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_02: 0:27

Well, hey, welcome back to the Midweek Podcast. Pastor Ryan joined as always with Pastor Tim. And uh Tim, we're coming off a I think it ended up being a three-week break. I think we told everyone, oh, maybe it was it two, two or three-week break. It was a week longer than I anticipated, but uh we are back from the Caribbean into the the tundra.

SPEAKER_03: 0:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 0:49

Um what a change. Man, go from 80 in sunshine to 20 in snow. Um, you know, I guess when we did get off the plane, it was it was about 60 in Ohio for a couple days, so got to ease back into it. And then it's like, no, here's here's normal. It wasn't easy. Wrong word choice there. But we're back, and uh this past Sunday, we wrapped up our Marvel series. And um I mean, I I told everyone on Sunday, Tim, I this has just been a great series to study. Um I think it's a a unique perspective. I don't remember us taking this angle uh before, and you know, in prep, I tried to find other people talking about this. Not a lot out there in this space. Um, but just to really drill down on what are those characteristics, those traits that that heaven seems to marvel at. And so we we got to talk about a a few of them, um, eight to be precise over the past uh couple months. We looked at faith that trusts God, obedience that follows them, righteousness that aligns with him, compassion that reflects his heart, humility that draws us near, worship that values God above all else, and repentance that restores alignment when we lose our way. And then um finally on Sunday, we looked at the heart uh that that puts us in a posture of of blessing. And um really the the thing that kind of undergirds the rest of these things. Um most of those are actions, it's something we do, you know. Uh obedience is is a verb, um, compassion is a verb. The heart determines why we do each of those things.

SPEAKER_01: 2:32

I think it's important for us to realize, number one, that these are not uh the comprehensive list of all the things that happened in the Bible. So let's we're talking about since the beginning of creation. Uh the Bible has given us eight of these uh examples of people that um make God sit up and take notice of his creation. And we haven't talked uh we talked about Noah, but we didn't talk about his grandpa Enoch who God was like, You see this guy? I'm just gonna let him walk up here. Yeah, you know, and uh I think what I what we tend to do is if it's not in the Bible, as Christians, you know, it didn't happen. We can't really have uh we hear about great miracles and God doing great things for people, and we always got a question in our mind, you know, what are the details about that? We can accept it when it comes from the Bible, but I believe that God is taking notice of people right here today in uh the way they're living, the way they're obeying, um, their faith, um, their repentance, their worship, and the heart that they have to serve God. I think those people exist today. It's not a biblical phenomena.

SPEAKER_02: 4:03

I don't know if I closed out the first service on Sunday as good as I closed out service two. Um because uh man, I got up there at the end of service two, um, and right as I was dismissing everybody, man, I I just laid it out. You can do this. Yeah, we can be these people, and I don't think I said that in service one. So if you were at the first service, I apologize. I want you to know you can do this. I mean, what what we're talking about faith, obedience, faithfulness, righteousness, humility, worship, repentance. These are things anybody can do. It's not a, you know, oh, only select people get to be that. No. All of us can develop each of these traits in our life, and we can be the kind of people that heaven marvels at.

SPEAKER_01: 4:54

Yeah, Philippians tells us that he's um working in us so that we can do the things in our life that'll make us please him. And I think ending on the heart was uh, I know you wanted to go on to Job, but I think ending on the heart is is really important. Um David wasn't perfect. And um he made a lot of huge mistakes. Not just uh, you know, we got the David and Bathsheba story, but um how he dealt with his kids, how he ran the kingdom, um, how he got in trouble about being prideful about God's kingdom. It really wasn't his. He was just stewarding it for him. And we we we miss the fact that in all this he still had the right heart. I sent you a text um about Numbers fifteen. Uh and that's where Moses is um telling the people to make this shaw, this prayer shawl, and the zitzis and and how they're tied, um the uh books of the Pentateuch and how many they are and how many knots they are and what they represent. And what they do is they represent the law. And he says, I want you to wear these every day so that when you see them you'll remember God's heart. And then it actually says in uh Numbers 15 um 39 to 40 says, so that you won't follow your own heart. And I I you know that is that is something we talk about all the time. Don't follow your heart because it is deceitfully wicked, and no one no one can know it except for God Himself. Even David said, Search my heart and find any wicked way in me. Right. And that's we need to be uh understand that our um our heart can be turned and will Avon, which is um our uh sense of what is right and wrong get twisted. Uh that's the there's three words for sin. One is ends in a ka. The second one uh is pesci, and uh the pesci is the legal term, miss the mark. And then um the first one, ka is the is the rebellion. Uh I no, I know that's wrong, I'm doing it anyways, that flat out sin, but all these words get translated as sin. And the third one is Avon, which is twist it. You think you're doing right, like say that president down in Venezuela. You know, he thinks he's doing right, sending drugs to America, who's his enemy, and uh at the same time he's profiting for that for his people. So he's like, I'm gonna hurt those people, but it's good for us, and they're our enemies anyway, so I'm gonna I'm gonna do it. It's a good thing. And uh we get wrapped up in that a lot in our lives that we think we're doing something good, and then it goes too far, and uh we get trapped following our own heart instead of the heart of God. That's powerful.

