Let's Connect
The Official Podcast of Connect Church in Rockdale, Texas, where we want to help you live a life that matters; one that is both on mission and has a purpose to know Jesus and make disciples.
Let's Connect
Episode 2 - Why Did the Pastor Cross the Road? To Tell You About Grace!
A powerful exploration of grace and guilt unfolds as we discuss how our failures do not define us. Embracing God's grace is essential for leading a meaningful life.
• The battle between guilt and grace
• Apostle Paul’s insights on sin and human struggles
• Personal stories of facing guilt and seeking forgiveness
• The importance of acceptance within church communities
• Understanding the Christian journey beyond mere survival
Welcome to let's Connect, the official podcast of Connect Church in Rockdale, Texas, where we want to help you to live a life that matters, one that is both on mission and has a purpose to follow Jesus and make disciples. So let's get started.
Speaker 2:All right, welcome in to let's Connect, the official podcast of Connect Church here in Rockdale, texas. I'm your host I guess I can call myself the host, bill Whitmire and I'm here with our pastor, ken Ansell. Ken, how are you doing today? I'm great, bill, how are you doing? Oh, pretty good, pretty good, cannot complain. God's blessed me.
Speaker 3:God is good. Hey, I wonder how many people are just suffering with guilt rather than relying on depending on the grace of God? You know, when we sin, when we fail God, there's no doubt we don't feel good about it. The Apostle Paul mentioned this in Romans 7 when he said you know, I do the things I don't want to do and the good that I want to do I don't do. So Paul understood that we're still failing, we're still sinning, even though we're saved. But rather than just take grace at salvation you know, we're saved by grace, through faith we have to keep depending on that grace throughout the rest of our life, and it seems like God's plan is for us to accept that unmerited favor consistently as we fail, and not feel guilty. What do you think about that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think you're dead on. I mean, you know, I get asked a couple times and I was actually asked by one of our young parishioners or church members there in Children's Church why Peter was so great if he denied Christ three times. And you know that was sinful and he was worried about saving his life but he knew he had done wrong and he asked for that forgiveness. And you know, the fact of the matter is we sin and just what you just said right there, paul says you know we do things that we don't want to do, but the fact of the matter is we sin, nobody sins. You know I hate mowing the lawn, so if mowing the lawn was a sin, I could avoid that pretty easy.
Speaker 2:But the fact of the matter is most things that we sin with are on a worldly scale, on a human scale. They're enjoyable, sure, and we know we shouldn't do it, mm-hmm, and we still do it. But it's's that grace, that gift of grace that god has given us, that we see it, we, we repent of it and and and then he brings us back home. You know I I can't remember who it was, I heard it not too long ago and you know they said you can. You can walk 100 miles in the wrong direction, but to find god and it may have been you, but to find God, all you gotta do is turn around. Turn around and take that step back yeah, it's what we see in scripture.
Speaker 3:I don't know if we're holding ourselves to a standard that we we can't meet, but like the woman caught in adultery, jesus said look who's. Who's thrown rocks at you, who's condemning you? Neither do I, so you know, he picked her up, he dusted her off and he said go and sin no more. And I mean, I don't know about other people, maybe it's me, but I struggle giving myself that same grace. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2:No, it makes a lot of sense. I mean, I said no but I meant no, it does make sense. But it does make sense. I think we all do that, you know. I think that you know I'm hoping that there are people that listen to this podcast and realize so many people they think they've crossed some magical line that they can never come back to God. You know that I'm a terrible person. There's no way God would ever want me around, and they couldn't be farther from the truth. I mean, jesus loves us all and all we have to do, just like I said a minute ago, is turn around.
Speaker 3:Come back.
