SPEAKER_00: 0:08

Welcome and thanks for joining us on this episode of the Midweek Podcast. Brought to you by a Fresh Wind Church. Each week our team brings you new content to help you take steps towards Jesus and discover more in Christ. Today's episode is hosted by Pastor Ryan.

SPEAKER_01: 0:27

Hey, welcome back to the Midweek Podcast. Pastor Ryan. Royan. Pastor Ryan joined with Pastor Tim. And uh man, we had uh a couple weeks off there for uh Christmas and then New Year's, and obviously that shows. I'm excited to be back. How did you say that? Royan, Ryan, I don't even know. Not good. It was a train wreck right from the start. You think 30 something years of saying my name, I could figure it out. Um, but man, uh Christmas was good for you.

SPEAKER_03: 1:00

Yeah, we had a great Christmas. We had a great Christmas and a new year's, and uh, I had uh the whole family home for Christmas, and uh I got a I got a daughter who lives in San Diego, so we got to share with this other family. And um, but uh yeah, we had a we had a great time together.

SPEAKER_04: 1:19

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01: 1:20

I mean, I'll tell you one of the highlights for for me, um, I mean, obviously love getting together with family and all that stuff. We had great Christmas, but um our Christmas Eve service here at the church, uh, we did a candlelight Christmas Eve service. And man, I I think in years past, it's usually, you know, me and my family, you and your family, and about 30, 40 people from the church who who got nothing to do. And this year, I don't know what the difference was, but it was, I think it was 35 minutes before it started, and the room was more than half full. And I ran out to someone, I said, Did I advertise at the wrong time? What is going on here? Um, but man, the place was packed, people were everywhere. Um, and then you and I got up to close it out. Teresa and the band were talking last year about just how beautiful it looked with all the candles lit. Um, and I didn't get to see that last year. Um, you and I got up on the stage to close it out this year and just to see the whole room filled and all the all these candles lit. Man, it was such a a sweet moment.

SPEAKER_03: 2:24

It was, it was beautiful.

SPEAKER_01: 2:25

And so that was uh that was definitely one of the highlights over that that Christmas New Year break.

SPEAKER_03: 2:30

All these people together celebrating the um greatest present of his presence. Um it was it was wonderful.

SPEAKER_01: 2:41

It was coming out of the new year. Uh you and I, we have launched a brand new series here. And uh I joked in week one that this is the kind of sermon series our media team loves because it's uh it's eight weeks long, which means they don't have to change the graphics for a while. So uh they love this kind of stuff, but uh we're calling the series Marvel, and what what we're kind of talking about in the series is those people that that God seems to almost marvel at. And I mean, I I really struggled with the word to use here. Like, can God be surprised?

SPEAKER_03: 3:15

Can so let you inspire God. Let's um go ahead and and let you know what we think doctrinally. God can be surprised, he is not um ever disappointed, he knows what's gonna happen with all of us. But then um when he deals with us, he deals with us on a level that we can uh understand. So when he speaks to us, he speaks to us um that day in what my dad called the everlasting now. So yeah, he's existing in this day and he's living this day with us, even though he's already lived this day, he knows what's gonna happen. And uh so uh in the scripture, he makes some comments about people uh that are that are amazing. Yeah. And uh so we wanna we wanna take a moment and say, what would what would it look like in your life if God stopped and said, Wow.