SPEAKER_02: 8:30

Um you know, a little side note on Avon. I also beat them in high school.

SPEAKER_01: 8:35

Aha! And if you live in Avon, you live in sin. I'm just you live right there. You're live right now.

SPEAKER_02: 8:41

Now you're a multi-state champion the past couple years, but I did beat you back in 07. Man, uh, we've been asking this question.

SPEAKER_01: 8:52

Didn't we talk about pride not too long ago?

SPEAKER_02: 8:54

No, uh-huh that wasn't one of them. We've been asking this question uh each week in the series, man. What kind of life catches God's attention? Um, but here's here's the tension in all of this is some of the most impressive traits in scripture aren't loud. They're not flashy, they they don't trend, they're the quiet, hidden, tested things. Um, often the things that we do in secret. And that's why I think the heart is so important because it answers the question, why? Why am I doing these things? Um I a lot of us, I mean, we show up to church because it's well, that's what I'm supposed to do. Um, my wife wants me to go, or you know, my kids are begging me to get out of bed and come to church. So I go to take the kids. And I challenge people on Sunday to ask that question, why do you do it? Why? Why why do you follow Jesus at all? What what is the heart behind these things? Um are you just trying to to get out of hell because hell sounds bad and heaven sounds better? Um okay. And but or or are you trying to to follow Jesus and get to know him as well as a forgiven sinner can?

SPEAKER_01: 10:05

Yeah, it's not a it's not a peak thing. I I think that when we we encourage people to follow Christ and we want you know this mountaintop experience. But have you ever been on a mountaintop? We went out to um the presidential what do you call a bunch of mountains? Range. Range, yeah, the presidential range. And we went out on top of Mount Washington, which where the highest um uh wind uh ever recorded in the eastern United States is was up on top of that, 272 miles an hour. They actually have an old building, weather building that they put up there and they ran these huge log chains over the roof so it wouldn't blow away. It's a pretty cool place. But up on top of there, there's no life. There's no trees, there's no growing. Uh the trees that are up there are these little alpine things, and they're about a foot and a half tall, and they say, yeah, they're like over a hundred years old. Things don't grow up here. You know, if you're looking for a mountaintop experience so that you can grow and know the Lord, that's not where you go. Where does everything grow down in the valley? Right. My dad used to tell me, he said, son, I'm not trying to teach people how to get out of the valley, and I'm not teaching them to live on top of the mountain shop top. I want them to live steady. Right there in the in between, so their life can be consistent, and that's how you follow God. And these, you know, the people that we are pulling out of like um Elizabeth and Zachariah, they they consistently served the Lord, and that consistency catches God's eye.

SPEAKER_02: 11:58

It's yeah, it's not flashy, and I I think you're right. So many people we want that mountaintop thing. Um all the time. And I, you know, some of it is probably well, the people on the mountaintop are the people who get seen, right? You're up above everybody else, and I want that. I want that recognition that you know I love God more than the rest of you. You know, some of us we're just desperate for some experience with God. You know, I I'm not looking for any recognition, I just want an experience, you know. Um, but I I think it's it's that consistent life um that God honors the most. And I think when you do that, sometimes he brings you up on the mountaintop um and gives you a glimpse. But then you you go back down and it's that consistent life day after day. I mean, even David in the Psalms, what did he write? Yay, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. That's a man after God's own heart. Right. Where's he walking? The valley of the shadow of death. Right. Wait, hold on. I thought we were getting to the mountaintop. Um, it's that day after day, just living consistently. Right. Um, and so the the you brought this up earlier, the person I didn't get to talk about in this series. Um, and I told everybody you got to tune into the podcast because we're gonna talk about them today. So this is Marvel part nine or eight B, however you want to look at it. Um, but I think it addresses that that consistency that we're talking about. Um one of the other traits that God marvels at is our integrity. Our integrity. Um and not our reputation or or what people think of us. Um He he's looking for that what kind of life do you live over the long term? Um that day in, day out, consistent life. And man, there's there's no one uh who models this better than Job. Uh he has been, I mean, as far back as I can remember, one of my favorite characters in the entire Bible.

