Welcome to season three of Love and 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
and 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 three of Love and Context.
Welcome back. to the love and context podcast
still not copyrighted still not copyrighted see
that one is more of a uh it's like an atonal
representation i went to like just different
tones so yeah it's perfect i felt like you're
trying to do a jazzy thing without the trumpet
you know listen i uh Shut your face. So, yeah.
Well, we are, if you're coming back to Love and
Context Podcast, we're in the middle of the life
of Jesus. And we are, I think we're pretty much
back on schedule where you and I will be meeting
and going. Though we may have a couple episodes.
I've talked about having Matthew Nunleon to talk
with Spencer and get me out of here. Yeah. Yeah.
They're like, we could use a little less Ben.
Listen, we've heard your feedback. And I hear
you. Tara, we heard all 78 comments. All 78 comments,
37 emails. Yeah, there was actually like, there
was a telegraph at one point that came through.
Yeah. Wow. Wow. That's impressive. So last week
we were talking about, Matthew Nunley and I were
talking about the feeding of the 4 ,000 and 5
,000 and what does it mean for like how Jesus
is coming for the people. And then, but then
they, they see the 5 ,000. Then he walks across
the water. Then he heals a bunch of people. Then
he goes over to the Gentiles. it's 4 ,000 people
there. And then he comes back and he heals people.
And then the religious leaders go, yeah, we need
a sign that shows us that, you know, you can
do this. Right. Cause that wasn't enough. Yeah.
That wasn't enough. Right. And so it's like,
it's like not just like, and he says, uh, he
makes that statement. He says, uh, only a blasphemous
and adulterous generation looks for a sign. Um,
I don't think that the first word is not blasphemous,
but it's a different word. Um, but, uh, which
gets taken out of the context, which people say,
well, you should never ask for a sign. No, you
shouldn't ask for a sign when God's in the middle
of proving it. Uh -huh. Right? It'd be like in
the middle, like can you imagine in the Exodus,
God splits the Red Sea and in the middle they're
like, I'm not sure God can do it. Or like take
it modern day. This is literally the modern day
equivalent. Like someone, a pastor prays over
someone and they're healed. And you're like,
I'm not sure that was God. Right. And you're
like. Yeah. It doesn't quite work. It doesn't
quite work. Like what you do is like, uh, and
so we had, we had a conversation around all that,
um, in a, in a, in a large vein of like, you
know, beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and
of Herod or Sadducees, depending on which section
you're taking in. Um, one of the next things
that we had in our list to talk about was this
thing of, uh, how God treats, I'm going to, I'm
going to call it status in the kingdom of God.
Yeah. And I want to start with in Matthew 18.
That's the first story. Apparently I grabbed
the whole curtain with me. Matthew 18 here. At
that time, so he just had this conversation with
Peter about temple tax, right? It says, at that
time, the disciples came to Jesus and asked,
who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
Great way to start a conversation though. Like
when you are following a guy who's all about
humility and loving other people and then being
like, which one of us is the best at it? Yeah.
Yeah. Am I better at humbleness than them? Am
I more loving than the person next to me? Yeah.
So then he called a little child to him and he
placed the child among them. He said, truly,
I tell you, unless you change and become like
little children, you will never enter the kingdom
of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly
position of this child is the greatest in the
kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such
child in my name welcomes me. Okay. So right
off the bat, flipping things on their head because
children in this context are more of the seen
and not heard. Yes. Right. Um, which by the way,
still is kind of the case in a lot of places.
They, they treat children as people to be seen,
but not heard. Yeah. Uh, Jesus says kingdom of
heaven belongs to people like this. And you actually
got to become like this in order to be great
in the kingdom of heaven. Now that does not mean
go be childish because there's a different, you
work with children, um, at your job and then
also with youth in, uh, in your, uh, young life.
Um, Spend a lot of time with a lot of time with
people, kids, a lot of time with people calling
you old man. Yeah. Um, and coming up with insults
that you're like, I don't feel insulted at all,
but nice try. There is, there is a difference
between childlike and childish, right? Because
childlike, I mean, you have a daughter who's
seven. I have a son who's six and four. Childlike
is when I was driving down to one of our grocery
stores the other day. And I had this really nice
panorama across the ocean. And it was sunset.
