WEBVTT 00:00:02.600 --> 00:00:05.139 Welcome to season three of Love and Context. 00:00:05.259 --> 00:00:07.599 This season, we're exploring the life of Jesus 00:00:07.599 --> 00:00:10.419 step by step and uncovering what his story teaches 00:00:10.419 --> 00:00:13.400 us about loving God and others. Here on Love 00:00:13.400 --> 00:00:15.539 and Context, we're all about having real conversations 00:00:15.539 --> 00:00:17.660 about how to live out that love in practical, 00:00:17.800 --> 00:00:19.920 everyday ways and understanding the Bible in 00:00:19.920 --> 00:00:22.079 its full context. We're so glad you're here. 00:00:22.179 --> 00:00:24.960 Let's dive into season three of Love and Context. 00:00:27.559 --> 00:00:30.670 Welcome back. to the love and context podcast 00:00:30.670 --> 00:00:34.310 still not copyrighted still not copyrighted see 00:00:34.310 --> 00:00:36.409 that one is more of a uh it's like an atonal 00:00:36.409 --> 00:00:38.049 representation i went to like just different 00:00:38.049 --> 00:00:41.109 tones so yeah it's perfect i felt like you're 00:00:41.109 --> 00:00:43.009 trying to do a jazzy thing without the trumpet 00:00:43.009 --> 00:00:50.590 you know listen i uh Shut your face. So, yeah. 00:00:50.950 --> 00:00:53.570 Well, we are, if you're coming back to Love and 00:00:53.570 --> 00:00:54.789 Context Podcast, we're in the middle of the life 00:00:54.789 --> 00:00:59.149 of Jesus. And we are, I think we're pretty much 00:00:59.149 --> 00:01:00.590 back on schedule where you and I will be meeting 00:01:00.590 --> 00:01:03.469 and going. Though we may have a couple episodes. 00:01:03.570 --> 00:01:05.650 I've talked about having Matthew Nunleon to talk 00:01:05.650 --> 00:01:09.090 with Spencer and get me out of here. Yeah. Yeah. 00:01:09.170 --> 00:01:11.170 They're like, we could use a little less Ben. 00:01:11.790 --> 00:01:14.329 Listen, we've heard your feedback. And I hear 00:01:14.329 --> 00:01:19.709 you. Tara, we heard all 78 comments. All 78 comments, 00:01:19.950 --> 00:01:23.409 37 emails. Yeah, there was actually like, there 00:01:23.409 --> 00:01:25.049 was a telegraph at one point that came through. 00:01:25.189 --> 00:01:27.909 Yeah. Wow. Wow. That's impressive. So last week 00:01:27.909 --> 00:01:29.750 we were talking about, Matthew Nunley and I were 00:01:29.750 --> 00:01:31.349 talking about the feeding of the 4 ,000 and 5 00:01:31.349 --> 00:01:34.269 ,000 and what does it mean for like how Jesus 00:01:34.269 --> 00:01:36.370 is coming for the people. And then, but then 00:01:36.370 --> 00:01:38.870 they, they see the 5 ,000. Then he walks across 00:01:38.870 --> 00:01:40.849 the water. Then he heals a bunch of people. Then 00:01:40.849 --> 00:01:44.069 he goes over to the Gentiles. it's 4 ,000 people 00:01:44.069 --> 00:01:47.090 there. And then he comes back and he heals people. 00:01:47.349 --> 00:01:51.909 And then the religious leaders go, yeah, we need 00:01:51.909 --> 00:01:54.090 a sign that shows us that, you know, you can 00:01:54.090 --> 00:01:56.030 do this. Right. Cause that wasn't enough. Yeah. 00:01:56.069 --> 00:01:57.810 That wasn't enough. Right. And so it's like, 00:01:57.810 --> 00:02:00.129 it's like not just like, and he says, uh, he 00:02:00.129 --> 00:02:02.489 makes that statement. He says, uh, only a blasphemous 00:02:02.489 --> 00:02:04.349 and adulterous generation looks for a sign. Um, 00:02:04.650 --> 00:02:06.209 I don't think that the first word is not blasphemous, 00:02:06.250 --> 00:02:08.710 but it's a different word. Um, but, uh, which 00:02:08.710 --> 00:02:10.449 gets taken out of the context, which people say, 00:02:10.550 --> 00:02:12.939 well, you should never ask for a sign. No, you 00:02:12.939 --> 00:02:14.360 shouldn't ask for a sign when God's in the middle 00:02:14.360 --> 00:02:17.639 of proving it. Uh -huh. Right? It'd be like in 00:02:17.639 --> 00:02:19.280 the middle, like can you imagine in the Exodus, 00:02:19.439 --> 00:02:21.479 God splits the Red Sea and in the middle they're 00:02:21.479 --> 00:02:26.039 like, I'm not sure God can do it. Or like take 00:02:26.039 --> 00:02:28.800 it modern day. This is literally the modern day 00:02:28.800 --> 00:02:31.620 equivalent. Like someone, a pastor prays over 00:02:31.620 --> 00:02:33.639 someone and they're healed. And you're like, 00:02:33.719 --> 00:02:38.319 I'm not sure that was God. Right. And you're 00:02:38.319 --> 00:02:40.469 like. Yeah. It doesn't quite work. It doesn't 00:02:40.469 --> 00:02:43.710 quite work. Like what you do is like, uh, and 00:02:43.710 --> 00:02:45.289 so we had, we had a conversation around all that, 00:02:45.409 --> 00:02:48.530 um, in a, in a, in a large vein of like, you 00:02:48.530 --> 00:02:50.629 know, beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and 00:02:50.629 --> 00:02:53.030 of Herod or Sadducees, depending on which section 00:02:53.030 --> 00:02:55.349 you're taking in. Um, one of the next things 00:02:55.349 --> 00:02:58.129 that we had in our list to talk about was this 00:02:58.129 --> 00:03:02.590 thing of, uh, how God treats, I'm going to, I'm 00:03:02.590 --> 00:03:04.509 going to call it status in the kingdom of God. 00:03:04.590 --> 00:03:08.430 Yeah. And I want to start with in Matthew 18. 00:03:08.650 --> 00:03:11.449 That's the first story. Apparently I grabbed 00:03:11.449 --> 00:03:17.169 the whole curtain with me. Matthew 18 here. At 00:03:17.169 --> 00:03:19.270 that time, so he just had this conversation with 00:03:19.270 --> 00:03:22.490 Peter about temple tax, right? It says, at that 00:03:22.490 --> 00:03:24.569 time, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, 00:03:24.710 --> 00:03:26.930 who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? 00:03:27.069 --> 00:03:28.969 Great way to start a conversation though. Like 00:03:28.969 --> 00:03:31.509 when you are following a guy who's all about 00:03:31.509 --> 00:03:33.969 humility and loving other people and then being 00:03:33.969 --> 00:03:36.550 like, which one of us is the best at it? Yeah. 00:03:36.930 --> 00:03:40.210 Yeah. Am I better at humbleness than them? Am 00:03:40.210 --> 00:03:42.689 I more loving than the person next to me? Yeah. 00:03:43.280 --> 00:03:45.340 So then he called a little child to him and he 00:03:45.340 --> 00:03:47.460 placed the child among them. He said, truly, 00:03:47.479 --> 00:03:49.719 I tell you, unless you change and become like 00:03:49.719 --> 00:03:51.979 little children, you will never enter the kingdom 00:03:51.979 --> 00:03:54.199 of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly 00:03:54.199 --> 00:03:55.819 position of this child is the greatest in the 00:03:55.819 --> 00:03:58.020 kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such 00:03:58.020 --> 00:04:02.800 child in my name welcomes me. Okay. So right 00:04:02.800 --> 00:04:04.879 off the bat, flipping things on their head because 00:04:04.879 --> 00:04:09.599 children in this context are more of the seen 00:04:09.599 --> 00:04:12.490 and not heard. Yes. Right. Um, which by the way, 00:04:12.490 --> 00:04:14.849 still is kind of the case in a lot of places. 