SPEAKER_01: 14:01

Um, Job was the first book of the Bible. Um they think Job lived um his life while Moses was growing up in Egypt. And that's what a lot of theologians believe. I don't know if that's true or not, if he was before that or not, but the way they talk about God just is one of those things with me. It's like people who knew God they knew who God was. It was like they weren't bereft of God. And these people were not Jews. Joe, Job was not a Jew.

unknown: 14:37

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 14:38

Uh he was not an Israelite. There were no Israelites at that time, they were all enslaved in Egypt. And so um we this is uh uh uh story about a man who um searched for God, found God, and lived for God in a very um we use that word uh integrity and integrity is you can be trusted. That is so important I think when we're dealing with this guy Job and we're talking about how my life should look in heaven is that God can trust not that you can trust him, we talk about that all the time. You need to be able to trust God, but can God trust you?

unknown: 15:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 15:29

And um, you know, last year I've been in this word loyalty uh all year, just trying to what does it mean to be loyal to Jesus in my life? And how can I be not him being there and loyal to me when I'm in the depths of whatever and when I'm struggling, but how do I be loyal to him? And Job has figured that out in a way that God would say, Hey devil, look over here.

SPEAKER_02: 16:02

Yeah, well, this is how it starts. Job 1-1 says, There was a man in the country of us named Job. He was a man of complete integrity who feared God and turned away from evil. Man, could you imagine if if God would inspire an author to write that about your life? Could he? A man of complete integrity, a woman of complete integrity, uh, a son, a daughter, a student, um, a boss, a husband or wife of complete integrity. I mean, I think a lot of us were like, you can use a lot of words to describe my life. Integrity is probably not one of them.

SPEAKER_01: 16:42

Yeah, I think you know, we use it as one of our values here at A Freshwind, integrity, and we we describe it as living a life um that's worthy of imitation. That that another person, Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ. A lot of us are like, follow Christ, uh, don't follow me. We'll end up.

SPEAKER_02: 17:01

Do as I say, not as I do.

SPEAKER_01: 17:02

How often have you heard that before? And so uh Paul Paul says, No, follow me as I follow Christ, which is a big statement, but at the same time, uh Job had done that. And um so when you think about integrity, you just expect Job expected to do what was on God's heart and not his own desires. He God expected him to do it. He even challenged uh the Satan uh in this story. He is a man of complete integrity. When he spoke about Job, he spoke with all the confidence in the world. I well, he already knew what Satan was going to do to him, but he says, I already know this is who this man is.

SPEAKER_02: 17:58

I mean, that's what God told Satan when he comes and he's standing before him. One, this is the story's so interesting because God's like, Well, have you considered Job? It's like, whoa, whoa, hold on! What are you doing to this guy?

SPEAKER_03: 18:11

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 18:11

Um, but this way he says, There's no one on earth like him. And again, a man of perfect integrity. It keeps coming back to this integrity, integrity, integrity. There's and God says, There's no one else like him. You can search the whole earth, and you're not gonna find another guy like Job.

SPEAKER_01: 18:30

It's not about sin. It's not about has he ever sinned? Has he ever no, it's not about that. He did the sacrifices that he he thought he needed to do. Now there was no law at this time, but he wanted to be right with God. He wanted his kids to be right with God. He did every time they messed up, every time he messed up, he went back to make things right with God. And so it's it's not about sin, it's about your heart.

unknown: 19:00

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 19:00

You know, it's about where you uh where your loyalty lies. And his loyalty lied in God completely. And no matter when he strayed, he found out, he came back. That's the integrity that we're talking about. Right, right. Because integrity means to say, I was wrong and I'm sorry, too.

SPEAKER_02: 19:20

Yeah, yeah, that's good. He's in those moments, I mean, again, verse one, he feared God and he turned away from evil. And and he he had a habit of doing it over and over and over again. And that's what builds a life of of integrity. And then, you know, God allows Satan to go and and test Job, and Job loses everything.

SPEAKER_01: 19:44

Everything he loves.

SPEAKER_02: 19:45

He loves his famine, his wealth, his children, all in one day. I mean, they're like, hey, all the animals, they're dead. Someone else runs in. Hey, your kids were all together in one house, they're all dead. I mean, he loses everything in a moment. Then he his health gets uh afflicted, his his reputation, you know. He even has his buddies show up to comfort him, and you're like, Golly, someone needs to give these guys a counseling course first. But they're like, you did something wrong, obviously, Joe. But scripture says this in all of that, he still retained his integrity.

SPEAKER_01: 20:24

And that's a struggle for us in in today because, you know, just on the top of it, if you really have to force yourself to see what's happening here. Because Job wasn't picked because um he was a really good guy. He wasn't picked because of all the things that he had. He had developed uh he was rich and he had worked hard and he got all that. He wasn't uh picked because his kids were good. He did sacrifices for them all the time. So it sounds like he was busy with that. Um so you know, we think that this guy must be, you know, the spotlights on him, he's high and whatever. No, he was picked because of his integrity.

unknown: 21:15

Yep.