unknown: 4:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 4:19

And that that's the been the it was the genesis of the series, and that just really inspiring every week as I'm studying, and you know, I know you got a couple of these sermons coming up, is you just I mean, we're talking every word in scripture is God breathed, and God said, We need to stop and point this out. And that thought is just amazing to me. Yeah. Man, there was something about the way that person responded, or the faith, or their obedience that was awesome. And God, the creator of the and I'm like, what would it take to again? I that was the word I was struggling with, but like to amaze God and make him think, that was awesome. We need to write this down, we need to write that down, right? Um, and so there were some of those. I was talking with Jared, he's got a sermon coming up um a few weeks too, and and just looking over that passage of scripture, and Jesus is like, man, from now on, anytime the gospel is preached, they're gonna talk about this. And I'm like, oh my gosh, like, what is it? And so that's been uh kind of the heart behind this whole series is what would it look like for for us today to live lives where heaven pauses to take notice and God says, Man, that that was awesome. And not to say God's disappointed in you, because like you said just a minute ago, God knows everything, right? Um He can't disappoint, yeah, and and He's never gonna love you anymore than He loves you right now. This isn't about earning God's love or more of His love or attention. Um, but there are those times when God points out the the actions or the character of His people, and I was like, man, if we could begin to capture what are those things, um, and then talk through it. And so we uh we identified eight of those things, and then uh in the first week we looked at really the basis for the whole series is is faith. Is faith, the kind of faith that amazes God. And you know, Hebrews chapter 11 is called the Hall of Faith, and and you read through there, and there's a bunch of um bunch of men and women who've who have done just some amazing things for God, and all of it is because of their faith. And that their faith prompted their obedience. Um, it prompted their their um their faith. Uh faith prompted their obedience, it prompted their their repentance, you know, because of these things, faith is kind of that underlying thing. And so we we started there in week one um and we looked at and and this is one of the things I love about scriptures because it's it throws these curveballs in all the time. Um you know, the whole entire testament was you know about really about the Jewish people and and God choosing them and he's gonna bless the whole earth through them. And then when scripture starts to point out someone's faith, Jesus goes to this Roman Centurion um who's not a Jew, he's a he's a gentile. The Jews actually despise these guys, and Jesus says, I've not seen faith like that in all of Israel. And so you kind of get this outsider's look into this whole thing. Um, and Jesus marvels at this guy's faith that he has. Um and he comes up if if if you missed that sermon, um, he has a servant who is in bed, uh crippled or or you know, possibly paralyzed. He's in terrible pain and agony. And uh he asked Jesus, you know, would you heal him? And Jesus says, You want you want me to do it? And he says, Listen, I'm not even worthy for you to come to my house. If you just say the word, I believe that it'll be done. And this guy's like, I'm a man who's under authority and I have people underneath me, and when I tell them to go, I know that they're gonna go and they're gonna do what I told them to do. And if you just say the word, I know that he'll be healed. And Jesus stops to say, Man, that kind of faith. I I've not seen anything like that in all of Israel. This guy's faith stood out.

SPEAKER_03: 8:33

It did stand out. I think the the guy had it lined up in his head. He wasn't looking for, do I have enough faith uh for this to work out? He was like, I have faith not only in you, but in your process, you know. I have faith in the way the universe is structured, and obviously obviously you have the authority um in this space, and all you need to say is it's done and it'll be done. And I think sometimes we um we believe in Jesus and we have faith that Jesus saved us and uh faith that we're gonna go to heav heaven and he's gonna generally look out for us in our lives. And that's all well and good, but that's not deep. What this guy was saying look, I have faith as an allegiance and I am going to rearrange my life under your authority because it is anyways. You know, and that's that's a whole lot deeper than you know, Jesus is my uh best buddy upstairs, or uh the old man upstairs, or you know, me and Jesus got a good thing going and all this kind of stuff. He's like, No, I know how the world works and I I believe that the spiritual world uh world works the same way. I'm placing myself and my servant under your authority and say the word. Yeah. And that's that's where we need to go. That's it's really deep. You wanna you wanna study this, study this and then uh when a lady uh asks to have someone healed and and she's not a a Jewish person either. Jesus just flat out calls her a dog. What are you dog here asking? And instead of this, you know, how dare you it's uh even even the dogs eat off the scraps of the master's table, you know. And Jesus is amazed, you know. Um how many Jews could he talk to like that, you know? And um and get that kind of humility. And I think um they believe uh in Jesus in a way that it reorients uh their lives. They are um they've changed direction and they're placing themselves um not in alignment with uh as Pat Selby would say, um in alignment with uh Jesus' authority. And that takes a very special person who believes very specific things about Jesus.

