Sermon

Light and Darkness (Luke 8:16-18) - Podcast Episode 23

Kortright Church

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  1. Hey friends, welcome to another episode of the KPC Podcast.

  2. And we are well and good into summer now like this is this is

  3. fun. It's hot, it's warm, it's cool

  4. in this room for now, but I brought a lamp.

  5. This is a new addition to our to our set.

  6. If you're listening only I'm sorry, there's now a lamp here

  7. where there wasn't a lamp. That's the nice lamp

  8. description. It's an IKEA lamp, man.

  9. That's all it is. It's but it's felt fitting

  10. because pastors are notorious for like props, right?

  11. Or like. There's there's an Instagram

  12. page called Pastors with Props and it's quite funny.

  13. Usually a ladder like that's what I like single most used

  14. like object in sermons is a ladder.

  15. It's just just so versatile. So it's my goal to never use a

  16. ladder in a sermon, ever, for any sermon illustration

  17. whatsoever. But great passage, fantastic

  18. sermon that Lindsey preached yesterday for us, a recording on

  19. Monday, but this past Sunday on this idea that nobody lights a

  20. lamp, puts it under a bowl. I love the fact that and like we

  21. didn't discuss this ahead of time, but like, you know, months

  22. ago, whenever that was when we were figuring out the the

  23. passages and breaking it down through the summer, what passage

  24. on what week and then Lindsey agreeing to preach this Sunday.

  25. I think I'm just constantly amazed like God is working so

  26. far in advance on these things than we are, which is not an

  27. excuse to like not prepare, but it is.

  28. I just I love how like we plan and we prepare.

  29. And then Lindsey preached that sermon.

  30. I'm like listening to it, only her, like she was the one like

  31. to preach that message. She was predestined.

  32. Well, we're not we're not going that far today on we keep using

  33. that on today's on today's podcast.

  34. We're not gonna dive into that one, but I just absolutely love.

  35. So like that opening illustration, like I didn't know

  36. any of that. When we're like, OK, this is the

  37. week that Lindsey has agreed to preach.

  38. Here's the passage. And I just go like, thanks,

  39. Jesus, for working so far in advance and surprising us.

  40. And yeah, like we, we know that that's the case.

  41. Like I feel like this is something I know.

  42. We shouldn't be surprised. We shouldn't be surprised,

  43. however. And yet I'm constantly amazed,

  44. yeah, at how these things go. So great passage.

  45. We're still in Luke chapter 8, so it's.

    Luke 8 chapter mention

  46. Only week what? Week 2.

  47. It's only Week 2 and 8. But we'll be here for another

  48. few weeks, which would be great. So our, our plan today, because

  49. I'm not Lindsey, we are heading off on vacation later this week

  50. and we have a million things to do.

  51. But this is the part of my job and Lindsey also has her job and

  52. so she won't be able to join us to, to be interviewed.

  53. So this will be a little bit more discussion.

  54. Grant thought up a few questions for us just to talk about and,

  55. and I haven't even heard them yet.

  56. So this is totally, totally off the cuff and we'll have a bit of

  57. fun with. It and I think that if I could

  58. say one thing just as we jump in here, you know, very likely

  59. through the summer like this might be the flow of many of the

  60. weeks and episodes of podcast. We don't think that that's a bad

  61. thing. We think that it's different.

  62. So the thing that I would say is for the summer, the episodes

  63. will likely be less information based and tell us more about,

  64. you know, what didn't make it into the sermon or what could

  65. have like let's dive deeper into these points and more

  66. application based. And I actually think that that

  67. is a good thing for you who's listening because one of the

  68. things we've been saying, we really want these episodes to

  69. help you have your own conversations in greater

  70. measure. And so word, yeah, we're focused

  71. less here even on information for you and more on let's pose 3

  72. questions that we bat back and forth that you can also think

  73. through and try to answer for yourself.

  74. And even better would be to get a group of people together, even

  75. one other person, and discuss these exact same three

  76. questions. So we want to give you some

  77. questions for those discussions. So these are those if you want

  78. to read the. Passage.

