Latest / The Extra Mile Podcast / What Are You Doing With the Light God Gave You? (with Pastor Austin Young)

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What Are You Doing With the Light God Gave You? (with Pastor Austin Young) · The Extra Mile Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you love the light, if you love the revelation of who God is in his word, God says, if you guard that, I'm going to give you more, but you're going to keep growing and moving and you're going to get more uh more personal in your relationship with God.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: And but he says, those who like don't really value it, even what they this is so powerful, even what they think they understand, they're going to lose, which means there's people sitting in churches that had the revelation of Jesus being their savior.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: And they they thought they got it, but they didn't really guard it.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: They went right back into the darkness.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And God said, even what they think they understand, they're going to lose.
• 0:34
  unknown: All right.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, welcome everybody to the Extra Mile Podcast, sitting at the table with uh Pastor Austin Young.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a couple weeks since you've been on the table, brother.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's good to be back.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Pastor Shah did a great job, but I missed you.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thanks.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just glad we could work out all the like the contract holdout with it.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: Well, your agent was pretty uh pretty direct about what your expectations were.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm glad I'm glad we worked it out.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Your NIL money has gone up.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um well, man, I want to open with a question.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh when you were a kid, or I'm guessing not as an adult, so I'm gonna assume maybe as a child, were you ever afraid of the dark?
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I remember always having a nightlight for the longest.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: I think eventually in my adulthood, like now I'm like the darker the better.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm if I can not see my hand, I'll sleep better.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: But when I was a kid for sure, now the problem I do still have is I cannot sleep in silence.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: If if I don't have a fan or a noise machine, that's when I'm like, I hear, I'm like, I don't want to hear someone break into my house.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to because I hear everything.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm thinking that you want to leave.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, if I don't hear you, we don't have to fight.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: So just get in, get out.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: But that's for me, it's even more like the quiet.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: I'm cool with the dark now, but I'm still like, I don't want to be able to hear anything.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: But it it's that same fear.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: I think just when you're an adult, it transitions to sound.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's funny because my wife and I both we have two fans in our bedroom going.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And if we stay at a hotel, um, man, it's a rough night's sleep.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: So hey, just this is free information.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Anybody watching, if you stay at a hotel, typically you could ask the front desk and they keep fans on hand for people like us that need noise.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: But when I asked the question, are you afraid of the dark or were you afraid of the dark?
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: I remember as a kid growing up in the north, basements were very common here in the south, not so much.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not really sure why, who designed this house that I grew up in.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: But the light was like not even in the middle, it was kind of in the back, and it was a pull, it was like one of the pool strings.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: So you had to go down in the dark, make it to the light.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember so many times as a kid, my parents would send me to the basement.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: We had a fruit cellar, basically just can't extra canned goods.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and I would go down just afraid to death of what was going to get me.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember pulling the cord to go back up, like you got to turn it off, and just as soon as you turn it off, you're running.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And like my imagination is something's right on my heels.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, what is it about the dark that makes kids afraid?
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, my assumption is I think as a kid, just because once the light's out, your imagination takes over.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: And as a kid, you just tend to imagine the worst that there is a monster, there's something there to get you.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: But when the light's on, there's no fear because you know exactly what's there.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that takes me to the conversation we had this last Sunday.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we started a conversation called Relocation Salvation that the Bible describes our spiritual journey, not again as a destination, but and more than just forgiven.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: While I'm thankful that we're forgiven, that God moves us, He transfers us, He relocates us.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that's mentioned in 1 Peter 2 9 is that we're moved from darkness into light.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so I just want to talk, kind of recap some of that and then hit some things I don't have time to talk about.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but what was your takeaway from this idea of darkness?
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to you when the Bible talks about darkness?
