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 31 - Dust on Bibles, Brand New iPhones
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We explore why Christians often experience slow growth in their faith journeys despite being "saved" for years, examining the difference between intellectual belief and heart transformation.
• Scripture reminds us "if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come" (2 Corinthians 5:17)
• Biblical examples like the woman at the well and the demoniac show immediate transformation after encountering Jesus
• Many Christians "spike the football" after baptism without continuing to grow
• True rebirth happens when we allow Scripture to transform our hearts, not just inform our minds
• Churches often focus on getting people saved without emphasizing discipleship
• Jesus shouldn't be an "add-on" to our lives but the transformer of our entire being
• Our past doesn't define us when we truly surrender to God
• External pressures from family, friends, and social media can hinder our growth
• The key difference: letting Christ capture your heart, not just your mind
Join us for worship Sundays at the American Legion in Rockdale (Carlisle Post). Fellowship with donuts and coffee at 10:00am, worship at 10:30am. Children's church and nursery available.
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 2All right, welcome into let's Connect, the official podcast of Connect Church here in Rockdale, texas. I'm your host, bill Whitmire, and I'm here, as always, with our pastor, ken Ansel Ken. How are you doing today? I'm doing great, bill. Thanks for asking with our pastor Ken Ansel Ken how you doing today. I'm doing great, bill. Thanks for asking. It got cool for a while. Now it's gotten hot again. Summer's back yeah, that just makes you happy as a fat tick on an old hound dog, don't it?
Speaker 4Yeah, Last night actually, though, I put a sweatshirt on. I don't know if the blonde had the air blowing cold Sweatshirt.
Speaker 2Yeah, shirt, yeah. I was. Wow, I'm like man, it's cold in here. Well, of course, the nurse was gone with the twin granddaughters last night so, uh, I could actually turn the air conditioner up a little bit and walk around in shorts in my own house without having to dress like nana north for all evening.
Speaker 2So hey, we, you know we've had a lot of things go on in the last few weeks. I don't know when you're listening to this podcast. Um, you could be listening to it anytime. I want to thank everybody for listening to the podcast. This is episode 31. We did 30 last week. 26, which was what do you sacrifice for faith? That one hit a lot of people because that one has taken off.
Speaker 2That's become our most listened to podcast and we've been on for over half a year now, so that's pretty amazing. That is amazing. But today is kind of something similar to that. We were talking beforehand and you brought up the question why do we see slow growth in folks on their faith journeys? And that's a pretty big question. But I was going to ask you to kind of summarize that for us and send us in the right direction.
Why Do Christians See Slow Growth?
Speaker 4Yeah, well, 2 Corinthians 5, 17 says if you're in Christ, you're a new creation. So we're these new people. The old life is gone, the new life has come. It's you know Jesus talked about. You got to be born again. So you just imagine you become a baby Christian and you are free from sin. Right, we have strength not to sin, so we're free from sin. Yeah, we have new desires. We got to focus on Christ and we should be experiencing ongoing transformation. So I guess that's really the heart of it. Right, like, where is that ongoing transformation? Sanctification that the Spirit is sanding off the rough edges of who we are not in Christ, right, our flesh, and we're becoming more like Jesus.
Speaker 4And we see this, right, we see on fire, like the woman at the well right. People don't want to hang with her, and yet she goes back to town and shares with those people that don't care about her because of her promiscuity. She's bold, right, she's no longer scared to see these people or concerned about them, bullying her or whatever, and she brings them back to Jesus. So we see this immediate transformation once she met Christ, what we call the demoniac, you know, the guy out in the graveyard naked, you know, put outside of town, you know, hanging by himself. Once he finds Jesus brand new guy you know he's got clothes on, he's in his right mind, he wants to hang with Jesus. Jesus goes. No, go back to your hometown, you know. Go back to Milano, go back to Gauze, and he does. And we see evidence of that later on. So why do we see these on fire? New, different people? But you know, I don't know, not so much today.
Speaker 2It is a rebirth. I mean, it is a like you're talking about with the demoniac. It is a complete life change and we see this a lot. We've talked about this a lot. You know folks will do this popular.
Speaker 2You know we hear this all the time. You know, I accept Christ as my savior and that's great. I got news for you. He was your savior before you accepted him as your savior. But we make a big deal out of that phrase. But the question is you know we hear it all the time Did you ask God into your life?