SPEAKER_01: 11:31

That's one of the ways that we define faith in that sermon is is allegiance. Um and I think a lot of us we've we have equated faith to simple belief. I believe there's a God. Okay, well scriptures even the demons believe that, you know. Um that that's not all that shocking. Um there faith is this allegiance. I put myself, like you said a minute ago, I put myself under his authority. There is this submission, true faith is a submission to the authority of Jesus. He's not just savior, he's also Lord. Um and I think we miss that when we talk about faith a lot of times in in the church world, um at least. It's faith is well, do you believe there's a God? Yes, I believe there's a God. Um and that's all that faith is for most people. But true if true faith is this allegiance that I am loyal to someone. And that that someone is Jesus. I'm loyal to him. I have put myself underneath his authority and that kind of humility, um, that kind of trust. I think we see it in this centurion's life. We see it in the woman you were just talking about. Um, and that's one of the other things I love about this series, and this would be a great study for for people listening to go and do, is to find other people in each of these categories, because we're gonna have eight different categories, and generally we're only gonna share one, maybe two of their stories. But you find these people all over scripture uh where God's pointing these people out. Um go and find them. But man, that kind of humble trusting allegiance and and putting themselves underneath that that's the kind of faith that I think God marvels at. And so, you know, maybe a a question to to think about is what areas of your life are you asking Jesus to to visit but not lead?

SPEAKER_03: 13:29

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 13:29

I I'd like you to come hang out, but I mean don't don't be trying to take over.

SPEAKER_03: 13:34

Here's a good example of that. Um so listen to me carefully because I don't want you to be confused. We want everybody to come to this church. We want to come, we want to preach you the gospel. And um we want you to to learn, grow, be equipped, and uh, but the only people we want to stay here at our church are the people who have aligned themselves with Jesus, and Jesus, under his authority, has said, This is where I want you to serve. That's who we want here. Now, if you don't know the answer to all that, then come here and hang out until you do. But as soon as the Lord says, Um, I want you to move and go over here, we as a church want you to go over there. Yeah, you know, and we'll bless you all the way. We we believe that um a fresh win is uh gonna be a powerhouse church here in northern Ohio, but we are not the only church of God's people in northern Ohio. Yep. And God moves his people around, and uh, we are always looking for people who just don't believe in Jesus and want to come to this church because you know I'm a good preacher, or um the music's great, or whatever. We want you to grow until you know that this is where God has brought you to serve. And uh that's important because sometimes things happen in church where you don't want to be here anymore. And if you don't want to be here anymore, and God says, This is where I want you, then you're gonna have to figure that out how to serve here, uh, whether you like it or not. See, that that is what that centurion was saying. He was saying, I am under your authority. Yeah, and we need to do that in our Christian life. And just what church you go to um matters to God, and he's looking to put you in a place um where you're you're gonna serve, where he wants you to serve, and then you might end up going back to the church that you were uh uh didn't want to leave in the first place, but God had a plan for you, and you gotta follow that plan. And I think uh with our consumer attitude here in in uh United States, I'll go to a church till I find one um that'll listen to me. No, I'll find one that I like and my kids like, and and and we do that, but as we grow in Christ, uh sooner or later he's gonna say, Look, are you loyal to me? Is your allegiance in me? If it is, then I want you to serve at this church, even though that you're you're mad at the pastor.

SPEAKER_01: 16:34

You know, it definitely pushes back against uh some of that consumerism uh that you're talking about. And you know, I I I think especially when you're trying to find a church, it's you it's good to try to find a church that you you like and that you connect with. That's not the most important thing. Um, you know, do they preach the gospel? Is there good doctrine there? Those are important questions. Yeah. Um, but if you can find a church that does that and has a good kids' ministry program, well, you know, that's that's a great thing. But there every church, no matter how great it is, no matter how full it is, how many people are there, um here's what I know about churches that they're full of people, and people got problems, you know. Like eventually there's gonna come a time when you're angry at someone or about something, and yeah, I don't man, I don't I can't even stand thinking about going because I gotta serve with that person this week, and I can't stand that first. Well, when you know, and I'm loyal not to this church, I'm loyal to Jesus, and this is where he has planted me. Um, it really pushes against that consumerism that that I think is infected a lot of uh the American church.

SPEAKER_03: 17:44

And in the opposite, you know, I've been going to this church for years, I love all these people, and I'm looking at that church over there, and it's a mess. I don't want to go over there. And God might be saying, I I want you to go over there, they need some stability and go over there and and put your feet on the ground and let them let them get some traction, and um, and then maybe you can come back. But that's all because we live in alignment, in allegiance to Jesus.

