Leftovers - Confirmation Sunday/Lifelong Learners

Happy Monday and may the fourth be with you.

Indeed, Sir, and with you as well.

I'm Pastor Matt. Pastor Chris is here as well.

It's a fun day. I have a fun.

Well, I think it's a fun fact. Maybe not everyone thinks it's a

fun fact. Sorry.

I want some microphone little issues there.

I think I'm loud enough now. OK, I don't think I've told this

story on the pod before, but so our third child, Eleanor, her

original due date was on May 5th and Star Wars nerd that I am,

and it is for me, it's the original trilogy and then the

prequel trilogy and then whatever the light last three

were, whatever you want to call them, that's that's the order of

them. But I was brought up with the

original Star Wars trilogy. Anyway, she was our third child

and we had we didn't really have a process for naming our kids

with the first two. Like we just kind of liked

Oliver. It wasn't a family name, wasn't

it? Like that was just that was the

thing. Clara was again just kind of a

kind of a cute name. And with that due date, May 5th,

I had just decided I I can't, I went to Emily and I was just

like, all right, here's the deal.

If she's born on May 4th, I'm going to name her Leia.

We're going to name we're going to name her Leia If it's on May,

it's if it's on May the 4th and and if she's born any other day,

she's early, she's late, whatever you can name her

whatever. I have no input at all.

You can't name her any name that you would like If it's any other

day and she took the deal. Ellie was born on May 12th.

So that's why I. Wonder how many Leah's or or

Leah's or Luke's are in fact born on May 4th and parents have

done? That for me, for that I'm not.

I'm not really sure. We do have one.

We have one student in who's come to ERC Ministries whose

birthday is today. Their name is not Luke Orlea.

Oh, OK. Yeah.

Wow. Well, apparently the the parents

were not big Star Wars fans. Yeah.

So anyway, which is fine, but that was just a fun fact from my

life about May the Fourth didn't happen.

And all of you other parents are probably relieved that my crazy

idiosyncrasies related to how I'm going to get to name my

children. You're probably happy that

didn't come true for me. So yeah.

I've got a whole I won't share any of them right now, but I've

got a whole bunch of stories before our son was born about

names that I thought were perfectly acceptable that my

wife and others mocked me for. Again, a story.

For your son. Yeah, a story for another time,

but just we'll put that, we'll put a pin in that one and we'll

come back to it another time. Oh my.

So yes, today is May the 4th. I don't even know if it's

officially like international Star Wars Day or whatever, but

it is just, it is recognized as Star Wars Day being May the 4th.

So I mean, why not? Absolutely.

Why not? Perfect for that.

It is. So anyway, that just got me

thinking. I think we've somewhat had this

conversation before. I thoroughly appreciate the Star

Wars Canon. I I yeah was raised on the

original trilogy. Whenever I had $7.00 as a kid,

like from paper route money or allowance or like whatever else,

$7.00 I can go buy an action figure for Walmart for 697 and

like that was that was a deal. I had original 3 trilogy.

I think I had almost all I still have an old school like plastic

Millennium Falcon that that holds like all of the all the

characters in it opens up. I have a plastic TIE fighter to

go. Like I was deep.

I was deep in the Star Wars as a as a kid.

So yeah, I don't love the early trilogy or the late trilogy as

much anymore, but it also got me thinking about just the other

sort of prolific epic trilogy's and where they fall in in value

for people. What's so what's that's our

question today for you. What's your favorite sort of

epic? OK.

Yeah. So certainly not limited to

trilogy meaning. No, right?

No. It.

Got to be at least three though. Oh, sure, if it's not.

Three, what are we doing? Yeah, You know, I could, I could

see, actually, if there was an epic trilogy, minimum, I think

my wife might say, and she could correct me later.

She might say the My Big Fat Greek Wedding films.

Oh, my goodness. I'm not even joking.

Like, she loves those movies for sure.

The original is just like a classic in her brain for sure,

no doubt about it, and so she was super excited as each

subsequent film has come out. That's hilarious.

I wasn't thinking we were going that deep into it.

That's trilogy. Sure it is, as is Back to the

Future, but I wouldn't and Indiana Jones I don't like, I

don't know, I wasn't. I guess maybe those are maybe

those are your favorite thing. I was more thinking in the realm

of like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.

Star Wars. I never.

Are there any Star Trek people? I never.

I never made. Any Trekies have?

I don't think you can use that word.

Only Trek can use that word. No, it's fine.

Sorry. It's a funny joke.

I don't know. I've never.

Yeah, you're right. I've never met someone who's

who's a Star Trek fan. I don't think, like in real life

like that. Because.

Because you can only pick one, right?