00:04:15.370 --> 00:04:17.110 They, they treat children as people to be seen, 00:04:17.149 --> 00:04:20.430 but not heard. Yeah. Uh, Jesus says kingdom of 00:04:20.430 --> 00:04:22.689 heaven belongs to people like this. And you actually 00:04:22.689 --> 00:04:26.069 got to become like this in order to be great 00:04:26.069 --> 00:04:29.769 in the kingdom of heaven. Now that does not mean 00:04:29.769 --> 00:04:33.110 go be childish because there's a different, you 00:04:33.110 --> 00:04:35.509 work with children, um, at your job and then 00:04:35.509 --> 00:04:38.069 also with youth in, uh, in your, uh, young life. 00:04:38.430 --> 00:04:41.459 Um, Spend a lot of time with a lot of time with 00:04:41.459 --> 00:04:43.680 people, kids, a lot of time with people calling 00:04:43.680 --> 00:04:48.060 you old man. Yeah. Um, and coming up with insults 00:04:48.060 --> 00:04:51.600 that you're like, I don't feel insulted at all, 00:04:51.620 --> 00:04:54.300 but nice try. There is, there is a difference 00:04:54.300 --> 00:05:00.570 between childlike and childish, right? Because 00:05:00.570 --> 00:05:02.550 childlike, I mean, you have a daughter who's 00:05:02.550 --> 00:05:05.009 seven. I have a son who's six and four. Childlike 00:05:05.009 --> 00:05:08.829 is when I was driving down to one of our grocery 00:05:08.829 --> 00:05:10.970 stores the other day. And I had this really nice 00:05:10.970 --> 00:05:14.430 panorama across the ocean. And it was sunset. 00:05:14.589 --> 00:05:17.629 And the sun was coming across. And James looks 00:05:17.629 --> 00:05:21.329 out the window and he goes, wow. God's got a 00:05:21.329 --> 00:05:23.829 paintbrush, right? Like that. And I was like, 00:05:23.829 --> 00:05:25.269 well, that's, that's actually really cool, you 00:05:25.269 --> 00:05:27.610 know? But, uh, and like, like it's just this 00:05:27.610 --> 00:05:30.290 childlike wonder of what God does, right? It's 00:05:30.290 --> 00:05:32.589 just, it's this, uh, engaging everything. It's 00:05:32.589 --> 00:05:34.689 surprising. It's new. Uh, one of my favorite 00:05:34.689 --> 00:05:37.149 stories about James is, um, if you, you know, 00:05:37.170 --> 00:05:40.310 those, um, uh, applesauce containers that kids 00:05:40.310 --> 00:05:44.899 like, they just down. So. He was eating some 00:05:44.899 --> 00:05:47.459 of those, and he was accumulating the tops. And 00:05:47.459 --> 00:05:49.399 we just assumed that they were garbage, right? 00:05:49.459 --> 00:05:54.220 Because they were. Yeah. And so like normal garbage, 00:05:54.300 --> 00:05:55.579 we picked it up, we put it in the garbage. And 00:05:55.579 --> 00:05:57.720 then that night, James was very sad when he went 00:05:57.720 --> 00:06:00.199 to bed. And he says, yeah, Mom threw away my 00:06:00.199 --> 00:06:03.279 saucy heads. And I'm like, what in the world 00:06:03.279 --> 00:06:06.519 are saucy heads? Right? He says, my saucy heads. 00:06:06.560 --> 00:06:08.959 Mom threw them away. So it turns out that he 00:06:08.959 --> 00:06:12.240 liked to keep the lids. of applesauce containers 00:06:12.240 --> 00:06:14.720 and then play with them like action figures now 00:06:14.720 --> 00:06:18.660 here's the thing james has lots of toys but he 00:06:18.660 --> 00:06:20.899 wanted to do this with his it's always more fun 00:06:20.899 --> 00:06:22.480 to play with the cardboard box that the toys 00:06:22.480 --> 00:06:27.259 came in let's be real like the uh and so uh so 00:06:27.259 --> 00:06:29.339 what we started doing is we actually got a jar 00:06:29.339 --> 00:06:31.480 so he could start accumulating the the saucy 00:06:31.480 --> 00:06:33.540 heads and now he's going to do a uh art piece 00:06:33.540 --> 00:06:36.819 with tara for cool for that thing but like kids 00:06:36.819 --> 00:06:39.790 i see a piece of garbage He sees this as an action 00:06:39.790 --> 00:06:41.029 figure. This is something to be collected. This 00:06:41.029 --> 00:06:44.230 is something special. And there's just a different 00:06:44.230 --> 00:06:47.449 way of looking at it that kids just in general 00:06:47.449 --> 00:06:51.670 are. An example of childish was Sunday. I was 00:06:51.670 --> 00:06:54.170 over at Ben's house watching football. And Leland, 00:06:54.410 --> 00:06:56.170 his youngest, walks over to me with one of those 00:06:56.170 --> 00:06:59.129 applesauce things. Yep. I believe it was a yogurt 00:06:59.129 --> 00:07:00.750 one, actually. Oh, it was a yogurt, but it had 00:07:00.750 --> 00:07:04.550 the twisty top. And he wanted me to open it. 00:07:04.649 --> 00:07:06.930 And I grabbed it, and I pretended like I was 00:07:06.930 --> 00:07:08.959 too weak. And I was like, eh. Oh, man, I can't 00:07:08.959 --> 00:07:11.500 do it. And then Leland slaps my hands away and 00:07:11.500 --> 00:07:15.879 opens it himself. You know, in this example, 00:07:16.019 --> 00:07:19.639 I was the one being childish. But, you know, 00:07:19.639 --> 00:07:21.740 there's that's the example of being childish 00:07:21.740 --> 00:07:23.360 and being like, hey, this is something I can 00:07:23.360 --> 00:07:25.120 do and I know how to do, but I'm not going to 00:07:25.120 --> 00:07:29.339 do it. Yeah. Right. And so first of all, I want 00:07:29.339 --> 00:07:31.740 to jump over here to Mark. Another version of 00:07:31.740 --> 00:07:35.449 the same story. It says. He was talking to them. 00:07:35.470 --> 00:07:36.769 He said the Son of Man is going to be delivered 00:07:36.769 --> 00:07:40.689 into the hands of men. This is Mark 9, 31. They 00:07:40.689 --> 00:07:42.250 will kill him and after three days he will rise. 00:07:42.430 --> 00:07:43.930 But they did not understand what he meant and 00:07:43.930 --> 00:07:46.209 were afraid to ask him about it. They came to 00:07:46.209 --> 00:07:48.529 Capernaum. So this is part of the same like paragraph 00:07:48.529 --> 00:07:50.889 for here. When he was in the house, he asked 00:07:50.889 --> 00:07:52.850 them, what were you arguing about on the road? 00:07:53.230 --> 00:07:55.509 What were you arguing about on the road? Okay. 00:07:56.110 --> 00:07:58.750 But they kept quiet because on the way they had 00:07:58.750 --> 00:08:02.060 argued about who was the greatest. Now, when 00:08:02.060 --> 00:08:04.220 you start to recognize that all of these people, 00:08:04.259 --> 00:08:06.040 like Peter's probably 21, but everybody else 00:08:06.040 --> 00:08:08.620 is probably 13 to 12 to 14. This conversation 00:08:08.620 --> 00:08:12.339 makes a little bit more sense, right? Sitting 00:08:12.339 --> 00:08:14.839 down, Jesus called the 12 and said, Anyone who 00:08:14.839 --> 00:08:16.639 wants to be first must be the very last and the 00:08:16.639 --> 00:08:18.259 servant of all. He took a little child who he 00:08:18.259 --> 00:08:20.300 placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, 00:08:20.339 --> 00:08:21.740 he said to them, Whoever welcomes one of these 00:08:21.740 --> 00:08:24.220 little children in my name welcomes me, and whoever 00:08:24.220 --> 00:08:29.399 welcomes me does not welcome me, but the one 00:08:29.399 --> 00:08:32.360 who sent me. Notice how Jesus doesn't answer 00:08:32.360 --> 00:08:36.039 the question on who is. Yeah. Both times it is. 00:08:36.580 --> 00:08:40.500 It's this is what it means. Yeah. There is. I 00:08:40.500 --> 00:08:45.139 was reading a book this week by Rabbi Jonathan 00:08:45.139 --> 00:08:48.379 Sachs, and he's he passed away, I believe, in 00:08:48.379 --> 00:08:50.940 2020. He's an Orthodox Jew. He has some commentary 00:08:50.940 --> 00:08:52.740 on Torah. And so he's got some really interesting 00:08:52.740 --> 00:08:54.659 insights. One of the things he makes a comment 00:08:54.659 --> 00:08:56.919 on and he's talking about in the book of Exodus. 