How to Be More Like Jesus

Wes McAdams: After a sermon is over, have you ever wanted to make a comment, ask a question, or listen to the preacher say more about a particular idea? If so, this podcast is for you. My name is Wes McAdams, and I'll be sitting down with one of my fellow McDermott Road ministers to discuss comments, questions, and thoughts that have come up after the sermon is over. Welcome to P.S., the Post-Sermon Podcast. Thanks so much for listening to P.S., the Post Sermon Podcast. To find out more about this podcast or about the Church of Christ on McDermott Road, you can visit our website at ccmcdermott.org slash P.S. If this has been an encouragement to you, we also hope you will rate and review the show wherever you're listening, as well as share it with a friend. Because we believe sermons are not just for Sunday, but for our whole week and our whole life.

Barrett: Welcome back to the PS Podcast. My name is Barrett and I am one of the ministers at the McDermott Road Church of Christ, joined as always by Wes McAdams, our preaching minister. How are you, Wes?

Wes McAdams: I'm great. How are you, Barrett? Good.

Barrett: doing really well, man. Thanks for making another episode happen. Thanks for another great sermon. I have really enjoyed this series. I think it's been a very practical one and very thought-provoking one as well. Another sermon in the series of vision, who are we and where are we headed? And I am a very goal-oriented person and this has been a really cool one. ⁓ This sermon in particular, you went to Matthew 13 and talked about in light of our goal and in light of our mission and our vision, what are obstacles and struggles or enemies that are preventing people from becoming mature in Christ and are preventing us from leading people into deeper faith and deeper relationship and maturity in Christ. So, I thought it was a great one. As always, I like to point out jokes and things that are funny. And I loved your line that this was probably a confusing ⁓ sermon and parable. We know it was because they asked, why are you teaching this way? What's going on? And you said, what is this, a botany class? Got me. Was that in the notes? Okay, that's a good one. You might have to try that at some open mic night. I think that would be well received by the general populace. You guys know the parable.

Wes McAdams: Yeah, that was in the notes. That was in the notes. I can do 30 seconds of jokes. So Jesus is telling this parable. ⁓

Barrett: Yeah, that'd be well received, right? What is this, botany? ⁓ So we like to go behind the scenes a little bit before we get into kind of the meat and the content. In your preparation for ⁓ this sermon, ⁓ what were some of the things you were thinking about? What led up to this one? And then did you change anything between first and second service?

Wes McAdams: Yeah, so I think some of the things that I was thinking about is just recognizing that there is overlap between these different soils. So we tend to call this the parable of the sower. We could call it the parable of the soils because that's really the variable here, right? The sower goes out to sow and he indiscriminately throws the seed everywhere, which we could talk about the fact that that's probably not good farming technique to just throw the seed wherever it falls. That's fine, wherever it falls. But that's how we spread the message of the kingdom is we're just giving it to everyone. The difference is what kind of reception does it receive? What kind of people are receiving the word of the kingdom? And some are like this and some are like this and some are like that. And so I've tended to think about this parable, and I think most of us do, as thinking of you're either this soil or that soil or this soil or that soil, when in reality we can be a little bit of all of those soils at the same time, at different times of our life, at different seasons. And so we might think, well, I'm the good soil, obviously, because I'm a Christian. I'm still a Christian. I haven't fallen away. And so obviously I'm the good soil. But it's like, well, just because you were the good soil 20 years ago doesn't necessarily mean that you're always being good soil today. And there could be aspects of your life where you're like the soil along the pathway where the birds are coming and snatching it or your rocky soil or thorny soil. So I was trying to think about how do we explain this in such a way that it feels applicable to everyone so that we all take a moment to look in the mirror and say, Am I this today? Am I being this way today? Do I struggle with this? And all serving the question of why am I not as transformed as I want to be and as I should be? You also asked, did I change anything between services? And I actually did. One of our members came up and kind of pushed back on one of the points that I was making. Particularly, it was the idea that you cannot pursue God and money. And that's how I had it on the slide. You can't pursue God and money. And I still think that's an okay way to say that. But he had some concern with, you know, does that imply that you can't go seek a better job or go find a job if you don't have one already? And I think the idea that I was trying to communicate was that you can't pursue God and wealth. Or the way Jesus says it in the Sermon on the Mount is you cannot serve God and money. And so I changed it. I went into my slides and I actually changed it for second service so that the slide said you cannot pursue God and wealth. But that's the point that I was trying to make is that you can't pursue being wealthy. You can't pursue having riches of having an abundance of money, having more money than you need. That's actually the definition of greed is to try to have or want to have more money than you need or more stuff than you need. And you cannot. You cannot live under the illusion that you can serve both God and money or pursue both God and wealth. But many of us do, and we think that we can have it both ways and think, well, yeah, yeah, I can be a Christian and pursue Jesus and pursue the kingdom of God, but I also want to be wealthy and I want to have all the things that the world has. And we have to become disillusioned with that idea.

