Who Are You Now?

Have you ever felt like your past still defines you? 
Even while following Jesus? 

In this episode, Dee and Jodie unpack what it really means to be a new creation in Christ. Looking at Peter’s restoration in John 21, we explore how Jesus doesn’t shame our failures.

He restores us, redefines us, and calls us forward. This isn’t about trying harder. It’s about living from what’s already true: 

👉 You are loved 
👉 You are forgiven 
👉 You are restored And you’re not meant to figure that out alone. 

💬 Key takeaway: 
We don’t behave our way into a new life — we live from our identity. 

📖 Scriptures: 

John 21:15–19
Romans 8:1 
2 Corinthians 5:17 
Hebrews 10:24–25 
1 John 3:1 

Next episode: Living grace daily when life gets messy. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Can I ask you something honestly? Have you ever felt like no matter how much you try, you're still defined by something from your past?

SPEAKER_02 0:06

Maybe it's a mistake or just a version of yourself. Or you can't seem to move on from. And even though you're trying to follow Jesus, that voice is still there. It's still saying that's still who I am.

SPEAKER_03 0:18

Or even the pressure from trying to be a good Christian, you know, feeling like if you get it wrong, then you feel somehow.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

And the truth is a lot of people follow Jesus but still act like nothing's changed and their identity hasn't changed.

SPEAKER_03 0:32

Today we're going to talk about who you are now in Christ and why this isn't something that you are meant to figure out on your own. Hi, and welcome back to the Muddy Cross. Episode seven we're on to now. I think we've recapped every week, so we may as well recap now. So we have spoken about starting in faith. Yes. We've spoken about knowing Jesus, we've spoken about grace, we've spoken about prayer, we've spoken about how God speaks through the Bible.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

So today we're speaking about and stepping into identity and how that identity is lived out in community.

SPEAKER_03 1:08

It is because it's it's easy to kind of confuse what we do with who we actually are.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

Well, I think it's because performance kind of feels like a measuring line, doesn't it? If we mess up, then we're failing. If we've not done enough, then it it means we're not good enough. So it just always feels like we're not measuring up.

SPEAKER_03 1:30

Yeah, and that having that kind of mindset can really drain you, and I think over time can really start to bring you down.

SPEAKER_02 1:37

And I think that's where we are looking, and what we're looking at today is the moment where Jesus comes in and really resets, like he takes away and really resets our identity and who we are after failure. Because obviously we were all born sinners, we know this. Um and doesn't leave he doesn't leave us to walk this alone. I think that's the important part.

SPEAKER_03 1:57

Yeah, and I think what we'll do is we'll jump straight into scripture now, um, go into John 21, and this is where this is where Peter denies Jesus. It's um yeah, let's jump into it. So it's John 21, we're going to uh verse 15. So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than uh than this? He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you, he said to him. He said, Tend my lambs. That's what Jesus said, tend my lambs. And he said to him again a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, Shepherd my sheep. And then he said to him a third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? And Peter was a bit aggrieved, which I can imagine he would have been, um, because he had said to him a third time, Do you do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know all things, and you know that I love you. And Jesus said to him, Tend my sheep. So we have that moment then, whenever Jesus questions uh Peter, but if we fast forward a bit then to to what happens whenever obviously um Peter denies Jesus, I'll just read this passage. So this is in this is Matthew 26, uh 69 down to 75.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:26

So now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him and said, You were with the Jesus of Gal uh of Galilee. Um, but he denied it before them all, saying, I do not know what you're talking about. And when he had gone out to the gateway, another servant girl saw him and said, You were uh you were there. This man was with Jesus, and again he denied it uh with an oath, I do not know this man. A little later a bystander came up and said to Peter, Surely you're one of them. For even the way um you're talking gives you away, then he gave um then he began to curse and swear, I do not know this man, and immediately the rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the word which Jesus said, Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. Yeah, and he went out and wept bitterly. So we had that that start where Jesus asked Peter, Do you love me? Um, and then he went later on to say that you'd deny me. And this is obviously now Peter denying him Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