And the sun was coming across. And James looks
out the window and he goes, wow. God's got a
paintbrush, right? Like that. And I was like,
well, that's, that's actually really cool, you
know? But, uh, and like, like it's just this
childlike wonder of what God does, right? It's
just, it's this, uh, engaging everything. It's
surprising. It's new. Uh, one of my favorite
stories about James is, um, if you, you know,
those, um, uh, applesauce containers that kids
like, they just down. So. He was eating some
of those, and he was accumulating the tops. And
we just assumed that they were garbage, right?
Because they were. Yeah. And so like normal garbage,
we picked it up, we put it in the garbage. And
then that night, James was very sad when he went
to bed. And he says, yeah, Mom threw away my
saucy heads. And I'm like, what in the world
are saucy heads? Right? He says, my saucy heads.
Mom threw them away. So it turns out that he
liked to keep the lids. of applesauce containers
and then play with them like action figures now
here's the thing james has lots of toys but he
wanted to do this with his it's always more fun
to play with the cardboard box that the toys
came in let's be real like the uh and so uh so
what we started doing is we actually got a jar
so he could start accumulating the the saucy
heads and now he's going to do a uh art piece
with tara for cool for that thing but like kids
i see a piece of garbage He sees this as an action
figure. This is something to be collected. This
is something special. And there's just a different
way of looking at it that kids just in general
are. An example of childish was Sunday. I was
over at Ben's house watching football. And Leland,
his youngest, walks over to me with one of those
applesauce things. Yep. I believe it was a yogurt
one, actually. Oh, it was a yogurt, but it had
the twisty top. And he wanted me to open it.
And I grabbed it, and I pretended like I was
too weak. And I was like, eh. Oh, man, I can't
do it. And then Leland slaps my hands away and
opens it himself. You know, in this example,
I was the one being childish. But, you know,
there's that's the example of being childish
and being like, hey, this is something I can
do and I know how to do, but I'm not going to
do it. Yeah. Right. And so first of all, I want
to jump over here to Mark. Another version of
the same story. It says. He was talking to them.
He said the Son of Man is going to be delivered
into the hands of men. This is Mark 9, 31. They
will kill him and after three days he will rise.
But they did not understand what he meant and
were afraid to ask him about it. They came to
Capernaum. So this is part of the same like paragraph
for here. When he was in the house, he asked
them, what were you arguing about on the road?
What were you arguing about on the road? Okay.
But they kept quiet because on the way they had
argued about who was the greatest. Now, when
you start to recognize that all of these people,
like Peter's probably 21, but everybody else
is probably 13 to 12 to 14. This conversation
makes a little bit more sense, right? Sitting
down, Jesus called the 12 and said, Anyone who
wants to be first must be the very last and the
servant of all. He took a little child who he
placed among them. Taking the child in his arms,
he said to them, Whoever welcomes one of these
little children in my name welcomes me, and whoever
welcomes me does not welcome me, but the one
who sent me. Notice how Jesus doesn't answer
the question on who is. Yeah. Both times it is.
It's this is what it means. Yeah. There is. I
was reading a book this week by Rabbi Jonathan
Sachs, and he's he passed away, I believe, in
2020. He's an Orthodox Jew. He has some commentary
on Torah. And so he's got some really interesting
insights. One of the things he makes a comment
on and he's talking about in the book of Exodus.
is that there's a lot of parallels of two, that
before they go across the Red Sea, there's the
Egyptian army that they have to fight, and then
there's the Amalekite army that they have to
fight. Then there's two tablets that Moses brings
down and he breaks, and two tablets later that
he has to put back together. There is the cloud
that is on top of the mountain, and then there's
the cloud that fills the tabernacle. And there's,
all throughout the book of Exodus, the first
one is all God doing something. And the second
one is involving human participation. And he
makes a statement. He says a lot of times when
God is doing something, when we actually step
into it, the reason we serve God is because when
we actually serve God, it does something to us.
And so your point where you're talking about
Jesus is talking about that he doesn't tell them
who the greatest is. Instead, what he says is
you need to be like these children. You need
to go welcome these children in my name. You
need to go and do the work of the kingdom. And
it's actually going to transform you into the
kind of person that is great. Right? Rather than
seeking greatness, you need to go and do the
things that actually make you great, which are
the things that actually let yourself down. Yeah.
