, I think that's what's so hard about that If you become a fruit inspector, which you should be at some point to kind of see if you should trust somebody in ministry or to affirm their salvation, but only God knows if they're saved or not, and I think that's what's super hard about that is because you can't see the heart change on the inside, that there is growth or fruit or whatever, and that becomes really difficult. Right, I think that's like somebody has a drug addict, believes in Jesus and they do less drugs by a smidgen or their heart, and now it's like I don't want to do this, but I'm so addicted and I'm so broken, and that's why homeless people can sometimes be the ones who know their Bible the best. But because they make really bad decisions because of moments of unbelief I don't know if that makes them unsafe. I think that part of their sin nature keeps winning. Yeah. Yeah, it's tough to know, yeah, but I do. I do like what you said there has to be. You know, when you come to faith there is a regeneration that happens in the same moment. But for someone who has been lodged in the sin for a long time, that's hard to, really hard to overcome. Yeah.
Speaker 4:
I mean even for myself, like I was raised in in faith, like in church and stuff. But I would say that my faith didn't really begin till I was like maybe like 1819. Because that's when it really became real to me. Like before that it was just kind of like, yeah, god is real, we go to church Sunday, isn't that? But my life had nothing in a show for that. Like I didn't talk about God unless it was Sundays. I did drugs, I had sex, I did everything that the world does, but I consider myself a Christian.
Speaker 1:
So I feel like this is really good, for no one can lay any foundation this is first Corinthians 311 for no one can lay any foundation other than what is being laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay or straw, each builders work will be plainly seen for the day. The day of judgment will make it clear, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what kind of work each has done. If what someone has built survives, he will receive reward. If someone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as through fire, and I think there's a lot of people that are living lives that are going to be only saved as through fire, because they haven't been able to overcome the darkness, and I think they'll be so grateful to be saved. They'll be like, yes, I am redeemed and loved by God. I missed out on a lot of the earthly reward, and then they're probably going to miss out on heavenly reward as well. But, man, they're going to make it because the object of their faith, jesus, is stronger than all of their sin. And that's what's hard. I think. That reality and that truth is where I think a lot of Christians live, especially in the age of consumerism, where your heart gets pulled by so many ways by the lust of the flesh. Any thoughts on that, mrs Katie Sass?
Speaker 2:
No, I think you all summed it up pretty great.
Speaker 4:
What was the second part of the question?
Speaker 1:
Oh, yeah, the second part of the question was can you go further into what an apology with no changed behavior is? Is that manipulation? And so I think this person broke these two. Can you be a Christian and an unbeliever? And then can you go further what an apology with no change. So maybe this person might be dealing with themself where they might be feeling I'm a Christian, but I've been acting not like a Christian, and then I apologize and then I don't actually change my behavior because I keep going back. I think that's what I'm seeing on that.
Speaker 2:
I mean, it really just sounds like a lack of self-control.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, through the spirit. Right, this is why I feel like I'm talking to my eight-year-old on that one. When you don't have self-control, the Holy Spirit is not influencing you. The flesh is influencing you. This is why the Bible says don't be filled with wine, but be filled by the spirit, and so what that means is don't be influenced by the darkness, be influenced by the Holy Spirit. And if any moment you're not being influenced by the Holy Spirit, ask yourself what you're being influenced by and get whatever that is out of your life so that you can be influenced solely by the Spirit. But yeah, manipulation, let's talk about that.
Speaker 4:
So it sounds like someone's doing this to them.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so someone has someone like you're frustrated because Brie has this one behavior that you don't like, and then she keeps doing it. She apologizes, said I'm sorry, babe, didn't mean to do whatever the thing was, and then she just does it again. I guess that's where we're going with that. And what does that even? How would we advise Pablo to handle it if Brie, his wife, keeps doing the same thing without changing?
Speaker 4:
So I may not be the best person for this, because I'm on the opposite side of that.
Speaker 1:
So Brie is the perfect one, and you're not.
Speaker 4:
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
Brie is in studio.
Speaker 1:
You can't see her, but she's here. Go ahead.
Speaker 4:
I've I think all of you know I've struggled with a porn addiction since I was like probably like seven years old, yeah, so it's been like a very constant part of my life and it probably say probably five, six years ago I actually started working on trying to get rid of it. Yeah, and so it's been five or six years of me slipping up watching porn and then going to Bree and being like, hey, look, I slipped up, I'm sorry. And then, and I'll say for the first two years, like I was, there was no real change. I would just do it and then apologize and then go and do it again.
