After The Message • Ecclesiastes - Week 4 • January 25th, 2026

You're listening to a Broadmoor podcast production.

Hey everybody, it's another podcast.

Hello everybody.

So, everybody doing all right?

It's also visual.

Doing great.

It's nice and warm.

It is visual.

It's a visual.

It's a vlog.

But this is not your first time on our video cast.

It is not, but I was just commenting that.

Right.

I didn't know if you call it something different.

Video cast.

Video cast.

Is that what it's called?

Video cast.

I don't know.

Honestly, I don't know.

Somebody tell us in the chat.

Yeah.

Should it be podcast?

Should it be video cast?

Link in the show notes.

I mean, we still do audio, so.

It's my favorite.

Someone has figured this out.

Okay, I've got to jump in before we get serious.

So, Sunday.

Oh no.

We're in our zone, in front of our fire, watching our pastor.

Awesome.

Josh, tell me what this phrase meant.

Moosh, moosh.

A moosh, boosh.

Moosh, boosh?

A moosh, boosh.

Two words.

Okay, it starts with a moosh.

A moosh, boosh.

A moosh, boosh.

A moosh, boosh.

A moosh, boosh.

You did indeed say it like it was a common phrase, and it went whoosh when I was sitting

right there.

If you were from South Louisiana, or I guess if you're French.

But if you're from South Louisiana, typically if you go to a restaurant like a higher end

restaurant, you're always going to be served in a moosh, boosh.

It's either going to come at the very beginning, or it's going to come at the very end.

It literally means a little something extra.

Like it's l'aneap.

L'aneap.

L'aneap.

Okay.

L'aneap.

Okay.

And so it is, so like after your meal, and you're like, oh man, that was so good.

And you're like, hey, I've got a little more taste for you.

Just taste this.

And so it's a taste of something sweet or something savory to remember the moment by.

Or at the beginning, it's like a palate awakener to get you ready for the meal that's in front

of you.

But it's a little something extra.

A little.

So it's not a moose's hairstyle.

It's a moose boosh.

I'm from Louisiana, and I had no idea.

Come on, man.

L'aneap.

I'm from South Louisiana.

I'm from North of New Orleans.

So it's not considered.

And to be fair, the only reason I know that phrase is the restaurant I worked in while

I was in seminary.

I got you.

It was fine dining.

It was finer dining.

Like it was Robert St. John's restaurants in Hattiesburg.

So you would, if you're familiar with.

It wasn't Slotsky's.

It was not Slotsky's.

But it was across the street.

Slotsky's.

Oh, how about that?

So good.

It was good.

So you know.

That's my lunch.

Well, that was fun.

We just had a moment.

What did you say?

Moose boosh.

Yeah.

I mean, I never heard that word up until a few years ago.

I had to.

I love that word.

It's just a great word.

I grew up with that word.

Not this one.

L'aneap.

Yeah.

You see it around.

You see it around these parts.

You never know how cultured we actually are in South Mississippi.

Exactly.

We love the sermon.

We love the sermon sundaes.

So it was a different kind of Sunday.

So of course we shut everything down because of the ice apocalypse that came through.

And so did any of you lose power?

Nope.

Nope.

Did not.

Lights flickered and that was it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I see you there that one time.

Yeah.

But anyway, so we all got to sit at home and kind of enjoy the worship service in a different

way.

And Josh, with you sitting at what I assume was right there in that very spot.

Yeah.

Just turned a little bit more to the side.

And yeah, it was really great though.

Like I really enjoyed the sort of up close and personal, and I've heard a lot of comments

about that.

That, you know, you just, uh, you're, you really excel in those kinds of moments where

it's just kind of, somebody said it felt like a fireside chat.

Not afraid of the camera.

Me, I said that.

You said former acting career.

Someone said it.

Someone said it.

Back in the day.

My acting career.

And I think my favorite comment that I've gotten from anybody was somebody texted me

shortly after, you know, that Sunday morning aired, because we, thankfully, because of

the forethought of our great media team and looking at a forecast, we recorded on Thursday,

which, um, you know, I wasn't too keen on because I like to kind of marinate on the

sermon.