00:08:58.210 --> 00:09:00.909 is that there's a lot of parallels of two, that 00:09:00.909 --> 00:09:04.049 before they go across the Red Sea, there's the 00:09:04.049 --> 00:09:05.710 Egyptian army that they have to fight, and then 00:09:05.710 --> 00:09:07.389 there's the Amalekite army that they have to 00:09:07.389 --> 00:09:09.970 fight. Then there's two tablets that Moses brings 00:09:09.970 --> 00:09:11.730 down and he breaks, and two tablets later that 00:09:11.730 --> 00:09:13.750 he has to put back together. There is the cloud 00:09:13.750 --> 00:09:15.250 that is on top of the mountain, and then there's 00:09:15.250 --> 00:09:18.169 the cloud that fills the tabernacle. And there's, 00:09:18.169 --> 00:09:20.610 all throughout the book of Exodus, the first 00:09:20.610 --> 00:09:24.389 one is all God doing something. And the second 00:09:24.389 --> 00:09:27.799 one is involving human participation. And he 00:09:27.799 --> 00:09:29.820 makes a statement. He says a lot of times when 00:09:29.820 --> 00:09:32.059 God is doing something, when we actually step 00:09:32.059 --> 00:09:35.220 into it, the reason we serve God is because when 00:09:35.220 --> 00:09:37.460 we actually serve God, it does something to us. 00:09:38.460 --> 00:09:40.059 And so your point where you're talking about 00:09:40.059 --> 00:09:46.320 Jesus is talking about that he doesn't tell them 00:09:46.320 --> 00:09:48.820 who the greatest is. Instead, what he says is 00:09:48.820 --> 00:09:50.779 you need to be like these children. You need 00:09:50.779 --> 00:09:52.860 to go welcome these children in my name. You 00:09:52.860 --> 00:09:56.110 need to go and do the work of the kingdom. And 00:09:56.110 --> 00:09:58.210 it's actually going to transform you into the 00:09:58.210 --> 00:10:01.649 kind of person that is great. Right? Rather than 00:10:01.649 --> 00:10:03.509 seeking greatness, you need to go and do the 00:10:03.509 --> 00:10:05.889 things that actually make you great, which are 00:10:05.889 --> 00:10:08.190 the things that actually let yourself down. Yeah. 00:10:08.250 --> 00:10:10.409 Right? This is going to be evidence later when 00:10:10.409 --> 00:10:14.269 he's talking in the Lord's Supper and he takes 00:10:14.269 --> 00:10:17.230 off his outer robe and then he washes the disciples' 00:10:17.429 --> 00:10:20.409 feet. He, the rabbi, about to go be crucified, 00:10:20.590 --> 00:10:23.559 all these different things, right? He thinks 00:10:23.559 --> 00:10:25.620 that this is the the role for him to go is to 00:10:25.620 --> 00:10:27.779 go and wash the feet of the disciples the nasty 00:10:27.779 --> 00:10:32.259 gross feet and And they're like we don't get 00:10:32.259 --> 00:10:34.820 it in which you know to be fair. I'm not sure 00:10:34.820 --> 00:10:38.340 that we often do either But he says I've done 00:10:38.340 --> 00:10:40.019 this so that you're going to know in the future 00:10:40.019 --> 00:10:43.610 Why I did this And there's there's something 00:10:43.610 --> 00:10:46.429 about children. There's something about childlike 00:10:46.429 --> 00:10:48.710 faith. There's something about maybe not being 00:10:48.710 --> 00:10:51.129 weighed down with the weight of the world. Maybe 00:10:51.129 --> 00:10:53.309 not being you don't have the job. You don't have 00:10:53.309 --> 00:10:55.250 the mortgage. You don't have the bills. You don't 00:10:55.250 --> 00:10:57.409 have the you know, you don't have the scars of 00:10:57.409 --> 00:10:59.509 many, many conversations. No, I've heard adults 00:10:59.509 --> 00:11:02.230 say that. Tell me that. They're like, when I 00:11:02.230 --> 00:11:04.190 was a kid, I was like, I can't wait till I grow 00:11:04.190 --> 00:11:06.529 up. Yeah. And then now that I'm a grown up, I'm 00:11:06.529 --> 00:11:09.169 like, man, it was great to be a kid. Yeah. Right. 00:11:09.629 --> 00:11:12.250 You don't realize what you have until it's gone 00:11:12.250 --> 00:11:15.529 a lot of times. And Jesus here is saying, no, 00:11:15.549 --> 00:11:18.669 you don't ever want to lose that wonder, that 00:11:18.669 --> 00:11:23.809 awe, that sense of just being present with God. 00:11:25.230 --> 00:11:26.809 And so when we're talking about that childlike 00:11:26.809 --> 00:11:28.990 faith, a lot of times when we talk about spiritual 00:11:28.990 --> 00:11:31.509 maturity, I think we get this a little bit skewed 00:11:31.509 --> 00:11:33.490 where we'll talk about it in the sense of like, 00:11:33.570 --> 00:11:36.950 well, you will look like this. Here will be all 00:11:36.950 --> 00:11:40.799 the things you do. And then when you have the 00:11:40.799 --> 00:11:42.559 disciples being like, which one of us is doing 00:11:42.559 --> 00:11:46.259 this the best? Jesus is like, let's look at children, 00:11:46.399 --> 00:11:48.700 for example, children who just want to be with 00:11:48.700 --> 00:11:51.440 you. Yeah. Just want to be present. Yeah. Like 00:11:51.440 --> 00:11:54.679 that is the main thing for us is that we be present 00:11:54.679 --> 00:12:00.059 with God. Yeah. One and, and beyond that too. 00:12:00.949 --> 00:12:02.909 this responsibility towards our children, towards 00:12:02.909 --> 00:12:05.529 raising kids in a way that's right. Proverbs 00:12:05.529 --> 00:12:07.070 is going to say, raise your child in a way that 00:12:07.070 --> 00:12:08.389 is right. And when they're grown, they won't 00:12:08.389 --> 00:12:11.309 depart from it. Jesus is going to say something 00:12:11.309 --> 00:12:13.409 that is connected to this. He's going to say, 00:12:13.509 --> 00:12:16.549 if one of you causes one of these little ones 00:12:16.549 --> 00:12:18.789 to stumble, dude, it's going to be better for 00:12:18.789 --> 00:12:20.629 you if you just took a rock, tied it to yourself 00:12:20.629 --> 00:12:23.559 and chucked yourself in the water. you'd be way 00:12:23.559 --> 00:12:25.419 better off now remembering of course how they 00:12:25.419 --> 00:12:28.139 feel about water chaotic waters right they you 00:12:28.139 --> 00:12:30.720 don't want to go in the water he says if you 00:12:30.720 --> 00:12:34.139 are leading these little ones astray you're going 00:12:34.139 --> 00:12:36.700 to be way better off. Instead, what you need 00:12:36.700 --> 00:12:39.700 to do is cherish kids. And I think what Jesus 00:12:39.700 --> 00:12:41.360 is continually doing through his ministry, and 00:12:41.360 --> 00:12:43.120 we're using the kids here, but he does it with 00:12:43.120 --> 00:12:46.120 widows and he does it with tax collectors and 00:12:46.120 --> 00:12:47.799 sinners and prostitutes and these people that 00:12:47.799 --> 00:12:50.440 are on the outside that are marginalized, is 00:12:50.440 --> 00:12:52.879 he's saying the kingdom of God is here for them. 00:12:53.620 --> 00:12:56.080 The kingdom of God is here to heal sickness and 00:12:56.080 --> 00:12:59.639 brokenness and sin and depravity and