Welcome And Summer In John

SPEAKER_02 0:05

Hello and welcome to the Blue Chair Podcast. I am Pastor Jared, and with me as always, we've got Charles Magyar. Hello. We uh we missed a week again last month, but we're here now, and we're gonna cover a whole lot of the Book of John. It's gonna be a great time. Um summers are busy, that's what I'm talking it up to. But uh Ryan and I actually recorded the midweek podcast this week, and uh he already told everybody this was gonna be out on Saturday. So I was like, alright, well I guess we'll we'll definitely record. And there's no there's no FNs and butts about it. But we've got a guest today, uh a special guest. He is um somebody that uh kind of piques my interest when we start talking theology. He he he knows a whole lot, and it's exciting to see. Uh we got Dave Gamble with us. Say what's up.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

How's it going, man?

SPEAKER_02 0:51

Oh, just fantastic. Um so yeah, the book of John. Like there is a whole lot here. We we got seven weeks in, eight weeks, but that's in July, and so we're gonna cover the last week of May or so, and then or a couple weeks of May and all of June. Um, yeah, there was it's a good book. There's a whole lot. Um, starting it off just week one. Um what is where did I have it written down? It that the book of John was written to save you. The book of John is just an interesting book because it is the book that if you ask me and you're a non-believer and you say, hey, alright, I want to give this whole Christianity thing a shot, where should I start? What book should I read? It's the book of John every time. Um it just shows the divinity of Christ in a way that is easy for the for normal people to understand, to see the pickup on things, um, to see what he can do, to see what he what he came for. But then also, if you get a little nerdy with it and you're a boba nerd, there's so much there.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Yeah, there's a lot. And I agree, I think every every gospel is important because it really like they all obviously teach the gospel and they all paint a picture of who Christ is. But John is the one that like just really, like you said, it nails down the divinity portion of who Christ is, the eternal nature of Christ.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

And then it also doesn't just kind of give the information. Dave, you were saying before we started this, when we were talking before, that there's there's actions in the book of John. What were we saying with

Faith As Action And Decision

SPEAKER_02 2:26

that?

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Yeah, they like um they describe the John's gospel as a gospel of decision because they use like action verbs like 96 to 98 times of referring to belief or faith is a verb over a noun because John portrays faith not as a statistic a static possession, but as a living, dynamic, and like continuous relationship with Christ.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

You know, when Tim and I and Ryan were sitting down one time, um, when I was new at the church, and they were like, all right, so you're gonna write a sermon. You wanna know like what is a sermon? And like, so I start describing, like, well, you're teaching, you're teaching this, you're teaching that, you're explaining these things, you're you're doing this, and Tim's like, you're my dad said it. The most important thing you can do, all right? You didn't preach until you leave them with a decision. You leave them with the next move, right? You you're not just sitting here teaching a biblical theology class explaining what the book of John says. When you preach, you need to have a position of, alright, are you going to do this thing that the book of John is calling you to do? And the book of John just tees that up perfectly for that. Every every chapter, there's a million places that you can be like, alright, are you gonna follow this? Like, this is what we need to do. This is where I feel like God's leading me to call the church right now. And I don't know, it's exciting. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Well, and I'm glad you brought the action part up because that like obviously the most you know known verse is John 3.16. And when you go to that and you look at the word believe there, like that's something that I've looked at a lot, is there is an action in that belief, and it it's the call to like full surrender and to put full trust into Christ. So like there is an action in that word.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

Yeah, and like most like the whole gospel is like so like how do I put it? Like, it's not really just the action of you believing, but it's the whole gospel is describing like whom you believe in and why. And like that's why at the end, where he gives a statement about like basically making a decision, like lays out all these facts. He could have left, he could have brought more in, but it would have filled the whole world up. It's like these are put in there for you to believe, yeah, and it's just great.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

And I just feel like in general, the book of John, um, with all those like those little touching points, there's so much depth to every little point that's all throughout John that you can just I mean, you'll fall into it forever just thinking about each one because it's every one of them so deep.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Dude, he's like the start of the gospel is just like a theological bomb, it just drops on you where you're like, all right, now I just gotta recalibrate everything.

