1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,600 Welcome to the Love in Context podcast of Unscripted Conversation with Ben and Spencer. 2 00:00:05,600 --> 00:00:10,400 We're so glad that you could join us today, whether that's from your car, office, home, 3 00:00:10,400 --> 00:00:13,040 church or wherever you're at. 4 00:00:13,040 --> 00:00:17,160 We did have a few sound quality issues with our first few episodes. 5 00:00:17,160 --> 00:00:18,280 Those have been resolved. 6 00:00:18,280 --> 00:00:22,100 So if you do notice that the sound is funny in the first couple of episodes, we do apologize 7 00:00:22,100 --> 00:00:23,140 for that. 8 00:00:23,140 --> 00:00:28,760 If you want to contact us, you can email us at loveincontext.gmail.com. 9 00:00:28,760 --> 00:00:32,560 Also follow us on Instagram at loveincontext. 10 00:00:32,560 --> 00:00:36,200 All right. 11 00:00:36,200 --> 00:00:38,400 So episode one, here we are. 12 00:00:38,400 --> 00:00:41,640 Yeah, this is Love in Context with Ben and Spencer. 13 00:00:41,640 --> 00:00:42,640 Ben does most of the talking. 14 00:00:42,640 --> 00:00:44,200 Spencer does most of the editing. 15 00:00:44,200 --> 00:00:46,840 That is, that's kind of our MO in general. 16 00:00:46,840 --> 00:00:50,400 Whenever we talk and you're like, Ben does a lot of the talking. 17 00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:54,440 But we are people who just have been involved in church ministry a long time and we just 18 00:00:54,440 --> 00:00:59,920 also have encountered just a lot of church ministry that's just been hurtful, harmful 19 00:00:59,920 --> 00:01:01,800 and where they proclaim a lot of truths. 20 00:01:01,800 --> 00:01:06,540 But then really when you boil it down, there's very little love in it. 21 00:01:06,540 --> 00:01:10,080 So we want to come back to an understanding of what scripture is, what scripture is teaching 22 00:01:10,080 --> 00:01:13,400 us, what it's saying, the fact that it's living, breathing, it's active. 23 00:01:13,400 --> 00:01:17,640 And we want to just come to a point where we are approaching these things in love. 24 00:01:17,640 --> 00:01:23,120 But because in my opinion is that like 90% of the arguments we have in church are kind 25 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:25,080 of petty and pointless. 26 00:01:25,080 --> 00:01:26,080 Right. 27 00:01:26,080 --> 00:01:30,600 We've talked about when we've talked about like Jesus's disciples, you've got Essings 28 00:01:30,600 --> 00:01:36,180 in there, you've got zealots in there, you've got women, which yes, listeners, I'm sorry, 29 00:01:36,180 --> 00:01:37,560 there are women who followed Jesus. 30 00:01:37,560 --> 00:01:39,520 It says that in the Bible. 31 00:01:39,520 --> 00:01:43,360 You've got these people who have different socioeconomic backgrounds, different belief 32 00:01:43,360 --> 00:01:46,880 systems, different ideas of who Messiah was going to be. 33 00:01:46,880 --> 00:01:49,200 And Jesus called to them is really simple. 34 00:01:49,200 --> 00:01:52,880 He says, hey, come follow me. 35 00:01:52,880 --> 00:01:58,800 And a lot of times we're having these conversations amongst ourselves about, oh, is this piece 36 00:01:58,800 --> 00:01:59,800 right? 37 00:01:59,800 --> 00:02:04,520 Is this piece going to, you know, am I more right than my brother or sister? 38 00:02:04,520 --> 00:02:08,600 And the issue with that is, is that we forgot that we're supposed to be following, not debating 39 00:02:08,600 --> 00:02:10,480 about which road is the right one to follow. 40 00:02:10,480 --> 00:02:12,400 The right one to follow is the one Jesus is on. 41 00:02:12,400 --> 00:02:15,840 I heard it said a long time now, like, you know, you can have the best doctor in the 42 00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:19,360 world, but if you're not actually obeying what Christ calls you to do, then what are 43 00:02:19,360 --> 00:02:20,360 you actually doing? 44 00:02:20,360 --> 00:02:24,120 And I mean, that's a fair statement to say, because it's like, if you do know everything 45 00:02:24,120 --> 00:02:29,120 on you can engage scripture on a level that's just knowledge. 46 00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:33,240 And while knowledge is good, it needs to lead us to action and needs to lead us to a deeper 47 00:02:33,240 --> 00:02:36,960 relationship with Jesus and a deeper following to who he is. 48 00:02:36,960 --> 00:02:37,960 Totally. 49 00:02:37,960 --> 00:02:42,120 Well, and so the name of the podcast is Love and Context. 50 00:02:42,120 --> 00:02:47,400 One of the things that you and I have talked about a lot is Christianity came from somewhere. 51 00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:52,240 It's based on Christ, who was a Jewish Messiah. 52 00:02:52,240 --> 00:02:56,240 And so understanding the context of Judaism, both in the time of Jesus and when you're 53 00:02:56,240 --> 00:02:58,800 interpreting the Old Testament is really important. 54 00:02:58,800 --> 00:03:01,080 So we talk about love and context. 55 00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:03,160 Now why love before context? 56 00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:07,880 I think that if we look in like 1 Corinthians, where Paul is talking about, hey, if I could 57 00:03:07,880 --> 00:03:12,520 talk in the voice of men and angels and I could do all these things, I could sacrifice 58 00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:14,360 my self to the flames. 59 00:03:14,360 --> 00:03:18,880 If I don't have love, man, it's worthless. 60 00:03:18,880 --> 00:03:20,920 You may as well just throw it in the garbage. 61 00:03:20,920 --> 00:03:23,520 So love has to be the first thing that we look through. 62 00:03:23,520 --> 00:03:27,140 And then we want to talk about now this faith that we follow Jesus with. 63 00:03:27,140 --> 00:03:30,840 Let's put some context around it so we understand what it meant in the day. 64 00:03:30,840 --> 00:03:34,000 So today as followers of Jesus, what does it mean for us today? 65 00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:36,280 Yeah, 100%. 66 00:03:36,280 --> 00:03:39,720 And like, and what like when you're talking about what does it mean for us today? 67 00:03:39,720 --> 00:03:44,080 One of the things that 1 Corinthians 13 passage that I think we often overlook is at the end 68 00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:49,080 of that chapter, Paul is saying, hey, three things are main faith, hope and love. 69 00:03:49,080 --> 00:03:51,780 And the greatest of these is love. 70 00:03:51,780 --> 00:03:56,680 So if we're viewing scripture through a context that is not loving, that's not engaging in 71 00:03:56,680 --> 00:04:00,080 love and who Jesus is, we have a huge problem. 72 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:01,080 Right. 73 00:04:01,080 --> 00:04:02,080 One. 74 00:04:02,080 --> 00:04:06,400 Also, what Paul is not saying is he's not saying that faith and hope aren't important. 75 00:04:06,400 --> 00:04:10,040 He's saying that these things are interpreted through the lens of love, which once again, 76 00:04:10,040 --> 00:04:14,960 you come back to the teachings of Messiah Jesus and he says, you interpret all of scripture 77 00:04:14,960 --> 00:04:19,320 through this lens, love your neighbor as yourself and love Lord your God with all your hearts, 78 00:04:19,320 --> 00:04:20,320 soul, mind and strength. 79 00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:24,040 Now, I flipped those, of course, somebody who is listening is probably going to be like, 80 00:04:24,040 --> 00:04:25,600 he flipped them heretic. 81 00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:26,600 And you know what? 82 00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:28,040 We welcome that feedback. 