  79. I'll read it. It's a nice short one.

  80. So and I Lindsey yesterday read from the NRSV.

  81. I'll I'll, I'll just read from the NIV here.

  82. Great. So a lamp on a stand.

  83. No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it

  84. under a under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand

  85. so that those who come in can see the light.

  86. For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and

  87. nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the

  88. open. Therefore consider carefully how

  89. you listen. Whoever has will be given more.

  90. Whoever does not have even wet what they think they have will

  91. be taken away from them. Yeah.

  92. So again, like, I just thought it was like, thanks, Jesus, that

  93. opening story that Lindsey told about the light that was left on

  94. in her home growing up as like a sign it had a purpose.

  95. I just thought was like the perfect into this passage.

  96. I was sitting next to her dad and, and when she started

  97. talking, he, I could hear, I could hear him sort of make a

  98. noise of like he knows exactly where this is going, right?

  99. Right. Yeah.

  100. Which? Is great, which is, you know,

  101. fantastic. So three questions and we can

  102. just sort of work them through each like 1 by 1.

  103. We might even if we figure it out, put the question up on the

  104. of the video for those of you watching.

  105. And so you can feel free to pause and answer the question

  106. for yourself before we discuss it or after we discuss.

  107. It depends on whether you want to be influenced by our

  108. conversation. Yeah, which will change the

  109. nature of how you answer, I'm sure.

  110. Yeah, But I, I guess the, the opening question for me is

  111. simply this, Well, I say simply, but this this early question

  112. that Lindsey posed by saying there's the good news of the

  113. gospel, right? The good news, the gospel, the

  114. good news of the Kingdom. She had this line that that

  115. said, and I'm not going to quote her verbatim, but the good news

  116. is that Jesus is king. And I went, yes, like

  117. absolutely. And like love that.

  118. Like that line is I, I think as a preacher, as a pastor, as a

  119. Christian, a follower of Jesus, like that line is so crucial for

  120. us to get and understand and really allow the reality, the

  121. truth of what Lindsay proclaimed with that line to like to sink

  122. deep down and cause us to wrestle stuff out.

  123. So the question is simply like what does it mean to call Jesus

  124. King? And if I were to add like a

  125. couple qualifier questions, they would be How is Jesus King And

  126. how is Jesus not King in like personally in in my life, in,

  127. you know, my family, families, life, kind of organization

  128. culture, you know, for us as a church, like we named Jesus

  129. King. What does it mean?

  130. And then where is he king? Where might he not be king?

  131. So I'm curious how that kind of question lands for you.

  132. I've got my own sort of my own thoughts and response, but maybe

  133. that first one doesn't mean to call Jesus King.

  134. It feels, I mean, I, I'd be, you know, not to answer our question

  135. with a question, but it but it raises a question for me of is

  136. do we, do we distinguish between Jesus as Lord and Jesus as King

  137. and, and, and do we see those as having different implications?

  138. Maybe we just throw that back real quickly.

  139. I don't know if you have thoughts around that.

  140. Yeah, yes. So Lord curious is is certainly

  141. like AA title. Yeah, I I think we probably and

  142. yeah, this is great. I love that we, like neither of

  143. us, have thought through these questions because we're on the

  144. fly. And so the reason I think about

  145. it is because we often one of the early Christian creeds is

  146. Jesus is Lord, not Jesus is King.

  147. We declare Jesus as King. But it it feels a little

  148. different, right? So yeah.

  149. So Lord to me and like 2 weeks ago, baptism membership Sunday,

  150. we had people who publicly declared Jesus Christ is Lord.