Barrett: I it's great. That was another funny point that you had of, you make a lot of ⁓ effort to destroy these ⁓ false dichotomies, you know, and you ask, is it this or this? And the answer is usually for our congregation, well, yes, it's both, right? But with this one, it's not. And so I think that's a fair differentiation to make. And you started this sermon, you know, with ⁓ an honest confession, just kind of we were making a unique transition for your sermons and for our congregation. We had some kind of family business to attend to and talking about our call to more initiative and things like that and then getting into this and you said even you, our preaching minister, you don't feel like you're as much like Jesus as you would like to be. And so I thought that was interesting and I always appreciate the humility and the honesty behind anybody, but preachers in particular, starting with a point like that. So why is it important, do you think, to start where you're headed with that sermon and with this content, with that sort of statement and starting the conversation there.

Wes McAdams: Yeah, I always want people to recognize that I am preaching not at them or to them, but with them. You know, like I'm a fellow traveler on this journey. I'm trying to learn to be like Jesus. And I think we all are trying to learn to be like Jesus. And so I'm inviting them to go with me on this trip. And hopefully by the end of this trip, this 30 minute journey through the text, we are all at a better place. afterwards than we were in the beginning. And I think that it comes across better. It helps them to understand if I'm honest, that I'm struggling too. I have questions too. I have doubts as well. I have things in my life that I'm frustrated about because I'm not as mature as I would like to be. So I'm not lecturing you about, hey, if you just live like me, you'd all be better. I'm just saying, hey, I struggle with this or I have this question. Do you struggle as well? Do you have this question as well? If so, I think this text will help us. Let's together listen to Jesus. So this isn't me inviting them to listen to my ideas or listen to Wes or follow Wes's example. This is me inviting them to come with me as I look at the words of Jesus, listen to the words of Jesus, and I try to be more like him. And if you're interested in that journey the same way I am, and so this week I explicitly said, I'm frustrated. I'm frustrated with where I am spiritually. How about you? Are you frustrated as well? Would you like to be further along? Maybe one of the issues that I'm having, maybe one of the issues that you're having is that the soil of my heart isn't as fertile as it should be. And so let's look at that together and think about that together. And I think it's best to start sermons there either explicitly or implicitly. I never want to imply, hey, I've got this figured out. I'm at a good place in this area, so join me and listen to me and learn from me. I want us to learn from Jesus, not from Wes.

Barrett: Yeah, I think it's, you know, a good point to make that, we're actively being transformed by truth and changed by truth and not and none of us should have this, well, I've already been transformed. It's already accomplished. It's already done because I've listened to plenty of sermons of like, look, here's the truth. Here's the answer. We know that. And so check, you know, we're done here versus this should continually be working on, you know, you don't treat a field once. right? You don't fertilize it once. It's seasonal and I think that was really important for a place to start, especially with this conversation and you framed that.

Wes McAdams: Look at you with your agricultural knowledge, farming knowledge.

Barrett: to you. have an American FFA degree and I did farm rice for one year. So, you I know a little bit about fertilizing fields, but you've framed the parable of the sower almost like a diagnostic tool. I you know, heard that kind of used in different contexts, maybe different sermons before of like how to gauge, you know, where you are in a season or where you are spiritually. And I've definitely taught youth group lessons like that of like, let's look at where are you right now? And what is your number one struggle? What soil type is that? And so, how do you think Christians should use this teaching to evaluate to their own ⁓ heart? Kind of a recap for Mr.

