Welcome to Season 3 of Love & Context. This season,
we're exploring the life of Jesus step -by -step
and uncovering what His story teaches us about
loving God and others. Here on Love & Context,
we're all about having real conversations about
how to live out that love in practical, everyday
ways, and understanding the Bible in its full
context. We're so glad you're here. Let's dive
into Season 3 of Love & Context. Welcome back
to the Love in Context podcast. Here we go. It's
the Love in Context podcast. Podcast. Podcast.
Podcast. So it's trademark pending. Trademark
pending. Any similarity to a song? You may not
sing that or disseminate it in any shape, way,
or form. Any similarity to real songs, either
in fiction or nonfiction, is purely circumstantial.
It's not on purpose. I thought I was randomly
selecting notes. It's always possible that I
was not, though. There's nothing original to
some music -wise nowadays. No. Actually, there
was a... um this is just dynamite uh intro for
our listeners by the way welcome back to the
love and context podcast i'm ben that's spencer
and we're going to talk about copyright law yeah
um yeah ed sheeran recently went in because he
was getting sued over a chord progression yeah
and uh and which is by the way just an absurd
um if you're a musician at all anybody listening
who is a musician um that's an absurd lawsuit
because almost every song Uses the same chord
progression in different rhythms, in different
formats, sure, but it's the same chord progression.
So one of his defense things, he went in for,
I think it was like grand jury or wherever you
meet with the judge beforehand to see if there's
merit for the case. And he took his guitar and
he went for like 12 minutes straight and he played
like 78 different classic rock songs using the
same progression in a row right in front of him.
And they threw out the case. And I was like,
well, that's a pretty good way to make that.
And to his defense, he was like, if you literally,
if you enforce this thing, then I'm just going
to stop making music because it's pointless.
Mm -hmm. Right? Mm -hmm. So it is crazy the things
that people sue over. Oh, yeah. I mean, you'd
think that they were, I don't know. I don't have
any actually good follow -up for that. No, I
mean, the things people sue over is insane, and
that could be a whole other podcast episode.
Mm -hmm. Random lawsuits. I don't think it's
our. would fit our, you know, bread and butter
of what we're doing. So I want you to put a pin
in the thought of lawsuits because eventually
we're going to be getting to the Sermon on the
Mount and in the middle, I think it's in the
Sermon on the Mount where he's going to be talking
about if somebody slaps you in the right cheek.
Yep. And so we'll talk about it there because
there's actually, there is some actually good
applications to lawsuits there. Yeah. So, but
that's not where we are today. Today, we're actually
going to be in Luke 4 predominantly and this
is, taking place. So remember, we're harmonizing
the Gospels for people. We're walking through
the life of Jesus. Last week we talked about...
The Samaritan woman at the well. Well, technically
it was like four weeks ago, but it's also the
summer, so if you are upset that we didn't release
anything, I don't know what to tell you. We were
enjoying the sun. Actually, if you can see Spencer's
face on YouTube, it's a little redder than normal
because he got some sun. Oh, yeah. I got a bunch
of sun, and then I stayed inside for a couple
of days, and I turned right back to super white.
Yeah, yeah. If you have ever lived a summer in
Alaska, you will know exactly what we're talking
about. of how the sun comes out, and you get
the long days, and you're like, I have to make
the most of it. And yeah, so that's all there
is to it. So with that being said, we're a little
bit out of chronological order. There's some
conversation about that, and we don't care. So
if it really bothers you, I'm sorry. Just listen
to them in a different order. It'll solve itself.
But this is going to take place right after Jesus
in the wilderness with the devil in chapter 4
of Luke. I'm just going to read this story here,
and we're going to have a conversation about
it. So Jesus returned to Galilee in the power
of the Spirit. and news about him spread throughout
the whole countryside. He was teaching in their
synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went
to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and
on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue,
as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the
scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.
Unrolling it, he found it in the place where
it is written, The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me to proclaim good news
to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom
for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the
blind. to set the oppressed free, to proclaim
the year of the Lord's favor. Then he rolled
up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant,
and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue
were fastened on him. He began by saying to them,
Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.
