April 8, 2024 • 42 mins
How do we live faithfully for the Lord and prevent drifting away?
In this episode, Brody discusses the life of Demas, why people tend to drift away, and how we can stay faithful. Demas was once a co-laborer with Paul on the mission field, but abandoned Paul when he was needed most.
Scripture tells us Demas thought the world offered him something greater than what the Lord provided. People are often influenced by the latest movement or ideology, but these movements don’t last.
However, the Gospel is unchanging. It is eternal and outlasts cultural movements. Let’s hold fast to Jesus and pursue him faithfully.
- View the SWO Staff
- Jude 2
- Colossians 4:14
- 2 Timothy 4:9
- 1 John 2:15
Please leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help improve No Sanity Required and help others grow in their faith.
Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everybody, welcome to no Sanity Required.
I want to talk today about goshman.
This feels like a broken recordright now, I know, but I feel
like this is a topic or an issuethat we keep coming back to
because it's so important, andI'll tell you why it's so fresh
on my mind right now.
We're coming out of our weekendof staff orientation and I want
(00:24):
to talk about call itdeconstruction, call it apostasy
, call it turning away, whatever.
I want to reverse the emphasisand place the emphasis on let's
talk about finishing strong.
Let's talk about staying thecourse.
Let's talk about keeping yourhand on the plow.
Let's talk about not lookingback and remaining fit for the
(00:46):
kingdom of God.
Let's talk about fixing youreyes on Jesus.
Let's talk about one foot infront of the other Christianity.
Let's talk about the fight, thegrind.
How do we do it and do it well.
How do we do it?
And not fall away, turn away,drift away, walk away, develop
(01:06):
an apostate heart or mind?
I don't think it happensovernight when people reject and
abandon a faith that they onceprofessed.
Many of you that are listeningto this podcast today profess
faith in Jesus Christ and, sadlyand with a broken heart, I
would say that you're going toturn away.
(01:28):
You're going to reject thefaith and walk away at some
point.
I don't want to say many, but Iknow there's somebody listening
to this that's going to.
I also believe I could pleadwith you, based on the
principles we're going to lookat today, to implement these
things and to heed the warningsand to fortify the defenses and
(01:50):
to build an offensive machine ofthe Christian faith where
you're moving forward on theadvance constantly.
How do we safeguard ourselfagainst apostasy?
And we're going to look at itthrough the lens of a guy named
Demas.
Demas was a New Testamentfigure who was a teammate of the
Apostle Paul.
And we're also going to do itin light of the fact that we've
(02:11):
just come through our stafforientation weekend and there's
a couple hundred folks that aregoing to serve at Snowbird
Wilderness Outfitters thisupcoming summer and we're going
to do everything in our power toequip them and strengthen them
for the journey, not just forthe summer, but for the journey
of life, 10, 20, 30 years fromnow, that they stay faithful,
(02:32):
and I want that to be anencouragement to you.
And I also want to talk to you alittle bit about our summer
staff program, differentprograms that we offer.
I want to talk about theupcoming Respond event, in case
you are interested inparticipating in that, some
things that we've got coming up,and I want to talk to you,
(02:52):
introduce you to a program atSnowbird called the Element Team
.
So a lot in today's episode.
That's a lengthy intro, butlet's get into it.
Welcome again to no SanityRequired.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Welcome to no Sanity Required from the Ministry of
Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
A podcast about the Bible culture and stories from
around the globe.
Well, we've just come throughthis past weekend, our 2024
Summer Staff Orientation Weekend, and what that is.
We do this because years ago werealized we had a pretty high
attrition rate.
We would say we had 100 folkscommitted to come work on our
(03:41):
summer team and this was earlierdays, so this was back when
that summer team was probably 50people.
So say, we had 50 people comingand we would have five people
quit during the first week ofstaff training, or the, the, the
days leading up to stafftraining and the and the first
week of staff training.
And it was because it wasoverwhelming to them and the
(04:04):
first week of staff training.
And it was because it wasoverwhelming to them.
And so maybe 15 years ago forsure, 12 years ago, I think,
probably 15 years ago we starteddoing a staff orientation
weekend which is an early tomid-April weekend Try to do it
early in April, early Aprilweekend where staff comes in,
(04:25):
they're here on a Friday nightall day Saturday and then
they're done, they leave Sundaymorning, they go back to school
or home or whatever, and I'd say90, we have a 90 to 95%
participation and they'reawesome.
They're awesome young men andwomen, um, and it gives us a
chance to meet them in personbecause they're coming from all
(04:45):
over the country.
We got kids coming this summerfrom overseas, we got kids from
the mission field.
We've got kids from as farsouth as the bottom end of
Florida, as far west as oh, I'mgoing to misquote it, I don't
know how far west we go thisyear.
Last year, I think the farthestWest was Texas, which is not
(05:07):
that far West, um, and it wasEast Texas, but sometimes, you
know, we're all the way to theWest coast, um, as far North as
Canada, which is very North.
Um got folks from all over, butanyway, they come in and this
team that we've assembled willbe.
Their ages will range 17 to 25.
(05:31):
Our element team, which we'regoing to talk about here in just
a little bit and we're going tohighlight in a future episode,
our element team is ourleadership mentorship, next
generation team, which is andthe T, I think, actually stands
for training, leadershipmentorship, next gen training Um
, I think gosh y'all, I shouldknow this.
(05:51):
I'm the one that, uh, it's beena long morning, by the way, um,
and a long week and weekendover the last about eight or
nine days, so, um, but theelement team is our.
It used to be called servantteam.
It's high school program.
These kids are most of them arejuniors and seniors in high
school and they come and spendthe summer with us in a
(06:14):
intensive discipleshipleadership training program.
It is, it is the number one umpipeline for folks to come into
our leadership Institute, whichis our year round college
program, our, our leadershipInstitute, which is our year
round college program, our FTthree program, which is a
three-year commitment to workand to have a, a, a paid
internship here, um, andhonestly, um, a high, a high
(06:38):
percentage pipeline intofull-time staff positions here.
So element programs, awesome,um, awesome.
There'll be 40 of those kids,20 guys, 20 gals, and then two
times that many folks will be,about double that many more will
be on our summer staff.
So all that to say, with ourinstitute, our element team, our
(06:59):
summer staff, college age kidslike I mean we got I don't have
a number in front of me, butthere's 150 summer folks on all
hands on deck kind of every day,and then another 50 that are in
and out of the day-to-day.
So it's a big operation and I'mthankful that the Lord has
given us a desire to train theseyoung men and young women in a
(07:25):
very intentional way, and thisgoes back to you know.
We started doing thisorientation weekend to get them
in here so they could meet eachother face-to-face.
We all come together.
Like I said, 90% of the folkswill be here.
It's a strategic weekend with alot of personal interaction
among and between staff membersand then they go back, finish
(07:46):
their semester in about it'sabout six weeks five, six weeks
and they come back for atwo-week staff training.
The camp that I worked at beforewe started SWO.
I'd worked in or at anassociation with two different
camps and I'd actuallyvolunteered at another one for a
week.
So I had three different campexperiences, ranging from a
(08:07):
couple of weeks up to becausethe one I worked at for a week.
I did that twice, so rangingfrom a couple weeks up to,
worked at one for a couple yearsand one for three years, and
what I learned when we werethere that became an early
snowbird priority was that thestaff weren't being trained real
(08:27):
effectively.
Uh, I felt like what wouldhappen is that staff would be
hired, selected, whatever, uh,then they would be brought in
about three days before campstarted, maybe a week, maybe a
week, but that week would bespent in some training, but
mainly like we would do a lot ofwork projects.
(08:49):
So, like I remember having kidscome in five days before camp
started and we would do half ofthat time will be spent in
actual like preparation forstudents and the other half will
be spent like picking up sticks, picking up trash, weed eating,
mowing, re, remulching stufflike that.
Well, we don't do that here.
We've got a team that does thatyear round.
(09:10):
We're working on that stuff.
If you've been to swo in thelast four years, you're one of
the people that's probably madea comment to us about just how
beautiful the place looks, whata phenomenal facility it is, how
awesome.
It's just awesome.
Our team keeps this placelooking so good and we just came
through the cherry blossoms alljust peaked and it was
(09:33):
phenomenal.
Of course, now, old man, winterhas breathed back on us and
we're freezing again, but we'vehad some spring weather.
It's a beautiful time of year.
This place is beautiful.
It's an incredible facility.
We don't need our 150 summerteam to come in and weed, eat
and pick up sticks.
We need them to come in.
So we're going to do anorientation weekend and two full
(09:56):
weeks of intensive leadershiptraining, theological training,
hands-on ministry training,building community.