Wes McAdams: Yeah, I think it's helpful on multiple levels. If you just look at this parable, I think it's helpful for those who are sharing the gospel, like from the perspective of when you, and we didn't really talk about it from this angle yesterday, but it is helpful when you are trying to implant the word, when you're trying to plant the word in people's heart, when you're trying to be the sower, it's helpful to say, why do some people just not? respond or why do some people respond for a while and then they fall away? As parents we may wonder that, as evangelists, as Bible class teachers, as elders, as whoever. If you work with anybody trying to help them follow Jesus, there are going to be times where you experience all of these things and you're going to get frustrated to say, don't you listen? Or is it my fault? Am I doing something wrong? Recognizing that even Jesus planted the seed in plenty of hearts

Barrett: So good.

Wes McAdams: that it didn't take and it wasn't anything Jesus did wrong. It was because the soil wasn't good soil. And we all have to be introspective. So it could be easy for us to be like, yeah, I know some rocky soil. I know some soil with some thorns in it, because I taught the gospel to these people and they didn't listen to me. But I think that's an unhealthy way to read the scriptures so that we're pointing our fingers at other people saying, yeah, that's them. I think it's better for us to read the scripture saying, when am I like?

Barrett: Mm-hmm.

Wes McAdams: Am I being that way? Is it possible that I listened to a sermon and it went in one ear and out the other? And so I want to be bringing it to the point of helping us take the log out of our own eye. We could use it to take the speck out of other people's eye and that could be helpful, but I think it's more helpful for us to use it. I like that phrase you used as a diagnostic tool to say. why am I not getting more out of my Bible study? Why am I not getting more out of the word of the kingdom, the message of the kingdom? Why am I not being transformed as much as I want to be? And maybe some of the examples that Jesus gives, maybe the rocks and the thorns and the way, the path, maybe that's true of my heart and what can I do to make some changes?

Barrett: That's great. We talked about this kind of before we got rolling that it's not just different people, it's not just different audiences, but this is, you know, seasonal, it's different conditions of the heart, right? And we all kind of go through that. you know, Jesus says you can't talk about the speck when the log's in your own eye. And so it does help from an evangelistic and discipleship perspective, and it should help from a spiritual formation and a personal growth perspective. So ⁓ all excellent points. ⁓ You talked about how some people reject the message of the kingdom because it's so counterintuitive, countercultural, upside down, ideas like loving your enemy and the first is last and last is first and that sort of thing. Why do think those teachings still feel so different and step on our toes even today?

Wes McAdams: Yeah, well, they are intentionally paradoxical. They seem like a contradiction to say the only way to save your life is to lose it. Like that sounds foolish on the surface. That doesn't make any sense. It's the same as saying the only way to win is to lose. Like how does that make any sense at all? If I walked out of my son's baseball team and I was like, okay, guys, listen, the only way to win this game is to lose it. Okay, let's go out there and lose this game so that we can win. They'd like, that guy makes no sense whatsoever. He's never coaching our team. Like, that's the worst advice I've ever heard. Yet that's exactly what Jesus said over and over and over again. I can you imagine someone who is claiming to be or that there's a rumor that this guy is the next king of Israel and the advice he gives is take up your instrument of execution. In our world, that would be like, take up your electric chair and follow me. If you follow me, I promise you, you're going to be executed by the state and we're going to be victorious. Like, that doesn't make any sense. If we're going to be executed, how are we going to win? How is this a recipe for victory and conquering? And yet somehow Jesus is saying it is. This is the way of the kingdom. And most people are not going to accept it. They're not going to embrace it. And it's still counterintuitive. And we have Christians today that do not listen to that. They want to be Christians, like they love the idea of going to heaven, but they are not interested in the way of the kingdom. They do not believe that the way to be victorious is to take up our cross and follow Jesus, is to love our enemies, is to turn the other cheek, is to do more for people who are oppressing us than even we're required to do. And to not say, what's the bare minimum that I have to do here, but to go the extra mile for people that are rude and unkind and are cruel to you. It seems so wrong. It seems weak. It seems all kinds of things. It seems foolish. And yet Jesus says, you dismiss it because it sounds foolish on the surface, then you're missing life. Then you're missing the kingdom. And there were so many people in his day and in our day that miss out on the blessings of the kingdom because we simply dismiss it and say, well, that doesn't make any sense. And because we don't understand it and we think it's foolish, then we don't get it. Paul dealt with the same thing and he said, you know, the Greeks seek wisdom and the Jews seek signs. And yet this message of the cross that seems foolish to people, it is the way of salvation, that this is the message of salvation. And there is no other salvation. Like this is it. And if you miss this because you dismiss it as being foolish, you miss out on eternal life.