All spoke well of him and were amazed at his
gracious words that came from his lips. Isn't
this Joseph's son? they asked. Jesus said to
them, Surely you will quote this proverb to me,
Physician, heal thyself, and you will tell me,
Do here in your hometown, which we have heard
you... heard that you did in Capernaum. Truly
I tell you, he continued, no prophet is accepted
in their hometown. I assure you that there were
many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when
the sky was shut for three and a half years,
and there was a severe famine throughout the
land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them,
but to a widow in Zarephath, in the region of
Sidon. By the way, I nailed that name. So good.
I nailed it. And there were many in Israel with
leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, but
yet not one of them was cleansed, only Naaman
the Syrian. All the people in the synagogue were
furious when they heard this. They got up, drove
him out of the town, and took him to the brow
of the hill on which the town was built in order
to throw him off the cliff. But he walked right
through the crowd and went on his way. Okay.
A couple of contextual things. He's reading in
the Sabbath. In synagogues during this time,
they have what's called the Parsha reading. Right.
So you would read in and the Haftarah reading.
So the parasha is in synagogue every week. You
read a portion of Torah and you take turns going
through all the families of the community. And
each week they have each one of them is supposed
to read. So they split it up because reading
the Bible is not a singular effort, it's a community
effort. Everybody gets a chance to read the words
of God. Incidentally, this is a little piece
that I found interesting in linguistics. When
they go to actually read, a lot of people are
illiterate, so they can't actually read. They
go up to the scroll, but they actually read what's
memorized. But there is a scribe who will stand
next to the person as they're reading, and if
they read it incorrectly, they'll just correct
them as they're going. because I said, well,
it actually says this, right? You know what that
person's called? What? The angel of the synagogue.
All right. So I just think that's really interesting
for those of you in Revelation who says, to the
angel in the church of. Are they talking about
a literal angel, or are they talking about the
person responsible for making sure the word of
God goes forward correctly? Maybe both. Yeah.
Maybe both. Maybe. Anyways, little aside that
has nothing to do with what we're talking about
today. So Jesus is in his hometown and it's likely
he's coming there for the reading because they
have a schedule. They know when they're going
to be reading. He reads from the scroll of Isaiah.
They've all heard about him. And so they're like,
okay, is he going to say anything? Because normally
you just do the reading. But then he actually
starts to say, this is fulfilled in your presence
today. And I do think it's interesting. He actually
doesn't finish that quote from Isaiah. I need
to find it really quick here. Yeah. So he actually
doesn't finish the quote. Now, they would have
been familiar with it. But the quote from Isaiah
61 is, The spirit of the sovereign Lord is on
me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim
good news to the poor. Yep, all nailed it. He
has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to
proclaim freedom for the captives, release the
darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year
of the Lord's favor. And this is the part where
he leaves off. And the day of vengeance of our
God. That's the part he leaves off. I just...
I think it's important to note that even in this
quoting context, because they, in their mind,
we've talked about Israel, is expecting a Messiah
that's going to rise up and defeat Rome. Their
mind is focused on vengeance. His mind is focused
on deliverance. Yes. Those are very different
things, right? And at first, they love what he
has to say. They're like, yeah, the brokenhearted
are going to be healed. The blind are going to
see. We love this. This is fantastic. And they're
like, isn't this Joseph's son? They're amazed.
They love it. They hear everything about what
he's doing. The Spirit of the Lord has been on
him. He's been healing people all around. He
comes back to his hometown, and they're like,
let's see the stuff. Why isn't he doing the stuff?
Right? Well, we can get caught in that very narrow
mindset of like, this is how it should be, right?