Yeah, it is incredible, isn't it? Because it's like he's asked him in the first part, he's asked him just to go out and feed his sheep, to go out and love him, and and Peter's so desperate saying, I'm not gonna deny you, you know, I'm I'm not gonna leave you, I'm gonna be there. But then in the moment, yeah, he does, and it's incredible. And even in that moment, like when he then goes back to Jesus, Jesus doesn't rebuke him, Jesus doesn't reject him, Jesus He just loves him, and he brings him in instead of looking at his failure of what he's done, because he knows he knows what all of us are gonna do, instead of looking at the failure of what he's done, he just brings him back in into relationship. Yeah, and it's the relationship that he wants from Peter at that point, and it's the relationship he wants from us now.

SPEAKER_03 5:17

Yeah, no, absolutely. And I I just imagine what Peter must have been thinking after all this had happened, piecing it all back together, thinking back to he asked me three times that I love him, and then and then he told me that I would sort of disown him, deny him. Yeah, and then I actually I actually did do that, and he said about the rooster everything coming together, that must have been quite heavy on on Peter's heart.

SPEAKER_02 5:42

But I don't think that was to shame him. I think he I think it was like he's doing to all of us. I think it's to refine and restore him. Yeah, I think truly that's what he was trying to do. Yeah, because he's trying to break down like Peter in his heart was so desperate that he wasn't gonna deny, like he's saying, I'm not who's gonna like even you know, when when they were at the table and he's going, one of you is gonna betray me. And he's like, Who would do that? Like he's so passionate and desperate that he would never do that to Jesus, yeah, and Jesus knew that he would, and he did, and and that's where I think it comes back to Jesus knowing that and going, You need this lesson, just like all of us need these lessons, because I need to restore you, and it brings it back to that.

SPEAKER_03 6:23

And I think it also speaks about um Jesus starting to form a purpose in Peter, you know, he didn't just you know, he's not just calling him out or or he he's trying to use the situation to really develop him into what he's gonna become.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

Yeah, and and this lines up really well with Romans. So I've got Romans um 8 1 to uh yeah, 8 1 1 to 2. Um, and it's therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. And that's that beauty of you know, there is no condemnation if you accept him, he sets you free. And I think that's the beauty of it. There's just no condemnation at those that give themselves to Christ.

SPEAKER_03 7:16

Yeah, so you could. I guess you could look at that. Jesus isn't sort of holding Peter in his past for what he's done, he's actually trying to pull them nigh into the new, as to say, giving him that purpose and setting them up for what's to come. Um, which, you know, at the time Peter probably would have found, well, he wouldn't be able to see that. Yeah, but obviously in retrospect, um he would have.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

So why does God restore before sending?

SPEAKER_03 7:42

Because I think obedience flows out of identity. Um you know, it's not pressure, it's yeah, it's it's a drawing out of, you know.

SPEAKER_02 7:52

Yeah, and I think for Peter, everything must have come from guilt. Everything, everything, all those feelings, like if Peter still saw himself as a failure, then everything he did would come from guilt.

SPEAKER_03 8:04

But that's because Jesus wants to refine us. I mean, you look at the journey that we've been on as well, and there's constant, I mean, I you know, I said, look at the journey we've been on, we're still on a journey. All of us are on a journey, we are still. And we're constantly trying to be refined, because nobody's perfect but Jesus. So we're all in that refining stage, I guess. And I think with with Peter, Jesus is trying to refine him more, refine him more. Because obviously Jesus knows he's gonna be leaving him, uh, and he's trying to do that. So he's trying to make sure that he, you know, that he's feeling loved, he's feeling forgiven, yeah, he's feeling restored. Uh, and then then he sends him into obviously what's gonna happen with him.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

And he needs to help him to restore himself because, like all of us, if we're still living in that moment of guilt and shame, and we're still trapped by those feelings of the past, or you know, like all of that, then we're not gonna be able to move on. We're not gonna be able to move forward because we're always gonna believe we're not enough, and that's gonna hold us back through the whole of our lives.