SPEAKER_01: 21:15

And that's who God brags on. Not the not the president, not the you know, uh quarterback or whatever we uh value. He picked someone who has integrity, loyalty to him.

SPEAKER_02: 21:30

Yeah, he reserves his marvel language for those who uh who walk that way. Not the people that we we've seen to idolize and promote. You know, going back to the sermon on Sunday, God had to tell Samuel don't do not look at at this guy and his outward appearance, because I've rejected him. So you guys, humanity, you only see the outside of people, but I see I see their heart. And son after son after sun gets uh of Jesse's son. Gets rejected until we get to David, a man after God's own heart, and another guy who didn't get it all right. Um, and you talked about this earlier, but he kept coming back. He had a heart to be right with God. God, I want I want that relationship with you, I want that intimacy, intimacy with you. And when David was confronted about his sin, he repented. He came back. Um and so integrity is not perfection, it's what we've been talking about along. It's consistent consistency. It's who you are when there's nothing to gain and you got everything to lose.

SPEAKER_01: 22:35

And who you are is what God is working on in your life. Because once you have integrity, once you have it, you're gonna live a life of wholeness. That's right. It's because you're you're gonna pick and choose your life with God's priority and values and not your own. Um, you're gonna be complete. You're not gonna want any more than what God wants for you. And you can be happy in that. And then all this, you know, I'm running back to God, I you know, I gotta rededicate my life, or now I gotta get saved again, or whatever, however, you see that relationship you have with God, none of that matters anymore because you don't choose that anymore because you're loyal to your king. Um then when someone tries to tie you up, like Satan did, your character, um you don't have another person inside you that is gonna be a different person at work and gonna be.

SPEAKER_02: 23:40

Trying to figure out which mask I'm supposed to put on in each situation that it doesn't exist for you.

SPEAKER_01: 23:46

Right. And uh you can just be you. And I tell you what, guys, when you when you sit down and think about it for just five minutes, it's like that's life would be so much easier if I could be that person.

SPEAKER_02: 23:57

It would be freeing. Yeah, you know, and and we look at integrity, we look at these things like, oh man, that's gonna be so tough. The truth is it's freeing. Imagine if you didn't have to carry around a backpack full of masks and trying to remember which mask goes on and which situation and around which people, you could just be free. You could run for president and not worry about people digging up your social media accounts. Well, what did you say, and who have you been talking to, and who DMs were you in? And right, yeah, no, here it is. Yeah, you're you're free, you don't carry around that constant weight all the time. I mean, people we've defined integrity this way for a long time. The alignment between your private life and your public life. When those things match, and I'm not pretending anymore, I'm not putting on the front, you can finally be free. And man, if we could if we could step into that and experience that, I think it's one of the things that once you get a taste of it, you're like, man, I don't want to live any other way. Um because as soon as you as soon as you start to give in, man, you feel those chains, those hooks coming back into you and pulling you back, and you're like, oh man, here we go again.

SPEAKER_01: 25:13

I can't let my family see my email account. I can't let them see my text. I'm always worried about will they get my phone, and then, you know, or my browser history or or whatever it is, or even my Netflix history. Those type of things, you don't have to live that way. Right. You don't have to live with that. I mean, just say yes to God's priorities and no to the rest, and you you can sleep.

SPEAKER_02: 25:42

You need to understand what he just said. You don't have to live that way. That means that pressure that you're you're living under all the time, worrying about your phone and your account. You choose that. You do. You are choosing that. You don't have to live that way. Why? I mean, think how absurd it is that we choose to live in that kind of stress all day, every day. And it's no wonder why anxiety and all these things are through the roof. We we are choosing it to live that way, and you can be free from it. Integrity is what does that for you. Integrity is when your character matches your confession, right? And your devotion matches your declaration, where your obedience matches your belief. What we're talking about isn't reputation. That's what people think about you. And it's great to have a good reputation. We all want that. But integrity is what God knows about you. It's who you are when nobody's watching. Um when when the lights are off and no one's home, it's it's who you are when you're making that deal and no one knows what's going on. It's, you know, I could I could shave a little off the top here, and nobody would would realize that I did it. Integrity comes in in those moments.