SPEAKER_02 5:17

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

And it's just like it it was the last gospel wrote, and he's just like like just here, take this. And it's crazy because if you look at it, like it feels like Mark, Matthew, and Luke, and John were all like, okay, like I'm gonna start at Isaiah. Mark starts at Isaiah, I'm gonna start at I Abraham, I'm gonna start at Adam. And John just like, you know what? I'm going before the beginning. Give you all this content to grasp what this Jesus story is.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

And that's why, and that's why like it kind of points to the different audiences they're writing to. Like Matthew is writing to Jews, and so they're like, Look, this is the dude from David that we were telling you was coming. Right. This is the Messiah that's coming. And then you see the book of John, and he's writing to the Gentiles, and he's like, Look, this the creation story that you've heard us talk about at one point, like this is the same thing. This is all wrapped together, this all matters. In the beginning was the word, and the word is with God, and the word was God. This guy, the word, Jesus, is God. Listen to him.

Jesus Opens Worship To Everyone

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Yeah, and I like that you bring that up, and I don't want this to be like a main talking point, but when we were talking about um So let's spend 15 minutes at least the woman, the woman at the well, you know, when he's talking to her, uh I forget what book it was in. I'm I've been doing a lot of side reading, and they were talking about like the the mindset of um the ancient belief. And when they talked about like you could only go to certain you know parts of land to worship God, like they there was this like true understanding of that time that it like the earth itself, like something in the dirt, like you had to be present in this place to worship God.

SPEAKER_02 7:07

That's the unseen realm you're talking about.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Yeah, so they were talking about how like they would literally go and gather dirt and take the dirt with them because they that's what they would put like on the threshing floors and everything, like they thought the dirt had to be there. Yep, and it was so awesome to unpack like the the woman at the well because Jesus is telling her like none of that matters. Like you you are going to be worshiping him in spirit, like it doesn't matter where you're at, it doesn't matter what dirt you're on, and just seeing that door being opened up to the Gentiles when he's talking to her is I don't know. It goes so deep, and I I love reading it.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

Do you know how old I was when someone told me that I was a Gentile? I was like 16 years old. Like it never crossed my mind that like without the book of John, without Jesus opening this up to the Gentiles, that I'd be saved. And like I was 16 years old and my my mind was blown. They're like, you know who there's like the Gentiles, you know who that is, right? Anyone who's not Jewish, aka U. I was like, you're right, I'm not Jewish. And like I never thought I was Jewish, but that moment just like broke something, not broke, but like just like put a put something in place in my mind, and I was like, wow, that's wild. That's my sidebar for the day.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

All right, not bad. So, what was your first point?

SPEAKER_02 8:24

Did you Yeah, I touched on that, just how great the book of John was.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

Oh, yeah. That was your first point. That was nice and lovely. I'm so proud of you. Thank you. Um,

Knowing Jesus Beyond Bible Facts

SPEAKER_01 8:33

I don't know. I think one of the things that um, and I guess it doesn't specifically have to do with one of the weeks in general, but just an overall thing that I've kind of taken away from this is I get so wrapped up in studies, and like I see myself do it where I'm looking at just like the historical aspects. Um mainly because of studying, like I'm trying to gain a better understanding as to like why certain things had to happen. But a lot of times, and they kind of touched on it throughout the sermons, is remembering that it's not about um just the miracles and the hyperfixate on that, and it's not just about you know um, you know, places that they were at or whatever historical context there is, it's who is Jesus? And a lot of times I have to go back and read John because John just kind of smacks you in the face with it right from the beginning. And a lot of times I think about it, and it says like he came to his own and they didn't accept him. He came into the world and nobody even recognized who he was. And a lot of times I think about that and I'm like, you know, we look around in the world every day, and how often are we really seeing Jesus in it? Like the the actual author and creator of the life. Like, how often are we actually seeing it? But and I don't know, that's something that I have to remind myself every day is like when I'm looking around and I have to start seeing Jesus in things more than just trying to gain the understanding of it.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Um, but that's one of my biggest takeaways.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

I think that's an important distinction that we as Christians need to keep in mind. There's knowing, there's knowing about Jesus, and then there's knowing Jesus and seeing him every day. There's the like I know all the I know all the the what all the commentators say. I know the all the books of the Bible. I learned a song when I was in kindergarten, I know all these things, but do you know Jesus? Is he do you see him in your day-to-day life? Is he on your mind? Is he helping you make decisions big and small? Those types of things that it really matters and it really um it is the core of that relationship with with Christ that we talk about.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