So if you're working andserving in any capacity at SWO
and many of our listeners arealum you know that we put a lot
into that.
We were in a two-hour meetingthis morning walking through the
(10:17):
schedule for week one of ourstaff training in May.
Week one of two weeks and everyday is a maximized use of time
where we're training.
Again, we work on leadershipdevelopment, we work on
theological training anddevelopment discipleship, and
then we teach them publiccommunication skills, how to
(10:41):
interact, how to be professional.
All of that there's a lot thatgoes into our training and then
an intensive discipleshipprogram that continues through
the summer.
We invest in our summer staff.
We invest in our summer staffin such a way that we believe
they are, um, if we're, if we'reinvesting in their spiritual
(11:04):
development and they're beingdiscipled, well then the
overflow of that and thereadiness that comes with that
is going to equip them andprepare them to do an effective
job of job of ministering tostudents.
So what that looks like is wedon't spend uh, we don't spend
the majority of our timetraining them on how to be a
counselor.
We teach them how to love theword of God, study it, surrender
(11:27):
to it, how to live in communityand accountability with other
believers.
How to, how to, out of theoverflow of what God's doing in
your life, do ministry there.
How to have your identity foundin Christ, not in the fact that
you're a summer staff member ora river guide or whatever, but
to know who you are in Christand then train and equip, train
and equip, train and equip.
(11:48):
And that continues all summerthrough our weekly worship time
together, our leadershipdevelopment each week, our
community groups, our fire teams.
These are all different facetsof how.
So if a guy comes in here, agal comes in here and spends 12
weeks with us, they'll gothrough a two, two and a half
day orientation, a two weektraining, a weekly time of
(12:11):
worship and fellowship that'sexclusive to our staff, daily
fire team meetings with theirsmall group of four people and
then weekly community groupmeetings, which is two to four
fire teams meeting together.
There's a lot of personaldevelopment that's available and
a lot of emphasis put on thatfor our staff.
(12:32):
This is the team that we'rethen going to minister to
students with when the studentsshow up to students with.
When the students show up, ourfull-time team sees our young
staff, our 17, 18 to 25-year-oldstaff.
We see them as our number onepriority in terms of
discipleship, and then out ofthat they do the bulk of the
(12:52):
ministry to the students thatcome.
All of that being said, and yetI could make a list right now
and call names out loud ofpeople who have been through
that, served here with highhonor and regard and integrity,
have been speakers, leaders,missionaries that are no longer
walking with Jesus.
How does that happen?
(13:13):
How tell me, how does thathappen?
I don't know that I can make itmake sense, but I am going to
show you scripturally why ithappens.
So thanks for tuning in andlistening.
Um, I want to.
I want to.
I want to get into this heavy,heavy conversation, um, talking
about, uh, how to stay faithful,and I want to use it, uh, use
(13:36):
the life of this man, demas.
We'll go beyond the flannelgraph.
We'll look at the life of Demas, we'll learn some lessons and
hopefully it'll give youstrength for your own journey.
Strength of grip to hold theplow I'm excited.
I've been working on my gripstrength because I had a pulled
tendon in my right hand, a torntendon, a flexor tendon in one
(13:59):
of my fingers, and and and likefrustrated because it it affects
my grip.
So, being very intentional totry to build that the grip
stronger in that hand.
And in doing that it's turnedinto some studies I've done on
on people that are like intothings like arm wrestling or
gymnastics, where these peoplethat have freakishly strong
(14:21):
grips, how do you, how do youcreate a stronger there's?
There's this thing called ricebucket training and I can tell
you it's intense.
I'm loving that and I and I doa lot of hang training where I
just hang from a bar for severalminutes not all at one time,
maybe a minute at a time, forfour or five reps and different
things like that.
And building up that strength.
(14:42):
How do we build up the gripstrength of the believer so that
they might, when the scripturesays, hold fast or keep your
hand to the plow or take hold ofthe eternal life, to what
you've been called?
What does spiritual gripstrength look like?
I want to consider that today.
So I want to start byintroducing you to this guy
(15:02):
named Demas.
Now, in introducing you to thisguy, demas, I got to tell you.
This is just me.
A lot of people say they likethis NSR podcast because it
feels very conversational.
So I'm just going to tell you,every time I hear the word, the
name demas, or read it, I thinkof the word dumas from.
(15:25):
Not many of our listeners aregoing to know this, but there
was a.
There was a band in the 90scalled the kentucky headhunters.
This was the early 90s, I thinkmaybe mid 90s.
So when I hear the name demas Ithink of Dumas Walker, and it's
funny because I'm sure Maddiedoes not know who Dumas Walker
(15:45):
is.
She edits these podcasts and wealways have fun conversation
afterwards and it's like I agemyself a lot of times.
But the Kentucky Headhunterswere wild men.
I mean, these guys came outwhen, you know, in the late 80s,
country music was kind ofgetting reignited.
(16:08):
I mean you had Randy Travis.
George Strait was hitting thetop of the charts, garth Brooks
came out like 89.
And then, going into the 90ss,you had this real country
western.
I mean it was a.
It was a strong genre that hada very defined sound.
That's when brooks and dunncame on the scene.
If you're a country music fanwhich don't get me started on
(16:31):
modern country music.
It's just, I don't even want totalk about it because I,
because I don't want to go there.
But it was like the heyday in mymind of country music and all
of a sudden these guys come out,the Kentucky headhunters.
And those dudes were like, theyhad the feel of like a 70
Southern rock band.
They had the look of likeLeonard Skinner, the almond
(16:54):
brothers, and they were crazyand they sung this song.
And they were crazy and theysung this song.
It was called, uh, I think itwas called let's all go down to
doomless walkers.
I think is how it went.
That's what it was called man,that's when music was what it
(17:20):
was supposed to be.
These guys look like they workat Snowbird Slaw burger fries
and a bottle of ski down atDumas Walker's let's go.
I can go there right now.
That's about as good as goingto the burger basket in Andrews,
north Carolina.
(17:41):
So I don't know if you rememberthat, but, um, call it stupid,
funny, crazy, whatever it isabout my brain, but the way my
brain works, every time I seethe word, the name Demas, I
think Dumas and then I think ofDumas Walker.
Now I also tell you this uh, mygranddad used to call me Dumas,
and I'll let you figure outwhat that meant.
(18:01):
Uh, when I did something stupidas a, as a teenager, when I
would do something stupid, he'dcall me Dumas, and uh, that's.
That's another thing too.
But anyway, this guy Demas is,is mentioned at the best I can
tell Demas has mentioned threetimes in scripture.
Mentioned at the best I cantell Demas has mentioned three
times in scripture.
(18:21):
And when you talk about somebodywho the modern word right now
that we use as deconstruction,you know, we, every few weeks we
do an episode, we, we we coverthis topic, we talk about it, we
talk about progressiveChristianity, we talk about
deconstruction, talk aboutprominent people, primarily out
of the contemporary Christianmusic world, but there's also
(18:43):
some pastors, teachers, writers,authors that have kind of gone
the path of what's calledprogressive Christianity.
The Bible just called itapostasy, and we're going to get
into some of the other wordsthe scripture used fall away,
walk away, turn away.
But apostasy was the main ideaand I I want to use this guy,
(19:06):
demas, as an example because, um, I'm I'm talking and looking
something up right here, so bearwith me because I know some of
you can do that, um, and some ofyou can't.
I cannot Um, but I was lookingup the the um American heritage
dictionary, um of the Englishlanguage.
(19:28):
This is the definition of, of,of apostate, and apostate is one
who has abandoned one'sreligious faith.
And then it goes on and says orabandon a political party once
principles are a cause, and onewho has forsaken the faith
principles of which he beforeadhered, has forsaken or
perverted one religion foranother, or who has renounced
(19:53):
his clerical profession.
Now, that's the seculardefinition of apostate or
apostasy.
But that fits with what theScripture teaches.
And we just, you know, wepackage things differently in
our language sometimes, andsometimes I think, we dumb
things down or we try to make itsound less, you know, not sound
(20:15):
as bad as it really is.
But with this, I think you know, when we refer to progressive,
progressive Christianity ordeconstruction, I don't have a
problem using those wordsbecause it gives us some modern
cultural context.
We know what we're talking about, but in the biblical sense it
was.
It's apostasy, it's abandoningof the religious principles and
faith that you have committedyour life to and adhered to.
(20:36):
So for us, the profession ofour faith is that Jesus is Lord.
If you want to pare everythingdown, to simplify, what is the
shortest statement you can maketo declare the Christian faith
and your belief in Jesus?
It would be to say Jesus isLord.
What is the profession of yourfaith?
(20:58):
Jesus is Lord.
What is the declaration of yourfaith?
Jesus is Lord.