Like you can't. You can't be Star Wars, can't be

your awesome thing. And Star Trek is your awesome

thing, right? Like, you have to.

You have to pick sides, right? You have to.

That's my understanding of how it works.

I'll tell you what, there's also half of you out there who are

like, I pick neither. Like I'm not on either of those

sides. So yeah.

The the story across multiple multiple movies that I think is

by far the most intriguing and biggest value for the the bigger

storyline. It has to be the Infinity War

saga that Marvel put out between basically 2012 and the early

twenty 20s, because we we're dealing with at least I I don't

have the precise number at least 15 different movies that are all

stand alone, but they all build into this bigger story.

So I liken it to this when I was a child and Transformers were

really big deal, there was a transformer that could be made

out of like 13 other Transformers.

They all combined into this one giant amazing transformer and

but individually they were still cool.

And that's how I see that that Marvel story arc unfolding with

the Infinity War saga is just, it's amazing front to back.

So phases 1-2 and three of the MCU Infinity Saga spans 23

films, 23 from 2008 to 2019. And I just want to double check

what did they actually include? Because OK, great.

So that was, oh, that's chronology order.

But it goes way back to the beginning with The Incredible

Hulk that was played by an actor who they ultimately didn't keep,

but it goes all the way back then.

It's a huge story arc with, again, dozens and dozens of

characters involved, and somehow they wove it all together into

one big storyline again, even while those movies can sit

individually on their own as enjoyable.

I don't. I've never seen anybody do

anything like that in film. Yeah, it is.

It is masterful because they they weren't released in

chronological order. The individual there are and

they and they weave them in and out.

There are some of the movies that are just that individual

hero. Sometimes there are cameos or or

interactions between multiple heroes.

Even though it's a Thor movie. We run, we run into the guardian

or we run, we run into other character.

The Hulk from is that Ragnarok? I think yeah, Thor, Thor and

Hulk were both in. So yeah, that's that's an epic

storytelling sort of that that feels like it's own category and

it's own that that's just like never been done before.

And others have tried to do it since and they've done a very

poor job. Yeah, at all, even though a lot

of movies since the the last one that's technically categorized

in the Infinity war saga at least at least what they have is

actually so Avengers end game, but then also spider man far

from home is actually the. It's the aftermath, yeah.

The the bookend to that, but the movie sit like Ant man 3 and

even like Black Panther, the second one, Wakanda forever.

So even and Guardians of the Galaxy 3 not good.

They're they're. After all those amazing films,

they're allowed some misses. It's fine.

I've got grace. I've got grace for that.

Maybe not everybody does, but I do because I'm a total nerd.

What I wonder about Marvel, are there, are there people who are

Marvel fans who just like, who don't like one of The Avengers

characters? Like do you, do you like Thor?

But just like Hulk, Just like don't care for Hulk?

Certainly that exists and Oh yeah.

And certainly there are people who have grown up with reading

the comic books. And they think, of course, as

we, as a lot of people tend to do, they think that the movies

have in some ways ruined the characters.

But you get that with Star Wars, you get that with the Harry

Potter books. You get that with all these

kinds of big things. Yeah, that's just bringing that

into someone else's interpretation and bringing that

into reality. So.

OK, so where do you sit then on like a big epic story across a

lot of movies or or books or where do you sit?

What's the best one? I still think for me the

biggest, most complete as far as storyline and just character

excellence, it's it's got to be Jr.

Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. And then the subsequent the The

Hobbit was of course made into 3 prequel movies, which they it's

not word for word. And of course they took some

liberties with some of the characters.

But like you can pretty much read The Hobbit book as you're

watching those first 3 movies and pretty much every page is in

there. They they did a pretty expansive

job. The original the The Lord of the

Rings trilogy, Fellowship of the ring, 2 Towers and Return of the

King. Those books are massive.

There's plenty of plenty of detail.

Even though those movies are 4 hours, there's plenty of detail

missing from those books. But for me, just the the

masterful like that there's there's not other other than the

war and the fighting in it there.

There's not that there's not like sexual content.

There's no, there's no, there's there's no swearing in in those

movies like they did. They just kept it true to the

story and and even that setting. I'm also a little bit of a

sucker for that sort of medieval I, I prefer that to like the

superhero escape. I'm much more fascinated by the

the swords and bows and arrows and that sort of that sort of

conflict. So.

No, it's, it's incredibly intriguing.

I, I like all those films a lot. And again, Tolkien as a

Christian, like he, if you pay attention, he draws out a number

of the hot, heavyweight theological themes throughout

his books. I remember drawing a parallel to

like 8th grade, I went to AI, went to a private Christian

School in middle school, 8th grade.