83 00:04:28,040 --> 00:04:32,120 But Jesus is telling me as a follower and telling his disciples, if you're going to 84 00:04:32,120 --> 00:04:35,140 look at the law and the prophets, they're all going to hang on. 85 00:04:35,140 --> 00:04:38,400 Do you love God and do you love other people? 86 00:04:38,400 --> 00:04:44,080 Now there's context in that because love doesn't mean whatever you want it to mean. 87 00:04:44,080 --> 00:04:47,640 It has to mean like love the way that God loves, the way that Jesus loves. 88 00:04:47,640 --> 00:04:49,000 So you have to put that in context. 89 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:51,480 So I don't want to pretend like there's no context in that. 90 00:04:51,480 --> 00:04:54,120 And it's just so you have to accept any definition of love. 91 00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:55,600 I think that would be foolhardy. 92 00:04:55,600 --> 00:04:56,600 Yeah, 100%. 93 00:04:56,600 --> 00:04:57,600 Yeah, completely. 94 00:04:57,600 --> 00:05:01,040 It's love is a tough thing, right? 95 00:05:01,040 --> 00:05:06,800 We've lived in a culture where where truth and knowledge is what we want. 96 00:05:06,800 --> 00:05:09,200 Right, we're coming at you from America. 97 00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:13,200 You can't tell our English is horrible and we stutter in our speech and you know, all 98 00:05:13,200 --> 00:05:14,360 that stuff. 99 00:05:14,360 --> 00:05:20,360 Lots of euphemisms, lots of idioms, lots of random phrases that are really suspect. 100 00:05:20,360 --> 00:05:21,360 Yes, 100%. 101 00:05:21,360 --> 00:05:25,800 And then you're probably hearing me say 100% all the time, as I like to do that. 102 00:05:25,800 --> 00:05:28,840 But we only says it like 95% of the time. 103 00:05:28,840 --> 00:05:31,620 I'll try to cut back to 80. 104 00:05:31,620 --> 00:05:35,800 But we come from a culture where we want to be right, where we want to have the right 105 00:05:35,800 --> 00:05:38,680 knowledge, we want to have the right interpretation of everything. 106 00:05:38,680 --> 00:05:43,200 We want to make sure we're speaking the one truth, the one whatever. 107 00:05:43,200 --> 00:05:44,200 Right. 108 00:05:44,200 --> 00:05:45,760 And if you don't believe me on that, just look at it. 109 00:05:45,760 --> 00:05:47,520 I mean, just look at what happened during COVID. 110 00:05:47,520 --> 00:05:49,880 You have one side of the aisle saying this is what you have to do. 111 00:05:49,880 --> 00:05:52,240 And you have the other side of the aisle saying that's completely wrong. 112 00:05:52,240 --> 00:05:54,000 This is what you have to do. 113 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:57,600 And then they started like fighting over a cat turd in the sandbox, like two five year 114 00:05:57,600 --> 00:05:58,600 olds. 115 00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:01,480 And that's the extent of political ranting you're going to get on this podcast. 116 00:06:01,480 --> 00:06:05,360 I was going to say episode one, you're like, hey, why don't we talk about COVID? 117 00:06:05,360 --> 00:06:06,360 Yeah. 118 00:06:06,360 --> 00:06:08,120 Well, actually, actually, you know what? 119 00:06:08,120 --> 00:06:10,520 Why don't we talk about COVID for a second, actually. 120 00:06:10,520 --> 00:06:13,400 So taking a step back, we're talking about defining love, right? 121 00:06:13,400 --> 00:06:17,320 I have a four year old, you have a five year old, almost five year old. 122 00:06:17,320 --> 00:06:18,320 Yeah. 123 00:06:18,320 --> 00:06:19,320 Yeah. 124 00:06:19,320 --> 00:06:21,880 And James says to me the other day, my son's name is James. 125 00:06:21,880 --> 00:06:25,560 He says, I told him he needed to go brush his teeth and he says, you don't love me. 126 00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:26,560 Okay. 127 00:06:26,560 --> 00:06:29,960 Now James doesn't understand really what love means yet. 128 00:06:29,960 --> 00:06:33,160 Like he understands love is affection, love is, love is acceptance. 129 00:06:33,160 --> 00:06:35,800 Like he is learning what love is. 130 00:06:35,800 --> 00:06:40,880 I don't accept James's definition of love when I go and learn how to love God and love 131 00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:42,120 my neighbor. 132 00:06:42,120 --> 00:06:45,640 Like if God doesn't give me what I want, it doesn't mean that God doesn't love me. 133 00:06:45,640 --> 00:06:49,160 It means he can see something better than what I can see. 134 00:06:49,160 --> 00:06:52,440 And when I go and love my neighbor, it's not always going to be something that they're 135 00:06:52,440 --> 00:06:55,760 going to, well, for lack of a better term, love. 136 00:06:55,760 --> 00:07:00,480 They may interpret it differently, but my perspective should always be showing the compassion, 137 00:07:00,480 --> 00:07:02,960 the grace, the mercy of who Jesus is. 138 00:07:02,960 --> 00:07:06,860 Like I have similar stories with my daughter where she's really into, hey, you hurt my 139 00:07:06,860 --> 00:07:10,800 feelings or like you hate me because you asked me to clean up my room. 140 00:07:10,800 --> 00:07:13,200 And it's like, no, that's not it at all. 141 00:07:13,200 --> 00:07:15,120 Kid, like I love you deeply. 142 00:07:15,120 --> 00:07:19,520 I didn't hear a title to feel how you want to feel about it, but like I love you deeply. 143 00:07:19,520 --> 00:07:24,640 And because I love you, I'm asking you to do some stuff that's challenging and difficult 144 00:07:24,640 --> 00:07:27,000 so that you can become a good person. 145 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:28,000 Right. 146 00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:31,000 So with that in mind, let's talk about COVID. 147 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:34,280 And there were two sides to a lot of those situations. 148 00:07:34,280 --> 00:07:38,400 And I don't particularly care which side you were falling on, whether you thought that 149 00:07:38,400 --> 00:07:39,640 churches should have shut down. 150 00:07:39,640 --> 00:07:41,160 You thought churches should have stayed open. 151 00:07:41,160 --> 00:07:42,440 You thought people should have masked. 152 00:07:42,440 --> 00:07:43,680 You thought people shouldn't mask. 153 00:07:43,680 --> 00:07:45,800 You think people should all get the vaccine. 154 00:07:45,800 --> 00:07:48,440 You think nobody should get a vaccine. 155 00:07:48,440 --> 00:07:50,720 You're all entitled to your own opinion. 156 00:07:50,720 --> 00:07:54,920 What you are not entitled to is your own perspective on grace and love. 157 00:07:54,920 --> 00:07:57,560 Yeah, it doesn't matter. 158 00:07:57,560 --> 00:08:00,960 The thing I told people a number of times is like, it doesn't matter what side of the 159 00:08:00,960 --> 00:08:02,960 aisle you're on when it comes to COVID. 160 00:08:02,960 --> 00:08:05,540 It doesn't change who Christ has called you to be. 161 00:08:05,540 --> 00:08:08,000 Your politics should not be your faith. 162 00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:09,000 100%. 163 00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:11,780 And I want to say that like 75% of the time, no. 164 00:08:11,780 --> 00:08:14,960 But it doesn't change who you are called to be. 165 00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:17,600 Like you are called to love your neighbor. 166 00:08:17,600 --> 00:08:21,360 You're called to have such a deep love for your neighbor through the power of Christ 167 00:08:21,360 --> 00:08:25,520 in you that it's transformational to the community around you. 168 00:08:25,520 --> 00:08:29,560 Now, if you are now, if you're going around and you are just yelling at people because 169 00:08:29,560 --> 00:08:33,320 you're like COVID is a scam, you should not wear your mask or you're going around yelling 170 00:08:33,320 --> 00:08:34,760 at people, you should get vaccinated. 