Yeah. This is how every, this is exactly how
it should be done. And you talk to anybody in
the way they do life, you will see that and how
they go about life, right? You and I go about
life a little bit differently, right? But it
is, and, but if you're the problem, it becomes
a problem when you try to impose that on other
people. If I went into somebody else's life and
was like, hey, you have to live exactly how Lindsay
and I live, and then they actually saw how we
live, there might be some people who are like,
eh, I don't know about that, right? Yeah. On
the flip side, you could be like, here are principles
of how Lindsay and I live that might be helpful
to you, right? Yeah, exactly. In their mind,
and they're having this conversation, I think
sometimes we love the message of, I've come to
proclaim this, and I've come to do this. But
then they're like, but where's the stuff? I don't
want to see the stuff. Let's see Rome overthrown.
I want to, you know, like these different things.
And so then he quotes from the proverb. He says,
some of you will say to yourself, physician,
heal thyself. Right? And then he says something
that really aggravates them. And he says, in
the time of Elijah, when there was drought, a
lot of people went without food. But Elijah was
sent to somebody who wasn't part of Israel. And
in Elisha's time, a lot of people had leprosy.
But Naaman, the foreigner, is the one who actually
received healing from Elisha. And they're like...
what do you mean it's about all nations? It's
supposed to be about us, right? What do you mean
it's about actually blessing the people around
you? It's supposed to be about us, which, by
the way, goes back to Torah, goes back to this
whole idea of you are blessed to bless all people.
And this, in some places, the narrative is getting
lost. When we're talking about, yeah, proclaim
the freedom, overthrow the captors, heal the
sick, love that. What do you mean Gentiles? What
do you mean the people that I don't like? Well,
we do that in church too, right? Right. Where
we're like, grace, mercy, redemption, forgiveness
for all, and then a new person walks through
the door, you know, a little raggedy looking,
and we're like, eh. And we're like, okay, now
watch the offering bucket. Make sure he's not
taking anything out of that, because that's ours.
Right? Versus like, it's, it's, it's like, okay.
You see what I'm saying? Yeah. No, no. I actually
am a hundred percent with you because, okay.
So I do like, I want to caveat this too, that
I do think the stewardship of your money is really
good. Having security, all those types of things.
Also, it's not actually our money. It's God's
money to do with like, to do ministry. Yep. Exactly.
And yeah. And so, but we do this in church where
we're like, this is the, this is a great message.
And then someone comes in who really needs to
hear that message, an outsider. And we're like,
I don't, I don't know. if I feel comfortable
with them being in the building. And then at
that point, it's like, okay, well, let's go back
to what this is really about. I mean, we've talked
about it in the past, but are you creating safe
or transformative places? Yeah. Right? Because
transformative places are not typically safe.
So we've referenced it a couple of times on the
podcast, but in one of the chapters of, just
talking about what we're talking about, one of
the chapters of my book that I released, it's
called Getting Out of Diapers. Let's talk about
when people come into your family. Like, babies
poop a lot. Really? Yeah, I know. This is shocking
to you. Everybody listening is like, what do
you mean babies poop? Yeah, babies poop a lot.
And I don't know if you know this, but they also
do it in their pants a lot. the expectation of
a baby is not that it's not going to poop its
pants. In fact, the expectation is that it is
going to poop its pants for a long time. It's
going to take years before they grow to the point
where they're going to be able to take care of
that situation themselves. And when you're transitioning
from diapers to non -diapers, it is a hectic
time. potentially. And it is, especially in the
case of my son, it was a very hectic time, that
he was, let's just say, less enthused of using
a toilet. Now, why do I say that? Because we
have people who come and they come to hear God's
word for the first time. They respond in faith.
They come to understand who Jesus is. They accept
him into their life. They step into our church.
The expectation is they're going to mess up.
They're going to be messy. Yeah. That's the expectation.
And that should be the expectation of the church.
People are going to mess up. And it's our job
to, as family, community, be around them and
help them clean up. It's going to be a process.