I usually write it, um, the Sunday morning.

And so I was like, Oh no, this gives me like three, three days less to do this thing.

But I think it came out.

Okay.

But my favorite comment was, Hey, I really liked that.

You didn't yell.

And I was like, what?

Do I normally yell?

They're like, no, it was just kind of more chill and I was like, but do I, you said I

didn't yell.

That's right.

That's right.

Reading between the lines here.

Do I normally yell?

Did you say yell?

I don't think you normally answer that.

He normally yells.

No.

Oh yeah.

No, you don't normally.

I don't think I'm just animated.

And, you know, it's a room.

You're energetic.

This was a more chill.

But you, I mean, I think you are exactly the same on the platform as you are off.

Like if anyone knows you, if anyone knows you, I mean, you're, you're that passionate

all the time.

That is true.

Whether it's about food, the gym, sports, all the things.

Yeah.

That was great.

All right.

Well, perfect tone for the setting.

Lord will.

And I'll be back to yelling on Sunday.

Yellow way back.

Can't wait for that.

So, you know, jumping in, jumping into the message, you know, so I really appreciated

personally the illustration that you started out with, you know, when you talked about

the greatest commandment and you talked about the two nails.

So would you kind of recap that and just tell us, like, go over that illustration again.

Yeah.

So, I mean, it's, I borrowed it from scripture.

It's certainly not mine.

But Jesus has asked what are, what's the great commandment?

Now, remember the lawyers who are asking, they're not, they're not trying to learn.

They're not there because he's the rabbi and they're sitting under his feet.

They're trying to catch him in some kind of blasphemy.

If he's going to pick one law out of the 600 plus laws that Moses gives to be his favorite,

then certainly there'll be some kind of blasphemous reason that he picks it.

And so he comes with the Shema, right?

So out of Deuteronomy 6, you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.

But then he says the second is as equal to it.

So it's not like one and two, it's one and one, or one A and one B that are equal in

one.

But the second one is love your neighbor as yourself.

And he says all the laws of the prophet hang on these two and the illustration that essentially

is given.

And I'm not quite sure he would use it in the same way that we use it because of just

because of modern creature comforts.

But when we're hanging something that we want to be displayed or whether it's, whether it's

our TV or a piece of art or something that we just want to have hanging on the wall,

you have to find something to anchor it to.

So you have to find a stud and the stud matters.

So the anchor matters and what you put in that stud matters as well.

And so Jesus is saying that these two laws, loving God and loving people, are going to

be the thing that we hang our observable life on.

And if you, either one of those falter, either one, because they're not one and two, it's

one and one.

If either one of those falter, the whole thing comes down.

And so you can build a religious life and not love God but be really religious, it all

comes crashing down.

You can love God but never love people.

And so your devout theology, your love for the word, like all of those things can be

true, but if you don't love people, the whole thing comes crashing down.

He said both of those things have to be true at the same exact time, to love God and to

love people.

And so with that kind of sets the stage for this Ecclesiastes because it's in the missing

of those marks, either of loving God and loving people, that we see all the hevel in the world,

all the smoke, which is what chapter four is all about, all the injustice in the world,

all the struggles that we see in life, whether it is because people didn't do what God said

or people didn't love other people in the way that God told them to, and that makes

it a really smoky existence.

07.10

That's great.

07.11

I will never hang a picture the same way again.

07.12

Yeah.

It matters.

It matters where you hang it.

07.13

I don't know.

Apparently, I really appreciate good visuals.

So, you know, it's like, oh, yeah.

And I know the scripture says, you know, everything hangs on us.

I mean, it uses the word hang, but I just never, I never really thought, oh, I can't

get a picture.

07.14

That's probably why we like the gospels.

07.15

It's kind of a good check for us too.

Like, you know, our life might not be such that the whole thing's going to come crashing

down, but it might be unlevel.

Like we may look at our life and go, man, here recently I've been doing this really

well.

I've been kind of slacking over here.

Need to get it back in balance.

07.25

The illustration goes, I mean, a lot of times illustrations break down.

That illustration, I mean, it's pretty much the core of the message, because even if you're

adjusting your life, you're like, oh, man, that picture, my life looks a little wonky.