171 00:08:34,760 --> 00:08:37,060 If you don't, you're killing everybody. 172 00:08:37,060 --> 00:08:39,800 Is that actually portraying the love of Christ? 173 00:08:39,800 --> 00:08:43,460 That's a rhetorical question, by the way. 174 00:08:43,460 --> 00:08:46,960 So one of the things that you should know, again, this is episode one, so we want to 175 00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:49,200 make sure that you kind of understand who we are. 176 00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:52,280 And we're not, this is kind of just trying to introduce you to who we are. 177 00:08:52,280 --> 00:08:53,680 It's an unscripted conversation. 178 00:08:53,680 --> 00:08:54,900 We're going to ramble. 179 00:08:54,900 --> 00:08:56,520 We're also incredibly sarcastic. 180 00:08:56,520 --> 00:09:00,040 You're probably going to hear me say some things that are a little bit sarcastic. 181 00:09:00,040 --> 00:09:02,960 So always understand things are a little bit tongue in cheek. 182 00:09:02,960 --> 00:09:05,960 We are very serious about Jesus and following Jesus. 183 00:09:05,960 --> 00:09:09,040 And what we want to talk about is how do we love each other well, but also engage the 184 00:09:09,040 --> 00:09:11,120 Bible from a contextual piece. 185 00:09:11,120 --> 00:09:15,880 So a couple of things that we've talked about that if you want to listen to this, things 186 00:09:15,880 --> 00:09:20,800 that we would expect as listeners with the way we're going to engage this is we're going 187 00:09:20,800 --> 00:09:23,200 to talk about different passages from the Bible. 188 00:09:23,200 --> 00:09:24,700 It's going to be talked about. 189 00:09:24,700 --> 00:09:28,000 And if we throw something out there that we're going to discuss, like for example, we're 190 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:30,920 actually going to be getting into Torah, first five books of the Bible. 191 00:09:30,920 --> 00:09:33,600 And we're going to give you ideas of like where we're going to go. 192 00:09:33,600 --> 00:09:39,160 You should probably read those before you listen and definitely read those before you 193 00:09:39,160 --> 00:09:40,960 write us any comments. 194 00:09:40,960 --> 00:09:41,960 Yes. 195 00:09:41,960 --> 00:09:46,440 And if you haven't read Torah, you should go do that. 196 00:09:46,440 --> 00:09:49,960 We have a couple of expectations that we'll have is we're going to, I mean, over the next 197 00:09:49,960 --> 00:09:53,320 few weeks, we're going to be going through parts of Genesis, particularly the creation 198 00:09:53,320 --> 00:09:56,040 story, we're going to move some different parts after that. 199 00:09:56,040 --> 00:09:59,240 But if you have it, we'll reference what scripture we're going to be in. 200 00:09:59,240 --> 00:10:06,540 We want you to read that scripture or have your Bible open and have it and be studying 201 00:10:06,540 --> 00:10:08,580 along as we talk about it. 202 00:10:08,580 --> 00:10:10,600 If you are like, oh, they're talking about this scripture. 203 00:10:10,600 --> 00:10:11,600 Haven't read that yet. 204 00:10:11,600 --> 00:10:12,600 Okay. 205 00:10:12,600 --> 00:10:13,600 Pause the podcast. 206 00:10:13,600 --> 00:10:15,380 It's a new newfangled technology. 207 00:10:15,380 --> 00:10:16,380 You can pause it. 208 00:10:16,380 --> 00:10:17,380 Yeah, you can pause it. 209 00:10:17,380 --> 00:10:20,080 You could hit the pause button and come back and it'll be fine. 210 00:10:20,080 --> 00:10:22,360 And you could or hit the pause button, turn it off. 211 00:10:22,360 --> 00:10:23,360 You know, that's great too. 212 00:10:23,360 --> 00:10:27,960 Whatever, whatever floats your boat, but pause it, go read that passage or go grab your Bible 213 00:10:27,960 --> 00:10:32,880 so that you can understand what is happening and you can be walking through the text with 214 00:10:32,880 --> 00:10:35,060 us. 215 00:10:35,060 --> 00:10:38,000 So that would be one of our expectations. 216 00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:41,920 Another expectation would be that we want you to engage back with us and there's going 217 00:10:41,920 --> 00:10:45,820 to be people who listen, who disagree with us and I'm all for that. 218 00:10:45,820 --> 00:10:49,260 But if you're going to disagree, we have an email and Spencer will put it in at the end 219 00:10:49,260 --> 00:10:53,320 of the podcast or put it in the show notes or something like that, that you can reach 220 00:10:53,320 --> 00:10:54,320 us at. 221 00:10:54,320 --> 00:10:57,760 And if you have a question or you have something where you're like, Hey, I don't understand 222 00:10:57,760 --> 00:10:59,040 why you said this. 223 00:10:59,040 --> 00:11:01,020 Could you dive a little deeper on that? 224 00:11:01,020 --> 00:11:05,180 We're going to try to answer those as we're going along because it's far from exhaustive 225 00:11:05,180 --> 00:11:07,040 and also it's unscripted. 226 00:11:07,040 --> 00:11:10,400 So it's unlikely that we're going to drill down every piece that needs to be drilled 227 00:11:10,400 --> 00:11:11,400 down. 228 00:11:11,400 --> 00:11:12,400 Yeah. 229 00:11:12,400 --> 00:11:15,040 And we asked that this is unscripted have grace. 230 00:11:15,040 --> 00:11:18,280 If there's something that's like a slip of the tongue and you're like, Oh man, they said 231 00:11:18,280 --> 00:11:20,400 that, that very well could be the process too. 232 00:11:20,400 --> 00:11:22,200 And we might've just missed it. 233 00:11:22,200 --> 00:11:25,140 And I would blame Spencer more because he does the editing. 234 00:11:25,140 --> 00:11:26,360 So you missed it twice. 235 00:11:26,360 --> 00:11:30,120 The slip of the tongues are all going to be on Ben's side of the conversation just so 236 00:11:30,120 --> 00:11:32,000 you know, cause it's, I'm doing mostly editing. 237 00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:33,400 So that's how it's going to work. 238 00:11:33,400 --> 00:11:34,400 Yeah. 239 00:11:34,400 --> 00:11:37,320 What's actually probably going to happen is you're going to go through and like finally 240 00:11:37,320 --> 00:11:38,760 tune everything you say. 241 00:11:38,760 --> 00:11:42,200 So you sound like amazing and then you're going to cut off my points. 242 00:11:42,200 --> 00:11:47,400 We're all started to say something and then just like that. 243 00:11:47,400 --> 00:11:48,400 You're like, exactly. 244 00:11:48,400 --> 00:11:49,400 Yeah. 245 00:11:49,400 --> 00:11:52,920 And so, I mean, that's a couple of our expectations. 246 00:11:52,920 --> 00:11:55,200 Like we, we want to engage with you guys. 247 00:11:55,200 --> 00:11:56,880 We both have full-time jobs. 248 00:11:56,880 --> 00:11:58,760 This is something we're doing on the side. 249 00:11:58,760 --> 00:12:03,360 So if, if you are flooding us with emails, we will get to which ones we can, we'll try 250 00:12:03,360 --> 00:12:05,440 to respond as best we can. 251 00:12:05,440 --> 00:12:09,560 But if you are expecting us to answer all the questions via podcast, we'll probably 252 00:12:09,560 --> 00:12:14,080 do a Q and a couple of Q and a podcast at some point, but we will probably not get to 253 00:12:14,080 --> 00:12:17,880 every question that's submitted. 254 00:12:17,880 --> 00:12:20,820 So with all that being said, why a podcast? 255 00:12:20,820 --> 00:12:22,780 Why an unscripted conversation? 256 00:12:22,780 --> 00:12:27,920 Like why, why would we do it this way as opposed to, I think, you know, there's a lot of benefit 257 00:12:27,920 --> 00:12:30,600 to a lot of people sketching out exactly what they're going to talk about. 