the things 00:12:59.639 --> 00:13:01.500 that are broken inside of people. The kingdom 00:13:01.500 --> 00:13:04.830 of God is here for. It's not here for the ultra 00:13:04.830 --> 00:13:07.610 religious. Now, does that mean that it's not 00:13:07.610 --> 00:13:09.429 for the ultra religious? Of course it is. It's 00:13:09.429 --> 00:13:11.970 for everybody, but it's for those people that 00:13:11.970 --> 00:13:14.450 actually desperately need the kingdom of God. 00:13:14.750 --> 00:13:18.669 And there's this invitation to, uh, that greatness 00:13:18.669 --> 00:13:21.929 comes from being able to maybe uncomplicate, 00:13:21.950 --> 00:13:28.850 maybe, um, trust a little bit deeper. more authentically 00:13:28.850 --> 00:13:32.129 i mean jesus summed that up himself when he's 00:13:32.129 --> 00:13:34.149 like hey what when they're like what is the greatest 00:13:34.149 --> 00:13:36.649 commandment and he talks about loving the lord 00:13:36.649 --> 00:13:38.330 with everything you have and then the second 00:13:38.330 --> 00:13:40.610 one's equally as important which is loving uh 00:13:40.610 --> 00:13:43.950 your neighbor as yourself and he says all of 00:13:43.950 --> 00:13:49.259 torah hinges on this right yeah like Jesus himself 00:13:49.259 --> 00:13:51.399 did that where it's like you have all these nuanced 00:13:51.399 --> 00:13:52.840 things that you're thinking about, but he's like 00:13:52.840 --> 00:13:55.659 it all hinges on this. Loving God with everything 00:13:55.659 --> 00:13:57.779 you have and loving people with everything you 00:13:57.779 --> 00:14:00.159 have. Which, by the way, there may or may not 00:14:00.159 --> 00:14:02.539 be a parallel to the church today with that. 00:14:02.759 --> 00:14:05.580 Yes. I was actually going to ask you if you feel 00:14:05.580 --> 00:14:08.659 good about talking about this. We're going to 00:14:08.659 --> 00:14:10.960 pick on Americans because we're American. I feel 00:14:10.960 --> 00:14:13.039 like that's probably fair. We should only pick 00:14:13.039 --> 00:14:15.759 on ourselves. Well. But we're in our community. 00:14:16.259 --> 00:14:19.980 Let's call it American Christendom. Do we chase 00:14:19.980 --> 00:14:25.179 greatness instead of welcoming the least? Are 00:14:25.179 --> 00:14:28.019 we talking in a political sphere? Are we talking 00:14:28.019 --> 00:14:31.700 in a community sphere? Dealers' choice. Yeah. 00:14:32.500 --> 00:14:34.500 Right? Do you want me to address this alphabetically, 00:14:34.539 --> 00:14:36.700 chronologically, geographically? I'm just joking. 00:14:38.279 --> 00:14:39.659 There's a lot of them. There's a lot of them, 00:14:39.700 --> 00:14:43.360 yeah. I mean, just take... Take a political sphere, 00:14:43.539 --> 00:14:46.059 for example. We will do a lot of things in the 00:14:46.059 --> 00:14:48.159 name of God, right? And we'll be like, well, 00:14:48.639 --> 00:14:50.940 the reason we vote this way is because Jesus 00:14:50.940 --> 00:14:54.000 was Republican or Jesus was Democrat. It's like, 00:14:54.059 --> 00:14:56.639 no, Jesus was the son of God. Jesus didn't operate 00:14:56.639 --> 00:14:59.480 in our political system at all. We also do it 00:14:59.480 --> 00:15:03.500 in the sense of self -righteousness, in the sense 00:15:03.500 --> 00:15:05.279 of look how good I'm doing, look what I'm doing, 00:15:05.399 --> 00:15:08.100 look what we're accomplishing as a church, right? 00:15:08.240 --> 00:15:09.799 The other way that we do it, which I would argue 00:15:09.799 --> 00:15:13.289 is the most dangerous, is... We do it in, it 00:15:13.289 --> 00:15:14.990 ties in self -righteousness a little bit, but 00:15:14.990 --> 00:15:18.870 is in the self, is in the idea of image. Right? 00:15:19.049 --> 00:15:22.570 We want, so many churches I have been into in 00:15:22.570 --> 00:15:25.350 the US where it's like they have a specific image 00:15:25.350 --> 00:15:28.370 that they want there. And if somebody walks in 00:15:28.370 --> 00:15:30.389 who doesn't fit that mold, they're like, maybe 00:15:30.389 --> 00:15:32.649 we'll be a little less welcoming to that person 00:15:32.649 --> 00:15:34.710 because they don't quite fit our mold or our 00:15:34.710 --> 00:15:37.269 image that we want to obtain. Right. Or uphold. 00:15:39.070 --> 00:15:42.809 And I, think that the reason i say that one's 00:15:42.809 --> 00:15:45.289 the most dangerous is because that one is so 00:15:45.289 --> 00:15:49.370 counter gospel because the gospel is all about 00:15:49.370 --> 00:15:52.970 welcoming messy people in right and if you have 00:15:52.970 --> 00:15:57.330 um if you claim to follow jesus that means that 00:15:57.330 --> 00:16:01.490 you once were a messy person yeah right you want 00:16:01.490 --> 00:16:03.009 to add mess in your life you want to add sin 00:16:03.009 --> 00:16:04.409 in your life you want to add filth in your life 00:16:04.409 --> 00:16:06.629 and to give you an example i was talking to a 00:16:06.629 --> 00:16:10.809 friend About a week ago. And they were saying 00:16:10.809 --> 00:16:13.490 like, yeah, we have churches in our community 00:16:13.490 --> 00:16:17.190 where you go ask them, what does it mean to be 00:16:17.190 --> 00:16:20.309 a disciple? And they literally will think about 00:16:20.309 --> 00:16:22.149 it for a minute and then they'll say, I don't 00:16:22.149 --> 00:16:27.889 know. Right. Which to me, I'm like, if you're 00:16:27.889 --> 00:16:29.669 a church and you don't know what it means to 00:16:29.669 --> 00:16:34.830 be a disciple, a follower of Jesus. Yeah. And 00:16:34.830 --> 00:16:36.769 having churches like. It's problematic. Yeah. 00:16:37.230 --> 00:16:40.509 having churches admit that too. Well, and this 00:16:40.509 --> 00:16:42.309 is, by the way, I'm not just, I'm going to throw 00:16:42.309 --> 00:16:44.289 a couple of examples out here, not to throw anybody 00:16:44.289 --> 00:16:46.549 out of the bus more to point out that this shows 00:16:46.549 --> 00:16:49.669 up in all different types of service to God. 00:16:49.809 --> 00:16:52.409 So there are incredibly conservative churches 00:16:52.409 --> 00:16:53.850 that they say, you know, you know, those tables 00:16:53.850 --> 00:16:56.289 say in remembrance of me. They've got to be there 00:16:56.289 --> 00:16:58.090 with the big Bible open on the front, communion 00:16:58.090 --> 00:17:00.990 things on either side, big old pulpit. These 00:17:00.990 --> 00:17:02.990 are the things that have to be there. Nothing 00:17:02.990 --> 00:17:07.970 wrong with those things. Some people, you go 00:17:07.970 --> 00:17:09.750 in and they're like, oh, we want to make sure 00:17:09.750 --> 00:17:12.410 we have the big stained glass windows depicting 00:17:12.410 --> 00:17:14.670 scenes from the life of Jesus. Other places you 00:17:14.670 --> 00:17:16.130 go in and they're like, oh, we've got to have 00:17:16.130 --> 00:17:18.130 the latest technology and we've got to have the 00:17:18.130 --> 00:17:23.730 lights and the smoke cams and whatever. And other 00:17:23.730 --> 00:17:25.980 places will be like listen we we have to have 00:17:25.980 --> 00:17:27.819 pews because pews are great or we have to have 00:17:27.819 --> 00:17:30.759 chairs because they're they're movable none of 00:17:30.759 --> 00:17:34.099 these things are the issue but when these things 00:17:34.099 --> 00:17:37.299 when people when something comes in that doesn't 00:17:37.299 --> 00:17:40.180 fit those things and our temptation is to get 00:17:40.180 --> 00:17:42.700 rid of the person and not the stuff or not worry 00:17:42.700 --> 00:17:45.299 about the stuff there's a problem because the 00:17:45.299 --> 00:17:49.240 stuff is stuff and the person is a person when 00:17:49.240 --> 00:17:52.039 we come in and we decide to die on the mountain 00:17:52.039 --> 00:17:57.029 of keeping the pews in the church, right? When 00:17:57.029 --> 00:17:59.130 we decided to die on those mountains of things 00:17:59.130 --> 00:18:01.009 that don't really matter, right? Doesn't matter 00:18:01.009 --> 00:18:03.769 if your church has pews or chairs. Yeah. Not 00:18:03.769 --> 00:18:06.769 at all. Does it matter if they have fancy lights 00:18:06.769 --> 00:18:09.589 or no fancy lights? Doesn't matter at all, right? 