I remember some discussion about like descriptors we'd have for

Jesus. And I remember getting in like a

little bit of a debate with I, I put out that he's like a wizard.

And I was honestly thinking like I was thinking of Gandalf as as

that just the powers that he has his his caring, kind heart for

his ability to heal and and all these things.

And there's a girl in the class that was just like, yeah, but

Wizards aren't real. So that can't be Jesus.

But that was my like that the there's certainly Christly

characteristics within Gandalf that talking put in that story.

So anyway, we didn't I lost the the wizard got crossed out from

the descriptors of Jesus. Jesus isn't a wizard.

That's what I learned in 8th grade.

You heard it here, folk. You heard it here, folks.

Folks, Jesus is not a wizard. Put that in.

Put that in your Bible and make sure that you don't make that

mistake. So we had confirmation Sunday,

yesterday, Michaela Plumley, our lone confirm end this year.

I've been here for eight years. I think this is the first year

we have only had one and that was just a matter of 8th grade

students we have in 8th grade. And The thing is, we've had

plenty of 8th graders come and hang out on Wednesdays and take

in some of the content and even, you know, be excited about the

content that they were learning and, and all that kind of stuff.

But yet, you know, finishing quote UN quote confirmation is a

different bag that's saying that you've put in all the work

consistently over 2 years and all that kind of stuff.

So that is a different thing. But I've been so happy with the

8th graders that I've interacted with this year.

And it's, it's always a joy to and, and, and some people might

find that weird, but like middle school is my jam.

Like it's right where I fit. And if you've ever heard me

preacher, probably like, Yep, that guy hangs out with middle

schoolers. So that makes sense.

So she which only having one, we changed up a little bit how we

did it this year. And Yep, gave her an assignment

or reflection a a take away in teaching moment for that.

And then you got into just the the thrust of your reflection

yesterday was being lifelong learners in in pursuit of

Christ, as disciples of Christ. So yeah, that was that was the

weekend as as it were. And we're going to kind of recap

some of the some of the scriptures that we went through

and and reflect on that too. However, Oh gosh.

Before we do, I have a bone to pick with you.

OK. And just so you know, audience

listening, I did not tell Matt my bone that I had to pick with

him on this topic because recently he gave me and all of

us what is probably some very solid adulting advice.

And as my very, very, very long ago father Adam, has pushed the

blame on another person in another direction, I would like

to push my blame for what went wrong with me towards somebody

else. Here's my attempt at that.

So recently, one Mr. Matt Schweitzer said, you know what?

It's really bad for your sleeping rhythms to keep on

hitting the snooze button because we're, you know, the

adult. Adults get up when they're

supposed to get up. It's true.

OK, So I trying to be a better adult was like, you know what?

I'm going to take Matt's word and I'm not going to hit the

snooze button anymore. I'm just going to turn that

thing off and I'm going to get up.

Well, here's here's what happened yesterday.

Why I walked in the building at 7:25 instead of my goal being

like 6:45. So here's what we did.

Here's what I did all week. I'd been like, I'm not going to

hit the snooze, turn it off, get up.

Well, what happened on Sunday morning was that I, in fact, was

being an adult and was not going to hit the snooze button.

So I didn't, but I fell back asleep.

Lisa, in kind of a panic, wakes up and it's like, Chris, did you

know it's 658? And I was like, no, no, no.

And so like, you know, I get ready as fast as I possibly can,

get in the shower, in and out as fast as I can.

But all that to say, Matt Schweitzer, I blame you, Sir.

So let me let me see if I'm hearing what you let me just.

OK. OK, say what I heard you say.

OK, you you turned off your your alarm.

I did hit stop on the alarm. Then you.

Then you stayed in bed after you turned off the alarm,

apparently. I don't actually told her.

You remember the whole thing. This this sounds like operator

error to me here. So I will have, I will have the

caveat. Sorry, I need to make an

addendum to the adulting device advice.

Yeah, there's a step. Turn it.

I know I I definitely said this. Turn off the alarm and get up

right away. It is definitely how it was not

at no point of my advice was to turn off the alarm and stay in

bed so that you can go back to sleep.

I must have missed that part. I'm being blamed for this.

Oh my goodness. Yeah, no, if in fact you are

going to stay in bed and not wake up like an adult, yeah, you

probably should leave the snooze on so that you will wake up.

But again, so. But I was trying so hard.

How much I really was. OK, so how much were you late

all morning? Like, did that set your day

back? Oh it it really sent me on a

ride. What time was the original alarm

set for 6:15, 6/15? I was.

Definitely. That's your drop dead moment.

That's your like. And I heard that too and I said

OK, 6:15 I'm going to sleep until my drop dead moment

because I know I can shower, get dressed, all the things within

1/2 an hour for sure. And you know, OK.