  151. Yeah, that one is so curious. Lord title is a title used in

  152. Jesus's day, not just for Jesus, but for like masters, Lords.

  153. Like these were people who had authority over you, who could

  154. tell you where to go and where not to go, what to do and what

  155. not to do. And like Jesus is a time and

  156. culture and language is steeped in master slave or master

  157. servant relationship. Now, you know, we hear slave and

  158. we have a very likely a very not by a biased in a bad way, but

  159. biased or just we could read that historically, culturally a

  160. certain way from our North American, you know, experience

  161. and history of slavery. All of that not aside, but you

  162. know, for Jesus's day, for his culture, the language of Lord

  163. and Master made sense as a way to talk about somebody who had

  164. ultimate authority over you, right?

  165. And I think as Christians, like I do think the Lord that as

  166. title tends to, we tend to maybe over spiritualize it in in ways

  167. that are unhelpful that that's we think of that as a name for

  168. Jesus or like spiritual title, like Lord and Savior, right?

  169. And so like immediately, it's just been spiritualized in a way

  170. that maybe doesn't have full implication of like the quite

  171. literal authority to say, Hey, do this, don't do this, go here,

  172. don't go here. Jesus.

  173. We named Jesus as King. I I, I think at least for me to

  174. call Jesus King means that I exist within his Kingdom, not my

  175. own Kingdom. Yeah, and that has more literal,

  176. immediate implications for my authority, non authority, and

  177. Jesus is true, like authority over me and over all of life to

  178. say go here, don't go here, do this, don't go, don't do this.

  179. And so I do think they're distinct, like they are

  180. different titles for Jesus. Probably a little bit of overlap

  181. for sure, but I, I just think that was, I wanted to make sure

  182. I wasn't conflating the two and, and so, and so that is helpful

  183. in, in, in answering which you've done a little bit of.

  184. But I, I know for me, like I, I have a better sense of even

  185. though we are not, I guess we technically in Canada have a

  186. king via King Charles. Yeah.

  187. But like we know that that's more of a, a figurehead in, in

  188. our, you know, in, in the, you know, Commonwealth.

  189. But we have a better framework for, for kings and, and good

  190. kings and bad kings and kings who have exercised good

  191. authority and judgment over there over their subjects and

  192. kings who have ruled reigns of terror.

  193. And you can read through any monarchy and, and see that.

  194. And, and so it's, it's helpful for me when I look at Jesus as

  195. King to see that Jesus is the best, the best kind of king, a

  196. benevolent king, one who is after our best interests, one

  197. who is truly selfless, right, one who is, is looking to

  198. looking for the, for the greater good for all, all people, right.

  199. And, and so when I look at Jesus as King, I I think about, I

  200. think about a, a Kingdom that is saturated in the person who we

  201. call king, right? And so when that person, when

  202. that person is king, when that person is exercising their

  203. leadership and showing who they are and revealing their

  204. character, they are indicating this is the way that I want this

  205. to be. And so when we look at the

  206. person of Jesus, we see his, his, his compassion for the

  207. least of these. When we, we see his love for the

  208. rejects, we see his compassion and zeal for even those who are

  209. on the just on the margins And, and they, he wants to bring them

  210. in and also for justice, right? That there is a, there's a

  211. justice component that sometimes is, as we see even in this

  212. passage here, there's a, there's a part where like when light

  213. gets exposed, sometimes it's good, sometimes it's scary.

  214. And, and a good king and a good Kingdom will bring justice in

  215. those areas where the light is exposed and it's bad and it's,

  216. and needs to be corrected, right.

  217. So I mean just a few thoughts off the top of my head.

  218. Yeah. For for me, one of the things

  219. that it means necessarily declare Jesus King means like

  220. you get these yet these goofy like, you know, movies where

  221. you're like, are you going to bend the knee?

  222. Like will you bow before me? Right?

  223. You get this like, you know, almost comedic dramatic riffs

  224. on, you know, power and abuse of abuse of power and in some ways.

  225. And then you get like Lord of the Rings, like that the third

  226. book in Tolkien's trilogy, The Return of the King.

  227. And like, there's this long-awaited return of the true

  228. rightful king who will bring, like you've said, like justice

  229. to the nations. And you know, like Tolkien

  230. there, there's just spiritual, like Christian theology and and

  231. imagery strewn throughout that whole series.