SPEAKER_01: 18:18

I think there has been uh people over the years, because we we've had some people, and you know, unfortunately, there's people who uh at times will will come to your church for a while, then they leave, and you don't ever quite know why. Um but every now and then we've had people that that have come and told us, hey, I feel like God's calling me here or to go do this thing. And I think they've been shocked by our our response because if if someone comes to us and says, Man, this is what God's calling me to do, you and I, we're like, go do it. That's awesome. Don't stay here. Yeah, like we don't we don't want that to be. Yeah, we read Jonah. Get out of the boat, man. Um, no, we we love when people are are following God's plan and purpose for their life. And I tell people, even in the new here gathering, I I let people know right up front if God's calling here, we want you here. Uh we're excited. Uh, we want you to get involved, we want you to grow, we want to help you discover more in Christ, take steps towards Jesus. If God doesn't want you here, and this is just a stepping stone, that's okay. Absolutely. That's okay. And I think people have been shocked by that. Um, but it it it's because of this. We truly believe this. Allegiance is to Jesus, not to a fresh wind. It's to his church, capital C. And God can put you wherever he wants to accomplish whatever he needs to accomplish in the world. And when you're loyal to him, you'll go and do it.

SPEAKER_03: 19:45

But we will say this church is not optional.

unknown: 19:49

That's right.

SPEAKER_03: 19:50

Uh, not if you're under the authority of Jesus. You're gonna have to serve with people in a community. You're just gonna have to. He he says, Don't stop assembling yourself. Together. This is you're the assembly. You need each other to grow. This is a this is a group function. And you are part of that larger body and you're supposed to serve it. I matter of fact, the scripture says he's given you a gift to serve the church. Not yourself, not your boss, but a gift to serve the church. And I know what that looks like in you. But you got to serve somewhere. It might as well be the place that God wants you.

SPEAKER_01: 20:31

I've heard so many people over the years, I love, I love God. I just, man, I hate the church. And because church, they've been hurt by church or whatever, I tell them, I'm like, man, you better be real careful because uh the church is the bride of Christ. And so if you've listened to this podcast, you've heard me say this before, but like just go imagine standing before God and being like, hey man, love you, hate your wife. Uh, and just see how that goes. Uh, not well. Yeah, we we are called to gather together um to advance Christ's kingdom on the planet. And I just so happen to think, and I'm sure I'm a little biased, A Fresh One's a great place to do it.

SPEAKER_03: 21:07

It is a great place to do it.

SPEAKER_01: 21:08

So if you're not sure where God's calling yet, we'd love to have you join us here and uh and see what that looks like. And as you figure that out, if it's not here, we'll be the first to bless you on your way uh to whatever God has called you to.

SPEAKER_03: 21:21

Absolutely. And if you're here just resting between um your assignments that's the Lord gives, that's fine too. Just come relax, um, you know, be with us, serve with us, and and uh as God uh begins to reveal his plan for you, it might not be here, and and uh we want to bless you on your way. We want to equip you, bless you, uh, do what we can to get you where God wants you, because it's better for the church for us all to be where God wants us to be.

SPEAKER_01: 21:52

Absolutely. So that's uh that's a lot about faith. And it it truly comes down to allegiance. Um, am I loyal to Jesus? Have I placed my trust in him, not just belief, but has I have I submitted to him, made him Lord. Right. Um, and so if faith is trusting God's word, then this is what we talked about this past week is obedience, then is acting on it. And I think obedience is the natural outflow of true faith. Um every yes to God reveals what or who we truly trust. And so I I I tried to break this down in the sermon this past week, but to say, you know, it's easy to say, yes, I have faith in God. I trust that his plan is good, that he's working all things together for my good. It'll give me more pleasure, at least in the short term. And so we act on what we trust. If you truly trusted that following God's plan and purpose for your life would bring you the ultimate joy, ultimate fulfillment, ultimate peace, ultimate pleasure. Uh, scripture says at his hands are our pleasures forevermore. Um, if we truly believe that, then following God wouldn't be all that hard. Um, but we we reveal, man, in those moments when I'm struggling, it's because there's something in me that says, I man, God, I trust you. I just trust this thing more. Um makes me think of that uh that guy who asked you know Jesus to heal his son um who is possessed by a demon. He says, I do believe, but help my unbelief. Right.