00:18:10.009 --> 00:18:13.990 But we will die on those hills in the guise of 00:18:13.990 --> 00:18:17.170 this is what it means to be followers of Jesus. 00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:20.559 to have the $100 ,000 sound system with the big 00:18:20.559 --> 00:18:22.920 light to show. What does it mean to be the greatest 00:18:22.920 --> 00:18:26.000 church in town? Yeah. Right? Are we the greatest? 00:18:26.200 --> 00:18:28.079 Or is that church the greatest? You know, how 00:18:28.079 --> 00:18:31.279 can we be the greatest? And Jesus is like, man, 00:18:31.660 --> 00:18:33.500 you ever thought just about just welcoming children? 00:18:34.859 --> 00:18:38.140 Right? Whenever I go to a new church, there's 00:18:38.140 --> 00:18:39.839 a couple things I do just because I want to. 00:18:40.079 --> 00:18:46.039 And yes, I do this not out of spite, but more 00:18:46.039 --> 00:18:48.569 so out of just like, Just to get a little bit 00:18:48.569 --> 00:18:50.750 of rise. Do you think there's a word we can use 00:18:50.750 --> 00:18:53.869 that's not spite? And we'll call it holy spite. 00:18:54.130 --> 00:18:58.990 Yeah, sure. That's not a thing. But one of the 00:18:58.990 --> 00:19:00.650 things I'll do is I'll actually, if it's my first 00:19:00.650 --> 00:19:02.289 time going to that church, I'll purposely dress 00:19:02.289 --> 00:19:06.109 down a little bit. I'll wear a hat. I will do 00:19:06.109 --> 00:19:08.769 some stuff like that just to see how people react. 00:19:09.009 --> 00:19:11.430 Yeah. Right? See how I get treated. See if I 00:19:11.430 --> 00:19:15.109 get treated any differently. And, um, and that 00:19:15.109 --> 00:19:17.869 honestly, it will tell you a lot about that church 00:19:17.869 --> 00:19:21.910 culture right there. And, and, uh, sometimes 00:19:21.910 --> 00:19:24.970 it goes fine. Sometimes it's like, Oh man, I 00:19:24.970 --> 00:19:27.930 didn't have a single person say hi to me. Right. 00:19:29.269 --> 00:19:34.400 I was, uh, um, I had a conversation with a guy 00:19:34.400 --> 00:19:36.359 by the name of Charlie Couch. He's the father 00:19:36.359 --> 00:19:39.420 of a pastor that I had in college. And he had 00:19:39.420 --> 00:19:41.240 been, I think he pastored some like 50 years, 00:19:41.359 --> 00:19:44.660 like a good while. He was talking about a church 00:19:44.660 --> 00:19:49.140 in his community that they actually split. They 00:19:49.140 --> 00:19:52.259 were about to split churches. And the issue that 00:19:52.259 --> 00:19:54.480 they were splitting on was that they had built 00:19:54.480 --> 00:19:58.039 a recreational facility for the youth connected 00:19:58.039 --> 00:20:02.109 to their church. there were people that were 00:20:02.109 --> 00:20:05.309 arguing that it shouldn't be connected to the 00:20:05.309 --> 00:20:10.190 house of God by cement because it may, it connected 00:20:10.190 --> 00:20:12.309 every activity done in their youth center to 00:20:12.309 --> 00:20:14.829 what was done in the main church. And that a 00:20:14.829 --> 00:20:16.609 place of recreation shouldn't be associated with 00:20:16.609 --> 00:20:18.930 the actual, the actual church. And they were 00:20:18.930 --> 00:20:21.609 fighting about this and getting ready to split 00:20:21.609 --> 00:20:23.970 the church, not because they were using one building 00:20:23.970 --> 00:20:26.029 two different ways, but because the two buildings 00:20:26.029 --> 00:20:27.930 were two different places. Right. So they, I 00:20:27.930 --> 00:20:29.309 mean, this is the kind of crazy things that people 00:20:29.309 --> 00:20:33.069 fight about. The compromise eventually that they 00:20:33.069 --> 00:20:34.950 did is they took out a section of cement that 00:20:34.950 --> 00:20:37.210 wide so that they weren't physically connected. 00:20:37.930 --> 00:20:41.769 Now, I'm just going to tell you, and Charlie 00:20:41.769 --> 00:20:45.150 will be the one to tell you too, this section 00:20:45.150 --> 00:20:48.349 of cement was not the problem. The issue was 00:20:48.349 --> 00:20:50.750 that people were looking at this, they were deifying 00:20:50.750 --> 00:20:54.730 buildings and programs and setups rather than 00:20:54.730 --> 00:20:59.220 understanding that we serve a deified Lord. and 00:20:59.220 --> 00:21:00.859 he's the one that tells us to welcome in the 00:21:00.859 --> 00:21:04.779 least of these. Somewhere, and this is not all 00:21:04.779 --> 00:21:08.279 churches, so understand, and not every church 00:21:08.279 --> 00:21:09.700 does this well, not every church does this badly, 00:21:09.859 --> 00:21:12.960 but we have this thing where we want people who 00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:16.019 are put together coming to church. Yeah. And 00:21:16.019 --> 00:21:20.160 that's actually not who church is for. I mean, 00:21:20.160 --> 00:21:23.539 it's for them, yes. But it's for the rich and 00:21:23.539 --> 00:21:27.140 the poor and the slave and the free and the Jew 00:21:27.140 --> 00:21:30.980 and the Gentile. It's for men and women. And 00:21:30.980 --> 00:21:35.000 we had a question about somebody who came to 00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:38.819 church and their lifestyle is not quite somebody 00:21:38.819 --> 00:21:41.339 that is a Christian. And I said, well, what do 00:21:41.339 --> 00:21:42.440 you do about that? And I was like, I don't know, 00:21:42.460 --> 00:21:46.579 say hi. Right? Like if you have a staunch atheist, 00:21:46.680 --> 00:21:49.740 come to your church. I mean, they're like, what 00:21:49.740 --> 00:21:52.859 do you do? It's like, say hi. You know, welcome 00:21:52.859 --> 00:21:56.200 them. What are you supposed to do? I mean, they're 00:21:56.200 --> 00:21:58.940 here to hear about Jesus. You know? Well, yeah. 00:22:02.279 --> 00:22:07.960 It's going to be fun. I was in a pastor's conference 00:22:07.960 --> 00:22:11.380 one time. Oh, no. I remember this story. Go ahead. 00:22:11.480 --> 00:22:13.980 Yeah. I haven't told it here, so I'm telling 00:22:13.980 --> 00:22:17.839 it here now. And we were talking about some tough 00:22:17.839 --> 00:22:21.079 topics. Yeah. And basically, like, how do you 00:22:21.079 --> 00:22:22.640 love broken people? How do you love people who 00:22:22.640 --> 00:22:24.099 believe different than you? Stuff like that. 00:22:24.339 --> 00:22:26.720 And at the end of it, the guy asked a simple 00:22:26.720 --> 00:22:30.519 question. And his simple question was, like, 00:22:30.539 --> 00:22:34.950 are you willing and able to love? broken individuals. 