Speaker 1: 0:16

Welcome and thanks for joining us on the Blue Chair Podcast, brought to you by a Fresh Wind Church. Each month we discuss the latest sermons from the perspective of the Blue Chairs. Hello and welcome to the Blue Chair Podcast. This is Pastor Jared. I'm here with Charles. Say what's up? How's it going? We are not accompanied by anybody. Today we're throwing it back to, like the first episode.

Speaker 2: 0:42

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 0:43

Yeah, I think it's been. We did one or two episodes, maybe with someone else on, but, uh, we are by ourselves today and so we are covering the come to the mountain series, the first four weeks. That. It's still going strong. It's going to lead us all the way to Easter, and if you're listening to this on the day it's released, this should be the 12th, which is the day before Palm Sunday, and so we're going to go all the way to Easter. It's going to take us, oh yeah, um, so so far we got four, four sermons uh, about the call to the mountain, the, uh, trusting in God's provisions.

Speaker 1: 1:27

Tim talked about the call to the mountain, the, trusting in God's provisions. Tim talked about the gentle whisper of God and Ryan talked about the God of glory. And through this series, what we're doing is we're taking a look at God and basically being reintroduced to him, or maybe it's your first time and you're being introduced to God. God is a mighty, magnificent, multifaceted God that shows, just like anything and anybody, there's different aspects of him, and we can see those when we draw close to him and we come to the mountain and we get to know him, and so that's what this series is covering, and I think it's been a hoot. Uh, what is the old saying? A hoot in a handbag? Yeah, it's been a hoot in a handbag. And so, uh, charles, what have you thought? What are your thoughts on it?

Speaker 2: 2:19

um, honestly, I think the whole, the whole series is pretty good.

Speaker 2: 2:23

Um, the call to meet God, which was the first one with Ryan, it really had me thinking because I feel like my early walk in Christianity I was one of the people that he talks about in terms of I didn't let Scripture show me who God was and I didn't put in, I don't think I put in enough effort, honestly, even in the beginning, to um meet God, you know, come to him and and get to know who he is.

Speaker 2: 2:50

Um, and Ryan talks on that in terms of um, people would rather paint a picture in their own mind of who they want God to be, um and turn that more into the image of their God than actually wanting to learn and understand who our God is. And I think my early walk I wanted it to be easy, so it's easier for, I guess, early Christians to paint this picture in their mind of what their expectation of God is, not who he actually is, what their expectation of God is, not who he actually is. So I know this like that first sermon made me think, because I think now more with scripture, it does paint a good picture of who our God is and it has an instruction of how we are to come to him and it definitely opens my eyes of how I was starting out versus where I am today.

Speaker 1: 3:42

Oh yeah, there's always sanctification and we are always going to be transformed into the likeness of Jesus and we can only do that through scripture. But when we first come to know Christ, more often than not we have to take some time to truly get to know him. Just like any honestly any relationship. You get to know him, just like any honestly any relationship, right, you get to know your wife and when you first meet it might be like, hey, I'm Charles, what's your favorite show? And like you're just getting introduced, you're just kind of getting to know each other and you might hear something that you take a certain way. She may say something in some way and you're like, oh, she doesn't, like she doesn't like any type of ice cream, because she said she didn't like one type of ice cream. You know what I mean. You might make those assumptions and it takes a little bit to get to know somebody.

Speaker 1: 4:35

Getting it takes us a little bit to get to know our god and we have to approach god just like we would, or in a similar All right, I'll say in the likeness of approaching any other relationship. And getting to know it takes intentionality, it takes um a desire, right, if you're, if you're kind of intentional and stuff and you don't really have a desire and you're not fully committed to getting to know God. You're only going to know so much of him. I think Tim puts a really good point out there in his where when he kind of lists the different tips that are not tips what's the word I'm looking for here On the pastor's blog it says apply these truths.

Speaker 1: 5:22

So he lists out some truths on what we need to do to get to know god, and one of those is know scripture. The more you know scripture yeah, um, the more you know scripture, the more you can determine if it's god speaking to you and god's going to speak to you and reveal things to you, and you got to know if that's god. And so the more you read scripture, the better you know god. Um, I think you know God um.

Speaker 2: 5:50

I think you're entirely right. Yeah, cause he did mention like, in terms of like knowing scripture too. He also mentioned in that um that wisdom is seeing a situation from God's perspective. So I liked that one too, like in those, in those points he ended with I think it was the five points, um wisdom is, Wisdom is seeing a situation from God's perspective.

Speaker 1: 6:06

I've been every time we talk about wisdom. About once a year I have a series on wisdom with the youth group and every time I'm like all right guys, what is wisdom? And you get different answers here and there. This time around, though, I think I kind of nailed it. I was like I give these dictionary definitions. It's hard to remember. But I looked at the youth. I was like all right, wisdom is applying our knowledge of God to any situation.

Speaker 2: 6:36

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 6:36

So understanding God enough that, when a situation comes about, we can apply like what would Jesus do.

