Leftovers - Acts 14

Happy Monday Pastor Matt and Pastor Chris back here with some

leftovers from the weekend at Emmaus Rd.

Church. How you doing?

I'm. Doing great.

The, I think the, you know, and you guys have probably seen this

wherever you've ever seen me is I, I can get distracted fairly

easily. And so as I'm hearing like

dozens and dozens of children running around in the hallways

around surrounding us, I'm like, Oh, no, I wonder.

I wonder if I'm going to have some serious squirrel moments.

We do have a lot going on in the background here.

Day camp is in full swing about a little more than 100 students

little live 6th grade and under here on like 90 of them are here

for the full day, like 9 to 3. They're doing lunch and all the

things we had pre-K 4 year old and five year old kindergarten

day camp that's put on entirely by like volunteers.

You all here at church. A lot of a lot of students

actually like middle school and high school students helping out

with that too. But that's about 25 kids for the

morning that we just do. We've got staffers from

Inspiration Point here with the kids for all day from 9:00 to

3:00. But then we have volunteer

kitchen staff again, you the people that make up our church,

volunteering to help out with that and serve lunch for 100

people every day this week. And yeah, it's, it's pretty

cool. It's really hot outside too.

Like there was there was a kid this morning that they had

little Christmas tree brownies. They were really cool, by the

way. They were, they were, they were

great. But he was outside for like 30

seconds and all of a sudden he's standing in the doorway of my

office and I'm like, oh, what's going on?

Well, it's just like really hot outside.

So I'm going to, I'm going to eat my snack in here.

I was just all right, valid, valid logic.

But I need it. I need to get you back where,

where you belong. Like we're going to bring you

out, back out to your cabin leader.

He can seat into the heat in less than 30 seconds.

Yeah, so no, grateful for air conditioning today, but no, the

the the children and the joyful noise in the church hallways

this week is something that's fun.

Oh, see, and they're like playing duck duck, goose in the

atrium like 20 feet behind me. I'm so glad I'm not facing the

way you're facing 'cause I wouldn't say anything.

This is why. See, here's the thing.

Like I can't really go to restaurants well when there's a

lot of TV's and I don't even watch a lot of TV or anything.

But like if seeing that's the thing, like I, I need to go to

restaurants where I'm facing away from ATV or whatever or

they have none of them. Sports bars and stuff like that

are very difficult for me. Are you able?

Are you a multi task texter? Like can you, can you hold two

different conversations at the same time 'cause there are

other, There are some people in my life that if they are texting

are not aware of anything that is going on around.

Like no conversation that happened, no children getting

attention or potentially dropping, destroying things in

the other. Like there, there's where are

you at with that? I, you know, so I've, I, I

always thought I could be that person who can do both at the

same time. I really can't.

And I've can and I've, I've come to that conclusion in recent

years where I just like, I, I'm just going to make a decision in

real time and say, like, can you give me a second?

You know, But this, this stems from a long line, I think of

people who I come from who like, we don't multitask.

So fun, fun story is that when my brothers and I were younger,

hanging out at our dad's house, if the Bears or the Hawkeyes or

the Cubs were on or even just like a halfway decent movie and

my dad was watching it, we ended up we, we would have contest.

How many times could we say like dad, dad, dad at a normal

volume, like we're not whispering and we're not trying

to hide it. And just like just, he just

stays gone. He was so into whatever it was

that man could not multitask to save his life.

And so dad, dad, dad, dad, dad and you just, and you just keep

going and it becomes a hilarious game after a while.

And now the worst part about all this is my kids, they haven't

quite turned it into a game, but like my wife and my kids, they

know 'cause they'll say I've been, I've been talking to you

for 30 seconds and I'm like, no, you weren't.

No, you weren't. And they probably were.

But I just, I've, I've totally spaced them, spaced it.

I'm into whatever I'm into. Interesting.

So yeah, this is this is all a lot for me.

Yeah. No, there's, there's plenty to

distract you today that makes a, that makes a lot of sense

though. I, I just kind of, I don't know,

I can segment things or just ignore things and maybe that's

terrible at times, but. But how you're like facing those

kids run around like maniacs out there and not I don't I don't

know how you do it. I think I don't know, I just

process a lot of information or, or differently than people like

I, I don't know. I can, I can take that and

acknowledge that it's going on, but it doesn't distract me from

what's happening. So.

And this is the difference between you and you and I on

stage. Is that like, you know, so a

couple weeks ago, Father's Day, Arya had, I think, yeah, she

students are wearing mustaches in the crowd.

And like, I just had to learn very quickly not to look in that

in those parts of the room where students were wearing mustaches.

I couldn't do it. It's it's too much.

But I so for me, though I may have, I may have ignored things

like that, like almost to the point where it was rude though,

like I'm, I'm, I'm on, I'm on the other side of where I'm, I'm

like so tuned out. They, they may have been trying

to get my attention and I'm just like, can't I, I no, that's not,

I'm not here to acknowledge the mustache right now.

