Welcome And Series Setup

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_03 0:27

Hey, welcome back to the Midweek Podcast. Pastor Ryan joined as always with Pastor Tim, and we are in week four of our sermon series Signs and Glory, where we're walking through the Gospel of John each week. And um I'll be honest with you, uh Tim, this week I thought was uh was a home run, man. Um I know I threw a lot on that preaching schedule for this week, but man, I thought you killed it.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Yeah, the first part, I looked down at my watch and I said, Let's wrap it up.

SPEAKER_03 0:58

I know you you said before the the sermons are you like, listen, I got three sermons today, and I'm I'm like, okay, we're in sermon one, and it's inching closer and closer towards ten, and I'm like, oh boy.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully we'll talk about um some of the deeper things today, and uh talking in uh since we're moving in that direction, let's go ahead with our open.

The Loneliness Behind The Filters

SPEAKER_01 1:22

You ready? Let's do it. In 2024, the average Gen Z user spent two hours and 51 minutes per day on social media. The average post they uploaded had been reshot on average eight times before posting. A 2024 Common Sense Media survey found that 60 per 62% of teenage girls reported that they would not post a photo without editing it first. Forty-one percent said they would not be seen in public without makeup or filters they could control. But here is the most haunting statistic from that same year. A Harvard Graduate School of Education study found that 77% of young adults reported feeling that no one, not a parent, not a friend, not a partner, knew the real them. Seventy seven percent. Think about that. We are simultaneously the most photographed, the most followed, the most connected generation in human history and the loneliness. And the and the loneliest at the same time. The most documented, the least known. Um it's just crazy that those two I'm breaking out of my cold open. Sorry about that. It's just crazy that that's true. We're the most documented, the least known. It's that's a crazy We have more eyes on us than any people who have ever lived, and we feel more invisible than ever. Friends, we are a generation aching to be known, and we are terrified to be known.

Jesus Knows What Is In Us

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Now, hear what the apostle John wrote about almost two thousand years ago at the end of John chapter two. Three verses that preachers blow right by on the way to John chapter three. Jesus, however, would not entrust himself to them since he knew them, and because he did not need anyone to testify about man, for he himself knew what was in man. He himself knew what was in man. That sentence is either the scariest thing you ever heard or the most freeing.

SPEAKER_03 3:45

You were talking on Sunday, you know, you brought this verse up, and it's one of those ones that yeah, it's when we look at our our lives, and then we're like, okay, Jesus knows knows what's in you. You're like, oh boy. You know, because we can we can uh curate this public view of ourselves. You know, one of the stats you read is um before posting a picture, they would retake the picture eight times, which meant the first seven weren't good enough to be publicly posted on you know whatever social media platform. So seven different tries, I guess eight different tries to get the right photo on average. And so I think a lot of us, man, we work so hard at doing that, and not just on social media. We do it when we go to work on Monday morning, we do it at church on Sundays at our kids' you know, soccer games on Saturday nights. We want to make this all look like everything's good, it's all you know, going well, family's good, kids are good, marriage is good.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

Yeah, you preached about it before. You called it wearing a mask, and uh, we have a mask for every situation.

SPEAKER_03 4:58

Yeah, I think we did a whole series Beyond the Masquerade.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

