• “Just stop it!” doesn’t really work when it comes to changing sinful actions, habits, or thoughts in our lives (or in others). And perhaps what you’ve been taught about sin and repentance is all wrong... Today on the Everyday Disciple Podcast, we talk about where sin really comes from and how we can move away from our particular brand of sin and find freedom. What if all sin is actually a symptom of something else? Not many Christians think of themselves as unbelievers. We normally use the term to describe people who are not yet followers of Jesus. But there are many things about God that we all still do not believe. Often there’s a large gap between what we say we believe in our head, and what we truly believe in our heart. This is where sin comes from. In This Episode You’ll Learn:A radical heart-level perspective on sin and repentance.
• How and why God looks at the heart–not at your actions.
• Four eternal truths about God, when not fully believed, lead to every human sin.
• A way to stop sinning by changing what you believe to be true (powerful!)

Get started here... From this episode... "Moving from unbelief to belief about what is true about God is the secret! Out of his identity and character flows his actions and will. As we move from unbelief to belief concerning these truths, we will be led out of sinful actions and negative emotions."

Each week the Big 3 will give you immediate action steps to get you started.

Download today’s BIG 3 right now. Read and think over them again later. You might even want to share them with others…

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Join us on Facebook and take part in the discussion! If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of this page or right below. Also, please subscribe and leave an honest review for The Everyday Disciple Podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them. Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Coaching and Mentorship in Missional Living by Caesar and his wife Tina Resources for missional living and group training - Missio Publishing Get Caesar's Book TRANSFORMED today.

But the point is it illustrated that sort of the dominant prevailing, I don't know, Christian Church understanding of sin is your actions, right?

Yeah.

Sin is action.

And what I wanna suggest today, and we're gonna dig into it deep Heath, is no, the sin is the unbelief behind your action.

Because scripture teaches that all sin comes from lack of faith, or another word for faith is unbelief.

Sure.

And what's true about God and in the Gospel, that would also lead to, so if we're not believing the truth about God, then I'm not believing the truth about me or you, and that's what leads to my sinful actions, right?

Yep.

Now, it's very different than the action itself because how do you address sinful actions?

Stop it.

Yeah.

Stop doing that.

Or, you know, you really gotta stop talking to people that way, or your wife, or you know, this particular sin or whatever.

But what if it's like, no, what we need to address is the unbelief in what's true about God behind that sin that's leading you to act that way, think that way, and have that emotion.

Welcome to the Everyday Disciple Podcast, where you'll learn how to live with greater intentionality and an integrated.

That naturally fits into every area of life.

In other words, discipleship as a lifestyle.

This is the stuff your parents, pastors and seminary professors probably forgot to tell you.

And now here's your host, Caesar Kalinowski.

What's happening in your world this week?

Y'all good?

I hope so.

My wife Tina's recovering from some leg surgery and this last week or so, I've been playing nurse and physical therapist and chef and shower assistant.

Well, she rests up and gets full use of her leg back.

It's really been kind of fun though.

I think getting to serve her a little bit extra.

Hope she feels that way.

I think she does.

She's been pretty appreciative.

Hey, you know what else also happened this last week.

My book Transformed.

Maybe you've read it.

it's the second edition just came back from the printer, hot off the press transformed and I, I'm really excited cuz it's, it's been.

Not available for a little while.

You can get it on Amazon, but you had to find a used copy.

We were between publishers and printers, and now it's on Missio Publishing.

I was telling you about that a couple weeks ago.

Some more books are coming, but Transformed is available, and if you don't know what that's about, like what if Christianity were less about doing and more about being, we talk a lot about that on the show and in transformed.

I'll show you that when you became a Christian, everything about you changed in an instant , you received your new identity based on who Jesus is, not on who you were.

And now as a believer, you literally are part of God's family of missionary servants.

Mm-hmm.

, this is who you are.

It's not what you do.

It's all identity stuff.

That's what the book transformed is really about.

And when you're set free from performance driven spirituality, and guilt you'll draw closer to God and allow him to radically change your well worn rhythms and patterns in your everyday life and inform your relationships from the inside out as well.

Transformed is really for those who yearn for a deeper, more authentic faith.

One that's flowing out of your identity and it empowers you to live out of who God now says you are so I'm pretty excited.