It's not a place for shame. It's a process of
growing up. Yeah. And, I mean, when you're potty
training a kid, like, every kid learns different,
right? So, for example, with our daughter, we
just did the cold turkey method when she was
about two years old. Is that if she doesn't go,
you throw cold turkey at her? Exactly. Yeah,
perfect. No, we just, we actually were like,
hey, we're just going to have a few months where
she's going to run around with no diapers on,
and she's going to potentially. uh like and we
did no pants too like we were in the house and
she's gonna pee and when we see her peeing we're
just gonna move her to the toilet real quick
and she caught on really quick like oh this is
what i gotta do right and we had to clean up
some messes right um and so like that is like
but there's other there's other families who
do it differently right um and so When it comes
to helping people follow Jesus, you also have
to take them where they're at. Yeah. I mean,
you wouldn't expect a baby to use the toilet.
No. Right? Yeah. But along with that, you also
have to take them where they're at. Some people
can ease into it a little bit more, and there's
other people where they're like, nope, I'm following
Jesus. I have to rip this huge thing out of my
life right away. Yeah. Right? And so you have
to walk with people where they're at and encourage
them in the right direction. Yeah. And just to
be clear, the toilet and Jesus are two different
things. Yes. This is what we call an analogy.
Yes. This is not theology. I think what has been
problematic in community is when somebody comes
to Jesus, they expect things to instantly change.
And that's just not like you're in the process
of merging your life with Jesus. And I think
the problem is that some things do change dramatically.
Like maybe your attitude, your perspective, like
all these different things change dramatically.
Because you've gone from zero to 100 with Jesus.
But not everything in your life changes. He starts
to reveal things. He starts to move through your
life. And you're like, oh, I'm here 28 years
into my faith. God's still like, hey, you know
this thing? Why don't we tweak that a little
bit? Right? Yeah. And especially when he moves
me into new avenues, new situations that I haven't
been in before. It's a lot of, like, God is like,
hey, I'm going to work you through this. And
when I step into things I've never done before,
it's messy again. And I have to learn again.
I was watching my son play soccer this last weekend.
And I remember the first year when he played
soccer. And let's just say following the ball
is not his favorite thing. Laying on the ground
or doing windmills was more his favorite thing.
But this year we had the conversation. I told
him, I said, hey, if you get a goal. you get
ice cream. Or if you kick the ball at least 10
times, you get ice cream. And that kid was motivated.
Let me tell you, I have a video where he was
like, he's like chasing that ball down and getting
his foot in there however he can because that
kid wants some ice cream. But even the difference
between a year, like growing up between a year,
it makes a big difference in how he's able to
handle it. And there's just no replacement to
spending time like living, like living into something.
Right? Right. I think what's frustrating in this
story with Jesus is they grew up with Jesus,
they're familiar with where he comes from, and
they have expectations on who he's going to be.
I mean, you can imagine if you saw Jesus as a
teenager, we have no idea what he was like. Nope.
But, you know, we don't know what he was like
as a teenager. We don't know if he was a really
good tecton crafter. I mean, I assume that he
was good at woodworking. But, you know, like,
these are the people, watch them grow up. And
it's so much different than, like, in a town
we would grow up in today. The most probably
closely modeled would be those really, really
small rural towns, right, where they have, like,
50 people. Yeah. And everybody's property is
connected and they know everybody. I had a friend
who lived up in Healy, Alaska. Do you know that
area? I think there's, like, 400 people there,
maybe. Yeah. It's like 400 people. So you literally
know everybody. And it's really hard to get away
with anything in a community like that where
everybody knows anybody. Yeah. Right. And so
and you also have like when you have a town like
that, it's really good. But you also have this
thing of like everybody knows you. And when people
form ideas about you, sometimes it's hard to
step out of what they have in their head about
you. Yeah. Yeah. I have friends up in Galena,
Alaska, which is, I mean, it's like east of Fairbanks,
about an hour flight or so. Middle of nowhere,
again, like maybe 200 people, right? Yeah. And
again, everybody who knows everybody. Yeah. And
yeah. And so Jesus comes back to his hometown,
and they love the message, but they're like...
okay, but we've been hearing all this stuff you're
doing. Why aren't you doing it anywhere else?
Give us the stuff. Give us the, you know, do
the stuff. And he's like, you don't really understand
why I'm here. Like, it's not about the stuff.
It's about actually getting your life in line
with God. It's about deliverance from something
that you don't even realize is killing you. Right?