And we had uh we talked about you know, you're you're you try to be a different person wherever you go instead of uh not just hiding things but developing a complete different personality at work than you do than you have at home and then what you have at church. And uh so that was before social media. You know, we were doing that before social media, and social media is now um this is who I am. And you always have who is that guy? Uh he worked for Fox News, um and the no spin. Is that O'Reilly? Yeah, O'Reilly. Um and seemed like a nice guy. He read his news, and you know, he leaned conservatively, and you know, and then out comes this hidden video of him freaking out because somebody put a question mark after his name, you know. And that's where they got that that that uh bit from that movie about the uh the guy in San Francisco Anchorman, yeah. Yeah, he was so upset and he was dropping F bombs and he was freaking out. Oh, that's who you are, you know, and he lost his job and uh he's got a podcast now, but everybody knows, ooh, we know who you are. You know? And we have this uh we have this knowledge, and I I think it's it's appropriate that any anything anything can come out of this guy I'm dating. I just I just don't know. And that's why we date for a long time and then we're you know engaged for a long time and we're trying to figure out is he who he says he is? Like my wife at after six months of marriage, she's like, Who are you? Because I spent uh two years before that being whatever she I thought that she would love, you know? And that was my mask. And about six months into marriage, she's like, You have snatched my husband away. Who are you? So, and and that that's something that we had to deal with. I that's a serious story. We we had to deal with that stuff that she's uncomfortable with uh about me, uh, she didn't know. And she didn't know because I knew she'd be uncomfortable with it. Right? And that's that's who we are. That's that's what marriage is about, right?

SPEAKER_03 7:43

Um trying to get to the Was the trip-up your love of all things Star Trek? Was that the problem?

SPEAKER_01 7:48

That was that was that was one of the problems. I mean, I I could see it immediately. Yeah. So that was that was one of the uh struggles we had in our marriage life. But we got through it. Uh like she said on Sunday, you know, we've been blissfully married for 37 years, and but we've been married for 40, you know. So um that was my joke, and she used it. This is uh this is something that we all have to deal with. Um, but we know that even when we're breaking down and I become more like the same guy at work and the same guy at home, the same guy with this group, and the same guy with the even as the Lord brings us down uh to that point where we're being more authentic, we're not completely authentic.

SPEAKER_03 8:44

Well, and that was that's what I was driving at is you know, we we put on all these masks, we do all these things, but deep down, no matter how congruent we can get those things to line up, right? We still, we still know we're we're schmucks, man. There's just scum everywhere. And it's like God, you you come across the verse like this, and you know, Jesus knows what's inside a man, and you're like, I was trying to I was trying to keep that hidden. I was trying to keep that out of sight. I didn't want you to see that part of me. And and we do it, I I think, because we have the same fear that you know you you said that you had early on with uh Teresa, is if you knew this this part of me, you wouldn't love me. You wouldn't be okay with me. And we take that same fear that we have with people and we put that over on God. Yeah, and we assume He treats us the same way that people treat us. Oh man, if they knew this, if God knew this, He He wouldn't, He wouldn't want to save me. He He wouldn't, even if He did save me, He would do it reluctantly.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

You know Yeah, we've been in church all our life and and everybody's told us this God knows you, God knows you, God knows you, God knows you, but we we won't accept it in our innermost being and we treat him like um we treat everybody else that they they don't know everything. Um But it's it's bigger than that.

Can Jesus Trust You

SPEAKER_01 10:20

It's he said, I I know you, I'm not gonna trust you. That's heavy, right? You know, and that goes right into that book you're writing, right? Marvel?

SPEAKER_03 10:33

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hopefully coming out this fall.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

Yeah, it is um it is it is a different thing to say, I know Jesus and he knows me, and you say I trust him. But then to have to ask the question, does he trust you?

SPEAKER_03 10:50

That's the question we asked over and over in that Marvel series is can God trust you? And here John's just telling us flat out a lot of people believed in Jesus. Jesus would not trust him. It's like, golly, man. Um you can come to church and sing all the songs and do all the things, take the classes, join the groups, you know, serve on the teams, and and Jesus might still look at you. And I mean, I'm not saying he won't save you, but he's like, I ain't gonna trust you. Um I don't man, that's a hard thing to wrestle with. Can God trust you? Um yeah, as you were you were preaching that on Sunday, I was like, this is it is it's either the scariest thing you've ever heard, or it's the most freeing.