258 00:12:30,600 --> 00:12:34,200 And when I say unscripted, it's not like we're coming here with no idea of what we're talking 259 00:12:34,200 --> 00:12:35,200 about. 260 00:12:35,200 --> 00:12:36,200 Well, actually, hold on. 261 00:12:36,200 --> 00:12:40,680 I can't speak for Spencer, but, but we're not coming here with no idea of what we're 262 00:12:40,680 --> 00:12:42,620 talking about. 263 00:12:42,620 --> 00:12:45,740 But the idea is we need to have authentic, real conversations. 264 00:12:45,740 --> 00:12:49,320 And sometimes I think what we're going to see is that the Holy Spirit is going to work 265 00:12:49,320 --> 00:12:55,240 in the middle of that to bring revelation, to bring ideas out that we wouldn't necessarily 266 00:12:55,240 --> 00:12:57,680 catch if we were overprepared. 267 00:12:57,680 --> 00:12:58,960 Yeah. 268 00:12:58,960 --> 00:13:05,320 And the other reason for an unscripted conversation is just honestly, people in the church, how 269 00:13:05,320 --> 00:13:11,860 often are you having Christ centered conversations with fellow believers? 270 00:13:11,860 --> 00:13:16,160 Like is that, are you having Christ centered conversations over the number of political 271 00:13:16,160 --> 00:13:21,800 conversations or over the number of conversations surrounding what you ate, what you did this 272 00:13:21,800 --> 00:13:23,400 week, all of those things? 273 00:13:23,400 --> 00:13:29,280 Like I can tell you of the people I've talked to in the past few years, like a lot of conversations 274 00:13:29,280 --> 00:13:34,960 when I asked them what they did this have done this last week, they will tell me all 275 00:13:34,960 --> 00:13:39,320 the things they did for themselves and very little of the things they did for others or 276 00:13:39,320 --> 00:13:42,200 very little of the ways that they loved others. 277 00:13:42,200 --> 00:13:47,120 And so part of the reason for having this unscripted is so that we can just have a conversation, 278 00:13:47,120 --> 00:13:52,040 be real, be authentic, and let the Holy Spirit move through that. 279 00:13:52,040 --> 00:13:55,440 With that said, Ben and I have sat down, we have talked about what we're going to talk 280 00:13:55,440 --> 00:13:59,460 about, but we're not sitting here with notes in front of us. 281 00:13:59,460 --> 00:14:05,260 So another expectation, something you can expect from us is we will talk about other 282 00:14:05,260 --> 00:14:06,260 people's material. 283 00:14:06,260 --> 00:14:11,480 We're not going to link you to valuable resources that you can check out of great teachers. 284 00:14:11,480 --> 00:14:14,640 Some of them you're not going to like, and that's okay. 285 00:14:14,640 --> 00:14:17,660 You can just not like them and move on. 286 00:14:17,660 --> 00:14:20,760 If you want to write us an email and talk about how this person is a heretic, we've 287 00:14:20,760 --> 00:14:23,120 probably already heard it and we don't care. 288 00:14:23,120 --> 00:14:26,260 We've done our research on these people and we believe that they have a relationship with 289 00:14:26,260 --> 00:14:31,360 God does not mean that we agree with everything and we're really talking about something specific. 290 00:14:31,360 --> 00:14:34,960 What you will not hear from us is you're not going to hear names of people that we disagree 291 00:14:34,960 --> 00:14:36,040 with. 292 00:14:36,040 --> 00:14:38,520 We're not interested in dragging anybody through the mud. 293 00:14:38,520 --> 00:14:42,800 We will push against theological ideas, but we're not going to get push against people 294 00:14:42,800 --> 00:14:47,200 because those are servants of Christ and we have no business judging them. 295 00:14:47,200 --> 00:14:52,560 Ben and I read a lot of different Christian authors ranging from conservative Southern 296 00:14:52,560 --> 00:14:56,260 Baptist to very charismatic more on the liberal side. 297 00:14:56,260 --> 00:15:01,600 We read a wide range of that and part of that is, you know, having a discernment to eat 298 00:15:01,600 --> 00:15:05,480 what it like, eat the meat and spit out the buttons, take what is good and leave what 299 00:15:05,480 --> 00:15:06,480 is not. 300 00:15:06,480 --> 00:15:11,040 There's people who a lot of times with Christian teachers I've heard people just be like, oh, 301 00:15:11,040 --> 00:15:15,720 that person is a straight up heretic and they refer to one thing they said in 20, 30 years 302 00:15:15,720 --> 00:15:16,720 of teaching. 303 00:15:16,720 --> 00:15:19,320 It's like, have you listened to the other 20, 30 years of teaching? 304 00:15:19,320 --> 00:15:23,720 Like they have a lot of good things to say and they might be off on one or two points 305 00:15:23,720 --> 00:15:24,860 or three or four points. 306 00:15:24,860 --> 00:15:28,440 So I'm going to just kind of jump in here and let's and just kind of give people an 307 00:15:28,440 --> 00:15:33,260 idea like in this intro episode, like obviously we're just, this is very much more unscripted 308 00:15:33,260 --> 00:15:36,640 than we normally will be because we're just trying to introduce concepts. 309 00:15:36,640 --> 00:15:38,640 We're trying to introduce ourselves. 310 00:15:38,640 --> 00:15:43,980 I, we were having a conversation the other day and you sent me a video of a very famous 311 00:15:43,980 --> 00:15:50,680 pastor and he was making mention about the church and he said, have you ever seen unbelievers 312 00:15:50,680 --> 00:15:56,700 come into your church and the way that you love each other was so compelling that they 313 00:15:56,700 --> 00:16:01,480 said clearly the work of the Holy Spirit is going on here. 314 00:16:01,480 --> 00:16:08,200 They recognize this nature of God and I found that incredibly one convicting, but then the 315 00:16:08,200 --> 00:16:12,000 other part of it was I was like, this is exactly what the church is supposed to be. 316 00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:16,640 Now this, this summer you and I were, and our, our church were working on a summer series 317 00:16:16,640 --> 00:16:20,800 talking about the temple, the festivals and the sacrifices. 318 00:16:20,800 --> 00:16:24,520 But one of the crazy things about the temple is when the temple is actually opened in the 319 00:16:24,520 --> 00:16:28,960 book of Chronicles, fire falls down and people fall on joyful faces. 320 00:16:28,960 --> 00:16:33,360 They look and they say, great is the Lord, his love endures forever. 321 00:16:33,360 --> 00:16:39,520 And in Acts two, God opens a new temple called his people and he puts fire on them. 322 00:16:39,520 --> 00:16:43,800 And it's almost like when you run into people, they should have the same kind of response 323 00:16:43,800 --> 00:16:48,180 that they had in the old Testament that God is good as love endures forever because what 324 00:16:48,180 --> 00:16:52,960 you have is compelling the way that we love. 325 00:16:52,960 --> 00:16:55,600 And, and here's the deal. 326 00:16:55,600 --> 00:16:59,360 It's easy to love people who agree with everything that you say. 327 00:16:59,360 --> 00:17:03,160 And it's really hard to love people who are actively opposed to you. 328 00:17:03,160 --> 00:17:05,360 And yet this is the way of Jesus. 329 00:17:05,360 --> 00:17:09,120 And Jesus is like, Hey, if they ask for your shirt, you give them your coat as well. 330 00:17:09,120 --> 00:17:10,440 They slap you on one cheek. 331 00:17:10,440 --> 00:17:12,820 You turn the other cheek. 332 00:17:12,820 --> 00:17:17,920 And then on top of that, he says, Hey, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute 333 00:17:17,920 --> 00:17:20,360 you. 334 00:17:20,360 --> 00:17:23,400 Jesus says a lot of things in the Sermon on the Mount that are very convicting and very 335 00:17:23,400 --> 00:17:24,440 challenging. 