Yeah, so. Yesterday was, yes.

Yesterday morning was. A feeling you had added the get

out of bed when the alarm goes off to that equation.

It would it would have worked. You're so close, so it would

have worked out for you. You're so maybe this week, that

one, maybe this. Week I'll get.

It right your one weekly alarm that you're going to set on

Sunday. Everyone else is shaking their

tiny fists. Chris, right now, set your alarm

for more than one day. No, I you know it's more than

one day. I do have to set an alarm to be

here by 9. AM Oh my I.

Do I? I can't just naturally wake up

in time to be here by 9:00 AM? It doesn't happen.

Man. It's it's.

Yeah. All right.

So I know you don't have like small kids anymore, but what was

there ever a point in your life that like the kids just didn't

let you sleep anymore at that point in the day?

Because for as long as I've had children, that's been like six O

3 like that's that is the longest I can sleep in by my own

devices. Like someone else will interrupt

my day by 6 O3 like for the past 11 years of my life.

Wow, wow. Well, here's the thing.

By the time, I would say by the time both my kids were, I don't

know, by by 6 for sure, kindergarten age, they would get

up on the weekends. They would get up on their own,

get their own cereal, watch their own cartoons and then

listen. I would leisurely stroll out

when we woke up, if there was no fighting in the house, you know,

because sometimes they would get on each other's nerves and we'd

hear whatever. But yeah, for on any given

Saturday. It was just like, kids will wake

up and do their thing, they'll be fine.

Wow. Again, I'm a, I'm a product of

the 80s where like parents were super hands off all the time.

You come home when the street lights come on, there's no cell

phones anything. So I I produced kids like that

too. Fascinating.

I I would love to hear from you parents out there or even like

parents of active little ones right now.

Like, man, am I? Am I crazy?

My kids just love me that much that they have to see me first

thing in the morning to wake me up.

What a gift. That's what it is.

What a gift. Yeah, what a gift.

Anyway, that was the bone I had to pick with you that I couldn't

tell you about until we were on air.

Bone you had to pick with me, but.

Well, again, I've got to blame somebody else.

It can't possibly be me, right? Like it has to be somebody

else's fault. Thank you for that.

Thank. We'll have to.

We'll have to have a fresh adulting segment next week for

you to trial and error on. Yeah, OK.

I feel like the adulting segments are for me in some

weird way. Like, hey Chris, by the way,

I've been thinking about you and here's where you have never

grown up. You are, you are a decent model

for me for that, yeah. Absolutely.

The Sox thing is still getting me.

Did a bunch of laundry this week.

Revisited. That.

I know, I know. I did a bunch of laundry this

weekend. Couldn't get an even number of

socks to come out of the washer. To be fair, I think I think the

majority of the people are on your side with that.

They they think I'm the crazy person for my socks being in

pairs all the time, which sounds absurd as I say it off the yeah,

just off the top of my head. But I, I think most of the

people are with you on that one. Thank you.

So yeah. Feel good.

Oh, all right, reflections from yesterday, Michaela gave us

thoughts about the apostle Paul. You turned into really the I

feel like we tried to keep the focus of the burning and we had

we had baptism yesterday at the first service confirmation.

You did a really good job articulating of what it's not

it's it's not a graduation from church going in some ways it's

really just the beginning in in a lot of the same ways that

baptism is just the beginning, but it's it really is in

relation to baptism. It's kind of the other end of

that. Even that word confirmation.

We baptized some infants yesterday.

Can they articulate the particular theology of grace of

faith for the faith they have? No, but do we also believe that

when Jesus says those who do not have faith, like a little child,

like that means they can possess faith even if they can't

articulate the insurance and outs of of the theology of

grace, theology of faith that they have.

So confirmation even in that word is really just OK

confirmation of knowing the things, right, of of being able

to articulate the things bestowed upon even even a

childlike faith, right. So in some ways it's that

bookend, but also it's you're not done.

Well, and The thing is like confirmation is an interesting

idea in general because can you confirm wholeheartedly somebody

else's heart position and faith? No, you cannot.

But you can confirm what they know, right?

And what they're aware. Of.

And what they've been told and what they can then synthesize

and bring back out to you as like, OK, I really know and I

understand these concepts. So confirmation is just that.

I have no doubt that there are students, not necessarily here,

but it's just across the board who will be confirmed or have

been confirmed this spring who are not yet believers in Jesus

Christ. But they have a solid

understanding of what the Bible says about a lot of different

topics. And so we are in fact then

confirming a base or a foundational level of

understanding of theology. And so that's really what's

happening there. But as far as our particular

student this year, she just did such an outstanding job of

picking up on this, this big important theme that God can

redeem anyone and even someone like Paul who was jailing and

having and supporting Christians being killed.

