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

Hey, welcome back to the Midweek Podcast. Pastor Ryan joined as always with Pastor Tim, and we are wrapping up week four in our sermon series, uh, You're Not the Boss of Me. And um man, this is uh it's been a great series. Um, I don't think I'll ever choose a title like this again. My kids have been using it against me for a month. Um, every time I tell them something, You're not the boss of me. And uh, I think Sunday, uh Tim, you wrapped up. You're not the boss of me, Jesus is the boss of me. And uh listen, I heard that all Sunday. You're not the boss of me, Jesus is. I'm like, all right, well, I'm gonna have to start editing Tim's sermons to make sure he's not giving my kids ammunition.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Well, that's pretty exciting that your kids have realized how important this is. Uh one of the things that we do in our Christian life is get wrapped up in uh our emotions and and how they affect us, and we don't we we don't think much about it, but they control us and we don't even know what's happening.

Emotions As Servants Not Bosses

SPEAKER_02 1:31

Yeah, it's uh we preach a lot of sermon series here, and about every four to eight weeks, um preaching a new one. This is one that I mean, just person after person has come up and just talked about how impactful this series has been. And uh man, one of the things that that I uh I guess surprised me the most is the it wasn't just the series but the timing of it. People like I needed this right now. And you know, this sermon series you and I started um praying about as we were planning our sermon series uh last year, in the last year. Uh we we laid out the next year and uh just praying, Lord, what would you have us bring to the people? And drop this one here right in uh after Easter. Um You resisted it. I did. Um man, I think I talked about that on one of the other podcasts. I had this kind of just uh resistance talking about emotions, you know, or whatever. Um, and man, Lord showed me. He's like, shut up, right? And I got stuff I gotta do in some people's life. Um and man, it's I think it's impacted uh a lot of people in our church, man. Um this has been a big deal. Uh we've had we've just allowed emotions to to get the best of us for for too long. And we're saying uh in this series, emotions make great servants, but terrible bosses. And um, this isn't about living in a an emotion-free life. No, we want your emotions to to enrich your life and serve their intended purpose, the purpose that God created them for. And um in this series, we've we've been trying to help you, you do just that. And I think what turned this series for me, and I think what turned it for a lot of a lot of people listening, is it wasn't just this self-help thing on mental health or emotions. And that's I guess where my resistance to it probably comes from. And I think part of it's you know, being a guy, you know, we gotta stomp our feet down in our boots, yeah. Life sucks, move on, right? Um, and so anytime you start talking about emotions, there's just this, I'm a man, we don't talk about emotions.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Or get a grip on yourself and let's go.

Build Truth Walls From Scripture

SPEAKER_02 3:44

Right. Um, but I well, I think what turned it for me and for a lot of people is no man, there's one, these things are real, but then we acknowledge just because it's real doesn't mean it's true. And then we took that to the third step and said, let's not just talk about it, you know, talk about our emotions, not just no, what are we gonna do about it? And there was this deep application of and we what we've been saying every week is we need to start building some walls around this. Um, and so week by week, we've been taking some some of these emotions guilt and anxiety, uh, fear, envy, and saying, All right, let's build some walls around these things. And man, I we obviously it's too many emotions we'd be here all year long if we're talking about every single one.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Um and they're very complicated too. I think it was brilliant the way you uh I just called Ryan brilliant.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

Uh everybody clipped that posted somewhere. No, how did that happen? I just wrote it down in my journal. Tim said I was brilliant.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