What is the profession of yourfaith?
Jesus is Lord.
What is the declaration of yourfaith?
Jesus is Lord.
What is the proclamation ofyour faith?
Jesus is Lord?
As if to call people to thatproclamation.
And so, when we proclaim Christas Lord, we're recognizing
several things about him.
We're recognizing that he isGod in the flesh.
(21:20):
We're recognizing that he wasborn of a virgin, that he was
sinless.
We're recognizing that he isthe judge, the soon and coming
king.
We're recognizing that he wasborn of a virgin, that he lived
a sinless life, that he wastruly God and truly man, that he
was conceived in that virgin'swomb of the Holy Spirit a
supernatural conception but thatshe was purely human, she was
(21:46):
just human flesh.
And that God brought this Jesusas the second Adam, who would
be the representative of all whowould believe in him.
Adam, the first Adam in thegarden, is our representative.
He represents the human race,and so, in his representation of
the human race.
When he failed and he sinned,he brought us into a condemned
(22:10):
state.
So we're born into sin.
Jesus is the second Adam, andthat he's our second
representative.
And if we will receive hisrepresentation, we receive his
righteousness by confessing himas Lord, and in that that is an
act of repentance and confessionand faith.
And Jesus saves us.
And so the simplest way todefine or describe or explain
(22:34):
what a Christian is, it'ssomeone whose confession is that
Jesus is Lord, he's Lord, he'sLord, he's God, he's Yahweh,
he's the Savior, he's the onewho came to condemn sin in the
flesh by becoming sin for us.
He condemned sin in the fleshand put it to death and
triumphed over it.
So Demas had made thatprofession.
This guy Demas had made thatprofession.
(22:56):
The first two times we see him,there might be a little
variation on how he's mentionedand he's mentioned in Paul's
letters to uh um, philemon andthe Colossians.
Now his letter to Philemon umis if.
If you're familiar with thescripture, it was a letter that
(23:17):
he wrote to a specific person.
But if you look in commentaries, colossians and Philemon are
always together, so they'realmost always going to be in a
shared commentary, and one ofthe reasons is Philemon is such
(23:37):
a short, I'm trying to turn toit here.
Such a short book, it's one page, it's 25 verses.
So it's like Jude, um Paul, aprisoner of Christ Jesus, and
Timothy, our brother.
So this is from Paul andTimothy to Philemon, our dear
friend and coworker.
So he's writing this letter tothis guy, um, called Philemon.
(24:00):
Now, um Philemon, at the end ofthis letter and he's writing
the letter, it's an appeal to uh, from one friend to another,
both co-laborers for the gospel.
It's appeal about a guy who wasa runaway slave.
It's a.
It's a fascinating story.
But at the end of this briefletter, um, paul says to
Philemon um, mark, aristarchus,demas, here's our guy, here's
(24:26):
our boy, demas and Luke, mycoworkers, we greet you, we send
you greetings, um, and thenEpaphras, my fellow prisoner in
Christ, sends you greetings, andthen Epaphras, my fellow
prisoner in Christ, sends yougreetings.
The grace of the Lord, jesusChrist, be with you.
So Demas is named among Paul'sco-workers.
So this team, this ministryteam, this missionary team, paul
(24:49):
is a part of you got Mark, whois a stalwart of the Christian
faith in the early church, a guynamed Aristarchus, a guy named
Demas and then Luke, who wasPaul's stenographer, he was his
biographer, he was his personalphysician and he traveled with
(25:14):
Paul and he's known for writingthe books of Luke, the Gospel of
Luke and the Book of Acts,which comprise the bulk of like
the largest percentage of theNew Testament of any one writer.
And so this is the company thatDemas is in.
So in my context it's likeDemas would be like someone who
had worked at Snowbird on summer.
Staff had then become a smallgroup, a community group leader,
a fire team leader.
They'd stayed in our institute,our internship, they'd gone to
(25:36):
the missionary field.
We have a young lady that livedwith us and served on the
mission field for a couple years.
After she lived with us for ayear, she labored and served and
worked at Snowbird and did sofaithfully for several years and
she is no longer walking withJesus.
Demas is a guy that was on theteam.
(25:57):
He was there, he was getting itdone and he was called a
coworker.
Then in Colossians, chapter four, and these two letters are
written real close together, soyou got kind of the same team,
same dynamic.
Both of them were written inthe same year.
Most, most folks believe umColossians, chapter four, verse
14, it says Luke, the dearlyloved physician, and Demas send
(26:23):
you greetings.
So Paul, writing this letter tothe Colossians, he's mentioned
Aristarchus, his fellow prisoner.
He's mentioned Mark.
He says I mean, listen to thisin his final greetings, tychicus
, our dearly beloved brother,faithful minister and fellow
servant in the Lord, will tellyou all the news about me.
I've sent him to you for thispurpose.
(26:44):
So this guy, tychicus, wasbringing the message of Paul to
the Colossians, the church atColossae.
I've sent him to you for thisvery purpose, so that you may
know how we are and so that hemay encourage your hearts.
He is coming with Onesimus, afaithful and dearly loved
brother, who is one of you.
That Onesimus story isfascinating.
(27:10):
That's tied into that otherletter to Philemon.
Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, send you his greetings, as
does Mark, barnabas' cousin,welcome him.
So does Jesus called Justice.
These alone of the circumcisedare co-workers of the kingdom of
God.
So these were Jewish brothers,converts.
Epaphras, who is one of you, aservant of Christ Jesus, sends
you his greetings.
He's also wrestling for you inhis prayers so that you can
stand mature and fully assuredin everything God wills for our
(27:33):
testimony.
So he's saying all these things.
Now I might be reading intothis a little bit, but I want to
tell you where my imaginationgoes.
Here he's talking about allthese people in such endearing
terms.
He goes here, he's talkingabout all these people in such
endearing terms.
He gets down and he says Itestify about him that he works
hard for you, for those inLaodicea and for those in
(27:53):
Hierapolis.
Luke the dearly loved physician.
He's using these words ofendearment with all these guys.
And then he says and Demas sendyou his greetings.
So it's almost like in Philemon.
He calls him a coworker andnames him alongside these other
guys.
Then he gets to Colossians, andI don't know which one came
first, so I might be off here,but in the Colossian letter he's
(28:14):
like man, this guy is in prisonwith me.
This dude has been faithful andwelcomed this guy because he
has a word from the Lord.
And boom, boom, boom, boom,boom.
And all of a sudden he gets toDemas and he just says his name.
And so it's almost like thisguy's here, but there seems to
be something different.
Even in the way he's.
He's, you know, introduced orperceived, I don't know, but at
(28:35):
any rate he's on the team andhe's called a coworker.
And then Paul's last letter,the last thing that he writes in
his life and ministry is 2Timothy.
And at the end of 2 Timothy,listen to what he says.
It's crazy.
So, for context, he's in prison, he's in a jail and he's
(28:57):
writing this letter to Timothyand he's asking for some things
to be brought with him.
And he says only Luke is withme, bring Mark with him.
And he says only Luke is withme, bring Mark with you.
So he's asking him, he's askingTimothy to come see him and
bring Mark, for he's useful inthe ministry.
I have sent Tychicus to Ephesuswhen you come, bring the cloak
I left in Troas with Carpus.
So at the end of Paul's lifehe's putting his house in order.
(29:19):
He's asking for a coat, becauseit's really cold in this jail,
this prison that he's in thisRoman prison, as well as the
scrolls, especially theparchments.
He's like bring me my copies ofthe scriptures and commentaries
.
Alexander the coppersmith didgreat harm to me.
The Lord will repay himaccording to his works.
(29:39):
Watch out for him yourself,because he strongly opposed our
words.
So he's like this guy,alexander, he did me harm, watch
out.
So he gives us a warning.
And this is where this is whereI don't have a problem naming
names.
You know like in the last fewepisodes I've named some names
of people.
I don't have a problem withthat because Paul did it.
(30:00):
Now I want to be careful thatyou don't just throw names
around flippantly.
But there are times insituations where someone might
need to be identified as hey,here's a warning against this
person, especially if they're afalse teacher.
And so he's given all of theseinstructions on hey, here's how
(30:22):
you can minister to me here inthe end.
But before all of that, what hehad said to Timothy in second
Timothy four nine, he says makeevery effort to come to me soon.
He's like Timothy, I need youto come to me because Demas has
deserted me since he loved thispresent world and has gone to
Thessalonica.
And has gone to ThessalonicaNow.
(30:43):
This is intense because whatthat means it's like he's saying
he quit because he's in lovewith this world.
Another way would be like, ifyou really study the way that's
(31:04):
worded in the original Greeklanguage, it was like not only
was he saying he loves thisworld.