SPEAKER_03 9:00

Yeah, yeah, you're right. And I think that you know, if you start to believe that you're loved and you start to believe that you've been forgiven and that your you know your life's been restored, then that starts to reflect your life moving forward and the truth that you start to speak.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

Yeah, and I've got another scripture here. So this one is 2 Corinthians 5, 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, a new creation has come, that old has gone and the new is here. And I absolutely love this, yeah, because like we say it all the time once you have given yourself to Christ, He has forgiven you by the blood of his washing over you. Yeah, he died on that cross, and we we had it in um the youth the other night. We were talking about you know being anew in Christ, and I said, How incredibly gracious is God that He we needed a sacrifice to wash away the sin in the world at that point because it was rife and everything that was going on. And the only way for that to happen is to have a sacrifice, and he didn't sacrifice any one of us. No, he didn't choose, like he chose Noah to build the ark and to save the animals and save some people. He didn't choose a person that was already on the earth to be that sacrifice and go through that. He chose himself to come down in human form to take that sin on himself, even though he was never a sinner, he was the only person to walk this earth that's never sinned, he took those sins on himself. He went through the pain, and if you've ever seen Jesus Revelation, like Oh, Passion for Christ, sorry, yeah. That one, if you've ever seen that, like I'm a visual person and it it just brought this alive. Uh, I know it's you know a film in the modern day era, but it brought it alive to me, and it really made me connect with that moment of what he did for us, yeah, like being whipped and taking chunks of his flesh out of his body, you know, like multiple times, having thorns stabbed into his like it just that's just a fraction of what he went through, the beatings, the starving, the all of that being then nailed onto the cross and taking all of that. So his blood from that point on, it is done, it is wiped, it is clean. So if you wholeheartedly, and it has to be true to your heart, this can't be like just oh yeah, you know, like I follow God, but you know, on a Sunday you you you're in church worshiping, but then you go out of church and you're not committed and you're not doing it, it's not your way of life, then you're not truly in the heart of it. If you are truly in the heart where you are, you have given yourself to God and you love Him and you are anew in Christ, your past is forgiven. Yeah, and you are, like He says here, you are a new creation, and a new creation has come.

SPEAKER_03 11:52

Yeah, and and what's really gets me is it is a new, it's it's sort of it's not like a slightly improved version of it's it's not like you know, you're a little bit better, yeah, it's you're completely new. What has happened in the past is in the past, and as of this moment, you're new in Christ, yeah, and move forward with that.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

And it's and and I think it like that that verse there, I think everyone should know that verse. I really do. I think that is the most one of the most powerful verses because we have to understand that, and even I've struggled with it, and you know I've struggled with it. Like, this isn't me preaching to everyone and saying, Oh, you know, just forgive yourself, and like the hardest part for me on this journey is self-forgiveness. Yeah, but if I can't forgive myself, then then I'm basically saying that he's not good enough or not enough because he's saying he forgives me. Yeah, so if he can forgive me, I need to be able to forgive myself, otherwise, I'm saying he's wrong, yeah. And and that's not having a relationship. Yeah, he says you're enough, yeah. And you need to then once you once you hear that in your heart and you really understand that you know this isn't something we can't get this new identity on our own, we can't find it. It's not in you know, all of the like we've come from new age and all that, like we used to put on the wall, I am this, I am that. The only I am is God, yeah, and He is the one that is going to change you from the inside, and that moment is incredible. Sorry, I I feel like it's just so powerful a moment to share because anyone out there that is sitting there that is feeling not enough, that is feeling that you know the guilt and the shame and the weight on their shoulders of the past or something they've done that they can't get over, you have to understand that if you come to Christ, you are forgiven, and that from that point on, it is you are renew to move forward. And when you move forward, it's that saying, isn't it, of just being a better, you know, moving forward with that in mindset. What does he want me to do? Who does he want me to be in him? You know, like a better person, forgiving, loving, caring, all of those things, and that comes feed my sheep, be in community with me, yeah, you know, looking at other people without judgment, like we've said before. You see someone, but you see behind them, yeah, you know, and bringing them in rather than excluding them, being in united with people, that's what this is about.