Right? This is going to be evidence later when
he's talking in the Lord's Supper and he takes
off his outer robe and then he washes the disciples'
feet. He, the rabbi, about to go be crucified,
all these different things, right? He thinks
that this is the the role for him to go is to
go and wash the feet of the disciples the nasty
gross feet and And they're like we don't get
it in which you know to be fair. I'm not sure
that we often do either But he says I've done
this so that you're going to know in the future
Why I did this And there's there's something
about children. There's something about childlike
faith. There's something about maybe not being
weighed down with the weight of the world. Maybe
not being you don't have the job. You don't have
the mortgage. You don't have the bills. You don't
have the you know, you don't have the scars of
many, many conversations. No, I've heard adults
say that. Tell me that. They're like, when I
was a kid, I was like, I can't wait till I grow
up. Yeah. And then now that I'm a grown up, I'm
like, man, it was great to be a kid. Yeah. Right.
You don't realize what you have until it's gone
a lot of times. And Jesus here is saying, no,
you don't ever want to lose that wonder, that
awe, that sense of just being present with God.
And so when we're talking about that childlike
faith, a lot of times when we talk about spiritual
maturity, I think we get this a little bit skewed
where we'll talk about it in the sense of like,
well, you will look like this. Here will be all
the things you do. And then when you have the
disciples being like, which one of us is doing
this the best? Jesus is like, let's look at children,
for example, children who just want to be with
you. Yeah. Just want to be present. Yeah. Like
that is the main thing for us is that we be present
with God. Yeah. One and, and beyond that too.
this responsibility towards our children, towards
raising kids in a way that's right. Proverbs
is going to say, raise your child in a way that
is right. And when they're grown, they won't
depart from it. Jesus is going to say something
that is connected to this. He's going to say,
if one of you causes one of these little ones
to stumble, dude, it's going to be better for
you if you just took a rock, tied it to yourself
and chucked yourself in the water. you'd be way
better off now remembering of course how they
feel about water chaotic waters right they you
don't want to go in the water he says if you
are leading these little ones astray you're going
to be way better off. Instead, what you need
to do is cherish kids. And I think what Jesus
is continually doing through his ministry, and
we're using the kids here, but he does it with
widows and he does it with tax collectors and
sinners and prostitutes and these people that
are on the outside that are marginalized, is
he's saying the kingdom of God is here for them.
The kingdom of God is here to heal sickness and
brokenness and sin and depravity and the things
that are broken inside of people. The kingdom
of God is here for. It's not here for the ultra
religious. Now, does that mean that it's not
for the ultra religious? Of course it is. It's
for everybody, but it's for those people that
actually desperately need the kingdom of God.
And there's this invitation to, uh, that greatness
comes from being able to maybe uncomplicate,
maybe, um, trust a little bit deeper. more authentically
i mean jesus summed that up himself when he's
like hey what when they're like what is the greatest
commandment and he talks about loving the lord
with everything you have and then the second
one's equally as important which is loving uh
your neighbor as yourself and he says all of
torah hinges on this right yeah like Jesus himself
did that where it's like you have all these nuanced
things that you're thinking about, but he's like
it all hinges on this. Loving God with everything
you have and loving people with everything you
have. Which, by the way, there may or may not
be a parallel to the church today with that.
Yes. I was actually going to ask you if you feel
good about talking about this. We're going to
pick on Americans because we're American. I feel
like that's probably fair. We should only pick
on ourselves. Well. But we're in our community.
Let's call it American Christendom. Do we chase
greatness instead of welcoming the least? Are
we talking in a political sphere? Are we talking
in a community sphere? Dealers' choice. Yeah.
Right? Do you want me to address this alphabetically,
chronologically, geographically? I'm just joking.
There's a lot of them. There's a lot of them,
yeah. I mean, just take... Take a political sphere,
for example. We will do a lot of things in the
name of God, right? And we'll be like, well,
the reason we vote this way is because Jesus
was Republican or Jesus was Democrat. It's like,
no, Jesus was the son of God. Jesus didn't operate
in our political system at all. We also do it
in the sense of self -righteousness, in the sense
of look how good I'm doing, look what I'm doing,
look what we're accomplishing as a church, right?