I was thinking like when they when the church announced that they were gonna be doing John this summer, it kind of perked me up because first I'm a sucker for just studying the books of the Bible as a church. I think that that just builds the church up to where more knowledge, like being more biblically literate, but like it kind of reminds me, like C.S. Lewis had a passage in one of his Chronicles of Narnia where Lucy's looking at Aslan and she's like, You're bigger. And he's like, No, I'm not, you're older. And he's like, the more the every time you get older, the larger I will be appear I will appear. And I feel like that's like you could be 70, 80, like a silver saint, been through John 40 times, or you could be just a baby Christian, coming up coming to know the Lord and reading it one time. Like each time you come back to the scripture, I just hope like us, we just get a bigger viewpoint of who Jesus is.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

I actually like that. I just watched a video recently on that Chronicles and Arnia thing. I I think C.S. Lewis is brilliant. Oh, dude. Go ahead, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

I just I just finished Mere Christianity, and if you just you could read the whole thing, but just read the last paragraph of the last page, and it just explodes your mind. It's all about just dying to self, serving Jesus, like you will lose yourself and find yourself by serving the Lord.

SPEAKER_02 12:20

It's so good.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

But I think what you said, like it holds a lot because Ryan talked about, and actually I brought it up when we were doing the training stuff for the gospel conversation stuff, is you brought up, you know, you can read this as just a book, or you can read it to find Christ in it. And for me, like I can see as I'm growing, like when I talked about seeing him as not just you know a miracle worker, and to see him as the creator is like as I've grown, it's like even looking at you guys, like I have to be able to see Christ in everything. Like when you have someone who literally painted the existence of the universe with his hand, it's like you have to be able to see him in everything. And like I I still struggle with it at times, but I think there's so much importance in that, and I loved how Ryan brought it up about you know, when we're in the word, we have to quit reading it for just a book and read it to see Christ in it.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

I heard like a term is called uh like there's three phases to it. Like you read it, you meditate it, and then you respond to it. So it's like you read it, and then you meditate it through the day, they call it like chewing the cud. Like as a cow it eats the grass, then it spits back up and chews on it. So you're marinating on it. And then after you marinate on it, you respond to God with what you got from it.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

I like that.

SPEAKER_02 13:43

There's uh an old method of reading called Lectiodivina. Um same, same but different. It's you read the same passage multiple times, and you um if it's a big passage, you might start by highlighting a verse and then you highlight a word, and each time you read it, one you read it out loud. Two, every time you read it, you pray. And you start off with like Lord, point something out to me. Like where I haven't read this yet, reveal it to me. What are you trying to teach me? And you get more and more specific, and then you finally read it again, and ideally, you know what God is calling you to do in that moment. Like whatever that season is, whatever's going on, what's God, what's the Holy Spirit trying to teach you in this moment, and it's good stuff, it's good stuff to do to see. Um, especially when you do it with a group, where like I can pull one thing out of like one passage and you pull something completely different, and it's the the living scripture that uh we see in the Bible.

Do You Want To Get Well

SPEAKER_02 14:43

But alright, this book is awesome, but we gotta get to the hard one. The hard verse that I think Ryan did really good at calling, um calling us higher to not calling us out, not trying to be oh you stink, but more of a you need to answer this question too. In John 5.6, the second half of it, do you want to get well? When he's talking to the uh man at the pool and he says, Do you want to get made well? And the man's response is, well, I've been here for four decades and no one's brought me into the pool, and every time I try, someone gets in front of me, and it just it hits ya that it's not a yes, it's not a yeah, I want to get made well more than anything. This is what I want to do. It's a this is why I haven't been made well. I mean, sure it'd be great to, but I can't.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

I know Ryan caught me off guard because I'm pretty sure he brought up Theo Vaughn when he was talking about it, and I brought it up in our life group that day, not the initial part of the question, but the response to the question. Like Theo Theo Vaughn gave one of the best like responses that I can think of, and he said, like, how deep will you accept the help? in the sense of I don't want just help getting rid of the things that I'm doing, I want you to go into the very mortar of the well and fix the cracks, the source of the issue. And I'm like, it almost made me feel terrible because I'm like, this guy who's just like trying to figure faith out is accepting such a deeper level than I ever have, in the sense, like when he said that, I was like, I've never like thought about it. Stepped back long enough to think about like go all the way into the very crevices of my life and fix it. Like a lot of times you want to just ask for a resolve of the issue itself, but not the true source of that issue.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