336 00:17:24,440 --> 00:17:29,240 And then the other thing that Jesus says about forgiveness is he's like, Hey, forgive just 337 00:17:29,240 --> 00:17:31,160 as your heavenly father's forgiven you. 338 00:17:31,160 --> 00:17:34,640 And if you don't forgive, your heavenly father won't forgive you. 339 00:17:34,640 --> 00:17:35,640 That's a whole nother topic. 340 00:17:35,640 --> 00:17:37,160 We're not going to get too much into that today. 341 00:17:37,160 --> 00:17:42,440 But the thing is, is that our enemies, it's so easy just to write them off, complain, 342 00:17:42,440 --> 00:17:43,980 be bitter. 343 00:17:43,980 --> 00:17:47,740 And Jesus is like, no, they're my children too. 344 00:17:47,740 --> 00:17:49,040 You need to love them. 345 00:17:49,040 --> 00:17:50,560 You need to forgive them. 346 00:17:50,560 --> 00:17:51,560 Right. 347 00:17:51,560 --> 00:17:58,360 I would say that one of the most defining characteristics of the Christian life, right? 348 00:17:58,360 --> 00:18:01,480 I look at somebody and I say, man, this person loves Jesus. 349 00:18:01,480 --> 00:18:06,320 You know, if you were like, oh, it's because they pray, it's because they read their Bible, 350 00:18:06,320 --> 00:18:08,320 it's because they're always sharing the word. 351 00:18:08,320 --> 00:18:09,360 And those are all really good things. 352 00:18:09,360 --> 00:18:12,280 So please don't hear me say that any of those things are bad. 353 00:18:12,280 --> 00:18:15,840 I want to see how they treat people who disagree with them. 354 00:18:15,840 --> 00:18:19,560 Because that tells me right away whether or not they're following Jesus. 355 00:18:19,560 --> 00:18:23,920 You and I, we have a relationship via text with memes. 356 00:18:23,920 --> 00:18:26,960 That's trying to like encourage each other with memes. 357 00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:28,320 Like that's the way it's done. 358 00:18:28,320 --> 00:18:31,360 We're in the same portion of our life with raising kids. 359 00:18:31,360 --> 00:18:35,000 But one of the videos that you sent me was talking about fruit. 360 00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:37,880 And it says, if you have an orange and you squeeze an orange, what do you get? 361 00:18:37,880 --> 00:18:38,880 Get orange juice. 362 00:18:38,880 --> 00:18:39,880 Right. 363 00:18:39,880 --> 00:18:43,240 Like, obviously you squeeze an orange, you're not going to get apple juice. 364 00:18:43,240 --> 00:18:47,960 Why is it then when I see Christians get squeezed, everything that comes out is in Jesus? 365 00:18:47,960 --> 00:18:53,440 And I was like, man, man, you're speaking my language there. 366 00:18:53,440 --> 00:18:56,440 And here's the thing, I listened to that and I was like, yeah. 367 00:18:56,440 --> 00:18:59,600 And then I thought about how I got angry the other day. 368 00:18:59,600 --> 00:19:02,200 And I can tell you what came out wasn't Jesus. 369 00:19:02,200 --> 00:19:04,840 So I'm not like pretending like, oh, I've got this all together. 370 00:19:04,840 --> 00:19:07,760 What I'm saying is this is who we're called to be. 371 00:19:07,760 --> 00:19:09,640 And it's now our very nature. 372 00:19:09,640 --> 00:19:13,840 Our nature has now been moved to the righteousness of God and we're called to be this and stop 373 00:19:13,840 --> 00:19:16,400 believing the lie of our past selves. 374 00:19:16,400 --> 00:19:22,600 And now that we are the righteousness of God, the power of God is shown through how we serve 375 00:19:22,600 --> 00:19:24,220 and love one another. 376 00:19:24,220 --> 00:19:27,120 A lot of times we want, we want to see the miraculous signs. 377 00:19:27,120 --> 00:19:29,260 We want to see the big wonders. 378 00:19:29,260 --> 00:19:31,200 And I've had people even be like, well, why aren't those happening? 379 00:19:31,200 --> 00:19:33,240 I was like, those are 100% happening. 380 00:19:33,240 --> 00:19:36,280 You just need to look around and see it happening. 381 00:19:36,280 --> 00:19:42,680 But it really comes down to, okay, God's power is shown in how we serve and love one another. 382 00:19:42,680 --> 00:19:47,920 Like Jesus at the height of his authority in John 13, washed his disciples feet, like 383 00:19:47,920 --> 00:19:52,040 took the place of a servant said, I'm going to wash your feet. 384 00:19:52,040 --> 00:19:53,040 Right. 385 00:19:53,040 --> 00:19:56,960 And we just covered this in our church, but like, let's, let's even talk about that a 386 00:19:56,960 --> 00:19:57,960 little bit further. 387 00:19:57,960 --> 00:19:58,960 Okay. 388 00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:03,960 So Jesus has been talking with the religious leaders and they're like, well, by whose authority 389 00:20:03,960 --> 00:20:04,960 are you doing this? 390 00:20:04,960 --> 00:20:06,920 And like, he's like, guys pay attention. 391 00:20:06,920 --> 00:20:08,880 And they're like, we don't know, blah, blah, blah, blah. 392 00:20:08,880 --> 00:20:12,800 This is like this back and forth where they're clearly not paying attention. 393 00:20:12,800 --> 00:20:16,600 And then the Greeks come up and they're wanting to talk to Jesus and something about the Greeks 394 00:20:16,600 --> 00:20:17,800 coming to talk to Jesus. 395 00:20:17,800 --> 00:20:21,920 Jesus goes, Oh, my time has come. 396 00:20:21,920 --> 00:20:23,240 Like that, that's profound. 397 00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:25,520 And Spencer, I think you said you've read the Bible for a really long time. 398 00:20:25,520 --> 00:20:29,480 You just saw that and you're like, well, there it is, you know, and yeah. 399 00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:35,880 So, but then the voice from heaven speaks and Jesus is like, yeah, it's for your benefit, 400 00:20:35,880 --> 00:20:38,120 not for mine. 401 00:20:38,120 --> 00:20:43,520 So at this point, then it says when he goes to the, to the, to the Seder dinner, this 402 00:20:43,520 --> 00:20:49,920 Passover dinner, it says Jesus, knowing that everything was in his command, you know, all 403 00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:52,880 of everything is under his command, all heaven, all earth. 404 00:20:52,880 --> 00:20:53,880 It's under his command. 405 00:20:53,880 --> 00:20:55,720 He's at the height of his power. 406 00:20:55,720 --> 00:21:00,240 He does not get any more powerful this side of the grave. 407 00:21:00,240 --> 00:21:06,360 He takes off his cloak, gets down on his knees and takes nasty feet and washes them. 408 00:21:06,360 --> 00:21:09,720 And let's reiterate their feet were nasty. 409 00:21:09,720 --> 00:21:16,460 Like we're talking, they wore sandals, not shoes and walked around in a dusty area and 410 00:21:16,460 --> 00:21:18,840 just got like nasty, crusty feet. 411 00:21:18,840 --> 00:21:20,880 Like nobody wants to touch these bad boys. 412 00:21:20,880 --> 00:21:25,300 Well, and it's not just, not just dirty crusty, but you got to remember their animals is their 413 00:21:25,300 --> 00:21:27,200 main source of moving materials. 414 00:21:27,200 --> 00:21:28,200 Yeah. 415 00:21:28,200 --> 00:21:29,840 So what are you going to end up with on your road? 416 00:21:29,840 --> 00:21:30,840 Oh, yeah. 417 00:21:30,840 --> 00:21:31,840 Thank you. 418 00:21:31,840 --> 00:21:35,560 That was very juvenile. 419 00:21:35,560 --> 00:21:39,920 So this is, this is very, you know, this is like your feet can be pretty nasty and servants 420 00:21:39,920 --> 00:21:44,640 were the ones who did it, but not just servants, like the least of the servants. 