SPEAKER_03 14:17

And that being united with people as well, obviously, with you know, God being at the center of that community that you mentioned. Yeah, you know, I think back to Peter, if if he hadn't had that community around him, his fellow brothers and fellow disciples, um, you know, he would have been really stuck in a really bad place because he probably would have run off on his own, been feeling really ashamed of what he had done and went waywards. So having that community around you with that focus of God in the centre is so massively important, and I would imagine massively helped Peter as well.

SPEAKER_02 14:53

Yeah, I I yeah, I just think it's incredible, isn't it? That the journey that he's been on. Um, yeah, I just think it's absolutely incredible.

SPEAKER_03 15:01

Yeah, because you know, if we look at it, he went on to then start to build those early churches, you know, and and so what he went through was very instrumental for him then being set up to to that was what Jesus had his purpose for Peter was to set up those churches. And and I think that him going through this, this denying Jesus was part of that, was really, really pushing into Peter's heart, really pushing into his soul. Do you love me? Then tend my sheep. And even though then obviously he um denied Jesus, how that must have played on his soul was incredible. Um, but then he went forward to say to tend his sheep to set up those early churches. Yeah, um, and that's you know, there's there's a little passage in Hebrews that I've got.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

Share it with us.

SPEAKER_03 15:47

Um so this is in Hebrews 10, 24, uh 25, and let us consider how to stimulate one another and to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling to gather, as it is a habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day draw near. He it's instructing us to to look out for each other, to love each other, to encourage each other, to bring out the best in each other, you know, and all of that with with God focused in the centre. So again, looking at Peter What he went to the setting up the early church, you know, this this is sort of um this section in my Bible is titled A New and Living Way. So it's instructing how we're meant to move forward and with each other.

SPEAKER_02 16:37

And I think sometimes it's really important that we need to be reminded of who we are, especially when we've forgotten. You know, I think it's really important, and this is why coming back to scripture, having your you know, your moment in with God, like you said yesterday on one of your shorts, just sit with God for one minute, just take that one minute of time, and it is it is so important, and we all try and fill our days, um, you know, and I've taken on more stuff lately, and your your day just seems to go, and time seems to be sped up, and you just don't feel like you fit everything in. But I truly tell you, when you do just go, no, my priority, just as my priority is to eat, or my priority is to sleep, or my priority is I have to, I don't know, take my children to school or do what whatever those things that you have to do, if you make it that you have to make time for you and God, and like you said, just saying that short, just even just one minute, it will transform everything and it will help you to remember who you are.

SPEAKER_03 17:36

Absolutely. I mean, there's still gonna be moments moving forward, you know, even though we're born a new, yeah, there's still gonna be moments where our past is gonna try and drag us back. Those uh thoughts of uh self-worth, or it could be a moment from our past that was something that we've done that convicts us, but we've got to constantly remind ourselves that that's who I was, this is who I am now.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

And like you say, and being in community, because you have those people around you that can go, no, no, no, no, stop thinking like that. Like we do it, don't we, with people in church, and vice versa. And you're like, because that it church church is not building, church is your community. When I talk about church, I mean community, um, you know, and and friends and stuff, and you'll go, no, no, no, that's not what I see, yeah. And that's not what God sees, so you need to stop seeing that because that's a projection of you know, whoever, the other side, the enemy, that's not you, yeah. Um, and so it's really important to just know that and to know that you are, you know, you're just with God and you're loved and blessed, and He wants you, you are a child of Him, wonderfully and fearfully made in His image. Yeah, and I just think it's so beautiful, but we all need to understand that. So, you know, when you think about it, identity isn't just personal, it's strengthened and spoken into community. It's it's everyone together working together with the same goal, and the goal is to get to heaven by being by being followers of Christ and working to, you know, just to as I said before, to love each other. It's that simple when we think about it, it's just being connected and unified in love and forgiveness and compassion and all the fruits of the spirit.