And they get so frustrated with him that they're
like, hey, you know what? I think we're just
going to take you to the edge of town and chuck
you off the... Check you off the cliff, which
by the way, I was actually looking at Nazareth
and there is totally like this like cliff area.
So it totally tracks. So this is a place they
would have gone. Yeah. I just, I wonder how often
God is talking to us and because of our preconceived
notions on who we think he is. because of either
like the tradition we grew up in or something
we just got held on to we've never actually stopped
long enough to see that maybe he's doing something
broader than what we think yeah right that he's
loving just a little bit wider than we think
that he's uh just you know just all those different
things that kind of go with that So Jesus has
this confrontation, and then one of the things
he immediately does is he goes and calls a bunch
of people with very different perspectives. We're
going to hear about a few of them, so just calling
some of the first disciples. Starting in chapter
5, it says, Nailed it. The people were crowding
around him and listening to the word of God.
And he saw on the water's edge two boats left
there by the fishermen who were washing their
nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging
to Simon, and asked to be put out a little from
shore. Then he sat down and taught the people
from the boat. By the way, I should note something
that came up in the last passage and is here.
When Jesus read, he stood because you always
stand when you're reading from the word of God.
But when you actually teach, you sit down in
Jewish custom. So that's one of the reasons they
keep saying that he sits down. before he starts
teaching, is because that's a Jewish custom.
When he finished speaking, he said to Simon,
put it out into deep water and let down the nets
for a catch. Simon answered, Master, we worked
hard all night and haven't caught anything, but
because you say so, I will put down the nets.
When they had done so, they caught such a large
number of fish that their nets began to break.
So they signaled their partners in the other
boat to come and help them. And they came and
filled... both boats so full that they began
to sink. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at
Jesus' knees and said, Go away from me, Lord,
I am a sinful man. For he and all his companions
were astonished at the catch of fish they had
taken. And so were James and John, the sons of
Zebedee, Simon's partners. Then Jesus said to
Simon, Don't be afraid. From now on you will
fish for people. So they pulled their boats up
on shore, left everything, and followed him.
Now, obviously, there is a different account
of how that story is told in different places.
A couple of things we want to note there is that
Jeremiah 16, 16 actually references God sending
fishers to gather his people. This whole idea
of fishing for people is not a new concept. It
is actually an Old Testament concept that Jesus
is breathing new life into. I think that it's
important to know that we have these people who
are being amazed or they want the stuff. so focused
on the mission, on what they want, that when
Jesus starts talking about actually wanting to
go and it be about all nations, they get frustrated
and want to throw him off a cliff. In this story,
Jesus is preaching to people. He uses their boat,
sits down, preaches to them, gets a miraculous
catch of fish, but their first reaction isn't,
sweet, lots of fish. It's that you shouldn't
be here because I don't deserve your grace. I
don't deserve to have you around here. He says,
that's okay. Of course you don't. Most people
don't. It's Ben's living translation, the BLT.
But what I'm going to do is I'm going to actually
have you go and fish all nations. Right? It's
actual recognition of like, I don't have it together.
And God says, I know. But I'm going to send you
out, and you're going to go. And they gladly
follow. Yeah, the other thing that Jesus foreshadows
here is that when you follow him, things... probably
aren't going to go exactly in the order you think
they're going to go. So these are professional
fishermen. They knew how to do it. They knew
when to go out, all this stuff. It was not custom
to actually go fish middle of the day in this
culture. You went out at night, early in the
morning, late in the evening. So you get done
with this teaching. Most scholars argue this
was close to middle of the day. It doesn't actually
say. Let's say it's somewhere between 9 and 2.
Yeah. And so Jesus, you know, is acting like
a rabbi who knows nothing about fishing at this
point. And he's like, all right, it's 10 a .m.,
let's go fishing. And they're like, we were out
all night, nothing happened. And Jesus is like,
ah, let's give it a try anyways. They're like,
okay. So they go out and they're successful,
right? And the reality is, is when we follow
Jesus, there's going to be times where Jesus
is like, hey, how about this? And we're like.
