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 and Context podcast. The podcast.
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We'll let you know when we get that patented,
recorded, and copyrighted. What's the name of
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sent it in to Dre just to see what he'll say.
See if he can jazz it up a little for me. For
some reason, he hasn't gotten back to you. For
some reason, he hasn't gotten back to me. Welcome
to the Love and Context Podcast with Ben and
Spencer. My name is Ben and this is Spencer.
And we're at Continuing Life of Jesus. Yeah,
let's go. It's good to see you this week. School
is back in the swing of things. And we were able
to, honestly though, even this week is going
to be busy for you because you're doing this,
we're recording a couple, and then you're going
to be out. Next week. Visiting some of your donors
and stuff for Young Life, right? Speaking of
which, if you're a listener and you'd like to
be a donor for Young Life, if you go to Young
Life Ketchikan, you can donate to Spencer directly.
Yeah. He won't toot his own horn, but toot toot,
here we go. Yep, I won't. So we're going to be
in Matthew 13 today, and we're going to be talking
about a couple of parables. And so I wanted to
take a step back really quick before we get into
parables and remind people what they are. Because
they're not just random stories that people are
telling. There's actually a purpose for them.
There are some common occurrences in parables,
especially during the time of Jesus and the other
rabbinic voices around that time. They would
do a lot of times they dealt with everyday realism.
In other words, things that you ran into on regular
places. We're going to talk about the soil today.
So it's likely Jesus is walking through the field
and he says. Look at the farmer, that guy over
there. You know, it'd be like if you were in
Seattle and you're like, look at the fish market
guy, right? That's tossing the fish across the
Seattle market, right? There's a thing in Hebrew
called the marshall. It's where you take things
side by side and they're for comparative uses.
So Jesus is going to say many times, the kingdom
of God is like, okay, so he's taking kingdom
of God and this thing side by side and describing
some things on this side. that are going to then
translate over. These are common features here.
They're also not super long. Like most parables,
like even the longest one, I think is probably
the parable of the two sons. Yeah. Right. And
like that one is, is still not super long. Yeah.
It's not super long. It's still like you're,
you're able to say it in like probably two and
a half minutes. And so they're not meant to be
like these long exhaustive studies. They're packed
with a ton of meaning for you to go and unpack
yourself. Right. But inside of all of them, there's
like this moral provocation. Like, life is something
else than what you're doing. What are you going
to do about it? Yeah. And if you're a Jewish
person hearing these parables, you'll understand
that there's layers to them. And, and there's,
there's like a surface depth and it goes a little
deeper and a little deeper to steal from Shrek.
It's like an onion. It's like an onion. So the
four levels of, of onions of parables, cause
that's apparently what we're going with. Uh,
there is a thing called a shot. That's your plain,
plain, uh, generic. You read it one time and
you're like, Hey, this means this, right? It's
not super. not super difficult to understand.
For example, Good Samaritan, when people are
bleeding on the side of the road, you should
pick them up, bandage them up and take care of
them. Plain generic meaning. Yeah, you should
do that. Yeah. Right. That's what it means to
have mercy. Um, a lot of times there's a thing
we call a remez and we do this a lot of times
when we're talking to the new Testament, it's
a reference back to the old Testament, right?
And it's, it's meant to, it takes the context
of what they're of, of whatever that context
is in the old Testament. It pulls it forward
into the new Testament. Um, this happens very
frequently in Jesus teaching what we, we will
continue to point that out. The drosh is something
that's more of like a searching application.
And this is why I think, uh, a lot of rabbis
tell parables. It's one thing to tell somebody
something. Like you're working at school. It's
one thing to teach somebody something. You tell
them a story, right? You say two plus two equals
four. At the same time, if you give them a sheet
of mathematics to actually go and do themselves,
it's no longer learning mathematics. It's actually
allowing mathematics. You're like you're now
experiencing mathematics. You're getting into
it. You're digging into it and actually exploring
it. You're not just being told. You're searching
for yourself. So what a good teacher will do
is they'll give you tools. Go and search something
yourself. Uh -huh. So that in the discovery you
actually learn more about the thing. Mm -hmm,
right I think a lot of times in English where
I would it's always funny though because people
be like well I think when he used the color blue
he was symbolizing blah blah blah blah blah He's
like actually I just like blue Yeah, you know,
but a lot of times there's like symbolism in
a book you say so there's symbolism going on
in chapter 9 What do you think it is? Mm -hmm
And like, so then students, they go read chapter
nine and they start, okay, maybe this is a symbol,
maybe this is getting, and what does that do?