SPEAKER_01: 26:58

Here's a good uh example that Peter brings out uh about people who gossip. When you gossip, and uh we're against gossip here at AFresh Win, if you didn't know, um, but when you gossip, you've got so many different stories rolling around in your head, and you don't know who's who. Because if you're a good gossip, you gossip about the things people want to gossip out, gossip about, depending on the group that you're with. And when it gets all together, and then someone gets hurt and they find out you were involved, you know, you got this thing on you, and whether you know it or not, you're building anxiety. You're you're just building a mountain of anxiety about the things you got involved in that you know you shouldn't have got involved in, and you just used your tongue. Peter says, if you want to love life and see good days, keep your tongue from evil. And that's the what we're talking about, the peace. You don't have to worry about someone coming up and say, Did you say this about me? Or did you say this about my husband? Did you talk about uh whatever in this manner? Uh and you you think, well, that's just gossip. I was just no, that's stress. And it's not just stress on Christians, it's stress on everybody. Your friend group can be destroyed by something that you say and you said it, and now you're just waiting for that to come back around and someone confront you about it. It happens all the time. But a lot of the anxiety we're walking around with is with something as simple as engaging in a conversation that you shouldn't have got involved in.

SPEAKER_02: 28:48

Those simple things, man, they get us over and over and over again because we've not built our integrity muscle. Right. We we try to adapt and be what we think people want us to be in that situation. And man, there you you stay in a situation or conversation too long, and you're like, oh boy, yeah, I should have left a long time ago. Right.

SPEAKER_01: 29:08

Um and that's just one one aspect of it. But Peter said, Do you want to love your life? Your life should be a life of integrity. If you want to love your life, live with integrity.

SPEAKER_02: 29:23

Yep. When we were on that cruise, uh Joy and I went to see one of the comedians. Um, I love comedians, I love comedy shows. We just did one at the chili cook-off. It that guy was hysterical. Um, so I love a good comedian. We show up and sit down. I think we made it all of 45 seconds. This lady comes out, she starts, and I'm like, ooh boy. Well, if that's the opening, um, she wasn't even through her opening yet. This was her intro preamble, and we're like, nah, let's just go listen to music or something somewhere. We can't sit through this. Um, because the problem is you you and we do it over and over, we justify those little things. I'm on vacation. How easy would it have been? I'm on vacation. Ain't nobody from church here. Nobody's gonna see what comedy show we go to. Um, this doesn't matter. It's a little thing. We know that you know, we don't talk like this back home. Yeah, and we can justify all those things, but man, you you put these hooks and they do, they get you.

SPEAKER_01: 30:26

And you know how you know you got a hook? Is when your wife says, Don't tell anybody we saw this movie. That's a hook. That's a hook. And you know, suddenly, oh right. Now that's this was bad. And I was on my phone half the time. It really wasn't my fault. I wasn't paying attention, and then the ending was, what? And uh I shouldn't be involved in this thing. And but at the same time, we need to avoid those times when we are gonna have to say, Don't tell anybody I said this, or don't tell anybody I saw this, or I hope nobody saw me coming out of this comedy club, you know, that would think that I am engaged in in that kind of stuff. Um and it's tough. It's hard to find a good comic that uh we had a good comic the other night that was clean and didn't add all that um stuff. I I think we only had one person mad, and that was um uh oh what's uh Larry's wife's I've been with we've been Bridget? Bridget. Oh my gosh, I'm done. I need to get me some echinacea or whatever it is. Um Bridget was the only one mad. I I guess he ended on crossbows and and raccoons, and uh she did not think that was funny. Um she loves animals, man. But you can find you can find a situation that you wouldn't be embarrassed if your mom knew that you watched that, you know, or your or your pastor knew that you watched that, or your life group uh leader knew that you watched that. Why bring that stress and anxiety onto yourself?

SPEAKER_02: 32:16

And again, you're choosing that, right? You could choose not to do that. Well, then you know, I wouldn't have fun, I wouldn't. There's plenty of of great things to watch out there. Um, and you don't have to choose to live this way, and you can start to walk and live a life free from those things, and you do it over time and you build a life of integrity. Integrity isn't built overnight, man. Um it you know, we've used that word a lot, consistency. It's doing the right thing over and over and over and over again. Um, and that takes time to develop. I mean, we're talking weeks, months, years, really.

SPEAKER_01: 32:56

Years. Well, Job raised a family. Yep, you know, and and Satan's got the same, uh uses the same attack that we attack others with. You know, well, he's got everything a person can want. He's got a great wife, he's got a great job, he's got, you know, he's he's got recognition and affirmation, and if he didn't have any of that, would he be living that way? And let's look at John the Baptist. He didn't have any of that. And he suddenly he's on the scene, and everybody, man, he must be a prophet. No, he's a guy who lives a life of integrity. And nobody noticed him before, but when God points him out, uh then suddenly everybody's oh well if he you know if he had lived a life like mine, he wouldn't be that way. And Satan just stuck his foot in his mouth when it came to Job. And that's that's amazing.