Excuse me? And we tend to double check that,
right? Because it doesn't fit our narrative or
what we know. But that's the reality of following
Jesus. God in general has weird battle plans.
Jericho, I want you to walk around the city.
It was a horrible battle plan. Last time I want
you to walk around seven times blowing the trumpets.
From an earthly perspective, horrible battle
plan. And then go scream at the wall, right?
What's Gideon is like, hey, I want you to get
rid of most of your people and then get a trumpet
and a clay pot and then surround them. Blow the
trumpet, break the pot, and scream. So on that
one, I preached on that one time. Because on
Gideon, they surrounded him, right? And someone
was like, well, they were on these hills. And
when they yelled and made noise, that's probably
what threw. And they saw, they're like, one torch
could have represented like 30 ,000 people. And
I was like, except for, there's no way 300 is
going to sound like 300 ,000 or 900 ,000 or whatever
it is. And they're like. Well, unless God intervened.
And I was like, now you're getting the point
of the story. The point of the story is to follow
God's plan. Jesus' plan for fishing. Don't fish
at night when is the right time or early in the
morning, which is the right time. Go cast your
net after you cleaned it. Because it says they're
cleaning their nets. After you clean your net,
go check it out in the water. And it's going
to be so much that you're literally going to
have to get your buddies over here to help you
drag it in. Right? Later, he's going to have
this conversation, which I think is a worthwhile
conversation for us, because Jesus calls Peter
to be a fisher of men, and there is some implication
that we're called to be fishers of men, too,
in the same vein as what Peter and the apostles
are called to be called, right? To go and fish
for people, right? He's going to tell a parable
later in the Gospels, which is that you go and
catch the fish, every kind. The angels will sort
them out. They'll separate the good and the bad
ones. And Christian, I just got to tell you,
Christian, me being you, I see a lot of social
media of us trying to figure out which fish are
fish. Stop. Just go catch fish. Let the angels
sort it out. Yeah. Go share the gospel. Go be
the light into a dark world. Yeah. Be salt. Right?
Similar story, it's going to be right there with
the wheat and the tares, is that there's wheat
and then there's tares sowed among them, and
they say, well, do you want us to go rip up the
tares? He's like, no, because you might take
some of the wheat with it. Let it grow, and at
the end, we'll harvest, and the angels will take
out the tares. Right? Nowhere in there was that
our job. Our job was to grow, to receive, to
grow, be fruitful, all those different things
that are in there. Go fish. Generally speaking,
leave judgment to God. Right? That's a little
aside, but man, that is a huge thing that is
happening. Well, and how freeing is that? To
be like, okay, it's not my job to, it's my job
to be the light, to disciple, to share the good
news, right? And if people give me the authority
to speak into their lives and to be, you know,
to provide correction, absolutely. But it's the
Lord's job to determine what is good. Like the
good, the bad, right? And the ugly. And the ugly.
I couldn't resist. I know. Yeah. Ah! So. Right.
Yeah, no, it is. But it's a reoccurring thing.
And so I just find there's just this parallel
of like this attitude is like, what's in it for
me? I actually. Peter's quote reminds me of Isaiah
6. When Isaiah is caught up in the throne of
God, he sees the presence of God. He sees the
magnificence of God. And he goes, I shouldn't
be here. I am an unclean man, and I live among
a people of unclean people. And then God sends
the person with the coal to go and touch his
tongue. And then he says, I've got to send some
people out. Who's going to go? Isaiah replies,
here I am. Send me. Very similar. Peter's going
to say, I am a sinful man. You shouldn't be here.
He's like, yeah, but I'm calling you. and you're
going to go. Yeah. Right? And it's important
to note that Peter's probably the oldest of them,
but we're probably talking in his 20s, early
20s. He's married because we know he has a mother
-in -law, or was married. And we know he's old
enough to pay the temple tax. Yeah, so that's
why a lot of people say 21. But James and John,
nope. They're probably 12, 13, or right on that
cusp because they're still working with their
dad, so they haven't barred mitzvahed, so they're
not separate from the household. And then you
have Andrew, who's going to be younger, but he's
probably not that much younger than Peter, Simon,
in this story. And so these young guys are being
called to pursue and follow after Jesus, and
they leave everything. They leave everything.