He then does, as she said, a 180.

God has him do that 180 and before you know it, he himself

is being imprisoned and eventually killed for the very

faith that he wants to. That's other people.

And I just I thought she did a masterful job of presenting this

grander overview of his life, but also while giving you enough

details that you're like, that sounds really interesting.

I would like to learn more about that.

I saw something, I can't remember which.

Trevor. Trevor Sheets, maybe, Or oh man,

I can't. I can't think of it social media

influencer theologian that I that I saw it from this week,

but he put a reflection of Paul entered heaven to the cheers of

those he martyred. Like that's, that's and, and and

it was this is redemption. Like, like that's, that's what,

that's what that was. Oh, Shane Pruitt, that's who it

was. Shane mentioned that.

That's amazing. Yeah, so I just hadn't, but

you're but she brought out a lot of that in in, in the 180 of

what that looks like. And and there's so much depth in

the character and persona of Paul, even like she did a great

job in the time that she had. And but it was just really just

scratching the surface of the, the persona and influence of

Paul. And when I, I know I keep

talking about humility week in and week out, but like I'm, I'm

more and more convinced that that that is one of the chief

characteristics that we have to have as a posture of, of both

children of God, men and women of God, dependency on, on God,

on his word, even this lifelong learner like the that idea,

which of which of course bears out.

And you, you articulated that yesterday.

We have to have the posture of humility and I, I don't know, I,

I and you, you even said, well, this is you don't know how the

how the machinations of this bread and wine being the blood

and body of Jesus Christ. Like, I don't know.

I'm still coming to a deeper understanding of that.

And we, and there are things that's also part of the the

wondrous mystery that that Paul uses for various things.

There's some things that we're not going to completely know

this side of heaven and we have to be comfortable in that

mystery. But that posture of humility

that that I don't know, or I or I haven't learned that yet, or I

or I need to learn that I need to grow in that.

That all stems out from a posture of of humility, of of

setting aside our pride. I've talked about it, I think

fairly often enough that but this sense of humility, this

sense of and and spelled it out more clearly as a lifelong

learner yesterday, but more so again, can we, can we receive

critique? Can we receive feedback that

maybe in some way says you're doing this incorrectly or you

could be better if can we receive that?

The only people who can receive those kinds of things are in

fact humble people who don't think that I have all the

answers and I always do it the right way.

You cannot. I mean, the Bible lists over and

over again the things that God quote hates.

Pride is always at the top of the list.

Always. It takes a humble person to in

fact receive the gospel because you have to know your deep need

in order to receive Jesus as He wants to give himself away.

Yeah, and the I, I bring up the rich young ruler a lot because I

think it's a really pointed example of that.

But this was a man who felt that he asked Jesus a question,

right? He What must I do to inherit

eternal life? He wanted the answer.

He wanted truth. And Jesus gave him truth.

And he decided it wasn't for him.

That wasn't that wasn't the truth he was looking for.

So excuse me, Jesus, sell, sell all your things, sell everything

you have and follow me. That's that was the answer to

what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Because where was his identity caught up in where, where was

his worth caught it. He was putting these things

before Jesus and it was set that aside.

Put me first and follow me. That's not what he wanted to

hear. So he wasn't willing to, to have

that posture of, of humility, of setting aside his pride.

He wanted to hear, Nope, you've kept the law.

You've built yourself a nice little nest egg here on earth.

And you say that you love me. That's good enough.

And that's that's not how grace by faith works.

Every law we break has first and foremost to do with breaking the

First Law, which is to have no other gods before me.

Love me with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, your

strength. But every other law we break,

it's it, it, it didn't start with that other law, It started

with breaking the first one. Because we have not put God

first. And so therefore we make selfish

decisions and it all, it all comes back to that very, very

first one. Yeah, absolutely.

I think everything we have is a yeah.

It is making an idol of sorts of something, whatever, whatever.

We were placing something. Have no other gods before me.

No, we putting something, even if it's our own selfishness,

before, before God. So yeah, Speaking of breaking

you. Oh no.

It was it was just so funny because I didn't interject.

I didn't and I don't know if anyone even I don't know if

anyone else even blinked or noticed in the second service

yesterday. And it's so tricky with these

things like you, you still use the little ministerial acts

book. And I, I used it for baptism

because there's a, there's a lot of readings for baptism and

they're all good communion. I've just heard it a lot more

often. I, I just know the wrote words

of institution is, is the big theological words that they're,

that they're called for, for communion.