Barrett: And those were the people or the seeds scattered on the path. made that clear or not, those are the people that are wholesale rejection of the idea of the kingdom because it's so counterintuitive. It sounds so foolish. Another obstacle that you got into was shallow faith or people who will follow Jesus. And I liked your list. As long as it's fun, as long as it's easy, as long as it's safe, there was one that I was hoping you would add because it's one that I feel like we deal with a lot of, like, hey, and just working with people, right? I'll do, you know, stuff for the kingdom as long as it's my idea, my plan, on my schedule, and that's me too, right? Like, I want it to fit nice and neatly along with all of my personal plans and all of my practices that my boys have and my wife's plans and our calendar, but, you know, I want to pencil in service and kingdom work and that sort of thing. But, you you said there's a lot of people that, you know, will not commit, that will, you know, have this shallow of faith system because they let all these other things kind get in the way, what does it look like to intentionally, you know, deepen our faith so that it has real roots to it?

Wes McAdams: Yeah, I think the only way is to do hard things. Like I had a preacher friend that he would tell his kids like every day, do something hard, do something today you don't want to do. It's almost like that idea and you're the farmer here so you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I've heard of people like smacking their tomato plants with a broom and how that makes them more robust. It makes them so that they survive. hardship a little bit because you're giving it a little bit of discipline. so discipline, where we intentionally discipline ourselves, where we train ourselves, it helps us to endure the difficulty that comes. When there's not difficult times, you need to almost afflict yourself with a little bit of intentional difficulty so that you are prepared for the difficulty that's coming. And if you don't put yourself through hard times, You're going to be too weak. There's no depth to your roots. so challenging times are coming and you have to challenge yourself now in order to be prepared for the challenges that are coming later. It's like, you when you lift weights, you're not lifting weights probably so that you can compete as a weightlifter. You're lifting weights now. afflicting yourself with something heavy now because there may come a time later when you're going to have to live something that could save your life or save someone else's life. I think about one of the Batman movies where ⁓ Bruce Wayne is trapped under a piece of wood and he's in a burning house and he can't get it off of him and Alfred asks him, what's the use of all of those push-ups if you can't save yourself? And so like that's the point. Like why are you exercising spiritually?

Barrett: Right. Yeah.

Wes McAdams: It's so that when difficult times come that you're able to endure, you're able to last and persevere through that. But so many of us, we don't discipline ourselves. We're not fasting, we're not spending time in prayer, we're just doing the easy stuff, the stuff we like. Well, guess what? There is a time coming in your life that is going to test your spirituality. It is going to test your faith. And if you are not disciplining yourself now and you're not... growing those roots down deep so that you can endure when it's not easy, when it's not safe, when it's not fun, then you're in for a very difficult time.

Barrett: All right, I think about. ⁓ You know, the awkward times in my life and ⁓ spiritual journey, if you want to call it that, that I have not been as disciplined with fasting or prayer in particular. I'm glad you brought those two up where, you know, hey, it's been a while since I've done either of those things well or consistently or with any discipline. And then something tough does happen. And I go through a season where, ⁓ man, I have to buckle down and now I'm going to go fast and then I'm going to approach the Lord on His throne in prayer. you know, consistently, and I have this like guilt and shame around like, I know I'm having to do this now, and I, because I haven't really prepared for this in any way, and so I think there's something to that like the, you know, initial excitement about certain things versus like a lasting discipleship and discipline, and we need to be people that are very consistently, you know, I don't want... know, put any like grind set to this, you know, conversation, but we need to have this mentality of preparing and training. Obviously, we see that's, you know, spiritual habits. It's a biblical concept, but ⁓ I think that's...