So I I don't know, maybe maybe to a fault?

I have a job to do and I'm going to do it like I, I, you know

what? But from my end, with the

squirreliness in my brain, like I, I appreciate that so much.

So maybe also would would you rather that we'll differentiate

on this morning too in in talking about speaking voices?

Would you would you rather always have to whisper or always

have to shout? You only have one your, your

speaking is only one volume. You're either always a whisperer

or always a yeller. OK, so let me just.

Has anyone ever met Chris Let? Me just say the most obvious

thing, which is I always yell anyway like I one of the

podcasts we listened to and I don't know what it was but like

I was listening to it I was just listening back to it and like

OK, did I say anything crazy right.

So sometimes I do that, but it seemed like coming through, like

I was like yelling into the microphone and like you're

talking in a normal voice and it's, it's almost soothing.

Like I would just be like, because I'm really going off

now. It's OK.

I'm really going off. But like, you know, I've heard

of people like listening to Matthew McConaughey read books

to go to sleep. And because it's so soothing and

like the way you came off like gentle and like a normal, like I

was like, I'm an ogre and like, Nah, I could probably listen to

him speak to fall asleep. Like if you read me a story like

this is great. So anyway, yeah, I, I don't, I

don't even know what it's like to like effectively with.

To have a calm voice. You don't know what that's like.

No. And I do.

You are one of the people in my life like this.

But I have several. I have several people.

And unfortunately for my wife and family, they're usually

people that hang out at my house.

But I remember, I distinctly remember you, you know, Jordan

Spina, but he also just is one of those people who just has one

volume and it's loud. No, no matter what.

Like, you know, he's talking if he's talking because his voice

is louder than everything else when when he's talking.

But you are also one of those people.

So I'm like, but in the in the early days, I don't know if you

remember this. There was it wasn't even when

you were. Oh, no.

Oh, maybe. Well, OK, so, but also we also

know Christian Anderson, who maybe it's just pastors.

Oh my God, we have this problem. But there was there was one

time. No, maybe it was you and Lisa.

I don't remember. Did you guys came over to our

house? Our our old house?

We did one time like after a Fall Fest night I think or

something and just played games. I think the twins were like so

tiny. They might have been fresh

newborn, but it was always those scenarios where there were like,

sleeping children and it was still a reasonable hour just.

But after 8:00 PM. Yeah.

And I remember Emily, like, having this parenting

conversation of like, no matter what happens, like Jordan came

over late for games or Chris was here late for games.

And like Chris's voice, Jordan's voice is just louder than

everything and he doesn't know how to be quiet when there's

children. And like, even if you tell you

tell them repeatingly they're sleeping children, he just can't

do anything about it because that's how his voice is.

So you you're saying you have like bring it back to the

question. You just have a default setting

of like it's just yell, whisper whisper, whisper whisper isn't

possible. Well, I OK, yes, I think, but I,

you know what, again, having just listened back to this a

couple times, I, I work very hard during the podcast to like

really come down because like even right now to bring the

intensity down. I I actively think about like,

OK, dude, you can't like I never speak this quietly as I do like

on the podcast because these microphones are great, but it's

like I'm speaking intentionally so softly right now and I still

feel like it comes through like very harsh and like loud and

heavy. I don't know how to do this any

differently. I don't understand how that.

Works. It's just, it's just loud and

obnoxious I think. So I think just from from a

tire, I think I can yes, I think I have it both ways.

I can certainly have a loud booming voice, but I think I can

also have a soft, soothing voice at times.

I also like the dynamic of especially for children when you

whisper like the the room, even a loud room of children, if they

have their attention on you and you're saying something like

that's what they teach you right to to speak in a whisper.

So they they have to bring their volume down to hear you right to

to understand it. So I think I would lean as it

pertains to the question. And because I think I can

control my voice in such a manner, I think I would be on

the whisper side of things. Just I guess that could be

annoying. Why you meant you mentioned some

sports things. So like at a baseball game, that

would be ridiculous, right? Like like home run happens.

And it's like, yeah, my goodness, it's awesome.

Like. Even that sounds like a stage

whisper, so it's intentionally loud, but a whispery kind of.

Right at that point the whisper would just be awkward and no one

would have any idea what you're saying.

No, outside of that it would be weird to so.

Oh man. OK, so think about our jobs now

though. Oh, I mean, come on, you can't.

But like, even with you being like this, says this, says

yelling. Like.

I know, I know you have a loud voice, but think about giving a

sermon where you're just 'cause you get yelly sometimes you get,

you get intense for little spurts, but for like 30 minutes

you're just yelling at me. I don't think people would enjoy

that. Like the room would be what is

happening, right Listener? Tell her, would you?

It's going to turn into a very flawed social experiment because

in the next month we're each going to have to give like a

whisper sermon and a yell sermon and.

One is 1 is going to be so incredibly easy for me and the

other one will be painfully difficult.

The the whispers are I just I don't even know how people do it

like the the emotions and like the whatever I feel, they so

quickly inform my volume and like I, you know, I just tend to

be a very like emotional kind of like engaged person.