But we do say them a lot and they are, and they are kind of

wrote during the second service. You said, you said he took the

cup for both times instead instead of instead of he took

he, you said Jesus Christ on the night he was betrayed, he took

the cup and when he had broke it, he gave it.

Then I, I think I kept, I don't think I told my face back there,

but like in my mind, I was just picturing you just just smashing

the Holy Grail on the ground, which is maybe irreverent, but I

just it, it was funny. And then you again, we just went

on and take it, take and eat. Then you did that and then you

said and then he took the cup again and then I have the

picture of, oh, the cup's back together now.

I was like. Well, if anybody can put it back

together after smashing it, it's Jesus.

So yes, I will absolutely receive that.

Fun little preacher snafu yesterday.

But it is, you know, it's for me, it's a mildly entertaining

imaginary idea that Jesus would be hanging out with the

disciples. And he, like, smashes the cup,

you know, And, well, theologically, that doesn't

work. It doesn't check out.

It doesn't check out. But it's a funny visual, I

guess. Yeah.

So anyway, Grace, Grace for that too.

We still, we still took communion as intended.

And yeah, I think we got that. I think we got the gist.

I often have to lean on the fact that God has already calculated

all of my misgivings when He decided to use me in His

mission. So yeah, you know, you, you try

and get better every day, every time out, but you also have to

give yourself grace knowing that that's what Jesus does for you.

So appreciate the feedback on that one, though like I will

probably slow down a little bit next time and make sure that I

get that reading correct. Have you ever?

I used to think about this all the time when I was a kid.

I've never seen like it's had to have happened somewhere, I would

think, but I've, I've never seen like communion trays spill or

I've never seen like disaster during communion ever.

I don't, I don't know. I don't actually, I haven't

looked for it on social media because I just don't whatever.

I, I don't need to see it. But I've never witnessed it in

person, even when I was a kid. Like I'd be holding the cup

waiting for like everyone to receive their stuff.

And I'd like, I'd start to tip it to see if like to see if it

was possible for, for the juice to pour, but then I'd get scared

I'd get to the edge where it like it should definitely pour

out and then I'd just put it right back up.

But I don't know when I, that's a weird thing for me to share,

but it when I, when I was a kid, I was like, there's this,

there's this powerful aura around communion where like you

can't spill the blood and body of Jesus like that.

Just disaster can't happen in this time.

So. Well, there's an unnamed

seminarian who absolutely did that because.

I was like, you know? Oh wow, yes, and was.

It a tray. Or was it just like I was the

whole tray for the whole church? He was coming down the stage

stairs with them and tripped and it all went, All of it.

No. Yeah, and he was in seminary and

I can't imagine how he felt about that.

But yeah, that had to have been a pretty humiliating.

I don't even. How do you recover from that?

Did they know? Did they go and refill the cups

with all the like? Or do you just be like, we're

not taking communion today, I guess.

I don't think you can do that. I I think you have to.

Just you got to follow well. We're going to take a 10 minute

pause and we're. Going to get these.

Refilled And he's not going to walk down from the stage with

them anymore. We're going to have them in a

different position where that cannot happen.

Oh man, I know, I know. That's just, it felt so, so bad

for him. I was just like, this is this is

a bad moment. Oh my.

OK, well that solved my curiosity.

It has happened. Great.

Never here. Let's pray that never happens.

So you brought up in some of the discussion questions for small

groups, life groups. You brought up honing in on this

idea of of lifelong learning. We had some passages from

Proverbs and your Psalm 92 passage again, the the stay

sappy sort of thing. And that's it was that was that

shout out to Sharon Rush. That sure is I.

Mean our Thursday Bible study, we were going through several

passages that you just mentioned on God always wanting us to grow

deeper and wider and stretch out into His Word.

And yeah, we get to Psalm 92, verse 14, and Sharon just, she

Psalms 92:14

just crushed it. She just A, she's an excellent

theologian, but B, this sappy part, she's like, yeah, God

wants us to be sappy. And I was, and she knew what she

did in. That moment, she knew.

She gave me ammunition for Sunday and I took it.

I took the bait. No, I thought, I thought that

was a sticky, a sticky thought. Ha ha.

Can I say that? Sticky take away?

You're welcome. Really.

You're welcome. OK I didn't see that coming from

you right now. Yep, still continue to surprise

me after like 4 years. Yep, you're welcome.

But so so we had talked about that and then the passage second

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

Timothy chapter 3 most specifically, like verses 14

through 17. That's all Scripture is God

breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting

and and training and righteousness, which is really

that lifelong learner attitude is also reflective of of a

process of sanctification of of a training in righteousness.

Like you pair it you pair it with that passage and on earth.

We've never arrived in righteousness, right?