It looks off balance.

And we can attempt to pull the strings of, well, maybe I need to, you know, tithe a little

bit more, pray a little bit harder.

How are we at loving God and loving people?

Because those are the things that are going to center us back up and it's going to not

only hold it up, but it's going to set us up perfectly, at least as it should be or

can be understood.

And so, yeah, it all comes back to that.

07.25

Yeah.

That's good.

07.25

That's great.

07.25

So we started off, you know, in chapter four of Ecclesiastes and Solomon, in verse two

and three, like he, you know, he shares this really morbid thought, you know, it's like,

I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive.

But better than both is he who's not yet been born.

And so, and hasn't seen the evil deeds that have been done under the sun.

So yeah, talk to us about that, like, I wish I was dead or, you know, the dead are better

off than I am.

07.25

All right, so remember, anything about Ecclesiastes, and this is why you can't read all the Bible

in the same way that you read every verse, right?

You have to understand genre.

So this is a wisdom literature, and this is not the same as a gospel.

And a gospel is not the same as an epistle, like a letter.

And so, you can't read them or understand them the same way.

And so, in this wisdom literature, we have to understand that Solomon is hardly ever

being prescriptive, meaning that you should.

He is not saying, because the world is so bad, go ahead and kill yourself.

The world is so bad, go, it is okay for you to feel valid in your feelings, I wish I was

never born, right?

07.30

Or don't have babies.

07.31

Or don't have babies, because you don't want to bring her off into this world.

07.32

It's better off not to bring a baby into the world, yeah.

07.32

That's exactly right.

Do you want to know how bad the world is?

This is how bad the world is.

And from his vantage point, he would even say, like, I have an unobstructed view, like

a privileged view, and I'm telling you, you want to know how bad it is?

It's this bad, which again, wisdom literature should always set the stage for something

better to come, right?

The unique part of the wisdom literature is Ecclesiastes is the darkest of all the wisdom

literatures, right?

So, in particularly in the Psalms or in the Proverbs, like, there's some sad, but it's

mostly happy, or at least there's some directive of, I know it's sad, but if you do these things,

it's going to end up happy.

Ecclesiastes isn't that.

It's just honest.

It's Solomon looking back over the course of his life saying, this life is not all that

we think it actually is, which is setting the stage for something.

I'm so glad that it's in here, though, because, you know, some people read stories in the

Bible and they go, oh, I can relate to that story.

Some people read this passage and go, I can relate to that.

Like, I have had thoughts of, I just, maybe I'm not going to take my life, but boy, God,

if you just would never have let me be born, that would have been great.

That's right.

I think the honesty of it reminds people that the Bible is written for people, by people

who experience real things.

It's not like a fairy tale.

It's not just an author sitting down and coming up with stories.

And so it really does kind of bring the light of how bad life can be.

I mean, a lot of people have felt exactly what's in that verse.

So we're about a month in, into the series, and I think what I hear most is people, number

one, hardly ever have ever read Ecclesiastes.

Now, to be fair, it's wordy, and in our English translations, it's kind of weirdly wordy.

And so whenever you get some understanding and some context behind it, it gives you a

freedom, to your point, Preston, to not be okay.

Because I think if we're honest about our life and how we presume ourselves that we

have to be, we should always be happy.

As Christians, like, what do we have to be sad about?

We should be happy.

If you have bad thoughts, don't say those bad thoughts, because Jesus died for you.

Hopefully we don't teach that.

Hopefully you have not heard your church leadership here at Broadmoor teach those things.

But I think just the culture in which we live, or maybe even just the spirit inside of us

that's kind of tension, we want to hide the crazy.

What Ecclesiastes says, hey, it's okay to not be okay.

Like we are all more broken than we think, and the world is even more broken than you

can imagine.

And so, you know, get to the end, you're like, gosh, what do I do?

I mean, how do I get there?

So at the end, he's going to give some wisdom, but it doesn't even make it better.

Like essentially what he says with all of the brokenness, do your best to love God and

to love people and trust God along the way.

And you're not going to, this side of eternity, you're not going to see it, but there is a

day coming.