SPEAKER_03 19:13

Yeah, and and you know, that's it's important to remember that that you know our journey isn't a lone wolf, we're not here to do that on our own. Community is massively, massively important, and you know, Jesus demonstrated that with obviously his disciples, his followers, um, and we grow our faith together, you know, we grow that we have an individual relationship with him, but we continue to grow each other. And the reason we grow each other is because we're we're meant to be serving and helping each other, yeah, and we can't help and serve if we're on our own, because who are we helping and serving?

SPEAKER_02 19:44

Yeah, and I remember a moment for us where that really hit home, you know, like that real kind of aha moment, you know, like if you think for the last um well, we've had we've had a period, haven't we, of seven years where our life has been dramatically different. Um, and if you want to know about that, jump over to Grace and the Grit and Faith in the Climb. Um, but we've had that whole period, and I feel like it's that seven-year refining period of God really refining us from who we were to who He wanted us to be to now who we are in Him, because there's that middle ground, wasn't there? So there's these different stages, and I feel that that moment really hit home where you know we're always been just us. It's always been no, we can do it. You know, we can lean on ourselves, we don't need to lean on anyone else. We we've got this, you know, we're like that power couple that just no, no, something needs done, we find a solution, we get on, and we do it. And slowly but surely, God has stripped everything away, and He's gone, No, that's not who you are.

SPEAKER_03 20:51

Yeah, it yeah, he has, and you know it part of that for me, certainly in the last year, has been um is being ill and physically not being able to do stuff, and that's been really heart-wrenching, challenging um to to recognize that I actually can't even pour through this. I physically can't I need to ask for help is massively humbling and and it is massively refining, but it also then, as we're speaking about, demonstrates the need for community, the need for other people to come and serve and help us. Now, we even though physically I can't do much, we still find ways to to to help and to help others to accept help, which is something that we've always struggled with.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 21:34

But this is we're all going through challenges, but this is what I'm talking about with community is that you know we're not meant to do this alone. We are meant to be there to recognize when others need help and to step into that place and to also say, I need help. And at the center of all this is God and our prayers and our connection to Him, you know, the community around that focuses around God, yeah, and that voice can be really loud, can't it?

SPEAKER_02 21:56

Like that kind of in your head of you know, you're Not enough, you can't do this. And that's why I said you need those people around you and you need scripture. And what's the one scripture that's kind of come through all of this and seems to be the one that follows you wherever you go?

SPEAKER_03 22:13

It does. Proverbs 3:5 lead, not in your own understanding, but trust in the Lord and He will make your path straight through five to six. Now you're right. And you know, the thing is that having those people around you is so important because um like-minded people, Christ-like people, is because they're not going to be constantly reminding you of who you were or what happened in the past, they're focusing on who you are now, trying to lift you up and move you forward. Yeah, so it's important to have that community around you.

SPEAKER_02 22:41

Yeah, and I think it shifted for us, didn't it? It shifted from kind of pressure. Um, so it it felt pressured all the time. Whereas now there's more freedom that we know we can lean on God, we know we can lean on other people, we know that there's a mutual community sort of aspect there going on. Um, and I've got I didn't find my scripture, but there's an extra scripture here that I've got, which is one John. Uh here we go. I will find it. So one John three, one, I've got here. Three, one. Oh, there we go. I can get this. Uh where are we? That's number two. See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Okay, so it's really important that we remember that like we say that we a lot, that we are in this world, but we're not of this world. Yeah, and I think that speaks that that speaks volumes here. So he has that great love for us, he's lavished it on us, he wants us to flourish, he wants us to be refined, to go through like Peter's gone through, to go through all the challenges we're going through, to go through all the challenges you're going through. He wants that for us, not to punish us, not to condemn us, but to grow us and to help us to be the best versions of we can be, so that we can, you know, we can be in this world but not be of this world because this world is corrupt.