Speaker 1: 6:43

Remember the old bracelets and stuff, and so I was like but that's a whole lot to remember. Wisdom is knowledge applied. Yeah, that's all it is. It's the knowledge of how god would react in a situation and, um, what god wants you to do, and applying it to your life. And so if you ever struggle to remember what wisdom is I've hopefully it's stuck with the youth group. I got to test them on it I should give them a pop quiz. That'll be fun. Hey guys, for youth group, we're going to do a pop quiz on the last year of your lessons. Right, I'm joking. If you're a youth listening, you don't have to take a pop quiz.

Speaker 2: 7:20

And I know something else that stuck out with me in the first sermon with Ryan was you know he talks about God coming down on the mountain in this dense cloud and how you know he instructed Moses. You know, obviously there was a rule set in place when he told Moses to go down and tell them you know, you can come to the foot of the mountain, just don't come up the mountain. So God's inviting them in to know him and they all rejected the invitation to come to the foot of the mountain out of fear. And I sit there and think about it and I'm like that's actually kind of heartbreaking.

Speaker 2: 7:52

I think that his children, you know, denied his invitation to come to the foot of the mountain to know him.

Speaker 1: 8:02

They would rather have Moses come down and tell them what he said instead of coming to the foot of the mountain and hearing him.

Speaker 1: 8:05

Ryan points it out in the sermon though, like, how often are we doing that? Yeah, how many people do we know that? And, like I, can I look at it from, like the what I've, from my lived experiences? Right, and so a lot of the times what I would, where I would see that, is a guy at the factory being dragged to church because his wife said it's time to go, or, um, go, ask your mom about that. She's she knows more about that stuff. And I'm not saying that's inherently wrong, right to hey, your mother has more knowledge about this subject.

Speaker 1: 8:35

Uh, whatever the subject may be, you should ask her. She'll give you a better answer. We're lying to each other in that right, but I think I've, from conversations I've had a lot of times. Rooted in that is a fear of coming to christ, of coming to know who he is, and because we don't, we know we're gonna have to change our lifestyle and we know we're gonna have to stop doing this and stop doing that, and we know that and we have all these presumptions of what's going to happen with our lives if we come to know God. It doesn't ever really work out like that, like yeah, there's some things that you're going to change in your life, you come to know Christ. It's a fact, it's going to happen, even if it's not something that you change personally.

Speaker 2: 9:15

It's something that he's going to manifest a change in inside you that's just going to change. I can't tell you how many times like for, like there could have been things that I did on a daily basis that I just don't do anymore, like it's. It's one of those things where it's not necessarily that I was just sitting there one day thinking about it and I'm like no, I'm just. I just the drive to do it is no longer there. So it's. It's just like this inward change also. I feel like that happens as you grow closer. So did I come into it mentally, knowing like hey, I know these things are not of God, I'm going to stop doing them.

Speaker 2: 9:53

Yeah there was some stuff that I said. I'm just not going to do it. But there was also like an inward change, things that I didn't even think about prior, that just changed.

Speaker 1: 10:02

It was like you said, the desire to do it wasn't there anymore another, where, another situation, where I've seen this um, hey, I'm going to send moses there to know god. Right, I've met people who have straight up told me like, yeah, I believe in god, I know who god is. Um, I'm saved, but church isn't for me. I don't go to church on Sunday. I don't like the institutionalism of it, where it's staying upset down or we have to be there from this time to this time and then they rope you into all the volunteer opportunities and they make you do all these things and, la-da-da-da-da, that's also just sending someone else to be your ambassador.

Speaker 1: 10:41

That's not really you. Knowing God Christ calls us to commune together and have church together, and so when we're like I'm not going to be a part of the body, I mean what a better place to feel the presence of God, though?

Speaker 2: 10:57

Like what is the saying when to and where gather? I am there. So it's like, even if you put all of the structure of it aside, just the fact of knowing that you can come to a place where the body of Christ is coming together and feel the presence of God there with you, like that to me, is already enough. Oh yeah, past sermons as well. That to me, like even just thinking about it outside of all, that is also me showing my faithfulness and obedience to him to show up and learn about him and get to know him and be here with the body of christ. Like it's.

Speaker 2: 11:33

There's so much more to it than just the structuralism like you're talking about, um, that people may feel like there's, there's so much more to it and I'm not saying that I wasn't one of those people at one point Like, oh, I don't have to go to church, I can just stay home and read my Bible. But the more I grew and understood, it's like no, I really should be there. Like there was a day I was scheduled for overtime. You're like you know what? I'm not going to work in that overtime. I'm going to church today, but it's one ourselves to that idea and not and not hold it as such a negative thing over us.

Speaker 2: 12:09

Oh yeah, and then, uh, even so, with that note that I had made in terms of you know how heartbreaking it is that they denied his invitation, I made a note also for myself to think about. You know, there's so many videos out there on youtube where you know someone's walking down the street and asking random people like, hey, do you believe in god? Do you believe? And you hear no, no, people who don't respond. And I'm sitting there thinking about what Ryan's talking about, where he comes down in the dense cloud, and I'm like could you imagine, if that happened today, the amount of people that deny God and deny Christ, if that cloud were to descend today and said all my people, come to me how many people would deny it and not go to it.