But it's like, um, you know, alot of y'all know that I love to
read um, the new livingtranslation.
Um, in there it says uh, demasloves the things of this life.
He loves the things of thislife.
I don't know his situationexactly, but he loved what the
(31:27):
world offered and what this lifecould afford him, more than
that which had eternalsignificance.
Because, because he loved thisworld, he has deserted me and
gone to Thessalonica.
The wording in the Greek meanshe literally that he abandoned
Paul in his greatest time ofneed.
So it's not just he gotdisinterested and he just kind
(31:50):
of drifted away, it's heabandoned me when I needed him
the most and it was anintentional abandonment.
The Apostle Paul, he's inprison, he's going to face the
death sentence, and then Demasis like I'm out, I'm out.
He left in the moment ofpersecution.
And I think that's um, that'simportant to understand about
(32:11):
this guy and how we relate thisto people who fall into this
same trap, which is what we'regoing to talk about.
And I want to give you somethoughts from Demas's story on
why people, first and foremost,will abandon the faith, and I'm
going to do this.
We're going to have to comeback with a second part.
(32:32):
I'm going to do a second partof this, but for today I just
want to give you one main reasonwhy Demas turned away, and that
you might be warned not to letthat same thing lure you away.
And it's because it says hedeserted me since he loved this
present world.
He loved this present world, heloved the things of this world.
(32:55):
It reminds me of so Demas'reason for turning away was a
love for what the world had tooffer, was a love for what the
world had to offer.
The reason listen to me, nsrthe reason people turn away from
the faith is first and foremostbecause there's something more
alluring in what the worldoffers than in what Jesus offers
(33:19):
in an eternal perspective.
There's something in the hereand the now.
It could be an ideology thatwould elevate you in this day
and age.
It could be an experience orrelationship, I don't know, but
it's something the world isoffering Now.
The scripture speaks to this.
(33:40):
This first John, um.
First John, chapter two, versusuh.
Give me a second.
First John two, verses 15.
Um, and he actually go through17,.
Um, uh, first John two.
15 says do not love the worldor the things in the world.
If anyone loves the world, thelove of the father is not in him
.
So it's important to understandUm, okay, if, if you love the
(34:05):
world, then you lack the love ofthe Father.
That's pretty scary to thinkabout, like self-test Do I love
the world?
Do not love the world or thethings in the world?
If anyone loves the world, thelove of the Father is not in him
.
For everything in the world thelust of the flesh, the lust of
the eyes and the pride in one'spossessions is not from the
Father, but it's from the world.
And the world with its lust ispassing away, but the one who
(34:27):
does the will of God remainsforever.
What Demas had fallen victim toand I don't want to use the
word victim, but what he hadbeen deceived by in his own
flesh, in his own minds, mindset, his own mind's eye, is that
the world offered him somethinggreater than what the Lord
offered him.
It says he was in love with thepresent world, and I think that
(34:51):
this is worth noting.
People are often influenced bythe latest movement, the latest
ideology, but the thing is,those movements and ideologies,
they, they, eventually they,they die off, they die out, or
or they might shift and go in adifferent direction.
Um, there's even, you know,there's evidence of this just in
(35:15):
in in our lifetimes.
There was a movement called theemergent church in the nineties
and two thousands um that diedoff but then it's reared back up
.
It just looks different.
This whole progressiveChristianity, this movement of
progressive Christianity it'srooted in the emergent church
movement of the 90s and early2000s.
Think of recent LGBTQ trends.
(35:38):
They keep moving the goalpostson that.
If you look at the progressivefight for women's rights in the
seventies, the rise of feminism,and now there's tension between
that movement and thetransgender movement.
But it would seem like theywere from working in like, like,
like uh.
Culturally, you know, speakingthey seem to be progressive,
(36:02):
liberal movements, but nowthey're at odds with each other
because the trans movement saysas a man I should be able to
take the rights of a woman.
It's just, it gets twisted.
There's no principled,immovable standard.
You can never keep up with theworld's ideologies and movements
.
That's all I'm getting at.
You can't keep up with theworld's.
So why fall in love with theworld in terms of its ideologies
(36:25):
when those ideologies are goingto change?
Enlightenment, modernism,post-modernism,
post-post-modernism?
It just constantly changes theteachings of Friedrich Nietzsche
, the teachings of Nietzsche andMarx.
Karl Marx defined philosophicalthought in Europe in the late
1800s through the 1900s.
(36:47):
At the center of the teachingsof Nietzsche and you might have
heard Nietzsche's guy that saidGod is dead.
And then Marx was basically thefather of modern socialist and
communist movements.
Lenin and Stalin were studentsof Marx.
I think, to simplify it, thatmight be an oversimplification,
but we're on solid enoughfooting.
(37:07):
The ideology was there.
But at the center of theseteachings is the idea that God
is dead and that science andphilosophy and technology have
moved beyond the need to believein God.
That's why in the Soviet Unionso many Christians were
butchered and murdered and putin prison camps all through the
Cold War.
In the Soviet Union so manyChristians were butchered and
murdered and put in prison campsall through the Cold War.
In the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s.
(37:30):
Christians were persecutedgreatly in communist Soviet
Union.
Which is why it's crazy whenyoung kids now are saying oh,
communism's good.
Yeah, you don't know, you'venever been around it, you don't
realize it.
But it's brutal because youremove God and now there has to
be some moral law giver andmoral law standard and so the
those men and movement um diedoff.
(37:54):
You know that movement, the mendied, marx died, nietzsche died
and then soviet unioneventually died off drastically.
What I'm saying is ideologies ofthe world always move and
change and shift and they're noteverlasting.
But the gospel is still thepower of God that changes people
(38:14):
and cultures.
It's the hope of mankind.
Jesus will never fail.
The gospel will never failbecause Jesus will never change.
The gospel is unchanging, thegospel and the faith that we
proclaim and hold on to and holdfast to is immovable.
That's why Paul could write tothe Corinthians and say in 1
Corinthians 15, 58, and saytherefore, my dear brothers, be
(38:36):
immovable and steadfast andalways abound in the work of the
Lord.
We can be immovable andsteadfast because the gospel we
hold to is immovable andsteadfast.
Because the gospel we hold tois immovable and steadfast
because the God of that gospelis such.
Ultimately, the desire is toteach.
The desire that I would have inteaching young people is that
(38:56):
the gospel is the measure thatwe live by, not the, and that
the gospel is what judgesworldly trends and fads and
ideologies, not the other wayaround.
At the heart of deconstructionor apostasy, people begin to
judge the gospel by the world'strends and standards, and the
(39:16):
reality is the gospel is judgingthe world's trends and
standards.
So, whatever it was that Demasloved about the world and it
could have been sensual pleasure, it could have been, you know
but he loved what this worldoffered.
And so let's not forget that atthe heart and the core of what
drives people away into apostasy, into a falling away, a
(39:40):
drifting away, what it is is alove for the world way, a
drifting away.
What it is is a love for theworld, the world's ideologies,
what the world offers the flesh,what the world promises me.
But the world is passing away,man, it's passing away, but what
I do with God is eternal.
It lasts forever, and so let'sdon't forget that.
(40:02):
Don't forget that Demas isteaching us something here.
Demas's progression was he wasthere, he was a coworker, he was
a part of a team that wasmaking a difference.
If it could happen to him, itcan happen to you and me.
And the answer is don't grabhold of the world's philosophies
.
Don't pursue what the worldoffers.
Hold fast to Jesus.
(40:22):
Don't pursue what the worldoffers.
Hold fast to Jesus.
Hold on to Jesus.
Hold fast to the gospel.
It is unchanging, immovable,unshakable, undeniable,
undefeatable.
The gospel of Jesus Christ willprevail, will always prevail.
Don't turn back, don't lookback, don't take your hand off
the plow.
Lock it down with a death gripand hold fast to the faith that
(40:47):
we contend for.
Don't let go of Jesus and knowthat Jesus ain't letting go of
you.
He's not going to turn youloose.
Sit tight and we'll finish thisconversation tomorrow.
We're going to take next weekoff.
I'll be on vacation with myfamily next week, going to take
(41:09):
the week off, but we're going todrop an extra episode this week
.
So either tomorrow or Wednesdayprobably tomorrow we'll get a
second episode, the follow-upepisode to this one, and we'll
drop that and we'll continuethis conversation.
I want it to help you,encourage you and strengthen you
not to give up.
Pray for our staff, these youngmen and young women who've
(41:30):
committed their lives to thisministry and to the Lord for
this, in this specific context,for the next few months, that
God would change lives at SWO.
Also, in tomorrow's follow upepisode, I'm going to give you
some updates on some excitingthings going on here at SWO.