Speaker 2:And he wants you to come back. But it's so hard for so many people, you know, to actually be able to do that and to say that. And I'm one of them. You know, years and years ago, I, you, you, you don't some people may can do it, but you know, 14 years in the Navy and there were times when I thought, man, there's no way, no way I'll be able to come back from this, um, things that happen, you know, and and um. But you get into the Bible and you pray and you find you a good church community and you'll realize God never left your side. You know, we had a Bible study the other night and one of the questions was how do you know God was there and I wrote it down and we kind of you know, I don't always say everything, I write down in it but one of the things was how do you know? And because I know there was times when God carried me, there was times when God led me, but all the time God loved me. I just had to come back.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's no doubt. I'm sorry. No, go ahead. Well, that's a spiritual battle, isn't it? The devil is a worthy adversary and he likes to let us know that God's ticked off at us and he doesn't love us and he doesn't have a plan for us because we fail too hard. I mean, it doesn't you know? Big sin, little sin. You know, procrastination isn't a spiritual gift.
Speaker 3:Last time I checked, and you know it's easy to procrastinate and maybe sin in that, and we might call that a small sin. But even those sins really jack me up and I need to be reminded that God wants me to cut myself some slack, if I can put it that way. Sinning's never okay. I don't want anybody listening to think, well, they're soft on sin. I'm hard on sin, on myself, you know. But I need to be reminded that God still loves me and, yeah, we confess our sins, right, and God is good to forgive us.
Speaker 3:And then Paul talked about. You know, one thing he does is forget the past. And he pressed on. He said he was the chief of sinners and he wrote most of the New Testament. And I'm not saying, well, if it was okay for him, it's okay for me, but I'm just saying you know, what he wrote in Scripture was inspired by the Holy Spirit, and so, if the Spirit wanted Paul to get past his past and press on towards the future, that's what I want to do, and not hold myself accountable to something that God's forgiven me of.
Speaker 2:And to go along with that. I think a lot of people look at other people and they have this idea that they go to church with somebody and they have this idea that's I'll never be as good as that person.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'll never be able to do what that person does. I'll never. But you know, the truth of it is we don't know. We don't know what that person does, and doesn't do.
Speaker 2:No know, we don't know what that person does and doesn't do. I know you and I talked about this a while back, but there's a lot of people that go to church every Sunday that aren't there, that aren't prepared for Jesus to come back. They think they are, they lead on like they are, but they're not. And I think a lot of folks go to church and they look at those people and they think I'll never be as good as Bill.
Speaker 1:I mean look at everything he's doing.
Speaker 2:And I'm not perfect. I mean, believe me, I know there's people out there that think that and that think that I'm not perfect. I mean, believe me, I know there's people out there that think that and that's that think that I'm not perfect, and you know what they're right. I'm not perfect, but I strive as hard as I can to do just like it says in Philippians to try to, you know, imitate Jesus, to try to be like Jesus. I can't be like I can't, I can't be like Jesus. I can't be like Ken, I can't be like Ron, I can't be like Dick, I can't be like all these other guys we know, and I don't want to emulate them. I want to be like Jesus. And you know what? I guess the way to put it is is. It's an admirable and probably the best goal you can have in life, but it's impossible and you just have to know that. And so you know a lot of folks when they come in, and I think that's what makes our church special to a certain extent is I don't feel that of anybody that goes to our church, I don't feel like anybody thinks they're better than anybody else, and I hope that folks that are listening to this are in a church like that as well, because there are a lot of churches where, when you go in, if you're not part of that upper echelon or you're not part of that crowd, you can be looked down on.
Speaker 2:Not all churches and I don't want to throw all churches into one big lump, but I know when you started, when you came back here and you had that nucleus group that started Connect Church as a church plant here in Rockdale. That was one of the goals. That's the whole reason it's called Connect Church is to connect with people and let people connect with God, and that's what we need more and more of. And we need to be those disciples. Like in the intro it says to make disciples. Well, we need to be those disciples, too, that go out and talk to people and make sure that they know, hey, I may have screwed up, but I can still be accepted by God. And I think a lot of people do damage to themselves when they don't understand that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no doubt. If you're holding yourself, if you feel guilty and you're staying away from the body, right, the church, whatever church it is, I mean you're missing out. The church is missing out on a relationship with you. Right, each of us has a spiritual gift, at least one spiritual gift, if not a plurality. We all have talents and skill sets, and those things are things God has given us to enhance the body and the body's incomplete. So, yeah, I mean you talk about connecting with God, connecting with people and serving the Lord within the four walls of the church building, wherever it meets. We meet in a school. Other churches have their own buildings, but, wow, the church is not whole if we're hanging out at home because we feel guilty rather than continuing to rely on that grace that saved us to begin with, wow, I hate that for people when I think about someone sitting at home missing out on hanging out with other Christians being sharpened. Right, iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.