Speaker 2: 12:46

Oh, there'd be a super, not a supernatural, but like a natural phenomenon made as an excuse, but I even, I even think about it, even in my own mind. I'm like, yes, because I love and believe in god, I would go, but I'm not telling you I wouldn't be terrified. Oh, absolutely, my knees would be shaken. But it just. You know, hearing these people, you know how many are out there and I honestly, I don't know. Maybe I had more faith in people, I don't know, but there is a surprisingly large amount of people that will deny Christ and God openly and it scares me. It's so hearing that sermon like really made me think about these videos that I've seen of all these people and I'm like man, it's a scary.

Speaker 1: 13:28

I don't want to say scary, I'm trying to word this properly it is. It's scary for some. I'll say yeah. Because I mean there are people that will deny Christ when asked about it.

Speaker 2: 13:45

But that right there is what scares me, and not for myself, but for other people, because what does scripture say? Like you deny me in front of everyone and I'm going to deny you to the Father, like it scares me.

Speaker 1: 13:57

Scares you for them, right.

Speaker 2: 13:58

Yes. Okay, because it's not any of our will for someone to not you know come to god or to be saved, or whatever the case may be, and so it scares me, for, like my fellow humans, you know, like yeah, we're called to be his children, like and it just it scares me for them when I hear these things going on.

Speaker 1: 14:19

My first mission strip back in 2013 or whatever that was, I was going into my freshman year high school and they sent us to this evangelism camp at Moody Bible Institute and one of the pastors there spoke and he said when it comes to evangelism, the trick you need to have is to look at everybody, you know everybody, you see and assume that they have some sort of like sign around their neck and on that sign says bound for heaven or bound for hell, because everyone's bound to somewhere and it's your job as a Christian to fulfill the Great Commission and to start that and do that effectively. You kind of have to, like, make an educated guess, like do you think this person's bound for heaven or bound for hell? And sometimes they'll just stare it up, tell you like no, I'm not a Christian, I have no desire to be. And then you know, unfortunately, like that's where they're bound right now and it gives you a responsibility because there should be some fear in it. There should be some fear and we're playing for eternity here and we as Christians need to spread the gospel.

Speaker 1: 15:28

We need to help others discover more in Christ and it's great because we can discover more in Christ right now. Right, we're both saved. We know Christ. We can still come to know him more, but we have to start somewhere, and so that's why we're having so many. We're trying to get 30,000 gospel conversations. That's a lot. We need to have those, though, assuming that we had. Two-thirds of them are someone new. A third of them are just repeated conversations. That's still 20,000 people who had a gospel conversation because of one church, 20,000 people who had a gospel conversation because of one church, and so when we do that and when we're active with it, it kind of helps our own fear get relieved some.

Speaker 2: 16:12

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 16:14

And not for our own salvation, not because we're checking off the box of hey, yep, christ, I'm an evangelist. I did that for you. Now I can get into heaven. It's not by works, it's by faith. But that fear and stuff is the change in you from Christ, because you know what's going to happen and so we need to, as a church as the big C church they say, multi-denominational worldwide we need to make that effort and be aware of that and go and share the gospel Because unfortunately, there will be people who, in the situation you laid out, if the cloud came down today, would deny Christ. You're looking up something.

Speaker 2: 16:56

Yeah, well, I can't remember where it's at.

Speaker 2: 17:00

I'll have to look it up and talk to you about it later too.

Speaker 2: 17:02

But I think in everything that you were just talking about and even what I brought up later too.

Speaker 2: 17:05

But there's, I think, in everything that you were just talking about and even what I brought up there is a scripture, and I can't remember where it's at, but it it pretty much says, like, if you see someone like willingly going against God, that if we don't correct it, it's more dangerous for us in terms of the judgment on that.

Speaker 2: 17:22

Like we're called to also correct people that are leading themselves down the wrong path. So that's like when I'm, when I'm talking about, like seeing these people and we've even talked about evangelism and everything else like all this stuff kind of tied together is what's been pulling me more to have these conversations, because I do feel like I'm called, like, if I see someone doing something ungodly, even if they don't believe in the gospel and don't believe in it, like I just feel like it's my duty to step in and say, hey, like this isn't right, you know, give the detail and from it and even use that as an opportunity to spread the gospel. Um, so I feel like I don't know all that together, like whether I'm scared for their salvation or not.

Speaker 1: 18:02

I just feel like more of us should be doing something about it, um I think we need to keep in mind, though, that there's only so much we can do. Yeah, and we have to. Um, regardless of what we say and regardless of what they may be doing, everything we say needs to be true, and everything we say needs to come out of love. And, um, christians have gotten a bad rap in general of being the people that are going to say that they stand for love but spew hatred and yell at people. Um, and honestly, if you're not, if you don't have love, you've missed the point. Yep, right, and so what we need to do is, yes, we need to lovingly with people, like people have asked me. I think it was in, I can't remember who asked me.