And so it always informs my volume constantly.

It's so difficult, It's so difficult.

The struggle is real. So I'm just going to, I'm just

going to you know what? I'm closer to yelling, closer to

yelling anyway. So let's just let's just lean

into the the skid and I'll just yell the rest of my life.

It's fine. That would be a crazy contrast

if if in our 5050 split of sermons, 11 week it was either

Chris yelling or the next it was me whispering.

Or imagine like going to bed at night.

OK, so I'm going to I'm going to back up from the microphone a

little bit and then the kids out in the church are going to hear

me. OK.

Good night honey, I hope you sleep well.

Like that would be. Can you imagine?

That's crazy. So maybe, maybe the yelling is a

bad idea. Yelling would be a bad idea, but

yeah, it doesn't work for our our profession.

But either one of these does not really work for our profession.

That would be really tough. Whisper sermon isn't a thing and

a yell sermon is nothing. All right, well, if, if you

haven't noticed, if you've been with us from the beginning,

we're we're scraping the bottom of the barrel here for Ice

Breakers. And would you rather so if

there's a topic doesn't have to be, would you rather format if

it's just a question, an icebreaker question or even a

question that you have about the message about things we've

talked about so far, the OR just even general Bible knowledge,

perspective, doctrine, theology questions.

That's fine. We can, we can bring them up on

the podcast. You can throw your questions in

the show in the show notes in the comments below this episode

or on the Facebook post. Just throw them in the comment

section. We'll, we'll stash and we'll

start a little file for future shows and, and get to listener

mailbag questions and stuff. At some point, we're going to

have like a, an ask me anything we wanted to do like a mailbag

episode at some point. So that'll come up too.

But for now, yesterday's sermon, I felt, Oh.

Man. A little different about I know

I did the the visual aid. It's not my visual aid and it's

probably it's not even a unique visual aid.

I'm sure I'm sure it was seen. Did you get a new phone case?

Sorry, now I'm now I'm having a squirrel moment.

You have you have a red phone case finally.

Happened. What?

It finally happened Matt got distracted I wow this is you

know what mark your calendars this is I've been working with

Matt now like 3 years and this guy is always on point and I'm

always the one this is great this is great I'm just.

Just more important, when did you get the phone case though?

Because if that's like within the past 24 hours, I don't mind

the squirrel moment because I also no.

I'm. Sorry.

I could look at my Amazon orders but it's been like 2 months.

No, that's wildly disappointing. I'm sorry all.

Right. But did you see this?

Did I show you that? No, Why?

You have a bear with a Bishop crown on its head as your

screensaver. And the Chicago Bears symbol on

the Bishop. I don't like to talk about that.

Yeah, I know. Well, the recent fun Side Story,

my Uncle Mike was in town and although none of us are

Catholic, he was just making these comments.

He, he was just like, hey, the, you know, the new Pope is from

Chicago. And so he's a Chicago sports

fan. So like, I don't know anything

about AI. Chris, can you can you like make

an angry bear wearing like the Pope's hat with the Chicago C on

it? And I was like, you bet I can,

Uncle Mike, I can totally make that happen for you.

And so yeah, thanks to AII did. Bishop Bear.

Pope Bear. Pope Bear.

So I don't know. Yeah, we're going to need to, if

we keep going this way, Squirrel moments about phone cases and AI

generated images. We're going to have to get some

video going with this podcast. We might have to.

Just the audio. By the way, if you want to see

said angry bear with a Pope hat, just hit me up sometime and I'll

show you. It's on my.

Yeah, we'll, we'll probably find a way to post that at some point

here, but I anyway, squirrel moment aside.

All that aside. Phone case, we got that sorted.

Red phone case, in case you haven't seen that acts, Acts 14.

I got caught up and fixated on this interaction that Peter has

with with with the Jews and the crowd of people that he's trying

to teach to and and he just asked the simple question, why

are you doing this? And I ran with that in a few

different directions. I think it's still very

applicable to the scenario that he's in.

Friends, why are you doing this? Is Acts 14 starting at verse 14.

Really, we too are only human like you.

We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these

worthless things to the living God.

So that was really the core of my message.

It was was the things that matter, the versus the quote UN

quote worthless thing. I'm not saying everything that

isn't. I hope yesterday my message, the

message wasn't everything that isn't God or family or work is

worthless. That's that's not the words I

was saying yesterday. I hope it didn't come out that

way, but those things just matter more.

Right. Well, because I mean, like, OK,

and I, and by the way, to the to that point, you hope you didn't

come off that way. I really don't think you did,

because I think you at some point you may have been feeling

that. And you quite clearly said it's

not that these things are bad. It's that, you know, and you

know, St. Agustin would say it like this,

like it's just the order of our loves.

It's not that I love my kids too much, it's that I don't love God

enough, you know what I mean? And so like, you know, it's just

the order and the priority of things.

And and I thought that was actually really very clear.

So I don't think that's the issue, but I love that question.