It helps them actually understand and engage
in the story in a deeper, more real way. That's
what the drosh is. That's like this third level
of, of like, Hey, is there more at play here
than just backwards referencing? Yep. Right.
Is it playing to something going on socioeconomically
around me? Does that play into the way that I'm
supposed to engage with other people? And then
the last one is what we call sowed. And it's
the things that are revealed by God alone. Yeah.
In other words, you can do all the things that
you think you can do and you're not going to
figure it out. The best example of this in the
scriptures is Jesus is talking to them. He says,
hey, who do you think I am? And Peter goes, well,
duh, you're the Christ, the son of the living
God. And he says, blessed are you Simon Barjona,
for this wasn't revealed to you by any of your
father in heaven. Of course, right after that.
Get behind me, Satan. Get behind me, Satan. So
he says, good, you heard directly from God. Also,
stop being Satan. So that's generally how parables
work. I do think that there's a ton of really
good resources. Clyde Snodgrass has an introduction
to understanding the parables. It's a really
academic piece. You better be good at academics
if your name is Clyde Snodgrass because that's
quite the name. Brad Young is a university professor
who also has some really interesting insights.
Brad Young is really good if you're trying to
understand parables in antiquity and also Jesus.
Yeah. Right? So they have some good works on
the parables. Do you have anything you like from
the parables? So similarly, blah, blah, blah.
That word is very difficult, by the way. Similarly,
similarly. Yeah, let's try that again. So just
like when Jesus was talking in the Sermon on
the Mount, a lot of times in the parables that
he's talking, wow, I am tired. Try that again.
It's almost like you've been with kids all day.
Uh -huh, uh -huh. So just as in... Mr. Spencer!
Yeah, pretty much, right? Pretty much. Or they're
like, hey, don't hit that kid with a rock. Why?
Really? Why? Why? Okay. Yeah. So just like Sermon
on the Mount, where Jesus is counteracting two
ideas, the idea of Roman culture seeping into
the Jewish way of life, and then also this false
Jewish way of life. Yeah. So he does that with
the parables too. You're actually going to see
that with the first one we're going to talk about.
Right. So with that being said, let's go to Matthew
chapter 13. I'm going to read this here and then
why don't you, you'll open up just talking about
it. So that day, so that day being the day after
Jesus had told his mother and brothers that everybody
was his mother and brother and sister and that
he's there for everybody. So that day Jesus went
out from the house and sat by the lake. Such
large crowds gathered around him that he got
into a boat and sat in it. That's, by the way,
what a lot of introverts will do is more people
come and they get away from him. No, that's not
what he's doing. While all the people stood on
the shore. Then he told them many things in parables,
saying, A farmer went out to sow his seed. As
he was scattering the seed, some fell along the
path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some
fell on the rocky places where it did not have
much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil
was shallow. But when the sun came up, Excuse
me. When the sun came up, the plants were scorched
and they withered because they had no root. Other
seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked
the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil,
where it produced a crop a hundred, sixty, and
thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears,
let him hear. The disciples came to him and asked,
why do you speak to the people in parables? He
replied, because the knowledge of the secrets
of the kingdom of heaven have been given to you,
but not to them. Whoever has will be given more,
and they will be given in abundance. Whoever
does not have, even what they have will be taken
from them. Okay, then I'm going to start one
more spot. This is why I speak to them in parables.
Though seeing, they do not see. Though hearing,
they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled
the prophecy Isaiah. You will be ever hearing,
but never understanding. You will be ever seeing,
but never perceiving. For this people's hearts
has become callous. They hardly hear with their
ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise,
they might see with their eyes, hear with their
ears, understand with their hearts, and turn,
and I would heal them. But blessed be your eyes
because they see and because your ears, because
they hear. For truly, I tell you, many prophets
and righteous people long to see what you see,
but did not see it. And to hear what you hear,
but did not see it. Okay. And then he's going
to give an interpretation of what's going on
inside of that. So one thing you got to note
right away is, we probably should have said this
earlier, but Jesus often teaches in parables
when he's addressing large crowds or religious
leaders. Yeah. And if you think about that, those
are two very different groups. Very different
groups. You have a group that large crowds who
are wanting to hear his teaching. Right. And
you have religious leaders on the other hand,
more often than not, are like, we want to trap
Jesus in his thinking. Right. And they think
they can do that. Or we want to pin you down
to be something we want you to be. Yeah. Yeah.