Like we we are still continually being trained in righteousness

on earth, right. So I, I, I just liked your yeah,

the umbrella of, of passages that you put into this, this

lifelong learner idea. One of the reflections that came

from our life group last night was even even from some of those

passages. But thinking how Jesus taught in

parables, some of the some of these stories from the Old

Testament, I say stories, but they're, I mean real life, real

life events. But even thinking about maybe

some of the big ones, Jericho, the ark, even what we're talking

about a passage from from Solomon this Sunday, the Abraham

sacrificing Isaac on the mountain.

None of those really have like projected like direct

directives. I, I said direct directives, but

like direct directive commands in them.

Like what's, what's the lesson from the lesson from Abraham and

Isaac going up the mountain is not don't sacrifice your child,

right? Like that's, that's not obvious.

Like we know that that seemed interesting for God to even

command Abraham to do that in the 1st place, right?

But but the test was what what Abraham was being taught how to

think or or what God values right in that there's no part of

that story in which God did not value human life.

But God does value what he does value is obedience right to even

potentially an unknown outcome. Abraham didn't know how that was

going to go out. He just know that God said it.

And when God says move, you move and and you and you do the thing

right. So, so many of these teaching

Jesus parables or these Old Testament stories, I just had

the reflection that so much of them are not even necessarily

what to think or even what to do.

They are illustrative though of God's character and and how we

should think about things or how we should think about doing

things. Because there's so many

individual scenarios that we have in our life that are not

there's no prescription for them in the Bible, right?

There's not a direct what do I how do I handle the scenario of

losing my job right? Like there there's not there's

not a specific scriptural directive in that, but there are

based on so say the sermon on the map.

Why? Why do the birds of the air or

the grass of the fields? But they don't, They don't know.

Where, where the seed comes from or when or when the water rain.

Yet your father provides for them.

How much more than will he put? Like it doesn't tell you exactly

what to do and that it tells you how to think about that scenario

though, right? And as lifelong learners, I

think that's the depth of scripture for us, that there's

this ongoing how to think about how we encounter the things in

this life. And I think that's why Scripture

can be fresh in different seasons of our life too, because

we have a deeper understanding of the character of God.

That is perfectly well said. To add to that a little bit

thinking backwards for me within my life, one of the things that

was great about being an art teacher rather than a core

content teacher was the fact that I was able to be in a space

and help kids be in a space where it wasn't so much about

just the outcome. It was about the process, how

you got there and how you understood that process and how

you worked with the materials or how you manipulated things in

order to get the job done. Because again, I think on

certain things, and I'm not knocking math, it's math is

created by God. As much as I don't like it

sometimes, but it's a it's order, right?

It's taking chaos and putting it back into order.

But in particular math, for example, it gives you like you

have to get to this end in order to be correct, you have to get

to this end. So it's very results based,

whereas I felt incredibly fortunate during my teaching

career that I was not so much on a bottom line results based way

of education for the students I worked with.

I was more on the how then do you understand this?

How then do you learn? How then do you synthesize all

these things? And maybe one of the best things

that we can do for ourselves as learners is not just memorize

facts and dates and those kinds of things.

That's all great. There's nothing wrong with that,

but how do I learn? How do I understand, how do I,

you know, all these kinds of things which actually dive us

much deeper into an intellectual pursuit than just knowing facts

and dates. So again, nothing against people

who memorize that kind of stuff. And and I think all that's

wonderful, but how do we think how through the parables, as you

mentioned, really good job of mentioning that.

How does Jesus teach us how to think, how to process, how to

create wisdom? Because wisdom is really what do

I do with the information in front of me when sometimes it

feels Gray? The example that you just gave,

how do I do this? How do I proceed with wisdom?

Well, I can do that better if I know how to think.

But how do I learn how to think? Well, I have to not just

memorize addresses in the Bible. I need to.

I need to understand how God's character works on a grander

scale. I need to understand how

theology and the total narrative of the Bible works on a grander

scale. And I can't do that just through

memorizing individual passages. I have to do that through

understanding how God thinks. Yeah, I even think of the

parable of the parable of the sower specifically.

The seed fell in such a variety of places, right?

And obviously some in some of the places it was destined not

to thrive, right? It it wasn't the the ground was

not fertile for for that seed to sprout.

Is the point of that parable. Is the directive from that

parable to only sow seed where there is fertile ground?

No, right. The the directive is is to sow

seed, right? If there isn't, if there even is

a directive, but but within that, the greater the greater

how to think is God's word goes forth and it does not return

void right. That's because if all of

scripture relates to and backs up, backs up itself, like that's

the, the more important thing is the word of God going forth,

because even in those seemingly hopeless places or seemingly in

infertile places or, or, or rough ground or whatever it

might be, God's word is more powerful than that.