Why are you doing these things now?

As I thought about that question, I got to I got to ask,

OK, anytime I ever ask my kids why when they were doing

something that I didn't want them to do, I don't know if I

ever got a satisfactory answer in my entire life.

And so even thinking about this, you know, that's not, I don't, I

don't think they're asking that rhetorically.

Are they like, is Paul asking that rhetoric or does he

actually want to know? Like, why, why on earth would

you worship us? Why would you do this?

Like, you know, I don't, I don't actually think he's asking that

rhetorically, but I also don't think that they could give him a

good answer. Well, so that's, and this is

maybe not where we differ, but how I see that a little

differently. I think, I think he is asking

for an answer. He wants an explanation.

I don't, I don't think it's just the why are you the way that you

are sort of sort of question. I, I don't think it's that way,

but similar to the, I'm glad you brought up the kid scenario

cause of course, yeah. Any, anyone who has children

understands the asking that question on wanting to know the

why. But I also generally in my life,

though I may not agree. With the why, honestly to me the

the rationale is more important to me.

Like, I may not agree with your conclusion, but have you thought

about why you want to do this or or even why you do this this

way? And does that makes sense?

Is, is is there a good reason for that?

Again, that might be subjective you what you think is worthwhile

or or might be a good reason. I might, I might not agree that

that's a good reason, but even more so than that, I I think

it's more valuable for me or my psyche to just have, have you

thought about this? Have have you considered the

ramifications of choice A or B in this scenario?

Just OK if it's a really simple example, if I 'cause our kids

bike to the pool now too. So like if I ride my bike to the

pool and don't bring a bike lock.

Oh. Like what's OK?

No, you should, you should bring a bike lock and bike and lock it

up, right? Because what's the likely

scenario of not locking it up? It isn't there when you come

back, when you come back. For it, now you get to walk.

Home. So like in that situation, I

don't think you could really give me a rational answer of why

you left your bike lock at home right like that.

So then if you look at your kid when they're crying about the

stolen bike, you're like, why didn't you bring your lock?

That is a rhetorical question. That that point, it's a

rhetorical question because we. Because we already.

We all know at that point the law is screaming loud and clear.

There's no, there's no grace in that question, right?

Of of why didn't you bring a bike lock?

It's already it's already dead and gone in this situation.

I think I think Paul is so confused and and he even goes on

in the in the following verses. He has not let himself without

testimony. God has shown kindness by giving

you rain from heaven crops and your seasons.

What he's he's he's continues asking why don't you understand

all these things right. Why don't you see all these

things around you the very breath of life in in some cases

that he's pointing out and Luke accounts even with these words

they had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them.

Peter's question I think is more so why are you a people so

satiated with replacing the creator with created things?

And I, I think that's still a relevant question and it was at

the core of what I was saying. Why we're so fixated on that,

that jar of life. If you haven't, if you haven't

seen them, as you do kind of go need need to go watch the

message. Actually, you, you could listen

to it, but some of it isn't going to come through just on

audio. I did the I did the life jar

thing. If you haven't seen this, this

visual aid, if you put three big rocks in a jar, OK, you can

still pour smaller pebbles and sand and water in there before

it's actually full. If you, if you start the jar

with water or with or with sand even, you can't really put

anything else in there. It fills up with those smaller,

insignificant, sometimes even unidentifiable things.

So if we, if we take that to our life, we need, we need to fill

our life first with the, the important things.

I think that's at the core of Peter's question.

Why, why are you doing it? Paul, Paul's question, Yeah,

Paul's question, why are you doing this?

Why are you, why are you so fixated on filling your life

with these things that don't matter?

And, and, and he and he uses that, right?

Why we, why, why are you, we're telling you to turn from these

worthless things to the living God.

And we're, we're holding out here the greatest thing, the,

the, the most significant number one thing.

And you're, why are you, why are you doing this?

Why are you so fixated on replacing it with literally

anything that you can find to replace the living God?

Right? Yeah.

And I think the interesting thing for Paul is, you know,

he's he's not so far removed, of course, and he never will be

during his life on Earth. He's not so far removed from the

fact that like it was not so long prior to this that he was

putting Christians in prison and, you know, having them put

to trial and sometimes killed. And so when somebody starts

worshipping him because of a miracle that God has done,

imagine how terrible he feels, you know, because he clearly,

he, he feels the weight of his previous life.

Now, that doesn't stop him from preaching the gospel because he

understands the gospel is total forgiveness in the face of the

worst sins that we could ever commit.

And that's true, however, it had to have been so off putting for

him, just like make him I'll sick off putting for somebody to

worship him after what he knows he's done when he himself is

like, no man, I'm, I'm lucky to be a servant of God at this

point. I'm the worst of the worst.

I'm, I'm lucky to be here. And it's all by the grace of God

that I'm here. And in fact, it's by the grace

of God that you're here too. And so how dare you try and fall

down at my feet? And that's actually a fairly

common occurrence with the apostles in the New Testament,

because God, it does do some pretty spectacular miracles in

and through them. And it it seems to be not just

this crowd of people, just people in general.