Mental Assent vs. Heart Transformation
Speaker 2He was already there. The question, a better question, is have you given your life to God? And I think that's where that rebirth, where that growth is. So you can, you know, you can stand up in front of church and you can ask God to come into your life and get baptized. But is that where you're really reborn? You know, I mean, for some people, yeah, you see it immediately. And then for some people, cause I'll tell you just on my own, okay, february 2nd 1980, that is the day, yeah, and I, uh, I asked you know God into my and a few weeks later I was baptized. But in all honesty, I don't really think I was actually reborn as a Christian until probably, in all honesty, seven or eight years ago. I went to church when my kids were younger. We go to church just about every Sunday. Very rarely did we miss, but I was there.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 2But I don't think I was really there.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 2And there was something that happened about six or seven years, seven or eight years ago, I guess. Now that, um, that it just hit me. It's like, man, you've got these Bibles everywhere, you've got God everywhere you look. I mean, there's an old saying you know, you can't throw a dead cat without hitting something. Well, in my house you couldn't have thrown a tennis ball without bumping into a Bible or two, but that doesn't mean they were being used, and the moment I started actually using them, that's where that rebirth happened, that's where that hit. And for a lot of people, I think we get to that point where we ask God into our heart, where we get baptized, where we join the church and then we spike the football and then we don't grow.
Speaker 2And I know that happened to me for about 35 years.
Speaker 4Yeah, that's interesting. You know, man, you just said so much, I couldn't write as fast as you were talking. Yeah, let me collect my thoughts just a minute. Yeah, I think we could argue that in Scripture we don't give our life, god takes it.
Speaker 4He takes it from us. And you know Paul's got such crazy good language when he says things like I want to know Christ, I want to know the power of Christ. You know that resurrection power. He wants to actually experience that. We will experience that as Christ followers one day. And then, yeah, there's a kind of a neat goofy song. I think it's. Josiah Queen says we got dust on our Bibles, brand new iPhones. Why do we feel the way we feel?
Speaker 4Because we have dust on our Bibles and we're not using them, and yeah, so there's so much to that. There was a lady and I've told this story a hundred million times but I'd love to tell there was a lady in our church up in Hereford that I mean, we just met her for the first time and we're like, oh, this lady, she's in the church, she's back going to the church, involved in ministries, yada, yada, husband's a deacon and she, just like she ate a bug every Sunday. And then one day she you know old school church walk the aisle, come down front. I'm standing in the front and I go. Oh, you want to recommit Because she's part of the church right, 70-year-old woman.
Speaker 4She goes no, I'm giving my life to the. Lord for the first time. She'd been faking it all those times. She wasn't new and different.
Speaker 2And you know what. It's hard to explain when I say that to people, and I've told other people that same thing. I mean, I guess I'm telling everybody that would listen to this podcast it now, and that's fine. I don't know that. I ever thought I was faking it, though.
Speaker 1I just thought, this is how it is.
Speaker 2This is how it is, and I tell you all the time, and I've told folks on this podcast, I tell people in our Bible study and at church man, Ephesians 2, 1 through 10. Ephesians 2, 1 through 10. The first time I read that, that's the thing that made me realize, dude, you're not saved right now. You went and got baptized but it didn't take. And when I read that, I read that and I thought man. And so I pulled out a study Bible I had and I went through it and I read it and I probably read that, you know, half a dozen times. It's not as marked up in this Bible that's sitting on this table right now as it is in the Bible that I first read that in that side of it's just written all over.
Speaker 2You can't even hardly read it anymore. Yeah, but I love that. That's what I mean. It just like I was sitting alone in my house and if you know me, you know the story. If you don't, and you want to know, come talk to me, I'll tell you the story.
Speaker 2but I was sitting alone in my house and I read that, and, and, and I put it down and I walked off and I came back and I read it again and then that's when I pulled out that study Bible. And that's when it hit me, man, you are on a path, but you haven't got where you need to go yet. You're not completely reborn like you should be. You have never hit that, and so and here's the thing the way we do things is in the Christian faith is somewhat of a human construct.
Speaker 4Sure it is.
When Faith Becomes an Add-on
Speaker 2And it gives us that false revelation that we're there, we're home free and there's a good shot that we're not. And so when you come into it, that slow growth, that's part of that human construct. So many churches are focused strictly on getting folks in, getting them saved, getting them baptized, getting them to join. Now we can move on to the next people, and you've even heard certain pastors.
Speaker 4There's no discipleship.
