1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,840 Hey, I'm Matt Brownell. 2 00:00:08,840 --> 00:00:10,480 And I'm Van Owens. 3 00:00:10,480 --> 00:00:12,160 And I'm Tim Adams. 4 00:00:12,160 --> 00:00:18,120 Welcome to Climbing the Mountain, where we dive into the scriptures and discuss themes, 5 00:00:18,120 --> 00:00:21,280 connections, and real life application. 6 00:00:21,280 --> 00:00:24,960 We're kicking off a series here where we're going to examine the Sermon on the Mount and 7 00:00:24,960 --> 00:00:35,840 discuss implications for this teaching for Christians today. 8 00:00:35,840 --> 00:00:36,840 Welcome back. 9 00:00:36,840 --> 00:00:41,040 So we've been diving into treasures in heaven. 10 00:00:41,040 --> 00:00:49,400 And this last time we spent time thinking about generosity and the ways in which we can 11 00:00:49,400 --> 00:00:50,400 be generous. 12 00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:56,280 We opened up ways we can be generous with our finances, with our time, with our judgments, 13 00:00:56,280 --> 00:00:58,840 and realized that there's many other ways. 14 00:00:58,840 --> 00:01:03,800 And encouraged us to think about that deeply as we're moving forward in our lives of what 15 00:01:03,800 --> 00:01:10,920 are the ways that we can have generosity in all of our actions and hearts. 16 00:01:10,920 --> 00:01:18,320 We started talking about light and darkness and thinking about the distinction that Jesus 17 00:01:18,320 --> 00:01:21,240 makes between light and darkness. 18 00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:26,880 And I think we got in the middle of that, but there's much more to say. 19 00:01:26,880 --> 00:01:31,240 And so, Matt, do you mind reading the scripture and then we can jump back into that? 20 00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:35,040 All right, Matthew 6, 19 through 24. 21 00:01:35,040 --> 00:01:40,120 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moths and vermin destroy and 22 00:01:40,120 --> 00:01:42,240 where thieves break in and steal. 23 00:01:42,240 --> 00:01:47,800 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moths and vermin do not destroy and 24 00:01:47,800 --> 00:01:50,800 where thieves do not break in and steal. 25 00:01:50,800 --> 00:01:54,040 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 26 00:01:54,040 --> 00:01:56,080 The eye is the lamp of the body. 27 00:01:56,080 --> 00:01:58,800 If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 28 00:01:58,800 --> 00:02:03,000 But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. 29 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:07,240 If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness? 30 00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:09,280 No one can serve two masters. 31 00:02:09,280 --> 00:02:13,200 Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and 32 00:02:13,200 --> 00:02:14,800 despise the other. 33 00:02:14,800 --> 00:02:18,040 You cannot serve both God and money. 34 00:02:18,040 --> 00:02:21,160 Appreciate it, Matt. 35 00:02:21,160 --> 00:02:25,880 Last time we were talking about the contrast of light and darkness and how would the people 36 00:02:25,880 --> 00:02:34,600 hearing this originally, what would be going through their heads when they heard the, if 37 00:02:34,600 --> 00:02:38,520 your eyes are unhealthy, your body will be full of darkness, or conversely, if your eyes 38 00:02:38,520 --> 00:02:41,720 are healthy, your body will be full of light. 39 00:02:41,720 --> 00:02:46,760 How that would have landed on them, and then we're going to get into how that would land 40 00:02:46,760 --> 00:02:48,920 with us in a little bit. 41 00:02:48,920 --> 00:02:53,680 Well it's hard not to go back to the very beginning, right? 42 00:02:53,680 --> 00:03:01,680 And you know, you've got that moment before when the Spirit of God is still hovering over 43 00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:06,760 things and the work of creation hasn't really gotten underway yet. 44 00:03:06,760 --> 00:03:14,000 And at verse two in Genesis where it says that their earth was without form and void 45 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:17,040 and darkness was over the face of the deep. 46 00:03:17,040 --> 00:03:25,360 And the very first thing that God did was said, let there be light to dispel the darkness. 