How you took uh guilt and anxiety and how they tie together. So a lot of times when you're thinking, all right, I'm gonna build a wall against this guilt that I'm that I'm feeling. And once you really get into that process, we need the Holy Spirit to say, hey, it's not guilt, it's your anxiety. And uh let's conquer that, and maybe your guilt will go away. And that that's important. Same thing with fear and envy, which don't connect as easily as um guilt and anxiety, but fear and envy, so much of missing out is is comes from our envy, you know. I I fear my life is not gonna be what I I think it should be. I fear my marriage is not gonna be that comes, a lot of it comes from envy, and I love the way you put that together because I've been a pastor for a long time, and one thing I can tell you people are complicated. And uh this this this series was taking something that was very complicated and using a very practical way or a practical procedure to build walls against those things that are out of control in your life, and and and we just laid it out for you. This is what it looks like, this is what you're feeling, this is how we build these walls, and we want you to feel your emotions it all the way. We want it to enrich your life, we want it to boil up and roll over, we want you to have an abundant life, and life without emotions would not be abundant. We want you to have all that, but at the same time, they got to be directed by truth. That's right. And then we we sat them down and said, Hey, this is how you do it. And I think I think it I think most people said, All right, the I've been told this in different ways all my life, but this is the first time someone said, You need to dig out the truth that you have in your truth box and write yourself a sermon against these out-of-control emotions. And and I think people got it. I think they finally realized uh what was going on in their life. Yeah, I can hear about it, I can think about it, I can give mental assent to it. Yeah, I need to do these things, I need to stop acting like that, I need to stop feeling like this, but I never got a how-to stop.

unknown 7:34

Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

And I think that's what the sermon sermon series did.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

So we've we've challenged you. Um you get a lot of truth. Uh, you know, going to church, listening to sermons, uh digging in the the scriptures, Bible reading plan. Maybe you got a devotional you do in the morning, you listen to some worship songs. There's there's truth everywhere. Um but we're saying we need to start building some walls out of it. You gotta get it out of that box, and for a lot of us, it it has. We've just accumulated all this stuff over the years, but we haven't taken that next step to start building something out of it. Am I confident that the Holy Spirit can grab that Lego at the right time, just when you need it? Sure. Absolutely. But what how would your life change if if you weren't just waiting around for something to happen? You said, Lord, I got a lot of stuff here in this box. Help me start building some walls of truth out of this so that I don't even get to that point where my anger, my envy, my my bitterness has just taken over, and now the Holy Spirit's gotta reach in here to pull me back from the edge. Right. Imagine the freedom you could live in.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

I think the the I won't say the biggest, but the main point here is we've got to recognize that God has given us everything we need for godliness and holiness. He has given it to us. Here's the crux. Will you use it? And I think not only do we not use it, but we didn't know how. But now through this series, we got a chance to realize that, hey, I can take, I'm I'm petrified of tomorrow. I don't know what's going to go on, but I can take um this scripture right here where Jesus says uh for me not to fear, I can take uh this other piece of truth where he said, Hey, I take care of the birds, I'll take care of you. I all those different things. And as I as I start building that wall of truth, then when I fear, I actually run into that wall and I see all the things God has promised me. That he's never gonna forsake me, that he's always gonna be with me, that if he takes care of uh if he numbers the hair on your head, how much more important it is for him to think about you and your situation. All those things confront me now. And I have to turn. I can't, I can't just say, well, I'm just gonna ignore all that truth and I'm and I'm going to believe in my fear more than I believe in God. That's not what happens. Truth takes over. And uh we no longer believe in that lie that God doesn't care about you, or that uh uh you can even fix anything in your life by fear and anxiety or worry. We we begin to realize that the truth is all we have and we need to cling to it, and then it turns us instead of reacting in fear, it turns us towards Jesus and the author and finisher of our faith. That's right. The man who paid it all for us, and and we get to we get to confront him instead of our emotion, which could be really good or really not good.

SPEAKER_02 11:04

Uh, you get down there and that emotion is, you know, you're whatever it is is leading you to the things of God, he's gonna say, Come on, this is great, let's do it. And then if it's not, you're gonna get down there and he's gonna be like, Really? What am I down here with you for? Right. Um, you know, maybe you can get a ladder and try to climb up over top of that wall of truth, but man, it it is gonna redirect you. You're either gonna have to take a right or a left, or you're gonna have to climb up and over it and say, I don't care, I'm still mad. Right.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Um, which is And I'm not saying that that doesn't happen sometimes, but you'll have to climb a wall of through a wall of truth to get there. Right.