It's available again by going to everyday Disciple dot com slash transformed.

That's everyday Disciple dot com slash transformed.

Okay, hope you'll check that out.

Now, today I'm bringing Heath Hollensbe with me to talk about something that is so much a part of our Disciple making and a big part of our gospel fluency, and how we've learned to speak the truth of the Gospel to sin in our lives and with others in community.

This will really reframe how you view sin forever.

Heath.

One thing I wanted to hit on before we jump in is the Growing Podcast Facebook group.

Yep.

We had a new guest even this week.

Greg jumped in and said, he's really enjoying the podcast.

He said There's a really cool balance between.

, uh, wisdom and actually finding some useful, practical, meaningful ways to grow and living out the Gospel.

And so that's

Greg.

Super glad you're hearing that.

Oh, humbling.

Thanks bro.

. Thanks Greg.

And

we'll get to, uh, some of your suggestions on future podcasts.

All right.

That's awesome.

Hey, so today we're gonna talk about where sin comes from and how we can actually move away from our own particular, like brand of sin.

Yeah.

And try to find freedom from it.

Um, something that I just recently learned out how to be.

Able to do sinless.

Yeah.

Okay.

Mr. Sin free.

I don't

actually talk to a, I used to travel with somebody who, who claimed that they could go days and days and days without sinning

cuz they perfected it.

Well, I feel like it's a privilege sitting across from you today, Heath and Sin Free over here.

It's interesting too, you said your own particular brand of sin like, like it makes me think like I should get a T-shirt.

Like with a brand, a logo on it with my brand of sin, whatever it is.

You know, I don't

drink too much.

I just roll through stop signs.

Yeah.

, I just speed all the time.

Yeah.

I just, yeah.

I have really bad thoughts about people.

I shouldn't think this way.

. Well, that would be a really big logo.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, let's jump into this.

Yeah, let's get into this cuz this idea of sin, like some people are tuning out already like, oh, I don't wanna hear about sin.

But it's like, hey, hold on.

Because the way we're actually gonna define it today is very different than a lot of people think of it.

Yeah, absolutely.

Right?

And, and even, okay, so then what do we do about it?

Very different than maybe the way many of our listeners have been raised.

Certainly different than I always thought about it.

Yeah.

Till, you know, years recently here.

So we've always thought it

was that sin management was the purpose of the Gospel.

And what you're saying is we often define sin as actions, like sinful actions, things that we've done.

But I think it's probably a bit more than that.

What would you say?

Well, it is, think about, think about how, uh, maybe some of your early evangelism training, you know, like get people to admit their sinners, right?

Yeah.

Because if they do, and it was all action based off, now I don't think I'm a sinner.

The person would say, you're like, have you ever told a lie?

Maybe a white lie.

Well, it's a lie.

You know, you're a liar.

Yeah, yeah.

Or have you ever taken a pencil home from work or from school?

Well, you're, you're a thief, you know?

Right.

Yeah.

But, and, but that was the epitome of it, right?

I mean, there's whole classes on how to do that.

Sure.

But the point is it illustrated that sort of the dominant prevailing.

I don't know.

Christian Church understanding of sin is your actions, right?

Yeah.

Sin is action.

And what I wanna suggest today, and we're gonna dig into a deep heath, is no, the sin is the unbelief behind your action.

Because scripture teaches that all sin comes from lack of faith, or another word for faith is unbelief.

Sure.

And what's true about God.

Hmm.

And in the Gospel, that would also lead to, so if we're not believing the truth about, God, then I'm not believing the truth about me or you, and that's what leads to my sinful actions.

Hmm.

Right?

Yep.

Now it's very different than the action itself because how do you address sinful actions?

Stop it.

Yeah.

Stop doing that.

Or you know, you really gotta stop talking to people that way, or your wife, or you know, this particular sin or whatever.

But what if it's like, no, what we need to address is the unbelief.

and what's true about God behind that sin that's leading you to act that way, think that way, have that emotion.

Yeah.

Unbelief is a major sin that like all these other just

ramifications.

It's the only sin.

Yeah.

The, yeah.

So like sometimes we want to think like something caused my sin.

Like, hey, that guy, that jerk cut me off in traffic and that's why.