Speaker 1: 18:57

Someone asked me one time how do you correct? Right, like, as a Christian, what do we? You see someone sitting, what do you do? And it is relatively situational, right? If it's someone brand new to church, who's just learning how to be a Christian, or has never come to church before, and they're not a Christian, are we going to sit there and point out everything they're doing wrong? They're not a Christian. Are we going to sit there and point out everything they're doing wrong? Or, if you're sharing the gospel, like I know you were talking to the prison chaplain at some point. If you were helping him out. One day and you go and talk to someone who's in prison and they're cussing up a storm, is it going to be beneficial? Is it going to work towards their salvation to point out every single time they cuss and scold them for it? Yeah, I agree. No it's not Um.

Speaker 1: 19:53

We have to trust that sanctification will come. It's not our job to sanctify, it's God's job. And so other people like if me and you? You see me cussing up a storm and you're going to be like hey, Well, I'm correcting you for sure.

Speaker 2: 20:08

Oh, I know you will. Yep, I'll crack the whip on that. Get the ruler out start smacking my knuckles and stuff.

Speaker 1: 20:14

That is a situation where you step in right away like hey, what are you doing? Come on, dude, and you might even be loving but still stern like dude. Have you lost your mind? And it's there's. How you approach those things is so important, based on who you're talking to. Ryan and Tim talk a lot about your influence, bucket.

Speaker 2: 20:37

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 20:37

Where, as Christians, as anybody in any leadership role, you have a bucket. Every drop of influence you get goes in there and it comes drop at a time. When you mess up, you stab a hole in the bottom of your influence bucket and everything flows out. We need to be aware of where our influence bucket is, how full our influence bucket is with that person and how what we're going to say is going to affect that. Not because our life goal is to have influence or anything, but because when we have the opportunity, the privilege, the responsibility, honestly, of having some influence, of having some influence, it's important that we nurture that, because even that influence we get, it is a gift from God, it's a job from God, even where it's like hey, I'm going to trust you to nurture and disciple this relationship and help them and lead them to Christ. Right, yeah, we don't get tasks, we don't get jobs. Relationship and help them and lead them to Christ. Right yeah, we don't get tasks, we don't get jobs, we don't get things that without some sort of responsibility I talked this with. Talk about this with Lila.

Speaker 1: 21:48

If you want opportunities and you want chances to do things, you're going to have more responsibility. If you want to go outside by yourself, you need to make sure that you ask mommy and daddy. You need to make sure that you're staying in the backyard, like we've asked you. Jamie can't go outside by himself because we know he's going to be tempted and he's going to walk into the front yard more often than not.

Speaker 1: 22:08

And so same thing with Christians it's our job to share the gospel and do all these things. We have to do it with ample thought, with love and walking in step with Christ, listening to God's whisper, bringing it back to some sermon where it's. We need to know what the voice of God is. And so if we're not spending time in silence, paying attention in the mundane moments, like he says, or do you know how many times God has spoke to me when I was specifically working in the factory, when I was building 500 wrenches one night and I'm sitting there pounding away at wrenches and running them through mills and I'm like, oh thanks God, that's some good information right there. I was just chewing on that for a while. It's those things when you're not distracted by other things. If we're not able to do that, we've got to be aware of how we're approaching situations, because we need to make sure that we're speaking from the Holy Spirit.

Speaker 2: 23:14

I like what he mentioned too in terms of all that is. I feel like me personally, I get so caught up in how busy that we are that I don't take advantage of those quiet moments that you know. Whether it's the minute I pull into my work's parking lot, I know I'm going to be sitting in my truck for 10 minutes. So usually I put on music, whatever. But instead of like, why not take that opportunity to meet God and sit there and have a conversation and, you know, chew things over, and but a lot of times it's like I don't know if it's just the idea that I know that I'm I don't have a lot of free time, so I take advantage of it and I don't use it in the way that I should Like. I feel like there's many times throughout our day whether, even if I'm at home just washing dishes, I take that opportunity to have a conversation. So it's definitely something that's grown on me more and more. I tried to stop making excuses as to why I'm not in the word, which I know Ryan touched on a bunch because I had talked to him about it, but it's like I can't really go a day without reading, and if I can't read. Then while I'm doing dishes, I put on like the audio Bible and I just have it read me stuff, um, but it's one of those things where it's like I try to resonate in it in a daily now, compared to where I was before. Um, cause I feel like once I go too long without it, you know, it's like you can feel that, that emptiness like creeping back in Um, so I like to be full of his word all the time. But even with that being said, I liked something on one of the other.

Speaker 2: 24:45

I don't remember if this was the first one or not, but when Ryan talked about the King's Wedding Banquet and how the invitations went out and the initial guest rejected it, so he said, send it out to everybody and the guy came without wedding clothes and I really liked what he mentioned there because it goes back to like building this image of what expectations god has. And it said that ryan's comment was sadly, you know, a lot of people want to come to god on their own terms and all of them want forgiveness, grace and salvation, but none of them want to take off that, that, that filthy clothing that they have, and and become the image God's looking for. Um, and again, that just takes me back to where I was, you know, in the past and it's like I feel like and I'm still not.