SPEAKER_00 24:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:13

This, and I'm not saying everyone, but that's why I'm saying there's lots of people that are doing good in this world and they're walking with Christ in this, and there are a lot of people that are doing good in this world that haven't found Christ yet, but belong to him because remember, you can belong before you can believe. Okay, so there are many people out there that that still belong because they have that Christ heart, but they haven't found him yet, and that's where we shouldn't judge anybody because, like us, go back what five years ago, we weren't walking with Christ, you know, but we were still good people and we were doing good things, you know. So he's that's where the forgiveness comes in, and that's where being anew in him comes in.

SPEAKER_03 24:50

And I mean, it you're right, um, but it's not earned, is it? It's it's a case of you know, we can do all these things, it doesn't stack up to say you've now equated this much, you're now you're now forgiven. It is asking him into your life, and it is asking for that forgiveness, and it is then having that identity in Christ, um, which then it obviously it sets you apart, but it it lifts you and builds you and places you in a community that will care for you, will love you, yeah. And and that's you know, that's the thing um that really sticks with me. So how do we live all this out in our lives this week, for example?

SPEAKER_02 25:31

Well, I think the first thing is to to kind of sit down with yourself, and I would, if it was me, go through scriptures and find scriptures that where God's telling you that you're loved, that you're forgiven, that you're restored, that you're equipped, you know, and and then speak them out. So I would go through all the different scriptures that highlight those facts. Like we just looked at some of the scriptures that we pointed out, um, you know, 2 Corinthians 5, 17. Just read those scriptures out, write them all down, have them on a note by the side of your bed or somewhere that you can refer to them and read them out and just hear them when when because like you always say, speaking out for you is better, isn't it? And just speak them out, or proclaim them over yourself that you you are enough in in him, not in you, but you're enough in him and what he thinks of you. Um, and and that he has that love for you and he's lavished that love on you, and he wants you to prosper, and he wants you to to be all the things that he created for you and that purpose for you, but that only comes from you knowing who you are in him. It doesn't come from knowing who you think you are in your own esteem.

SPEAKER_03 26:39

Yeah, yeah, that that's good. I think I think for me the second one would be to in the opposite way is to stop reflecting on your past, stop reflecting on the things that you've done, stop reflecting on the type of person perhaps that you were. Yeah. Don't let yesterday who you are today. I think that's a key thing.

SPEAKER_02 26:58

Yeah, and I also think on that, if you don't mind me kind of interceding on that, is that doesn't mean, like, for example, when I got baptized, I heard the word forgiveness when I come out of the water, and I knew instantly who that was. I needed to go back into my past and I needed to deal with something that I hadn't dealt with. I'd kind of just walked away from and gone, oh, do you know what? I don't want to deal with it. And I had to because I heard that word when I came out of the water from being baptized, and that was God speaking to me in that moment. And so for that, I knew I had to go back, I had to deal with that situation, I had to put forgiveness on it to to, in order for him then to forgive me, I had to lay that to bed. So it's really important that yes, you you do wipe the past away once you're a new in Christ, but equally you do ask God as well in prayer to bring up anything that you need to deal with. Yeah, that you do need to sit with and deal with.

SPEAKER_03 27:54

But you will be a different person then. So looking in that case, reflecting back in that situation, you're you're looking back at the situation become a new person.

SPEAKER_02 28:02

Yeah, from a state of a new person, but God wants you to walk in anew with no regrets, no history, no, so so dealing with that, and and you have to you have to man up with it, like I had to, you know, I had to deal with things I didn't necessarily want to walk away from, and I had to deal with it, but now I'm free, yeah, and I have that freedom because I am anew in Christ anyway, but I'm anew with all of that gone. So I don't have any of that baggage to worry about, and I think that's the most beautiful part of it. And then I think for me, the other one is if you're in Christ, that's not who you are anymore. So, like we've just said, isn't it? It's not it. Once you walk in Christ, you're not that old person, you're a new.