Um, so, instead of we'll seeyou next week, we'll see you
back here tomorrow, lord willing.
Thanks again for tuning in.
It means a lot.
(41:51):
Your support means so much tous and we couldn't do this
without you.
Pray, this is a blessing to you.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
God bless.
Thanks for listening to.
No Sanity Required.
Please take a moment tosubscribe and leave a rating.
It really helps.
Visit us at sw outfitterscom tosee all of our programming and
resources and we'll see you nextweek on no sanity required.
Hey everybody, welcome to no Sanity Required.
I want to talk today about goshman.
This feels like a broken recordright now, I know, but I feel
like this is a topic or an issuethat we keep coming back to
because it's so important, andI'll tell you why it's so fresh
on my mind right now.
We're coming out of our weekendof staff orientation and I want
(00:24):
to talk about call itdeconstruction, call it apostasy
, call it turning away, whatever.
I want to reverse the emphasisand place the emphasis on let's
talk about finishing strong.
Let's talk about staying thecourse.
Let's talk about keeping yourhand on the plow.
Let's talk about not lookingback and remaining fit for the
(00:46):
kingdom of God.
Let's talk about fixing youreyes on Jesus.
Let's talk about one foot infront of the other Christianity.
Let's talk about the fight, thegrind.
How do we do it and do it well.
How do we do it?
And not fall away, turn away,drift away, walk away, develop
(01:06):
an apostate heart or mind?
I don't think it happensovernight when people reject and
abandon a faith that they onceprofessed.
Many of you that are listeningto this podcast today profess
faith in Jesus Christ and, sadlyand with a broken heart, I
would say that you're going toturn away.
(01:28):
You're going to reject thefaith and walk away at some
point.
I don't want to say many, but Iknow there's somebody listening
to this that's going to.
I also believe I could pleadwith you, based on the
principles we're going to lookat today, to implement these
things and to heed the warningsand to fortify the defenses and
(01:50):
to build an offensive machine ofthe Christian faith where
you're moving forward on theadvance constantly.
How do we safeguard ourselfagainst apostasy?
And we're going to look at itthrough the lens of a guy named
Demas.
Demas was a New Testamentfigure who was a teammate of the
Apostle Paul.
And we're also going to do itin light of the fact that we've
(02:11):
just come through our stafforientation weekend and there's
a couple hundred folks that aregoing to serve at Snowbird
Wilderness Outfitters thisupcoming summer and we're going
to do everything in our power toequip them and strengthen them
for the journey, not just forthe summer, but for the journey
of life, 10, 20, 30 years fromnow, that they stay faithful,
(02:32):
and I want that to be anencouragement to you.
And I also want to talk to you alittle bit about our summer
staff program, differentprograms that we offer.
I want to talk about theupcoming Respond event, in case
you are interested inparticipating in that, some
things that we've got coming up,and I want to talk to you,
(02:52):
introduce you to a program atSnowbird called the Element Team
.
So a lot in today's episode.
That's a lengthy intro, butlet's get into it.
Welcome again to no SanityRequired.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Welcome to no Sanity Required from the Ministry of
Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
A podcast about the Bible culture and stories from
around the globe.
Well, we've just come throughthis past weekend, our 2024
Summer Staff Orientation Weekend, and what that is.
We do this because years ago werealized we had a pretty high
attrition rate.
We would say we had 100 folkscommitted to come work on our
(03:41):
summer team and this was earlierdays, so this was back when
that summer team was probably 50people.
So say, we had 50 people comingand we would have five people
quit during the first week ofstaff training, or the, the, the
days leading up to stafftraining and the and the first
week of staff training.
And it was because it wasoverwhelming to them and the
(04:04):
first week of staff training.
And it was because it wasoverwhelming to them.
And so maybe 15 years ago forsure, 12 years ago, I think,
probably 15 years ago we starteddoing a staff orientation
weekend which is an early tomid-April weekend Try to do it
early in April, early Aprilweekend where staff comes in,
(04:25):
they're here on a Friday nightall day Saturday and then
they're done, they leave Sundaymorning, they go back to school
or home or whatever, and I'd say90, we have a 90 to 95%
participation and they'reawesome.
They're awesome young men andwomen, um, and it gives us a
chance to meet them in personbecause they're coming from all
(04:45):
over the country.
We got kids coming this summerfrom overseas, we got kids from
the mission field.
We've got kids from as farsouth as the bottom end of
Florida, as far west as oh, I'mgoing to misquote it, I don't
know how far west we go thisyear.
Last year, I think the farthestWest was Texas, which is not
(05:07):
that far West, um, and it wasEast Texas, but sometimes, you
know, we're all the way to theWest coast, um, as far North as
Canada, which is very North.
Um got folks from all over, butanyway, they come in and this
team that we've assembled willbe.
Their ages will range 17 to 25.
(05:31):
Our element team, which we'regoing to talk about here in just
a little bit and we're going tohighlight in a future episode,
our element team is ourleadership mentorship, next
generation team, which is andthe T, I think, actually stands
for training, leadershipmentorship, next gen training Um
, I think gosh y'all, I shouldknow this.
(05:51):
I'm the one that, uh, it's beena long morning, by the way, um,
and a long week and weekendover the last about eight or
nine days, so, um, but theelement team is our.
It used to be called servantteam.
It's high school program.
These kids are most of them arejuniors and seniors in high
school and they come and spendthe summer with us in a
(06:14):
intensive discipleshipleadership training program.
It is, it is the number one umpipeline for folks to come into
our leadership Institute, whichis our year round college
program, our, our leadershipInstitute, which is our year
round college program, our FTthree program, which is a
three-year commitment to workand to have a, a, a paid
internship here, um, andhonestly, um, a high, a high
(06:38):
percentage pipeline intofull-time staff positions here.
So element programs, awesome,um, awesome.
There'll be 40 of those kids,20 guys, 20 gals, and then two
times that many folks will be,about double that many more will
be on our summer staff.
So all that to say, with ourinstitute, our element team, our
(06:59):
summer staff, college age kidslike I mean we got I don't have
a number in front of me, butthere's 150 summer folks on all
hands on deck kind of every day,and then another 50 that are in
and out of the day-to-day.
So it's a big operation and I'mthankful that the Lord has
given us a desire to train theseyoung men and young women in a
(07:25):
very intentional way, and thisgoes back to you know.
We started doing thisorientation weekend to get them
in here so they could meet eachother face-to-face.
We all come together.
Like I said, 90% of the folkswill be here.
It's a strategic weekend with alot of personal interaction
among and between staff membersand then they go back, finish
(07:46):
their semester in about it'sabout six weeks five, six weeks
and they come back for atwo-week staff training.
The camp that I worked at beforewe started SWO.
I'd worked in or at anassociation with two different
camps and I'd actuallyvolunteered at another one for a
week.
So I had three different campexperiences, ranging from a
(08:07):
couple of weeks up to becausethe one I worked at for a week.
I did that twice, so rangingfrom a couple weeks up to,
worked at one for a couple yearsand one for three years, and
what I learned when we werethere that became an early
snowbird priority was that thestaff weren't being trained real
(08:27):
effectively.
Uh, I felt like what wouldhappen is that staff would be
hired, selected, whatever, uh,then they would be brought in
about three days before campstarted, maybe a week, maybe a
week, but that week would bespent in some training, but
mainly like we would do a lot ofwork projects.
(08:49):
So, like I remember having kidscome in five days before camp
started and we would do half ofthat time will be spent in
actual like preparation forstudents and the other half will
be spent like picking up sticks, picking up trash, weed eating,
mowing, re, remulching stufflike that.
Well, we don't do that here.
We've got a team that does thatyear round.
(09:10):
We're working on that stuff.
If you've been to swo in thelast four years, you're one of
the people that's probably madea comment to us about just how
beautiful the place looks, whata phenomenal facility it is, how
awesome.
It's just awesome.
Our team keeps this placelooking so good and we just came
through the cherry blossoms alljust peaked and it was
(09:33):
phenomenal.
Of course, now, old man, winterhas breathed back on us and
we're freezing again, but we'vehad some spring weather.
It's a beautiful time of year.
This place is beautiful.
It's an incredible facility.
We don't need our 150 summerteam to come in and weed, eat
and pick up sticks.
We need them to come in.
So we're going to do anorientation weekend and two full
(09:56):
weeks of intensive leadershiptraining, theological training,
hands-on ministry training,building community.
So if you're working andserving in any capacity at SWO
and many of our listeners arealum you know that we put a lot
into that.
We were in a two-hour meetingthis morning walking through the
(10:17):
schedule for week one of ourstaff training in May.
Week one of two weeks and everyday is a maximized use of time
where we're training.