Mary At Cana And Confident Faith

SPEAKER_03 11:40

And you know, you were diving into this thought about you know that first sign that he does with his mom. Um here's you know, she comes up and is like, hey, these people are in trouble here. You I need you to help. And he knew it was in her.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

Yeah, it that is that is a great point that I I didn't tie those two different complete sermons together that I had to preach at once. Um, but that is a great point. His relationship with his mom, and she knew he was the son of God. And she knew that he knew everything about her, her doubts, her whatever. But look what she does. She doesn't come to him apprehensively, you know, will you do this for me? You there's no, she just walks right up and says, Hey, they have no wine.

SPEAKER_03 12:39

Which, you know, one of the things I love about the Bible is you come across statements like this, and you're just like, Man, if I was trying to prove that Jesus was the Son of God, like he's the creator of the universe. I'm not letting his mom boss him around like that. No, so it's like, why would you write that in there? And it's because that it it happened. John's like, oh no, I remember that his mom came up and told him to do this, and and he did it.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

Yeah. I that that whole situation there I said on Sunday, it's most one of the most fascinating passes of scriptures with me. When I when I read a book, the first thing I'm looking for is I don't want to hear the narrator. I don't want to hear uh that voice. I you know, this is what's going on. I'm looking for interplay between friends in the group, in the if if it's uh if it's a book of just about one guy and he doesn't have any friends and there's no interchange going on, I don't care about it, you know, because I'm a people person. I want to know what's going on with people. Why are they acting like that? Oh, that was a good interchange. Man, they must love each other in a man way. They might, you know, um, you know, couple of couple of married guys who would give their life for each other. Um you don't think about that a lot. You think, well, I'll give my life for my wife. Do you have a best friend that you would give your life for? You know, so I look for things like that in the books that I read because that's what I want to see. I want to see the interplay between people. And this is an interplay that I just can't figure out. Now, I've heard preachers say that this was not the interchange that you're reading, you know, you're not getting the cultural context. Jesus, you know, wasn't just didn't do what his mom said. Um, but Jesus would honor his parents, right? And so at the same time, I I think I hear this frustration in Jesus' voice. Woman, what's this got to do with you and me? What we're doing. You know, we we've got a plan. I'm going to the cross. What's this got to do with you? I hear that. And I know a lot of pastors don't. Um and I think they've been in this situation before, is what I think. As and he's like, Mom, I'm not doing that. Oh, Jesus. Come on. You know, this this, you know, ra raise this, that guy lost his puppy. You know, raise that puppy to life. Come on. Um, nobody'll know. We're not gonna mess anything up, just do it, you know?

SPEAKER_03 15:27

And so a little bit more of that snapshot between 12 and 30.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

Right. What was going on? And so she their interplay there is just, I just think it's fabulous. And it's not an interplay that's decisive, you know. Oh, he's mad at her and she's mad at we don't know what's going on. So then your your brain just goes crazy saying, what is going on? But she says very few, they have no wine. And the next thing she says is do whatever he says. And so there is complete confidence in someone that fully knows her. And uh I just I love it. It's awesome, it is awesome.

SPEAKER_03 16:12

John, and we've brought this up a few times, only refers to himself as the one Jesus loved. And so Jesus knew everything that was in Mary, he knew everything that was in John, and yet he said, I'm just the one he loved. That's how he identified himself. So you could pair these together and say, okay, well, despite everything he knew that was in me, I'm the one he loved. He chose to love me. Man, if if you could get yourself to that place, yeah, you know, uh you were we should

Bold Prayer Without Earning It

SPEAKER_03 16:49

pray. I mean, you hammered that Sunday over and over and over. What are we doing here? He knows everything. And he loves you. What would he not do? It it should be this wake-up call for us, man, to get serious about praying and interceding and asking God for the things we need and the things that the people around us need. And like you even said, this wine situation doesn't really change eternity and God's eternal plan and what he's doing in the kingdom, right? Right. The you shared that story about praying with that guy at Home Depot or wherever. Um doesn't change, you know, God's eternal plan for the world, most likely, unless you know he goes on to become the next Billy Graham and millions and millions of people get saved. Then maybe. Then maybe most likely God's just gonna give him a new job because someone he loved said, Hey God, this guy's in trouble, needs some help. Would you do that for him? And I'm praying God'll do that for him. But it's man, what I wonder how our lives would be different if we would just get serious about this one thing, man, despite all that he knows about me. I'm the one that he loves.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