Wes McAdams: And one of the things that I used yesterday as an example was just like with youth groups, with teenagers, was Bible studies. Like come to Bible study even when it's hard. I mean, that can be for even for adults, that can be a discipline. So show up on Wednesday night. I know it's hard. I know it's tough. know it's hard. Show up on Sunday morning. I know it's difficult to be there for Bible class. Show up, you know, find a Bible study during the week. Show up for that. I know it's difficult, but just doing something difficult, even if you say, man, I did all of that work and I drove all of that way. I got up early, I came to Bible class and I really didn't get anything out of the Bible class. Well, guess what? You got more out of it than you think you did because just the discipline of doing it and doing something hard for the sake of your brothers and sisters, for the sake of the Lord, like you are benefiting from that whether you know it or not or a service project, like do something for someone else. One, because

Barrett: Yeah.

Wes McAdams: when you do something for someone else, chances are there's gonna be people there to do for you when you're going through that difficult thing, but also just the doing it makes you a stronger, more spiritual person. And so yes, do hard things. Yes, fasting and prayer, that's part of it, but it's also just serving other people. Take them food when they've been in the hospital. Take them food when they've lost a loved one. Go to funerals. I tell people this all the time. I think Christians,

Barrett: Right.

Wes McAdams: should show up for funerals. I didn't know him that well. I don't like funerals. It makes me uncomfortable. Yeah, absolutely. It's hard. It's difficult, but you will benefit from it. You will be blessed by being there and you will bless people by being there and doing those hard things that you don't really want to do. It's preparing you for whatever storm is coming next.

Barrett: Hmm. That's a great one, great example of something real practical, something that we can do that is for somebody else, but it's a hard thing for us to carve out the time to do that sort of thing. ⁓ We are planning, it's spring break for us, and so we're planning a little family camping trip. part of why we are doing it is to put our kids through doing some hard things to build up some resiliency and have our kids sleep on the ground and in the cold and deal with the wind in a tent versus in a house. and that sort of thing. so we obviously we want to do that for our kids. We want to do that sort of thing when it applies to a lot of other stuff. But then we kind of boil down, you know, spiritual formation and discipline into, well, you know, I show up when I can, you know. So hopefully we can do some harder things moving forward. I think that's a great mentality for us to have. ⁓ You suggested that the thorns, the cares of the world and deceitfulness of riches, you know, might be one of the biggest obstacles. for us today, and so I just wanted to talk about why that is so spiritually dangerous today, and we kind of prefaced this with the word shift at the beginning and kind of in between services, why we had to make that change or why you made that change, but ⁓ that desire for wealth ⁓ versus, you know, the fear of not having enough, let's kind of get into the weeds, if you will, on that point.

