GRINDIT podcast

People today want to be seen and they’ll do anything to be seen. They’ll sleep with whoever they need to, lie, cheat their way to the top, deceive and walk all over anybody to achieve their goal. They want to go viral, be known, because it’s all about them. Paul says we are hidden in Christ and will be revealed when Jesus comes back. But again, who wants to be hidden? We want to be seen! When we c...

When I was a skateboarding teenager, we didn’t have internet or cell phones to order things. We had magazines and one magazine that I subscribed to was a skateboarding magazine called “Thrasher Magazine.” In Thrasher, there were ads selling skateboards and at the top of the add it would say, “Buy a complete for only $99!” which meant you could buy everything you need to skate from the ad: the deck...

In Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, Hermey the Elf pulls the teeth of the big and bad abominable snowman therefore Rudolph and his friends no longer have to be afraid of him! Paul says Jesus has publicly disarmed the enemy therefore he has no power over us and we do not have to fear him! So do not let the enemy get in your head! When he reminds you of your past, you point to the cross and remind him...

The word “continue” carries another option with it...don’t continue. How many times has a parent said, “Stop doing (fill in the blank),” but you keep doing it. Then you hear, “If you keep doing that (continue), you’re going to get a spanking (Or a time out)”? Then, since you continued to do the thing they said to quit doing, you get your punishment. The parent was implying “Do not continue doing w...

Paul uses a three letter word that is so powerful in his letter to the church at Colosse, “Let.” He says, “Let your roots grow down in him,” and “Let your lives be built on him.” In other words, we have to give God permission to work in our lives. He just doesn’t overwhelm us, overpower us and say, “I am God and I am going to do this in your life whether you like it or not!” No, we have to give Hi...

Mary and I spoke at Authentic Church this past Sunday, February 2. We kicked off pastor's new sermon series out of 1 Corinthians called, "I Want What's Best For You." Here is part 2 talking about division.

Mary and I spoke at Authentic Church this past Sunday, February 2. We kicked off pastor's new sermon series out of 1 Corinthians called, "I Want What's Best For You." Here is part 1 talking about division.

Paul tells the church at Colosse to watch out for the false teachers that will soon come to their fellowship to try and persuade them that there is more to it than what Paul has taught them. They will come with fancy words and eloquent speech trying to convince the people they lack something even though they are following Jesus. It’s the same message Satan used in the Garden of Eden, “God is withh...

Do you knit or know someone that does? You can take a single of strand of yarn that is not very strong, and make something that is superstrong! The person who knits will take yarn, thread it through the hook, and start knitting. When the product is done, like a blanket, it can be used because the single strand of yarn has been knitted together, twisted together, and has become strong. Paul tells t...

When we are traveling to a certain destination, we grab our phone, pull up the Maps app, punch in the address to our destination, and take off in the direction the voice tells us to go; We can even see a picture of a map with a blue line that shows us our future moves. What happens when we don’t follow the directions the app is telling us? It freaks out and starts telling you commands on how to ge...

How many people have prayed and got nothing from God but crickets? They prayed with no response or get the response they didn’t want? They get discouraged and quit praying, reading their bibles, they no longer show up for services, and the next thing you know, they don’t want anything to do with God at all. Why does God not answer our every beckoning call? Doesn’t He know we are in trouble? In a p...

Paul says that Jesus was the exact image of the invisible God. We can't see God, which is why many people choose not to believe in Him. They want someone, something they can see. It goes all the way back to the golden calf Aaron made while Moses was hanging out with God on Mount Sinai. When the angel told Mary she was going to become pregnant miraculously, and that the child would be God's Son, he...

Carnivals have games to play and they put out the biggest prizes that catch your attention only to get your money, have the game rigged where it’s hard to win, and if you do win, you get a much smaller prize than the ones they show. You have to play and win many times to get that big prize! But not with God! God paid the price for you to play the game, He makes winning easy, and you get the best p...

When you tell someone you’re going to pray for them...DO IT! Right then and there...Don’t wait until later because you may forget! My own daughter who is in high school has told me how people would say to her they would pray for her but she knew they wouldn’t, that they were just being nice. Epaphras was a prayer warrior, he was an intercessor on behalf of the church at Colosse as well as other ch...

Did you know Paul didn’t start the church in Colosse? In fact, as far as we know, he never even visited them! So how did they hear the gospel? How did a congregation start filled with Gentiles who love Jesus? More than likely it started with a man named Epaphras who was a coworker of Paul. He had learned from the best and at some point, he went on a mission himself preaching the gospel in Colosse...

Most people completely shut down when the preacher starts talking about needing money or when a missionary asks for support but even Paul knew how important money was to his ministry! He supported himself by selling tents as he traveled around the known world at that time but it wasn’t always enough to make ends meet because he talks about being content, even when he was starving! He points out th...

Paul says he has learned to be content in any situation he finds himself in? What does that mean? The dictionary defines it as being happy and having peace no matter what but is that what Paul means? Not hardly...Happiness depends on outside circumstances. If the outside circumstances are good, then I’m happy but if not, well then, I’m either mad, sad, worried, or some other emotion. Interestingly...

Be anxious for nothing, but pray about everything and tell God what you need. But doesn’t God already know what we need before we ask? That’s what Jesus said! So why pray? Because we can verbalize what we need, which is admitting, “God, I can’t do this (fill in the blank) on my own and I need you.” When we try to take control of things, we make a huge mess of it and it can cause all kinds of anxie...

One of Paul’s big themes in all his letters is unity. He knows if the enemy gets the smallest chance to cause division and break the unity, he will take it and blow it up into something ginormous! There were two women who had some issues between one another and Paul tells them to work it out and get to work for Jesus! He said they worked very hard in the past to spread the gospel with him and othe...

People today online who have a following online are called “Influencers.” They have posted some kind of video, pictures, music, etc online and it has gone viral. They pick up followers who “Like” their content and these followers sometimes send money to support the “Influencer” and they are getting rich! Even if people don’t send money, they tell others about the content they watch and how others...

Rubbernecking. It seems like every time we take a trip and have to use the Interstate, we run into some traffic that has basically come to a stop...if not, it’s crawling! Why? When we finally get up close enough to see what the problem is, it’s on the other side of thew Interstate! People are driving by “Rubbernecking” and it is causing a traffic slow down, a pile up, for miles back! Looking back...

Do you have a lot of trophies sitting around? Do you bask in all your accomplishments over the years? Do you tell the stories when your friends come over of how you got those trophies? Paul gives his resume of how he accomplished a lot of stuff as a Jew, how he was very zealous for God and kept the law faultlessly, yet without Jesus they were nothing but trash. The word literally means “Thrown out...

Paul tells the church at Philippi to “Rejoice in the Lord” so it will “Safeguard” their faith. He wasn’t sure if he would make it out of jail alive so he weas telling them, “Look, man will fail you because we are so fickle and unstable, but Jesus is solid, he is an immovable stone.” The word “safeguard” literally means “never fail.” He is telling them this because he knows the church was depending...

Too many people in the church today want to hide. They would rather hide than get to work and Paul, as well as Jesus, makes it clear, we are to work for the kingdom! Paul even goes to say that God gives us the desire to work and to accomplish His will. Can we say that if a person doesn’t have that desire, then there is a disconnect in their relationship with God? YES! Just like Christmas lights th...

Paul says we are in it to win it and we are in it together! He is in prison for preaching the gospel and the church at Philippi is concerned for him so they sent Epaphroditus to check on him. As the church is facing persecution and suffering for the cause of Christ, Paul says this is a time that we are to be selfless and not selfish, then he points to Jesus as our example. That's when we get those...