You Cannot Be A Better Christian

SPEAKER_02 11:47

So these walls are are so important to to begin to just keep our our emotions in a spot where they they can be servants and not bosses and they can enrich our lives. And so um hopefully throughout this series, God's been helping you build those walls. There's a lot more emotions, like like we acknowledge that we didn't have time to get through, but the the process is the same. Whatever that emotion is for you, dig down in that that Lego box. Uh fart start, I think I just said fart on the podcast. Good job. I apologize for that. Start building those uh those walls of truth that are gonna keep you from letting your emotions run rampant in in your life. Now, this past Sunday, you got on stage wrapping up the series, and you said something that it's pretty powerful, but I think a lot of us have, as soon as you say it, there's this natural resistance towards you said, you can't be a better Christian than you are right now. A lot of us hear you say that and go, okay, then that that sounds good. Preach is good, but you're not with me on Monday morning drive in the middle of rush hour. You know, you you don't see me when, you know, that you know, other teams' dads picking on my kid at the t-ball game. Uh, you don't see me in those moments. I if you came around and spent a week with me, you would you'd acknowledge there's some room for improvement here. And so what do you mean when you say you can't be a better Christian than you are right now? What what do you what do you mean by that?

SPEAKER_01 13:30

There's a a doctrine that says just a simple phrase, it says the already but not yet. And when Jesus saved you, he saved you completely. And he says, I have made you perfect. We are perfect in him. That transaction that we talked about on Sunday is when when I placed all my guilt on Jesus, he I was trying to think of the word that uh old King James used to uh uh use imputed. Yeah, imputation he imputed his righteousness to us. His righteousness can't be improved on. Once you are in Christ, you are perfect in God's eyes. Now, in our own eyes and in the eyes of people around us, we're like, well, he could he could use a lot of improvement, but to God, you can't be improved. You are perfect. And you can't be a better Christian than you already are, you can't be more accepted than you already are, you can't be more loved than you already are. You just there's no there's no way around this, Christian. I know you want to take responsibility uh for your actions, stand up and be counted and all that kind of good male macho-ness that we all have. But the truth is only Jesus could pay that price for you, and he already has.

SPEAKER_02 15:07

I think that that's the resistance right there is I need to pay for it. You know? Tim, if you followed me around, you'd see there there's room for improvement, and you're saying, okay, yeah, but but God already loves you. Okay, God loves me. But I still did that thing. And I need to pay. I need to pay for what I did. And in every other area of life, that's true. You know, you you get a speeding ticket, you gotta pay. You gotta pay. Um, you show up late to work once, twice, third time, well, you you're gonna have to pay, right? These things every area of life. And then we come to God and we say, All right, God, I understand you love me. I'm yours, I'm in your family, that's all great. But I I did this thing. And whatever that thing was for you, you think, now I gotta go pay. I gotta do my time, you know, give my dues, whatever it is, I gotta pay for this thing. And the the Christian life says someone already did.

Grace Versus Performance Culture

SPEAKER_01 16:16

And the problem, I think, with us thinking in along those lines is our justice system is not God's justice system. And when we think, yeah, I I should pay for that. Yeah, well, you don't really want to pay the full cost of that. You want to pay what your justice is system says. You need to be a little embarrassed, it need to cost you a little something, and then you'll be free. No, Jesus says you can't pay that price. What is the wages of sin?

SPEAKER_03 16:50

Death. Death.