Because we're so natural at going into this, like our natural inclination as people is to look at his religion as fixing the problem of sin. And that's not what Christianity is. Yes, there's a sin problem, but that is a byproduct of our lack of relationship with Christ. And if we fix our relationship with Christ, the sin inevitably gets fixed, right? Why are we why are we blowing up at our kids when we get home from work? Because we hate our job, because we feel like we didn't meet our full potential. And so now we're just angry at everything because we didn't quite get it there. And so now if we understand that we're in the season where God wants us and he's gonna use us here regardless, and our potential is wherever, whatever God calls us to at any given point, you're not gonna come home so mad. You're not gonna come home and have this anger problem and stuff. Now, not always, and that's a like a generalization. Um but if you fix the core of the issue, we uh it it fixes the sin problem. But we every one of us, and it's not just you, it's every single one of us, gets so like we create this legalistic side for ourselves. And so when we see this, it's it's a in John 5, it's a um it's an excuse to the like the legalism. It's a sign of that where it's why am I still sinning? Why am I still doing this thing? Well, because there's all these reasons why I didn't, and I didn't go to school at the right time, and I didn't do this, and so this is just what I am now. I've made peace with this sin, I've made peace with this problem, I've made peace with this hole in my relationship with Christ, and I don't want to do the work to fix it. And when you at least that's what I took from it. Ryan may have meant that way softer, but that's how I took from it. I took it as a hammer, not just as a nice pat on the back, where it was like, you're you it's hard and you're lazy and you need to do it.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

Yeah, I think there was for me anyway, I see like two sides. A, the the people don't want to put in the work for the change, because despite obviously this, yeah, this gets into the whole legalism thing, but despite like no one is saying work for your salvation, but he is going to call you to work, and you have to be willing to do that. Um, and my thing is is I see two sides. So I see the fear of change in general. You get so used to like one one way of life, like the way of life you've known your whole life. Like, so you know, my upbringing, I grew up with foul language everywhere, and everything, like you just get so wrapped up that that becomes you, like you almost meld with it. Yep, and when you get presented an opportunity where it's like you don't have to live that lifestyle, it's like this big spike of fear. Like, I what other lifestyle do I have? I don't I don't know what I'm doing. So you either have like the fear aspect or the lazy, like the the laziness not wanting to put in the work aspect, and I I think you can even have both at the same time. And I don't know, I see this, and a big part of me, like I want to know a good way to be able to even reach the people that are struggling with that in the sense of trying to offer the hope and and everything else, and obviously you can get it presenting the gospel, but um I don't know, it's a hard one because I've been there.

When Legalism Chokes Real Worship

SPEAKER_00 19:53

Yeah, I um I'm in a similar like upbringing as yours, but also in the same breath. Like I grew up in a very like I grew up in the church, and like so the church I grew up in, like, kind of gets a bad rap because it's a fundamental Baptist church, but they love the Lord, they're just pretty strict on how you live life, and so I had to grapple with that when because I came here when I came to Fresh Wind, it's because I was courting Jared's sister, and I wanted to get out. But ew. But no, so I there's this was I could feel like this was a woman I wanted to marry, and like it just felt like we have to go to church. And two, for me, I wanted to make her as comfortable as possible so we come to this church, and it's completely different than what I grew up in. And like you have these things to where like you see it with the you see it in the temple cleansing where you they get so caught up on the forms of like you have to have the right amount of the right silver, the right cattle, and everything to where it impedes on worship and actually chokes out worship. And we can kind of see that in the church today where you're everyone's caught up on the forms, like I don't like this person's style of preaching, I don't like this type of music and things of that nature. When actually we're just coming here like it's not just yes, it's corporate worship here at church, but like you want to instill worshiping the Lord every day in your family at work, like you said, work, work was given to us before the fall, so it's a good, it's a gift. So like we want to work towards, like you said, we want to work and like we just don't want to just rest on our laurels, and like you said, about presenting the gospel, like the gospel is. true no matter like the messenger like the true message is what's gonna work and it's not our it's not like our job per se to change hearts that's what the spirit is so you just want to like guide them be a good like live out like an authentic like real faith and being that like spokesperson being a representative of Christ as we are as a church kind of will bring those type of things into the church in my perspective.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