SPEAKER_03: 23:34

I think and it's this is a difficult way to to look at faith and obedience uh for most people because we we don't uh we don't think deep about our sin because it makes us feel guilty or under conviction or whatever. We don't think deep about it, we don't think things like, you know, this makes me more satisfied or you know, this brings me more joy than God does. We don't do that. Okay. Um what we're saying is what you're acting out, this is what it is, you know. And even though um nobody's explained it to you, we're explaining it to you now, when you say, I can't put this down, but I love Jesus, we're saying you love that more than you love Jesus. And that's where your struggle is. And we all got that. Don't don't we're not pointing our fingers at anybody without four fingers pointing back at us, right? So we need to understand that um that's where we are when we're doing that. And Jesus is saying, Hey, I can give you that joy, I can give you that satisfaction, I can give you that peace if that's what you're looking for, or I can even give you that um, oh, what do we call it when we're just trying to get out of life, um watching uh YouTube videos or or playing video games, just trying to be um escape's the old words coming to my head. Escape will work. So we'll we'll go with escape. If you're just trying to escape life, Jesus says, I got all that. I got all that. Well, you you're not gonna have you know a cool video game. How do you know? You don't know what I got. You know, you you gotta come over here and find out, you know. And um, I've had that escape. I've been in, I've been downstairs uh with logos on and uh um AI searching all over the internet trying to figure out what is he saying here? Oh my gosh, you know, this is big, this is a book, this is a you know, how come nobody's noticed this before? Um, and I'm gone for hours. Yeah, you know, and um he's got it all. He just wants to show it to you. And um when you're when you're struggling with that, I know you never thought like that before, um, but this is this is what it's come down to are you loyal to Jesus? Is your faith loyal enough to you'll obey? And you'll say no to the things he says no for. And no, you know, and sometimes our no's are different than the person sitting next to us' knows. God will say, I don't want you involved in that. And um, well, he's involved in it.

SPEAKER_01: 26:26

I know that I was gonna get ready to say that four-year-old nuts rises up. Well, how come he gets to? Right.

unknown: 26:31

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 26:32

I remember when um um Peter said to Jesus, um, you know, well, what uh what about what about him? You know, he Jesus told him they were all he were gonna lead Peter to where he didn't want to go, talking about Peter's death. And he says, What do you care if John lives forever? You got your own road to walk, you know? And um, so and we all have our own road to walk. Jesus is saying, Look, some of these things I'm gonna say no to you, and that's the law of love. That's the difference uh between living under the law of Moses and living under the law of love. If you love me, don't do this, okay? Well, you're gonna let everybody else do it? Yeah. But if you love me, then don't do this.

SPEAKER_04: 27:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 27:25

A great example of that is the rich young ruler, right? He comes out and says, You know, Jesus, what do I need to do to have eternal life? And Jesus says, Well, you know, these things, well, I've kept all those laws. And he says, All right, well, go sell all your possessions, give the money to the poor, then come follow me. And the last thing we read about that guy is he went away, say it. Wouldn't do it, wouldn't go on. Now, it's easy to look at that and be like, Well, is everybody supposed to sell all their stuff? No, it's not what he was saying at all. There was this thing in this guy's life that he was clinging to, and you said, Listen, I know you love what all this looks like, but you love that stuff more. And he, I mean, called that guy right out on the carpet. Which is it gonna be?

SPEAKER_03: 28:13

And he didn't chase him down, he didn't try to flower it up, he didn't try to round the corners, he just laid it out there and made the guy make a decision, and that's what God is doing with us. And that's why we don't elevate our sin to this, oh, this is a faith issue. Uh, and you're like, oh, I believe in Jesus and stuff, I'm just kind of messing around over here. No, it's a faith issue. You know, you're you're saying I'm gonna do this no matter what you say, when Jesus is supposed to be your authority. So um I'm just saying we're all in that same boat, and that's what we're dealing with when Jesus says, I want you to go this way and you want to go the other way. And uh so um Yeah, it's big.