421 00:21:44,640 --> 00:21:48,760 Like it's the most humiliating thing that you can come up with to do. 422 00:21:48,760 --> 00:21:52,960 And Jesus says, I'm going to do this for you so that later you understand when you have 423 00:21:52,960 --> 00:21:58,560 the authority, when you have the power, when you have the responsibility to carry the kingdom 424 00:21:58,560 --> 00:22:03,060 with you, wherever you go and see the Holy Spirit change people's lives through the message 425 00:22:03,060 --> 00:22:08,460 of Jesus Christ, you remember that you're supposed to get down on your knees and wash 426 00:22:08,460 --> 00:22:12,040 feet because that's who you are. 427 00:22:12,040 --> 00:22:13,040 Yeah. 428 00:22:13,040 --> 00:22:17,800 I remember when I first experienced the call to be in ministry, faster was super exciting. 429 00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:19,280 He's like, dude, this is awesome. 430 00:22:19,280 --> 00:22:20,280 Let's go get lunch. 431 00:22:20,280 --> 00:22:21,280 I was like, okay, great. 432 00:22:21,280 --> 00:22:22,280 Let's go do this. 433 00:22:22,280 --> 00:22:24,640 So we're, we're eating lunch and he's like, all right, here's the keys to the church. 434 00:22:24,640 --> 00:22:25,640 I was like, awesome. 435 00:22:25,640 --> 00:22:26,640 I was like, what, what do I get to do? 436 00:22:26,640 --> 00:22:32,800 He's like, you get to come in twice a week between 11 PM and 1 AM and clean toilets. 437 00:22:32,800 --> 00:22:34,640 I was like, I'm like, I'm sorry. 438 00:22:34,640 --> 00:22:36,000 I think you misspoke. 439 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:37,840 I don't think I don't. 440 00:22:37,840 --> 00:22:39,360 That's what you meant by say. 441 00:22:39,360 --> 00:22:40,800 And he's like, no, no, no, no, no. 442 00:22:40,800 --> 00:22:47,000 You get to come in between 11 PM and 1 AM and clean toilets twice a week because if 443 00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:51,320 you're unwilling to do something like this, then maybe you're not called to serve. 444 00:22:51,320 --> 00:22:52,900 So good. 445 00:22:52,900 --> 00:22:54,200 So good. 446 00:22:54,200 --> 00:22:56,960 You know, and it's, it's one of these things they're like, oh, I don't want the pastor 447 00:22:56,960 --> 00:22:58,980 to do this because he's, you know, blah, blah, blah. 448 00:22:58,980 --> 00:23:02,560 And I was like, man, the pastor, that's who he is. 449 00:23:02,560 --> 00:23:06,080 And more than anything, that's who he's equipping you to be. 450 00:23:06,080 --> 00:23:09,160 He's equipping you to be the person who lowers himself. 451 00:23:09,160 --> 00:23:12,920 Now, I think, I think that we've twisted up what that means. 452 00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:13,920 Lower yourself. 453 00:23:13,920 --> 00:23:16,000 I think we've, we've engaged false humility. 454 00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:21,480 We've engaged, we've engaged people living, living, I'm going to say poverty almost like 455 00:23:21,480 --> 00:23:23,600 they're like, oh, you have to give away everything you have. 456 00:23:23,600 --> 00:23:28,360 No, it means wherever you are, you are intentionally serving those around you. 457 00:23:28,360 --> 00:23:34,960 Whether you are Bill Gates running Microsoft or you are Chandra working at McDonald's, 458 00:23:34,960 --> 00:23:37,240 your job is to serve those around you. 459 00:23:37,240 --> 00:23:41,320 When serving those around us, a complete kid, oh, they had the steamy phone. 460 00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:43,080 We could really miss the point. 461 00:23:43,080 --> 00:23:47,560 Serving those around us, we were serving with no expectation and getting anything in return. 462 00:23:47,560 --> 00:23:52,040 Like, like I'm to avoid my life where I don't make a ton of money, but I'm like, you know 463 00:23:52,040 --> 00:23:53,040 what? 464 00:23:53,040 --> 00:23:54,840 I'm not loaning anybody money. 465 00:23:54,840 --> 00:23:57,660 If they need money and I have excess, I'll give it to them. 466 00:23:57,660 --> 00:23:59,760 And if they decide to give, pay me back, that's great. 467 00:23:59,760 --> 00:24:03,080 But like I'm not, I have no expectation that's going to happen. 468 00:24:03,080 --> 00:24:06,480 When I show up in someone's life, I have no expectation that they're going to return the 469 00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:09,080 favor or show up to my house and help me with something. 470 00:24:09,080 --> 00:24:10,080 Right? 471 00:24:10,080 --> 00:24:11,080 That's not my expectation. 472 00:24:11,080 --> 00:24:16,000 My expectation is that I'm going to serve and be Jesus to whoever is in my life at that 473 00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:17,480 moment in time. 474 00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:24,460 And if I'm not doing that, then we have a problem because if we are truly stepping into 475 00:24:24,460 --> 00:24:29,880 loving God with everything we have, that's naturally going to flow into loving the people 476 00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:31,120 around us. 477 00:24:31,120 --> 00:24:32,120 Right. 478 00:24:32,120 --> 00:24:33,120 Real quick story about that. 479 00:24:33,120 --> 00:24:37,120 I think we've talked about this before, but you dear listeners have not heard this. 480 00:24:37,120 --> 00:24:39,240 And I'm, yes, I said dear listeners because- 481 00:24:39,240 --> 00:24:40,880 I've heard Ben's stories a lot. 482 00:24:40,880 --> 00:24:41,880 Yeah. 483 00:24:41,880 --> 00:24:42,880 You can listen now. 484 00:24:42,880 --> 00:24:43,880 Yeah. 485 00:24:43,880 --> 00:24:45,320 So I was down south in Idaho. 486 00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:46,320 By the way, we live in Alaska. 487 00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:48,440 I don't think we actually specify that at this point. 488 00:24:48,440 --> 00:24:51,520 We're not going to tell you which city people who know us can tell you, but it's a small 489 00:24:51,520 --> 00:24:53,700 town so you could find us. 490 00:24:53,700 --> 00:25:00,960 So I was down south in Idaho spending time with my sister-in-law and my niece and nephew. 491 00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:07,160 And we went to this restaurant and let's just say that the service was less than adequate. 492 00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:10,840 I feel like that's an appropriate way to say this. 493 00:25:10,840 --> 00:25:17,160 And it came time for the bill and my niece saw how much I tipped. 494 00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:20,760 And she said, Uncle Ben, did you mean to tip that much? 495 00:25:20,760 --> 00:25:24,400 Because the service was really bad. 496 00:25:24,400 --> 00:25:26,480 And I took the opportunity to talk to her about this. 497 00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:28,520 I said, listen, here's a deal. 498 00:25:28,520 --> 00:25:32,720 I went out to eat and I am going and eating from a place and not everybody has to have 499 00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:36,640 this conviction, but I have a conviction is that when somebody comes and they take care 500 00:25:36,640 --> 00:25:42,520 of me, I'm going to overly bless the people around me, which means that their blessing 501 00:25:42,520 --> 00:25:44,360 is not dependent on what they do for me. 502 00:25:44,360 --> 00:25:47,560 It's dependent on how grateful I am for what God gave me. 503 00:25:47,560 --> 00:25:51,160 So when I tip, I always tip a minimum. 504 00:25:51,160 --> 00:25:53,880 I'm not even going to give you a percentage because I think that it's easy to just do 505 00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:54,880 a measuring stick. 