No I like that I like that a lot I think it is easy to get wrapped up in like you were saying you know whether you like the style of preaching or or whatever it is I feel like when you fall into either your personal preferences or even tradition you start like you said you choke out the the actual form of what the worship was intended for. Yeah and I you see that through the New Testament how many times does Jesus rebuke the Pharisees for what they're doing it's like you guys you understand the whole but you're you're choking it out you're not even lifting a finger to help anybody you're taking the message you're adding to it you're making it burdensome which it was never intended to be and you're choking out the true meaning of what it was for.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

And to go back to like the healing at the well if you look at their reaction they're more legalistic on him healing on the Sabbath than the man getting healed. Yeah like that's just bonkers in my eyes and like you see that though like bringing up preferences and things where it's like preferences like you can have them but when you come to church your worship like there's I'll be honest there's some songs that I'm like I'm not feeling it but guess what I'm called to sing spiritual songs and hymns and song with the congregation with the people so that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna sing it.

SPEAKER_02 23:49

The thing is and I probably said it before Francis Chan nailed it when someone came up to him one point and was complaining about oh I didn't like the song we should have done this song and I would have enjoyed that more and his response was hey good thing we weren't praising you and he walked away like that is that hits the nail on the head we are um it's so easy for us to get caught up in the style and I noticed it when I first started preaching that I would see that like oh they've got this tech like they've got this nervous thing and that's all I can focus on now and I lose focus of what they're saying because I'm hyperfixating on evaluating them to see if they're good enough to be up there to see if they're a good enough singer. And not that I can tell notes because I can't carry carry a tune in the bucket but if they're hitting that note properly and things like that like we get so lost on that or if or if someone says something for too long when they're doing announcements or whatnot like we allow that to ruin a Sunday morning for what? For our own pride for our own desire to have it our way like it's not for you. And it's and I say that lovingly that we all have kind of been in that situation at one time or another but it's okay if it happens a day. Like that might throw you off one day it might be day or week but we can't let that become our thing like people are going to worship differently people and if at the end of the day Ryan said in on the midweek podcast there's a church on every corner that you can try out a bunch to find the one you love um but I would not recommend trying too many times because you got to build that relationship with the church. It's the church isn't to hop in and visit and leave it's to go and build a relationship and do you want to be healed? Do you want to be made well? And you do that by being in communion with other believers and building those relationships.

SPEAKER_01 25:43

Yeah and I don't know I hear that a lot too about people who you know they hop from church to church and they say like I haven't found my true church home and I think that falls back to a lot of what we're talking about too because don't get me wrong I have been to a handful of churches and I think at the time like looking back at it I think I was trying to find not the one that I because they they were all preaching the word it's just I wanted my ears scratched. So all these times I went from church to church I was looking for something that inside I wanted to be confirmed or you know whatever ultimately they were all preaching the word now there are times where you're gonna find you're gonna run into a church where not all churches are perfect. You're gonna find one that might be speaking falsely but nine I feel like nine times out of ten when people are saying you know I've been to church to church to church and I just haven't found my church home and it's like I I do really feel that because I've been there that I I was looking for one that would scratch my ear and and just what I was looking for and to me that's not fair. True I don't know it's my little tidbit

Why The Whole Bible Matters

SPEAKER_01 26:54

there.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

It's a good tidbit all right what are we talking about next boys um I had a note actually do you have something you want to lead with a point um just that with I'll leave with one that's pretty the whole like I love this quote it's take it says a whole bible makes a whole Christian because the Bible is hanging on by Jesus. You can look and John is just thorough like completely saturated with old testament illusions and connections to where like it kind of for me reading it makes you want to go back and like know the historical narrative know the Pentateuch know the prophets even though sometimes the prophets are hard to understand oh for sure but like it like you see these connections and you're like I want to go look at that I want to go look at this and you like just I just love how it's all pointed to Christ and it's just like it kind of encourages me and I believe quite a bit of people if they're following along will encourage them to become more biblically literate on their own without having to like I don't want to say rely because we're here to supplement we're here to help but like to be able to practice these habits of getting in your Bible and reading it for yourself reading it for your family and I believe the more you get in there the more you will walk in the straight narrow path what do they say the it's a light for your feet.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