SPEAKER_02 16:52

So, yeah, you think no, no, no, no, no. I mean, what I did isn't we're not talking the death penalty, you know, it's just this little thing. And God looks at you and says, Oh no. Kill 'em. Yeah. That's the penalty. Death. And so to say, you know, I gotta pay, what you're saying is right. If we understood truly the depravity of our sinful nature and and how sick and awful sin is, if we truly understood that, we'd be jumping out of the way of paying that penalty. We'd be like, no, no, no, hold on. Jesus, he got it. He's he's got it for me.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

If we knew the truth, and uh that's why Jesus came and that's why he died, because I don't think we'll we'll ever know the cost of our sin. And uh maybe, maybe when we get uh to the end of time it'll be revealed to us. Uh but Jesus paid our price because you couldn't pay it. That's right. And we have to first of all, we have to to humble ourselves to that point and understand that there's no way I could pay this. You know, Jesus said uh told that parable about uh the one who is forgiven uh less and the one who's forgiven more who loves God more, and it's it's always the one who's been forgiven more. And we see that in our own lives when you're a pretty good dad, and uh you haven't divorced your wife and you haven't cheated on her, and you pay your taxes, and you know you're a pretty good person, and you think uh I love Jesus, uh, but it's not it's not moving me anyway. But then you see someone who just gets out of prison and meets Jesus for the first time and he says, You're perfect, you're clean in me. And you see them live for Jesus, it's a different thing. You know why? Because you don't think you're that bad. And that that is that is the plague on moral Christianity is yeah, I'm I'm a pretty good guy. You know, God probably likes me. He's probably he probably likes the fact that I chose him.

SPEAKER_02 19:13

Yeah, if he if he if he was getting a golf or some, he'd probably invite me to be part of the team.

SPEAKER_01 19:17

Right. And that's all that is is pride. Jesus paid the price that you couldn't pay. There's no way you could pay it without giving up your life. And we need to praise him for that. And not it's almost disrespectful to say, I need to pay. You know, it's disrespecting what he did for humanity on the cross.

SPEAKER_02 19:43

Either what he did wasn't enough, and so I gotta pay too, or insulting in the other direction to say, Well, I didn't deserve death, but you know, I'm I gotta do this little thing over here. Either one misses what what sin is um and what Jesus truly accomplished for us on the cross. And so it's man, imagine that freedom of I don't have to to perform for this. I'm I'm his, you know. My kids, they're mine. And sometimes they act like knuckleheads, man. Um but they're mine. And God looks at you the same way. Sometimes, golly, he's an idiot, but he's mine, and he's holy, and he's loved, and he didn't have to perform for that. Um if we could rest in that, man, I think we would the Christian life would be so much freer.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

Well, we grow up in a a culture of performance. You know, we're always trying to kind of climb to the top of the ladder and wherever we find ourselves, and uh, we get up in the morning, we leave the house, and we go to work, and we want to climb to that top of the ladder. And uh even in our um being at home with our family, we want to be the best family man I can be. I want to be the best husband, the best dad. And those ladders uh make sense in life. Yeah, you want to be the best that you can be, and there's nothing wrong with that. But when it comes to your relationship with God, he's the best that you can be, and you let you let him be that for you. And that's that's the only way you can live in that context is that you you are now, you you that imputation when he put his righteousness on you, you can't be a better you. Now, one day you'll you'll recognize that because uh we're gonna be changed. And just in a moment in the air or coming out of the ground, you're gonna be changed, and you'll be like Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 21:53

And you will be like him. Like him.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

And it'll be the it'll be the the most freaking and maybe that's That time when you look back and say, Oh my gosh, praise God. He saved me. And I, you know, we use that word saved all the time, and and we get made fun of. I mean, we had a a sitcom called Saved on TV there for a while. All the all the people who hate God making fun of us and using our words. But man, for us as a Christian, that is the word. You are saved.