I got so angry.

No, that guy cutting you off in traffic merely revealed what was in your heart already.

Hmm?

That the road is mine and I'm kind of sovereign over my schedule and everybody else in the road should kind of go along with it.

So when this guy who knows why accidentally cut me off.

That's what, that's what produces like, sort of anger to the level of like, whoa, wait a minute.

Road ragey here.

You know, . Yeah.

Right.

Or, and it's easier to justify through an accident.

Well, I holler at my kids because they broke my favorite X, Y, Z or they, you know, my, my son slapped, you know, his sister again, and we've talked about it a million times.

That's why I hollered at him and lost my cool.

But he earned it.

Well, no, you're, you're trying to be sovereign over your kids and think that somehow you can actually control their behavior, their thoughts as other little image bearing humans.

That's the sin behind the, you're not believing God is sovereign and he creates your kids and that he's working with them and on them and you're, and part of why you get ticked off, I mean, let's just be honest, part of why we flip out when our kids disobey us or act up or they sin Sure is cuz it's a reflection.

On me.

You're making me look bad, right?

? How many people listen to They have said that.

Yeah.

, I, yikes.

Right?

I heard it.

Yep.

So, so see how different that is right away, right at the get-go here is that when we talk about sin, we are talking about the unbelief behind the action.

The action is sort of merely the outgrowth of the unbelief.

And, and by the way, this is in every sin.

There's no, there's no sin.

Uh, and a thing you do, a belief, uh, I mean, uh, words you have thought life, uh, weird emotions towards somebody or whatever.

Sure, emotions are good, but you know, sometimes we have tweaked emotions that then lead to sin.

Every sin has unbelief behind it according to scripture.

Hmm.

That's great, man.

Right.

I know.

I know one guy that was formative.

A couple years ago for me, and I think you've, you've said as well, is Tim Chester helping you a lot

with this area?

Yeah, Tim man, for sure.

Tim's an author, but he's also a friend and, uh, lives over in England, lives in community.

He's written a gazillion great books.

So I mean, seriously, anybody today, we'll put show notes for, you know, some of his stuff for this episode, but, um, man, just Google, you know, Amazon up.

Tim Chester.

Tim Chester, yeah.

Anything.

Gosh.

Anyway, so yeah.

Here, so here's he.

. He was teaching one day, like we were sitting in on some teaching his right.

And he says this, okay.

And it below it like drops the mic kind of thing.

, you know, , he, he says, sinful acts always have their origin in some form of unbelief.

Behind every sin is a lie.

And the root of all our behavior and emotions is the heart.

Hmm.

What it trusts and what it treasures.

So people are given over the simple desires because they've quote unquote, exchanged the truth of God for a lie

so he says this and we're like, what?

Wait.

You know?

Yeah.

So, but then here's the backup from scripture.

Romans 1 25 says they exchanged the truth about God for a lie.

Yep.

And then Romans 1423 says, everything that does not come from faith.

Another word for that is belief is sin.

Hmm.

Now our listeners will be familiar with this.

We, we define discipleship as the process of moving from unbelief to belief to belief in every area of life.

Yep.

About what's true about God.

and then therefore true of us in Christ.

And so how do we get to live?

Right?

Yeah.

And that's what's behind this.

So we've, we kind of, we kind of dove into that a little bit

in previous episodes, right?

Yeah.

Uh, even episode 110 when we talked about how a better understanding of the Gospel transforms your life.

And can

we walk through the four

questions?

Yeah.

I was going through some financial stuff and you were going like, the sin behind the sin is

actually this.

Yeah, right.

110, listen to it again.

So that's, yeah.

So that's kinda what we're talking about here is sinful acts have their origin in some form of unbelief.

So like when you're looking at your own, Maybe you're beating yourself up over sin, something that just isn't seemingly going away or I can't believe I did that again, or sin in your spouse's life, sin your kids.

Do you address the action or do you ask the spirit to help you and, and guide you to like, well, what's the unbelief?

What's the lack of faith?

Hmm.

What's the lie we're believing about a person, about God, about ourselves that's leading to this sinful thought, action emotions.

Sure.