SPEAKER_01: 29:01

You know, I I think if the easy way to maybe get this is is obedience is faith made visible. Um we make faith this very internal personal thing, but how do you know what faith looks like? It looks like the person who says yes. Says yes to Jesus. And that means not just one time, but every time. Jesus said, pick up your cross daily and follow me. And so the you know, if you've been around fresh wind for any length of time, you hear all the time we say yes before we even get started. This past Sunday I was telling everybody you need to say yes to the very next thing. God, what what do I need, where do I need to obey you right now? And just say yes to that. And that doesn't mean you're gonna get the full map. Um, you're gonna know all the answers to everything, that that life is gonna, you know, just fall right into place as soon as you say yes. You know, this past Sunday we were talking about Noah. Here's a man who God said every this whole world is nothing but evil and wicked all the time. And he says that Noah found favor with them and he tells Noah what he's gonna do and tells Noah, I want you to build an ark. And Noah said yes. But that yes meant 75, approximately 75 years of building an ark with no rain and with everyone around looking at him like he was crazy. Um that yes didn't mean Noah's life got easier. He had to show up every day, swinging a hammer, cutting wood, gathering supplies, spreading that pitch on the inside and the outside of the arcade. I mean, it involved a lot. That one yes led to a million other yeses where Noah had to keep saying yes over and over and over again.

SPEAKER_03: 30:45

And probably some pretty heavy uh family conflict, too. You know. All right, all right, sons, forget all your plans. We're gonna build a boat. What what? No, Dad, you don't understand. Um, I'm you know, I'm gonna be a pianist or I'm gonna play the guitar. Me and my buddy's got a band. No, you're gonna build a boat. For 75 years, you're gonna build a boat. And uh so we we look back at that and said that's a crazy story. But you know what? These guys in the Bible, these um Noah, he should be our hero. You know, um we look at I've known men who've lived for God their entire lives and they pass away and nobody knows their name. The only names we know are the ones that were famous for following God and then fell on their face. That's the names we know. That's the names that get repeated. But God marvels at men who can have a long obedience in the same direction. And that's who we need to make our heroes. Billy Graham and Noah. Yeah, I put 'em in the same Billy Graham uh was tempted in a modern way. And um and we've got we got some they're not dead yet, so I'm not gonna say anything about 'em, but we we've got a lot of people who are are walking that way. And um they should be our heroes. The ones that um their faith was placing themselves in obedience under the authority of Jesus. Um not just believing in Jesus, but submitting to his lordship in their life. Those are the heroes out there, those are the ones that marvel whether you know their name or not, they're all around you and they're saying yes every day.

unknown: 32:49

Yep.

SPEAKER_01: 32:49

And heaven marvels, man, it does. Um every time those people say yes to Jesus and in those areas that look so tough. Um one of the things I said in the sermon was faith often or obedience often looks foolish before it looks faithful. Um a lot of us we look at people's life and we want their success, you know, and we look at all the things and uh man, if I had their opportunities, if I had this. Yeah, it it took a lot of obedient steps to get to that. You don't just end up that way. Um, but along the way, they did a lot of things that a lot of other people said, man, that's foolish. And and not even just in the faith world. People who build giant companies, you know, you you want to build this multi-million, billion, trillion dollar company, and you know, you wish you could be Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk or Bill Gates or one of these guys who just figured something out, and they did. They did a lot of things that everybody else said, that's stupid. You can't work those amount hours, you can't do that, you can't do this. They did a lot of things everyone else said, that's too foolish. That's beneath me. I would never. And those guys, the ones who made it to the top, are the ones who said, it might look foolish, but I'm gonna do it. Um, Mark Batterson, uh, I just downloaded this book to read of his. So I haven't read it yet. Might might be good, might be terrible. Um, but he just came out with a book uh called Gradually, then suddenly. And he says every every great success story, that's its origin story. It happens gradually and then suddenly. And we think everyone's this overnight success, but the truth is it's the day in, day out, sticking with it, putting your nose to the grind day after day, year after year, for NOAA decade after decade, before foolishness finally looks faithful.