SPEAKER_02: 33:48

Well, that's what you're exactly right, because Satan says, Well, he only serves you because you bless him. You know, you take all this stuff away, and he's gonna curse you. Um, and yeah, you wouldn't talk about a face plant, you know. Right. Um, God allows Satan to take all this stuff uh away from Job, and the very first thing Job does is worship. Satan had to be like, What are you kidding me? You've lost everything. And Job's response is Man, the Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. I I can't even wrap my mind around it. You know, I was talking to uh a buddy of mine that um from high school, and man, I apart from maybe a couple words here and there, I haven't like had a conversation with them in probably 15, 20 years, you know, a real conversation. We got together, got had lunch this past week. Um, and his family has just been through I mean, really hell. I mean, some of the things that they've had to deal with, uh cancer, spouses dying, lost his dad, um, I mean, health issues, medical issues, uh, with different people in the family. I mean, just it's like if life could throw it at him, it's thrown it at him. Um, but we were talking about his mom, who was one of uh my Sunday school teachers uh when I was growing up. When I took over my first youth department, she was one of my very first adult leaders um that I had on our team. Um, and I'm 15, 16 years old leading this youth ministry. And I she was one of the very first. I'm like, I'm gonna need your help with this. Um but he's like, man, she's she's my modern day Job. You know, she has lost so much in her life, and yet she's been faithful. She never questions God, she never curses God. She, you know, she she keeps trusting him, she keeps showing up, her faith is is steady. And then we got talking about my grandma. He knew my grandma, and I was like, dude, same thing, right? Um, here's a woman who lost so much, lost her husband, got uh diabetes, and then lost her eyesight, lost her leg, um, ended up with cancer, um, you know, all the just one thing after another. And I remember my pastor growing up said he tried to call my grandma one time after one of the procedures she had to encourage her, and he got off the phone and said, Man, I don't know if I encouraged her at all, but I sure do feel good. Yeah, you know, like just one of those people. And for Satan to step back and just see Job's response to this whole thing and be like, How? Yeah, how why you've lost everything. Satan thought Job's obedience, his devotion, his loyalty to God was tied up in all those things. And for a lot of us, the truth is it is.

SPEAKER_01: 36:42

It is.

SPEAKER_02: 36:43

I'm completely loyal to God when life is good.

SPEAKER_01: 36:46

We have that same mindset that Satan has when it comes to those things. You know, I lived a life with a guy who same thing happened to him. He lost his wife and he lost his two sons. And it's like, how many more hits can this guy take? Had an incurable d lung disease, and uh and it was but he never he would never be disloyal to God. And uh that was a great it's great that we have role models in our life. But I want you to look at what's that verse in Job. I think it's verse twenty-one of the first chapter. It says, Lord g the Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. This was written down about four thousand years ago. It was true then and it is true today. It is ancient history, an ancient, ancient truth about who God is and and Job knew it. And we need to know it too.

unknown: 37:58

That's so good.

SPEAKER_02: 37:59

That's so good. And you can lose you can lose money, you can lose your position or career, you can lose your health, you can lose your influence. But if you lose your integrity, you lose the foundation of everything else. Um you talked about can God trust you?

unknown: 38:17

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 38:18

This is an integrity issue. Can you trust God? Absolutely. Now you might want to wrestle with that for a little bit, but the truth is he is completely trustworthy. Blessed be the name of the Lord. He's faithful even when we are faithless. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. So you wrestle with it as long as you want. He's trustworthy. It'd be better for you if you just laid down that and said, Okay, I trust him. The question is, can God trust you? There's situations that are gonna come up, and God's gonna look for someone and say, Who can I send?

unknown: 38:53

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 38:54

Can he look at you and say, hey, I'm gonna send this person because I can trust him. He's gonna do everything. This is what he said about David. He'll do everything that I command him to do. Can God say that about us? I love what Proverbs 11:3 says. It says, the integrity of the upright guides them. Our integrity becomes a compass by which we we live in any situation. When we live with integrity, we'll know what to do. You're not gonna have to worry. Does this take me towards the things of God or away? There's your compass. And I'm gonna, if you live with integrity, the answer becomes obvious. I'm going this direction. Why? Because it brings me towards him, it keeps me under his favor, under his protection. Um, and I'm not gonna let anything come and pull me away from that. I want that freedom.