Speaker 2No, and you've heard certain pastors. They're TV pastors. I've heard Stephen Furtick say this, and I'll say it because you can go, google this and he'll tell them. Once you're saved, once you're a member of this church, this church is no longer directed at you, it's directed at the unsaved. There is a certain amount of truth to that, sure, but those members of the church man, they got to hear that gospel every week.
Speaker 2They got to know what the story is every week. And so when you hear somebody say that that you folks that are saved, you're done, that promotes that feel that okay, I'm saved, I'm there, I've reached the target, I'm good, I don't really need anything else now. And that's when that growth, just man, just slams almost to a screeching halt.
Speaker 4Yeah, we get a lot of pushback on. You know, you and I both have been in Bible studies where people go, well, it's a process, and I'm like, yeah, but why are you throwing water on the fire, like when you see Saul, Paul converted man, that guy's all gas and no brake, and so why would we even think, okay, I'm going to take this slow, I'm going to take this Jesus thing slow, because that is not what we see. You know, we don't see an evangelism class for the one with the well, we don't see a road to Romans class, or you know how to use a gospel track successfully for the demoniac.
Speaker 4We see these people on fire and of course, paul tells Timothy you know you need to you know, throw some wood on the fire of your spiritual gifting, because so I get that like there's biblical precedent for people growing cold and needing to be, for people growing cold and needing to be revived spiritually. But we're to live, in a way, right, pick up your cross daily. It's a daily thing. Paul said, I die daily and I just wonder if and you can speak to this that we think Jesus is an add-on. We're focused on behavior modification. We're just trying to become a better version of our old self rather than being these brand new Christians.
Speaker 2Well, we talked about, you know something a few weeks ago and we relate so much stuff to today and we forget Put yourself in. Let's just say put yourself in Peter's. Here's Simon the fisherman. And this guy comes up and says put down your nets and follow me. And boom, they did. There was no process, they just okay. Hey, what's your name? Again, jesus? Hey, can we have a couple more days? We need to do a couple more days of fishing before we know they're really biting right now.
Speaker 2Yeah yeah, this is the best part. You see those birds out there. They're telling us no, they, they put their nets down, jumped out of the boat and and and, went, went with him, and that's you know and, and, and and. You know what. When they did that, people around them at that time made fun of them. Look at that. Look at those idiots. Look at Simon and Andrew. They're just walking off and leaving everything and they've got all these bills. How you know? How are they going to handle that? That's just crazy.
Speaker 2We see that today and I really feel a lot of times people are that want to have that relationship, that want to be close. A lot of times they're put off because the world, the people that are in the world, people that are their friends, that are worldly bound, will think that same way. And the fact that you know we talked a few weeks ago about coming to church and feeling a little conflicted by, maybe, the sermon, but you know how many people that were at the Sermon on the Mount I don't think anybody that heard that whole Sermon on the Mount left not feeling slightly convicted.
Speaker 2No one got up and said yeah, I'm good, we're going home. Not every one of them were like man. I mean, if anything else, you know, turn the other cheek. How do you not feel conflicted? Here's this guy, that's the Messiah, and he tells you you have to turn the other cheek, you know. And how do you not feel or love your enemy? How do you not? How does that not cause conflict in your heart?
Family, Past, and Spiritual Growth
Speaker 2So, as humans in today's world, we are bombarded by everything. In this world we have people that get on social media and say some of the ugliest things in the world and they'll say it over and over, and over and over again, and have five people that like it, but they're going to keep saying it and it just gets all the negativity. It's so hard to find something truly positive on social media on a daily basis, and all of that stuff clouds us. When I've heard you say this a million times, why don't you want Jesus in your life? Why don't you want that good feeling all the time, knowing that you have a personal relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ?
Speaker 4Wow, what's better than that? I mean, yeah, it's. Yeah, you talked about constructs, you know. I mean, we're products of our environment. How we grew up, you know that's true. Spiritually. You know homes we grew up in. What version of Jesus did we get presented to us where we went to church? What version of Jesus did we get presented to us where we went to church? What version of Jesus? There's a great book called Read Jesus. That man, I would encourage anybody to get that, but it talks about versions of Jesus.
Speaker 4But you know, like you got blue sash Jesus you know, the guy in the bathrobe with the blue sash or the Jesus that turns tables over. You know, like that's some people's favorite version and I hope everybody knows what I'm saying when I say that. But yeah, I mean Jesus said people are going to hate you. How many of us have haters? We should have People hate us because we love Jesus and we're practicing as you just said. We're practicing what he taught.