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think a lot of times, especially especially where I'm at now, I think being in church for a long time, I think for me, it has to do with the things in my life that I don't want to have exposed.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: So, like most of the time it's sin, sometimes it's shame, sometimes it's just like personal.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want people to know that I'm into this thing, like this nerdy thing or whatever.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: But like it's kind of just things that I'm like, I'd rather like no one knows about this.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: And if I can just handle it, no one has to find out.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I think for me, where I'm at currently, most of the time it's it's kind of this darkness of like, I want things hidden.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: I want things, I kind of want things in the dark.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: I don't, I don't necessarily um fear what's in the dark.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: I do, but that's why I want to keep it there.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: I want to be in control of the dark.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's kind of the angle that I take most often now.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I think that's a big part of it, especially once you come to Christ.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: There are these secret places in our lives that again, we're ashamed of, we're embarrassed of.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Some of it, it's not sin, it's just, you know, we don't want people to know that about us, but some of it is we're hiding something.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible starts the conversation with saying, hey, like God is light, in him there's no darkness at all, and starts with us in a relationship with God.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: And darkness is this idea of like, what does it mean to live separate from the source?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so spiritual darkness, when the Bible talks about it, and man, it's so prolific.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's mentioned so many places in the Bible, this idea of light and darkness, and um that really being in light means having this understanding of who God is.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: The same way when the lights on in the basement, you can see things now when you're in the dark, like you imagine things that aren't there.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: When we're in spiritual darkness, when we're separated from our Creator, uh, our mind is dark.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Paul uses that language, our we're blind.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Moses says we're groping in the dark.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, lots of ways to describe this idea that you don't have a real understanding.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: You can't visually, spiritually, visually, really understand the world you live in.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about biology or physics.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this spiritual world, we don't get it because we're in the darkness.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: We we don't really understand or believe in sin or a savior.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: And uh a lot of people they find themselves in that place separated from God that again were in the dark.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so I, you know, that's where we started the conversation and kind of took it some layers deeper.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: And for sure, part of the conversation is stuff we're still hiding that's in the dark.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um I don't know what to I kind of went through like where darkness is real again, trying to get there.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the light is greater.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, is there anything, man, that just jumped out at you besides the personal side?
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I think that second point, the light is greater.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I love that in John 1 when John's describing Jesus, like where you reference that of like in him there is no darkness, like the light and not no darkness can extinguish it.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: I just love that the hopefulness of that, of like whatever darkness you find yourself in, or whatever darkness you're trying to create in your life, like nothing can extinguish the light of God that steps into it.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: And like you even talked about, you know, you told the story about the field trip you took.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like if you light one match in the darkest place in the world, it lights up a lot.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: And it you can't, you can't not have the light affect the things that are around it.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think the po the power that God's light has over the darkness in our lives or the darkness spiritually that we have is the most hopeful part of it all.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: And you're like, okay, there's nothing too dark.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: Because it does feel like there are things that are too dark.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: You're like, well, there's normal darkness, but then there's like the worst darkness, and there's no way God could light that up, but he can.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'd go back to the way you opened and saying you you like to sleep where it's dark.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: And you know how it is, because we're the same way.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: My wife and I both, especially me, if it's if there's light in, so you can crank your blinds closed and just a little bit of light gets through, it feels like the whole room's lit up.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Just that little bit of moonlight, man, shatters the darkness.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: And um, so this idea of darkness is again, we're separated from the source of light, how it impacts how we see, how we live, how we experience the world that we're a part of.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and Jesus came to shatter the darkness.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's why he came.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's why he said, I'm the light of the world.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: And if you follow me, you'll no longer be in darkness.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's this invitation into kind of knowing really who you are, um, and knowing more who God is, knowing the power of the gospel.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: And when you start to really see, when you start to have, I would use the word revelation, when it's revealed to you how amazing God is, how great his grace is, how dark our sin is.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: And when you start really seeing that, I can still remember, and I still experience this today, but I remember as a young Christian, again, thinking that who I was was fine until it was brought to the light, until I heard the gospel, and it's like, wait a minute, that's that's not okay.