SPEAKER_01: 39:48

I think in this day of who do you follow, because of Twitter accounts and Instagram and all that kind of stuff. Who do you follow? And I know we're talking about we're just following their feed, it's not like we're doing everything this person says, but think of the words we're using. Who do you follow? You people, you need to follow people with integrity who are the same as they were yesterday and will be the same tomorrow. I don't know in our political landscape we get a vote for one or the other, and they're usually um some of the most um disloyal and untrustworthy people that we can vote for, and we just try to pick which one is the least untrustworthy, right? And um and I think it gives us this mindset that it's okay for these people for you to follow these people and and be led by 'em. No. If they've crashed and burned before over one thing, they'll probably do it again. Their history is is a good idea of what's going to happen next. So when you're picking people to follow on Instagram and Twitter and pick people who's lived a life of integrity that they throw mud at and the mud don't stick. Um you know, we've had a lot of a lot of great ones. Um Billy Graham. Um we've seen uh a lot of pastors rise and fall, but Billy Graham in the United States and nobody still. I remember um um somebody told I'm trying to think, remember that uh study we did on the end times with um remember who that guy taught? Was that Sproul? Sprall. You know, uh Billy Graham and and um sprawl didn't have uh the same soteriology and um sprawl was up and um taking questions and a guy got up and said Alright, Billy Graham didn't believe this way at all. You know, you've said all this. Do you think you'll see Billy Graham in heaven? And Sproul said, No, I won't see him because he'll be so far out front next to Christ that I won't be able to see him in the gap between him and me. And man, you you need to search in your in your life if you can and try to follow people with the most integrity. Yeah, and that that goes uh for your boss, your friends, um uh the people you listen to. Uh find someone with integrity. And I know a lot of the people we listen to haven't lived life long enough, but um you know, uh a lot of these rap artists are not the person you should be following. You know, they're not the um oh what's that family out in California? Uh Kardashians Kardashians are not a person you should be following. You know, they've lived their life right in front of you. You should know.

SPEAKER_02: 43:14

And I would even caution you because especially um on the kind of the right wing movement right now, we're seeing some Christianity looks like it's gaining a lot of ground, and I and I think God's doing some pretty amazing things and powerful things in and through a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01: 43:32

He always is.

SPEAKER_02: 43:34

But um a buddy of mine, he so turning point USA did this alternative halftime show, which I honestly appreciated that there was something other than what the NFL's usually showing, because it's usually not great, um, even though the Tom Petty one was pretty good. Um but he was posting the lyrics to I think it was Kid Rock's opening song uh for the Turning Point US. Show. Um, and it's like I don't want my kids listening to that either. Right. Um, and so we we need to be careful, even people who identify with us politically and even claim to have a relationship with Jesus still might not be the the horse you want to hit your cart to. Right. Um we need to be very careful about who we we allow influence into our lives. Um and and what you're saying here is is so important. I I used to tell the the youth when I was the youth pastor, um, you show me your friends and I'll show you your future.

SPEAKER_01: 44:41

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02: 44:42

You know, you become who you hang out with. Uh and it's just and now your friends might be because a lot of us were isolationists, and our friends are our our favorite podcaster, you know. Right um, but it's we need to be very careful about that. And so here's some ways. I'm gonna try to get through this quick because I know we're uh we're coming up on on it already, but uh some ways that you can begin to develop integrity in your life. Number one, you need to decide who you are before you're tested. Integrity isn't built in crisis, it's revealed. And here's what I love about Joe. He didn't scramble trying to figure out who he's gonna be in the moment.

SPEAKER_01: 45:22

Right. He knew uh who he's gonna be, even when the when everything fell down around him.

SPEAKER_02: 45:28

Yep. So what are your non-negotiables? What lines will will you never cross? What who who are you becoming? Who do you want to become? Um, you need to answer those questions and decide ahead of time. That way, when life's falling apart and compromising situations come up and temptations there in front of you, you'll know the answer.

SPEAKER_01: 45:48

Yeah. Number two, practice private, private obedience. When nobody's around but just you and God, are you gonna obey? Are you gonna say no? You know, let me take it. This is a great example, great exil illustration. Nobody's overweight because they said yes. Everybody who's overweight is overweight because they said yes, not because they said no. A lot of times we lose our integrity when we're alone and we don't say no. And so, number two, practice that private obedience. God, what is your heart in this situation?

SPEAKER_02: 46:30

Yeah, private prayer, quiet generosity, honest work, um, those moral decisions nobody sees. Um, you know, after everyone leaves at work and you got a chance to, you know, steal some paper clips from the break room, you don't do it, you know. Right. Um or potato chips. Or potato man, I I tell Jared this. When Jared got his job at Chipotle, they sent every month he gets uh loaded on a Chipotle gift card money to pay for his lunch. Um, so when he's out working, he gets free lunch. Chipotle pays for it. I'm like, man, that's a pretty great perk. His mistake was he sent me a screenshot of it to brag. And I'm like, I got your QR code now, buddy. And every time I see him, I'm like, I just want you to know, and this is integrity, Jared. I've still never used it. I got it. But obviously you think about it a little when I'm hungry and I'm like, it would be so nice to run over to Chipotle. Um here's here's the truth. Jesus said this, who's ever faithful in very little is also faithful in much. And so it's in those quiet, those hidden places um that we we grow our integrity. Number three, you need to guard your inner narrative. Um, man, Job's friends came, they accused him, even his wife said, curse God and die. You know, everything is falling apart. But man, Job refused to let those external voices rewrite his theology. He knew God is good.