506 00:25:54,880 --> 00:25:59,840 I always tip a minimum percentage for people because I want them to understand I'm blessing 507 00:25:59,840 --> 00:26:04,880 you because I've been blessed, not because of what you did for me. 508 00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:06,960 And my niece is like, so why did you do that? 509 00:26:06,960 --> 00:26:12,120 And I said, the thing is when I live with that heart, I actually take on the role of 510 00:26:12,120 --> 00:26:13,540 Jesus. 511 00:26:13,540 --> 00:26:20,160 And it's actually more about me than about the person who served me if I don't tip because 512 00:26:20,160 --> 00:26:25,720 I have forgotten the lesson that I was once the outcast, I was once the lost and I was 513 00:26:25,720 --> 00:26:30,640 forgiven and blessed and I have been infused with the Holy Spirit and now I walk in goodness 514 00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:36,920 and my job is to be a benefit to those around me in all ways, spiritual, material, spiritual 515 00:26:36,920 --> 00:26:37,920 and emotional. 516 00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:44,240 And so when we add to this place of servanthood, we are doing these things for the sake of 517 00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:46,920 the gospel and we're doing these things for the sake of others. 518 00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:51,840 One of the things I love in the Bible is the apostle John. 519 00:26:51,840 --> 00:26:57,000 All throughout the gospel of John, he does not mention himself by name. 520 00:26:57,000 --> 00:26:59,640 He's like, no, I'm the one Jesus loved. 521 00:26:59,640 --> 00:27:02,780 John doesn't do this because this is my belief at least. 522 00:27:02,780 --> 00:27:07,520 John wants people to see Jesus everywhere he goes, not in John. 523 00:27:07,520 --> 00:27:11,200 He's like, okay, I want people to see Jesus everywhere he goes. 524 00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:14,240 And then in first John, he doesn't write his name. 525 00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:17,080 Now some of you can know that by the way, you're going to look at me and you're going 526 00:27:17,080 --> 00:27:22,800 to be like, okay, second and third John, I said, okay, this is a letter from Elder John. 527 00:27:22,800 --> 00:27:25,680 Okay, that does say that 100%. 528 00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:27,720 There's actually some theories on that. 529 00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:30,840 I'm not going to dive into that because this is an intro podcast. 530 00:27:30,840 --> 00:27:33,640 Conspiracy theories in episode one. 531 00:27:33,640 --> 00:27:39,280 But if you want to hear some theories on the authorship of the gospel of John and first, 532 00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:42,680 second and third John, I would love to respond to that one. 533 00:27:42,680 --> 00:27:44,120 That one's a fun one. 534 00:27:44,120 --> 00:27:48,920 But John is trying to make sure Jesus is known. 535 00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:49,920 Right? 536 00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:51,440 Like that's the key point. 537 00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:55,600 He's trying to make sure Jesus is known, not himself. 538 00:27:55,600 --> 00:27:56,720 Right? 539 00:27:56,720 --> 00:27:58,680 And he even makes that statement in the gospel of John. 540 00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:03,320 He says, I wrote all these things down so you know Jesus is who he said he was. 541 00:28:03,320 --> 00:28:04,320 Yeah. 542 00:28:04,320 --> 00:28:07,440 He wants Jesus to be known. 543 00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:13,200 And I can think of people off the top of my head, no problem, who are like, man, I listened 544 00:28:13,200 --> 00:28:14,200 to this pastor. 545 00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:15,400 I listened to this person. 546 00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:18,240 I've read this book by this person. 547 00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:19,240 All those things are great. 548 00:28:19,240 --> 00:28:21,280 And a lot of those authors, they point to Jesus. 549 00:28:21,280 --> 00:28:23,720 But at the same time, they're talking about all these things. 550 00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:27,840 And then you're like, I haven't heard them actually talk about engaging in scripture. 551 00:28:27,840 --> 00:28:30,280 Or right, using a prayer. 552 00:28:30,280 --> 00:28:32,600 It's like, oh yeah, man. 553 00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:34,360 So and so says such a good word. 554 00:28:34,360 --> 00:28:35,360 I was like, great. 555 00:28:35,360 --> 00:28:38,360 What do you read on Tuesday? 556 00:28:38,360 --> 00:28:41,720 There's a great quote from a pastor. 557 00:28:41,720 --> 00:28:47,160 And I've loved it for a very long time, talking about Bible reading and prayer. 558 00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:51,760 And because I think sometimes in the Christian life, we're incredibly discouraged because 559 00:28:51,760 --> 00:28:56,000 we're like, oh man, I read the Bible and I just didn't feel anything like jump off the 560 00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:57,000 page. 561 00:28:57,000 --> 00:28:58,000 And so the pastor was talking. 562 00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:01,480 He's like, I have people come up to me all the time who are like, pastor, I read, but 563 00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:03,640 I can't remember anything that I read. 564 00:29:03,640 --> 00:29:07,720 And he says, I don't remember what I had for breakfast last Tuesday. 565 00:29:07,720 --> 00:29:09,400 Still fed me. 566 00:29:09,400 --> 00:29:11,320 Still nourished me. 567 00:29:11,320 --> 00:29:13,200 Still got me going. 568 00:29:13,200 --> 00:29:15,680 He's like, don't be worried about what you're remembering. 569 00:29:15,680 --> 00:29:17,920 Just engage the text and let it change you. 570 00:29:17,920 --> 00:29:21,360 A lot of times we're like, okay, we need to know scripture. 571 00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:23,560 We need to just know what it says. 572 00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:24,560 All this stuff. 573 00:29:24,560 --> 00:29:27,740 I'm like, yeah, I was like, actually, what the Bible tells us is we need to like have 574 00:29:27,740 --> 00:29:30,320 it written on our hearts. 575 00:29:30,320 --> 00:29:36,240 Like and what that is saying is like, no, we don't need to just know what it says, but 576 00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:42,120 we need to see it like needs to be so evident in our lives that it's so evident in our relationship 577 00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:44,400 with Jesus that it's just apparent. 578 00:29:44,400 --> 00:29:45,400 Right. 579 00:29:45,400 --> 00:29:50,720 Hopefully you understand that reading the word of God leads you to relationship with 580 00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:56,960 God so that as you walk and engage this world, you're able to hear the voice of God in everything 581 00:29:56,960 --> 00:29:57,960 that you're doing. 582 00:29:57,960 --> 00:30:01,360 It's the benchmark by which we put every word we hear. 583 00:30:01,360 --> 00:30:03,600 So what is this podcast? 584 00:30:03,600 --> 00:30:07,400 It's a place where we talk about how do we love each other well? 585 00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:09,480 How do we actually live that love well? 586 00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:12,240 How do we let it encapsulate all who we are? 587 00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:16,320 And then the second is how do we understand the Bible in a proper context? 