Yeah, I had someone close to me tell me one time, do you think God would do this for me? And I told him, and it ripped right out of my mouth, and uh I thought about it a long time afterward. I said, He might not do it for you, but he'll do it for me. Let me ask him. And that shocked them, and it shocked me. I I mean, I walked away. What are you talking about? What kind of awful person are you? Oh, no, he won't do that for you, but he'll do it for me. But the truth, that is the truth. That's what we see happen right here in the Bible. You he wouldn't have done it for John, he wouldn't have done it for those people. It wasn't on his radar, but when his mom, who he loved, said they have no wine, he's like, ah. All right. And so people, if you've received Jesus as your savior and Lord, he loves you. And you love him. He will. He will. You have not because you ask not. Remember, you to the Father, you have Jesus' righteousness. Your connection is there. Hebrews tells us you can go boldly to the throne of gaze, grace, gaze, uh, boldly to the throne of grace and ask what you will. And he loves you. So if your kid went up to a stranger in the street and said, Hey, I want some ice cream, will you give me $10? They'll say, Well, you know what? Most people probably give him $10. But let's say he doesn't. Where's your parents? Go ask your mom and dad. Because your mom and dad will buy you ice cream. They might not give you $10 whole dollars because they know you and they're protecting you, or we'll get ice cream after dinner. You know, that's how God reacts to his kids. And uh, when someone else is, oh, just pray and ask God. No, you pray and ask God. You be the one because we know he loves you.

unknown 20:33

Right.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

He died for you. And uh, you got to go to your father with those requests. He asks you to do that.

SPEAKER_03 20:41

Or later in John, Jesus is just gonna flat out say, You can ask anything in my name, and it's gonna be done. Um, that's a John, right? Yeah. I was gonna say, I've been listening to John every week over and over again, and I'm like, I'm pretty sure.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

That's probably one of the four sermons I got to preach next week.

SPEAKER_03 20:59

Um so he just comes out and says it. Just just ask. And we we put all these stipulations and prerequisites on our prayers that God's like, listen, uh, I already took care of those. Yeah. And does God want you to live a holy life? Absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

Um, does he want you two things can be true at once? Right.

SPEAKER_03 21:22

Does he want you to leave that sin behind and the sin that so easily traps you and ensnares you? Absolutely. Can you come boldly to his throne and receive mercy and grace to help you in your time of need? Yes. Yes. And we're like, but man, God, I've asked 10,000 times. As if God gets exhausted from our speaking. You know, he's like, well, come again. Come again, over and over, you know, grace upon grace as you were talking about.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

I think that's our that's our exhaustion. I think when we're we feel guilty about something and we haven't given it up, and and then the Lord. You know, there's something going on, and you want to you want to ask the Lord about it, and you ask him and you ask him, and you're like, I I get it, God. I'm exhausted with myself, anyways. You know, I'm self-exhausted because I can't give this up, or I won't be like this, or you know, I rage at my family, or all that kind of stuff, and we get this, and don't get me wrong, that stuff needs to stop. Okay. But at the same time, he doesn't get exhausted, he knows us.

unknown 22:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:36

We approach it more like, God, I don't uh I'm not gonna ask because I wouldn't forgive, I don't expect you to for I wouldn't forgive myself. Right. I I know how bad this is. I'm not gonna bring this to you again. Right. And yet, Jesus, who knows everything about us, loves us, and because of what he's done on the cross for us, we can come boldly say, Lord, I need help with this, or Lord, they need help with this, just like Mary did. Son, I need you to, I need you to rescue these people. This is embarrassing. And they're gonna be, you know, you talked about this shame culture that they were in. This is not gonna play well, you know, on the the evening news tonight. Someone's gotta step in here and do something, help them.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