Speaker 2:And I mean that whole—when you go to church. So many churches it's—folks think they have to go in and sit in the back or sit to the side. And somebody sent me a picture of a guy rounding third base and running to home plate and it's a story of a guy that takes these pictures and he collects them because he says that's what he hopes it feels like when he gets to heaven. But I was thinking about this the other day when I was driving around, when I was going to church Sunday, and as I pull up I thought to myself you know, that's what church should be like.
Speaker 2:When people come into church, you know there's a song by Casting Crowns called she's Running 100 Miles an Hour and it's about a young lady that doesn't want to go to church because she knows everybody's going to be looking down their nose at her and stuff. What if it was the opposite? What if that was the place you went, because you knew everybody was going to be there to shake your hand and welcome you there and want to know who you are and not just say hey, thanks for coming, good to see you, and then don't think about them the rest of the week. You know, but to have that kind of experience but here's the point, and I'm not bragging on our church, although we do a good job of it, I think. But that, and I'm not bragging on our church, although we do a good job of it, I think.
Speaker 1:But that may be me a little bit prideful, but I'm sorry about that You're just biased, yeah.
Speaker 2:But when we think about this stuff whether you're that person that's at church and has been at that church forever, or you're new to that church, or maybe you don't have a church right now the question is you know who's going to do this? Well, stand up and do it. Be the one that's going to do it. Be the one that's going to go to that church and be a part of that church. Be the one who's been in that church your whole life, who sees these people, because this is the thing. You're not looking at a new church member. You're not looking at somebody who's looking for just a church to go to. You're looking at somebody who's looking for God, who's wanting a relationship with God, who wants to feel comfortable where they are so that they can deal with what they have to deal with.
Speaker 2:We talk about this often that being a Christian is not easy. It's not like hey, I got saved, I accepted Jesus, I got a new church home, I'm on easy street. Well, in a lot of ways, that's where the work starts, that's where the rubber hits the road, and so the best thing we can do is to find that grace in ourselves, because we all sin. There's not a one of us that can walk around and say we've never sinned and we don't sin and we don't sin on a daily basis.
Speaker 2:But just because we sin doesn't mean we don't have the grace of God, doesn't mean we can, we can repent for that sin and and have that grace of God. And it also doesn't mean. I guess what it does mean is that when you're there for your fellow Christians, you should be there, you should be that one that sees them down, that that does something nice, that helps them. When I say nice, I mean says hey brother or hey sister, what's wrong?
Speaker 1:What can I do for?
Speaker 2:you, let's pray for you, let's try to help you out and let's get those folks back on the road. We have to support each other, we have to be there for each other and we have to be the one to initiate that. Whether it means going to a new church, whether it means welcoming somebody to a new church, or whether it means just sharing a prayer with somebody, we have to be the one.
Speaker 1:You know it's not a who's going to go do it?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm going to go do it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's good. Yeah, I think about part of what Paul said. Well, every Christian's a struggling Christian. We just clean up good on.
Speaker 1:Sunday mornings at 1030.
Speaker 3:I mean, we all look good and there's something unique about Sunday mornings, and so we're feeling good. But in Romans 7, 24, and the beginning of 25, I mean, the Apostle Paul says what a wretched man am I. And so I mean that's how I feel when I sin. And then he says who will deliver me from this body of death? And then he says thanks be to God through Jesus, christ, our Lord. And so we're in good company with Christ, who was perfect and died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. And so we just need to be reminded of that.