Again, we work on leadershipdevelopment, we work on
theological training anddevelopment discipleship, and
then we teach them publiccommunication skills, how to
(10:41):
interact, how to be professional.
All of that there's a lot thatgoes into our training and then
an intensive discipleshipprogram that continues through
the summer.
We invest in our summer staff.
We invest in our summer staffin such a way that we believe
they are, um, if we're, if we'reinvesting in their spiritual
(11:04):
development and they're beingdiscipled, well then the
overflow of that and thereadiness that comes with that
is going to equip them andprepare them to do an effective
job of job of ministering tostudents.
So what that looks like is wedon't spend uh, we don't spend
the majority of our timetraining them on how to be a
counselor.
We teach them how to love theword of God, study it, surrender
(11:27):
to it, how to live in communityand accountability with other
believers.
How to, how to, out of theoverflow of what God's doing in
your life, do ministry there.
How to have your identity foundin Christ, not in the fact that
you're a summer staff member ora river guide or whatever, but
to know who you are in Christand then train and equip, train
and equip, train and equip.
(11:48):
And that continues all summerthrough our weekly worship time
together, our leadershipdevelopment each week, our
community groups, our fire teams.
These are all different facetsof how.
So if a guy comes in here, agal comes in here and spends 12
weeks with us, they'll gothrough a two, two and a half
day orientation, a two weektraining, a weekly time of
(12:11):
worship and fellowship that'sexclusive to our staff, daily
fire team meetings with theirsmall group of four people and
then weekly community groupmeetings, which is two to four
fire teams meeting together.
There's a lot of personaldevelopment that's available and
a lot of emphasis put on thatfor our staff.
(12:32):
This is the team that we'rethen going to minister to
students with when the studentsshow up to students with.
When the students show up, ourfull-time team sees our young
staff, our 17, 18 to 25-year-oldstaff.
We see them as our number onepriority in terms of
discipleship, and then out ofthat they do the bulk of the
(12:52):
ministry to the students thatcome.
All of that being said, and yetI could make a list right now
and call names out loud ofpeople who have been through
that, served here with highhonor and regard and integrity,
have been speakers, leaders,missionaries that are no longer
walking with Jesus.
How does that happen?
(13:13):
How tell me, how does thathappen?
I don't know that I can make itmake sense, but I am going to
show you scripturally why ithappens.
So thanks for tuning in andlistening.
Um, I want to.
I want to.
I want to get into this heavy,heavy conversation, um, talking
about, uh, how to stay faithful,and I want to use it, uh, use
(13:36):
the life of this man, demas.
We'll go beyond the flannelgraph.
We'll look at the life of Demas, we'll learn some lessons and
hopefully it'll give youstrength for your own journey.
Strength of grip to hold theplow I'm excited.
I've been working on my gripstrength because I had a pulled
tendon in my right hand, a torntendon, a flexor tendon in one
(13:59):
of my fingers, and and and likefrustrated because it it affects
my grip.
So, being very intentional totry to build that the grip
stronger in that hand.
And in doing that it's turnedinto some studies I've done on
on people that are like intothings like arm wrestling or
gymnastics, where these peoplethat have freakishly strong
(14:21):
grips, how do you, how do youcreate a stronger there's?
There's this thing called ricebucket training and I can tell
you it's intense.
I'm loving that and I and I doa lot of hang training where I
just hang from a bar for severalminutes not all at one time,
maybe a minute at a time, forfour or five reps and different
things like that.
And building up that strength.
(14:42):
How do we build up the gripstrength of the believer so that
they might, when the scripturesays, hold fast or keep your
hand to the plow or take hold ofthe eternal life, to what
you've been called?
What does spiritual gripstrength look like?
I want to consider that today.
So I want to start byintroducing you to this guy
(15:02):
named Demas.
Now, in introducing you to thisguy, demas, I got to tell you.
This is just me.
A lot of people say they likethis NSR podcast because it
feels very conversational.
So I'm just going to tell you,every time I hear the word, the
name demas, or read it, I thinkof the word dumas from.
(15:25):
Not many of our listeners aregoing to know this, but there
was a.
There was a band in the 90scalled the kentucky headhunters.
This was the early 90s, I thinkmaybe mid 90s.
So when I hear the name demas Ithink of Dumas Walker, and it's
funny because I'm sure Maddiedoes not know who Dumas Walker
(15:45):
is.
She edits these podcasts and wealways have fun conversation
afterwards and it's like I agemyself a lot of times.
But the Kentucky Headhunterswere wild men.
I mean, these guys came outwhen, you know, in the late 80s,
country music was kind ofgetting reignited.
(16:08):
I mean you had Randy Travis.
George Strait was hitting thetop of the charts, garth Brooks
came out like 89.
And then, going into the 90ss,you had this real country
western.
I mean it was a.
It was a strong genre that hada very defined sound.
That's when brooks and dunncame on the scene.
If you're a country music fanwhich don't get me started on
(16:31):
modern country music.
It's just, I don't even want totalk about it because I,
because I don't want to go there.
But it was like the heyday in mymind of country music and all
of a sudden these guys come out,the Kentucky headhunters.
And those dudes were like, theyhad the feel of like a 70
Southern rock band.
They had the look of likeLeonard Skinner, the almond
(16:54):
brothers, and they were crazyand they sung this song.
And they were crazy and theysung this song.
It was called, uh, I think itwas called let's all go down to
doomless walkers.
I think is how it went.
That's what it was called man,that's when music was what it
(17:20):
was supposed to be.
These guys look like they workat Snowbird Slaw burger fries
and a bottle of ski down atDumas Walker's let's go.
I can go there right now.
That's about as good as goingto the burger basket in Andrews,
north Carolina.
(17:41):
So I don't know if you rememberthat, but, um, call it stupid,
funny, crazy, whatever it isabout my brain, but the way my
brain works, every time I seethe word, the name Demas, I
think Dumas and then I think ofDumas Walker.
Now I also tell you this uh, mygranddad used to call me Dumas,
and I'll let you figure outwhat that meant.
(18:01):
Uh, when I did something stupidas a, as a teenager, when I
would do something stupid, he'dcall me Dumas, and uh, that's.
That's another thing too.
But anyway, this guy Demas is,is mentioned at the best I can
tell Demas has mentioned threetimes in scripture.
Mentioned at the best I cantell Demas has mentioned three
times in scripture.
(18:21):
And when you talk about somebodywho the modern word right now
that we use as deconstruction,you know, we, every few weeks we
do an episode, we, we we coverthis topic, we talk about it, we
talk about progressiveChristianity, we talk about
deconstruction, talk aboutprominent people, primarily out
of the contemporary Christianmusic world, but there's also
(18:43):
some pastors, teachers, writers,authors that have kind of gone
the path of what's calledprogressive Christianity.
The Bible just called itapostasy, and we're going to get
into some of the other wordsthe scripture used fall away,
walk away, turn away.
But apostasy was the main ideaand I I want to use this guy,
(19:06):
demas, as an example because, um, I'm I'm talking and looking
something up right here, so bearwith me because I know some of
you can do that, um, and some ofyou can't.
I cannot Um, but I was lookingup the the um American heritage
dictionary, um of the Englishlanguage.
(19:28):
This is the definition of, of,of apostate, and apostate is one
who has abandoned one'sreligious faith.
And then it goes on and says orabandon a political party once
principles are a cause, and onewho has forsaken the faith
principles of which he beforeadhered, has forsaken or
perverted one religion foranother, or who has renounced
(19:53):
his clerical profession.
Now, that's the seculardefinition of apostate or
apostasy.
But that fits with what theScripture teaches.
And we just, you know, wepackage things differently in
our language sometimes, andsometimes I think, we dumb
things down or we try to make itsound less, you know, not sound
(20:15):
as bad as it really is.
But with this, I think you know, when we refer to progressive,
progressive Christianity ordeconstruction, I don't have a
problem using those wordsbecause it gives us some modern
cultural context.
We know what we're talking about, but in the biblical sense it
was.
It's apostasy, it's abandoningof the religious principles and
faith that you have committedyour life to and adhered to.
(20:36):
So for us, the profession ofour faith is that Jesus is Lord.
If you want to pare everythingdown, to simplify, what is the
shortest statement you can maketo declare the Christian faith
and your belief in Jesus?
It would be to say Jesus isLord.
What is the profession of yourfaith?
(20:58):
Jesus is Lord.
What is the declaration of yourfaith?
Jesus is Lord.
What is the profession of yourfaith?
Jesus is Lord.
What is the declaration of yourfaith?
Jesus is Lord.
What is the proclamation ofyour faith?
Jesus is Lord?
As if to call people to thatproclamation.
And so, when we proclaim Christas Lord, we're recognizing
several things about him.
