Get Curious. Be Certain. Ep.16

Sarah Annie Schneider: To the Addicted to God Podcast. I'm Sarah Schneider, and I am Addicted to God. Welcome friends. Addicted to God is a community of imperfect people who are pursuing a deeper, more intimate relationship with God, but they don't know where to start. Addicted to God was inspired by God, but through the stories of hundreds of incarcerated women whom I have mentored over the past decade in my local jail. The more I learned about their addictive behaviors, the more I realized that my zeal to know God was really not that different from their uncontrollable, all consuming desire to use, get, or feel the effects of their drug of choice. So in a nutshell, addicted to God is where we transfer the unhealthy, unsatisfying, and in some cases destructive habits and choices to the freedom and fulfillment that can only come from. From the one and only healthy addiction, and that is God and His amazing word. So join me and let's get addicted to God together. Like I do in most episodes, I want to start with a question. It's a question that I ask incarcerated women and women who attend my Bible studies. The reason I want to bring it up on this podcast is because unequivocally, it is the single most important question that we will. Ever ask ourselves? And that question is, if you died today, how confident are you that you would be in heaven? Zero percent? 10%? Maybe 50 50? 80%? I hear that pretty often. I even hear some people say 99%. And then there are those who are just truthful. I don't know. Friends, if you are saying anything. Other than 100%, then this episode is for you. And you know what? By the end of this episode, I hope you're compelled to share it with everyone you know. Not because I'm looking for ratings or followers or likes. Honestly, from the bottom of my heart, my ask of you to share this is because people's souls depend on this answer. The answer is a heaven or hell outcome. The answer determines where you will spend eternity. Unlike the popular joke that starts with meeting a saint whoever at the pearly gates and you get to negotiate your admission, one of the many advantages of being addicted to God is that you know this isn't in the Bible at all. In reality, Jesus says to the thief on the cross next to him, today you will be with me in paradise. And the famous apostle Paul says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. The important thing is that you have that certainty. We have to know that you know without any doubts, not even a 0.1% doubt. And you know what the scariest thing is about this question? Your very life could be taken from you or someone you love today. I want this question to be hypothetical, to be honest. That gives you time to figure it out. But occasionally, I have one of the girls in jail that tells me, I do know I need Jesus, but I'm just not ready to make him the leader of my life. And I won't debate or beg anyone to surrender their lives to Jesus. That's a transaction that needs to take place between you and God from your heart. To God. But this question comes with urgency. I was speaking to a woman just the other day, and she said, Yeah, it is so good that we all end up in the same place, no matter what you believe. And I cringed. That statement could not be more false. We don't all end up in the same place. The Bible is vividly clear. As a matter of fact, there's this parable in Luke chapter 12. Verses 16 through 21, and I want to read this to you because I think it states this more accurately, because it's right out of the Word of God. So Jesus tells this parable. The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops. Then he said, This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grains. And I'll say to myself, You have plenty of grain stored up for many years. Take life easy, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, You fool, this very night your life will be demanded from you. Then you will get what you have prepared for yourself. This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for their self but is not rich toward God. This parable Powerfully illustrates the suddenness and uncertainty of life. We make plans assuming we have plenty of time, but our lives can be required of us at any moment. Jesus uses it to warn against greed and earthly security while urging people to be rich toward God. ⁓ how useless it is to actually store up our earthly treasures in storage units and closets and basements and drawers, wasting our lives with things that won't mean anything when we're gone. So when somebody tells me I'm just not ready, only God knows the day and the hour that our lives will be taken. And without confidence in knowing where we're going, that day will inevitably come too soon. So this episode isn't just about giving your life to God for the assurance of heaven, but in order to have that confident assurance, you need to know where to start. I have a word that I love to apply when I am reading, studying, or seeking to understand God and His Word. And that word is curious. Curious is such a fun word to me. So many people approach the Bible with this intense drive to make it make sense. And I won't argue that whatever way you want to approach the Bible, there's no wrong way. But for most, like the women I've met in jail, who say, I read it, it doesn't make sense. I want heaven, but I don't know that I can be confident. I want this to be broadened in a way that you get excited about how you approach reading the Bible through curiosity. And I think there's no better example to describe curiosity than thinking about children. When my girls were small and we went to the zoo, they would run up to the cages and yell, Mama, Mama, look, an elephant. Or we would be driving on country roads and they would scream with excitement, I see cows, I see cows. Or when we would capture caterpillars and they