And that's all that we have.

And that's honest.

Because at the end of this day, you can church it up all you want, you can even Christian

it up all you want.

This is all we have in this life.

Life's hard.

We're broken.

The best we can do is to love God and love people and trust God for the results.

That's going to be the whole of Ecclesiastes, every chapter, but each one is going to double

down on why we are the way we are.

Just kind of give us a better understanding of honesty.

I love that.

And I've read Ecclesiastes, I guess, several times in my life, but Josh, I appreciate you

bringing out parts of it that just connect, you know, because it is connecting, the chapters

are connecting.

But you're putting this thread through it.

Thank you for pulling that thread.

Good.

Yeah.

No, I'm happy to have said it because honestly, I've never taught this for sure.

And so it has been a joy to kind of plow some new ground.

You know, I've read John a hundred times and maybe even preached through it.

This will be my, when we had just done that year, it'd been my third time to ever preach

through the gospel, which is, you see something new every time.

Like this is like, oh my goodness, this is great, I didn't know this was in here, I've

been loving this whole world.

This is great.

Kind of depressing, but great.

Yeah.

Yeah.

For sure.

Weirdly, it's great in the depression.

In verse four, where it talks about, then I saw all tool and skill and work come from

a man's envy of his neighbor.

I don't know if you may have thought, but immediately I thought, looking at this literally,

y'all know the yard of the month club, like some neighborhoods will have?

Yeah.

Our neighborhood has it.

I've never.

My yard has never had it.

We'll never have it.

That's just not a priority for us.

Nothing wrong with it.

Yeah.

People do that.

Right.

But we have a friend, Jeff Green, and his goal in life is to win yard of the month.

Jeff, she just called you out, right?

Good luck, Jeff.

I'm rooting for you.

He's so cute.

Good luck, Jeff.

Yeah, that's exactly right.

He's never won.

Come on, Debbie, you can pull him out.

I know it.

I know it.

So I thought about that.

But the truth of it is, we're always looking at someone else.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Maybe not their physical things they have, although sometimes we do look at those resources

they have.

Well, not me.

But everything about their life.

Yeah.

And so this says that we toil and work hard only because our impetus for doing that, our

motivation for doing that is envy of our neighborhood.

Wow.

Yeah.

It's huge.

And I would, I could argue, we could all argue that that verse four of chapter four gives

the reason why we as humanity cause so much destruction.

Like you can legitimately cut on the news.

You can look at what's going on right now in Minneapolis.

You can look at what's going on in New Orleans.

You can look at what's going on in Jackson.

You can look at what's going on in your neighborhood that nobody else knows about, right?

And it all stems from, I'm not satisfied with me and I want what they have.

So we know that comparison is the thief of joy, but comparison could be just interchanged

with envy.

So envy is the thief of joy, but it's also the fuel for all the anger that we see in

this world.

And if we were content with what we had, and we believe that the people across from us

didn't have something that we desired, then this world would be a much better place, right?

And that's why, now again, this gets us into a whole nother sermon and sermon series.

But while when Jesus is giving us the Lord's prayer, we are led to pray, Lord, give us

this day our daily bread, not our neighbor's daily bread, but to give us what is ours and

for us to forgive potentially what others have done to us.

And so if we're content with us and we're not angry at them, then that allows us to

refocus on the new way of life.

That is the kingdom way.

This gives, again, not prescriptive, just descriptive.

This is the reason the world is broken.

It's because we are not satisfied in what we have and we're angry that other people

we believe have more or better than we do.

And isn't it crazy that that comparison always is looking at someone that we think

has more, like we don't, by and large, humanity does not look around and go, oh,

I'm so blessed because I have this.

When I look at this person who doesn't have this, we look toward others who have

things we don't have and we're like, oh, I want what they have.

And I think it's just, it shows the darkness of our heart when it comes to things like

that, we can't be content because we don't know how to just say, thank you, Lord, for

what I have.

We have to look toward what somebody else has, but it's always a one-way comparison

or most often is a one-way comparison.

And personally, I think too, it robs us of some joy and contentment that we have and

we could have in our life by looking at how God has blessed us.