47 00:03:25,360 --> 00:03:29,560 And I'm not a Hebrew scholar. 48 00:03:29,560 --> 00:03:33,320 I'm not an expert in any way. 49 00:03:33,320 --> 00:03:40,040 But I've read other translations that the words that are translated in many of the translations 50 00:03:40,040 --> 00:03:45,920 that we have today that say the world was without form and void. 51 00:03:45,920 --> 00:03:51,760 Those words are not very emotional to me, but when you look up the original meaning, 52 00:03:51,760 --> 00:03:54,400 it's not like nothingness. 53 00:03:54,400 --> 00:04:02,440 It's like, I've heard a translation that it says the world was welter and waste. 54 00:04:02,440 --> 00:04:10,520 It's sort of a turbulent kind of roiling nothingness. 55 00:04:10,520 --> 00:04:17,440 Like something that's really disturbing, something that is, and it says, and God is 56 00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:20,320 hovering over the face of that. 57 00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:25,480 And it makes me wonder if the Jews didn't think of darkness as the state of things when 58 00:04:25,480 --> 00:04:28,480 God is absent. 59 00:04:28,480 --> 00:04:34,120 And that's something that helps me in my own spiritual life is when I feel that way, when 60 00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:39,440 there is a there is in my gut sometimes this feeling of welter and waste, this feeling 61 00:04:39,440 --> 00:04:43,000 of things are just not, things are just not right. 62 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:44,840 They're not right within me. 63 00:04:44,840 --> 00:04:50,160 Well, that might be because I'm not that he's absent from me, but that I'm absent from 64 00:04:50,160 --> 00:04:51,160 God. 65 00:04:51,160 --> 00:04:53,120 God is absent. 66 00:04:53,120 --> 00:04:59,080 And so I think of darkness as the state of things without God. 67 00:04:59,080 --> 00:05:00,080 Yeah. 68 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:01,080 Wow. 69 00:05:01,080 --> 00:05:02,080 Yeah. 70 00:05:02,080 --> 00:05:06,480 That's kind of what I was thinking in a lot of cases in the Old Testament, light is a 71 00:05:06,480 --> 00:05:11,640 bit of a stand-in for the presence of God and darkness can be a stand-in for the absence 72 00:05:11,640 --> 00:05:13,240 of God. 73 00:05:13,240 --> 00:05:19,160 And if we look at when the Israelites were escaping Egypt, through them into darkness 74 00:05:19,160 --> 00:05:27,680 to keep them, to keep the Israelites safe, he was a pillar of light at one point. 75 00:05:27,680 --> 00:05:35,880 It seems the feel through the Old Testament is that light equals presence of God and darkness 76 00:05:35,880 --> 00:05:40,320 equals absence of God. 77 00:05:40,320 --> 00:05:48,560 And when we talk about the good eyes and the generosity, if our eyes are healthy or good, 78 00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:50,520 our whole body will be full of light. 79 00:05:50,520 --> 00:05:56,760 I mean, what is that actually saying now? 80 00:05:56,760 --> 00:06:00,440 I'm trying to find the scripture. 81 00:06:00,440 --> 00:06:06,840 But when Jesus is talking to the Pharisees, he, I think it's in the one time in Luke, 82 00:06:06,840 --> 00:06:09,240 and he's like ripping into them. 83 00:06:09,240 --> 00:06:14,560 He says like, he's telling them to give alms, to give to the poor. 84 00:06:14,560 --> 00:06:20,320 He says, everything else will be clean for you, and I'll try to find it. 85 00:06:20,320 --> 00:06:24,320 But there's that. 86 00:06:24,320 --> 00:06:29,640 Jesus is making this explicit connection between the generosity that they exhibit and the generosity 87 00:06:29,640 --> 00:06:31,600 and what's going on in their hearts, right? 88 00:06:31,600 --> 00:06:35,440 And how close they actually are to God, because they appear to be close to God, but he's calling 89 00:06:35,440 --> 00:06:38,600 them hypocrites and they're just actors. 90 00:06:38,600 --> 00:06:44,960 So I think that that's a key thing that he's bringing out here too, that there's, when 91 00:06:44,960 --> 00:06:53,560 we are generous, we're actually making space for God to be present in our lives. 92 00:06:53,560 --> 00:07:03,120 I feel challenged by this personally, because Jesus makes very few either or statements, 93 00:07:03,120 --> 00:07:09,080 and he rarely seems to definitively declare something as one or the other. 