watched in awe and wonder how that caterpillar turned into a chrysalis and then eventually a butterfly. They would stare at that jar for days, just waiting for this transformation. And I invite you to approach God's word with similar awe and enthusiasm. So what does curiosity even look like? Well, curiosity is not having all the answers before you start. Curiosity is actually the opposite. It's the willingness to ask questions without feeling embarrassed that you don't already know. Kids are the best at this. They don't walk up to an elephant and say, I probably shouldn't ask you what that trunk is for because I should already know. No, they don't. That's the point. They ask every single question that comes to mind. That is exactly how to approach God's word. And here's the beautiful thing about the Bible: it was written by real people in real places, in real moments of history. And when you start pulling on those threads, when you start asking, who wrote this? Who are they talking to? Why did they say it this way? Suddenly this ancient book turns into an incredibly personal, very practical guide that you'll start to see even yourself in it. It actually will feel like it was written for you and to you. So I want to give you a simple framework. Five questions that you can ask about any passage as you read it in the Bible. Those five questions are number one. Who wrote this passage? Number two, who is it written for? Number three, why was it written? Four, what does it mean, or what is this saying or telling me? And number five, how does it apply to my life? These five questions, that's it. And I promise you, if you take any verse in the Bible and sit with those five questions, You will never read the Bible the same way again. So let me show you what I mean. Let's get curious about John 3 16. This is an incredibly famous verse. And I maybe have met one person in all my years of mentoring in jail that had never even heard of it. I've seen it on bumper stickers. Tim Tebow became famous for having black paint under his eyes. It's been tattooed on people's arms. It's recited in Sunday schools across the world. But I want to bet that for most people who can quote it, they've really maybe never been curious about it. So John 3 16, in case you haven't heard it, says, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son. That whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. If you counted them up, there's 31 words in this verse. And inside those 31 words is the entire reason Jesus came to earth. So let's go back to our curious questions. Who wrote it? The Gospel of John was written by John, one of Jesus' 12 disciples. In fact, John was one of Jesus' three closest friends. He was there for some of the most intimate moments of Jesus' life. He also calls himself the disciple whom Jesus loved. And he's not doing that to brag. It's just stating what he knew to be personally true. John wrote this gospel late in his life, probably around 85 to 90 AD, and this his whole purpose was stating. Just a few chapters later, that these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. That's John 20, 31. So you might be wondering how I know all of this. That is a great question. I love your curiosity. I know this because I read it in the introduction of the book of John. Most Bibles will. Give you an introduction to the book that you are about to read. And the reason it matters is because it brings us into a timeframe when it was written and allows us to put on our imaginations about what it might have been like for this author at the time it was written. And you know what else is neat? Some of these authors have personalities, attributes, and characteristics that you can even recognize in yourself. I'm so sorry, I got sidetracked here for a minute. That is just my addictive. Dependency that shows how exciting the Bible is. It is so rich. You can't get enough of it. So before I move on to the next question for who it was written for, I also want to put in one other really cool resource that I love to listen to each time I open a new book of the Bible. And it's called the Bible Project. Go to YouTube and search for whatever book of the Bible that you want to read and the Bible project. And you will see the most incredible. animation and story of what is going to happen in the book you're about to read. And it really gives you a whole broader understanding and appreciation as you dig in. So back to our curiosity. The curious question who was John 316 written for? It was honestly written for everybody. And that word world is intentional. John didn't write for God so loved the Jews, for God so love good people. No, he wrote the world. That means that women in jail. That means people who have done things they're too ashamed to even say out loud. It's for the shopaholic, workaholic, alcoholic, gambler, foodie, even people with anger issues. I mean, we're talking. This is you, this is me, this is the scope of God's love. And the world means this verse has no borders. This is such great news for all of us. Also proves no one is beyond God's reach and no one is without the ability to have a relationship with Him. A personal, intimate, loving, irreversible guarantee of eternal life. So curiosity question number three. Why was it written? Why did John write this book? John wants us to understand the motive behind Jesus. Why did Jesus come? Not to condemn, not to make us feel guilty. He came because of love. This verse is the heart of the entire gospel. God first loved us. He acted first. He gave first. Before we did anything, before we clean ourselves up, and before we even deserved it, he came. And so curiosity question number four, what does it mean? Every word here is loaded. So let's break it down. So loved. The Greek word is agape, not a friendship kind of love, not a sentimental feeling. Agape type love is a love that chooses to act