A hundred percent. Right. And so, and have you
ever like. And oftentimes we think of this like,
oh, this is a really profound idea. And I was
like, well, yes and no, because this happens
cross -culturally too, right? We hear that in
sermons in the US, right? Where people will give
a story that relates in their life, then tie
it into scripture, right? Yeah. Right, we do
that. And so, because oftentimes when you give
a story about... in this case, a farmer, you're
tying it into a very practical thing. And one
thing to note here on the farmer side of things
is culturally speaking right now, the farmers
are being taxed out the wazoo, right? So they
are - Estimates are in the 80 to 85%. Yeah, yeah.
Depending what scholar you look at, there's going
to be different, but - There'll be different
interpretations on that. You might read something
that's like, oh, they said 65 % and might read
somebody else who says 90. Yeah. There's going
to be a variance depending on the region because
Israel is big too. Yeah. And so farmers are dwindling.
So you have this text where you have the hurt
of the farmers outlined in that too, like of
them sowing seeds, things not growing, getting
choked up by thorns, falling on the footpaths.
We read that and be like, okay, is this farmer
just really bad at his job, right? Because he
should know what good soil is, right? The reality
is, is farmers were probably trying to do that
to make as much money as they can, hoping that
crops would spring up as in every inch of ground
that they could so they could still make some
money, still make a living, right? And so that's
something to note here in this passage as well.
So there is a, I'm going to just clue you guys
in here just for anybody who wants to make the
connection. There is a Remez. This is the only
passage where they tell the story where he's
going to use the number 100. Uh -huh. There is
a reference to the Old Testament by the guy by
the name of Isaac. Yeah. Who is a farmer in a
time of famine. Mm -hmm. And he sows and he reaps
100 times what he sows. Mm -hmm. There is a connection
there. go and find it. It has to do with generosity.
It has to do with heart. Yep. And what is he
specifically talking about? People who have eyes,
but can't see ears, but they can't hear. Right.
So there's, there's some connections going on
there as well. Yeah. Yeah, there is. So, um,
and you look at this and then you get to the
point where the disciples are like, why do you
teach a parables? Because if you're a disciple
of somebody, they're not used to hearing this
when Jesus is teaching them. They're used to
hearing a little bit more of a direct teaching
from Jesus. Okay. All right. And the reality
is, is just sometimes stories connect differently.
Right. And sometimes how you hear a story connects
differently. Just to give you an example in our
lives, Ben likes to read books. I do. Okay. Um,
I've argued with Ben that it's not a good book
if they're not turning it into a TV show. I was
checking to see, I thought I had my shirt on
that said book nerd. Uh huh. Yeah. Yeah. It's
not, it's something, it's a serenity from Firefly.
Oh, that's, I mean, that's equally as good, right?
Yeah. Yeah. Um, incidentally, uh, you enjoy,
well, your wife enjoys the show Firefly. I've
read the books, Firefly, they continue the show.
And you said, well, the show was good. I'm not
going to read the books. Yeah. Right. And so
Ben will be like, yeah, have you heard about
this series? And I'm like, are they going to
turn it in? do a tv show yeah and he'll be like
what i was like well that's a sign that's a good
book series he's like well i don't think so i
was like well it's probably not a good book series
that that's the joke a little bit of the joke
we have right so but like you can send your hate
mail to love and context care spencer made absolutely
can i will 100 not read it um but see actually
i'm just going to go and point out here uh what
the listeners don't know is that you actually
don't know how to read no that's actually it's
not like i teach kids how to read every day You
just memorized a lot of words. Yeah. What do
you think reading is? So stories hit a little
differently, right? Yeah. And so, so if you're
not familiar with the gospel that Jesus is preaching,
right? Having, having a relatable story about
something in your world, in your sphere is going
to bring it home for you. Well, and I think there's
also this capacity is like, um, Jesus is capable
of writing because later in scripture he writes
down on the ground, but like most people can't
write. At this point, they might be able to read,
but they can't write. And it's a very and their
memory is very different than ours. Like they
remember everything. Now that we have phones,
like I don't remember anybody's phone number.