They see a sign, what the Bible calls sign or a miracle, and we

instantly want to attribute it to something or someone that we

can grab onto and start saying, I want to be like you.

How can I do this? Like I want to worship it.

It's awful. The the the idolatry country in

our hearts. It's so it's so quick to be

turned on. Yeah, and I think that's

something. I think that's something that

these people in this passage were getting caught up in.

They wanted to, they wanted to dumb down these signs and

miracles that they maybe couldn't fully understand.

They wanted to rationalize it with things that they created

or, or parameters like Zeus and Hermes, these these gods that

had constructs that they understand.

And what that does, if we do that, I mean that that puts God

in a box, right? That that puts the way that God

acts within limits that we create, right?

And that's, that's pretty dangerous.

But we're also uncomfortable. I think as people we're

uncomfortable with unknown, we're uncomfortable with with

mystery or things that I can't explain or things that I don't

understand. And that's attention that I

think as Christians we have we have to get very comfortable

with things that we don't like. That's that's faith, isn't it at

at its core, something that we can't completely rationalize or

or completely understand. And yeah, you can rationalize it

with grace, but do even the most seasoned Christian to you, do

you fully understand great, like all of grace, all of grace where

it where it makes sense because it doesn't makes like I'm I'm

sitting here as your pastor telling you grace doesn't make

sense. It is.

It is one of those two good to be true scenarios.

Yeah, 100%. That's exactly what it is.

So I think that's part of his frustration here too.

And I, I think the past experience from Paul of of

course you shouldn't be worshipping me, but he also has

that radical transformation where guys, I was the worst and

I've tasted this awesome thing. Like, why can't you understand

how awesome this thing is that I've experienced and, and the

awesomeness of that. I don't, I don't want to replace

it with anything else. And all of you are so ready to

replace it. I don't, I think he's in this

almost impasse of understanding. And I think we can get wrapped

up in that too. Those, those of those of you

that are like who enjoy, who have tasted and seen that the

Lord is good and, and, and you enjoy that and you can, you can

like rationalize and manifest and enjoy and, and immerse

yourself in that experience. We just assume that everyone

else at the name of Jesus is just the as the same level of

enjoyment or it's the same level of enthrallment with that.

And that's, I think Paul's running into a little bit of

frustration with that, like, oh, I love this so much.

Why don't you love it so much too?

You know, I love, you're absolutely correct.

I think that's a great assessment of this to I was

thinking to to give this a little bit more context and to

actually not play devil's advocate, but to like try and

see why they were the way they were.

Think about the context of who Paul is talking to.

He is, he's dealing with a group of people that is polytheistic,

so they have multiple gods. And in this kind of relationship

with these multiple gods, it is absolutely my job to figure out

how I can basically manipulate said God to get what.

I want. And so like, Hey, here's a

quote, UN quote God and Paul standing right in front of me

and he's already shown that there's miracle power in his

hands and then what he says. And so if I can sacrifice enough

to him, if I can manipulate him, if I can make him feel like, oh,

I'm really good at worshipping you.

Therefore he's probably going to do something awesome in my life

too. And he's going to have to

because look at how good of a job I did worshipping him.

Like we, we can absolutely fall into that trap of like we were

so good. God owes us.

And, and I think that's part of why they're doing what they're

doing is like, all right, now we get to manipulate you and now

you're going to owe us again and again and again.

That's such a crazy arrogance and that's just the the humanity

that we are, I guess. But but it's an oxymoron even to

put that logic in the same breath of I'm going to have this

God that is supposed to be powerful and greater and, and,

but, but I can still manipulate. I can outsmart, I I can get what

I need. Like it's, it's such a backwards

line of logic. And then the God of

Christianity, like the the creator God, What if we

approached with that attitude of what I could get?

It's he's already given everything.

Right. Yeah, but we totally do it.

But I'm just totally do it. But we don't even, I don't think

you can even go to God and like it.

It's it's already been poured out and it's been freely given

and it is freely given and freely available.

So we can't even going to him with like an agenda or a

manipulation. It doesn't even make any sense

because it's already been poured out.

And then Pagan gods, it makes even less sense because if

they're truly it, it's backwards.

If you're saying they're more powerful and you're saying they

can actually help you, but yet you somehow are smarter than

them and have it already figured out, then why?

Why do you need the God? It's true if you already have it

figured out. Well, the interesting thing

about the Pagan gods, and if you do any bit of reading of these

pretty fantastic stories of the Greek gods and in the myth, in

the in the myth of all that kind of stuff, the cool thing is

they're really not any different than us than people other than

they can shoot lightning bolts and do all this things Like

they're, you know, it's basically like Marvel

superheroes at that point underwater, like, yeah, sure.

It's just Taco, man Taco. Oh, man.

And nobody cares about his powers, by the way.

Nobody, nobody cares about Aquaban.

Just so you know, nobody cares. But anyway, yeah.