SPEAKER_03: 34:42

When we went to that leadership summit, you remember the testimony of Craig Rochelle. You know, everybody's like, Craig, you know, you're this amazing guy, and you know, you and uh you get up here in front of all these leaders from all around the world that have come here to talk about leadership, and you're the lead speaker. You know, how did you get here? And he said, flossing my teeth. And everybody went, Huh? What he said, it was something that I didn't want to do, which is a skill. I don't know. You need to be teaching your kids this if you don't know it or not. Doing something that you don't want to do is a skill that you need to master in this life, or you're gonna struggle. I know so many kids now um that they just can't force themselves to do something they don't want to do, whether it's uh clean their room or put gas in your car. I don't want to do it. So you're calling me to bring you gas now. You well, yeah. Uh that's you know, we we are in in in a tough situation. Craig Rochelle said, I got up and did the little things, and now I'm here. Right. If I never got up to do those little things, you wouldn't know my name. And uh you gotta say yes every day. That's right. And that is that is a great, great example of what we're talking about.

SPEAKER_01: 36:16

Yep. Faithfulness, obedience. Um, these are things that man, it God marvels at, and he's just looking, will you have long obedience in the same direction? I love that idea. And maybe because I can picture it, you know.

SPEAKER_03: 36:31

I think that I I tell you the best phrase you said on Sunday was, Am I walking with God or just working for him? And that is I mean, that is the crux of the situation here. We talked about, you know, if you're gonna obey him or not, if you love him more than what you're doing and all that kind of stuff, and it's it's um the proof is in whether you're walking with God, trying to know God, to know him, because that's love, all right, or you're just working for him. You know, I spent a lot of my Christian life just working for him. Hey, we got this good relationship, God. You want me to do this thing, I'm gonna do this thing. So I'm gonna go over here and do it, and you just kind of leave me alone, and if I need a little help, I'll ask you. Right. You know, instead of saying, I'm with you, God. Oh, you want me to do this? Okay, I want to do this because I want to be with you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 37:31

You know, and it's one super easy trap for people in ministry to fall into. But man, I think so many of us we get into that spot where it's about checking the box, you know, and I I got I gotta do this thing, and I know that's what I'm supposed to do, and we lose the fact, man, God wants to walk with you. That's what first John was was talking about that we read on on Sunday. If if we say that we know him, that we're in him, what does that mean? It means that we should walk as he walked. Right. It's about a relationship. And so, where are those areas where we've settled for spiritual activity instead of relational closeness? So many of us were so busy doing God things, church things, volunteering, showing up, you know, we'll read our daily Bible reading plan, we'll throw a couple bucks in the giving box on the way out the door, we'll we'll do the churchy stuff. But when's the last time you truly were just with God? God, I don't want to just do this for you. I want to do this with you. Right. That's what he's after. God doesn't need you to do anything for him, he's the creator of the universe, he owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Um what are you gonna do for God? He says our good works are like dirty, filthy racks. We have nothing to offer. And when we can get that idea in our head and then be like, but he wants me to do it anyways? Yes. Yeah, and he wants to do it with you.

SPEAKER_03: 38:58

Yeah, and I I tell you what, your big wins is when you obey and your obedience is not ever seen. That's your big wins. When you can you can say, I did this for the Lord, and nobody's gonna pat me on the back for it. And um, so let me put it, um flesh this out for you. When um New Year's Day, I I sent a text to Ryan and said, Happy New Year's. Easter's coming, and so is BBS.

SPEAKER_01: 39:32

And uh I haven't been able to sleep well since.