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's not, it might be acceptable to the friends I'm hanging out with, but there's something morally wrong or bankrupt, and the word is sin.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus was, I often wonder if I could go back and ask my tenth grade self, who do you think Jesus is, if I would have an answer.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: But he wasn't my savior because I didn't need a savior.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, but there was a moment, I had an aha moment, a revelation moment where the light kicked in because of the gospel, where I was moved from darkness to light.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: There was things that I couldn't see that was true.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: And once I was in the light, man, it all came, it all came flooding in, and I could see the reality of who God is and who I was.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I think I think what's so cool and so powerful is I have like a boring Christian testimony because I was raised in church, raised in a Christian school.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like there's uh there's sin, but I didn't I didn't get to do any of the good ones, you know.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like I just had like a very normal, like you wouldn't think of me I've ever living in real darkness.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: There is sin and there's darkness, but I think what's so incredible about that is like still after all these years, without you know, living in this intense, deep, you know, sin, God brings light and reveals more of who he is still.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Like I have a greater understanding of God and I still have those aha moments about his character and about who he is.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: And it's beyond just lighting up the darkness of our sin, there's also just like the light of revealing more of his character and revealing more of who he is to us as we grow in our relationship with him.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's so helpful too, because you're like, well, I don't have any deep dark secrets.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's like God still wants to reveal more of who he is because he's endless.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: And like if you think you have God figured out and you're like, no, I I get it all, I understand him.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's just wait because there's more light.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: If he wants, he'll he'll reveal more.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that was um, that was the main thing that I really wanted to get to today that I, man, I built Sunday to get to this point and really didn't have enough time, is that when you when you're transferred out of darkness into light, you can fully see who Jesus is, but there's still more of Jesus to see.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's like our salvation.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: When you invite Jesus into your heart and life to be your savior, you put your faith in him to forgive your sin and you trust him for salvation, you're totally saved.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: But then the Bible talks about us being saved.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: There's still this process where we're still growing.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: The light is just as true.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: When you come into the light, that transfers total.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: But there's more to God to see, there's more to ourselves to see.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: The way the apostle Paul says it is that in our spiritual journey, we move from glory to glory.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like he's talking about this veil being removed and like you can see for the first time, and there's more to see.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so what I want to spend a few minutes in the Extra Mile podcast talking about today is that idea of guarding the revelation we have, of having a value for what God has shown us.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: I just think it's easy for, and I've seen this and I've experienced this, it's easy for God to speak to us in our quiet time.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: For us to read a scripture and us have one of those aha moments, and us maybe to cherish it for a couple days, but then we just kind of let it go and it's no longer changing us, it's no longer challenging us.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of like, man, God gave me this picture of who he is, he's given me more light and us not guarding it.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus tells a parable in Luke chapter eight, and this is where I want to kind of take off and where I ended Sunday.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: He talks about the parable of the sower.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: He says, This guy goes out, this farmer goes out to sow seed, and he sows seed in four different types of soil.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: The last one is the goal, which is the soil that's prepared to receive the seed.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: And when the seed goes in the right kind of soil, it brings forth the harvest.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, when he gives the interpretation of the parable, you know what the seed is, the word of God.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: And the word of God, the harvest it brings is this harvest of life change, this fruit that you are a Christ follower and he's changed our nature and our character.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: But something that doesn't get a lot of playtime that I think is important is he says this, he says in Luke, um, Luke chapter 8, he says in verse 5, he says, A farmer went out to plant his seed and he scattered it across his field, and some seed fell on the footpath where it was stepped on and the birds ate it.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: And you can picture that someone throwing and the seed doesn't go on the ground and birds coming and eating it.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, then he gives the interpretation.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: What is it?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now remember, the seed is the word of God, and the the dirt is people's hearts.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what he says: the interpretation.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is the meaning of the parable.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: The seed is God's word.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: The seeds that fell on the footpath represent those who hear the message only to have the devil come and take it away from their hearts and prevent them from believing and being saved.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: So he's saying, hey, this battle for light is real.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: The enemy who represents darkness, he doesn't want you to have light.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's not just this idea of, hey, when you get a when you get a revelation or you get the light turned on, you have an aha moment, not just, hey, I hope you do a good job taking care of it, but understand the enemy wants to snatch that from you.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: He wants you in darkness because when you're in darkness, how can you honor a God you don't know?