You know, and that's something we're growing even in our family and with the staff I serve alongside, is it's so easy for us to wanna patrol people's sin, cuz then we can actually pinpoint it down to, well stop doing this, stop doing this.

But um, It sounds like the heart level is really any leader in the church, any parent, any spouse, any, any human.

A

friend.

Yeah, any friend.

A neighbor.

Yeah.

It sounds like the heart level is really what we need to be going after rather

than actions.

I, yes, and I can remember Heath like being taught this and policed like this and, and then therefore becoming this type of a, you know, Christian cop is you like, oh, look at my neighbors across the street.

They're living together.

They're not married.

. And so I would have to muster up the gumption to tell them that living together outside of marriage is sin Now, is that true statement?

Absolutely it is.

God's design for couples is that they would live together in marriage.

Right.

And he'd be a part of that.

Like, that's like the whole reason we've been given marriage.

Show what he's like.

Right?

Yep.

Um, but is God concerned cuz two of his image bearers.

Sleep in the same apartment.

You know what I mean?

Like live together?

Yeah.

Or is he concerned that they're not believing what's true of him and who he created them to be and this beautiful institution of marriage?

That's a pitch of the Gospel.

Yep.

That's what God's asking us to think about.

So now think about what changes.

If you look at uh, uh, anybody and you pick your, like you said, your own brand of sin, you're looking at someone else, you're looking at yourself, you're looking at your kids and going like, instead of going like, I really wish they'd stop that.

I should tell 'em that I should give 'em a verse that tells 'em it's sinful that doesn't help with anybody because all we're, all they're left with is, we'll try harder or stop it.

That's called the law . Well, in fact,

it ends up like a giant game of whack-a-mole.

Right.

Because if you try to stop it in one area, it's just gonna move somewhere else.

Cuz a heart issue is still us.

Unbelievable.

Exactly.

So we've always, we wanna, we wanna retrain ourselves that with ourselves and with others to go after the unbelief behind the actions.

Yeah.

And I think Tim's, uh, is the four G. Things that he, you know, the four Gs he talks about is really helpful here.

You wanna unpack that person?

Yeah,

that's,

that's kind of the center where I want to go today with this.

Oh, sweet.

Yeah, go for it.

So, so first I wanna say though, this sort of heart level perspective is pretty radical view of sin and even repentance.

Cuz what's repentance?

Repentance isn't like, feel bad, stop it.

Repentance is move from unbelief to belief.

That's what repent means.

It means turn from the lies you've been believing and living out to the truth about who God is and now live in light of that.

Um, but this perspective's also pretty helpful view of sin because it very clearly shows us a way out.

And that's what leads to Tim's mind blowing four Gs there again, that, that one time when he was.

Dropping this on us.

We were like, what?

Hold on.

You know?

And he just sneaks these, we call 'em the four G's because they're four truths about God.

Yep.

That when unbel, when we don't believe them, or we believe the opposite, a lie about God in these four areas, they lead to every human sin.

Now, by the way, um, just to give, you know, more props to Tim, these four G's are, they're dealt with and talked about pr pretty amazingly in his book called You Can Change.

All right.

And that's, that's where, that's where this ultimately comes out of.

But I had heard him talking about it and we were like, holy cow, stop here.

Lots of questions.

All right, let's go for a long walk.

I got some stuff to unpack.

It's, what am I not believing?

So let me, let me give you these four eternal truths about God, okay?

That, uh, that, um, when not fully believed, they lead to every human sin.

Okay?

Okay.

Call 'em the four Gs.

So by the way, each one starts with a G. That's why they're calling that.

But they also have a correspond.

Statement that goes with them.

And when I first heard these four statements, this alone, I had to like pull over and like, oh my gosh, right now the Holy Spirit's convicting me on a couple of these.

Hmm.

So I just, you know, I'll lay these on you.

We got folks listening to the show today.

Listen to these four Gs and the corresponding statements and just marinate, , marinate on that.

And let's like let the spirit talk to you about any of these in issue, right?

Mm-hmm.

So here's the four G's.

Okay?

God is great so I don't have to be in control.

Hmm.

Okay.

Wow, that's huge.

Um, I'm gonna give 'em all and I'm gonna come back and unpack 'em all just a bit if that's cool.

Uh, next one.

God is glorious, so I don't have to fear others.