We're recognizing that he isGod in the flesh.
(21:20):
We're recognizing that he wasborn of a virgin, that he was
sinless.
We're recognizing that he isthe judge, the soon and coming
king.
We're recognizing that he wasborn of a virgin, that he lived
a sinless life, that he wastruly God and truly man, that he
was conceived in that virgin'swomb of the Holy Spirit a
supernatural conception but thatshe was purely human, she was
(21:46):
just human flesh.
And that God brought this Jesusas the second Adam, who would
be the representative of all whowould believe in him.
Adam, the first Adam in thegarden, is our representative.
He represents the human race,and so, in his representation of
the human race.
When he failed and he sinned,he brought us into a condemned
(22:10):
state.
So we're born into sin.
Jesus is the second Adam, andthat he's our second
representative.
And if we will receive hisrepresentation, we receive his
righteousness by confessing himas Lord, and in that that is an
act of repentance and confessionand faith.
And Jesus saves us.
And so the simplest way todefine or describe or explain
(22:34):
what a Christian is, it'ssomeone whose confession is that
Jesus is Lord, he's Lord, he'sLord, he's God, he's Yahweh,
he's the Savior, he's the onewho came to condemn sin in the
flesh by becoming sin for us.
He condemned sin in the fleshand put it to death and
triumphed over it.
So Demas had made thatprofession.
This guy Demas had made thatprofession.
(22:56):
The first two times we see him,there might be a little
variation on how he's mentionedand he's mentioned in Paul's
letters to uh um, philemon andthe Colossians.
Now his letter to Philemon umis if.
If you're familiar with thescripture, it was a letter that
(23:17):
he wrote to a specific person.
But if you look in commentaries, colossians and Philemon are
always together, so they'realmost always going to be in a
shared commentary, and one ofthe reasons is Philemon is such
(23:37):
a short, I'm trying to turn toit here.
Such a short book, it's one page, it's 25 verses.
So it's like Jude, um Paul, aprisoner of Christ Jesus, and
Timothy, our brother.
So this is from Paul andTimothy to Philemon, our dear
friend and coworker.
So he's writing this letter tothis guy, um, called Philemon.
(24:00):
Now, um Philemon, at the end ofthis letter and he's writing
the letter, it's an appeal to uh, from one friend to another,
both co-laborers for the gospel.
It's appeal about a guy who wasa runaway slave.
It's a.
It's a fascinating story.
But at the end of this briefletter, um, paul says to
Philemon um, mark, aristarchus,demas, here's our guy, here's
(24:26):
our boy, demas and Luke, mycoworkers, we greet you, we send
you greetings, um, and thenEpaphras, my fellow prisoner in
Christ, sends you greetings, andthen Epaphras, my fellow
prisoner in Christ, sends yougreetings.
The grace of the Lord, jesusChrist, be with you.
So Demas is named among Paul'sco-workers.
So this team, this ministryteam, this missionary team, paul
(24:49):
is a part of you got Mark, whois a stalwart of the Christian
faith in the early church, a guynamed Aristarchus, a guy named
Demas and then Luke, who wasPaul's stenographer, he was his
biographer, he was his personalphysician and he traveled with
(25:14):
Paul and he's known for writingthe books of Luke, the Gospel of
Luke and the Book of Acts,which comprise the bulk of like
the largest percentage of theNew Testament of any one writer.
And so this is the company thatDemas is in.
So in my context it's likeDemas would be like someone who
had worked at Snowbird on summer.
Staff had then become a smallgroup, a community group leader,
a fire team leader.
They'd stayed in our institute,our internship, they'd gone to
(25:36):
the missionary field.
We have a young lady that livedwith us and served on the
mission field for a couple years.
After she lived with us for ayear, she labored and served and
worked at Snowbird and did sofaithfully for several years and
she is no longer walking withJesus.
Demas is a guy that was on theteam.
(25:57):
He was there, he was getting itdone and he was called a
coworker.
Then in Colossians, chapter four, and these two letters are
written real close together, soyou got kind of the same team,
same dynamic.
Both of them were written inthe same year.
Most, most folks believe umColossians, chapter four, verse
14, it says Luke, the dearlyloved physician, and Demas send
(26:23):
you greetings.
So Paul, writing this letter tothe Colossians, he's mentioned
Aristarchus, his fellow prisoner.
He's mentioned Mark.
He says I mean, listen to thisin his final greetings, tychicus
, our dearly beloved brother,faithful minister and fellow
servant in the Lord, will tellyou all the news about me.
I've sent him to you for thispurpose.
(26:44):
So this guy, tychicus, wasbringing the message of Paul to
the Colossians, the church atColossae.
I've sent him to you for thisvery purpose, so that you may
know how we are and so that hemay encourage your hearts.
He is coming with Onesimus, afaithful and dearly loved
brother, who is one of you.
That Onesimus story isfascinating.
(27:10):
That's tied into that otherletter to Philemon.
Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, send you his greetings, as
does Mark, barnabas' cousin,welcome him.
So does Jesus called Justice.
These alone of the circumcisedare co-workers of the kingdom of
God.
So these were Jewish brothers,converts.
Epaphras, who is one of you, aservant of Christ Jesus, sends
you his greetings.
He's also wrestling for you inhis prayers so that you can
stand mature and fully assuredin everything God wills for our
(27:33):
testimony.
So he's saying all these things.
Now I might be reading intothis a little bit, but I want to
tell you where my imaginationgoes.
Here he's talking about allthese people in such endearing
terms.
He goes here, he's talkingabout all these people in such
endearing terms.
He gets down and he says Itestify about him that he works
hard for you, for those inLaodicea and for those in
(27:53):
Hierapolis.
Luke the dearly loved physician.
He's using these words ofendearment with all these guys.
And then he says and Demas sendyou his greetings.
So it's almost like in Philemon.
He calls him a coworker andnames him alongside these other
guys.
Then he gets to Colossians, andI don't know which one came
first, so I might be off here,but in the Colossian letter he's
(28:14):
like man, this guy is in prisonwith me.
This dude has been faithful andwelcomed this guy because he
has a word from the Lord.
And boom, boom, boom, boom,boom.
And all of a sudden he gets toDemas and he just says his name.
And so it's almost like thisguy's here, but there seems to
be something different.
Even in the way he's.
He's, you know, introduced orperceived, I don't know, but at
(28:35):
any rate he's on the team andhe's called a coworker.
And then Paul's last letter,the last thing that he writes in
his life and ministry is 2Timothy.
And at the end of 2 Timothy,listen to what he says.
It's crazy.
So, for context, he's in prison, he's in a jail and he's
(28:57):
writing this letter to Timothyand he's asking for some things
to be brought with him.
And he says only Luke is withme, bring Mark with him.
And he says only Luke is withme, bring Mark with you.
So he's asking him, he's askingTimothy to come see him and
bring Mark, for he's useful inthe ministry.
I have sent Tychicus to Ephesuswhen you come, bring the cloak
I left in Troas with Carpus.
So at the end of Paul's lifehe's putting his house in order.
(29:19):
He's asking for a coat, becauseit's really cold in this jail,
this prison that he's in thisRoman prison, as well as the
scrolls, especially theparchments.
He's like bring me my copies ofthe scriptures and commentaries
.
Alexander the coppersmith didgreat harm to me.
The Lord will repay himaccording to his works.
(29:39):
Watch out for him yourself,because he strongly opposed our
words.
So he's like this guy,alexander, he did me harm, watch
out.
So he gives us a warning.
And this is where this is whereI don't have a problem naming
names.
You know like in the last fewepisodes I've named some names
of people.
I don't have a problem withthat because Paul did it.
(30:00):
Now I want to be careful thatyou don't just throw names
around flippantly.
But there are times insituations where someone might
need to be identified as hey,here's a warning against this
person, especially if they're afalse teacher.
And so he's given all of theseinstructions on hey, here's how
(30:22):
you can minister to me here inthe end.
But before all of that, what hehad said to Timothy in second
Timothy four nine, he says makeevery effort to come to me soon.
He's like Timothy, I need youto come to me because Demas has
deserted me since he loved thispresent world and has gone to
Thessalonica.
And has gone to ThessalonicaNow.
(30:43):
This is intense because whatthat means it's like he's saying
he quit because he's in lovewith this world.
Another way would be like, ifyou really study the way that's
(31:04):
worded in the original Greeklanguage, it was like not only
was he saying he loves thisworld.
But it's like, um, you know, alot of y'all know that I love to
read um, the new livingtranslation.
Um, in there it says uh, demasloves the things of this life.
He loves the things of thislife.
I don't know his situationexactly, but he loved what the
(31:27):
world offered and what this lifecould afford him, more than
that which had eternalsignificance.