Practical Steps To Build Truth Walls

SPEAKER_02 22:30

Makes me think of um oh his name just slipped my mind. Uh I just quoted him in a sermon. He he would go and confess his sins over and over and over again. Who was that? Um Martin Luther? Martin Luther. Good night. Spurgeon was the only thing coming into my head, and I'm like, that wasn't Spurgeon. Um and you know, I've I've kind of joked a few times about his story because literally he would go and confess, and they'd be like, please come back when you've actually done something. But I think, man, the truth is the the closer we get to Jesus, the more we our imperfections become clear. I mean, it's like if you could imagine this, you know, if you had something way out in the dark and it, you know, I don't know, maybe it was your kid's soccer ball, he's left it outside, and you know, the leather's peeling off, it's got mud all over it. You know, it's it's not a definitely not a new looking soccer ball. But out in the dark, it just looks like a soccer ball. But you start bringing that thing closer and closer and closer to the light, and all of a sudden you realize, okay, it might be time to go get a new soccer ball. This thing's pretty messed up. Um, and I think the same thing happens with is the closer we get to Jesus, the more we realize our imperfections and and all the places where we've let them down and we failed them. And so you get a guy like Luther, and now he was a little messed up in his theology at first. Um, and he thought, man, I got to go to confession over and over and over again. But I think he was right on the cusp of something. He's like, Man, I the more I study, the closer I get, the more I realize how how messed up I am. The problem is a lot of us we're living our lives out in the dark and we don't think we're doing all that bad. We it looks like a soccer ball. But you get close to the light when when you stack our life up against holiness and perfection, all of a sudden it becomes really clear we're not that. And I think Luther was sensing that. And his his thing was, man, I I gotta, I gotta perform. I gotta do this stuff. I gotta, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta. And that's that's the culture we all live in today. It's the culture our kids are being raised in. I mean, from the moment they can kick a ball or swing a bat, they're at practice every day. Um, it's about performance. You then they try to go to college and they're trying to get in college, and well, man, we're you know, we got hundreds, hundreds and hundreds of applicants, and and we're only taking so many of them. And it's all about performance. How's your SAT scores? How was your interviews and and all this stuff, and it's it's performance, performance. And so we come to God and we we take the same exact approach. And then the thing that Luther found is it's not that, it's by grace through faith. And when I do that, there's that transaction that takes place where I God takes all of my sin and he assigns it to Jesus, and then the righteousness of Christ, he assigns to me so that when God looks at me, he doesn't see that old soccer ball laying out in the yard. He sees the brand new one sitting on the shelf that's never been kicked, the perfect spotless lamb of God. He sees his son when he looks at you.

SPEAKER_01 25:47

I think we well, it's it's our culture that kind of makes us that that way. I think we look at well, how did James say it? We you're like a guy who looks in the mirror and sees faces dirty and then forgets and just walks. Right, whatever. And then we've spent our lives doing that, thinking that we're pretty good because we haven't taken a real good look at it. But thank God for uh a fresh win, because we're about discovering more in Jesus. And if you focus not on performance, but discovering more of Jesus in your life. If he is your uh in the sermon I was talking about, you need to fix your eyes on Jesus and on things that are above his righteous work for you on the cross, um, what his resurrection means for you, what is lovely, what is pure. Paul went through all those things. When we do that, we begin to discover more in Jesus, and we're looking through what Paul said, that glass darkly, but we want to see him face to face, and we begin to see the things in the glass that is obscuring Jesus from us. So we want to we want to fix that, wipe that off. What is that? That's bitterness. I need to get rid of that so I can discover more in Jesus. You know, this is I'm I'm just petrified. I can't leave the house. And I'm not seeing, you gotta, you gotta deal with that. Wipe that off so you can discover more of Jesus. And I I think that's that's what we're trying to teach people here. Listen, you've you've heard the truth. Now you gotta preach it back to yourself, and you gotta build these these walls for these emotions so they don't get you in trouble. Your emotions are not causing you to sin, but they're influencing you to sin. What's the scripture say? Be angry, but do not sin. That means angry is not a bad thing. It's not a good thing. It can be a bad thing, and it can be a good thing. It depends on the the hallway of truth that it's going uh uh uh existing in. And that is something that every Christian has to do. They've they've got to take those things that are blocking their view of Christ in this life and build truth walls against them and wipe them off that glass so you can discover more in Jesus Christ. That's what we're doing here at A Fresh Wind. We want you to join with us and do that and be a family, a church of people that that are helping each other do that so we can discover more.