No I like that that's fantastic and honestly you are right like we read I know I just we're not covering this one but the eighth week we did where I preached on John 6 like I went back and freshened up on Deuteronomy 15 where it might have been 18 either 1815 or 1518 it's my dyslexia I guess I don't really have it but I'm gonna use it as an excuse this time um getting to me where it's what did what did they say back in Deuteronomy that alluded to Jesus what was that prophecy and I go back and read the old testament and they're so it is it is tempting at the very least like and I would it was second or I think it was probably my second year of Bible school where I was like I really don't have the old testament knowledge that I probably should. Like I knew all the I knew the gospel and I knew the stuff going on there and I knew the story of Jesus and I knew the New Testament because like I had that idea like I was a new testament Christian like there's a new covenant this is what's important and this is the stuff I gotta know to get to heaven. I don't need to know the old testament law but Jesus came to fulfill the law to do to he didn't come to abolish it he came to fulfill it to make it right to make us have an opportunity to get to know Jesus andor get to know God and have that relationship with him. And so John just points back at the old testament and that's a good point.

SPEAKER_01 29:42

I like that well and I like you know all scripture is used for for correct and correction and teaching and I I think going back to the old testament even without focusing on the law itself there's so much things like even in our lives today that we can learn from the examples that were set back then or even um you know areas that people fell into are still struggles that people are facing today and just understanding the redemptiveness of God and the fact that he's still there to pull you out of those things like all that stuff in the old testament I feel like is still great to bring into for uh teaching today.

Staying With Jesus Through Prayer

SPEAKER_01 30:20

Something I had was one of I think it was in week three they made a comment about you cannot truly know Jesus from a distance um but following him requires proximity relationship and surrender. Man I was just peeking at week three too and uh I don't know it it reminded me of like it made it makes me stop and ask myself like what am I really seeking? And I said I put it in my notes that like is it just me learning more about Jesus or am I actually spending time with him? And then for um people who like to study scripture it's easy to confuse gaining knowledge with growing in relationship with Christ. So a lot of times like we've talked about this in the past it doesn't matter how much knowledge you have if it's not being applied in your life. So like even going to Paul when he talks about living a life worthy of the gospel I can have all the knowledge in the world but if I'm not applying it and reflecting Christ back into the world am I truly having a relationship with him? Oh yeah do I truly know him? I I can say that I know him based off facts that I read you know out of the Bible or whatever else but if I'm not truly reflecting the things that I've learned like what do you uh wisdom is knowledge applied. So it's like if I'm not pouring that back out like what's the point? It's all it's all for nothing. I could have all the knowledge in the world but if it's not if I'm not reflecting it and truly walking with Christ what what's the point of it?

SPEAKER_02 31:46

Exactly Ryan asks a question in this sermon and he says I wonder this morning when was the last time you went and stayed with Jesus not like be perfect not like have it all together not even get to church on Sunday and have all the religious habits but just sit with Jesus for a while and just spend time with him in his presence and in prayer and just listening for him and in 2026 in America we got busy lives we got a lot going on and it's one of those things that we've got to make time for and like okay let's be real you may not get it every day you may not get it um as often as you want but find once a week to sit there for 15 minutes with no phone just your Bible read something and spend a little time with Jesus that was when I was off for that month and my ankle was broken I didn't work I loved that I was going out most mornings and just reading some of a book I was going through and I'd read different amounts I might read a whole chapter I might read a couple paragraphs and just chew on it.

SPEAKER_00 32:55

And it's that opportunity to get to know Jesus without like all the other stuff without all the extra work just spending time and staying with Jesus and it I don't mean to like uh the work is good like you said knowledge applied is important I'm not trying to contradict what I am saying is by doing this just sitting and staying with Jesus it gives you that ability to to apply that knowledge right oh like I'll be honest like like when I first like really like I like you're able to tell like all right my prayer life is really lacking like you can like Ryan and Tim do a great job of saying like hey you need to pray hey you need to be in the Bible and like when I first started trying to like bring it into my regular everyday life I'll be honest sometimes I'm praying and I just feel uncomfortable awkward well Sydney's like hey will you pray for pray to go to bed I'm like uh yeah and then you just kind of fumble through but it's with everything in life like the repetition and you'll be more comfortable and you'll be able to verbalize because I think praying out loud is just great like pray over your wife pray over your children just pray don't even pray asking for things just pray in thanksgiving thank God for what he's done for you in this life and for eternal life and it'll just bring like a kind of a peace around you like you're not gonna you're still gonna have your like I'm annoyed here or I'm like a little sleep deprived so my children are annoying me and I'm gonna snap a little bit but then you just you bring it back and you pray about that later and it kind of just reassures you and just kind of it's like a breath of fresh air.