Yeah. If you got um a bunch of kids, um one of them's gonna be worse than the others. Now, that means that one person, that one boy, might be the best boy in town, but he's worse than your other kids. You're like, he's always a problem. And it shifts, it doesn't stick with one kid, it moves around. You know, your first kid, he's perfect, he gets good grades, and then he turns 17 and you're like, what has happened to him? His brain fell out of his head, you know, and then it might be your youngest or whatever, and it kind of moves around a little bit. But you know what? As a parent, you know when they come and ask, just like all the other kids that are, you know, making you feel proud and you're not having to ground all the time and not having to deal with the screaming because you took away the iPad or whatever, you know that you're gonna do the same thing for that one that you're gonna do for the others. And I think we get this idea from a couple of teachings in the Bible from the talents. He gave one, one talent, and two talents, and and and that comes down to one thing. If you will be faithful in little things, he'll give you more to be faithful in. And I think we kind of try to apply that to prayer, because that's a just kind of a background doctrinal thing we kind of lean against and we try to apply it to everything. That doesn't apply to prayer, that applies to your faithfulness. If you want more in the kingdom of God, then you have to be faithful with what little you got. That has nothing to do with going to the Lord and saying, Hey, um, I need some help, or my friend needs some help. And I I I like this because it was not about them. It's not about them. Jesus made it clear, it's not about me, it's not about the disciples, um, it's not about my mom, it's not about the kingdom of God, it's not about the Sermon on the Mount, it's not about the cross, it's not about the resurrection. It's about a little wedding in a podunk town that ran out of wine, which is not a big deal. Okay. Yeah, there would be shame and people would talk about it, but you know, the family would love each other and they would tease them on Thanksgiving, you know. Right. But it wasn't a big deal. We gotta move on. Life still's gotta happen. So um, but Jesus said, if mom's interested in this, then I'll do it for her. And man, we gotta grab a hold of that truth, people. We need to pray for people, we need to pray all the time. We don't know what the Lord's gonna do. Um but when we pray for people, we're stepping outside of God's plan for my life and investing our relationship with God into someone else's life. And I I think we should do that more and more. And I think I think that was going on in that interplay there, that Mary was always doing that. And I just I feel a little frustration in Jesus. We talked about this. I'm starting my ministry. You know, you can't do this to me, you know. You know, I just I I kind of feel that. But let's go back to the brass text. It's not about those people. This is the first time John's writing this book. I want, I want to tell you the things that taught me about Jesus. And the first thing was this little miracle. I'll say it's a little miracle. It's a little one. Uh for the person who spoke the universe into existence to make some wine, even it was 180 gallons, it doesn't, it doesn't move the needle anywhere. Right. It just doesn't, except in John's heart, he says, this is when I saw that he was generous and he honored his mom. He didn't, this was not one of his things, but he did it anyways, cause the person who loved him that he loved asked him to. And I think that's uh this might be where he got his name. I'm the one that Jesus loved. And I and I believe that he spent, you know, his whole life. Well, Jesus loves me, so I'm gonna ask him to do this for you.

unknown 28:00

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 28:00

And it's the same thing I I said to that person, you know, he might not do it for you, but he'll do it for me. And Christian, he might not do it for them, but he'll do it for you.

SPEAKER_03 28:15

We need to grab a hold of that man. That's so good.

Fully Known And Fully Loved

SPEAKER_03 28:18

And it takes this verse that at surface level is it is it can be scary, terrifying, because we've spent so long trying to protect and curate and hide and all these things.