SPEAKER_02 28:38

When we live this way, it's no longer about performance, right? Of trying to to earn something or or get more of God's approval or love. You were teaching us he can't get any more. He can't love you anymore than he already does. Um it becomes, man, I I want to see him. And whatever whatever would get in the way of that, I would gladly get rid of. I Lord, if is this keeping me from you? Let's get rid of it. I mean, yeah, the more you discover in Christ, the closer you get to him, the more grateful you are for what he's done on the cross. And then all this performance culture that we all live in, it looks silly. You're like, man, there was nothing I could have done. Um and so then we just begin to rest in that. Man, he's already done it for me. And I man, I want to go know more about him. Why why would you do that for me? You know, and anything that would keep me from getting close to him, I'm gonna get rid of those things. Absolutely. And so we can't let things like our emotions keep us distracted and running around, chasing our tails because this guy cut you off on the highway, or or that kid said something, you know, to your kid. And what yeah, you know what? There's things we need to get mad about at times. Sure, be angry, do not sin, but man, we we let them control our lives. We're saying, no, let it let these truth walls take those emotions and run them right to the feet of Jesus. And then when they get there, you're gonna confront them and he's gonna say, Hey, really?

SPEAKER_01 30:14

What's going on here? You know, it's it's if you think about it, it is kind of funny. He's forgiven you past, present, and future. He can't forgive you any more than he's already forgiven you. And we're always saying, Oh, God, please forgive me. And it's like, uh done. Next. Come on. Are we gonna be here forever? You know, I was wondering what he's thinking about Martin Luther. Uh, okay, there's people all around you that need to hear the gospel. And you're here in the confessional again. Let's go. You know, and we we need to be we need to confess our sins. That's that's the way God pokes at us and and says, hey, look at this. And we need to confess them. Um but he's already forgiven them. But we do need to confess them so that we can agree that this is wrong in our life. But he's already forgiven them. When you when you called him Lord and Savior and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, this transaction occurred. You have the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ, and you are forgiven. And your sins have been paid for. It's an it's a past thing. Even though you haven't done done it yet, it's already taken care of in the past. He was crucified before the foundation of the world, just for you, if you're in Christ Jesus. And we need to live like that. We need to stop. Oh, I'm a lousy Christian, I'm a lousy this, I'm a lousy that. Sometimes I think that's just excuses for us um not to live in in peace. And you say, well, that would be stupid excuse to not live in peace. Hey, one thing I've we talked earlier uh today about humans are very complicated. You know how you took um how you took envy and fear and put them together. That's complicated. That's complicated. How can your fear come from envy? And once you dig into it, you start to realize, hey, and people are complicated. But you know what I found in the last 25 years of doing this is a lot of people love their sorrow. They love their hurt, they love their depression, and they don't they don't want to be free. But Christian, in this room, when you're with Jesus and the Father, you are complete. And all this performance, all this uh look at me, look how sad I am. Look how sad I am about my sin. That doesn't apply to Jesus, it doesn't apply to the Father, and it doesn't apply to the Holy Spirit who's trying to teach you truth. We need to grab the truth of the Word of God and live like it. Live like it. And that means you can't be a better Christian than you already are. You have the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. You can't be more forgiven than you already are, it's already been bought and paid for. You are free and be happy.

SPEAKER_02 33:37

Not only are you free, scripture says God has given us everything you need to live a life of godliness, to do what pleases him. And so you get you you know, you look in that Lego box and it's full of all those truths and all those little things that you've picked up over the years. This is God giving you some of that stuff that you need. Um now we're challenging you go do the hard work, dig in that Lego box, and start building some of these walls. Whatever that emotion is for you, we didn't cover them all. I know. But we've given you the resources that you need and and hopefully showed you some examples of how you can do this and start building those walls up so that you end up right at the feet of Jesus every single time. I'll tell you when it came to guilt and anxiety, fear and envy, what was the answer? The gospel. Absolutely the answer, right? And these things just look silly in the face of the Savior who's given everything for you. What do you have to be afraid of? What do you have to be anxious about? He's given you it all, he's done all of it for you, and so now we we just take those things, we put those walls in. Man, the Christian life, it's like you just unlocked. You talked about how the cage has been unlocked, but a lot of us don't walk out. The doors open. Go out, explore, live life to the full, and it's gonna be rich, it's gonna be satisfying, it's gonna be abundant. Why? Because Jesus said that's why he came. That was the purpose. And even those heart emotions, you know, you talked about sorrow. It's like, who wants to deal with sorrow? But man, even sorrow is meant to enrich your life. And and you take that and you run it to the feet of Jesus because you lost someone you loved, and you end up right there at the gospel that says, I got them, and you're gonna see him again.