But also it robs the joy that we would have from coming alongside someone else and

celebrating what God has been doing in their life.

We tend to get quiet, withdraw, maybe I just did, withdrawal.

And that's the first section of this, because he's going to give two examples

essentially of the, because of the envy that we have for the people around us, we'll

treat people one of two ways.

They'll either be a stepping stone for us.

So we'll invite them in.

Sure.

Hey, I like you.

I want you to come in.

But it's only because I see something in you that I want, or at least I see something

in you that I can use to get to where I want to go.

But then secondly, if we can't do that, if we can't control them, then we're going to

destroy them because now we're going to see them as the opposition.

Like you are gatekeeping something that is mine.

And both of those, remember rooted in Genesis three, right?

So this is the fall, the enemy puts into the mind of Adam and Eve, God's keeping

something from you.

And so when they can't control him, they try to, I don't need you.

I'm going to do it my way.

Well, that's where this whole problem began.

That's still the core issue that we face today is we may invite community in, but

it's generally only to get ours.

And then once we receive what we want, kick it to the curb.

And if we can't control it, I'm going to tear you down because I'm going to get it.

That's the struggle.

That's the envy.

That's what it does in our life.

And it's a supernatural thing.

And I know we all feel this and people watch right now feel it.

Cause Preston, to your point, I know I should be thankful.

I can sing the old hymn, you know, count your many blessings.

Name them one by one.

But the point being with that, like, I know we know that, but there's still

something at war in us again, going back to Romans seven, this is that tension

that Paul says, this is something otherworldly, like my soul is tied to

something, even though I know it belongs to the Lord on this side of eternity.

I am still anchored to something and it's dark and it's twisted and it's

pulling at me every single day, which is why he says, who can save this wicked

wretch that I am, praise be to God through Jesus Christ who can.

So that is our only hope in this life and the life to come is Jesus because

that tie is strong and the pull is hard.

So there was a, we talk about a lot.

I mean, it's one of our values, you know, here at Broadmoor, we've talked a lot

about community and the importance of community.

We talk a lot about groups and, you know, doing life with one another.

And that was a prevalent theme in this chapter, even so much so that it made a

statement about if two lie together, they keep one another warm, which is kind of

an odd statement for us to hear.

Right.

So yeah.

Say more about that.

So if you go back and you listen to the sermon, I tried to double

down on it because that does seem strange.

So there was a couple of things in the litany of illustrations

that Solomon's given, right?

So he's saying, you know, when you fall, if you fall alone, who's

going to be there to pick you up?

Like you need somebody to help you.

And then the one that comes after it is, you know, if you're attacked, you're

by yourself, you're going to get, you're going to get smoked, like you're going

to get got and, but if you have somebody or at least two somebodies, you can

potentially fend off any attacker that's coming your way.

And so we kind of resonated with both of those.

It is the weird middle one that, that would say, you know, if two lay

together, they'll be warm, like, dude, you're not laying with me, fine.

No, that's terrible.

But the point being, like, they traveled a lot and they didn't

have the creature comforts we did.

They didn't have cars, they didn't have, they didn't have hotels.

And so normally when it's good, life's good, they're not snuggling, but

let something go awry, let an extenuating circumstance happen

that is now life-threatening.

You're happy, as weird as it may be, you're going to be happy to get close

to somebody, to be warm, to survive.

Now, again, I don't think we're in danger, hardly ever, of hypothermia,

unless it's, you know, yesterday and today.

It could certainly be a thing.

But the point being that it is our isolation that he's pointing

to that freezes us all the time.

That we think we're fine until the moment we're not.

And then if we look around and we've isolated so much and nobody's there

and we've pushed everybody away and we've even doubled down and looked

at the people who want to be with us and say, I don't want you with me.

Then they're not coming.

And now the isolation that you feel is, it is potentially going to sink you.

They said, what good is a life that you've worked hard for, that you've

made money in, that you've built a portfolio about, and now you're going

to die on the side of the road in isolation?

By yourself.

What a hell of an experience.

What a meaningless journey in this life that you've, Jesus would say it this way,

what gain is it that you have the whole world, but now you've forfeited your soul?