Hmm.

Yeah.

God is good.

So I don't have to look elsewhere for my satisfaction.

And then the fourth one is God is gracious, so I don't have to prove myself

so freeing, man.

Just hearing, just hearing

those again is like, oh man.

Gosh.

I tell you, when I, when I first had these, like I said, they were so convicting in certain areas, like God is great, so I don't have to be control.

I mean, the spirit starts running over all the things in my life that I'm stressing on.

and I'm like, I Well, you can't control that.

I can't control the sun coming up and down.

You can't really control your health.

Can't control kids can't control.

I can't control myself.

Yeah.

God is great.

So I don't have to be in control.

Yeah.

Right.

And so like, I, I took these four Gs in those corresponding statements and uh, I, I put 'em up on a wall, you know what I mean?

Like I put 'em on the.

I dunno how well my neighbors thought about 'em.

You know, if they're not believer, I'm thinking about putting 'em on like an

hourly alert on my iPhone.

Just every hour to

remind me.

Yeah.

Put 'em in a car, put 'em like tuck one in your Bible.

Yeah.

And by the way, when we get to this week's big three Yeah.

And people can download the big three.

I'm also gonna include like a really cool, suitable through framing, you know?

Oh sweet.

Copy of the 4g so people can just print off, you know, print it off and just tack it up.

Awesome.

And they wanna shrink it down or make it bigger.

Whatever they wanna do.

Yeah.

So let's just unpack these just a little bit.

Is that cool?

Yeah, let's do it.

Okay.

So.

God is great, so I don't have to be in control.

So think about in your own life, Heath, what, what areas of your life do you go like, you know what I stress, or I'm freaking, or I'm trying to control this person's thoughts about me.

Yeah.

Or their actions, or their response to me or whatever.

And it's producing anxiety to me.

It's producing maybe not great relational stuff.

Any of that ring a bell

constant.

Yeah.

I'm thinking of four situations just this morning, you know?

Yeah.

And the stresses, and you get wound up cuz it's a rabbit hole man.

You try to control one thing and then how they respond.

And now I'm gonna have to control that.

I

gotta think about this.

But see, the truth is, um, it is, it is a fallacy that we actually control anything.

Yeah.

Think about what you try to control in life and think about what you actually, honestly have control.

Nothing.

Some people might say, well I have control over my time sorta Anybody ever interrupt you in the day?

Yeah.

And it ticks me off.

Well, exactly.

See . Yeah.

See, and so remembering that God is great, he alone is sovereign.

He and he is in control.

Oh wait a minute.

So means all this stuff happening and all this stuff's not my issue.

Mm-hmm.

. Yeah.

It's not.

So now I have the freedom to go, God, you're great.

You only do it as good.

Right.

And perfect.

. I don't have to be in control.

Yeah, it's so freeing, man.

What about, were you flipping out on your kids?

Like, cuz oh my gosh, they're making me look bad.

And people to church or people at work or school, they're gonna think we're horrible parents.

Yeah.

Hey, God is great.

. I don't have to be in control.

No.

In fact, I'm not.

And we talk about our head heart distortion.

I think it might come up a little.

Yeah, we'll get into that a little bit.

Like cuz.

Cuz right away, as soon as I read these, God is great.

God is glorious, God is good, God is gracious.

I'm guessing all of our listeners are going, yep, I believe all that.

But then let that corresponding statement like sort of soak in and let the spirit marinate that and like where in your life are you struggling to believe that?

Yeah.

Let's go to the next one.

God is glorious so I don't have to fear others.

Now that word glorious, you know, comes from glory, right?

Yeah.

And glorifying, we, we've talked about this in the past.

God's glorious, the glory that word means heavy in, in Hebrew, the he weighty, right?

Glory.

And it also carries with this idea of the original.

So when we say God is glorious and we sing this in songs and all that, sure, he's the heaviest, he's the original.

And, and, and he loves us.

Yeah.

He, he looks at us as perfect in Christ.

Right?

Perfect.

In Christ perfected.

And so because God is glorious, he's the glorious one.

I don't have to fear others in what they think of me.

Yep.

You can be yourself.

So, so here I can be myself without sin or with sin, and knowing that the glorious one Yep.