Speaker 3:I can think of a guy that started coming to. We were in Waxahachie for 12 years and I remember I was out on the front porch of the church praying one day and this guy was driving home and he pulled in and he had been attending our church and he said hey, pastor, what are you doing? I said man. I said, to be honest with you, I was just out here praying. You know that people would, that God would draw people to this building on Sunday morning. He said, man, he said I'm an answer to that prayer. And this guy, man, I would say he was a big-time Christian. You know he did. He just randomly came right being drawn by the Holy Spirit to come to our church, was serving in our church, was very serious about Bible study, just an awesome, awesome guy.
Speaker 3:And then one day I get a call from a guy named Jack Turk and he said hey, ken, my name's Jack and you don't know me, but this guy's name was Ron Dale and he said I'm Ron Dale's neighbor and he said Ron died this morning. And uh, and I was like whoa, you know this guy's, he's a welder, he's working every day, he's a stout guy. And and I said, well, man, what happened? He said uh. He said well, you know, ron struggle with, uh, alcoholism. And I said no, I didn't know that. And he said yeah, he said well, he just bled internally to death, you know. And I'm like wow, but this guy my point is some of the biggest sinners make the best Christians because they get grace. You know, those who have been forgiven much right, and so you know I wouldn't discount that guy's faith. He just struggled, you know he struggled with something that praise the Lord.
Speaker 3:I don't struggle with you know, I don't struggle with an addiction issue, but but grace is there for him, the same way for the guy that you know struggles with those that don't drive properly, right? Yeah, I mean that same grace. I mean the ground at the cross is level for the alcoholic or the drug addict or someone that gave their life, like me, to the Lord when he was 12 and the worst thing he'd done was stuck gum under a desk at school. Jesus died for all those sins and we're so thankful.
Speaker 2:And that's what we have to help people to understand is that there's no coming back from this mentality. And with God there is. There is a way to come back and you know it takes some people longer to realize that. But that's where what I just said, the stand up, you be the one. You be the one to help that person come back. You be the one to talk to that person. And a lot of us are shy to do that. A lot of us are. You know who else is going to pull up while you're standing out on the front porch of a church and say hey man, what are you doing?
Speaker 2:Those are things that God leads us to do, and God leads us to do things every day. Are you listening for it? Are you ready for it? Are you able to say you know what? God? This is something I, this, is you telling me to do. This it's nothing we're doing. It's God working through us, and sometimes he works through us just by being that instrument that goes up to that person that needs us and say hey, buddy, let me help you with this. Wow, that's good.
Speaker 3:Us giving grace to others, right? Yeah, wow, that's so good. And not being hypocritical because the church for so long has been graded as that right, I don't want to get technical, but we can be seen as pharisaical, legalist, self-righteous, and we don't ever want to be that. And really what you just described is the difference between living a life that matters and one that doesn't, and thriving in your relationship with Christ, being used by Christ, being obedient to Christ and just surviving, just getting by.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's it. Like you said before, it's the thriving, not just surviving.
Speaker 3:Yeah, let me pray us out of here. Okay, all right. Gracious Father, we love you. We're amazed by you, father, how you want to be with us and how you forgive us consistently and constantly. Lord, hear our hearts. We don't want to sin, we know it's wrong. We always want to hit that bullseye, but we also want to make sure that we don't let our sins stop us and keep us from being the child that you want us to be. Father, we recognize you as our heavenly Father and we know that you always want the best for us and you always pick us up and dust us off and tell us to go and sin no more. And know our hearts, father, when we leave your presence like that, we don't plan on sinning, we don't want to sin, but we understand the power of the flesh and as long as we're in these fleshly bodies, father, we're going to be prone to fail. So thank you for loving us in spite of ourselves. In your son's holy name we pray Amen, amen.
Speaker 2:All right, that's the uh. That's a wrap on episode two.
Speaker 3:That's a wrap.
Speaker 2:That's a wrap. We only got 98 more to get to a hundred, so I want to thank everybody for listening. We'll be back next week um with more. Let's connect, thank you.