Then the point is to go. The point is to preach and teach

so that they can hear right. So, yeah, I just, that's struck

me like a ton of bricks yesterday.

And in life group the 'cause I think, I think we want, we so

want. And kids are really good at that

too. My, my kids, especially right

now are like, well, what does, what does the Bible say about

this? What?

What does the Bible say about what job I'm supposed to have

when I grow up? Woof.

Like doesn't does The Bible will not directly tell you what job

you are supposed to have. That answer is not in there is

not. And it won't tell you the

individual you're supposed to marry or any of those kinds of

things that are huge life decisions.

They are, they alter everything for the rest of our lives when

we take on certain things. But.

It is going to tell you how to think about how you should make

those decisions, right? Absolutely.

It gives it again, as Christians and how God is trying to train

us to think is we have to do both.

And what I mean by that is I have to be able to see the

entire forest. So I have to understand God's

character and his greater narrative.

It is greater purposes. But I also have to get right

down on the ground of the forest and be able to see the trees and

the individual leaves because in those tree and leaf moments,

that's when I'm supposed to activate the wisdom I've gained

from that greater. I can see the whole forest

narrative. And so it is both and, and.

But we have to, we have to be clear thinkers.

We have to know how then we are supposed to learn and how then

we are supposed to process before we can do both of those

things. And I think we've all met people

who do one or the other far more often.

We get the big thinkers, the 10,000 foot people who they've

got these amazing ideas and sure, if you can get the details

right, it will, it will work out and it'll be beautiful.

But they're not detail people. They, they can't give you the

schematics of how it actually works.

But then we get the high detail people who they can't see the

end game, and they're so focused on the right now and the right

here that they can't see beyond what they're doing in this

moment. God calls us to continuously

learn so that we can do both. Yes, that's it.

Well said. So yeah, that was confirmation

Sunday in a in a nutshell. Thanks to Michaela for a.

Wonderful job. Sharing her, sharing her heart

and sharing her thoughts with us.

Yeah, looking forward to look forward to all the student

ministries. Really.

It's really just a blessing to be able to pass this on and be

able to be a part of a ministry that's pouring back into the

next generation and and students here.

And glad you all got to see that and experience that a little bit

yesterday, as we do each year in Confirmation Sunday.

But yeah, that's what we've got. A couple things coming up.

Mother's Day is this Sunday, guys or kids, if you need a

reminder for that. That is this Sunday, Mother's

Day. I already bought.

I already bought my mom's. Gifts.

I already bought my mom's gifts. OK, you're not too late.

No, you, you got, you got some time week after that is

graduation weekend, at least here in DeWitt honoring our

graduating seniors at the first service on the 17th May 17th

that week. And then we're spending four

weeks in Philippians. We're going to kind of Sprint

through the four chapter book of Philippians, but it'll be good

last two weeks of May and the first two weeks of June.

Which by the way, if you want to preview on that Philippians

series, right now we are as a Church in the Bible app, doing a

devotional through the book of Philippians and the devotionals

prior to the text that is for that day.

They're really well thought out, they're really well done,

they're applicable. And so if you want to jump on

the Bible app, you can most certainly do that and you can

get a preview of the Philippian series.

Yep, wanted to get you all through all of all of the

scripture of the four chapters of Philippians before we get to

that sermon series. I think that does run out like

the weekend before the series starts.

So which is great, us trying to coordinate things.

People will have a good solid foundation there.

They've learned before we go even deeper and learn even more.

So see, we just keep on going. Keep on going.

And then we're spending, we're spending all summer in the

Creed, which we heard a lot of Creed yesterday.

I know not like the band Creed but.

I immediately thought of. That that's we're just going to

say that for the next 4 weeks, we're going to say we're going

to be we're going to be in the creed a lot for the summer and

you're just going to play Chris is going to get there and play

a. Different Creed song every week.

People will not enjoy that sense of humor after a while.

Yeah, that's not what it's going to be.

We're going to be in the Apostles Creed to going through

the different stanzas and intentions and deeper meaning.

Why? Why it's valuable that we

confess these things as as part of our faith, why the Apostles

Creed is an instrumental part of that.

So that's what's coming up in the sermon series here.

Let us know what your favorite epic series is.

We got one, one for Lord of the Rings and one for the MCU

Avengers Infinity War universe. What else do you got out there?

Maybe maybe this is I'm really interested to see which

trifectas or trilogies come out of the woodworks for that.

So anyway, thanks for hanging with us and continuing the

conversation on lifelong learners here on the ERC

Leftovers podcast. Privilege to be a part of this

Community Church. Have a blessed week.