00:22:35.569 --> 00:22:37.009 And there's a bunch of people that are like, 00:22:37.069 --> 00:22:40.170 man, that's a really good question. And I'm sitting 00:22:40.170 --> 00:22:41.849 in the back with my friend. I'm like, we're at 00:22:41.849 --> 00:22:46.170 a pastor's conference. Like our call is to love 00:22:46.170 --> 00:22:48.990 broken individuals. Like that is in, that should 00:22:48.990 --> 00:22:51.549 be in our DNA. Yeah. And I was like, and if we're 00:22:51.549 --> 00:22:55.119 asking this. We should not be in ministry leadership. 00:22:55.180 --> 00:22:57.299 If anything, what we do is we disciple people 00:22:57.299 --> 00:22:59.839 who then go and reach out to broken people. Right. 00:23:00.019 --> 00:23:03.539 Right. Right. Right. And so, but what it came 00:23:03.539 --> 00:23:05.140 down to, which I don't think I've told you this 00:23:05.140 --> 00:23:06.779 part of the story, but what it came down to is 00:23:06.779 --> 00:23:09.740 when you looked around that room is you could 00:23:09.740 --> 00:23:12.359 immediately tell which churches worship Sunday 00:23:12.359 --> 00:23:15.279 morning more than they worship Jesus. Right. 00:23:15.759 --> 00:23:17.579 And it was these churches that were like, oh, 00:23:17.680 --> 00:23:19.599 well, I don't know because like, this is what 00:23:19.599 --> 00:23:22.049 our church looks like. This is how. This is what 00:23:22.049 --> 00:23:24.029 makes us feel quote unquote safe and blah, blah, 00:23:24.109 --> 00:23:25.869 blah. That we're like, oh, that's a really tough 00:23:25.869 --> 00:23:27.910 question to wrestle with. And the churches that 00:23:27.910 --> 00:23:30.549 were like, yeah, of course we love broken people. 00:23:31.450 --> 00:23:33.549 Right. They were the ones that are like, you 00:23:33.549 --> 00:23:35.789 know what? Maybe we don't need the brand new 00:23:35.789 --> 00:23:38.069 sound system right now. Maybe we don't need this. 00:23:38.130 --> 00:23:40.609 Maybe we can invest this money over here to where 00:23:40.609 --> 00:23:43.029 we're reaching broken people. Right. Right. And 00:23:43.029 --> 00:23:46.390 so oftentimes we can find ourselves in a church 00:23:46.390 --> 00:23:48.730 that worships Sunday morning more than Jesus. 00:23:49.089 --> 00:23:52.130 Yeah. And that's a. Horribly dangerous place 00:23:52.130 --> 00:23:55.029 to be. Yeah. I mean, when you worship Sunday 00:23:55.029 --> 00:23:57.589 morning, you worship the teachings of your pastor, 00:23:57.690 --> 00:24:00.509 the music of your leaders, like whatever it is, 00:24:00.589 --> 00:24:03.990 right? Jesus, it's always goes Jesus. And then 00:24:03.990 --> 00:24:08.670 whatever falls underneath that, right? It is, 00:24:08.670 --> 00:24:11.230 by the way, sound system is not a problem for 00:24:11.230 --> 00:24:13.970 somebody to have. But if you're not doing the 00:24:13.970 --> 00:24:15.670 work of the gospel because you need to buy a 00:24:15.670 --> 00:24:18.589 sound system. that replaces your other one. Spoiler 00:24:18.589 --> 00:24:21.009 alert on the sound system. If you are a media 00:24:21.009 --> 00:24:23.069 person listening to this, both Ben and I are 00:24:23.069 --> 00:24:26.009 musicians. We like good sound systems. 98 % of 00:24:26.009 --> 00:24:27.529 your church won't be able to tell the difference. 00:24:27.869 --> 00:24:32.890 Yeah. Yeah. And the 2 % that they can tell the 00:24:32.890 --> 00:24:34.630 difference you you've needed to do that for 20 00:24:34.630 --> 00:24:38.089 years. Yeah. Yeah. That's not a new thing. So, 00:24:38.269 --> 00:24:41.430 um, but like, so the sound system, like all these 00:24:41.430 --> 00:24:43.089 things are not, not a problem, but I was like, 00:24:43.109 --> 00:24:45.190 when, when you're, when you're focused on like, 00:24:45.269 --> 00:24:47.220 Hey, we need to read. raise money to do X, Y, 00:24:47.259 --> 00:24:49.059 and Z, but we're not actually involved in kingdom 00:24:49.059 --> 00:24:51.579 activity, there's a problem. You know, and that's 00:24:51.579 --> 00:24:54.259 not to say, like, I'm actually going to use our 00:24:54.259 --> 00:24:56.539 church as an example. That's not to say we don't 00:24:56.539 --> 00:24:58.319 have a ton of programs for outreach into the 00:24:58.319 --> 00:25:01.019 community. But you know what we do have? A lot 00:25:01.019 --> 00:25:03.299 of people in our church who are reaching out 00:25:03.299 --> 00:25:05.420 into the community on a regular basis because 00:25:05.420 --> 00:25:07.539 they're tied to our mission. Wait, they're building 00:25:07.539 --> 00:25:09.920 relationships with people in the community and 00:25:09.920 --> 00:25:12.480 those relationships bridge over into those people 00:25:12.480 --> 00:25:15.920 coming to know Jesus. You know, I feel like you're 00:25:15.920 --> 00:25:21.579 being sarcastic right now. But like, and so like, 00:25:21.700 --> 00:25:24.480 you know, it's almost like we took this idea 00:25:24.480 --> 00:25:27.750 of the role of pastors is to equip the body to 00:25:27.750 --> 00:25:31.549 go and serve. Right. And that's what's happening. 00:25:31.650 --> 00:25:36.410 And we actually had. we had some disasters that 00:25:36.410 --> 00:25:39.569 happened in our town. And it was interesting 00:25:39.569 --> 00:25:41.509 because I was talking to some other pastors who 00:25:41.509 --> 00:25:43.250 did, they did great work too. So like, I'm not 00:25:43.250 --> 00:25:44.990 downing anything, but they're saying, they're 00:25:44.990 --> 00:25:46.349 like, oh yeah, what was your church response? 00:25:46.509 --> 00:25:48.369 I was like, yeah. So we went to go actually like 00:25:48.369 --> 00:25:50.430 talk about who responded. And like, we had people 00:25:50.430 --> 00:25:51.890 who were on the front lines, people who were 00:25:51.890 --> 00:25:54.150 serving behind lines, you know, that were housing, 00:25:54.289 --> 00:25:57.190 feeding, like all sorts of things all over our 00:25:57.190 --> 00:26:00.490 church. We didn't have to tell the church to 00:26:00.490 --> 00:26:03.049 go serve. They were already on their way. And 00:26:03.049 --> 00:26:05.250 yet we still got pushback on that because they 00:26:05.250 --> 00:26:06.829 were like, well, you're not using your church 00:26:06.829 --> 00:26:08.849 building. And we're like, we don't have to. Yeah. 00:26:09.210 --> 00:26:13.130 I was like, our church. Yeah. The people in our 00:26:13.130 --> 00:26:16.089 church saw this disaster happen and they stepped 00:26:16.089 --> 00:26:18.589 up. Yeah. They stepped up and they stepped in. 00:26:19.820 --> 00:26:21.980 Now, that's not by any means saying that our 00:26:21.980 --> 00:26:24.059 church is perfect. We're by far not perfect. 00:26:24.880 --> 00:26:28.660 It is an example of what does it mean to step 00:26:28.660 --> 00:26:30.680 in and step in, especially for the least of these. 