SPEAKER_01 28:31

We're we're completely confused. I I think that's why the Bible says the heart is deceptful, deceitfully wicked, right? And no one can know it. And that's why David said, Search my heart, oh God, and find any wicked way in me. Yep. Um He did something that he's David did something there when he was um writing that in Psalm 51, that he did he just got completely carried away. He didn't go to war where he's supposed to be. He stole another man's wife, he got her pregnant, then he murdered that guy who was one of his uh special forces, you know? And he's going along like it never happened.

SPEAKER_03 29:16

Well, he tries to step in and make himself look like the hero in the whole thing, too. Right. Oh, I'll take this poor widow in and raise her son as my own. It is your own, David.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

Yours. And and he's he's believed his own lie until Nathan comes in and you know, punches him in the face with the face with the story about the the lamb. And um, and and David was going on with his life. He was going to the temple, he was doing everything else. I got away with this, you know, and that's how our heart is, and then we need the Lord to look into us. So I want to say that although this is scary, it can be freeing. We want someone to know us all the way down to our bones and still accept us. There is someone like that. Yeah, and his name is Jesus, and that is so anchoring in your life. It is an anchor. You know, I don't I'm I'm pretending I don't want anybody to find out about me, but I got a friend who knows me down to my bones.

SPEAKER_03 30:27

I think that's where a lot of the the sadness, um, depression, loneliness, you know, whatever comes in is we want so desperately to be known. We I mean, I think there is this just innate desire in every human being to be known and to be loved. That's what we want. The problem is we're so afraid that people aren't gonna love us if they knew everything about us. So, how do I ever get there? Right. I can't ever be fully known and fully loved because if you knew this, then you wouldn't love me. And so that's why we're so afraid to share that stuff. It's why we take eight pictures before we'll post one online. And it we only show our highlight reels. And please listen, I don't want to look at your dirty dishes in your sink anyway. So don't you don't need to be posting that on Facebook.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:19

But it's why we do all of these things is because I I want you to love me. I want you to love me, I want you to love me. But at the same time, we know, well, this is kind of manufactured because you only love the part of me that I'm letting you see. And we don't ever let someone fully know us. And it's a thing that we're so desperate for.

SPEAKER_01 31:38

Right. In Jesus' sake. The thing that we want the most, we resist the most.

SPEAKER_03 31:44

Right, right. And you're saying, man, there is someone who knows you fully and loves you fully. His name is Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

He will never tell your secrets. Everything he knows about you, he guards and protects. He loves you. And I I think when people realize this is who Jesus is, you know that the interplay between Mary and you tell I'm hung up on that, and Jesus, that he wants to have that with you. He wants you guys to be in a parking lot and see a couple together, uh laughing together or arguing together, and he's gonna remind you of something that you shared with him, and you'll have a little chuckle over that. You know? He wants to be your best friend because he knows you. The inside jokes you can have with Jesus, if you're willing, are endless. Are endless. And this whole uh I think um psychology calls it identity diffusion. Um a feeling that you don't actually know who you are because you perform so many versions of yourself for so long. And psychologists say that is the number one um uh the number one thing that leads you to depression. You don't know who you are. You can't be who you want to be. Um that's a lie, you're you're being told. Of course you can. You can be whoever you want to be. Um Tony Evans has made a living on teaching people who thought they couldn't be what they want to be to be, what they wanted to be. It might not be the version you want, but it could be a whole lot better than you are, you know. It just takes putting one foot in front of the other and a little discipline. But I I think this is the kind of thing that puts people in depression is um I don't I don't I don't feel like I can even understand who I am, and it causes anxiety.

SPEAKER_03 34:06

Well, I don't understand who I am, and nobody nobody knows me, nobody loves me. And so we feel nobody would love me.

SPEAKER_01 34:14

Nobody would love me if they knew.