Like what, what good is it that you've gained for yourself?

And so again, not prescriptive, just descriptive saying I've seen it all.

I've watched men and women gain the world, but they've died alone, just

like a dog would, which brings us back to the chapter three and brings it together.

So, uh, we've got Preston in the room, which is actually, uh,

great for this conversation.

Yeah.

Uh, you know, I mean, I think your expertise can lend some things, uh, to,

to this conversation that maybe the rest of us can't.

Um, you know, I mean, think about the idea of community.

And again, we talk about it a lot.

We stress it a lot.

Uh, but we also recognize that for some community comes easier than others.

Like for some, it's just a natural extroverts and, uh, you know,

energized by center of attention, live to the party, you know, creating connections

and building relationships with people just comes really easy.

Uh, others tend to be more introverted and that just terrifies them, you know,

and that's, uh, you know, isolation is the first state, you know, um, and so

I actually thought of a movie that I watched at one point, I think it was a

documentary or something on, uh, people climbing Mount Everest and they got

stranded, like in a, in a unexpected storm and they wanted to snuggle together

to stay alive, you know, watch them snuggle.

Um, but anyway, for, uh, you know, for those who might be more naturally

introverted and really struggle with the idea of community, like, uh, like how

do they find a balance between like, yeah, just the need to recharge and

be alone and be in isolation, but also to.

To step in and connect and, and is it wrong to be introverted?

No, I, that's, that's a good question.

And I think the answer is no, it's not wrong.

Some people are more naturally wired to enjoy time alone, to be reenergized.

So when we talk about being introverted, typically your battery kind of gets

charged by having that time alone, whereas extroverts get charged

up by being with other people.

Uh, so nothing inherently wrong for sure with being introverted.

Um, but I think there's a rhythm in that of needing your time alone to recharge,

but also understanding that God has wired us to need to be in community for other

reasons, um, one of which is just a spiritual, you mentioned earlier that

sometimes when we get alone spiritually, then we kind of create our own narratives.

We create, we almost create God in a sense, the way that we want him to be

and being around other people lets us kind of, there's some checks and balances.

You know, we read scripture, we talk about it.

If we're the one person in a room of 10 that says, well, this scripture

seems to say this and the other nine are looking at us going, I don't see that at

all, it's probably something worth listening to, right?

So there's some checks and balances in it.

But I think too, just going back to even like early childhood without nerding out

too much, we are wired for connection from the very beginning.

And when we see kids that don't have connection, maybe they grow up in an

orphanage or something like that, where their needs are being met in terms of like

food and diapers change, things like that.

But there's no actual physical contact or verbal, you know, back and forth.

Um, we see this failure to thrive.

And I think it's just an early, uh, demonstration that God from the very

beginning wants us to be in relationship with other people, but we're all going to

be different.

So you look back at COVID, I mean, some people when COVID hit, we're like, this

is awful, not just because I can't get toilet paper, but because I can't be with

all of my people.

And then you had some people that were like, this is awesome.

I now have a legitimate excuse to stay at home, not talk to anybody, just get my

work done, you know, and again, wiring, two different wirings, but the longer it

went, even people who are more introverted, we began to see kind of some of the

cracks and wow, even though I like this in some ways, I'm starting to feel the

stress of not having community, but God wants us to have community.

It's, it's all throughout scripture.

It's, it is part of being in the church and why it's healthy for us to be in a

church body and not kind of a lone ranger.

Well, I'll just take my Bible, go do my quiet time, say my prayers, you know, we

need others.

And I, you know, I want to double down on that because I think what you just

referenced is something we talked pre-podcast and I don't want to miss out on

the tension that we feel because there's going to come a time in chapter five, six

and seven where Solomon's going to make a comment and remember it is describing

something, it's not prescribing something.

And essentially he's going to say to the irreligious, you need to get a little bit

more religion.

And then he's going to say to the overly religious, you need to simmer down a

little bit, like you need to back off because both of those are going to lead you

to a place that you don't want to go.

And so I think for us as 21st century Protestants, we have believed an untruth

to say it nicely, or to say it honestly, I believe that we've bit the lie that we

can do Christianity all by ourself.