Speaker 4You know, I see a lot talk about social media which, yeah, is both good and not so good, but I see a lot of posts going. You know Jesus didn't. You know the woman at the well. Jesus didn't hold her past against her. You know, it's not the past that is being held against anybody, it's their present, their current unconfessed, unrepentant sin. That's what's fractured their relationship with God and therefore, maybe God's not using them, god's not blessing them, however you take that and maybe their church isn't even using them because they've got open, unconfessed, unrepentant sin and it's hurting. At the end of the day, it's just hurting our relationship with Christ.
Speaker 2I think a lot of us I know I did for a long time and a lot of us, our past holds us back from where we want to be in the future or where we want to be in our relationship with God, and that is so unhealthy. I mean I let that stuff. You know I've told you before. You know I spent about six years with a really good Christian counselor. I had a lot of PTSD, issues from the military and stuff, and for a long time, you know, I retired in 02 and all the way up until 17,. You know, for a long time I just felt like there's just no way. There's just no way. I mean, there's so many bad things that had happened. There's just no way and that's. You know that was where my life was.
Speaker 2There's a lot of folks that feel that you know hereditary and you know I always put the analogy up that you know hereditary and and you know they're. You know I always put the analogy up. We talk about hereditary health care. Well, here's the thing about family history. You know they ask you about it yeah you learned to live that way.
Speaker 2You know there's very few things that are actually hereditary in physical issues. I I have a bald head because it runs in my family, and bad genetics yeah, it is. And and it's not fair because my cousin no, that's not.
Speaker 1My cousin has a beautiful head of hair yeah yeah, I'm just, he drives me nuts.
Speaker 2He's hard to like he's got a lot.
Speaker 4Yeah, that long ponytail and everything, even knowing.
Speaker 2Wow, oh, ponytail yeah, everything mean it's got great hair Mine just, you know, right here in the middle reverse mohawk.
Speaker 2But you know, we learn to take care of ourselves health-wise by the way we grow up. We learn to eat from our family, we learn to exercise from our family or not exercise or not exercise. And the same thing about how we go to church. And you know one thing, one thing there was something that happened a while back and the nurse was quite upset about it and it had to do with some of the kids and stuff. And I said, look, our priorities have to be first about God and if our family, even if our family has an issue with it we have to live our lives for God, and that's a hard thing.
Speaker 2All these things are—because they're worldly constructs that keep us bound to things that God doesn't necessarily want us bound to. You know, honor our parents, and you know I make it a habit. I try to talk to both of my parents. You know at least—at the very least once a habit. I try to talk to both of my parents at least, at the very least once a week, but usually I talk to them at least once a day if nothing more than a text.
Speaker 2But you need to honor your parents. It's right there in the Bible Honor thy father and mother multiple times.
Speaker 2But the thing is, though your family, while it is important, I can't let my parents. I will honor them and love them my whole life, but at the same time and I'm lucky because both my parents are believers and have a relationship with Christ but if your parents aren't, you can't not honor them. You know that's how you show them God's love is by honoring them, and the same thing with the rest of your family. But you can't let that family take you away, just like you can't let your friends take you away.
Speaker 2I have a friend, a guy that I was a friend with for many years, and I'd like to still think we're friends, although I think he thinks I've lost my noodle since I was basically reborn. I love that guy, I thank the world of him and I wish he would find his place with God as well, and I will still always try to represent that to him when I see him. But that's part of my growth. You know that's where my growth has come from, because probably six or seven years ago I might have just given up man.
Speaker 2I can't do anything with that guy. I'm not going to talk to him. I can't do anything with my son, I'm just done with him. You know what? Right now he's done with me and it's a hard thing. We have eight kids and he's one of my children's a hard thing. We have eight kids and he's he's one of my children and I love him to death.
Speaker 2but he's in a really bad place in his life right now and he doesn't want anything to do with us and okay. But I'm going to keep praying for him and I'm going to keep those lines of communication open, even if he doesn't return it. I don't want, because that's my way of letting him know that while he's in the place he's in, God still loves him and God still wants him to be a part. God still wants to be a part of his life, just like he is our lives Now. Right now he's all into free will. God's will is nothing. But if you just give up and you don't try to work on that and that's the way you grow as a Christian, because that's what God told you to do was go out and be a disciple and make disciples, and that's part of your growth and not letting the world affect you, but staying true to what God wants you to do- yeah, yeah, and early on, when you're talking about family, we can make family an idol.