Wes McAdams: That's so good. Yeah, we live in maybe one of the richest cultures that have has ever existed where we have so many people live in in luxury, really. mean, and have an abundance, have a surplus. And we live in a culture here now at this time in this place where we don't have to really fear. you know, not having food, not having water, not having shelter. So many people have an abundance of things where we have things that are really are luxurious, where people a hundred years ago would have been amazed at even what people on the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum have at their disposal. And so we become very immune to the dangers. of wealth and we don't even think about it. And in a lot of ways, I would say that American culture has baptized wealth and so we have even begun to think of it not as a danger, not as even having potential danger, but as being a net positive and a net good. And that ignores the fact that Jesus says that riches, wealth, this abundance of money and resources that Wealth is inherently deceitful. It is lying to you. It over promises and under delivers and there is a danger lurking beneath the surface. Paul says that those who desire to be rich, they plunge themselves into ruin and destruction. Like we think that we're pursuing a better life when actually this pursuit of wealth and riches is actually a pursuit that leads towards destruction, like you're actually destroying your life. You're not making your life better, you're making it worse by seeking first the things of this world rather than seeking the kingdom of God. And so I think that we don't talk enough about that. We tend to say things like, well, you know, one person will say that the money is the root of all evil and somebody else is quick to say, no, no, no, no, it's not money. Money's not the root of all evil. It's the love of money that's the root of all evil. And it's like, okay, you're right. That is what it says. The love of money is the root of all evil. But let's talk about that for a second. Let's not just dismiss it as to say, yeah, but that's not me. I don't love money. And it's like, whoa, but Jesus said it this way. Jesus said that you'll either love the one and hate the other, devoted to the one and despise the other. Like this is a very stark contrast. And we are so quick to say, well, I don't love money. I don't pursue money. I don't seek money. But do you? And if we really looked at our life and we think about, the definition of greed is wanting more than I really need, wanting a surplus, wanting an abundance. Like who doesn't fall into that category? And we are surrounded by so much advertising. We live in a consumeristic culture that tells us that if you don't have this, you're nobody. If you don't have that, your life is miserable. You have to have... this latest thing. And of course we think, I don't love money but I gotta have all this stuff that only money can buy. Well all of that, all of that has spiritual implications and Jesus says one of the reasons why you might be unfruitful in your reception of the word of the kingdom, you receive the word of the kingdom, you say yeah, yeah, Jesus is the king, I wanna follow Jesus, I wanna be part of the kingdom, but you are unfruitful in that pursuit because your fruit, your fruitfulness is being choked out by all of these other concerns and all of these other desires. I mean, who amongst us in this culture we live in can't say and look at their life if they're being honest to say, well, I wonder how much more fruitful I could be if I didn't care so much about having the latest gadget. If I didn't care so much about what people think about my car. If I didn't care so much about what people think about my house. If I really didn't care so much about those things, how much more could I do for the king and his kingdom?

Barrett: And that might be a better takeaway or a better lesson for us in particular. We just talked about doing hard things and almost that mentality of like, I'll just discipline myself well and harder, and then I'll be in a better shape with my soil and that sort of thing. And maybe a better takeaway for some of us in the DFW area is let go of some of those. things that we think are helping us and letting go of a certain mentality and you know drive and desire that for just you know useless and hurtful things like wealth and ⁓ more than we need and I always like the point that you make when talking about greed that you've never had anyone confess the sin of greed to you before you know lots of confessions lots of different you know sins that people struggle with that they're open and talk about that is just so not on our radar and it is so impactful and changes how we go through every day and how we operate, ⁓ you know, is this desire and love for money. And I think about what would it look like if I despised the other, right? Like if I truly, and sometimes I will.

Wes McAdams: Hmm.

Barrett: brag on my wife and occasionally myself of like there are times where like I wish we really didn't have to deal with any of this money stuff you know and I still don't know if that's in a spiritual context as much of it is like this is stressful and I think we need to practice letting go of that sort of thing but

Wes McAdams: And there really are so many hidden benefits and blessings that you don't really think about. For instance, right now, my family has three drivers and two cars, and it is really frustrating. And honestly...

Barrett: completely.

Wes McAdams: At some point we may have to get where we have a fourth driver coming online here soon and so Yeah, there may be a time where we have to get three cars, but I really don't want to spend money on a third car I really don't want the hassle of having a third car and there's so many inconveniences of not having enough cars and having to share and who's picking up who and we've had to you get an uber or lift sometimes and the other day I had

Barrett: or walk then.

Wes McAdams: Yeah, right. It's like I had you take me to a lunch meeting that I had and then I was going to get a lift back. It was only a couple of miles. And then eventually I just ended up walking back. And as I was walking back to the office, I thought, you know what? Man, I need this. I need the walk, you know, but we surround ourselves with so much stuff like our phones. You know, we feel like we have to have a smartphone. I have to keep in touch with everybody. I have to have I have to be accessible 24, be accessible 24 7.

Barrett: Yeah.