  232. But I think that in what I hope the best way possible, when I

  233. think of Jesus as King, that immediately leads me to think

  234. through, OK, how do I need to submit to this king?

  235. Because if this, if this is who the true king is, then it

  236. immediately like if Jesus is king, that immediately means I

  237. am not king. Yeah.

  238. And we like, I think human beings like, and I mean in, in

  239. many ways, like you can go all the way back to Adam and Eve in

  240. Genesis, like the beginning of the book and things like we like

  241. to rule our own little kingdoms and our bent in that direction.

  242. Like we're naturally inclined to want to be the little kings of

  243. our little kingdoms. And you know, I used that like

  244. little there. That's not even, that's not

  245. like, it's not even bad or like derogatory.

  246. I'm just saying they're little tiny versions of what God is

  247. trying to do, you know, throughout the entire world.

  248. And we're like, yeah, but I just want my own piece here.

  249. So like, when I think through how is Jesus King?

  250. How is he not? Or even like, where is Jesus

  251. King in my life? Where is he not?

  252. Submission becomes the language that I like to use personally

  253. because it really challenges me. Like what am I willing to submit

  254. and kind of open handedly give over to Jesus and say this area

  255. of my life? You do whatever you need to do,

  256. like expose the light. If it's good, great, and if it's

  257. bad, great with an asterisk, right.

  258. But like Lindsey had that line or so like it, it will be for

  259. good. Like even where where the

  260. Kingdom, even where the gospel exposes the light exposes what

  261. is bad. Like that's actually for like

  262. toward life. It's not towards shame.

  263. It's not toward guilt. She listed it's so that you

  264. would know life. So I look immediately like, what

  265. are the things that I'm willing to just open handedly submit to

  266. Jesus? And what are the things that I

  267. go, Nope, I'm gonna hold on to this one and I'm not gonna like,

  268. you know, I want control here. So maybe control would be like

  269. another way in which I would think through, yeah, how am I

  270. actively declaring Jesus Christ to be king?

  271. How am I actively submitting to Jesus as king throughout my

  272. entire life? Like where are the things that I

  273. still grasp for control and what are the things that I'm willing

  274. to let go of and just say, OK, like God, you clearly like you

  275. know best, so have at it. And I know if like if there's

  276. short term pain, like cliche, long term gain, no, but like I,

  277. I know and I trust that that ultimately God is good, you

  278. know, So, so that's the control controls.

  279. And I think another language for helping me identify what areas

  280. I'm actively surrendering and what areas I'm actively not

  281. surrendering or how I'm declaring Jesus King actively

  282. over all of it. So like my like, there are these

  283. hot topics, right? So money would be, would be a

  284. probably like a likely even litmus test for people.

  285. Like, is it something that you want absolute control over?

  286. Is it something that you're willing to let go of?

  287. Is it something that you're allowing Jesus to direct?

  288. Or is it something that you're like, let me deal with 90% of it

  289. and you can direct the 10% of it, You know, So all of those

  290. things I, I think are just helpful examples.

  291. For and it's it's interesting that you know, your we, we had

  292. very different answers there. And I think that, you know,

  293. showcases a little bit of our personalities because my bench

  294. is, you know, and this is just a part of my my challenge.

  295. My struggle is when I hear, when I hear word like submit, I'm

  296. like, Nope, you know, and, and, and yet, and yet there is

  297. something amazing about a, a good king that is worthy of the

  298. of, of submitting to right. And, and that is, that is an

  299. area where where I, I can say, you know, like when we, you

  300. know, sing a like a hymn, like I surrender all.

  301. It's like I can look at Jesus and and and at least at least in

  302. my mind, I can say that is someone worthy of offering my

  303. my, you know, to quote another him like my heart, my mind, my

  304. all right, and that's, you know, like but that it takes me a

  305. little bit to get there. Right.

  306. And and so, yeah, when it talks about like money, I'm like close

  307. fist I I like stuff, I want stuff and work it.