regardless of how the other person responds. And then he says, his one and only son. This is not a small gift. This is the most costly thing God could have given us. Whoever believes, it goes on to say, not whoever's perfect or whoever has it all figured out or whoever, anything. It's just whoever believes. And the outcome of that. Is shall not perish. There's a real alternative. Perishing is real, but it is not our only option. But have eternal life, not just life after death. We're talking a full, vibrant, abundant life that starts right now. Curiosity question number five: How does this apply to my life? Well, if you have ever questioned whether you are lovable, this verse answers that. God looked at the whole messy broken world, including every dark thing in your story and mine, and he said, I love that world enough to give it everything I have. Your name is in the word whoever, by the way. This verse is a personal invitation, not a general announcement. Do you see what just happened here? We took thirty-one simple words that most people can quote from memory, and we found a treasure map inside of it. That's what curiosity does in the Bible. It turns familiar into life-changing. I promised you something at the top of this episode. I told you that I had hoped by the end of this you would be able to answer the question, if you died today, how confident are you that you would be in heaven? With a hundred percent certainty. And I want to keep that promise. But I also want you to see that the answer is not something I came up with. The answer is in God's word. So let's get curious one more time. First John 5, verses 11 through 13 says, and this is my testimony. God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his son. Whoever has the son has life. Whoever does not have the son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal. eternal life. So that you may know. Not so that you may hope, not so that you may guess on a good day and spiral off on a bad one. So that you may know with complete certainty. So let's do these five questions one more time. Who wrote it? John again, this time in a letter, not a gospel. He was Likely in his 80s or 90s when he wrote this. He had seen everything. He had outlived most every other apostle. And with all of that wisdom and all of that history with Jesus, this is what he chose to write. I want you to know. Who's it for? I write these things so that you may believe in the name of the Son of God. If you believe, Even if that belief is brand new, even if it's fragile, even if you're still figuring it out, what it all means. This verse was directly written for you. And why was it written? Because John knew that the enemy's number one weapon against believers is doubt. We the certainty is based on one thing. Do you have the son? Do you have Jesus? What does that mean? Whoever has the son has life. The son is not a philosophy. He is not a religious system. He is a person. And having him means being in a relationship with him, having said yes to him, having invited him into your life as your Lord and Savior. And if you've done that, the Bible says that you will have eternal life. It is not pending. It is not probationary. It is given. And how does this apply to your life? If you have surrendered your life to Jesus, your answer to that question can and should undeniably be 100%. Not because you're perfect, not because you never struggle, but because your eternity is secured, not by your goodness, but by his. Romans 8, 38 and 39 says nothing can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. If you're somewhere between that 0% and 99% right now, I want to invite you to do something incredibly simple. Just pray wherever you are. You don't need fancy words. You don't need to be in a church building. You don't need even a pastor, a witness, or anyone to tell you what or how to say it. God hears you. God sees you. And God knows what your heart wants and he knows what your heart needs. Just talk to him. Most importantly, he wants you to know that not only is he real, but heaven is a real place. And he made it for you and for me. That's also in John 14. So that's it. That's the transaction. Talk to him. Tell him you need him. Tell him you believe he died for you and rose again. And ask him to be the Lord of your life. And then stay curious. Open your Bible. Start asking questions because that is not the end of your story. That is where the most extraordinary adventure of your life will begin. And trust me, when I say adventure, that's an understatement. So, friends, may I remind you that this is not the end of your story. This is the beginning of your rescue. I'm truly thrilled to have you on the Addicted to God journey with me, learning how to trade every harmful addiction for the one and only addiction that truly satisfies Jesus Christ and his life. Life giving word. If today's episode stirred something in you, would you share it with someone who feels stuck or hopeless? Or you love so much that you want to see them in heaven with you? You never know how God might use it to spark freedom in their life. And I also would wish that we could stay connected. Follow me on Instagram at Sarah Annie underscore author. YouTube, look for me at Sarah Annie Schneider at addicted to God, and please subscribe. Facebook friends, I'm at Sarah Annie Schneider. And my blog is godlygirlfriends.com. If you're listening on Apple or Spotify, take 30 seconds to leave a rating or review. It sincerely does help get this message out to meet reach more people. And I'm always looking for guests. If your life has been genuinely transformed by Jesus, if you have experienced what it means to transfer your addiction to him, I would love to hear your story. Email me at addicted to Godpod at gmail.com. And as we close, remember you're not defined by your pastor's struggles when you transfer your addictions to God.