Wes McAdams: I have to have my email, I have to have all these things. But then we don't think about the stress and the anxiety that we bring upon ourselves through all of this stuff. And yeah, I mean, we can't be minimalistic to the nth degree. I can't live in a tent all of the time. But as you were talking about going camping with your kids, it reminds me of Israel. Like God told the Israelites to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. Like even after they weren't wandering in the wilderness anymore. every year. Okay, we're going to spend time living in a tent for a while to remind ourselves that this is what our ancestors went through. And yeah, there are times where we need to just do without. And yes, by doing without, you are freeing up mental capacity to focus on the King and his kingdom. And you may be surprised by the joy and the blessings that you find along the way. You're gonna see things you didn't see before. You're gonna experience things you didn't see before, because you're not crowding your life with all of these thorny problems that you wouldn't have if you weren't seeking all of this extra stuff.

Barrett: That's so good. And forgive me, Wes and listeners, watchers, if I have said this on the podcast already, but this is a great, think I'm all about the practical pieces and just good. If you're listening to this podcast, hopefully you have some takeaways of things you can do, right? Some next steps for you. And I'm sure I've mentioned this at some point, but the idea of a rice and beans night, because that's what most people all over the world are eating most meals is just rice and beans. There's no meat. There's no other vegetable. There's no dessert And so once a week having your family have a rice and beans night and that's all anybody eats is Just some black beans or pinto beans with some rice I think is a good way to start this conversation with your family and help yourself, you know have this mindset shift of And you know, am I just thinking about dinner all the time in my whole day, you know based around what what am I gonna eat next or how can I provide for myself in a different way and sometimes we need to let go and take that step back and practice hard things and have a rice and beans night I think is a real practical one but towards the end of the sermon you summarized the obstacles as three enemies ⁓ DFW right is that what we said

Wes McAdams: You know, somebody came up to me afterwards and said, do you realize that there's an acrostic of DFW with the devil, flesh in the world? And I was like, no, I did not, but I will never not see that now.

Barrett: No, yeah, that's a good one. That affects us a lot, right? So, the devil, the flesh, and the world, or DFW. ⁓ How can we learn as Christians, kind of recognizing when one of those, and we talked about, sorry, I'm all over the place with this question, but in Bible class we were talking about John 10 and he's the good shepherd and being shepherded, and so how can we recognize when one of those things is shepherding us and shaping our thinking? ⁓ You know, how do we know when it's one of those versus is the good shepherd and what do think that looks like for us?

Wes McAdams: Yeah. Well, Paul gives so many great diagnostic tools, if you will, I love that phrase, to look at your life and say, well, this is what it looks like when you're living according to the flesh. And this is what it looks like when you're living according to the spirit. If you're walking by the spirit, you'll know because your life will be full of love. and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness. That's what the fruit of the Spirit looks like. And if your life isn't producing that, then you are walking according to the flesh. And so where there is bitterness and jealousy and anger, where those things exist, there's a flesh problem. Like you are listening to your flesh more than you're listening to the Spirit. I think that when we find ourselves living in constant anxiety. I'm not talking about anxiety as a mental health issue, but I'm saying when we find ourselves where we're just worried about everything and we're chasing and we're worried about what are people going to think and what are people going to say. So you are allowing the concerns of the world to shape you. Like who told you that that was worth being stressed out about? Who told you that it was worth losing sleep and losing time with your family because you're worried about this and how this is going to turn out. Like who told you that? The world told you that. The news told you that. Your social media algorithm told you that. It told you, you need to be worried about this. You need to be concerned about this. You need to be angry about this. You need to be outraged about this. And so you are being shepherded by, you're being discipled by and shaped by, molded by, formed by the world. The world is this conglomeration of the ungodly powers that are formed against the way of God and and when you are listening to that When you're being shaped by that it makes you anxious it makes you afraid it makes you angry and we have to reject that and we'll know we're rejecting that and walking by the spirit when our life is filled with love and joy and peace and None of us are fully there yet. We're all somewhere in between because we we are we have these competing voices in our world, in our life, in our heart, and we have to learn to recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd and the voice of the Spirit.

Barrett: going back to points you've made numerous times on here and in sermons of it doesn't mean being like blissfully ignorant to be full of the Spirit. I loved and I'll bring this up as often as I can but we can be burdened, you know, we don't have to say I'm fine, but we can be burdened and still faithful and still loving and still full of joy even though we are, of course I'm concerned about the condition of the world.