SPEAKER_01: 47:56

Man, that's that is so big. It's hard to guard guard your mind because uh today with uh YouTube and and all the different influences that we have, every everybody who speaks life into your life, um somebody's trying to tear them down. And it's usually another Christian trying to tear them down. And it's hard. You gotta guard your mind, you gotta guard your doctrine and guard your perspective. Is God good?

unknown: 48:27

That's right.

SPEAKER_01: 48:27

And if it's come to you that God is good and I can trust him, then don't let anybody tell you different.

unknown: 48:33

Yep.

SPEAKER_02: 48:34

And then finally, you need to stay rooted in our reverence for God. Job's integrity came back to this. He feared the Lord. He feared the Lord. And Proverbs tells us that's the beginning of wisdom. It's the fear of the Lord. And so we need to stay in that. And this isn't mean doesn't mean I'm afraid of God. It means I I have a healthy awe that God is so far above me. His ways are not my ways, his thoughts are not my thoughts. Um, and I have this fear of the Lord, and and when we keep ourselves in that place, and we say, God, man, you you're right on every issue. Um and I and I'm gonna try to to align myself and align my heart with your heart. It keeps us in a place of of integrity. And man, you can you can come boldly before the throne of God.

SPEAKER_01: 49:29

Quick example of that. There's a a man named Jim Baker, and um he had a um ministry, him and his wife, up here in um Ohio, and it started it started growing and growing and growing and growing and got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger, and he put up this um kind of like a campground hotel resort thing for Christians, and he'd bring in um Christian musicians and stuff, and it was a big thing. And he was on TV, and then he got caught up in um um selling things twice, and you know, campgrounds and hotels and um all that kind of stuff, uh double booking and then triple booking, and then got caught up with some kind of sexual thing with one of his secretaries, and then we don't all all went on. But he ended up going to prison for it. So he goes to prison and he gets out, and of course everybody wants to talk to him because here's a guy who was godly and he fell on his face, and everybody wants a piece, right? So one one guy said, When did you stop interviewing him on TV? Very interesting. My wife showed it to me. He said to him, So, Jim, when did you stop loving Jesus? And um he said, Never never. I loved him through the whole thing. I just stopped being afraid of it. And that's where Job is saying, Fear the Lord. Fear the Lord. It is the beginning of the wisdom, it's the beginning of the yes and no's in your life. That's right, is when you fear the Lord. So um wrapping that all together, maybe Job would have been a good one to to put in there. Um and I I love his integrity, and we need to surround our ourselves with people of integrity. And if you do, you'll find yourself living with integrity, and then you'll find some people following you. And that's the way this whole um assembly, this whole church is supposed to be. Just like Paul said, follow follow me as I follow Jesus.

unknown: 51:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 51:50

As we close out this Marvel series, we've talked about faith that catches God's attention, obedience that moves his heart, righteousness that reflects his nature, humility that invites his grace, worship that delights him, repentance that restores, a heart that pleases him and positions us for his blessing, and integrity that allows him to trust us. Um and here's what we want you to know eight and a half weeks you can do this. Yeah, you can live a life that heaven marvels at. So much of the stuff um that we're stressed about and anxious about, the weight that we carry, are the things that we're choosing.

SPEAKER_01: 52:32

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02: 52:33

And if we would get this right, if we would choose integrity, if we would fear the Lord, we we would position ourselves to say no to the things that that take us away from God, yes to the things that bring us closer. And God can look at us and say, Have you considered my servant Tim? Have you looked at him? He's a man of complete integrity. What if God could say that about us? And here's what I want you to know He can. He can if we'll start to live this way. Past Tim, will you pray for us?

SPEAKER_01: 53:04

Lord, I pray for our church here at A Fresh Wind that you'll make us steady. Not trying to run the mountaintops and not get um crushed in the valley, but somewhere in between where every day we consider your priorities and your values over our own to live a life of integrity and loyalty with you so that you can look at us and say, consider this person. And Lord, I I know that's uh in in our culture, that's a hard thing to say, a hard thing to look for, a hard thing to believe that I could be that person. But Lord, with the power of your Holy Spirit, we are all that person. We can be a person who lives with integrity, someone whose life is worthy of imitation. And Father, I pray that you'll place it on our hearts to desire that in Jesus' name.

unknown: 54:13

Amen.

SPEAKER_01: 54:14

Amen.

SPEAKER_00: 54:15

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.