So I just, I I think like the whole, the whole world view.

And you actually use that world, that word yesterday worldview.

And you mentioned it starts with faith.

We can get to that in a second if you want.

But like their whole world view is about manipulation and trying

to get what I want. It's, it's not any different

from today. We just seemingly have more

sophisticated ways to go about it.

But it's still the same thing of like, I'm, I'm trying to get

what I want. And how do I, how do I do that?

Well, some people tend to try to do that through non meaningful

but sexual relationships. So we see people bouncing from

place to place to place and person to person trying to find

what they think that they want or money or whatever.

You can name, name your thing. But like it's not so different.

It's still manipulation. And little, little do we realize

sometimes that God cannot be manipulated.

He can't be changed because like you said, he has already given

everything away that matters. So like, why would we even try?

You're right, it is a lot. The logic isn't there.

But then again, we are often times not terribly.

Logical. Not terribly logical.

Yeah, that's true. We don't, we don't rationalize

it. We don't.

We don't think it all the way through.

No, we don't. We don't ask the question why am

I doing this? You don't ask the question and

so like. And if we're not even asking the

question, then we almost definitely don't have an answer.

Oh dude, you. No, no way.

No way. So I did talk about the, the

worldview and just kind of the baseline assumption of and I

didn't want to take that too far.

I didn't want to assume the room was was completely full of

believers. But at some point we have to

talk on a on a common ground of I believe in God, the Father of

Almighty Jesus Christ who died and rose again, and the Holy

Spirit who's with us now. Like we kind of have to have

that baseline apostles Creed, Christendom understanding.

And I do I'll hold to that. I said like that has to be the

first one because then that flows into every relationship

and decision that we make after that.

And I do, I do feel very strongly about that, whether it

is marriage or relationships or even ongoing family

relationships. Calling working.

I, I think it has to start with faith because most of our

relationships require even in work, especially in marriage,

especially in parenting. Most of these relationships

require us to be selfless to, to have at the very least

compromise. But either either way, a lot of

humility and if we can pause even before entering into a

dating relationship, a marriage relationship, even before

entering into I know it sounds absurd.

It shouldn't, but in some ways it does sound absurd to like go

to God in prayer about should we have a child?

Do you, do you want to? And there's a lot, there's lots

of different with with miscarriages and pregnancy

struggles. And I know, I know it's a

completely different landscape that there certainly are people

who have gone to God in prayer, maybe angrily.

Do you God, what? Why don't you want us to have a

child or why can't we have a child or, but, but even with

those things, yeah, we should enter in prayerfully.

We should enter in in faith in in, in marriage.

We should enter into God. Do you do you want me to be in

relationship with this person? Is this, as I said yesterday,

for for your glory and my good and that order is important.

And I think it's also important to we have that faith foundation

and then going to him first, because that's immediately

putting my wants, my needs secondary right to what God

wants, to what God has designed. And I think that's the first

step in humility and informing what we fill the rest of our

life with is, is putting my wants, my glory, in some ways

aside for God's glory. Absolutely, you know, and it's

the the points been made before. I don't think on this podcast,

but like quite honestly, if really practical you meant you

mentioned marriage, you know it. It is clear and I think my wife

would agree with me. It is clear when I am energized

and charged up in my relationship with the Lord

because I'm a way better husband.

Like I just well and and I'll without getting too personal,

like like you said, like when my relationship is right with God,

I am so much more self sacrificing.

I'm I'm actively looking for ways to serve her.

Now you can tell when my relationship with God is less

than because I just become kind of like lethargic and.

Probably. Frumpy.

I'm sorry, I don't know why that that word just came to the

forefront of my mind. Sound like I didn't do laundry

for a week and I just came in looking all sad and tired to

work. Oh my.

God Yikes. Oh gosh.

OK. So that could go on AT Shirt.

Oh my gosh, you're painting me like that.

That that character from but Winnie the Pooh, the guy who

always loses his tail. Yours.

I'm just I guess I'm just feeling frumpy today.

Just just kind of a loser. I don't know.

This is ridiculous. OK, Anyway, I was the the whole

boy. I'm sorry I completely derailed,

it was probably going to be a really good thought process.

OK, anyway, the whole point is it's obvious when it's obvious

that me being a good husband is most assuredly reliant on also

having a right relationship with Jesus Christ, because then I am

more selfless. And so yeah, if, if.

And even you saying that and acknowledging that, that your

best strength as a husband is in God's way, when, when, when you

are being a husband the way God designed for you to be a

husband, that's then it's not you.

It's not super Chris who's just an awesome husband.

No, it's it's follower of Christ, Chris, who is informing

how to be a husband the way that Jesus designed, the way that God

designed to do it. It's not in your power.

Yeah. Well, and The thing is like it,

it strikes, it strikes the exact balance it's supposed to because

you might think, Oh well, like if I'm being selfless, that

means that I just, you know, my spouse can walk all over me and

they do whatever they want and I'm always.

Selfless does not just mean submission walk.

No, it absolutely does not mean that.