The other way that we do it, which I would argue
is the most dangerous, is... We do it in, it
ties in self -righteousness a little bit, but
is in the self, is in the idea of image. Right?
We want, so many churches I have been into in
the US where it's like they have a specific image
that they want there. And if somebody walks in
who doesn't fit that mold, they're like, maybe
we'll be a little less welcoming to that person
because they don't quite fit our mold or our
image that we want to obtain. Right. Or uphold.
And I, think that the reason i say that one's
the most dangerous is because that one is so
counter gospel because the gospel is all about
welcoming messy people in right and if you have
um if you claim to follow jesus that means that
you once were a messy person yeah right you want
to add mess in your life you want to add sin
in your life you want to add filth in your life
and to give you an example i was talking to a
friend About a week ago. And they were saying
like, yeah, we have churches in our community
where you go ask them, what does it mean to be
a disciple? And they literally will think about
it for a minute and then they'll say, I don't
know. Right. Which to me, I'm like, if you're
a church and you don't know what it means to
be a disciple, a follower of Jesus. Yeah. And
having churches like. It's problematic. Yeah.
having churches admit that too. Well, and this
is, by the way, I'm not just, I'm going to throw
a couple of examples out here, not to throw anybody
out of the bus more to point out that this shows
up in all different types of service to God.
So there are incredibly conservative churches
that they say, you know, you know, those tables
say in remembrance of me. They've got to be there
with the big Bible open on the front, communion
things on either side, big old pulpit. These
are the things that have to be there. Nothing
wrong with those things. Some people, you go
in and they're like, oh, we want to make sure
we have the big stained glass windows depicting
scenes from the life of Jesus. Other places you
go in and they're like, oh, we've got to have
the latest technology and we've got to have the
lights and the smoke cams and whatever. And other
places will be like listen we we have to have
pews because pews are great or we have to have
chairs because they're they're movable none of
these things are the issue but when these things
when people when something comes in that doesn't
fit those things and our temptation is to get
rid of the person and not the stuff or not worry
about the stuff there's a problem because the
stuff is stuff and the person is a person when
we come in and we decide to die on the mountain
of keeping the pews in the church, right? When
we decided to die on those mountains of things
that don't really matter, right? Doesn't matter
if your church has pews or chairs. Yeah. Not
at all. Does it matter if they have fancy lights
or no fancy lights? Doesn't matter at all, right?
But we will die on those hills in the guise of
this is what it means to be followers of Jesus.
to have the $100 ,000 sound system with the big
light to show. What does it mean to be the greatest
church in town? Yeah. Right? Are we the greatest?
Or is that church the greatest? You know, how
can we be the greatest? And Jesus is like, man,
you ever thought just about just welcoming children?
Right? Whenever I go to a new church, there's
a couple things I do just because I want to.
And yes, I do this not out of spite, but more
so out of just like, Just to get a little bit
of rise. Do you think there's a word we can use
that's not spite? And we'll call it holy spite.
Yeah, sure. That's not a thing. But one of the
things I'll do is I'll actually, if it's my first
time going to that church, I'll purposely dress
down a little bit. I'll wear a hat. I will do
some stuff like that just to see how people react.
Yeah. Right? See how I get treated. See if I
get treated any differently. And, um, and that
honestly, it will tell you a lot about that church
culture right there. And, and, uh, sometimes
it goes fine. Sometimes it's like, Oh man, I
didn't have a single person say hi to me. Right.
I was, uh, um, I had a conversation with a guy
by the name of Charlie Couch. He's the father
of a pastor that I had in college. And he had
been, I think he pastored some like 50 years,
like a good while. He was talking about a church
in his community that they actually split. They
were about to split churches. And the issue that
they were splitting on was that they had built
a recreational facility for the youth connected
to their church. there were people that were
arguing that it shouldn't be connected to the
house of God by cement because it may, it connected
every activity done in their youth center to
what was done in the main church. And that a
place of recreation shouldn't be associated with
the actual, the actual church. And they were
fighting about this and getting ready to split
the church, not because they were using one building
two different ways, but because the two buildings
were two different places. Right. So they, I
mean, this is the kind of crazy things that people
fight about. The compromise eventually that they
did is they took out a section of cement that
wide so that they weren't physically connected.