Wes McAdams: Right. Yeah.

Barrett: and all of the lost souls that are involved, but am I letting that dictate my spiritual health and ultimately what my mission... My mission and vision. You know, we might that might be our next series, the combination of mission and vision, mission. ⁓ But I loved what you and Matt brought up on the podcast last week. And this is something that I've noticed when my heart's not in the right spot, that love and doctrine seem very separate. love is doctrine. Like that is one in the same. That the doctrine of love is should dictate, you know, everything that should be. you know, foundational. And when I'm thinking, well, they don't really know, or they don't really have a good grasp of, and that changes how I treat people, if they don't understand something, well, then my heart's not in the right spot. So some just trying to pull together many weeks of podcasts here all at end. if someone, as we wrap up here, if someone's wanting to, you know, do some soil work and become good soil and they're thinking about ⁓ the season they're in and where they want to be. What are some real practical things that they can do to cultivate their heart and bear good fruit moving forward? We talked about like removing rocks, pulling thorns, you know, what does that look like?

Wes McAdams: Yeah. Yeah, I think we've talked about a lot of those things. If you want to remove the rocks, you've got to discipline yourself. You've got to, you've got to do hard things. You've got to do difficult things. If you want to remove the thorns, you have to. stop listening to the world and letting the world tell you what's important and what you need and what when your life isn't worth living because you don't have the right stuff so that you are living in a constant state of FOMO and you're afraid of missing out on important things. You got to pull those weeds out and say every time you hear that fear in your mind, in your heart or every time you find yourself pursuing and chasing and seeking after things that are not of the kingdom. You have to recognize that and pull those things out. But I want to go back to the beginning of this idea that before the birds or Satan comes and snatches the word away, it's because people didn't understand. And they didn't understand for all kinds of reasons. They dismissed the word before it even had a chance to sink in. We have to care enough to really think deeply about the word of the kingdom. And I think that's what we're missing so often. mean, that's why I think anybody that's listened for almost 40 minutes now to this conversation, you're to be commended because not only are you probably going to worship, whether here at McDermott or somewhere else, but you're spending time in the middle of your week and you're driving or you're working out or whatever you're doing. And you're using that time to think more deeply about the word and about your relationship to the Lord and your your obedience to the message, that is to be commended. There's a lot of us that we're filling our life and our heart and our mind with all kinds of frivolous things and we're not taking the time to think deeply. And every time you take the time to think deeply and to examine yourself and to do that hard introspective work to examine your life and pull the plank out of your eye. you are cultivating and tilling that soil and making it softer every time you examine yourself and say, where am I? Like, am I where I'm supposed to be? How could I be doing a little bit better? What's one incremental change that I could make today that would help me get a little bit closer to Jesus? You are tilling the soil of your heart. When we just live our life without thinking deeply, we say, well, I'm good, I'm good. I know what I think. I know where I am. Like, I don't need to think about that stuff or we're scared. to look deeply inside and ask those hard questions. That's when the seed falls on the hard soil and the birds of the air come and snatch it. It goes in one ear and out the other.

Barrett: That's great. That was a great recap of all the things we've covered and that was covered yesterday. And again, thank you for a good sermon ⁓ yesterday and excited to see where we're going next week. You want to give us a little preview?

Wes McAdams: Yeah, next week we'll be in Romans 12. We'll be talking real practically about, okay, this is the mission of McDermott Road is helping people become more like Jesus. What does that look like for you? Like what's your role? What's your responsibility in becoming a participant, a contributor to the church accomplishing her mission? What's your role in that?

Barrett: That's awesome. Very exciting stuff. Thank you, Wes, and thank you all for watching and for listening. And as always, you can leave comments below and reviews and that sort of thing. But we would love to have your questions and have your comments on the podcast. So be sure and do that each week. There's always a QR code to scan, a link to click on, or you can leave them below. But thank you for watching. Thank you for listening. Thank you for joining us for another episode of the Post Sermon Podcast.