94 00:07:09,080 --> 00:07:14,160 But it doesn't seem like there's a whole lot of in between here when I read the text. 95 00:07:14,160 --> 00:07:17,280 And in a Jewish world, they had a lot of in-betweens. 96 00:07:17,280 --> 00:07:18,440 They had a lot of nuance. 97 00:07:18,440 --> 00:07:26,200 They didn't view things quite as black and white as we do, or as we tend to. 98 00:07:26,200 --> 00:07:31,500 But he says, if your eyes are good, if you are generous, your whole body will have the 99 00:07:31,500 --> 00:07:34,200 presence of God. 100 00:07:34,200 --> 00:07:40,440 And if you are not, your whole body will not have the presence of God. 101 00:07:40,440 --> 00:07:46,360 It will be the absence, the conspicuous absence of God. 102 00:07:46,360 --> 00:07:54,040 So with that in mind, what are the consequences when we don't see the world generously? 103 00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:55,800 How do we act? 104 00:07:55,800 --> 00:08:01,280 How do we treat people? 105 00:08:01,280 --> 00:08:07,000 If we don't see the world generously, I think the big thing here we risk as a community 106 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:10,680 is not really reflecting God's glory into the world. 107 00:08:10,680 --> 00:08:13,320 We'd fail to be a light to the nations. 108 00:08:13,320 --> 00:08:18,080 If we're stingy, if we recoil from suffering to protect ourselves, if we hold onto this 109 00:08:18,080 --> 00:08:26,240 myth of the self-made man or woman, not realizing that everything we have is a gift, we're just 110 00:08:26,240 --> 00:08:30,400 not going to display our Heavenly Father, who is the most generous being. 111 00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:36,280 We can't sing praise God from whom all blessings flow and then turn around and stiff arm that 112 00:08:36,280 --> 00:08:39,000 person with a need walking up to us. 113 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:40,000 Yeah. 114 00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:51,320 I think that it says in John chapter one that in Jesus the word became flesh. 115 00:08:51,320 --> 00:08:54,720 And I read an interesting quote, I believe from N.T. 116 00:08:54,720 --> 00:09:05,680 Wright where he said that the word still needs to become flesh and that flesh is the church. 117 00:09:05,680 --> 00:09:13,400 And what I think is a consequence of not seeing the world generously is that you can't have 118 00:09:13,400 --> 00:09:15,960 a church. 119 00:09:15,960 --> 00:09:29,280 If your perspective is dark, then you can't be generous enough to be able to live in harmonious 120 00:09:29,280 --> 00:09:33,680 community with anybody. 121 00:09:33,680 --> 00:09:40,000 We all know from being members of the church that the church is far less than perfect, 122 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:47,480 that there's a lot of difficulty, there's a lot of challenge, there's whenever you bring, 123 00:09:47,480 --> 00:09:52,000 Jesus said whenever two or three people come together in my name, there I am also, but 124 00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:59,040 also whenever two or three people come together, there's also the potential for conflict and 125 00:09:59,040 --> 00:10:06,840 mistrust and deceit and all the things that come with our human flesh. 126 00:10:06,840 --> 00:10:14,440 And so if we can't see each other generously, the consequence then is darkness. 127 00:10:14,440 --> 00:10:24,400 And if it's all dark, then you can't have church and then the whole thing falls apart. 128 00:10:24,400 --> 00:10:33,520 If our desire is not to think of the world and to live in the world and to project generosity 129 00:10:33,520 --> 00:10:35,700 into the world. 130 00:10:35,700 --> 00:10:41,320 So I really love both of your responses because you talked about community. 131 00:10:41,320 --> 00:10:46,000 And one of the points I had slightly after that was that a good Jew doesn't view anything 132 00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:48,960 through individualistic eyes. 133 00:10:48,960 --> 00:10:54,720 Jews were not individualistic people, again, painting with a broad brush, but it generally 134 00:10:54,720 --> 00:10:55,720 fits. 135 00:10:55,720 --> 00:10:57,840 They always thought about it in community. 