And The thing is like, if my relationship is right with God,

I will understand my role within the marriage, which is to lead,

but lead through service. And so in my leading through

service, I can, I can. I'll know when something is off

and I, yeah, I'll still continue to serve, but I will correct

because there's something off. And I know that because my

relationship with God is right and I know what he expects from

me. And so all that ties together

like pretty fantastically. And so it's just, it's just

reality. We start with God and then

everything else can flow through that.

I mean, you know, of course, like this kind of very famous

verse, seek his Kingdom first, Seek that first.

It's so obvious. Seek that first.

God'll, God'll take care of it. Like you get to participate in

those things. But God, God's got your back

when you seek Him first. Yes, and and with that, I want

to I want to transition to a little other thought process

that I didn't I didn't dwell on a whole lot yesterday.

I know I I brought up marriage a lot yesterday.

The other thing that I didn't, I'm not sure I clarified

completely. I put it out there.

I didn't want to pit the for for his glory and my good.

I I didn't want to put our choices against each other as

I'm either doing this. For God or I'm doing it for

money. And I, I, I didn't, I didn't

talk about money a whole lot yesterday.

There was one point that I put it out there as a motivation or

a reason or maybe a potentially bad thing.

I don't want it to be that you, you don't even though there is

the, you cannot serve 2 masters. You cannot serve God and money.

I, I think I've said it before, I'll say it again.

There are those of you out there in in our church in the world

you're calling your gifting. It's to make money.

You, you, you're darn good at making money.

Great. OK, but why are you doing it?

Are you like go back to that, go back to the question, are you

doing it to make money and have a lot of money, which, OK, you

might say, yeah, I'm going to take care of myself and mine and

get mine and, and have a good life.

Yeah, I'm, I'm doing it to make money and have money in the

Christian worldview. I think God's glory has to has

to be in there, right? Like has has to be part of that

answer. How how am I glorifying God in

this calling, even even if it is to make money and earthly

resource. God has blessed you with the

ability to do that. How are how are you honoring his

glory and you're good. I I would in that situation like

you're good is probably happening.

You're, you're, you're taking care of yourself, you're taking

care of your family or whatever, just what you're doing.

What I didn't dwell on as much yesterday, I guess, was how, how

we glorify God in that. So not the money is evil, but

that I think that's one of those things that we do need to be

guarded in of, of why am I doing this?

And yeah, maybe a lot of times it does take a lot of time to

make a lot of money. You're, you're taking time from

other things. You're, you're dedicated to work

or, or you're just obsessive. I've, I've been in places even

I, I don't mate, like we, we get paid.

It's just fine. We're, we're, we're, we're

accounted for and like, and like supporting our families and

things. But we also there's weeks that

we can work a lot and we can get obsessed over work or even maybe

even to a healthy point. And it's, it's not for money.

I don't, I don't make more money if I work 70 hours on a week

then versus 50 hour. Like we, we don't, we don't have

overtime. So there can be unhealthy

reasons to spend a lot of time on work too.

And that's, that's more of what I wanted to be guarded against

any. Yeah, no, I think I you, you

said that well, but there's so much there that I actually, I, I

have so many thoughts. I will be here one at a time,

hour and a half, one at a time. But like, OK, so with, with the

the idea of my OK. So like, if I give the way that

God wants me to give, that's going to be generous and it's

probably going to be to the point where even if I make a

stupid amount of money, I am going to actually take away

opportunities from myself because I'm so generous.

So, so in other words, like I have all this money and let's

say I have so much that giving it a tithe, which is 10% or even

15 or even 20%, I still have a ridiculous amount of money and

nothing is going to stop me from doing exactly what I want to do

with my life. It would seem to be that because

we don't see a certain percentage in the New Testament,

God just calls us to give generously.

And so, you know, that does mean like, I'm going to, I think the

call of the Christian is to give generously to the point where

like I'm actually going to stop myself from doing some things

that maybe I would have done had I kept all my money, you know,

and that's not to say that I can't save up for those things

and do them later on in life. But like, maybe I just don't do

that this month because like, hey, I heard about this group in

Somalia that's, you know, starving.

Like I get emails like that. And then I'll do research on the

companies, just make sure they're legit.

But like the whole point is like God's going to ask us to

prioritize some things like faith and that should inform how

we do everything, including money, for example.

And and to to that point, I'm not suggesting that we I don't

think either of us really are suggesting that we that we like

deprive ourselves even even that if if the level of giving is to

the point where you're you're resentful or disappoint, then

that's that's also not what God wants.

That's God loves the heart of a cheerful giver.

If it's done out of joy, if it's done out of I have this earthly

resource, I can help. I want help in in this way.

Yeah, OK. There doesn't need to be a limit

on that. If there's, if there's less of a

limit on that, if it, if it's maybe I think what you're

getting at, if there's a point where, Oh no, I gave, I gave him

a little bit. I'm going to keep most of this

for myself because I'd be really disappointed if I didn't have

all this stuff for myself. That's maybe just heart issue in

that that we haven't. And I said the word issue really

strongly there. But like maybe maybe that's

something that God still wants to kind of massage and and and

rend in your relationship with him.