I remember my old phone number from my house,
but I don't remember anybody else's. Yeah. But
I used to be able to just rattle off and call
people because I had to. Yeah. Right. Now I don't
do that. And so we write things down. We record
things. We make videos, photos, all those different
things. They didn't have that. So they memorized
scripture. They memorized stories and they memorized
these things. So now Jesus is giving them this
story, this quick 30, 45 second story that they
go walk around later and they're like, there's
a farmer who spreads seed. And you walk with
it and you tell it to yourself over and over
again. And if you are somebody who can't read
and can't write, it's also something you can
take with you as you're going around too. It
plays into the tradition of the oral stories,
right? Because that's how Old Testament stories
got passed along, right? Exactly. Well, and it's
interesting because, you know, like essentially
what Jesus is saying, he's like, well, why do
you talk to them in parables? So that they're
a little confused. Yeah. So they have to dig.
And maybe in that digging, they're going to see.
Yeah. Like that's the hope is I'm trying to give
them, and he's going to talk about this a little
bit later and we'll, we'll get to this. Uh, it's
actually later in the verses is after the parable,
the weeds, but I'll get down a second. So the
flip side of this is at the end, he says, listen
to what the parable of the sower means. When
anyone hears the message about the kingdom and
does not understand it, the evil one comes and
snatches it away. Well, which by the way, he
does not always give interpretations to his parables.
This is the one we actually know what it means.
Yeah. Um... This is the seed, let's see here.
This is the seed sown along the path. The seed
falling on rocky ground refers to someone who
hears the word and at once receives it with joy.
But since they have no root, they last only a
short time. When trouble or persecution comes
because of the word, they quickly fall away.
The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone
who hears the word, but the worries of this life
and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word,
making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on
good ground refers to someone who hears the word
and understands it. This is the one who produces
a crop yielding 160 and 30 times what was sown.
By the way, as I'm reading through those in the
descriptions, rather than just thinking about
types of people, I was actually thinking about
Jewish responses to the end of the Old Testament.
Yep. And you have this choked up by the world.
Sounds a lot like Herodians, right? Yep. Like
they want to be Jewish. They also want to have
all the Roman perks, right? You have the people
who are just, they're... to your point talking
about taxation and like there's this rocky ground
and they have short soil and like when when trouble
is there like they can't do it because they're
they're so focused on their trouble right what
kind of soil are you going to be yeah right it's
good i like that yeah well i mean so the common
interpretations on these stories is like what
type of soil are you going to be and also is
when you are spreading the gospel your job is
to spread it everywhere right And it's going
to, there's going to be people who just flat
out reject it, right? There's going to be people
where they get excited, but then within a year
or two, they're burnt out and they walk away.
There's going to be people where it multiplies
a hundred times in their lives. And so it's,
but what is your role in spreading the gospel?
It's to spread the gospel. Yeah. Right. Your
job internally is what kind of soil am I going
to be? Mm -hmm. Your job externally is I spread
the gospel. Yeah. To quote a later parable, you
go catch fish. Uh -huh. The angels will sort
them out. Uh -huh. You go sow wheat. The angels
will sort out the tares. Yeah. Your job isn't
to decide who's in and who's out. Your job is
to go spread. Spread the gospel. Spread the word
of God. I'm going to jump over this parable of
the weeds because it's not important. I think
it's great. In fact, actually, it's the next
one coming up. You guys should go read it. Yeah,
you should go read it. But I want to jump because
I think this is kind of what we're talking about
with the power of parables. Jumping into verse
31, he told them another parable. The kingdom
of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man
took and planted in his fields. Though it is
the smallest of all the seeds, yet when it grows,
it is the largest of the garden plants and becomes
a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its
branches. He told them still another parable.
The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman
took and mixed into about 60 pounds of flour
until it worked through the dough. Jesus spoke
all these things in the crowd. He did not say
anything to them without using a parable. So
it was fulfilled. It was spoken through the prophet.
I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter
hidden things since the creation of the world.
Okay. Mustard seed, tiny seed. Like somebody's
like, well, there's, there's smaller seeds. Okay.
But in their time, did they know there were smaller
seeds? Right. It's a small seed that they can
find. It's super tiny. And essentially the mustard
plant is a, uh, it's kind of a noxious weed.