136 00:10:57,840 --> 00:11:04,120 And as Van was talking, I thought about how I would view my judgments of people before 137 00:11:04,120 --> 00:11:09,120 I became a Christian, I viewed people very suspiciously. 138 00:11:09,120 --> 00:11:13,040 You hear a lot of people say, everyone's out to get you. 139 00:11:13,040 --> 00:11:14,040 Everyone's against me. 140 00:11:14,040 --> 00:11:18,480 It's me against the, or it's us against the world or it's me against the world. 141 00:11:18,480 --> 00:11:26,000 And that sort of thinking produces a lack of generosity. 142 00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:33,320 It's hard to view someone, it's hard to judge someone generously when I think every single 143 00:11:33,320 --> 00:11:37,320 person who's walking on the street is out to get me. 144 00:11:37,320 --> 00:11:40,920 You're sort of forced into this corner of thinking that everyone's against you and it 145 00:11:40,920 --> 00:11:44,240 doesn't go super well. 146 00:11:44,240 --> 00:11:51,120 And it's hard to be in community working this out when you're doing that. 147 00:11:51,120 --> 00:11:58,520 And I would also highlight what you guys said about being generous within the community. 148 00:11:58,520 --> 00:12:05,560 Sometimes we can be generous with those outside the community while we are as un-generous 149 00:12:05,560 --> 00:12:08,680 as possible with those inside the community. 150 00:12:08,680 --> 00:12:11,800 How that looks for you, I'm going to let you wrestle with that. 151 00:12:11,800 --> 00:12:14,360 That's a phrase I've used a lot here. 152 00:12:14,360 --> 00:12:18,320 Now, we'll keep using it. 153 00:12:18,320 --> 00:12:23,080 How would we change if we started viewing people generously? 154 00:12:23,080 --> 00:12:28,880 And how would our church change if we started being more generous? 155 00:12:28,880 --> 00:12:31,760 Do you want to take this? 156 00:12:31,760 --> 00:12:41,080 Well, yeah, I think I could kind of link this with the question that just happened before. 157 00:12:41,080 --> 00:12:48,440 We talk a lot in our circle of churches about acts in the picture of the early church. 158 00:12:48,440 --> 00:12:52,320 And one of the incredible pictures there is that there were no needy persons among them, 159 00:12:52,320 --> 00:12:57,920 because people were selling possessions to make sure that they would meet the needs. 160 00:12:57,920 --> 00:12:58,920 There were still problems. 161 00:12:58,920 --> 00:13:03,560 We saw there was issues with the distribution of that generosity. 162 00:13:03,560 --> 00:13:10,320 But there was a lot of generosity that was there, that there was a strong foundation, 163 00:13:10,320 --> 00:13:11,960 which you could work out those additional problems. 164 00:13:11,960 --> 00:13:16,520 You had stuff to give away, and now you have to figure out how to give it away. 165 00:13:16,520 --> 00:13:23,080 But one of the things I was thinking about when we were talking about the generous eye, 166 00:13:23,080 --> 00:13:27,080 I was trying to see, okay, where is that used in the Old Testament? 167 00:13:27,080 --> 00:13:35,640 And one of the places is when it's talking about jubilee and forgiving the debts. 168 00:13:35,640 --> 00:13:45,240 So every seven years, you would forgive a debt that any other Jew had towards you. 169 00:13:45,240 --> 00:13:49,200 And there's an obvious thing that you would do that you would be tempted to do, which 170 00:13:49,200 --> 00:13:56,200 is to not leotain someone something like a year before jubilee. 171 00:13:56,200 --> 00:14:00,520 And that's explicitly talked about in Jeremiah 15, and it says, don't have an evil eye, don't 172 00:14:00,520 --> 00:14:03,400 do that. 173 00:14:03,400 --> 00:14:10,960 And the point is that you actually might suffer a loss on this transaction, which is why you'd 174 00:14:10,960 --> 00:14:12,880 be tempted to not do it. 175 00:14:12,880 --> 00:14:21,600 And yet God is calling His people to still extend the loan, extend the gift to the poor 176 00:14:21,600 --> 00:14:27,000 person in order, and He promises a blessing. 