That again, takes takes a great deal of maturity.

We don't like giving things away where I mean, I think I think

the ask where the rich young ruler Jesus gives him the task

of going and sell everything you have and follow me right like

that. That's pretty extreme.

Put in that scenario, I don't think any of us are like, Yep,

sign me up sound. That's what I was hoping you

were going to say. That's God.

That's why I was hoping. I was hoping like I just haven't

done that because your Holy Spirit hasn't told me to do

that. If if the spirit told me to do

that, yeah, I'd I'd I'd go do it right away.

I don't know that any of us are like have that response.

So I'm not, I'm not saying it should be easy like that or, but

I, I think the cheerful giver component of it again.

And even I, I think you can ask yourself, why am I doing this?

Even in giving if, if the answer is because God told me to or, or

because I'm going to feel guilty if I don't or because, well,

people are expecting me to do it.

I, I don't know that those are right reasons either.

I think it should probably be something closer to God's

blessed me with his ability to to gain earthly resource and and

I'm going to give back out of what he's he's trusted me with

or given me the ability to earn. It's if it's something outside

of that vein. I don't think it is cheerful

giving. Yeah, no, I'm I'm totally with

you on that. And the we say it a lot at ERC.

But like man, that cheerful, that joyful giver, like that is

the, I mean, you can't overemphasize that enough.

I don't think. Like if it's not that, then if

God really wanted your money that badly, he would squash you

and take it. No, he wants you to participate

in the right way. Our motives, just like, just

like the timing of things is important.

Our motives are deeply, deeply important.

And God knows our hearts therefore have the right

motives. Because you're not going to

trick him. You're not going to manipulate

him, right? He's not going to owe you

something. At the end of the day, it's not

going to happen. Yeah, so I just wanted to make

sure that that didn't I, I, I didn't want to paint the picture

of you're doing life wrong. If you're not prioritizing like

that. You should be prioritizing God

over money always. No, I think you can prioritize

your relationship with God in, in money, in your work, in, in,

in all these things. But it is important to consider

the why am I doing this and the life of a Christian.

Your relation to God in even those things, even the money you

earn or the the earthly resource you have should be a

consideration. Yep, totally agree.

Any other thoughts? I feel like I'm just going on a

tirade. Yes, a follow up of things that

I may be covered yesterday too. No, that's OK.

I think I actually, and I've heard from people sometimes it's

just fun to not because, you know, we, we skipped some things

and acts, so we're not covering every word during the summer of

the book of Acts. But sometimes, and I've heard

this, that it's fun or it's helpful to get like a

conversation around a thought that's already come out for

extended clarity and just, you know, for more of an, more of an

opportunity to engage with, with those thoughts.

And so like I, I love, like I was really again, being

complimentary in, in a truly authentic way.

I really loved how you brought that forward yesterday.

And, and I, and I think that it did provoke some conversations

and some thoughts and people's real lives and in, in their

hearts. And it certainly did with me,

you know, just that, that question that you just hammered

home, why are we doing this? You know, and so I, I'm thankful

for it and thankful for the opportunity to continue to dive

into it and talk about it a little bit more.

Well, thanks man, appreciate that.

And I did hear back from from several of you, a lot of you

yesterday and in person or or via text messages or or instant

messenger messages late instant messenger as well.

That's too far. Just mess, not instant message.

I'm not on MSN still not that. But thank you for for your

messages of encouragement yesterday.

I think I responded to each and every one of you, but it was

the, the sermon yesterday, the message and the, and the words

from Acts like it was something that was convicting to me and

real in my life and something that I felt many of you in our

church community needed to hear or be or be reminded of as well.

And judging from the feedback that I've received, or even the

feedback that you're saying, it was something that hit home for,

for many of us. So we get to learn and grow in

it together. Please, I, I hope it was heard

in in love and grace and not and not guilt.

I tried to make that come out, I think, but I just I, I am, I am

convinced that there is a way that that is best for us to

follow God and I, and I think it was several of the things that I

outlined yesterday are are part of how to how to live our best

lives for for God as his followers.

So. Yeah, and you know what,

friends? This is not me saying this in

any kind of combative way, but let's not apologize for the way.

No, let's not apologize for that because this is this is the

designer. This is the creator of all

things. And in his word, he gives us, I

think, a pretty clear sense of like the way that he's called us

to live and engage with the world and those around us and of

course, engage with him. Like let's not ever apologize

for like looking at God's word and saying this is the way.

Not going to apologize for that and we shouldn't.

No thanks for hanging out with us.

Drop us some comments below the show or on the Facebook feed

beneath the link here. Let us know if you have whatever

questions, things you want to hear us debate that are random

and silly about life, or more serious that you just want us to

talk about or answer on the show.

You're always welcome to submit your questions to us and we'll

talk about them as we can. This has been ERC leftovers.

Hope you have a great week Church.