Now, I'm just going to tell you, and Charlie
will be the one to tell you too, this section
of cement was not the problem. The issue was
that people were looking at this, they were deifying
buildings and programs and setups rather than
understanding that we serve a deified Lord. and
he's the one that tells us to welcome in the
least of these. Somewhere, and this is not all
churches, so understand, and not every church
does this well, not every church does this badly,
but we have this thing where we want people who
are put together coming to church. Yeah. And
that's actually not who church is for. I mean,
it's for them, yes. But it's for the rich and
the poor and the slave and the free and the Jew
and the Gentile. It's for men and women. And
we had a question about somebody who came to
church and their lifestyle is not quite somebody
that is a Christian. And I said, well, what do
you do about that? And I was like, I don't know,
say hi. Right? Like if you have a staunch atheist,
come to your church. I mean, they're like, what
do you do? It's like, say hi. You know, welcome
them. What are you supposed to do? I mean, they're
here to hear about Jesus. You know? Well, yeah.
It's going to be fun. I was in a pastor's conference
one time. Oh, no. I remember this story. Go ahead.
Yeah. I haven't told it here, so I'm telling
it here now. And we were talking about some tough
topics. Yeah. And basically, like, how do you
love broken people? How do you love people who
believe different than you? Stuff like that.
And at the end of it, the guy asked a simple
question. And his simple question was, like,
are you willing and able to love? broken individuals.
And there's a bunch of people that are like,
man, that's a really good question. And I'm sitting
in the back with my friend. I'm like, we're at
a pastor's conference. Like our call is to love
broken individuals. Like that is in, that should
be in our DNA. Yeah. And I was like, and if we're
asking this. We should not be in ministry leadership.
If anything, what we do is we disciple people
who then go and reach out to broken people. Right.
Right. Right. Right. And so, but what it came
down to, which I don't think I've told you this
part of the story, but what it came down to is
when you looked around that room is you could
immediately tell which churches worship Sunday
morning more than they worship Jesus. Right.
And it was these churches that were like, oh,
well, I don't know because like, this is what
our church looks like. This is how. This is what
makes us feel quote unquote safe and blah, blah,
blah. That we're like, oh, that's a really tough
question to wrestle with. And the churches that
were like, yeah, of course we love broken people.
Right. They were the ones that are like, you
know what? Maybe we don't need the brand new
sound system right now. Maybe we don't need this.
Maybe we can invest this money over here to where
we're reaching broken people. Right. Right. And
so oftentimes we can find ourselves in a church
that worships Sunday morning more than Jesus.
Yeah. And that's a. Horribly dangerous place
to be. Yeah. I mean, when you worship Sunday
morning, you worship the teachings of your pastor,
the music of your leaders, like whatever it is,
right? Jesus, it's always goes Jesus. And then
whatever falls underneath that, right? It is,
by the way, sound system is not a problem for
somebody to have. But if you're not doing the
work of the gospel because you need to buy a
sound system. that replaces your other one. Spoiler
alert on the sound system. If you are a media
person listening to this, both Ben and I are
musicians. We like good sound systems. 98 % of
your church won't be able to tell the difference.
Yeah. Yeah. And the 2 % that they can tell the
difference you you've needed to do that for 20
years. Yeah. Yeah. That's not a new thing. So,
um, but like, so the sound system, like all these
things are not, not a problem, but I was like,
when, when you're, when you're focused on like,
Hey, we need to read. raise money to do X, Y,
and Z, but we're not actually involved in kingdom
activity, there's a problem. You know, and that's
not to say, like, I'm actually going to use our
church as an example. That's not to say we don't
have a ton of programs for outreach into the
community. But you know what we do have? A lot
of people in our church who are reaching out
into the community on a regular basis because
they're tied to our mission. Wait, they're building
relationships with people in the community and
those relationships bridge over into those people
coming to know Jesus. You know, I feel like you're
being sarcastic right now. But like, and so like,
you know, it's almost like we took this idea
of the role of pastors is to equip the body to
go and serve. Right. And that's what's happening.