588 00:30:16,320 --> 00:30:19,840 And we're going to not do this as well as other people do. 589 00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:23,500 Like when we talk about context and learning, like there's resources that we have dialed 590 00:30:23,500 --> 00:30:27,480 in and we're using that we're going to share all over the place. 591 00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:33,440 Like we are by far not authoritative, but what we are going to do is have real conversations 592 00:30:33,440 --> 00:30:40,300 about real things and what it means to actually be a believer who follows Jesus in context. 593 00:30:40,300 --> 00:30:44,360 We want to engage the text, how it was written, where it was written, when it was written, 594 00:30:44,360 --> 00:30:46,440 who it was written to, all of that. 595 00:30:46,440 --> 00:30:50,280 We want to know location of where things were happening. 596 00:30:50,280 --> 00:30:52,240 We want to know all of that. 597 00:30:52,240 --> 00:30:56,160 In our first few episodes following this, we're going to be diving into the creation 598 00:30:56,160 --> 00:31:01,520 story in the first part of Genesis and just talking about some of the things that are 599 00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:06,880 potentially misunderstood there and some of the things that are just spot on as well. 600 00:31:06,880 --> 00:31:11,840 And one of the things that we should throw out there is just that we're coming at this 601 00:31:11,840 --> 00:31:14,200 from a conversational standpoint. 602 00:31:14,200 --> 00:31:19,280 If you're going to come and be like, okay, how are you guys equipped to talk about this? 603 00:31:19,280 --> 00:31:24,280 Ben and I have both been in pastoral roles at churches and a number of different places. 604 00:31:24,280 --> 00:31:27,520 We've studied this stuff, all of these things. 605 00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:33,200 At the same time, we are not the ultimate authority. 606 00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:36,720 We're probably going to say some stuff that you're like, that's not right. 607 00:31:36,720 --> 00:31:40,920 And if you think that, let us know in love, please let us know. 608 00:31:40,920 --> 00:31:44,000 And we will see about addressing that. 609 00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:47,640 And we'll come out and say it is like if we realize that, hey, something we said was incorrect 610 00:31:47,640 --> 00:31:52,720 or something we've come up with new understanding, new revelation. 611 00:31:52,720 --> 00:31:56,120 In other words, like maybe there's a scholar who shed some light on something we didn't 612 00:31:56,120 --> 00:31:57,120 understand. 613 00:31:57,120 --> 00:32:00,720 I'm perfectly willing to come back and say, hey, I think I misinterpreted this in context 614 00:32:00,720 --> 00:32:01,880 of the Bible. 615 00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:06,880 But what I always want to do is I want to always shape my theology and my faith by what 616 00:32:06,880 --> 00:32:11,360 Jesus tells me I have to shape it by, which is love God and love other people. 617 00:32:11,360 --> 00:32:14,200 So everything is going to be shaped by that. 618 00:32:14,200 --> 00:32:17,500 So if you're looking for somebody who's just going to talk to you about how to be a Melitogrysian, 619 00:32:17,500 --> 00:32:19,660 this is not the podcast for you. 620 00:32:19,660 --> 00:32:22,320 We're going to be talking about how do we love people well? 621 00:32:22,320 --> 00:32:24,400 How do we understand the Bible in its context? 622 00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:30,120 How do we reframe some of the things that maybe we've, for lack of a better term, Americanized 623 00:32:30,120 --> 00:32:32,540 rather than contextualized? 624 00:32:32,540 --> 00:32:33,540 And that's not to say anything. 625 00:32:33,540 --> 00:32:37,520 I love being in America, but the Bible wasn't written to us. 626 00:32:37,520 --> 00:32:39,420 It was written for us. 627 00:32:39,420 --> 00:32:46,760 So my hope when you listen is you're going to feel like you're part of a conversation. 628 00:32:46,760 --> 00:32:51,380 You're going to feel like you get some tidbits that you can walk away with and maybe go study. 629 00:32:51,380 --> 00:32:56,560 You're going to feel like it gives you an idea that you're not walking this path alone, 630 00:32:56,560 --> 00:33:01,200 that there are other people who are looking to say, how do we follow the Jesus of the 631 00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:03,320 Bible a little bit better? 632 00:33:03,320 --> 00:33:07,420 How do we engage this world so that the kingdom is really among us? 633 00:33:07,420 --> 00:33:11,880 How do we show the Holy Spirit through our actions, through our heart that actually changes 634 00:33:11,880 --> 00:33:13,200 things? 635 00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:15,920 Because it's not our actions, it's the Holy Spirit working through us and we got to be 636 00:33:15,920 --> 00:33:16,920 good conduits. 637 00:33:16,920 --> 00:33:22,520 Yeah, and so that's really the heart and the hope here is we want to engage the text where 638 00:33:22,520 --> 00:33:27,680 it's at and we want to and then take that and just see it poured out in our community 639 00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:30,560 through the Holy Spirit and the work of Christ in our lives. 640 00:33:30,560 --> 00:33:32,880 And we don't want that just for our community. 641 00:33:32,880 --> 00:33:37,460 We want that for the communities of whoever is listening to this. 642 00:33:37,460 --> 00:33:41,680 So I think we're going to have an email address that's going to be available at the bottom 643 00:33:41,680 --> 00:33:42,680 in the show notes. 644 00:33:42,680 --> 00:33:43,680 Yes. 645 00:33:43,680 --> 00:33:48,680 So there will be an email address that we will as we do have some social media accounts 646 00:33:48,680 --> 00:33:52,440 too and as we do more episodes, we'll be posting some stuff like that, eventually helping to 647 00:33:52,440 --> 00:33:56,080 get some video reels and stuff like that up too. 648 00:33:56,080 --> 00:33:58,800 We're really hoping that we don't break cameras when people like video us. 649 00:33:58,800 --> 00:33:59,800 Yeah. 650 00:33:59,800 --> 00:34:01,600 You are a couple of ugly dudes, let me tell you. 651 00:34:01,600 --> 00:34:02,600 Yeah. 652 00:34:02,600 --> 00:34:06,200 Our wives could have done so much better and yet by the grace of God. 653 00:34:06,200 --> 00:34:07,920 So thanks for listening. 654 00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:08,920 I'm Ben. 655 00:34:08,920 --> 00:34:10,440 I'm Spether. 656 00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:14,760 And this has been a non-scripted conversation. 657 00:34:14,760 --> 00:34:16,600 Thank you so much for listening today. 658 00:34:16,600 --> 00:34:22,120 We hope you enjoyed this podcast and we hope that you got something out of it. 659 00:34:22,120 --> 00:34:28,560 If you have any questions, please contact us at loveandcontexts.gmail.com. 660 00:34:28,560 --> 00:34:33,120 You can also follow us on Instagram and message us through there. 661 00:34:33,120 --> 00:34:34,600 Instagram is loveandcontext. 662 00:34:34,600 --> 00:34:41,240 Again, loveandcontexts.gmail.com or Instagram are the two ways to get ahold of us if you 663 00:34:41,240 --> 00:34:42,240 would like. 664 00:34:42,240 --> 00:34:43,560 Thank you once again. 665 00:34:43,560 --> 00:34:45,720 We really appreciate you being here. 666 00:34:45,720 --> 00:35:06,120 God bless.