Speaker 2: 25:29

It's not like I'm perfect, but I, when I look at where I started versus where I am now, like these things that they're talking about in these sermons are things that I've been through and it's it's it's good to to think on that and think like, is there still parts of my life that you know, maybe I don't understand some of his expectations, like is there parts of me that I still don't understand yet need to work on?

Speaker 2: 25:53

Um, so I'm glad that you know these are, these are the things that are being brought up, because when I read the wedding banquet, like I didn't sit there and think about it in the way that Ryan's up there talking about it. So when he talks about it, I'm like man, that really hit me, because I'm like I was coming to him in the filth. That I was, you know, and it's like I didn't think about it. Like you know, there's an expectation, you know he expectation he wanted them in a spotless robe before they came to the foot of that mountain and I'm like I would have been one of the ones that's probably trying to go to the foot of that mountain in my dirty, filthy rags.

Speaker 1: 26:25

I'm here for you Now. It's important to remember that, with this parable, the initial meaning that Jesus is trying to convey is that, in order to come to God, in order to know God, it's not that you have to have everything, you need to be wearing perfect robes and you have to be perfect to know God. That's not what Jesus is trying to convey. What Jesus is trying to convey is that there's one way and that there's.

Speaker 1: 26:58

If you don't do these things, if you don't put on the tuxedo, you don't get into the wedding. Um, and putting on that tuxedo is receiving salvation from Jesus. There's one way to God and that is through Christ Jesus. And if we don't do it that way, follow those steps, put on that tuxedo, we don't get to know God. What else we want to touch on here today? Charles?

Speaker 2: 27:25

I think it was on it was week three on Tim's he had made a point that you know, I think about too, is we need to align ourselves with how God wants to speak to us, and that was, you know, in the same line of you know, make time in our commutes to sit in silence and hear his voice? Um, I think not even in our commutes.

Speaker 1: 27:47

Make time before you go to bed, right? How many of us are scrolling through Facebook or doing something on our phone before we go to sleep? First off, studies show don't have that blue light in your eyes, so they're number one save your vision uh, I had a phone once that like supposedly cut out the blue lights in it and I was like haha I can be on my phone nighttime feature.

Speaker 1: 28:09

Yeah um, but whether it's before bed or, honestly, being more intentional with it, is always important to me, like if it becomes. If it's like a routine thing, it becomes less meaningful. Not that a routine is bad, routine's good, but I kind of just go through the motions and so for me it's like find five minutes today, even where it's I'm not doing anything, I'm going to spend time with God and praise him and worship him and pray and listen and just sit in that it's so important.

Speaker 2: 28:46

Yeah, oh. So I also liked there was a comment that he had, because I actually hear this a lot From even people who are Christians that say, well, tim made the comment that Satan's biggest lie is that you're finished, you've ruined it, it's never. And then he goes on to tell you like it's never too late. But there's a lot of times that I see people enter into a conversation that's already in progress and they're like you know, I don't believe, because I feel like, even if I did all these things that I've done, like there's no hope for me and I actually I do hear that a lot and it's and, like Tim said, you know that Satan's biggest lie is telling people that you've already ruined it, like there is no salvation for you.

Speaker 2: 29:35

Um, which, honestly I, no salvation for you, which honestly I feel like before I started coming here, when I was in that kind of shallow moment I even told Ryan I was like a part of me feels like I'm not welcome back. You know, I did get into a spot where I'm like and it wasn't that I was doing anything wrong and necessarily it's not like I was out, you know, breaking all the laws and everything else, but it was the fact that I was so angry with God for so long and I stopped going to church. I told him I was like I, just a part of me is like I don't think I'm welcome back. And that's when, you know, ryan kind of corrected me and he's like you know, it doesn't matter.

Speaker 1: 30:16

I think part of that and not in every situation. But I think when we're kids and we come to know Christ even if we're teens right, we're meeting Christ for the first time and we know him and we know him intimately, right and then when we know that love and we've run away from it anyways and then walk back, there's a there is like a sense of shame where it's like I knew this before I did it. I knew this while I was doing this, while I was running from you, I knew how perfect and how amazing and how wonderful and how deserving of my worship God is, and how amazing and how wonderful and how deserving of my worship God is. But I was angry, so I walked away. Like there is a sense of shame there and it is normal, but Ryan is so right that we could sprint as fast as we can away from God and say I want nothing to do with you. I am angry, I am whatever, and God's going to be like be like, hey, come on back whenever you're ready. I'm calling you, I'm calling you to the mountain, I'm calling you to come to know me better and to understand that situation that you just went through better.

Speaker 1: 31:30

Yeah, and you need to, just you need to come back and, like you said, saying's gonna tell, to tell you man, you mess this one up, you can't. You can't fix that relationship right Like we. We do that to people where we just walk away Like I don't want anything to do with you, I'm done talking to you. We we're. We can usually expect them to be, at the very least, hesitant of wanting to um, have that same type of relationship again. God's completely different. God's like come back, we can. You're still my boy.

