Carl Lentz
speaker
537 appearances
7 recordings
3 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard May 2025
Carl Lentz’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
So let's just say you had a bad night last night and you hate it and you've prayed, you've asked God to forgive you and you get up and try to live. Why would it be hard? What are you kicking around? Just genuinely asking and I'll be able to maybe point to some of it, but like walk me through what the hangups are. Right. So you have a bad night. You go through that thing again.
You fall on your face. You've repented. You've changed your mind about it. Done what God said to do. And you still struggle with that hangs over your head. I think a lot of people feel like that. So for you, what do you think it might be?
Yeah, man. Thank you for being vulnerable. I think all I, I'm hearing a very human story right now. So all I heard you say was you're a human being. Like if you look at it from a one perspective, it's like, so let me get this straight. Even the way you framed it, like, and I can't even give grace to like, what if that's not true? What if you're learning how to give grace?
And sometimes when it comes to families, it's the hardest thing to navigate out of everything. And you're doing a really good job as you learn. Is that equally true?
would i would agree yeah one of those thoughts is resourceful i can't even give grace to my family i'm crappy or i'm learning as i go and i'm aware that family can be really tricky and i cannot wait to watch god lead me through this and figure it out both these things are true you got to choose which one is going to be true for you today and i think when it comes to grace right off the bat i i always know where somebody's at
quickly with how they respond to their own sin. I've been a pastor for a long time, so you see it all. And I can always tell people who really have a different revelation of Jesus because they're very cognizant of what they do right and wrong, but it's the posture. The posture is, I'm already in. So I like using the words for and from. Like, do you pray for God's approval or do you pray from it?
Are you doing good so that God will love you more or are you doing good because he already loves you so much you can't change it? Are you going to reach people so that God will be happy with you? Or are you going to reach people because God already reached you? The posture is so different. So even with grace, it's like, okay, I've fallen on my face. What would be the fear?
Like, did God change his mind about you because of your sin?
Right. And so for someone who has theological depth at a young age, your brain will be fighting you on that right away because you know that can't be true because that wouldn't be the same guy that saved you. So the very same grace that accepts you as the broken messes that we are, does this suddenly shift now that we're on this side of salvation?
This wouldn't make any sense, but that's the way you think with the way Christians live. So we are so ready to come to Jesus with all of our baggage at first. Oh, God loves me as I am. It's almost like when we get saved, now we're on a tryout. Why are we trying to get it together now? It's like, man, God saved me. But man, I've been a Christian for three years.
Shouldn't I be over some of this stuff? Oh, OK, let me get this straight. So God accepted you as you were at the cross. But now that you're in, hey, time to shape up. Come on, man. Like clock is ticking. You got about two more fails before you are off the Christian team. That's not from heaven. And that's the furthest thing from Jesus. That's not how he led. That's not how he lived.
And that's not what we have evidence of. So how could a whole generation be stricken with bad grace theology that makes you feel worse every day? That's how you know it's not from heaven. Like when it's a godly conviction to get right, there isn't condemnation in it. It's a conviction to say, thank God I'm going to change. Like I had a disagreement with my wife, and we've learned how to frame it.
This is this morning, like a couple hours ago. Let's frame this correctly. What a great opportunity to get to know you better. I don't love my response earlier this morning, so I'm sorry for what I said. I could use a different phrase. Man, thank God we're here. It's a frame. It's completely different. Rather than, we're going backwards. We're never going to get this right.
Now God gave me all this second opportunity, and I'm messing it up. People really think like that. have been blessed with correct teaching early about what grace is. There are days, yeah, we all struggle with feeling condemned, but for you or anybody watching that constantly feels that there's a fundamental thing that you get to go look at and explore and find freedom in. Because if you are saved,
And God has forgiven you and called you and equipped you. If you're spending a lot of time feeling bad about yourself, something's wrong and you are in line for some beautiful freedom. Because the first thing the gospel should do is change your life.
yours mine so that means everything i'm trying to get other people to do i have to do it here first so if i'm going to speak kindly hey man you should speak kindly to yourself what's going to start here first we forget about us a lot and we think that's noble christianity is not about you it's absolutely about you are you kidding me god saved you so it's about you so what are you doing here first so for me it's like i want to wake up in the morning and say hey
Good to see you, man of God. You are saved, equipped, forgiven, positive, healthy, healing, hopeful. You're going to have a great day. God is with you. You're doing better than you think you are. Ephesians 3.20 matters for you. Carl in the mirror. Every day is a new day. His mercies are new every morning. How on earth am I going to go tell somebody else that if I skip meat?
It doesn't make any sense. It weakens what I'm actually saying. So I've had to relearn that in this chapter of my life, and I will never unlearn it because that's everything. So when you feel unkind to yourself, you immediately know this is not from heaven. And you can hear some weird preacher online right now, if you want, telling you you should feel like that. They don't know God's grace.
They don't know it. So you just gotta be careful in this day and age that you don't plug into the wrong matrix. Because before you know it, you've watched an algorithm filled with people who don't know what they're talking about. And now you've inherited that, man, maybe I should feel harder and harsher on myself. If I was really a Christian, I'd feel the condemn, like what are we talking about?
It's the good news for a reason. So I like the idea of you handling your struggles with more grace first.
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