Loves me unconditionally.

Yeah.

Sees me forgiven, sees me in Christ, sees me as his image.

Bearer sees me as his son.

Now what does that do.

To my worry about how others view me, you know, fear frees you up, man.

Yeah, I was just telling you about that.

Even this morning before we started recording, I was like, there's a situation in my life where in the past somebody I would be afraid of in a position that would terrify me.

And so I'd change who I was and live as a coward and.

And feel oppressed.

I'm able to actually speak into that dude cuz God is glorious.

I don't

have to see.

When you have the approval and you believe it, you believe he's glorious and more glorious than anybody else, then the fear of man issues go away.

Because see, like, I love you man.

You are my best friends.

Yeah.

And so I c I care what you think about me, but I gotta be asked now in light of this.

You're just not that glorious.

You know what I mean?

Compared to the glorious one who hung the, hung the Stars and spoke seasons into motion and in worlds into existence.

And compared to a God Jesus who hung across and died for me to, I'm sorry, bro.

You're just not that glorious.

So though I care about your opinion, check this out.

I'm not controlled by it anymore.

Mm-hmm.

. And since it doesn't control me, guess what?

We can actually have a pure relationship because my response to things isn't measured.

to how I can get Heath Yep.

To like me or respond in a certain way, which means I don't have to manipulate you in the relationship.

We can be clean.

Yep.

Knowing that the glorious.

who really matters, loves us both.

Yep.

And so now we don't have to actually try to manage each other's, uh, approval or so much less pressure.

See, there's not real.

Can you even have a real relationship if really secretly behind it?

Both sides are only always performing and trying to manipulate a response to make me feel good.

No way.

But when that goes away, relationships get rich and it all changes.

So God is glorious, so I don't have to fear others.

Hm.

and he's good.

Wow.

. Okay, so the next one, God is good.

And then the corresponding statement is so I don't have to look elsewhere for my satisfaction.

Hmm.

Now to get at that one, people are saying like, oh, I, I dunno if that's my particular sin or not.

Um, look at what you complain about in life.

Hmm.

Look about what you complain about or what bugs the heck outta you, or sometimes even about what you're stoked about.

Um, so think about your kids.

Yeah.

Your spouse, your house, your income.

Your, your family of origin, um, your job, your church, like whatever.

Fill in the blank.

Yep.

If God is good and he only, scripture teaches the only, and always does what is good and right, and perfect, then we don't have to look elsewhere for our satisfaction.

Yeah.

Because he's the better, he's the best.

He's the source.

He only does what is good, which means if that's the house you're in then that's the house God has for you.

And if he's good, then it must be a good house.

No sure.

Does that mean we can't desire, Hey, while, you know, we got a couple more kids, it'd be nice to have a bigger house.

Sure.

But that's, there's a difference between, you know, I would be great to have a little more square footage around here versus.

Man, I am really starting to do things and think things and try to solve things on my own because you know what, God, you're good and all.

I mean, it's great that we have a house.

Lots of people in the world don't have houses.

Sure.

But, or like, it's easier maybe to understand like, you know, that that thing with your spouse, it's just not going away.

It's just not going away.

God, it bugs me.

Fricking bugs me.

Never, nothing ever changes.

Yeah.

Everybody listens and goes, yeah, I got hold this.

Yeah.

I got one or two.

That's, yeah.

But you're saying you know what you're really saying in your heart, God, you're not that good like if, if, if I'd have made my spouse, I'd have been gooder at it, or I'd have given myself a different spouse, guess what?

They'd have something else that bugs you because that thing that bugs the heck outta you and your spouse or any other person for that matter sure is the thing that you're not like Jesus in yet.

And God ex, he leaves it there to sand on our unbelief so that we can go like, you know, My spouse, Tina, it's my wife, right?

Tina.

She's not God and she's not perfectly good all the time, but whatever it is about her that bugs me, God's still working that out my heart.

So I'll trust his goodness.

Yeah.

And not expect her to somehow be him.

Yeah.

Well that takes the pressure off of her and me.

God is good so I don't have to look elsewhere for my satisfaction.

That's that.

Yeah, that was a huge one for me.

Really?

Six months.

Yeah.

Coming out of a performance industry and taking that into, yeah.