177 00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:35,600 And that is really profound because it forces me to trust in God. 178 00:14:35,600 --> 00:14:41,840 And so if I start viewing other people with a generous mindset, I might be tempted to 179 00:14:41,840 --> 00:14:50,280 not want to do that because it comes at a risk that I could lose something from this. 180 00:14:50,280 --> 00:14:57,880 But what it also will do is that I'll lose the part of myself that is tied to material 181 00:14:57,880 --> 00:15:04,040 things, tied to my wealth, and I will gain the part of myself that is richly trusting 182 00:15:04,040 --> 00:15:10,600 that God is going to provide for me, even if in this particular transaction, this particular 183 00:15:10,600 --> 00:15:14,880 encounter, maybe I lose something of this world. 184 00:15:14,880 --> 00:15:18,280 Yeah, that is beautiful. 185 00:15:18,280 --> 00:15:24,240 I think when I heard this question and really the previous one, it reminded me of James 186 00:15:24,240 --> 00:15:25,240 II. 187 00:15:25,240 --> 00:15:28,680 And I'd love to quote the whole thing for sake of time. 188 00:15:28,680 --> 00:15:35,240 I won't do that, but it's pretty on the mark. 189 00:15:35,240 --> 00:15:40,840 I mean, the whole thrust of it is about not showing favoritism and honoring the poor whom 190 00:15:40,840 --> 00:15:45,120 God has chosen to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He has promised to those 191 00:15:45,120 --> 00:15:46,120 who love Him. 192 00:15:46,120 --> 00:15:50,440 He then asked them, aren't the rich the ones who are exploiting you? 193 00:15:50,440 --> 00:15:55,240 And we're called to actually keep the scripture, love your neighbors yourself. 194 00:15:55,240 --> 00:16:00,200 So if we show favoritism and judge others, we're missing the whole point of the mercy 195 00:16:00,200 --> 00:16:01,760 we've been shown. 196 00:16:01,760 --> 00:16:06,760 And James warns, speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives 197 00:16:06,760 --> 00:16:13,200 freedom because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who's not been merciful. 198 00:16:13,200 --> 00:16:16,800 Then he goes in the classic argument about faith and deeds. 199 00:16:16,800 --> 00:16:21,160 And he uses two examples that are later used in Matthew 6 about someone without clothing 200 00:16:21,160 --> 00:16:24,280 or daily food and he don't do anything to help them. 201 00:16:24,280 --> 00:16:25,280 Coincidence? 202 00:16:25,280 --> 00:16:27,960 I don't think so. 203 00:16:27,960 --> 00:16:33,680 But anyway, this is the type of church I saw when I first came to church, by the way. 204 00:16:33,680 --> 00:16:42,800 I saw people from all different walks of life, socioeconomic, age, race, rich, poor, everything, 205 00:16:42,800 --> 00:16:43,800 old, young. 206 00:16:43,800 --> 00:16:45,760 They knew each other. 207 00:16:45,760 --> 00:16:47,880 They loved each other. 208 00:16:47,880 --> 00:16:51,040 And they quoted the scripture regularly. 209 00:16:51,040 --> 00:16:54,840 I saw that as like, I got to be part of this. 210 00:16:54,840 --> 00:16:57,840 I think that's what family is supposed to be like. 211 00:16:57,840 --> 00:16:58,840 Yeah. 212 00:16:58,840 --> 00:17:05,040 No, I think I really appreciate you saying that because it does bring it back to, we 213 00:17:05,040 --> 00:17:10,800 tend to, and I think you hit on it, even if you didn't say it explicitly, that we tend 214 00:17:10,800 --> 00:17:14,000 to be generous to those that are close to us. 215 00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:19,840 And those that are similar to us, we tend to be generous with. 216 00:17:19,840 --> 00:17:24,200 With Matt and Van, and to a slightly lesser extent, Tim, I've known these guys a long 217 00:17:24,200 --> 00:17:25,400 time. 218 00:17:25,400 --> 00:17:29,680 So I tend to be very charitable in my view of them. 219 00:17:29,680 --> 00:17:31,120 I always presume the best. 220 00:17:31,120 --> 00:17:32,480 I always presume good intentions. 221 00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:33,480 I always presume that. 222 00:17:33,480 --> 00:17:40,000 But with other people, I tend to be very like, a little bit cynical. 223 00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:42,000 Everyone is giving me that, not you. 224 00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:43,680 You're never cynical. 225 00:17:43,680 --> 00:17:46,240 Look. 226 00:17:46,240 --> 00:17:52,760 But I really appreciate what you guys are saying because if we were this generous, if 227 00:17:52,760 --> 00:17:58,800 we were a church that was, that defaulted to being generous, I think we would trust 228 00:17:58,800 --> 00:18:00,800 people a lot more. 229 00:18:00,800 --> 00:18:01,800 That's a good point. 