SPEAKER_02 34:42

Have you ever prayed mid-argument like out loud with your spouse prayed mid-argument it changes it it genuinely does me and I like we've done it and it's I can tell it's the Lord because it's when me and Alison are really mad at each other and there's been a couple times where we're both heated and I'm just like I hear the Lord he's like pray and I'm just like come here and she's like what I was like we're gonna pray do you really test the situation though and be like dear God I pray that you help with her lack of patience no no no because I'm usually holding her and I'm like because we're both mad there's there's angry tears there's Chris heart tears all of that fun stuff and you just pray for a minute and then you walk away and you don't try to resolve it right away you say Lord we don't know what to do fix our hearts fix this do whatever you need to do with us what break us your call and then you walk away it does a couple fantastic things one it realigns yourself it gets your heart on Christ on the relationship not on yourself every time we're gonna fight we want to be right that's usually why the fight continues no I like that but then also it drops the the weapons for your spouse when you're like Lord if I've wronged her make it clear to me I think I'm right I believe that wholeheartedly in this moment but if I'm wrong convict me and teach me. And it just it does something different it it you can say that to your wife and maybe it's just Alison like I could say that to Alison but when I say that to the Lord she knows I'm not joking. She knows if I'm asking the Lord to set me straight then I'm asking the Lord to set me straight and so she loses the defense as well and it's it's good stuff. If you've never done it I mean you might need like a a catcher's gear beforehand when you go in for the hug initially like it might hurt. She might swing at you. It's a close shot you got to be vulnerable for a second but hey it it works out at the end.

SPEAKER_01 36:39

Well I'm glad you brought up prayer anyway because I you know I've been talking about it a lot that that's something I've been trying to work on more is like even openly praying for people um because I already struggled like in my own life trying to figure out and and I think that's where I'm going wrong is I try to figure out the right words for prayer instead of just talking to him like a father. Every time I think about it I mess it up I know and that's like I need to just pray from the heart like we should be doing but the thing is like I've also been trying to I mean it's all glory to God but I've been trying to work on that by putting myself in the uncomfortable situations. You know like I told you about the woman at Olive Garden you know wonderful experience you know I felt really bad for her but to be able to pray for her and then you know just yesterday at Speedway there's a woman sleeping outside Speedway and being able to pray like I'm trying to put myself in those situations because that I I think it is like a very important it's a very important role for us because the prayers of the saints are powerful. So for us even when we're praying for each other you know you read in Revelation like they're carrying the bowl of your prayers to the throne of God so like there is an importance to it and I I don't know I that's an area that I've struggled with a lot that I've I've been trying to work on. You know how Ryan finishes up every uh uh what do we call it huddle he finishes up every huddle with let's go punch the devil in the face yeah Jamie's catching out of that we went we were holding the face we're reading I think it's Romans it might be Romans we're reading Romans um we just started usually we read out of the kids' Bible but this time I'm just like you know what I'm gonna grab my study bible and we're gonna read that and then we're gonna spend five minutes talking about it um and I'll break it down for you I'll explain what he's saying and things like that and so like I read the first part and it's like Paul the apostle of Christ and this that and the other I was like what he's saying here is all of this means like Paul wrote it and I'm writing to the Romans pretty much and they're like oh okay and they get that right but we're finishing up Jamie says he wants to pray I'm like awesome pray and he finishes his prayer with God you're the good one you're great you're the best Satan's the worst please throw him in a volcano in heaven amen amen I'm like Ryan what are you doing to that kid I mean to be fair Ryan's the one who he has pushed me to pray more like it was the night of prayer and worship and someone was talking about financial struggles and Ryan's like hey can you pray for them and I'm like Ryan I'm in financial struggles how am I supposed to pray for this person I'm like I'm in the same struggle right now but it

Born Again And Bridegroom Love

SPEAKER_01 39:20

I don't know it is good I like that I like that Jamie's catching on to that and he's got his own little thing now just throw the devil in a volcano it's good all right what else we got we got about five more minutes we can go final point Charles hit us with something good why don't you put me in the hot seat right now because it's not me I don't know I still think and it's like I'm gonna keep beating the the point but it's like reading through all this is just my constant reminder of going back to who Christ really is and and not focusing on just the the historical points and miracles and everything else that you see. Obviously those are important because they all they do go back to prophecy and truly teach you who Christ is but at the same time like John makes it very clear from John 1 1 all the way through that Jesus is God. And it's for me it's I I need to remind myself of that not get caught up in the the text itself. I need to remember why I'm in the text um but what do you got?