We both have

music businesses

and performing and numbers and sales and.

Yeah, I was looking everywhere except for God, under the guise of

leading people to Jesus.

Yeah.

Sad.

And so whatever it is, you know, that's why I said you can look at what you complain about in life, and you're basically saying, God, you're not that good in that area.

Or you can even look at sometimes what you're stoked about and you start to put your hope in that like, this thing is awesome, but then you start to go, Ooh, but what if that went away?

Hmm.

See, God is, he's the better.

He's He's, he's good.

He's the best.

All right, let's go to gracious.

Okay.

So God is gracious, so I don't have to prove myself woo.

Now this God is gracious thing is almost like the cleanup, you know, for all of 'em.

Like that can almost all fall under this because I, I don't think we have a under a good understanding of grace often, and we have it in our head, but man, and for me, this is the one.

Yep.

Uh, God is gracious.

so I don't have to prove myself.

And, and Tim talks about, in the book, he talks about, there's three things here that get alleviated.

There's three areas that we wanna prove ourselves in.

Okay.

That lead to all kinds of wacky sin and masks and lies and stress and freaking out.

God is gracious.

I don't have to prove myself, I don't have to prove myself first off to myself.

Hmm.

Wow.

I mean, think about the things you do in life because you don't wanna feel like a dirtbag or you wanna feel like I'm good at this, or, yeah.

I, I wanna feel like.

like me for that or whatever, right?

Yep.

And there's a, I mean, here's an old cultural reference, but a lot of people will get it.

There's a line in, in the first Rocky movie where his.

His corner man.

Yeah.

Guy.

Yeah.

talks like this.

Hey, rock . Right.

You know, whatever his name was or whatever.

I never saw it.

No.

What?

I know.

Oh my goodness.

Like people write in, I'm pretending like know.

write in I'll watch it.

So anyway, so Rocky's just getting beat to a pulp right

it's every movie every, Rocky movie.

Sure.

And finally his corner guy's like, you know, cut, cut it out, rock, give it up.

You know, whatever.

Throwing the towel, whatever.

I remember the line and he goes, I'm trying to prove to myself that I'm not a bum huh.

You know, and so because of his life and his upbringing and the way the world works and maybe parenting and all, sure, we can often be trying to prove ourselves to ourself.

Hmm.

And that leads to all kinds of wackiness and sin and weirdness.

Another thing, God is gracious, so i don't have to prove myself to others.

Yeah, that's one I'm with a lot, man.

Okay, now people say that that kind of sounds like God, is glorious so I don't have to fear others?

Well, one is, I fear what they're gonna do on this side of it.

God is gracious.

In other words, I have his complete unmerited favor.

So I don't have to now towards other people always be trying to prove myself.

Sure, you know what?

You know what this stuff leads to, to put, put my feet on this one and try to prove yourself.

You work ungodly hours.

You always say yes to everything.

Okay.

It, uh, it might be like even within your marriage, your relationship, you're trying to always prove, you know, trying to prove this or that.

So you come down a crowded schedule.

Hard over here, huh?

Like a crowded schedule.

Yeah.

Like I gotta be at every birthday invite and I gotta be at every,

yeah.

I gotta be at every game.

I gotta be everything, every kid's birthday, ev all of it.

Right?

It's like, cuz you know, ultimately you're trying to prove yourself.

It's everyone else.

It's everyone else.

Like an awe that's a good dad right there, you know?

But secretly maybe not in your heart in certain areas.

Yeah.

Third one is you're trying to prove yourself to God

hmm.

Now this one gets deep, man, this one runs deep and I, I, we'll have to stop pretty soon after this.

Sure.

Because it's like, whoa, I'm trying to prove myself worthy to God because if I can, and you can't, cuz he had already died for you, . Sure.

So you can't, but, but if I think I can prove myself worthy to God, then all of his grace, all his goodness in my life, I've kind of earned it.

And I, I'd rather sit in the seat of debt holder than the debtor, the person who owes.

Because that puts me back in the seat of being God in my life.

Yeah, follow

that.

It undermines the initial four Gs altogether because you're in that position.

Yeah, that's right.

God, didn't you

follow that?

If I think somehow I've proved myself to God and he should bless my life and that's why he forgave my sins.