And we actually had. we had some disasters that
happened in our town. And it was interesting
because I was talking to some other pastors who
did, they did great work too. So like, I'm not
downing anything, but they're saying, they're
like, oh yeah, what was your church response?
I was like, yeah. So we went to go actually like
talk about who responded. And like, we had people
who were on the front lines, people who were
serving behind lines, you know, that were housing,
feeding, like all sorts of things all over our
church. We didn't have to tell the church to
go serve. They were already on their way. And
yet we still got pushback on that because they
were like, well, you're not using your church
building. And we're like, we don't have to. Yeah.
I was like, our church. Yeah. The people in our
church saw this disaster happen and they stepped
up. Yeah. They stepped up and they stepped in.
Now, that's not by any means saying that our
church is perfect. We're by far not perfect.
It is an example of what does it mean to step
in and step in, especially for the least of these.
You know, like when I think about some of the
things that like, what is childlike? Like when
Jesus, he's talking about stepping in for the
least of these, becoming like children. What
are some things about kids that are... universally
universally true generally hmm generally universally
true that's definitely a lot of qualifiers let
me throw a few more qualifiers on there no just
kidding kids don't really care where you come
from mm -hmm kids trust easy trust easy yeah
so much so that where we actually have to teach
them distrust yeah right yeah but they they are
But they trust easy and they make friends quickly.
They're also very, very clear on when they don't
like something. Right? Yeah. Kids also forgive
quickly. And they also don't mind asking for
things that they need. Sometimes things they
don't name. A lot of times things they don't
need. In fact, if I get asked for another fudgesicle
tonight, I'm telling you, I'm just going crazy
at this point. You're like, I'm going to eat
that fudgesicle in front of you. But kids don't
mind asking. And then the other thing is they
expect parents to provide, right? They have this
expectation. They step in and they're like, well,
dad will take care of that. Mom will take care
of that. Kids have to be seen and heard. They're
discipled. They're brought along and, uh, welcoming
children, becoming like children, but also welcoming
children means that we also have to be willing
to accept people where they are. Yeah. I think
the other thing with welcoming people like as
children is recognizing that they're not where
they're eventually going to be. Last week I was
talking towards the end of the episode with Matthew
Nunley and we were talking about looking forward
into eternity. Spending life with Jesus. And
some people want to go and be there with him
as soon as possible. And I get that because,
like, it's awesome. Heaven, eternity, Jesus,
you know, pain, all that stuff is gone. But what
they're really saying is they want to be apart
from this world as soon as possible. But something
we talked about here and I referenced last week
is I said when I was a kid, I always wanted to
be an adult. And when I became an adult, I was
really glad I took time to be a kid. Now, I don't
want to go back and be a kid now. I am really
glad that when I was a kid, I was a kid. Yeah.
Well, you have to look at the heart of what people
are saying there. Like when kids are saying,
I really want to be an adult, what they're really
saying is they're like, I want to be able to
do all the cool things that you guys get to do.
Like, I mean, as a kid, when I was a kid, it's
like, man, I want to stay up late. Right. Man,
I want to go do this. I want to be able to drive
a car. I want to be able to go buy things. Yeah.
Yeah. And then you get to adulthood and you're
like, man, I don't want to pay this bill. I don't
want to stay up anymore. Like, like one of the
things I tell like the high schoolers I work
with all the time is, as I was like, it's just,
you know, eventually your childhood punishments
become your adult goals. Like you want time alone.
You want to go to bed early, eating a healthy
diet. Like, right. You know, all these things
become your adult goals. And, and they look at
me, they're like. don't say that. Like, right.
Cause, but it's, it's what it is. Right. Perspective
shift. And, and when we say that, like, we want
to be something else, it comes back to that heart
of discontentment. And really we have to focus
on like, well, what do we have right now? Who
are we right now? And can we be content in being
followers of Jesus? Yeah. Right. Um, there, there's
another place in the Bible where the, where Jesus,
the children want to come and talk to Jesus and
the disciples are like, Hey, you need to go away.
And Jesus is like, no, no, you don't get this.