230 00:18:01,800 --> 00:18:05,160 I think we would give people space. 231 00:18:05,160 --> 00:18:07,600 You know, and I think every church struggles with this. 232 00:18:07,600 --> 00:18:12,040 It's not unique to us, but I think we would be more comfortable giving people space to 233 00:18:12,040 --> 00:18:15,480 wrestle through some difficult things. 234 00:18:15,480 --> 00:18:19,600 It can be scary to give people space. 235 00:18:19,600 --> 00:18:22,720 As a parent, it can be scary. 236 00:18:22,720 --> 00:18:25,120 Matt and Vance kids are much older than mine. 237 00:18:25,120 --> 00:18:32,960 It can be very scary to give people space because we act out a fear of what happens 238 00:18:32,960 --> 00:18:38,200 when we give them space, which leads into my next question. 239 00:18:38,200 --> 00:18:45,560 What keeps us both individually and as a collective from being generous? 240 00:18:45,560 --> 00:18:54,280 Well, I, you know, two words came to mind here and in some ways they're the same thing. 241 00:18:54,280 --> 00:18:56,680 To me, it's fear and hatred. 242 00:18:56,680 --> 00:19:04,200 And I think hatred sort of is an outgrowth of fear. 243 00:19:04,200 --> 00:19:12,040 And there's always the thought of what if I was, I was reading a quote by some rich 244 00:19:12,040 --> 00:19:13,040 celebrity. 245 00:19:13,040 --> 00:19:17,640 I don't even remember who it was, somebody that I didn't think that highly of. 246 00:19:17,640 --> 00:19:23,840 But one of the things that he said, he's somebody who started off as poor and became fabulously 247 00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:25,520 wealthy. 248 00:19:25,520 --> 00:19:29,480 And he was talking about how much easier his life was when he was poor. 249 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:35,680 And the one thing that he said is that I live in constant fear of losing it all. 250 00:19:35,680 --> 00:19:38,640 It's in a, it's an, and he said, it's an irrational fear. 251 00:19:38,640 --> 00:19:45,680 It's very unlikely that I'll ever lose all of what I have, but I live in almost constant 252 00:19:45,680 --> 00:19:47,280 fear of that. 253 00:19:47,280 --> 00:19:50,160 And it makes me, and it makes me standoffish. 254 00:19:50,160 --> 00:19:53,160 It makes me not want to get involved with people. 255 00:19:53,160 --> 00:20:00,160 It makes me, and I think that's what we risk by not being generous. 256 00:20:00,160 --> 00:20:06,560 I think just as you were saying, Jim, if you look at the world generously, what you receive, 257 00:20:06,560 --> 00:20:12,240 what you see is you, you kind of, and I think it was Matt who said, you know, you kind of 258 00:20:12,240 --> 00:20:14,200 become what you behold. 259 00:20:14,200 --> 00:20:20,200 If you, if you look at the world generously, then what you feel is generosity. 260 00:20:20,200 --> 00:20:25,320 You feel it coming from the people around you, but you certainly feel it coming from 261 00:20:25,320 --> 00:20:26,880 God. 262 00:20:26,880 --> 00:20:28,840 You feel it all the time. 263 00:20:28,840 --> 00:20:38,040 And if you, if you cut yourself off from that, what begins to in, hinge itself on you is 264 00:20:38,040 --> 00:20:40,600 fear. 265 00:20:40,600 --> 00:20:42,560 What if I lose it? 266 00:20:42,560 --> 00:20:46,760 What if I trust this person and he's not trustworthy? 267 00:20:46,760 --> 00:20:55,240 What if I put myself out there to be this person's friend and she betrays me? 268 00:20:55,240 --> 00:21:02,600 What if, what if, and you start to live in this realm of what ifs and you become paralyzed 269 00:21:02,600 --> 00:21:04,920 and you can't do anything. 270 00:21:04,920 --> 00:21:11,360 And when you're paralyzed and you can't do anything, fear fills you. 271 00:21:11,360 --> 00:21:13,040 And what's fear filled you? 272 00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:15,440 Hatred can't be far behind it. 273 00:21:15,440 --> 00:21:16,440 Right. 