Speaker 2: 32:03

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 32:03

Bring it back.

Speaker 2: 32:04

And then also in that sermon too it was talking about.

Speaker 2: 32:11

So this isn't the provisions one but when I think about the provisions, I think about it in the sense of, like God knows what we need, but I think a lot of our, a lot of, I mean. I still fall to it every now and then. But it's like you're praying and praying because you know, let's say, there's something in your life that you need working out. Whatever it may be, it's not always going to be provided to you when you want it, but when you actually need it. And a lot of times I feel like it's the impatience in myself where it's like I know that we need it but it's not when we need it. So there's been conversations we've had, even actually when Forrest was on with us, where I was talking about you know, the situation with losing the rental house and having to buy this one. It's like so many times have I seen like when we are actually in dire need of it. I don't think he's ever shied away from providing. It's usually in the moments where it's like something that I want and even if it may be something I need in the future, but I don't actually need it right now, it's not there, like the, the means aren't there, it's not provided. But it's coming to that understanding that he knows when it's actually needed. And a lot of times I feel like those moments isn't just him not answering something that we want, or even if we don't need it, but it's it. How many times I've gotten stuck in traffic and I'm sitting there like man, I'm stuck in it, but who's to say that he didn't cause you to get stuck in traffic because something bad could have happened, you know, down the road or or whatever? So, long story short, I guess I'm just saying that, uh, I agree with what they, with what Tim was.

Speaker 2: 33:55

I think it was Tim that was saying that, you know, it's on his terms. Like we need to realize that it's not up for me to dictate when God provides things for me. So when I think about, like the Abraham and Isaac thing and you know, god promised him the ram when he got up there and the whole way Isaac's asking like where's the sacrifice? And it's all in the faith that he's going to provide that ram at the top of the mountain, and it's like for me, I'm sitting there thinking about it and even listening to Ryan talk about, you know, him putting his son up on the table and everything, just you know acting it out. I'm like if I'm looking at Charlie and I'm if this was like me and Charlie, I'm like I don't know if I'd be able to lift my hand.

Speaker 2: 34:34

So it's like terrifying yeah, so like that provision, like when you're thinking about that and and god providing what he's promised. It's like you know, you read that story and I'm like man, it took a lot for abraham to to lift his hand oh, yeah.

Speaker 1: 34:48

And honestly, I wonder how many? How often some of those situations where it's like, man, I've been looking for a new house for so long and nothing's coming up, and it's coming to the deadline and boom, we got a new one here. How often is that God taking away our excuses? Right, we mentioned earlier, like how, how many people would walk away from God if the cloud came down? How many would say come up with a reason why that's not God? Like, oh, it's just a natural phenomenon down? How many would say come up with a reason why that's not god? Like, oh, it's just a natural phenomenon.

Speaker 1: 35:20

How many times would we excuse away what god is doing in our lives if we had the opportunity we saw with the israelites, god's like yeah, we're gonna take this city of jericho by walking around it and screaming yeah. Like, okay, that's gonna work well with god, it will. Yeah, you know what I mean. So how? I wonder how often in our lives God is saying you're going to make an excuse for what I'm doing, unless I make you pretty nervous about it?

Speaker 2: 35:46

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 35:47

And so we're going to make you a little nervous, we're going to make you uncomfortable. It's going to come down to the deadline. It's going to be kind of close, but it's not close for God. I mean, god's good, it's done. That's all it takes Just a snap of a finger, Um, and so I think you're right. Like with that. Uh, my thoughts left me. We're cutting this part out too. I say that just so. I will cut it out for the record yeah yeah, anyhow, you ready for the hard one.

Speaker 1: 36:27

what's the hard one when it comes to God's provisions? Ryan points out that God blesses obedience Obedience is important.

Speaker 2: 36:46

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 36:47

Obedience is not something that God takes lightly. God calls us to do things and God calls us not to do things, and we have to follow that. We have to choose to bear our cross, whatever that may look like, you know what I mean. It could be something simple that we're going to go out. Or simple for me is different for other people. So, with that in mind, god's going to call me at one point to have more gospel conversations and I'm going to say, all right, this is what I'm going to do. And other points in my life God's going to call me to spend a little bit less time with my family and do more stuff planning for a situation or a trip or an event or what have you right? Maybe Ryan needs a little help and God's like, hey, you're going to fill in for him in these areas, whatever that may look like, where there's going to be some sort of cost, we have to obey that.

Speaker 1: 37:52

Or if God's calling us to lay something down and get rid of it See, you shall have no other gods before me and you shall don't have idols, and you shout like don't have idols. It's important to keep in mind that what is an idol today may not be an idol for you tomorrow. What's not an idol today may become an idol for you tomorrow, right? So I used to have an Xbox 360 or an Xbox One one of them, right, one of the Xboxes and I got to a point where I was playing that thing way too much.