Speaker 1:
Bree, you got to go sit next to your husband and I want you to talk about this because now, now that we went down this, road. This seems to happen all the time. Uh, actually, I'm not sure how that all comes together, because I think you've experienced I mean, you've experienced this as well Devin yes, definitely so, bree, and I have been talking a little bit about it, but I do also.
Speaker 3:
before Bree pops on, you said something that I want you to hone in on. There is a difference. You used to do it, and not apologize is what you were saying, I think. And then now you're doing it and or you would say like oh, I'm sorry, but it was different. Now something has shifted to where your apology means something. So what does that shift?
Speaker 1:
But for a while it didn't right or you didn't apologize, and now you apologize, so yeah what's the difference?
Speaker 4:
Yeah, so I would apologize, but I think because there was a um a worldly repentance.
Speaker 1:
Nice A sorry, not sorry moment.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, because, like I would see the hurt it would bring to her and it'd be like, oh man, I feel bad about that, but there was nothing really like spiritual, I guess. At first I didn't understand it, but even at some point I did understand it. But it was like like, if you've ever dealt with someone who's addicted to anything, you've heard of a story that's like, okay, like you either go and like you can either choose heroin or you choose your family. And they're like doing their best to like no, babe, I'm gonna do everything. And then a couple of weeks later they go and smoke heroin again and you're like, wow, you chose heroin over your own family. And although like, yes, like in a sense, yeah, you could say that, at the same time you have to think of, like you were mentioning earlier, the spiritual realm, where it's very real and deep and whatever. Basically, just to say that in recent years, I'd say maybe the past year, year and a half, um, my apologies have actually like meant something. I actually did feel a godly sorrow where it's like this isn't just about, like me, hurting breed, like there's a much broader spectrum to what this sin does in my life. And so, yeah, you could still sit and like I'm still not perfect, I still slip up. So this person's question is like well, if you, um, apologize but there's no behavior change, like what does that mean? And I think that it really depends on on what you're dealing with, because there are things that you could be very well sorry for. But, just like Plex said, like you, once you realize you sin, it's not like, it's like, oh, okay, I'm just not going to do that anymore. Like I'm going to stop gossiping because I know it's bad, but I'm going to stop being prideful because I know it's a sin. It's like there's a process that goes into you actually changing that behavior. And I think what's important is that if there's apology but not followed by behavior change, you need to like hone into that and be like why is that? Is it really because they're not sorry, or they don't know what to do, or they're being lazy about it, like what is it about it? All right.
Speaker 1:
So, Bree, talk to me then about, uh, and grab that stool for you public Uh, pre, talk to me like how that felt as a woman. But then when you're frustrated I'm sure you were frustrated like, or maybe it was like, ah, it's fine, I guess, whatever. Uh, uh, talk to me about like how that made you feel. And then, like, when he didn't change or or wasn't changing, what did? How did you handle that? So I think for me it's deeper than just Pablo.
Speaker 5:
So my ex before, pablo would cheat on me Like I'm convinced it was every day, um, but the times he would get caught it was this like he would cry and say I'm so sorry, like I won't do it again, and then it would just be like a couple of weeks later, a couple of months later, I'd find out again. The difference, I think, was he was sorry, he got caught. He was. There was never actually any. There was no, no, no, no, no. He was never actually any repentance in the action, he was never actually sorry. He hurt me, um, and for a while that's what Pablo was doing to me too. So it was, in a way, manipulation, the manipulating me to stay, because they both knew that those were deal breakers for me, but they're going to say anything they can to get me.
Speaker 1:
So why did you?
Speaker 5:
say for him? I don't know my, my, seriously the thing. I tell him all the time. I had days where I went to the house with the intention of breaking up with him and just something. Like it wouldn't even be anything he said because he would tell me you have every right to leave, but like there was just something inside of me that just said, like, wait it out.
Speaker 1:
Is that codependence, or is that like I?
Speaker 5:
really think it was God.
Speaker 3:
Because I don't like.