00:26:32.019 --> 00:26:35.559 You know, like when I think about some of the 00:26:35.559 --> 00:26:38.759 things that like, what is childlike? Like when 00:26:38.759 --> 00:26:40.460 Jesus, he's talking about stepping in for the 00:26:40.460 --> 00:26:42.299 least of these, becoming like children. What 00:26:42.299 --> 00:26:46.140 are some things about kids that are... universally 00:26:46.140 --> 00:26:49.779 universally true generally hmm generally universally 00:26:49.779 --> 00:26:52.660 true that's definitely a lot of qualifiers let 00:26:52.660 --> 00:26:54.380 me throw a few more qualifiers on there no just 00:26:54.380 --> 00:27:01.400 kidding kids don't really care where you come 00:27:01.400 --> 00:27:05.740 from mm -hmm kids trust easy trust easy yeah 00:27:05.740 --> 00:27:07.619 so much so that where we actually have to teach 00:27:07.619 --> 00:27:12.759 them distrust yeah right yeah but they they are 00:27:13.579 --> 00:27:16.279 But they trust easy and they make friends quickly. 00:27:18.220 --> 00:27:22.440 They're also very, very clear on when they don't 00:27:22.440 --> 00:27:26.799 like something. Right? Yeah. Kids also forgive 00:27:26.799 --> 00:27:33.619 quickly. And they also don't mind asking for 00:27:33.619 --> 00:27:36.680 things that they need. Sometimes things they 00:27:36.680 --> 00:27:39.359 don't name. A lot of times things they don't 00:27:39.359 --> 00:27:41.279 need. In fact, if I get asked for another fudgesicle 00:27:41.279 --> 00:27:44.039 tonight, I'm telling you, I'm just going crazy 00:27:44.039 --> 00:27:45.559 at this point. You're like, I'm going to eat 00:27:45.559 --> 00:27:49.640 that fudgesicle in front of you. But kids don't 00:27:49.640 --> 00:27:52.140 mind asking. And then the other thing is they 00:27:52.140 --> 00:27:56.299 expect parents to provide, right? They have this 00:27:56.299 --> 00:27:58.720 expectation. They step in and they're like, well, 00:27:58.819 --> 00:28:00.500 dad will take care of that. Mom will take care 00:28:00.500 --> 00:28:05.299 of that. Kids have to be seen and heard. They're 00:28:05.299 --> 00:28:09.279 discipled. They're brought along and, uh, welcoming 00:28:09.279 --> 00:28:11.599 children, becoming like children, but also welcoming 00:28:11.599 --> 00:28:13.619 children means that we also have to be willing 00:28:13.619 --> 00:28:16.019 to accept people where they are. Yeah. I think 00:28:16.019 --> 00:28:18.200 the other thing with welcoming people like as 00:28:18.200 --> 00:28:20.480 children is recognizing that they're not where 00:28:20.480 --> 00:28:23.059 they're eventually going to be. Last week I was 00:28:23.059 --> 00:28:25.380 talking towards the end of the episode with Matthew 00:28:25.380 --> 00:28:27.759 Nunley and we were talking about looking forward 00:28:27.759 --> 00:28:31.519 into eternity. Spending life with Jesus. And 00:28:31.519 --> 00:28:33.940 some people want to go and be there with him 00:28:33.940 --> 00:28:35.539 as soon as possible. And I get that because, 00:28:35.579 --> 00:28:38.819 like, it's awesome. Heaven, eternity, Jesus, 00:28:39.140 --> 00:28:41.920 you know, pain, all that stuff is gone. But what 00:28:41.920 --> 00:28:44.119 they're really saying is they want to be apart 00:28:44.119 --> 00:28:47.400 from this world as soon as possible. But something 00:28:47.400 --> 00:28:49.460 we talked about here and I referenced last week 00:28:49.460 --> 00:28:51.319 is I said when I was a kid, I always wanted to 00:28:51.319 --> 00:28:53.619 be an adult. And when I became an adult, I was 00:28:53.619 --> 00:28:57.079 really glad I took time to be a kid. Now, I don't 00:28:57.079 --> 00:28:59.819 want to go back and be a kid now. I am really 00:28:59.819 --> 00:29:03.140 glad that when I was a kid, I was a kid. Yeah. 00:29:03.720 --> 00:29:05.359 Well, you have to look at the heart of what people 00:29:05.359 --> 00:29:08.039 are saying there. Like when kids are saying, 00:29:08.079 --> 00:29:09.799 I really want to be an adult, what they're really 00:29:09.799 --> 00:29:11.480 saying is they're like, I want to be able to 00:29:11.480 --> 00:29:13.160 do all the cool things that you guys get to do. 00:29:13.599 --> 00:29:16.180 Like, I mean, as a kid, when I was a kid, it's 00:29:16.180 --> 00:29:18.480 like, man, I want to stay up late. Right. Man, 00:29:18.660 --> 00:29:21.259 I want to go do this. I want to be able to drive 00:29:21.259 --> 00:29:23.720 a car. I want to be able to go buy things. Yeah. 00:29:23.819 --> 00:29:25.779 Yeah. And then you get to adulthood and you're 00:29:25.779 --> 00:29:29.950 like, man, I don't want to pay this bill. I don't 00:29:29.950 --> 00:29:33.190 want to stay up anymore. Like, like one of the 00:29:33.190 --> 00:29:35.190 things I tell like the high schoolers I work 00:29:35.190 --> 00:29:38.190 with all the time is, as I was like, it's just, 00:29:38.289 --> 00:29:42.250 you know, eventually your childhood punishments 00:29:42.250 --> 00:29:45.910 become your adult goals. Like you want time alone. 00:29:46.170 --> 00:29:48.730 You want to go to bed early, eating a healthy 00:29:48.730 --> 00:29:51.630 diet. Like, right. You know, all these things 00:29:51.630 --> 00:29:53.950 become your adult goals. And, and they look at 00:29:53.950 --> 00:29:56.970 me, they're like. don't say that. Like, right. 00:29:57.029 --> 00:30:00.250 Cause, but it's, it's what it is. Right. Perspective 00:30:00.250 --> 00:30:03.890 shift. And, and when we say that, like, we want 00:30:03.890 --> 00:30:06.789 to be something else, it comes back to that heart 00:30:06.789 --> 00:30:09.250 of discontentment. And really we have to focus 00:30:09.250 --> 00:30:11.009 on like, well, what do we have right now? Who 00:30:11.009 --> 00:30:14.710 are we right now? And can we be content in being 00:30:14.710 --> 00:30:21.670 followers of Jesus? Yeah. Right. Um, there, there's 00:30:21.670 --> 00:30:23.769 another place in the Bible where the, where Jesus, 00:30:24.629 --> 00:30:27.130 the children want to come and talk to Jesus and 00:30:27.130 --> 00:30:28.930 the disciples are like, Hey, you need to go away. 00:30:29.650 --> 00:30:33.369 And Jesus is like, no, no, you don't get this. 00:30:33.650 --> 00:30:36.549 You don't get this. Like these are, these, these 00:30:36.549 --> 00:30:38.769 are what we want to be. When Jesus interacts 00:30:38.769 --> 00:30:41.829 with children and, and with, uh, it's really 00:30:41.829 --> 00:30:44.509 like this, it's really more of a microcosm of 00:30:44.509 --> 00:30:50.589 like innocence and curiosity and wonder. And 00:30:50.589 --> 00:30:54.339 like, these are the things that make the kingdom 00:30:54.339 --> 00:30:59.140 of God like run. Right. Is like having this wonder, 00:30:59.200 --> 00:31:01.079 like when you being able to look at somebody 00:31:01.079 --> 00:31:03.200 and not try to judge them based on what they're 00:31:03.200 --> 00:31:05.980 wearing, but being like, man, I bet you they 00:31:05.980 --> 00:31:09.180 can play pickleball. Right. Or I was like, Oh, 00:31:09.240 --> 00:31:10.980 I bet you they'd be a lot of fun to play cards 00:31:10.980 --> 00:31:13.119 with. Or, Oh, I wonder if I can run as fast as 00:31:13.119 --> 00:31:15.099 them. Right. Like I'm, I'm trying to think about, 00:31:15.119 --> 00:31:16.700 you know, kids are obviously aren't playing pickleball, 00:31:16.759 --> 00:31:19.200 but well, but you know what I mean? Like, like 00:31:19.200 --> 00:31:22.680 I see somebody and I see potential. And I see 00:31:22.680 --> 00:31:24.819 potential for relationship and growth and excitement 00:31:24.819 --> 00:31:28.880 and life together. Not somebody that I'm like, 00:31:28.900 --> 00:31:30.900 I don't know if I want that. Yeah. I actually 00:31:30.900 --> 00:31:33.519 think the show Ted Lasso illustrates that really 00:31:33.519 --> 00:31:35.900 well in the scene where he's like, you know, 00:31:35.960 --> 00:31:39.799 I saw a thing that said, be curious, not judgmental. 