Because, because he loved thisworld, he has deserted me and
gone to Thessalonica.
The wording in the Greek meanshe literally that he abandoned
Paul in his greatest time ofneed.
So it's not just he gotdisinterested and he just kind
(31:50):
of drifted away, it's heabandoned me when I needed him
the most and it was anintentional abandonment.
The Apostle Paul, he's inprison, he's going to face the
death sentence, and then Demasis like I'm out, I'm out.
He left in the moment ofpersecution.
And I think that's um, that'simportant to understand about
(32:11):
this guy and how we relate thisto people who fall into this
same trap, which is what we'regoing to talk about.
And I want to give you somethoughts from Demas's story on
why people, first and foremost,will abandon the faith, and I'm
going to do this.
We're going to have to comeback with a second part.
(32:32):
I'm going to do a second partof this, but for today I just
want to give you one main reasonwhy Demas turned away, and that
you might be warned not to letthat same thing lure you away.
And it's because it says hedeserted me since he loved this
present world.
He loved this present world, heloved the things of this world.
(32:55):
It reminds me of so Demas'reason for turning away was a
love for what the world had tooffer, was a love for what the
world had to offer.
The reason listen to me, nsrthe reason people turn away from
the faith is first and foremostbecause there's something more
alluring in what the worldoffers than in what Jesus offers
(33:19):
in an eternal perspective.
There's something in the hereand the now.
It could be an ideology thatwould elevate you in this day
and age.
It could be an experience orrelationship, I don't know, but
it's something the world isoffering Now.
The scripture speaks to this.
(33:40):
This first John, um.
First John, chapter two, versusuh.
Give me a second.
First John two, verses 15.
Um, and he actually go through17,.
Um, uh, first John two.
15 says do not love the worldor the things in the world.
If anyone loves the world, thelove of the father is not in him
.
So it's important to understandUm, okay, if, if you love the
(34:05):
world, then you lack the love ofthe Father.
That's pretty scary to thinkabout, like self-test Do I love
the world?
Do not love the world or thethings in the world?
If anyone loves the world, thelove of the Father is not in him
.
For everything in the world thelust of the flesh, the lust of
the eyes and the pride in one'spossessions is not from the
Father, but it's from the world.
And the world with its lust ispassing away, but the one who
(34:27):
does the will of God remainsforever.
What Demas had fallen victim toand I don't want to use the
word victim, but what he hadbeen deceived by in his own
flesh, in his own minds, mindset, his own mind's eye, is that
the world offered him somethinggreater than what the Lord
offered him.
It says he was in love with thepresent world, and I think that
(34:51):
this is worth noting.
People are often influenced bythe latest movement, the latest
ideology, but the thing is,those movements and ideologies,
they, they, eventually they,they die off, they die out, or
or they might shift and go in adifferent direction.
Um, there's even, you know,there's evidence of this just in
(35:15):
in in our lifetimes.
There was a movement called theemergent church in the nineties
and two thousands um that diedoff but then it's reared back up
.
It just looks different.
This whole progressiveChristianity, this movement of
progressive Christianity it'srooted in the emergent church
movement of the 90s and early2000s.
Think of recent LGBTQ trends.
(35:38):
They keep moving the goalpostson that.
If you look at the progressivefight for women's rights in the
seventies, the rise of feminism,and now there's tension between
that movement and thetransgender movement.
But it would seem like theywere from working in like, like,
like uh.
Culturally, you know, speakingthey seem to be progressive,
(36:02):
liberal movements, but nowthey're at odds with each other
because the trans movement saysas a man I should be able to
take the rights of a woman.
It's just, it gets twisted.
There's no principled,immovable standard.
You can never keep up with theworld's ideologies and movements
.
That's all I'm getting at.
You can't keep up with theworld's.
So why fall in love with theworld in terms of its ideologies
(36:25):
when those ideologies are goingto change?
Enlightenment, modernism,post-modernism,
post-post-modernism?
It just constantly changes theteachings of Friedrich Nietzsche
, the teachings of Nietzsche andMarx.
Karl Marx defined philosophicalthought in Europe in the late
1800s through the 1900s.
(36:47):
At the center of the teachingsof Nietzsche and you might have
heard Nietzsche's guy that saidGod is dead.
And then Marx was basically thefather of modern socialist and
communist movements.
Lenin and Stalin were studentsof Marx.
I think, to simplify it, thatmight be an oversimplification,
but we're on solid enoughfooting.
(37:07):
The ideology was there.
But at the center of theseteachings is the idea that God
is dead and that science andphilosophy and technology have
moved beyond the need to believein God.
That's why in the Soviet Unionso many Christians were
butchered and murdered and putin prison camps all through the
Cold War.
In the Soviet Union so manyChristians were butchered and
murdered and put in prison campsall through the Cold War.
In the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s.
(37:30):
Christians were persecutedgreatly in communist Soviet
Union.
Which is why it's crazy whenyoung kids now are saying oh,
communism's good.
Yeah, you don't know, you'venever been around it, you don't
realize it.
But it's brutal because youremove God and now there has to
be some moral law giver andmoral law standard and so the
those men and movement um diedoff.
(37:54):
You know that movement, the mendied, marx died, nietzsche died
and then soviet unioneventually died off drastically.
What I'm saying is ideologies ofthe world always move and
change and shift and they're noteverlasting.
But the gospel is still thepower of God that changes people
(38:14):
and cultures.
It's the hope of mankind.
Jesus will never fail.
The gospel will never failbecause Jesus will never change.
The gospel is unchanging, thegospel and the faith that we
proclaim and hold on to and holdfast to is immovable.
That's why Paul could write tothe Corinthians and say in 1
Corinthians 15, 58, and saytherefore, my dear brothers, be
(38:36):
immovable and steadfast andalways abound in the work of the
Lord.
We can be immovable andsteadfast because the gospel we
hold to is immovable andsteadfast.
Because the gospel we hold tois immovable and steadfast
because the God of that gospelis such.
Ultimately, the desire is toteach.
The desire that I would have inteaching young people is that
(38:56):
the gospel is the measure thatwe live by, not the, and that
the gospel is what judgesworldly trends and fads and
ideologies, not the other wayaround.
At the heart of deconstructionor apostasy, people begin to
judge the gospel by the world'strends and standards, and the
(39:16):
reality is the gospel is judgingthe world's trends and
standards.
So, whatever it was that Demasloved about the world and it
could have been sensual pleasure, it could have been, you know
but he loved what this worldoffered.
And so let's not forget that atthe heart and the core of what
drives people away into apostasy, into a falling away, a
(39:40):
drifting away, what it is is alove for the world way, a
drifting away.
What it is is a love for theworld, the world's ideologies,
what the world offers the flesh,what the world promises me.
But the world is passing away,man, it's passing away, but what
I do with God is eternal.
It lasts forever, and so let'sdon't forget that.
(40:02):
Don't forget that Demas isteaching us something here.
Demas's progression was he wasthere, he was a coworker, he was
a part of a team that wasmaking a difference.
If it could happen to him, itcan happen to you and me.
And the answer is don't grabhold of the world's philosophies
.
Don't pursue what the worldoffers.
Hold fast to Jesus.
(40:22):
Don't pursue what the worldoffers.
Hold fast to Jesus.
Hold on to Jesus.
Hold fast to the gospel.
It is unchanging, immovable,unshakable, undeniable,
undefeatable.
The gospel of Jesus Christ willprevail, will always prevail.
Don't turn back, don't lookback, don't take your hand off
the plow.
Lock it down with a death gripand hold fast to the faith that
(40:47):
we contend for.
Don't let go of Jesus and knowthat Jesus ain't letting go of
you.
He's not going to turn youloose.
Sit tight and we'll finish thisconversation tomorrow.
We're going to take next weekoff.
I'll be on vacation with myfamily next week, going to take
(41:09):
the week off, but we're going todrop an extra episode this week
.
So either tomorrow or Wednesdayprobably tomorrow we'll get a
second episode, the follow-upepisode to this one, and we'll
drop that and we'll continuethis conversation.
I want it to help you,encourage you and strengthen you
not to give up.
Pray for our staff, these youngmen and young women who've
(41:30):
committed their lives to thisministry and to the Lord for
this, in this specific context,for the next few months, that
God would change lives at SWO.
Also, in tomorrow's follow upepisode, I'm going to give you
some updates on some excitingthings going on here at SWO.
Um, so, instead of we'll seeyou next week, we'll see you
back here tomorrow, lord willing.
Thanks again for tuning in.
It means a lot.
(41:51):
Your support means so much tous and we couldn't do this
without you.
Pray, this is a blessing to you.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
God bless.
Thanks for listening to.
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