Proven by, we think that if we're being a good Christian, that means that we woke up

this morning alone and then we opened our Bible alone and we opened our devotional

alone and we drank a cup of coffee and we wrote in our journal and we took the picture

and posted it on Instagram alone.

And therefore, that makes us a good Christian.

Well, the first century church honestly knows nothing of that.

So if we look back at when the church is created and explodes in growth, now

remember the Bible doesn't, as it's bound and understood today, it doesn't go on the

scene until about 350 AD.

So for 300 plus years, you have groups of people that their source of nourishment is

the community that God has trusted to them.

And so in Acts 2, it says they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching.

I was about to say that.

Oh, sorry.

Go ahead, say it.

And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and a fellowship to the

breaking of bread, hanging out together, eating, and to prayer, Acts 2 42, yeah.

And that is what was the lifeline for the early Christian.

Now overlay that to what we think is our lifeline.

If we can individualize that to, I don't need that.

I just need my Bible.

I just need my devotional.

I just need my worship music that I like.

Then everything becomes so personalized to what I like and nothing that I don't

like is ever in my view that God starts to sound an awful lot like me.

And he starts to like only the things that I like, and he never hates the

things that I am doing that maybe I shouldn't do.

And so here's the danger of an individualized religion or

individualized Christianity.

It can lead you to heresy fast.

And we can play a game that we label things with Christian language.

So we can call it Jesus and we can call him God and we can call it the Holy

Spirit, we can call it the Bible.

But in reality, we've just set up a religion that is equally blasphemous as

any other religion that is not centered on the work of Jesus, because that

religion is centered on us.

And we just use Jesus as a label.

In your own perspective, in your own wisdom, you don't know that what

you're thinking is wrong or what you're believing is wrong.

You need people for the encouragement, for the support, for the warmth,

but also for the accountability.

And that part of a relationship is the part that when I look back on my life

and I see how people have come along beside me for encouragement, for support,

being those balcony people, go Beth, go.

But I also have had wise people who have whispered quietly to me in a

private conversation, which is how I like to be confronted.

And I don't mind that, but who've come along beside me and loved me well enough

to say, did you know, you said this, you did this.

And the accountability is important and having the person when the wheels fall

off, because when life falls apart, you being in your word every day is great.

You may know some truths that will help you navigate it.

But when the wheels fall off, you often need a person, Jesus with skin on,

sometimes we say to be there, to walk out, whatever that thing is that's going on

in your life.

And one of the saddest things in the world is the person who on that day is

like, wait, I've been doing all this stuff, but now that I'm in need, I've

got nobody to turn to because that's not how God meant for it to be.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I mean, and I think you guys have sort of naturally answered one of the

questions I was going to have, which, you know, I think Beth, you raised it

earlier before we started recording this was, you know, how do we know when our

isolation has become detrimental to our spiritual or mental health even, you

know, and I think, I think that's some of what we've just been talking about.

I mean, you know, there are signs along the way.

And so I think that's something that we need to be, we need to be sensitive to.

And for, for us at Broadmoor, you know, we've, we're set up in a system and a

framework with life groups and many of those life groups have smaller groups

that meet together.

And so if you're listening today and you don't have a life group or a small

group, I encourage you to go to the website and look at some possibilities,

but I always encourage people to don't go one time and say this in the group for

me, because the teacher can have an off day three times.

That's usually my rule for you, because you could have an off day, you know,

do the work that it takes to find that group of community.

And if you go to another church, find out what, what their structure is to

find that community in that small group.

We hardly ever drift into a place of health or a place of vulnerability or

transparency.

And so I've learned a lot since coming here from many different people, but,

you know, we, we joke about Neil Marsh, you know, our dearly departed brother

who is, who is now doing other work, but certainly still at Broadmoor and

leading a great life group.

And if you're looking for a life group, his life group is great, it's intense,

but it's great.

It's so good.

But he always asked a question whenever he would sit with me as, as me, as, as

his lead pastor.

And he was one of the executive pastors and, and Mike would sit in the room as

well.

And Neil would ask us, Hey, do you see anything in me that's off?