Yeah. Which is a really weird thing for Jesus
to be like, it's, there was a farmer who took
mustard seed and he planted it all throughout
his fields. Like, why would you do that? Why
would you do that? And once it took root, you
couldn't stop it. And, but that's what the kingdom
of God is like. Yeah. And you're like a noxious
weed that you can't eliminate. Yeah. Cause once
it takes root, it's going to get everywhere.
You can't stop it. Yeah. And mustard trees come
from mustard seeds as well. And, They provide
more than just mustard, right? These trees were
actually known for getting 20 to 30 feet tall,
and their branches would actually branch out
and make a big canopy. So they were known for
providing shade for travelers in this hot desert
climate. And so it's also providing, it was a
common wood that was used in building materials
because it was a good -sized tree. And we were
talking a culture where wood like cedar and mustard.
and stuff like that is valuable you're a culture
that primarily builds with stone yeah it's not
that they don't have trees but they don't have
trees like we do in uh the northwest yeah right
yeah like we have lots of trees and we have massive
trees they don't have the 300 foot tall yeah
spruce trees types or even think like uh you
think california like the redwood forest like
they don't have trees like that no right no we're
and so like trees are a healthy commodity so
like uh you want to be able to grow these trees
yeah and so this is a like if you were someone
who was in the business of growing and cutting
down mustard trees and harvesting the mustard,
selling the wood. Like you're somebody who is
actually of probably higher standard, higher
wealth, most likely. And so you have, so, I mean,
you get to the point where it's like this little
act of faith, like this little bit of faith can
blossom into something that provides so much
for the world around you. When it takes root,
you can't stop it. Yeah. When it takes root in
the heart, you can't stop it. And the next story
he says is like a woman who grabbed about 60
pounds of flour. Well, that's a reference back
to, that's 3CS. Uh, if you, if you're like, I've
heard three C's before. Yeah. It's in the book
of Genesis. Yeah. Uh, Rachel or not Rachel, uh,
Sarah, when they have the three visitors, he
tells them to go bake some bread and she takes
60 pounds of flour and bakes it into bread. Right.
And, uh, what is that whole story about? Hospitality.
Yeah. Right. He's, he's welcoming the people
and then he's interceding on behalf of, it's
going to be Sodom and Gomorrah, but it's about
hospitality. Well, what's been going on so far?
So we've connected it to Isaac. And sowing into
a famine. Yeah. And producing food that's going
to feed an entire area. Yeah. We have a mustard
seed that's going to grow into a great tree.
Once it takes root, it's not going to be able
to stop. And it's going to provide shelter for
the people around them. Yeah. And then you have
this flour, this dough, 60 pounds. I don't know
if you guys made 60 pounds of bread. It's a lot
of bread. Especially the way they bake it. Yeah.
That is about hospitality and the story of patriarchal
hospitality. So what is Jesus doing in all of
these? The kingdom of heaven is founded on generosity
and reaching out and taking care of people and
peace and growing in hospitality and putting
something different on display for the world.
It's the kind of, it's the kind of thing that
looks at a place that's in famine and says, I'm
going to plant some food. Yeah. Right. Yeah.
It's the type of thing that says, Hey, I'm going
to take this little thing and it's going to blossom
into something magnificent for the kingdom. Right.
Now, last week, Matthew Nunley and I were talking
about prayer and we were talking about creating
space to actually pray and talk to God. And one
of the most common things, and maybe you run
into this with ministry with kids as well, is
that they're like, I just can't do enough. You
know, I can't find that time in my schedule.
And like what I talked about, as I said, you
were driving five minutes. Just talk to God.
You wake up five minutes early and you spend
a few minutes. I was like, you create a space
and you allow God to fill it. And you're like,
man, that's not significant. Well, guess what?
Mustard seed? You might be surprised how big
that tree gets. Oftentimes what we do, and I've
encountered this in church so many times, where
we will look at the pastor of a church. spoiler
alert, if you're like, for those who don't really
know, if you are a pastor of a church, like full
-time. If they don't know you're a pastor of
a church. Sorry. If someone is a pastor of a
church, they often have more time to dedicate
towards prayer, more time to dedicate to reading
scripture, more time to dedicate to the things
that we're called to, right? Because that is
their vocation, legit their vocation. And so
oftentimes what we do is we compare ourselves
to that. We're like, man, I hear about my pastor
saying he prays for an hour every morning. Yeah.