  308. It's a it's a lifelong process for me to start to just finger

  309. by finger just. Let go, right?

  310. Let go, yeah. 100% and I feel the same way and certainly like

  311. money is one that you just it naturally right?

  312. You just go, Yep, no, but like it's for fear, for anxiety for

  313. whatever it is. But I think that's why, and I

  314. just want to before we jump to the to the next two questions,

  315. like I think that's why I appreciate these questions and

  316. conversations because they do showcase that both of our

  317. answers are good and correct and actually necessary.

  318. Because like, so you start off by saying, I can, I can see

  319. where Jesus is a good king. Like Jesus is the ultimate

  320. example of a good king because of AB and C So justice, love for

  321. widows and orphans, how he cared for those who are sick and cast

  322. out evil spirits. And like, you start listing

  323. these things that aren't aspirational, like virtues for

  324. us to someday attain if we're good enough, But like they

  325. demonstrate the goodness of who God is and they demonstrate the

  326. character of Jesus as King. And in many ways, that's why

  327. Jesus is the only one who can actually who can demand

  328. submission, right, is because he's the one who ultimately like

  329. submits himself to to God the Father as God the Son and who

  330. willingly dies that all of that an act of submission.

  331. Yeah. And so like, yeah, you start,

  332. start talking about you need both of those perspectives, I

  333. think, to get toward a healthier way to think about it.

  334. And when I reflect on it, like what?

  335. Like the first lie, like the first deceit and the book,

  336. right. So you've got you've got the

  337. devil who says, did God really say to Adam and Eve?

  338. Did God really say like, does He really know what's best for you?

  339. Are you sure you can trust Him? Is He really worth listening to

  340. and submitting to? Yeah.

  341. And like, from the very beginning, that's the lie, that

  342. that God doesn't actually have your best in mind, that he's not

  343. worth trusting. And so you start off by saying,

  344. like, no, like, Jesus is the best version of what we would

  345. call king. He's the one who gets to define

  346. what it means to be king. That's why.

  347. So anyways, I appreciate that that's where you start.

  348. All right. Next.

  349. So yeah, what does it mean to call Jesus King?

  350. And in your own life, what does it mean to call Jesus king?

  351. Where might you not be? Allowing Jesus to be king would

  352. be the most challenging version of that question #2 So I've got

  353. these list of other gospels that Lindsey listed, so.

  354. Yeah, that was that was heavy. Well, right, great.

  355. That was good, that was good. And I love that she didn't leave

  356. it hanging. Like there are these other

  357. gospels, like what other kind? And then she's like, well, let

  358. me name some for you. So I think this is a good tag on

  359. from the first question, but she says gospel of self, gospel of

  360. achievement, gospel of appearance.

  361. And then there's also others like Gospel of hate and

  362. oppression. And I love that she also named

  363. like a gospel of apathy. Hmm, like can't do anything

  364. about it anyways. Why do any of it?

  365. So Jesus, she said Jesus got Jesus Gospel reveals cracks in

  366. those kingdoms, those other kingdoms, those other gospels

  367. cracks like how they enslave us and lead to death and never life

  368. shit. Just great lines man.

  369. And I guess the one of the questions that I just naturally

  370. start asking is, OK, what are some of the gospels that we can

  371. allow to creep into our own life and culture and life as a

  372. community and church? I I think I don't know that it's

  373. like a gospel necessarily, but I think fear is a big driver of

  374. which gospel we follow. Yeah.

  375. So that's one that I see. And you know, I think I'm not

  376. gonna list these like in any order.

  377. I think, you know, maybe we're bent toward different ones, all

  378. of us. But I think the the gospel of

  379. self is probably one of the most rampant dangerous ones that I

  380. see. Like if there's like a gospel of

  381. secularism, I think that's it. Like it's, it's this itself.

  382. It's a gospel of. Self and it but and it shows up

  383. in, you know, in in the church walls and it shows up in in US

  384. right. And so it's not, it's not just

  385. something that others, you know, others deal with.