Speaker 2: 38:28

I can relate to that, oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 38:30

It was taking up like solid five, ten hours a week Doesn't seem like much, but when you're going to school full-time and have a full-time job and things like that, that's five, ten hours.

Speaker 1: 38:42

It's important, with the help of my loving wife saying hey, you've been on that a lot lately. God was like look, dude, it's an idol. Yeah, get rid of it. I literally gave it away. I was like, all right, we got to get rid of this, it's not. Uh, I I tried to put restrictions on myself and it was becoming too much.

Speaker 1: 39:07

Um, and that story isn't to be like oh, I'm so amazing. I gave her my Xbox. That's, it's just an uh, an example. Um, and it wasn't until I was like all right, I've got, I've, I can do this better. I ended up buying a PlayStation. It's not an idol for me. If I can't play my PlayStation for six months, it sits there and looks pretty. If I can get 10 minutes in one day because I have a little bit of free time and I want to enjoy it for a bit, I can do that. And so when it says God blesses obedience, one of the things that I think of when I hear that is whatever God's calling us to do or whatever God's calling us to get rid of. We have to be malleable to that and what God wants us to do there.

Speaker 2: 39:51

You know I agree and honestly I relate to that story a hundred percent because video games for me for the longest time was an idol and honestly, me and Erica had the same exact conversation. She brought it up on multiple occasions that thank.

Speaker 1: 40:03

God for why I know Right.

Speaker 2: 40:09

She brought it up on multiple occasions of thank god for wives. She brought it up on multiple occasions of you know how much time I spent on it, which I never let it become like something that put a barrier between me and them, like I always waited for them to be sleeping, whatever, and then I would go and play like all night long. But uh, my thing was, I think, once I started A her comments, because obviously everything my wife says means everything to me, right, erica?

Speaker 1: 40:31

Suck up.

Speaker 2: 40:33

But even after I started reading more and understanding what an idol was because a part of me at that time never really understood what could be an idol in my life, really understood like what could be an idol in my life and once I really started to get an understanding of it, I'm sitting there thinking about it and I'm like man, I really have put this thing on a pedestal where it's like I felt like I couldn't survive if I wasn't going down there and playing.

Speaker 2: 40:54

So I actually went like almost a whole year without even touching it, and it wasn't because I felt like I wasn't being obedient, but it was because I got sucked into reading the Bible Like obedient, but it was because I got sucked into reading the Bible Like the more I started understanding, it was like I didn't want to do like I would get home from work when I was working nights and instantly go to my computer and start playing a game. Once I broke that cycle, it was I was coming home and before I went to sleep I was reading the Bible. So it was. It was kind of like an inward, like what I was explaining earlier, where it wasn't necessarily like a decision that I made, but just like a change that was already happening inside me, like as I was going, um, and it was kind of as that change was happening, is when I realized, like man, I really held this thing at a much higher standard than it should have been held. Oh, for sure.

Speaker 1: 41:37

It's super easy to do and we can. I can knock out 50% of the people listening to this right now. Is your phone an idol? Oh, for sure, are we. Are we spending every waking moment scrolling through newsfeed or scrolling through Facebook or Tik TOK or Instagram?

Speaker 2: 41:55

I mean, look at how many, all the benches in a restaurant when you walk in there, like all the families and I say this to Erica all the time because I am probably the least in my house that's on their phone. In terms of like, even at the dinner table, you know Charlie will pull out his phone or Oakland will try to do something, and I'm like no, no, no, because like even at restaurants, it drives me insane. Like when we're sitting there waiting and you look around and no one's communicating. Parents aren't talking to their kids, kids aren't talking to their parents, they're all on their phone. I'm like that is sad, it is really sad.

Speaker 1: 42:27

We do have a phone epidemic, I think.

Speaker 2: 42:30

And what you were saying, too, like about the obedience, and I don't know if maybe these, maybe I'm misspeaking, but the thought that came into my head as you were talking about that is I forget the exact verse, but when it's talking about Abraham and how he was saved by his faith, but by his works his faith was perfected. So I think about that and I think about being called to obedience and the works that we put in throughout our life, and it's not the works that save you. But when I read that, I'm like the stuff that you're doing throughout your life in obedience to God is perfecting your faith as you're going.

Speaker 1: 43:06

So I definitely am a firm believer in terms of the obedience thing and, if you think about it, your faith is sometimes tested by what God is calling you to do. All right, god wants me to do this. A you can do it and see that God helps you through it and provides for you and does everything that he said he would, and your faith gets stronger. Or, b, you could be worried that God's not going to do that and so you run away from it and your faith doesn't grow any stronger by being obedient in what God is calling us to do. Inherently, we see, ooh, I can rely on him. Yeah, he's faithful, he's going to he, he blesses obedience.