SPEAKER_03 34:15

Yeah, and so we just feel kind of spiritually adrift, man, relationally adrift. We we go through life showing up to all these parties and church services and family functions and work and all this stuff with all these people inside terrified that if they knew. And I think that that word anchor that you used is spot on, man. This can be an anchor for you. Imagine the firm foundation you could have, imagine the security that you could have if you would just embrace that the God who created you both knows you fully and loves you completely. Both of those things are true. You you don't have to perform anymore. You don't have to try to go out and earn someone else's love. Does anybody actually know me? Yes. Would anybody really Yes? And he proved it. He went all the way to the cross to prove how much he loves you, how much he knows you, because he knew you're never gonna get this done on your own. I'm gonna have to step in here and do this for you. And I love you so much that I'm willing to do it.

SPEAKER_01 35:28

If you can take that and separate it from the whole talent thing, you know, if you're faithful in little things, I'll I'll uh I'll give you more. If you can separate that, this God knows you will lead you into being more faithful so that He can give you more. And that's that's where it starts, though. You you gotta realize that I'm not hiding nothing, you know.

Dropping The Avatar For The Real You

SPEAKER_03 36:02

Well, isn't that the basis of of AA? You know, we we gotta come and just I'm I'm an alcoholic. I have to come clean. How would you know about AA? We have classes here. Oh, okay. And the guy who leads it gave me the book. Said you should read this, and I did. Um I I think I read some of it. To be honest, I don't think I got all the way through it yet. Need to be transparent here. But that the whole thing, like I gotta, I gotta come clean here, and it's really hard for Jesus to turn you in. Well, I mean, he can do whatever, I guess. But it it's we we want Jesus to work on this version of us that isn't real, it's it's an avatar, you know. Well, he's like, no, we need we need to work on the real thing. And it's hard to get to the real thing while we're pretending to be something that we're not, you know. And so if I if I will believe this, then I can I can let him get down into all those areas I've been hiding, and he can start digging around in the the crawl space and say, hey, let's let's pull this out. What what's this doing in here? And I'm gonna I can have the confidence to know he's not gonna stop loving me if he finds that. Oh, when he found, oh, when he brought that up, it's because he loved me.

SPEAKER_01 37:27

Yeah, that's precious. That's not, oh, what's he gonna pull out? Right. You know, it's precious.

SPEAKER_03 37:34

It's it's you know, mom or dad coming over and and helping you clean the basement that you've made a mess, or you know, I think it was last summer, summer before that. And we had just I mean, we have only been in our house four or five years. Like, how does my garage get this nasty? We were throwing this big party at our house. I'm like, mom, dad, can you come over and help me get the garage cleaned out? And so all of us were out there. They came over, and I'm not worried about my dad finding some tool, probably your tool, actually, up on a shelf somewhere, saying, What the heck are you doing here? Like, I it's not that, you know, and that's who Jesus is. He's pulling this out saying, Hey, this is in the wrong spot. We gotta take care of it, let's put that over here. We're gonna get this thing cleaned up eventually. You're gonna look just like me. Right. And he's doing it because he loves you, but we need that anchor where we we're confident that he loves me and he knows me, and both of those things are 100% true.

SPEAKER_01 38:30

Yeah. Man, what a what a passage of scriptures, John chapter 2 is. It's um I know it it sounds rough when Jesus said you know, they trusted in him, but he didn't trust them. Um I know that sounds rough, but you know that's true. You know it's true. There's some people that believe in you that you don't believe in them. And it's because you know what's in 'em. But that doesn't mean that Jesus didn't love 'em. He loved them. He loved them. So I had a friend who had a brother who um we'll wrap up with this. Um he got into meth and um his dad went and got him. He lost his family. Um, it was just a huge mess. His dad went and got him and said, You're gonna come home with me and you're gonna work with me. We're gonna uh put your money away. Um I'm not gonna give you any money. You're just gonna you're gonna live right here with me and we're gonna walk you out of this. So for two years two years Um He did great. He did great. And then one day he told his dad, Dad, can can I get twenty bucks of mine to take my kids to McDonald's and let 'em play in the thing. And his dad thought, Yeah, we've been doing good. So he gave it to him and he was gone for three days. And his dad went right to where he was grabbed him up and said, Let's let's go again And then there were some fights after that and he didn't want to go again. But um it's his dad knew when he gave him that twenty dollars that this could happen. This could happen. Um Will he but sooner or later he was gonna have to give him that twenty dollars, right? So and that's the way we are uh with Jesus. He he wants you to he's gonna give to you and he's gonna expect you to be faithful in that. Um but if you're gonna mess up, he already knows. If you're gonna be faithful or not, he already knows. You can't disappoint him. He knows what's in you and him giving you another chance is just him saying, Hey, let's try it again. And you don't you you're like, Well, I don't trust me, why are you trusting me? And Jesus is saying, We gotta get this thing fixed.