00:31:39.980 --> 00:31:42.380 And then went off on the tangent. Go watch the 00:31:42.380 --> 00:31:46.359 clip. It's great. But that encapsulates pretty 00:31:46.359 --> 00:31:47.740 well actually what we're supposed to be like 00:31:47.740 --> 00:31:50.809 as believers. Right. It's really easy to look 00:31:50.809 --> 00:31:52.390 at someone and be like, oh man, I don't know. 00:31:52.609 --> 00:31:54.289 They probably got a really rough story. I don't 00:31:54.289 --> 00:31:55.990 want to subject my family to that and start casting 00:31:55.990 --> 00:31:59.089 judgments versus being like, I wonder what their 00:31:59.089 --> 00:32:01.670 story is. I wonder where they come from. I wonder 00:32:01.670 --> 00:32:04.529 why they look a little rough around the edges. 00:32:04.789 --> 00:32:08.390 Yeah. Right? And then going and getting to know 00:32:08.390 --> 00:32:11.210 them. It does seem like Jesus says the solution 00:32:11.210 --> 00:32:16.690 to wanting power, trying to be powerful, is to 00:32:16.690 --> 00:32:21.660 learn how to serve people who are... you. How 00:32:21.660 --> 00:32:23.599 to get down on your knees and serve people. Yeah. 00:32:24.279 --> 00:32:26.039 Like you want to be, you want to be great in 00:32:26.039 --> 00:32:29.119 the kingdom of God, go serve. You want to, you 00:32:29.119 --> 00:32:31.180 want to rise up in the ranks, go lower yourself 00:32:31.180 --> 00:32:34.119 because the kingdom of God is an upside down 00:32:34.119 --> 00:32:36.000 kingdom. It's about how do we, how do we put 00:32:36.000 --> 00:32:38.700 a broken world back together? First church job 00:32:38.700 --> 00:32:42.559 I ever had. The pastor was like, we're so excited 00:32:42.559 --> 00:32:46.279 you're here. He's like, your first task is to 00:32:46.279 --> 00:32:49.480 come into the church three times a week, sometime 00:32:49.480 --> 00:32:53.259 between 11 p .m. and 1 a .m. and clean the toilets. 00:32:54.480 --> 00:32:57.180 And I did a little double take and I was like, 00:32:57.259 --> 00:33:00.460 did you say 11 p .m. and 1 a .m.? And he's like, 00:33:00.859 --> 00:33:03.920 yeah, he's like, because the reality is if you're 00:33:03.920 --> 00:33:07.319 unwilling to do that, then ministry is probably 00:33:07.319 --> 00:33:10.829 not the place for you. Yeah. Right. Like if you're 00:33:10.829 --> 00:33:12.930 unwilling to just serve in the lowest of ways 00:33:12.930 --> 00:33:15.509 at the most inconvenient times, it's probably 00:33:15.509 --> 00:33:20.329 not the place for you. I have a I have a quote 00:33:20.329 --> 00:33:24.190 here that I pulled out says in God's economy, 00:33:24.430 --> 00:33:27.569 greatness is measured by proximity to the small. 00:33:29.269 --> 00:33:32.029 Like how you are with small things usually amounts 00:33:32.029 --> 00:33:35.369 to where things go long term. Yeah. I just I 00:33:35.369 --> 00:33:39.170 can't I wonder. because we're built for service, 00:33:39.230 --> 00:33:41.049 we talk about serving, we talk about loving people, 00:33:41.210 --> 00:33:46.730 if the church actually did it, what would it 00:33:46.730 --> 00:33:49.869 look like? What would the church look like? We 00:33:49.869 --> 00:33:51.650 know what it looks like to love people. Scripture 00:33:51.650 --> 00:33:54.220 lays that out pretty clearly. And I think we 00:33:54.220 --> 00:33:55.980 have some examples, like you think about the 00:33:55.980 --> 00:33:58.940 revival, the Welsh revival in, um, when like 00:33:58.940 --> 00:34:01.500 their jails were empty and, you know, people 00:34:01.500 --> 00:34:03.859 were fed and their homeless rate dropped and 00:34:03.859 --> 00:34:06.500 their, their productivity like skyrocketed. Right. 00:34:07.019 --> 00:34:09.139 Because people were just loving each other. Yeah. 00:34:09.199 --> 00:34:12.099 You know? Um, so there, like there are examples 00:34:12.099 --> 00:34:14.139 in history of what happens when the church becomes 00:34:14.139 --> 00:34:16.119 the church and does the church things. Yeah. 00:34:17.039 --> 00:34:20.239 Um, It is, it is, it's remarkably interesting 00:34:20.239 --> 00:34:22.159 going back to a few weeks ago, we were talking 00:34:22.159 --> 00:34:28.320 about a light on a hill, right? If you don't 00:34:28.320 --> 00:34:30.239 actually do anything, you don't actually shine 00:34:30.239 --> 00:34:33.019 your light. Yeah. It's amazing that people don't 00:34:33.019 --> 00:34:36.000 see anything. Yeah. Right. A couple of, a couple 00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:37.980 of thoughts that I would leave for, for our listeners 00:34:37.980 --> 00:34:41.980 is, um, what, when have you learned something 00:34:41.980 --> 00:34:45.440 about God from a child or what could you learn 00:34:45.440 --> 00:34:48.719 about how to follow God from a child? Like that's 00:34:48.719 --> 00:34:49.960 just something like think about that in your 00:34:49.960 --> 00:34:52.820 life. And another question I wrote down that 00:34:52.820 --> 00:34:54.320 I thought might be interesting for you to think 00:34:54.320 --> 00:34:56.760 about is in what area are you negotiating with 00:34:56.760 --> 00:34:59.739 God like an adult instead of learning to receive 00:34:59.739 --> 00:35:03.719 like a child? Maybe there's something you need 00:35:03.719 --> 00:35:05.460 to stop negotiating and just stop and receive. 00:35:06.849 --> 00:35:09.190 And we'll stop there for this week. Next week, 00:35:09.210 --> 00:35:10.869 we'll continue our talking about the life of 00:35:10.869 --> 00:35:13.710 Jesus. But if you guys have questions, just email 00:35:13.710 --> 00:35:17.670 us, lovingcontext at gmail .com. Send up smoke 00:35:17.670 --> 00:35:22.070 signals. Sometimes we respond to those. I did 00:35:22.070 --> 00:35:23.730 hear from a friend of mine that they've taken 00:35:23.730 --> 00:35:26.909 up the writing letters. The art of letter writing 00:35:26.909 --> 00:35:28.829 is what they called it. So if you write us a 00:35:28.829 --> 00:35:32.869 letter. I don't have a mailbox that I'm going 00:35:32.869 --> 00:35:37.010 to send it to. So you take a picture of it and 00:35:37.010 --> 00:35:39.570 you email it to us. Yes, you can write a letter, 00:35:39.670 --> 00:35:43.150 picture it, picture of it, email it to us. You 00:35:43.150 --> 00:35:45.989 can't have AI edit it that way, though. No, that's 00:35:45.989 --> 00:35:47.550 true. Maybe you can at this point. I don't know. 00:35:47.710 --> 00:35:49.469 I don't know. AI is getting pretty advanced. 00:35:49.610 --> 00:36:06.309 So until next time. Until next time. and Facebook 00:36:06.309 --> 00:36:24.610 at loveandcontext. Love and Context. 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