Like, like he would, and I remember the first time he asked me, I, I felt

exposed in him asking the question to me about himself, because the next logical

thing was, I'm going to have to volley that back.

Oh, yeah.

And I don't like that question.

And I didn't grow up with that question.

Matter of fact, I grew up believing the opposite.

I don't even want you to think about what I'm doing.

That's all that he would submit himself.

And it wasn't just in our meeting.

He, if you ask me that one time, and I think I stuttered and walked out.

Yeah.

But it's so strange.

And I've, and I've attempted to do that now.

And in all the lead, the meetings that I lead and the teams that I'm in, no matter

what the organizational chart is saying about it, like, I just want people to look

at my life and, and have a freedom because I want to know, like, we all have blind

spots, like, we have to know that, like, we are all broken and not just like,

theologically in mind, like, like we're just legitimately, we don't do what we're

supposed to do the right way, but we think we are.

And so we need to let people in.

And the way to do that naturally is just to look at him and say, Hey, baby, when

you see me, like, do you see anything that's that, that I shouldn't be doing, or do

you see anything that I should be doing more of?

You've asked me that before.

You seem really nice.

I'm just curious.

I never have asked that question of someone else.

Not before near Marsh.

Not, Oh,

I have.

And I think again, it's, well, it's, it's come from the, the, again, being exposed

in those meetings, those very same meetings, you know, to, to Neil and his, his

vulnerability in that way.

And, and I think, you know, it does, it does sort of require a volley.

Oh, I guess now I got to ask, somebody gives you a gift.

I got to give one back.

It's a culture shift.

And I think it's, yeah, but doing it with your friend, that's still, that is still a

culture shift though, because it requires trust.

And sometimes somebody has to lead out in that and kind of take it a step further in

conversation.

But when you do it, there's safety in it.

I know we're about to wrap up, but there's so much safety in community.

Once you trust it, like if you truly know and be known, if that's the intent that

you're going to do, like, I remember some of the first times asking that question,

thinking, please say nothing, please say nothing.

And now if I hear, no, I don't think so enough.

I'm like, I don't think you guys are pressing it enough.

Or I don't think I'm being honest enough because there's no way, there's no way.

The answer to that question is I don't think so.

Or no, not that I see, because that tells me something about me, that I'm being a

little more guarded than I should be.

And I'm not letting you in fully to my crazy just yet.

So, so that is helpful.

And I know that when I mess up and we will guys, we will falter.

We're going to have people not to condemn us, but to pick us up.

And that's the beauty of biblical community.

For sure.

My friend, Carol and I, as we have parented over the past years, we have that open

statement with each other.

You see something in my life that is not biblical in regards to parenting and

marriage too.

But parenting is what I want to talk about with our moms right now that she has

called me out.

I have called her out.

We are sharper and together and warmer because of community with each other.

And I think every mom or dad needs those people around them too, both for marriage

and for parenting.

Um, but that takes a vulnerability.

Yeah, indeed it does.

So, uh, uh, we're out of time and we need to wrap up, but, um, but I do appreciate

this conversation and I, you know, I just want to remind, uh, those who watch or

listen, uh, this podcast, just again, we say it all the time, but, uh, you know,

groups are really important.

You're probably, they're, they're important anywhere, but it's something

that we really try to stress here.

And so, you know, we have groups that, that meet, of course, live groups that

meet on Sunday mornings and small groups.

We have a Wednesday night groups that, that meet, um, get involved in a group

somewhere where we can begin to practice.

And we have different kinds of groups.

Some are more teacher-based, uh, some are more just discussion.

You mentioned Neal's it's, uh, and how intense it is, you know, and it's him

and Steven, because really the primary focus of that, that group is, is, yeah.

Let's be transparent.

So, um, website to find out more about those, you can go to the

website to find more about groups.

You can call the church office, uh, or just show up on Sunday morning, go to

our connect center and, uh, someone there can help point you to, uh, to a group.

So, um, anyway, great conversation today, continue to look forward

to the rest of Ecclesiastes.

And, um, so thanks.

Thanks for the conversation.

Love you guys.

Love you guys.

Love y'all.

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