  386. Yeah, yeah. So here's a, a specific question

  387. that we can put in, uh, what do you think are some techniques or

  388. ways in which we could identify some of the false gospels that

  389. we are potentially listening to? I think it's easy to name them

  390. out there, right? Like, you know, people don't go

  391. to church, they're just falling prey to the gospel of this or

  392. that. Like that's, it's so easy to

  393. just do that. Or like that person is living

  394. this version of this gospel. It's a lot, maybe a lot harder

  395. to go, OK, what might I be like, you know, wrestling with?

  396. So yeah, I'm curious on some thoughts around how like how we

  397. identify them generally. I think there's a, a good, a

  398. good litmus test. I think we could go on to our

  399. phones or tablets and look at the the apps that we use the

  400. most. Screen time, man.

  401. Yeah, because it'll go and tell you you've been on TikTok for 8

  402. hours this week or you've been, you know, like and, and I think

  403. that that can be a bit of a mirror, right?

  404. And like for me, it's, you know, it's, it's often it's if you few

  405. years ago it was Twitter. I, I would say I found an

  406. identity in having a social media presence and being like a

  407. I don't even know what I call myself.

  408. I wasn't influencer. I was not like nothing like

  409. that, but I, I found some core identity there, right.

  410. I've, I've all but quit. I've quit the game.

  411. I love it, but where I just made it a conscious decision, say I'm

  412. not gonna play that game anymore, I'm done with it.

  413. But like, I think that's a really simple way to start to

  414. look internally. Yeah, go onto your online

  415. banking. That's another that's another

  416. one. I and I know that that that's a

  417. that's a scary that's a scary one for us, you know, or I can

  418. look at me like I spent how much on.

  419. Amazon. Yeah, whatever.

  420. And sometimes sometimes necessary things, but often very

  421. not necessary things, right. And, and so like there are some

  422. simple ways for for like just it's, it's, it's a, it's a lamp

  423. being illuminated, right. And sometimes we prefer to live

  424. in the darkness. So like there's there was a

  425. while where I was like, I'm gonna turn screen time off

  426. because I want to live in the darkness.

  427. OK. So that's brilliant that.

  428. It wasn't. Brilliant.

  429. No, no, not turning it off that point is like double down on

  430. that point because that I think that brings it into immediate

  431. connection with Lindsey Sermon in this passage, which is you

  432. can choose to live in the dark. You can choose in a sense apathy

  433. that got gospel of apathy. It's not like you're just

  434. falling prey to it. Somebody else, Like you can

  435. choose to not revisit all your purchases at the end of the

  436. month and add it all up. And really be honest, you can

  437. choose to turn screen time off. Which and just be oblivious to

  438. how much time you spend on anything.

  439. And I I've, I'm reforming. I'm I'm.

  440. Me too, me too. We're, you know, working on it

  441. and, and, and you know, like God, God is, you know, I'm

  442. stubborn. God is slowly refining my heart

  443. to, to say like, Hey, you don't need that.

  444. You know, you don't need, you don't need to listen or watch a

  445. YouTube video while you shower, you know, like just just be, be

  446. in the moment and just do what you're doing.

  447. You know, like there's, there's something that I'm, you know,

  448. that I'm sort of trying to press into a bit more of these days in

  449. that way. And and yeah.

  450. Yeah, I love that, like single focused activities.

  451. Yeah, right. Yeah.

  452. We live in a constant age of like partial attention.

  453. So we always say like, wow, like constantly distracted.

  454. But I think that's harder. Again, it's the the blame, as it

  455. were, on external sources that. Which they all want us to do it

  456. right because it feeds the ad revenue and all the things

  457. right. So there is an external force,

  458. but also. When I say partial attention,

  459. that makes me own it more. And I think that the third thing

  460. that I would add to yours, which so and I love how concrete that

  461. is, but I would say like where your attention is, your

  462. affection will be like your affection will follow your

  463. attention and or in other ways like your attention will direct

  464. your affection. So what is getting your

  465. attention and what is getting your affection is a crucial

  466. question to answer and be honest about.