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: How can you serve a God you can't see?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, how you how can you, you know, really follow a God you don't understand?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: So the devil wants to to rob us of that revelation.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: So he's saying, hey, you need to know out of the gate that when the word's going forth, it's a battle, and the devil wants to keep you in darkness, and he's gonna try to snatch that seed or that revelation or that source of light.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: To me, man, that's just a that's a wow moment.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think those moments happen throughout your relationship with God and throughout your journey, not just that moment of salvation, which I think is specifically what Jesus is speaking to.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: But I I even as you're talking about this, I'm thinking of different instances where um I've had moments with God or I've had um someone speak a word from God over me.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: And like as you were talking, I'm remembering one that one of our elders spoke over me like three Christmases ago, maybe four.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then I remembered one um from an event I was at this spring of like, I'm like, oh man, like I wept when God spoke to me in those moments, and I literally haven't thought about it in probably weeks.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, that wasn't that long ago, but I'm still not um continuing to kind of till that soil to make sure my heart doesn't become that footpath.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's like the reason it couldn't go into the ground is because it was all hardened ground from feet walking on it.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like if I don't keep tilling the soil of my heart, I think that's what can happen with these new revelations from God as well.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: Not just the big, the biggest aha moment of salvation.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: There's also more along your journey that I think that that's really kind of where my head's at right now.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think about where David said that his word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: So there's again, there's the big light, the big aha moment where we see Jesus for the first time and we're convicted, we're convinced that he is our savior and we're convinced we need a savior.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody, man, if you're watching this, man, I would encourage you to open your heart to the to the light of the gospel.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we all need that aha moment.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: But again, life is filled as a follower with aha moments and they get very personal.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like God wants to show me, reveal to me what my next steps are as we navigate jobs and finances and kids.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: God wants to keep giving us these light moments to show us, hey, here's the path I have for you.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: Here's God wants to reveal his nature how he's gonna take care of us, or how he's gonna keep us safe, or how he's gonna keep us hopeful.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: And all of those are light moments.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I just don't think I've done a great job consistently guarding that revelation.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: And uh again, I can go back to my testimony, March 19, 1989, but I can't tell you sometimes what he told me last week.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: And man, that light is is just as precious and just as valuable in my life as the big aha light that I got coming out of darkness into light.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I I think that is one of the most applicable for probably church people, anybody that's a church person listening to this and that was here on Sunday, is kind of that idea of like, no, God has more of those aha moments for you.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: He wants to reveal more of himself.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: And then what do you when those happen, like at our Invictus Men's Conference, I've heard stories of men going, hey man, God convicted me that I need to be porn into younger men or I need to step up as the man in my house and the father in my home.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like I've heard those stories, and it's like that was that light turning on for those men on Friday night.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: So now it's you know, today's Tuesday when we're recording this.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: So where where's that word now?
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: Have have they guarded it?
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: Have they meditated on it?
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: Have they brought it before God again?
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's um, I mean, that's definitely a struggle for me.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, oh, sweet, God, thanks for that word.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'm gonna just keep going.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like, what if we slowed down and really let it sink in deep and grow roots?
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think we'll be further along in our journey for sure.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, at the end of the day, I think the challenge I want people to hear out of today's podcast and the message on Sunday is that that light, I said it this way, that revelation brings responsibility, that light is something we steward.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just something that God gives us.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: We're like, okay, I got it forever.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: He like gives us these gifts.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, now what are you gonna do with it?
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so you follow in Luke chapter eight again, the primary part is it begins with the parable of the sower.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then he goes on and says some things that people, in my estimation, have taken out of context.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it's the same teaching.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: And he says one of the verses, he says this, he says, So pay attention how you hear, not to what you hear.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: No, that matters, but how do you hear as a disciple?
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: Are you leaning in?
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: Are you listening?
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: Are you guarded?
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: Are you are you hungry for more revelation?
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: Are you thirsty for more light?
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: Be careful or pay attention to how you hear.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: But to those who are not listening, even what they think they understand will be taken away from them.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is Jesus saying, Hey, if if you sit under the revelation of the word, if you hear the teaching, the light of the gospel, and you value that and you guard that and you treasure that, he's saying, I can, and this is always the principle of scripture.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever we steward well, God will give us more of.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: So if you love the light, if you love the revelation of who God is in his word, God says, if you guard that, I'm gonna give you more, which you're gonna keep growing and moving and you're gonna get more uh more personal in your relationship with God.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: And but he says, those who like don't really value it, even what they this is so powerful, even what they think they understand, they're gonna lose, which means there's people sitting in churches that had the revelation of Jesus being their savior.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: And they they thought they got it, but they didn't really guard it.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: They went right back into the darkness, and God said, even what they think they understand, they're gonna lose that too.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: And man, I that just uh I think that that should not scare us, but that should awaken us to the reality of how much we should value the light that he's given us and treat it as the gift that it is.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I don't know who the quote is, but a lot of people are like, if you don't know what God's asking you to do, go back and do the last thing he told you to do.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like that that idea of like he already told you what to do.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: Have you done the last thing he told you to do, or have you dealt with the last sin he convicted you of?