274 00:21:16,440 --> 00:21:17,440 Yeah. 275 00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:18,440 Yeah. 276 00:21:18,440 --> 00:21:22,760 It far focuses not Jesus who's the solid rock, everything else is shifting sand. 277 00:21:22,760 --> 00:21:25,720 That's where the, I think the next section comes in with anxiety too. 278 00:21:25,720 --> 00:21:32,760 I think this is, this, when I'm not generous, it's usually, I've taken my eyes off Jesus 279 00:21:32,760 --> 00:21:39,280 and I've focused on stuff in the world and I'm getting my security from there, which 280 00:21:39,280 --> 00:21:43,640 is not a good idea. 281 00:21:43,640 --> 00:21:50,480 And when I was thinking about this with light and darkness, it reminded me of, of something 282 00:21:50,480 --> 00:21:55,680 which is, I can't believe this is now 40 years ago, but I saw, I remember seeing Return 283 00:21:55,680 --> 00:21:58,920 of the Jedi in the theater when I was living in California. 284 00:21:58,920 --> 00:22:02,360 And anytime you go, you're like in a theater and you go from the dark into the light, you're 285 00:22:02,360 --> 00:22:04,720 like, oh, that's, that's really light. 286 00:22:04,720 --> 00:22:07,280 And that's drawing. 287 00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:10,280 And no, I like the, I like the dark. 288 00:22:10,280 --> 00:22:12,360 Don't, don't show me the light. 289 00:22:12,360 --> 00:22:13,360 No. 290 00:22:13,360 --> 00:22:18,560 And, you know, maybe relating to the movie Han coming out of the carbonite, he's like 291 00:22:18,560 --> 00:22:24,320 all stumbling around, needs, you know, needs help to shoot Bob. 292 00:22:24,320 --> 00:22:31,040 Anyway, I'm really getting on tangent here, but the point of all this, I think if we are 293 00:22:31,040 --> 00:22:35,680 focused on the light in the world, like we said before, there's nothing wrong about the 294 00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:39,120 stuff that's in the world, in and of itself, there's nothing inherently wrong. 295 00:22:39,120 --> 00:22:42,760 But if we make it our focus, it's like the light of the moon or something. 296 00:22:42,760 --> 00:22:46,160 It's, it's creation is just, it's reflecting God's glory. 297 00:22:46,160 --> 00:22:51,440 The heavens declare his praises, but it's not the source of real light. 298 00:22:51,440 --> 00:22:52,440 Yeah. 299 00:22:52,440 --> 00:22:57,720 Then I, I love Tim before I do the wrap up, Tim, do you have any, any thoughts? 300 00:22:57,720 --> 00:22:58,720 Go for it. 301 00:22:58,720 --> 00:22:59,720 All right. 302 00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:02,120 So I love what Van said about fear. 303 00:23:02,120 --> 00:23:09,800 And I am not generous when I'm afraid of what the consequence of my generosity will be. 304 00:23:09,800 --> 00:23:15,280 Whether that's financial generosity, I'm afraid I won't have enough money for a need or a 305 00:23:15,280 --> 00:23:24,040 need, whether that's someone just simply taking advantage of my kindness, whether that's I 306 00:23:24,040 --> 00:23:30,320 develop a blind spot to something bad because I'm generous and I can play the mental gymnastics 307 00:23:30,320 --> 00:23:31,320 game. 308 00:23:31,320 --> 00:23:34,960 Well, what if I'm generous with the wrong person in my judgment and I harm someone and 309 00:23:34,960 --> 00:23:40,360 somebody gets harmed and we've discussed a little bit how mental gymnastics usually 310 00:23:40,360 --> 00:23:42,240 doesn't, doesn't end too well. 311 00:23:42,240 --> 00:23:44,200 It usually ends with us pulling something. 312 00:23:44,200 --> 00:23:46,000 It's not good. 313 00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:51,920 But as we, as we close out this pod, I just want to ask you what keeps you from being generous 314 00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:58,040 and what keeps us as a collective from being generous and how, and I, and I want you to 315 00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:06,840 think and pray and reflect on how our lives, both individually and together would be different 316 00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:15,120 if we, if our default position was generosity instead of fear and cynicism. 317 00:24:15,120 --> 00:24:17,440 Really appreciate you guys listening to the pod. 318 00:24:17,440 --> 00:24:20,360 It's been a lot of fun talking about this. 319 00:24:20,360 --> 00:24:23,600 We have a few more questions we're going to get through, so I'm not promising how many 320 00:24:23,600 --> 00:24:28,400 more we have on this based on, based on how it's gone so far. 321 00:24:28,400 --> 00:24:29,400 But thank you guys. 322 00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:48,920 We'll talk to you all soon.