  467. And I think the only way to be fully honest about that is to

  468. bring somebody else into the conversation.

  469. Otherwise it's easy just to be like, I'm gonna ignore that

  470. part, right? Like the screen time, I'm gonna

  471. flip it off. But as soon as you name it with

  472. somebody, you're like, oh, no, it's hard in the best way

  473. possible. Like you've turned the light on

  474. or allowed the light to be turned on here.

  475. Like time to get to. Work.

  476. So I turned it back on and I said I Lindsey, our preacher

  477. yesterday and also my wife. Yeah, I said here, I need you to

  478. put in a password here so I can't turn it.

  479. Off. I love it.

  480. Oh, I absolutely love it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

  481. So first question, second question, pay attention to other

  482. gospels and help wrestle through yourself for others what those

  483. might be. Identify those things.

  484. I love how concrete those are. The last question that I think

  485. would be fun for people to wrestle their way through and

  486. and talk through is toward wrapping up.

  487. Lindsey had a couple lines that talked around the word of God

  488. being heard, being received and then being acted upon.

  489. And it it was in this, this pulling back from Isaiah 6, but

  490. then also Isaiah 9 where we talk about the I think she also named

  491. Proverbs wisdom like the wise seek greater wisdom, right?

  492. And how inside of the Kingdom. What Jesus is talking about when

  493. he says, when we use the language, like lean in, when he

  494. uses the language, listen, really listen.

  495. Like what he's getting at is don't be afraid of whether

  496. you've heard or not. Don't be afraid about whether

  497. you like listen or not. Actively pursue listening.

  498. Actively pursue leaning in. Those who lean in will discover

  499. more. Those who attempt to listen will

  500. hear. Like there's an inclination

  501. toward this that we're supposed to have that meant to have.

  502. And again, in, in 2 questions, how do we listen?

  503. And also how are we listening? Because again, I think there's a

  504. difference here. Like we can have this

  505. aspirational conversation around how do we listen without maybe

  506. having the honest conversation about how we are listening.

  507. Like currently, currently. Am I a good listener in this

  508. moment? Yeah.

  509. And and like I know that for a long time.

  510. Like for me, I could have these aspirational conversations that

  511. are good and great, but then it fails to have the actual honest

  512. conversation of OK, but am I? So how are we listening?

  513. I think becomes such a crucial question and one of the things

  514. that I've heard, and I'll just throw this out there.

  515. Yeah, as as we kind of we think through this and toward a wrap

  516. up, here is somebody once said to me, your like the degree to

  517. which you are listening to God can be revealed by the degree to

  518. which you're willing to say yes to God.

  519. Like, when was the last time you said, yeah, I'm not necessarily

  520. asking you this, but generally, when was the last time you said

  521. yes to God in a very concrete, tangible way, Yeah.

  522. And the question could be, well, if someone might say, well, I I

  523. haven't heard something to respond yes to, it's like, well.

  524. Bingo. Bingo.

  525. That's right. Yeah.

  526. Yeah. So I, I feel in inadequate to

  527. answer this question, but I, I will say, um, one thing I've

  528. been, I've been doing more and more is sitting in a chair.

  529. I have a comfy chair that I got after my back surgery last year

  530. and I sit in that chair with my coffee.

  531. And now I actually will do this with devices sometimes because

  532. I'll, I'll put in I'll put in like my air pods and noise

  533. cancelling so that I can just like not hear the cat meowing or

  534. whatever, right. And I will, I will sit there and

  535. I will like do some real good deep breathing.

  536. You know, like I think there is, there is a physiological

  537. component to when you like slow your like the oxygen to your

  538. brain a little bit, right. There is something physiological

  539. that allows for like just to be present with yourself and God.

  540. And sometimes it'll be a combo of say like scripture or say

  541. like Electio 365 or, or prayer or whatever.