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: Or have you, you know, like, or are you like, God, I need a new revelation?
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, just yeah, guard the one that I've already given you, and then we can move on to the next one.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: Steward the one I've already revealed.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think that's like kind of that behind it of when you feel stagnant or when you feel stuck or you feel like you're in the silence.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: I think you just kind of got to go back and go, what was the last revelation?
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: Can I hold on to it a little bit tighter and steward it until the next one?
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: Because he's faithful.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: He's there's gonna be a next one if if you're seeking him.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the some of the darkness you mentioned that I think we all hide as believers.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's one of the ways we should be aware that we're we're not stewarding light well because we're not allowing it, like God showed us that shouldn't be there, but we still kind of keep it in the dark rather than dragging it into the light.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: And um, man, I think that's great application again.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: God, the way God has revealed sin to us or opportunity to us, and we just don't value it.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: As a pastor being uh saved in a church that used to do three services a week, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's the church you came up in.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that that bothered me, and the reason I was willing to get away from this model and Sunday school is because you would go to Sunday school and then Sunday morning and come back Sunday night and then come back Wednesday night.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I think all that teaching is great.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: But I used to say to myself, and I started saying to my church, what do we need Sunday?
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you're gonna go to Sunday school, what do we need a service for?
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like you already got it.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Are you doing anything with the message you got in Sunday school?
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now you got another message Sunday morning.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: You went home, ate a meal, took a nap.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now you got another, you got more light Sunday night.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: You're not living the light you got Sunday morning.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like, so again, it's this idea you can almost be flooded with light and do nothing with it.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, what do what do you think it means to steward light well?
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think that looks like practically?
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I as I've because now this whole time I've just been thinking about those few things I was talking about, like those few words that I've gotten.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um Especially the most recent one and and kind of going like, Oh yeah, I need to become aware of that.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: For me, it's been writing it down.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: That's been helpful for all those like um powerful moments in God's presence where there's been those light bulb moments.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: I always write it in in my journal so that I can go back to it.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because I think part of that, the devil snatching that light, I think he can convince me a lot of stuff's in my head.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I'm just narcissistic enough that I can convince myself of anything.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: I always believe I'm right.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: So if I read my own handwriting about a story that happened to me and I'm like, if I believed it then, it was real because I trust me a little bit.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: So like I think keeping a record of what God does in your life is super helpful for me because I can look back and go, no, that's what he said.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm not gonna shift the words, I'm not gonna allow the enemy to try and change some of the revelation or change.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: Are you did he really say that?
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I can go back and go, no, he did say that.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's what he said.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: I wrote it down.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think for me, that's probably the number one that's coming to mind right now is like when you have those light bulb revelation moments, I would say the first one is like, I put it down to remind myself.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: And we were talking about this before.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: I was trying to, I couldn't think of this verse.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's the confession.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: I had to ask Pastor David behind the camera.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: Be like, where is this verse where David talks about, why are you so downcast?
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my soul, put your hope in the Lord.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: And that's how I feel this is sometimes is it's in Psalm 42, he told me.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's this idea of David even had to go, like, what are you doing, me?
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like, remember who God is, remember that he's good.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like, kind of like giving himself a pep talk.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like that's when I have those moments.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: If I write them down, it's like me giving myself a pep talk again of like, remember what God spoke to you, remember what God revealed to you.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like, why why are you doing this?