Speaker 5:
I feel like in the beginning I wasn't dependent on him. It turned into codependence when we moved in together. Right, and that was financially, but the X like that's eventually. What drove me away was like this is peer manipulation and I'm not here for it. Okay, so he he got healing Would you say that Is he like no, yes, so so how did that happen?
Speaker 1:
So so here's why because you got people watching this, listening to this. Right now they're like I'm stuck, I'm with this guy, stuck on porn. It's never gonna change and you know, whatever, I might as well get used to it or be Do something drastic. What, what, what, what happened? What changed?
Speaker 5:
I mean, I think it really came down to like anytime I saw really change in him Aside from God or pushing him closer to God. It came down to an ultimatum where I'm like I cannot Continue to be a punching bag, I cannot continue to be being used or being manipulated. He said there needs to be a change, whether that's because you want to stay with me or because you want to grow as a person. And then him just, I think, realizing that I was serious and Seeing how ugly it got, and then seeking, because for a while he's like, relied on his own Strength, which failed every time.
Speaker 1:
Yeah but me seeing that okay, he's actually trying is what kept me sticking I mean, because what you just said is like I just threatened him until he understood that I was serious, which we all know. That doesn't work right because fear only works somewhat, so talk to me about how. Probably because it sounds like she's like. I just told him he sucks, I'm out. No, but what? Because I don't know if that's it may. That is what happened.
Speaker 4:
I think it's Then now that I like to use is like when, for, like I work on cars, right, and I'll start hearing a noise on the car and I'm slight, oh it's fine, and I just keep driving until it's not fine and I'm like, oh crap, like I got to work on this before my car blows up. And I think that was the issue, was I was I realized the hurt, but I was being very passive about it. So the moment she would give me an ultimatum, it was like the encouragement or like Whatever, that I needed to be like, oh man, like this is serious, like I really need to to take care of this, and it also helped me understand, like how much it actually mattered to her. And I think it was from that point on that I was like, okay, like what steps do I need to take to Just start working towards getting rid of this? And what steps were those? Well, one is, I guess, just be more open about it. Confessing said that's what's weird right.
Speaker 1:
So what's weird is, if you're confessing it, that doesn't go along with, if you do this again, I'm out, yeah, so so talk to me about that just real quick. Like cuz, it's cuz. Like what she said was I just told them, but what happened was not that.
Speaker 5:
What changed for me, and when I realized like this is a deeper issue and it's not just manipulation is, instead of just saying hey, I'm sorry, he's like, hey, I'm sorry, and going forward, I'm gonna take these steps. So I saw action steps.
Speaker 1:
Okay, but sometimes he didn't fall through on those action steps, and so how did you? How did you, because it sounds like you gave him a lot of grace, even though you're not saying it.
Speaker 5:
Yeah, I mean even times like I don't. I wouldn't say he would ever like follow through, because the action steps would be like putting Blockers on his phone and there would just be like, honestly, those blockers aren't that great, he would find ways around them. So I think every time it became like if it was just a hey, I'm sorry, I'd blow up and it wouldn't go well. But if it was like hey, I'm sorry, I don't know what else to do, do you have any suggestions? And we can then sit as a team, like just see his willingness to Pretty much do whatever I needed him to do, whatever God needed him to do, to make the change, is what made me realize like, hey, this isn't manipulation, this is an addiction, this is something deeper. And as long as I see the willingness to grow and like the godly repentance I Mean, all I can do is show the grace that Christ has showed me.
Speaker 1:
I hate to cut off here, but, man, that's all the time we have for this particular episode. We're gonna have to bring you guys back, everyone back, because this seems like porn keeps coming up in the most random podcast Everywhere we go. It's sort of wild. Well, hey, thanks so much for watching and listening. If I would love for you to share, like and subscribe, make sure you let a friend know about pastor plex podcast. I would love to hear from you. Any questions? Just text us at 737 2310 605. We would love to hear from you on how you're overcoming the power of darkness with your lust struggle. Maybe you're another person that's sitting there struggling. You're like I don't know how to overcome this, and we'll bring All these people back that have all battled and overcome and it's really great to kind of see all Everybody here has really overcome the power of the darkness by the power of grace and love and mercy in Christ. So what a what a cool story and Thank you all of you for sharing and looking forward to see you guys next time. Hey, listen, I have pushed back the darkness. Do what God has called you to do and have an awesome week of worship.