SPEAKER_03: 39:36

And the the truth is Easter's coming. It it is it is our biggest day in Christendom. Uh we love it here, we celebrate like crazy and act like fools, and uh but we love Easter and it's and it's coming. We gotta get ready for it, right? Um But when we ask you to come and serve and Help us for Easter and we're gonna ask a lot of people a lot of things. We're not asking to come here and serve without him. He's here. We're asking you to come and be with Jesus in service. Right. Not not separating you from him into a good work. He's gonna be here with you in that good work. We don't wanna we don't wanna separate that. I have separated that. Um my I until I was old, till my forties, I separated, you know, you want me to do this, okay, I'm gonna go do this. And it's like now I gotta go back to Jesus. No, no, no. He's in that. Right, right. He's right there in that. You're with him when you're doing that. And I think in our mind we've kind of separated that. Well, there's a difference between my Bible study when I get up in the morning and I spend time with Jesus and I pray and I try to commune with him and have a relationship with him. That's different than me going to the church and taking the garbage out. No, it's not different at all. He's gonna be with you taking that garbage out. He's gonna be with you serving in the nursery or standing out in the parking lot when it's 16 degrees, making sure nobody falls down or whatever it is that you think uh you do for the church because nobody else will. You don't want to do it either. But he is he is gonna be there with you. That's walking with God.

SPEAKER_01: 41:35

And so how do you start? You start with small daily obedience. Just say yes to the next thing. Man, I I used to be so impressed by people who had the courage or faith or whatever you want to call it to start something. You know, uh start a business, start a organization, start a book, start a blog, start start anything, start, start running, start working out, you know, whatever it is. I was like, man, that's so amazing. I love people who can who can start something. The older I I get though, the more I appreciate the people who finish things.

SPEAKER_04: 42:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 42:14

It's and I've learned it's a whole lot easier to start things than it is to finish. It takes faithfulness to get things across the fences.

SPEAKER_03: 42:22

I've started a lot more things than I've ever finished.

SPEAKER_01: 42:25

Yep. And and God's looking for us to be faithful, to have long obedience in the same direction. And so I want to encourage you, obey even when the results aren't visible. Right. When nobody seems like they're paying attention or or watching, there's no applause, there's no accolades. Um keep showing up, keep saying, yes, keep being faithful because heaven marvels at that. And I and I challenge people this on Sunday. We'll wrap up here too, and I'll give you one more chance in case you got something. But we need to anchor our obedience and grace, not guilt. Um when I I don't think there's any way to sustain it if we don't. If we don't anchor this thing in the grace of God, um I'm I'm not doing this for God. I'm not doing this to impress him, I'm not doing this to get any more of his love. I'm doing this in response to what he's already done. I don't have to. Yep. I get to Noah, scripture says Noah found favor with God before he ever cut a piece of wood, before he ever nailed a single nail or spike in, before he collected any of the animals, Noah found favor with God. We do this out of response to what God has already done. So anchor your obedience and his grace. And uh, when you feel like nobody else notices and the world doesn't care, and this looks foolish, and everyone thinks you're crazy. Uh if you'll if you'll anchor it there in the grace of God, um, I think it'll give you the the power that you need to sustain through it um when it gets tough.

SPEAKER_03: 44:01

Ephesians chapter three. It says God is revealing his manifold wisdom to the heavenlies. What that means, I have I have no idea. But I love to speculate about it. Through He's gonna He's gonna show His manifold witness to some supernatural whatever through the church through you.

SPEAKER_01: 44:38

Let him let him be obedient, stay faithful, take the next right instead.

SPEAKER_03: 44:46

Oh Father, I want to thank you that you love us so much that you would marvel over things that um well when we say yes, Father, I know that you were tempted in all all points like we are, and we know that uh you live this life too, and and um but you you relish um when we say yes. Because in obedience we're walking with you. And um more than anything else, Father, we want to grow our relationship with you. So, Father, as we take faith and obedience and we wrestle, wrestle, wrestle, wrestle. Uh, you're a God who likes to wrestle. And as we wrestle these things into our lives, I pray that you'll give us uh freedom and understand that this is grace. Uh we don't have to, we get to walk with you. Thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.

unknown: 45:52

Amen.

SPEAKER_00: 45:53

Thanks again for joining us for this episode of the Midweek Podcast. We'd love to hear from you. Let us know how God is using this resource in your life or send any podcast questions or topic ideas to podcast at a freshwind.org. If you would like to support this ministry financially and help us continue offering new resources that equip you to discover more in Christ, simply text any amount to the number 84321. We're so grateful for your support. Make sure to tune in next week for a brand new episode of the Midweek Podcast. Be blessed and have a great week.