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know what's true.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that really helps me.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: So stewarding the light is is recounting our testimonies, remembering the revelation.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's that holding tight, that guarding of like, I want to guard this as a real moment in my life.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: I uh want to close, man, real quick, real quick, two quick thoughts.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: And one, again, something I don't have a lot of time to talk about.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: There's a difference between head knowledge and heart knowledge.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: There's a diff a difference between um understanding something with the natural mind and having a revelation.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: They feel very similar, but a revelation is is life.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's the light of God piercing your spirit, man.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's changing you on the inside.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this is what Jesus means when he says, Hey, those who um those who think they understand, um, if they don't guard that, like even what they think they understand is going to be lost, they can still articulate what they think they believe, but it's head knowledge and the light that brings the power to change us is gone because we've let it go.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so I would just would encourage people, man, to value the light again, which starts with just the revelation of who Jesus is and goes into us continuing our spiritual journey that God wants to continue ever continually every day, light our path, reveal our journey, expose who he is, us get closer to him.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: But man, the day we stop valuing that light is the day we start losing it.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: And the more we value it is the day we start getting more of it.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um two quick thoughts here, two verses I want to tie together.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: I mentioned this second service, but not first, and I don't recall which service we posted.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: So you may be hearing.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: This was new for me.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: I I was at nine o'clock.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: So um, so I heard this one time.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Jesus made this comment, and you can find it in Matthew chapter 7, uh, verse 6.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Don't cast your pearl before swine.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: Have you heard that?
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: And um, it's such an odd picture.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: Again, culturally, we don't we don't get it.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: Swine were considered unclean to Jews, but what are the pearls?
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I want to read another verse and then tie back into really what Jesus is talking about.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: In Matthew 13, verse 45 and verse 46, another pearl is mentioned, and I think the two tie together.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice, choice pearls.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: And when he discovered the pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and he bought it.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: So what is this, what is this pearl of great price?
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's a couple things together.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's Jesus, it's it's the kingdom, but also it's the gospel.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: How do you know Jesus and how do you know the kingdom without the gospel?
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so he's saying once you once you hear the gospel and once you once you discover who Jesus is and how awesome he is and how precious he is, he says, Man, you'll sell every you'll lay down your life for this valuable pearl of great price.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, going back to that, once we have the pearl, we're called to be people who distribute the pearl, who preach the gospel, who Jesus said that he was the light of the world.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now he says, You're the light of the world, go light up your world.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: So we sold everything for the pearl for that light.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: We need to cast that light.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: But then Jesus comes along and says, Hey, don't cast your pearl before swine.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: And um some people say that one of the things that Jesus is referring to is that rabbis at that time, when they would teach, when they would take the Old Testament scriptures and bring revelation or bring knowledge to them, that they would call that stringing pearls.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: And um, so like you would link these scriptures together into a long necklace of revelation.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: And to take that beautiful necklace and throw it on the ground to someone who doesn't value it, he's like, hey, don't, don't cast your pearl before swine.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: Don't, don't share your light with people that don't value it.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now he's not saying don't preach the gospel, but when you find somebody who is not open to the conversation, you're not gonna convince them into head knowledge because it's light.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so again, I think this is another way of Jesus telling us, hey, be people that value light and revelation and find people that value light and revelation.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: And when you find those people who are hungry, who are open, man, their heart is gonna be changed as well.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: But though there's gonna be some people that that don't want light, and so um don't be those people and be careful, you know, not to waste too much time on people that are not interested in light and the revelation of how glorious Jesus can be.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: So closing thought, I'll let you take us out.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: No, I mean, I think um I think this has challenged me, just this of remembering the revelation that God's already given me, maybe maybe reopening some of that and letting it sink in a little deeper, maybe um, you know, go back to the most recent revelation that God's given you, whether that was the moment of salvation, whether it was a moment of a miracle in your life or a word from Sunday or Friday night if you're a man at the Invictus conference, like what was the last thing God spoke to you and revisit it and and re-offer it to Him and reopen yourself to it and just um be there for a minute, I think, and treasure it for what it is.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: So listen, if you're watching this, I just would encourage you to open up your heart to the light of the gospel.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've already done that and you've given your life to Christ, keep on pursuing more light, more revelation.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: Value what God speaks to you.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: Every time you open the Bible, every time you sit in church and you hear a message, treasure what God speaks to you because it's life transforming and it's going to open your heart to even more.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: So, Pastor Austin, thanks for joining us for the extra mile.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see you guys next week.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us.