You have this Nazareth town, which people are
going to say, what good comes out of Nazareth?
And now you have these little teenage boys and
a guy who's self -proclaimed is... a sinful man
that are not disciples. The problem isn't where
you come from. It's how do you respond to the
call? Yeah. Actually, I saw this and I just,
man, I love this analogy that a pastor, he went
to a conference and he was signed up to be a
teacher there. And he said, hey, can I get the
names of people who signed up to come to this
conference? And the names and addresses are like,
yeah, sure. That's weird, but okay, whatever.
So he picked, like, seven or eight people out
of the conference, and he wrote them a check
for $10, and he sent it to them. And all of them
received the check, but, like, nobody's cashing.
He keeps checking his account. Nobody cashes
it. Nobody cashes it. Nobody cashes it. Finally,
somebody cashes one, so he sends them another
check. And they cash that one, so he sends them
another check, right, leading up to this conference.
And I think he said two out of, like, eight.
cash the check. And he gets there and he says,
and I'm going to make up a name, but Tom Bombadero,
obviously I'm quoting from Lord of the Rings.
He's like, where are you? And he's like, oh,
I'm over here. He's like, I wrote you a check.
Why didn't you cash it? I didn't know if it was
for me. It had your name on it. It was from me.
And he's like, how many times are we given a
check? We're given a solution to a problem. We're
given something specifically. And we're like,
well, I just don't know if it's for me. Yeah.
Whereas the other person he says her name was
Barbara. And she's like, Barbara, blah, blah,
blah. Where are you? And she's like, I'm here.
He's like, you cashed my check? She's like, I
cashed all of them. Right? And he's like, everybody
had the same opportunity. I sent everybody the
same check, but some people cashed them and some
people didn't. And I wonder if there's not something
that we can glean here from this call of God
is that he's ready for all of us to get involved.
Now, some of us later, there's going to be a
story about five talents, two talents, one talent.
Either way, he wants to give you a talent. He
wants to give you a deposit. He wants to give
you something to go put active. He's giving you
a check. It's not your authority. It's not your
power. It's not anything that you've done that
influences this. But you now have this resource
to go and be fishers of people, to change the
world, to make it look like the place that you
come from, which is heaven. Yeah. The real question
is, are you going to cash that check? are you
going to try to chuck the Son of God off the
side of a cliff? Yeah. Right? And that's hard,
because I think that if we're really intellectually
honest, we struggle more with the side of that
we'd rather chuck Jesus off a cliff than deal
with cashing a check. Well, yes. You also got
to caveat this with, are we aware that we're
choosing the throwing Jesus off a cliff? I don't
think so. I think we're unintentionally doing
it. But if we look at what we actually do with
what God gives us, It's what we often do. And
we have to be intentional and look at that. Yeah.
Right? Being like, what has God given me, and
am I using this for his glory? Yeah. Right? Because
reality is, is it's not ours anyways, right?
Right? Like, we both have houses in our names,
right? Yeah. They're really not our houses. Yeah.
Right? They're not. They're the lords. Well,
first they belong to our wives, but they had
to surrender them to God. Us thinking we have
a say of what the house looks like on the inside
is a joke. I would like this. Well, that's great,
honey. You get zero opinion. No, I'm just kidding.
My wife actually asks my opinion all the time,
and my opinion is I want somewhere comfy to sit.
Yeah. But yeah, it all belongs to God, right?
But we don't often... Or I say we struggle with
keeping that mentality in all things. And I just,
if there's one thing that we take away from this,
I would say is that God is coming for all people.
He's calling us to all people. He's given us
resources to go and fish. We need to go fish
and spend less time judging the fishes that we're
catching. Just catch them. Go after them. Go
after those fish that you think are undesirable.