  542. I know that you're a big journaler.

  543. I'm, I'm not even yet an aspirational journal or maybe,

  544. maybe at some point, but I, you know, just being, being able to

  545. sit there and to listen and to just like not be distracted to

  546. put in myself in a spot where I, you know, the do not disturb is

  547. on. I'm not going to get texts.

  548. I'm not going to like to just be comfortable and just, you know,

  549. maybe maybe God isn't gonna drop something earth shattering.

  550. Yeah, maybe he will. Yep.

  551. You know, and, and to be ready for when that happens, that that

  552. at a bare minimum, we want, we need to allow ourselves to be

  553. poised and ready for God to to speak and for them to us to

  554. respond. Yeah, I absolutely love that.

  555. And so much of my practice is, is quite similar.

  556. It it's funny. So I'm flipping back through my

  557. notebook like this is my notebook that I carry around

  558. everywhere. And so like I can flip back

  559. through morning and evening chunks that I've written.

  560. One of the things that I've started doing is actually that

  561. keeping track of the time, like the amount of time that I've

  562. been able to sit in silence. So I think silence and solitude

  563. is so crucial for learning to listen to God because one of the

  564. things that you need to become comfortable with is silence.

  565. Like learn to be quiet and to steal your mind and to settle

  566. into be it prayer scripture from a place of quiet.

  567. And so one of the reasons why so for me that the two that I'll

  568. add, so silence and solitude, like you've mentioned journaling

  569. is because so often, way more often than not, I'm not even

  570. gonna give it a percentage. But if it was a percentage,

  571. probably 99 point, whatever percent, like it's not gonna be

  572. that like big booming voice that you're like, this was a word

  573. from God. But what I can start to see is

  574. in the intentional moments of quiet, when I'm trying to

  575. listen, I will write down what I think I'm hearing.

  576. And you know, once is once, and maybe that's enough.

  577. Maybe that was a word from God. This is like repeated patterns.

  578. You know this thing. Very often look back, that is

  579. exactly it is. You're convinced me, maybe.

  580. Eventually one day, well, this is like my goal behind the whole

  581. podcast. How do I how do I convince

  582. people that journalists? But no, I just for me, it's So

  583. what I never appreciated is exactly that is just being able

  584. to look back and go, Oh God's, been saying the same thing me

  585. for a while. Like I need to.

  586. So, you know, doing this two-month experiment thing where

  587. like off my phone as absolute much as possible, which I think

  588. is a great thing for everybody and got some rules and also some

  589. other people who are doing that alongside and I love that.

  590. Like it's like they're a bunch of people just like, hey, that

  591. sounds great. I'm in and one of the that that

  592. whole like angst for me was born out of actually like repeatedly

  593. seeing like I wish I wasn't as distracted or like.

  594. You know, like, why do I, why do I, why am I constantly like, why

  595. am I trying to do three things at the same time and I never

  596. feel like I'm fully engaged with?

  597. Like why do I walk away from like social gatherings?

  598. Like, man, I just didn't. Like I wish I had more

  599. meaningful conversation there. Like they're just these things

  600. that I started to notice all the way through.

  601. Like, you know, the main problem is my main problem is the phone.

  602. Like it's the constant partial distraction attention thing.

  603. And so you know what? I'm gonna try something a little

  604. crazy and, you know, two months of it, We'll see how it goes.

  605. But that for me, it was born out of that repeated.

  606. Like, I wonder if this is not just my own angst.

  607. And I wonder if this is like, hey, guys, trying to get a hold

  608. of me in some very specific way. And we'll see.

  609. I don't know. But it was borne out of that

  610. consistent, like, yeah, thought through.

  611. But I would say more important than that, learn, practice,

  612. become comfortable with silence because that's where you're

  613. gonna hear. So three questions for you to

  614. think about. Yeah.

  615. And discuss this week. We'll try to put them in the

  616. video as well as in the description of the YouTube

  617. description and the podcast description so that you can take

  618. them into your week. And we do hope that you will

  619. continue to do that, to take these questions, to take these

  620. discussions into your week with family or friends, loved ones,

  621. and we'll see you next time. Have a wonderful week.