Speaker 2: 43:50

When I listened to him and man, it's just it's definitely a night and day difference Like, oh yeah, where I like just in my mood every day, like where I'm at today first where I was years ago. Like just in my mood every day, like where I'm at today versus where I was years ago, like just in the conversations I have. I told you about the guy at work. You know he's getting married this year and they're actually having like a big Catholic wedding, but he's never been one that like dove into the Word. So, dude, it's every day. He's asking me questions and I'm like this is what I love, like not, you know, sitting in a, in a you know professional room, you know whatever, not sitting even in this setting, but just sitting here one-on-one with someone who is just coming into understanding God and just having like a good conversation.

Speaker 2: 44:35

And actually, you know, I I would have never taken my Bible to work. That thing stays in my book bag and it goes with me everywhere. So like we'll sit there and have conversations and I'll take them through the Bible and I'm like this is I love this. But it's uh, it's definitely, like I said, the inward change, like it's it's night and day different, when when you start to understand the obedience thing. And that's not to say that you know, one day I'm just, you know, being stubborn and I'm I don't hear him or I don't listen, whatever, but you definitely tell it's, I don't know it's just night and day different.

Speaker 1: 45:07

In all of this. We're not talking about perfection. No, we're called to be perfect, but we understand that we're going to miss the mark. We're going to mess up, we're going to make mistakes, we're going to be sucked into our video game when god's like hey, I gotta tell you something, and it's first time we've played in a while and we we played too much. You know what I mean. Um, whatever that looks like for us, where we're not being obedient, there are some things that god is calling like. Clearly, I think some things are easier than others. Don't kill people. That's not particularly a hard one.

Speaker 2: 45:45

For the most part, we can avoid that pretty well, most people but most people yeah, I don't know Put a stipulation on that, because not everyone I had all of my bets.

Speaker 1: 45:55

If you haven't noticed this by now, I hedge my bets all the time.

Speaker 2: 45:58

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 46:00

But other things where God's like hey, but other things where God's like hey, spend time in your work. That's one that, believe it or not, people could genuinely struggle with getting in a pattern of that and however that looks for you I think it was Darlene who mentioned it one time a single verse, chew on a verse for a day. Start with that until you get a solid habit. When we go there and we're going to read well, I'm going to read the book of Genesis in two days we're taking off a huge bite. Yeah, and we're. We're, honestly in those situations Sometimes we're kind of like going so macro that we're missing all the, all the important details. Um and so, however, we got to approach those things to get into the the good spiritual disciplines of following Christ and listening and spending time in the word and praying and meditating on his uh. Ryan points out, like in his sermon about glory, meditating on Jesus's majesty.

Speaker 2: 46:58

I actually really liked that one, that sermon, when he's talking about you know the disciples seeing him transformed.

Speaker 2: 47:08

Just thinking about, like, if I could have been one of those disciples sitting there seeing this, like I can't even like try to paint an image in my mind of what it would have looked like. Like, even with Ryan's description, with you know coming up over the hill and the sun's just blaring in your eyes Like just this radiant light that you can't even see through it, other than to make out the images of two men you know sitting there talking with him. It's like I couldn't imagine what that glory would even look like. It blows my mind.

Speaker 1: 47:39

It would be awesome.

Speaker 2: 47:39

Every time I read that I'm like man, what it would be to see that, but it's.

Speaker 1: 47:44

Let's finish on that one. We're at 48 minutes. Let's finish on the glory of Jesus and spend some time today, if you're listening to this, spend some time meditating and thinking about how amazing our God is and how much glory and how perfect he is and how privileged we are to get to know him, when we don't deserve it. Whether it's the first time we come to him or whether we run away and come back, we don't deserve to know God. We are sinners, we're broken. We're given the opportunity and when we think about how amazing our God is, it just makes that opportunity so much brighter and so much better and so much more of an opportunity. I don't know how else to put it. You know what I mean.

Speaker 2: 48:35

I do know, I know what you mean 100% Good deal.

Speaker 1: 48:37

Even if I don't, I do. Well, now you're just confusing everybody.

Speaker 2: 48:41

Before we end it, I'm going to say because we checked before it started, there was no e on the blue chair pocket.

Speaker 1: 48:47

I'm going to start making Ryan put in the end of his sermon. Just finish the sermon off with somebody. Please email Jared and Charles Please. No, we got an email before. Yeah, just one.

Speaker 2: 49:00

Before.

Speaker 1: 49:01

You're going in on people right now. It is Charles making you feel guilty, and it's and it's not pastor Jared. Um, I understand that when you leave church, you're thinking about lunch.

Speaker 2: 49:12

It's okay 100%.

Speaker 1: 49:13

Oh, I'm thinking about lunch, when I leave church. Are you kidding me? Um, but if you, if God does reveal something to you and you're like Hmm, and you're like, hmm, this is good, I want to share this, we'd love to hear it. So go ahead and email bluechairpodcasts at afreshwindorg and put bluechairpodcasts in the subject line for me so I can find you. Or, honestly, if you shot me a text and started it with hey, put this in the Blue Chair Podcast, I would accept that, even. Or I'll just give Charles' number to everybody and everybody can blow Charles' phones up. All right, guys, thanks for listening this month. We appreciate you, we love you. Easter is coming and we're excited for it. All right, have a good one.