SPEAKER_03 28:46

So finally, I would say it kind of brings back that community and that need for community. Is that well, first of all, find that community and and find somebody in that community, one or two people that you can that you can trust because you know, sometimes our biggest breakthroughs come through conversation, obviously with God and prayer, but there's strength in numbers and and and having that's why you had the 12 disciples, yeah, yeah, and having somebody with you is massively important. I think it's this is not a journey, it's not nicely the journey because that's not what God calls us to do, and I think that's something that we've got to remember.

SPEAKER_02 29:22

Yeah, and and again, it just goes back to if you're in Christ, yeah, you know, that's not who you are anymore. You're anew, and and you're anew with a community of anew, and you've all got that that you should all have that same goal and that same purpose, yeah. Um, and everybody should just be I know it sounds a little bit airy-fairy, but loving each other and coming in with each other, yeah. You know, you're walking the narrow path for a reason, um, you know, and you're loving everyone as you go, so there's you know, not excluding anyone, but you have a purpose now, and your purpose is to be in this world, not of it, and to walk with Christ as He wants you to walk with Him a new, a new creation, a new identity, a new purpose in community, all together.

SPEAKER_03 30:05

Absolutely, and and again, just to affirm again, you know, you are not your worst mistake, you're not your your past behaviour. Yeah, you are a new.

SPEAKER_02 30:16

Yeah, I think that's beautiful, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, it just goes back to that looking up those scriptures and knowing that you are loved, you are forgiven, you are chosen, you are restored, all of those things. And it doesn't mean to say, like, like us, you're not gonna then face more challenges along the way because he still wants to refine us into who he wants us to be, but it's about being free in those, like we've said, haven't we? Multiple, multiple times that we feel like we're in that boat where there's that storm going on around us, but we're really happy and calm, yeah, and peaceful. There's peace there, isn't there? Yeah, and I think that's the beauty of all of this that doesn't matter what trials and tribulations come up in this life, with him, you're at peace and joy, and I think that's the most important part.

SPEAKER_03 30:57

Absolutely, and I think you know, this week I would say is don't just try to do better, just live for who you are and you in Christ, yeah, you know, and and from that point everything will change, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:11

And just don't be afraid to walk that path with other people, even if you've been hurt before, if you've been scorched, you know, by someone, you know, you put your trust in someone and they've let you down. That doesn't mean to say the next person you meet is going to be the same. So you have to learn to I would say pray with discernment, you know, like discernment over everything, isn't it? Like that's always in our prayers every night is that we have discernment and God gives us wisdom. Um, but just don't let that stop you from loving the next person that you meet and that you connect with just because you've had that in your past. Remember, you're renewing Christ, and He will guide you and lead you to the right people. He truly will.

SPEAKER_03 31:50

He will. And I think that's a great way to end this episode.

SPEAKER_02 31:54

Oh no, ready.

SPEAKER_03 31:55

So thank you very much for joining us on this episode. We really do appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

Yeah, and next week, yeah, we're gonna be looking at grace in our daily life, how we walk daily with that grace, and like I said about the narrow path, how we do that, yeah, but we can only do that with his grace. So that's what we're gonna talk about.

SPEAKER_03 32:14

I think that's gonna be an exciting one because that's a really practical one. I think people can take on. That's a great one. So, guys, thank you so much for joining us in this episode. We really do appreciate it, as we always say. Uh, remember, whatever platform you listen to, it'll really help us if you hit that subscribe button. Please leave your comments. We love to read your comments and your messages that you send us, and we do respond. If you want to support the show, you can do that via the bias a coffee link below. But until the next time, stay rid of Christ, stay strong, and we shall see you on the next episode. Bye.