You don't get this. Like these are, these, these
are what we want to be. When Jesus interacts
with children and, and with, uh, it's really
like this, it's really more of a microcosm of
like innocence and curiosity and wonder. And
like, these are the things that make the kingdom
of God like run. Right. Is like having this wonder,
like when you being able to look at somebody
and not try to judge them based on what they're
wearing, but being like, man, I bet you they
can play pickleball. Right. Or I was like, Oh,
I bet you they'd be a lot of fun to play cards
with. Or, Oh, I wonder if I can run as fast as
them. Right. Like I'm, I'm trying to think about,
you know, kids are obviously aren't playing pickleball,
but well, but you know what I mean? Like, like
I see somebody and I see potential. And I see
potential for relationship and growth and excitement
and life together. Not somebody that I'm like,
I don't know if I want that. Yeah. I actually
think the show Ted Lasso illustrates that really
well in the scene where he's like, you know,
I saw a thing that said, be curious, not judgmental.
And then went off on the tangent. Go watch the
clip. It's great. But that encapsulates pretty
well actually what we're supposed to be like
as believers. Right. It's really easy to look
at someone and be like, oh man, I don't know.
They probably got a really rough story. I don't
want to subject my family to that and start casting
judgments versus being like, I wonder what their
story is. I wonder where they come from. I wonder
why they look a little rough around the edges.
Yeah. Right? And then going and getting to know
them. It does seem like Jesus says the solution
to wanting power, trying to be powerful, is to
learn how to serve people who are... you. How
to get down on your knees and serve people. Yeah.
Like you want to be, you want to be great in
the kingdom of God, go serve. You want to, you
want to rise up in the ranks, go lower yourself
because the kingdom of God is an upside down
kingdom. It's about how do we, how do we put
a broken world back together? First church job
I ever had. The pastor was like, we're so excited
you're here. He's like, your first task is to
come into the church three times a week, sometime
between 11 p .m. and 1 a .m. and clean the toilets.
And I did a little double take and I was like,
did you say 11 p .m. and 1 a .m.? And he's like,
yeah, he's like, because the reality is if you're
unwilling to do that, then ministry is probably
not the place for you. Yeah. Right. Like if you're
unwilling to just serve in the lowest of ways
at the most inconvenient times, it's probably
not the place for you. I have a I have a quote
here that I pulled out says in God's economy,
greatness is measured by proximity to the small.
Like how you are with small things usually amounts
to where things go long term. Yeah. I just I
can't I wonder. because we're built for service,
we talk about serving, we talk about loving people,
if the church actually did it, what would it
look like? What would the church look like? We
know what it looks like to love people. Scripture
lays that out pretty clearly. And I think we
have some examples, like you think about the
revival, the Welsh revival in, um, when like
their jails were empty and, you know, people
were fed and their homeless rate dropped and
their, their productivity like skyrocketed. Right.
Because people were just loving each other. Yeah.
You know? Um, so there, like there are examples
in history of what happens when the church becomes
the church and does the church things. Yeah.
Um, It is, it is, it's remarkably interesting
going back to a few weeks ago, we were talking
about a light on a hill, right? If you don't
actually do anything, you don't actually shine
your light. Yeah. It's amazing that people don't
see anything. Yeah. Right. A couple of, a couple
of thoughts that I would leave for, for our listeners
is, um, what, when have you learned something
about God from a child or what could you learn
about how to follow God from a child? Like that's
just something like think about that in your
life. And another question I wrote down that
I thought might be interesting for you to think
about is in what area are you negotiating with
God like an adult instead of learning to receive
like a child? Maybe there's something you need
to stop negotiating and just stop and receive.
And we'll stop there for this week. Next week,
we'll continue our talking about the life of
Jesus. But if you guys have questions, just email
us, lovingcontext at gmail .com. Send up smoke
signals. Sometimes we respond to those. I did
hear from a friend of mine that they've taken
up the writing letters. The art of letter writing
is what they called it. So if you write us a
letter. I don't have a mailbox that I'm going
to send it to. So you take a picture of it and
you email it to us. Yes, you can write a letter,
picture it, picture of it, email it to us. You
can't have AI edit it that way, though. No, that's
true. Maybe you can at this point. I don't know.
I don't know. AI is getting pretty advanced.
So until next time. Until next time. and Facebook
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