Cause I'm a pretty good guy over here, you know?

Yeah.

Pretty good wife, you know, whatever.

Um, then he kind of owes me.

and I like being in that seat.

And that is the worst sin of all.

That's the original sin is like God is holding something out.

But I watched this, I've proved it right.

Heads up.

God doesn't owe you anything.

If we actually got what we deserve from God, it'd be, it'd be a horror story, right?

Yeah.

And, and, but instead we get it.

We get unmarried favor.

We get life and we get love and we get eternal land adoption and all that.

All that.

Yeah.

So there they are, man.

God is great.

God is glorious, God is good, and God is gracious.

And in getting after those things, looking for the thing behind the thing, will will free you up.

Yeah, it really will.

So

the neat thing is that rather than trying to have to get better, we can actually start with these four Gs immediately.

Even right now, just start running through 'em in your head, playing 'em over.

Repeat the podcast, start living into some of this.

And I think it'd be helpful to actually identify, like, don't just take these in practice.

Yeah, God's good.

He's great.

He's gracious.

And yeah.

So

here's a suggestion.

Like take one thing, like one sin in your life.

They go, Ooh, that's super recurring.

You know, thought, action, whatever, and pray and ask the spirit of God to show you what's the unbelief in light of these four Gs behind that.

Yeah.

And then what's true of God instead.

Yeah.

And true of myself start there.

And there's freedom in that stuff.

It's Pandora's box though.

I It's gonna start attacking you.

Yeah.

But in the best possible way.

The best way.

Alright, so let's jump onto the big three cuz we.

Talking a lot about sin and along with this week's download, we're gonna add that cool looking 4G mini poster thing that Caesar was talking about.

Yeah.

So you can actually print it off and have the four Gs in every room of your house if you would like, or wherever you want

it.

I hand it to some people . Yeah.

Get it tattooed on your own.

Can I keep it printed around because like when I do like say marriage counseling or, or just personal counseling.

Yeah.

Will you generally talk through these four things and I'll spin it around, slide it across the table and go Anything?

. Usually they self-identify.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

I'm totally thinking God's not good, or I'm totally trying to control everybody here.

Yeah, it's good.

I I don't need to, I mean, it's like, it's the most amazing counseling tool.

Yeah.

So you're gonna get that in the big three this week, and as always, you can get the big three download by going to everyday Disciple dot com slash big three.

Here they are.

So, Head heart hands.

We're gonna go head what you need to believe.

Mm-hmm.

heart or know what you need to know, what you need to believe.

And then when we start doing, okay, so first one, know that God always looks at your heart and the belief or unbelief behind your actions, sinful or righteous.

So even your righteous actions, God's looking at your heart behind him.

Yeah.

It's our heart and trust that he truly desires from us.

Not perfect behavior

that's great, and that might surprise some people, but God's not looking for perfect people.

Hmm.

He's already forgiven all that stuff.

He's looking for trust.

He's looking for belief.

Same word, right?

Yep.

Second, believe that your actions do not define who you are past president or future.

God himself defines you.

You're his image bearer, and he longs to restore your true identity and wants you to believe it is how he now sees you.

If you're in Christ.

You're his dearly loved son or daughter, regardless of your past or future sin.

Such good news, man.

Man, it really is.

And then third one, sort of the actionable here, moving from unbelief to belief about what is true about God is the secret.

You know, out of his identity and character flows, his actions and will.

And as we move from unbelief to belief concerning these truths about him, we will be led outta sinful actions and negative emotions.

You'll be set free to be.

And trust God is working out his great and glorious and good and gracious will in your lives.

So good man.

I mean, I almost wanna repeat that, but we're running with, so get the big three download.

That'll all be in there along with that coolio little mini poster of the four Gs and the corresponding statements . Well, that's it for today.

Next week we'll continue to look at the four G. And how they can really impact your parenting.

It'll be challenging, maybe a little convicting, but I think you're gonna love it.

I'll talk to you soon.

Thanks for joining us today.

For more information on this show and to get loads of free discipleship resources, visit everyday Disciple dot com and remember, you really can live with the spiritual freedom and relational peace that jesus promised every day.

What Causes Sin and How to Stop It | https://EverydayDisciple.com/422