SPEAKER_01 35:31

Right.

SPEAKER_02 35:31

And I get this rope of hope that's thrown down to me so I can climb out of my sorrow and say, Man, thank you, Jesus, that you have them. And I can't wait to get to see him one day. That's even there, you can feel the sorrow, you can feel that emotion, and it doesn't take over your life and and throw you into this downward spiral of depression or whatever it would be. Because you know, man, I'm gonna get to see him again. How awesome is that? How awesome is my God.

SPEAKER_01 36:04

I think we uh we should wrap it up right here because you know, Corinthians tells us that it's the Holy Spirit that teaches you the deep things of God. Now, we preach this whole series and we're really smart. You know, we are we are the preeminent pastors in this little classroom that we're in at church right now. And we are no one's smarter. No one's smarter than us two in this little classroom in the back of the church. But let me tell you this it's the Holy Spirit that's gonna reveal these things to you as you build these walls. But you have to do that work and let the Holy Spirit teach you the deep things of God. I'm afraid. And the Holy Spirit says, let's get into the word, let's build these walls, and I'll show you that you don't have to fear anything but me. That's right. And that's this is this is the practicality of what we what we've taught. And uh we'll probably have to bring this up next year or a couple years from now because people need to learn to do this process. And we're hoping that you you engage with the Holy Spirit and uh and begin to build these walls and change your life.

SPEAKER_02 37:21

So, how do you start building them? I would encourage you get a concordance out or go to Google, you know. If some of you like a concordance, we're getting old, Tim. We've been doing this a while. Yeah. Uh you can go to Google and you know, give me verses about fear and and start putting them, writing them down, or copy and paste them into a a note app in your phone or whatever it is, and you and then start memorizing those things, start building that wall. You can go, I I would encourage you when you're here on Sunday mornings, take notes, or at the very least, take the notes that we give you, download them and put them somewhere. Right. Um and now you can go and you can look at those things. Okay, oh, yep, that that one that really means something to me when it comes to fear. Oh, that thing really helped me. Even if you're watching a, you know, I would say one of your favorite preachers, but your favorite preachers are probably right here. In this little room. In this little room, back of the church. But if you're watching another preacher who says something, you can write that down. If it's a lyric in a song that that sticks out to you, write it down. And I would you always want to go back to scripture. His word is truth. Absolutely. So that's the basis for everything. But write those things down and then start thinking on them, chewing on them, and then say, Lord, that that ministers to me in this area of fear or anxiety or my unforgiveness, my bitterness, my rage, whatever it is. Help me put this block here so that when I when I that emotion comes up, it doesn't take over. I want it to run smack dab into this truth of who you are. And build those walls.

SPEAKER_01 39:00

And it's in it's important. Listen, you know what you're dealing with. You know, you know if it's anger or lust or or whatever uh emotion, depression. You know what you're looking for. And when you hear it, grab it. Grab it and hide it in your heart and say, Holy Spirit, take this truth from your word and change me.

SPEAKER_02 39:21

That I might not sin against you.

Prayer And How To Respond

SPEAKER_01 39:22

Pastor Tim, will you pray for us? Father, I want to lift up our church to you. Thank you for this truth. Thank you for um forcing me and Ryan down this um tunnel to preach on this, to give your people a fighting chance with your truth to discover more in you. Thank you that we don't have to perform for you. Thank you that you did it all for us on the cross. Thank you that we're the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. And let us live free. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 39:59

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.