SPEAKER_00 40:30

I like going off I was in three a lot like kind of preparing kind of refreshing for this and I saw that uh George Whitfield a 1700s uh preacher that preached they say from hundreds to thousands of time just on John 3 3 need to be born again and I guess one of his friends asked him like why do you preach to men that they need why do you preach that they need to be born again and he just answers because they need to be born again I'm like that's just perfect.

SPEAKER_02 41:06

We're broken. We can't do it alone our our bodies our souls before Christ are corrupted and wrong and we just need to be born again. That's really good. I do like that my my final point that there is a word that keeps sticking out to me this entire series and it's the description of Jesus as the bridegroom where it is the sense of the most important thing the thing you love the thing that you are married to like if the the the importance of my bride to me is second only to Christ and it's and then it makes me ask myself do I have that constantly do I ever not have Christ first and like not not in the grand scheme of things right like I you can always love Christ first but you can wake up a day and be selfish that day and you're not putting Christ first in that moment. Like am I living in a way where Christ is the most important thing there's not there are sure and little things like I might be like ooh I want the bigger piece of meat the one I cut up the meat at the end the one we're eating dinner. But like when it comes to the things that matters I'm gonna put Allison first. Am I doing that same thing for Christ or am I doing the opposite am I giving Christ a bigger piece of meat for the things that matter am I holding to myself and it is it is this sense of not just the Lord not just legalism following getting the right things but a genuine relationship where you're in love and it matters I remember I was I don't know 16 17 years old and we went visiting some family in Massachusetts and I went with my dad and I started dating Allison not long before and I probably spent 12 hours of that trip on my phone texting her. So much so that my uncle was like do you think she's gonna leave you dude like you're scared to not talk to her for five minutes but I was infatuated with her like she was this beautiful girl that I was in love with and I I might be crazy. I told her I loved her after a week of actually talking to her I knew I was going to marry Allison she laughed at me it's a thing but I was like I am infatuated with you. Are you hoping that she's out there listening oh yeah yeah for sure um but we need to challenge ourselves to to be that madly in love with Christ that when people are like what you're on you're on your lunch break and you're you're reading a verse you're studying this like you're praying right now like you're scared he's not gonna talk to you he's not gonna like you anymore if you're not praying to him no I just only want to talk to him it is this I don't know it's like the more I spend time on this word bridgrim and the how this works and this relationship that John's calling us to have with Christ not just hey Jesus died for you you should get to know him so you can go to heaven but this true and important and deep relationship it just excites me to like know Christ more and to know him like my like that he knows me more than my bride knows me and I might know him deeper than I might than I know my bride and it is it's an exciting thing to me. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 44:43

And I think that's the level that we should all strive to be at because I've like the one thing that scares me is like obviously we want to be in our word but it's when we start to lose sight of what you were just talking about and you're still in your word but it becomes habit over actually winning the relationship. Yeah. So that's like I think about that all the time because there's times where I'm reading and it's like in my mind I can almost feel myself kind of losing sight of why I'm reading and sometimes I do have to walk away from it and just be like all right I'll come back tomorrow and I'll go and pray on it whatever. But a lot of times like I do I do fear that you know we get so caught up in the word that we lose sight of why we're even in it in the first place.

SPEAKER_02 45:26

Yeah. So I like your point that was a really good one. Oh shucks all right we're right at 45 minutes we could probably go another hour and a half um there's so much here we skimmed through seven weeks of sermons and just took out some things that really stuck out with us and we are so glad you hung around and listened with us um but if you've got anything you want to point out we still got that we still got that email up it's the blue chair podcast at uh I think it's blue chair podcast today freshwind.com I'm gonna have to edit this out because I don't remember the thing but probably gonna have to this is going to be the first episode you've probably ever edited no I edit out a couple things anytime I sound weird I edit it out but I'll leave you in I might leave this one in now but anyhow um thanks for joining us thanks for being on with us Dave that was a lot of good insight on your end you threw up peace signs. Threw up peace signs too I when I I don't know I you nod at Charles half the time and I'm like oh this isn't video I have to speak so it's a thing it's a we do get a camera we do well all right Charles say goodbye all right bye everybody