Letting Christ Capture Your Heart
Speaker 4Jesus said he came to divide families. Because we love Jesus, there may be some division in our family which we don't like and we can work on, like you were just saying. I wonder if there's a connection to you were talking about your past holding you captive and then, when you were getting in God's Word and God was doing a great work because after that your past didn't hold you back any longer- you just, you know so many different churches and this is churches.
Speaker 2so this is. People say well, you have to confess this, well, you do need to be repentant about it, but guess what? God already knows. You're not hiding anything from God. You need to have repentance for that. You need to understand that that was wrong and know that that was wrong. And I think a lot of people bypass that because they don't want to sit down and have to face it themselves. You're going to face it. If you don't face it here, you're going to face it when you stand in front of God, when you go upstairs and you have to talk to him. They're going to list every single thing that you did wrong. And I got to tell you I got a long sheet, I got a long rap sheet, okay.
Speaker 2So I mean, if you think that if you come to our church and you see me give the opening and you think, man, the judge has got it, he's just on fire, don't let me down. What are you going to say? Just trust me. Trust me, I got a long rap sheet, I got a long history. Yeah.
Speaker 2You know, and I've asked for forgiveness, I've walked, God's forgiven me and now it's time to move forward and to make the rest of my life count. And so, when I was reborn, finally, truthfully, honestly, and gave my life to God and let God work through me, all that stuff that happened before didn't matter anymore.
Speaker 4I guess I don't think like people. I look at people that are striving to live for Jesus and just like I guess I think about they're just moving forward. You know, paul said I press on and that's what it should be.
Speaker 2Yeah, I guess I just always had felt like these things are so bad's. No way, I mean, I'm embarrassed by some of them.
Speaker 4Yeah, and you can't help if you had a mullet in high school and I had a great mullet.
Speaker 2I've seen pictures. Somebody sent me a thing the other day that said who had the best mullet, so I took one of the pictures off and then photoshopped it on there and I said this guy right here.
Speaker 4You're in the running man.
Speaker 2Yeah, it was an outstanding mullet.
Speaker 4Yeah, and you know, man, I want people to know this because you said this early on and I wrote it down here. You talk about having a mental ascent because I know you grew up in a Christian home and going to church and you know yada, yada. But you know a lot of people. Maybe intellectually they know they believe right, yeah, but they haven't allowed Christ to capture their heart.
Speaker 2That's the best way to say it right there. When I say I have a long rap sheet, I don't mean I was out you know robbing and pillaging and all this stuff. It's just that I was not living that. Christ-centered life and that sin was prevalent in my life. Yeah. And that's. You know, what you just said is just dead on right there. I just I had not made that dedication to my walk with Christ.
Speaker 4Yeah, that's what we want people to maybe take away from today is let Him capture your heart, man. Yeah, yeah, it's so good.
Speaker 2It is, and it's not always easy. No, it's not, and it's Turning the other cheek. It's so good it is, and it's not always easy.
Speaker 4No, it's not.
Speaker 2And it's. Turning the other cheek like you just said it's tough sometimes.
Speaker 4I mean man, aren't we glad we have Christ to depend on and give us strength, because guess, what?
Speaker 2No matter what happens, there's always going to be detractors. But if you have Preach brother. If you have God in your heart, those detractors just don't matter. Let them detract. They're going to find their way eventually, one way or the other. Hopefully, if you provide that example and you stay true to who you are as a Christian it'll be there. All right, let me pray.
Closing Prayer and Invitation
Speaker 2Let's get out of here. We're way late now. Dear Lord, we thank you for all that you do for us in our life and we love you and we praise your name and Father. We just ask you to watch over everybody and help folks to find that place where they are comfortable and where they want more they want in their lives as far as being a Christ-centered believer, father, I thank you for all the blessings that you give us in our life and I praise your name and just thank you for all that you do for us. It's in Christ's name that I pray, amen, all right. So that is, like I said, episode 31. And I want to thank everybody for listening. Man, the last three or four weeks this podcast has really started to explode and I'm glad because that means a lot of people are listening to it. I guess there's a tribe somewhere in Colorado and for all those folks in Colorado I want to thank them because there's a group in Colorado that's just taking off with it.
Speaker 2If you're here in Rockdale on a weekend, come by. We are at the American Legion in Rockdale, the Carlisle Post. We have donuts and coffee and fellowship at 10. Worship starts at 1030. We'd love to have you. We do have a children's church, we do have a nursery, so come on and join us. And. So come on and join us, and until next week, god bless.