Okay. Oftentimes he can do that between 9 and
10 a .m. when he's at the church. Yeah. Right.
I hear that he had a whole day to just prepare
for his sermon. Right. Right. You have to understand
they're, they're living in a different space
than people who have a nine to five job. Right.
Or people who have a nine to five job who are
married with kids. Right. You might, you might
be like, man, this five minutes is all I got.
The Lord can work with that five minutes. Yeah.
Cause what I think a lot of times what we're
trying to do is we're trying to plant an oak
tree in our life and God says, no, put a mustard
seed there. Yeah. Yeah. And we often treat it.
The other thing I've told people is we often
treat prayer as this, Oh, I have to carve out
the X amount of time where I'm just down on my
knees by my bed doing it. And I was like, yes,
you can do it that way. Or you can just continually
pray to God throughout the day. Right. You can
see an aid car go by and you'd be like, Lord,
be with that situation. Give the paramedics wisdom
on how to deal with that. You can see a homeless
person on the street. You can go offer them food,
and after you walk away, you can pray for them,
or you can pray for them, or if they want you
to pray for them with them, you can do that too,
right? Like, there are so many ways where it
doesn't take a ton of time, right? What the Lord
wants is He wants us to be present as we go through
our lives, right? He wants us to be present and
intentional, thinking how, looking at things
how He looks at things, right? And so, uh, it
doesn't have to be like, okay, I need to carve
out an hour every morning for prayer. If you,
if you can do that, great. I'm not saying don't
do it. I'm saying that, but I'm saying if you're
like, man, I just don't feel like I have time.
It's like, no, you do. Usually you, you might
be commute to work. Like you're saying it might
be, you might have, uh, I mean, I work in the
schools, but even in the schools, I have moments
of like five to six minutes of just like quiet
and then back to back to work. Right. So I have
those moments where I can actually pray for.
pray for people in schools. Right. I have those
moments where I can actually, you know, be present
in people's lives. Right. That's what we're called
to do. So. And there's a, there's a pastor that
I like to quote sometimes. And he talks about,
he says, a lot of times we're asking God for
an oak tree when he, and he gives us an acorn.
Right. And he's like, because if he gave you
the oak tree, it would crush you. Yeah. Because
we're all growing. We're growing in our life
with God. And I was like, so where's the first
place you start? You start with an acorn. Right.
You start with a mustard seed. You plant it into
a life that's following after God. You saturate
it in generosity and love for the people around
you. You live into the kingdom of God. You bring
God with you to your workplace. Yeah. Right?
That's a novel concept. Absolutely. Stop going
to meet God to bring God with you. Uh -huh. Right?
And you'll be surprised that once that takes
root, what, what the, what the kingdom of God
does in and around you. Yeah. So this is, uh,
this has been a little bit shorter one, just
kind of like talking about the parables. Cause
I wanted to, we're going through the life of
Jesus, but, and he tells so many parables. Yeah.
Right. And they're really good. And we're going
to keep referencing them like as we're going
through, but it's, uh, the kingdom of God being,
uh, first and foremost in these parables, the
kingdom of God is like, the kingdom of God is
like, right. It's important. Like Jesus's message
was repent for the kingdom of heaven is here.
Yeah. And it's going to be accessible through
his death, burial and resurrection. Yeah. But
his message is it's here. And let me tell you
what it's like. Yeah. And when we're talking
about the gospel, that is the gospel. Yeah. That
this kingdom life is now accessible through his
death, burial and resurrection. And now we're
able to live into this. Yeah. Yeah. And with
the mustard seeds, God's calling you to just
give what you can. Yeah. right it all belongs
to him anyways but just give what you can yeah
um there's this uh story in youth ministry um
where there's this guy who's like okay i really
want to help out and like well how much time
do you have and he's like i got two minutes a
week and so like okay uh are you able to go to
the town's football game and as the players are
leaving the stadium just congratulate them and
he's like yeah i can do that and that grew into
like Bigger, better, more faithful ministry.
Start small. So I guess that's the challenge
this week. Let's go find ways that, you know,
find something in your life that's meaningful
that you can invest in smallly in the kingdom
of God and the people around you. Yep. And then
don't be surprised when it blows up into a big
old tree. Yep. Until next time. Goodbye. 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 Bible. We'd love to hear from you.
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