Well, and the reality is when you go fishing,
there's times where you catch amazing fish. And
there's times where you don't catch anything
at all. And there's times where you catch fish
that you're like, eh. Right? You know when you
definitely don't catch fish? When you don't go
fishing. Correct. Yeah. And that's the thing.
Because if you don't go, you're never going to
catch anything. Nothing's ever going to be caught.
Yeah. I was watching an instructional video from
a physical therapist, and they were talking about
people like, oh, I can't lose weight because
I don't have half hour to go to the gym in a
day and all those different things. And they
said, did you know that if you actually just
find two minute intervals to do high. energy
activity there's like a 45 reduction in like
uh like heart disease and cancer and like a bunch
of other things you can do that twice a day we're
literally talking like five minutes a day and
then the health benefits so um like are there
more for spending an hour in the gym yeah But
you know when you don't get any benefit is when
you don't go at all. I have a good friend. He's
a very, very, very, very busy guy. He's talking
about me. Yeah, yeah. He has an alarm that goes
off on his phone every two hours, and he's like,
yep, and it's 20 push -ups and 10 squats just
every two hours just so I'm like, I did something.
And he's like, yeah. So he's like, throughout
the day, he's like, I do about 160 push -ups.
and about 80 squats. I was like, well, do you
realize that's more than most? Yeah. Imagine,
I was having this conversation about when we're
talking about discipleship and church growth
and evangelism and reaching people for Jesus,
sometimes it can be daunting because you look
out into the world, you look out into even your
group of friends, and you're like, man, there's
so many people that don't know Jesus. What if
you just focused on one? You spent time building
a relationship with one person so you can talk
about Jesus, so you can just share your life,
your story, and honestly just share a story with
them. Just building relationships with one person,
I think you'd be surprised as you look back over
the years how many people you start impacting.
One person that you intentionally, getting back
to that word, intentionally invest in and live
into and reach out to. I'm not saying that there
might be more than one, sure. at least one one
person that you're being intentional with on
purpose right well and also being intentional
in that moment right like it's not um just to
give you a baseball analogy on this right if
you're Incidentally, he is a huge Mariners fan.
So if you are not, feel free to send message
or trash talk to loveandcontext at gmail .com.
Please do. I've been disappointed by them a number
of times. But if you are at bat and you are trying
to focus on the pitch that is coming 10 pitches
from now, chances are you're going to have a
crappy at bat. You really just have to take it
one pitch at a time. And when we are... are sharing
the gospel with people, we really just have to,
who's in front of us? Who are we building a relationship
with right now? And how are we building them
up, right? It doesn't need to be these big steps.
It doesn't need to be this big, grandiose plan.
It's just like, who's there right now who needs
to hear about Jesus that's in my sphere, and
how can I talk to them? Start there. Don't overcomplicate
it. Man. All right. Well, that's life of Jesus
and rejection. By the way, this is something
that I personally understand is that if you sometimes
go back to people, now being in a hometown that
I grew up in, right? Originally, I went back
to the church that I originally came from. And
it was definitely a struggle because people remember
me as a kid and they didn't recognize me as an
adult. And so in their brain, they always kind
of put me back in where I was. 20 years older
now, you know? And it's difficult with this idea
of a prophet's not welcome in their hometown.
It's not that they're not welcome, it's just
sometimes they can't see where you've gone. And
that doesn't mean that they're bad people, but
maybe send a different prophet their way or a
different... person their way, and you go to
people that will be able to see your growth.
Yeah. To value where you've come and what God
has done in your life, too. That's where I am
now, and it's been incredibly valuable with the
family that we're in. Yep. You know? That's pretty
much it. I don't have a whole lot else to go
on here except to sing you a goodbye song. Goodbye
from Love and Context. Goodbye! I'm pretty sure
you just copyrighted some. And that's a wrap
for today's episode of Love and Context. We hope
this conversation encouraged you and gave you
fresh insights into how we can better love God
and others through the powerful truths of the
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wisdom, embracing love, and living out your faith
in today's world. I'm going to include this,
by the way, in the podcast. There's going to
be like three minutes of people singing and me
singing random tunes.