SPEAKER_03 41:41

Well, and he knows what's in you and what's in you if you're a follower of Christ.

Holy Spirit Power And Final Prayer

SPEAKER_03 41:45

His spirit is in you, right.

SPEAKER_01 41:47

You know, there's there's sooner or later, one thing you when you have the spirit of Christ, you've started another. This is crazy. I know.

SPEAKER_03 41:54

I was like, I shouldn't even put this out in there.

SPEAKER_01 41:56

I told you we were gonna pray after that story. That story didn't fit in as good as I thought it would anyway. So but the one thing that you do have the power to do when you get the Holy Spirit is to say no. Now you might not think you have that power anymore. You didn't have that power before you confessed Jesus as your Savior and Lord, but when you have the Holy Spirit, you can say no. It's whether or not you choose to. You have that power. Don't let anybody tell you that you don't. I know it don't feel like it because you haven't ever had that power and you've never been able to say no, and you just this is just what I do. But the truth.

SPEAKER_03 42:41

Well, listen, you don't have it in a little measure either. Right. It's the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of you. And so why does Jesus trust you? Well, if you're a follower of Christ, he trusts you because his spirit is in you. Right. And one day, and you you can do it, I mean you can start it now, or it's gonna happen in eternity. But one day you're gonna look just like him. He's faithful to do it. He's faithful when we are faithless, he's gonna sanctify us through and through, scripture says, and one day we're gonna see him face to face and we will be like him. You teach a whole class on that.

SPEAKER_02 43:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:19

So why does he trust you? Because he's given you his spirit. And he says, Man, if you'll cooperate, man, there is nothing you can't do. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 43:28

I think we struggle and uh struggle and we get in a habit of struggling, and we forget the power that that he's given us uh to be who he's called us to be. It's never too late to become the person God has called you to be. And it's it's exciting for me to see people do that. We see people do that here at A Fresh Win all the time. Lives changed. They are not who they were when they came in here, they have surrendered. And it it makes a it makes a huge difference for us. And before I start preaching this other sermon, you better pray.

SPEAKER_03 44:07

Father, we thank you again for for this book of John. Um, Lord, I thank you for inspiring him to write these things down that we may believe. And Lord, this is the very first thing that that came to mind when he said, I'm writing this so that they'll believe. First sign was uh what you did here at this wedding at the request of your mom. And Lord, we don't understand all that went into that conversation and the interplay that was there. But Lord, we thank you that it changed John's heart. And he he was inspired to write this thing down. And Father, we we just ask now that it would give us the confidence that we need to know that we are both fully known and fully loved, that we can come boldly to your throne and receive mercy and grace to help us in our time of need. And Lord, to to intercede for the people that you've put in our in our path, because every good and perfect gift comes from our Father in heaven. And so, Lord, I just want to lift up everybody who's listening right now, every uh person who attends A Fresh Win. Lord, whatever's going on in each of their lives, you alone know. And Father, I pray, just like Mary came and asked you uh to do something, that you would do it right now for each of them. Amen. Lord, I don't know if it moves the needle in the kingdom, but Father, they're yours. You love them, they love you. And I pray that you'd show up and move on their behalf. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

How To Connect And Support

SPEAKER_00 45:34

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 you 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.