Latest / Beyond the Sermon / Envy: Conversation
Transcript
- 0:07Thanks for joining us, on beyond the sermon.
- 0:09The podcast of First Methodist Church in Collingswood New
- 0:12Jersey. Our goal is not only to share
- 0:14our sermons, but to go beyond the sermon in conversation about
- 0:18what we're learning and what God is doing in our lives, and in
- 0:21our community, this conversation is inspired by our 2023 sermon
- 0:26series for length, seven deadly sins, the power of God to move
- 0:30us from death to New Life. He can find more information
- 0:33about our church at f-- U MC Collingswood, org.
- 0:37Thanks for joining us for this conversation.
- 0:39Don't mind my noisy children or dogs in the background of this
- 0:42podcast. So disclaimer.
- 0:45Hmm, we just got back from a lovely hike with our youth since
- 0:49they had off school for President's Day Scott, you want
- 0:52to tell him what you did on that.
- 0:53I, I did a rope swing that I should not have done three
- 0:58months post shoulder surgery, Didn't hurt my shoulder but I
- 1:02slid down the hill on the other side, completely in the mud.
- 1:06Yeah, it was entertaining. But I was worried because I
- 1:10didn't have Scott sign a release form to the church for, don't
- 1:14worry, Jeremy, I'm not going to sue you or the church for my
- 1:17muddy jeans. Yeah.
- 1:19Now we had a lovely time. We had a little devotional ran
- 1:24by our very own Elizabeth Boswell, which is a nice little
- 1:27break surrounded by God's. Action and we were very much
- 1:32away from the world. You couldn't see, you could hear
- 1:36a highway but you couldn't see the highway you couldn't see
- 1:39Suburbia around the park. It was nice to get away because
- 1:44if we were back in Civilization, we are constantly surrounded by
- 1:49advertisements for things on the roads, on our TVs, on our
- 1:55phones, whatever it may be just a constant bombardment, and you
- 1:58were talking about commercial. Shows on Sunday.
- 2:01And I was curious, have you ever watched a commercial and
- 2:06immediately fallen for it and purchased what they were
- 2:10selling? I'm gonna say no, but I don't
- 2:13trust myself. That's about right?
- 2:15You never once in college like Saul Pizza Hut Commercial and
- 2:18they're like, oh, we should go to Pizza Hut and then you guys
- 2:21went, have you ever been to Wilmore, Kentucky?
- 2:24Okay. Have you ever watched the fall
- 2:27Farmers Almanac Channel? We should go cow-tipping know.
- 2:34What do they have in Kentucky in Wilmore?
- 2:37Yeah, as far as restaurants restaurants are TV.
- 2:41Like, is it all like local restaurants on commercials?
- 2:44I don't know, Sonny's, barbecue, or whatever.
- 2:46I mean, some in Wilmore itself, when I was there, we had a
- 2:52little local coffee shop. That was only open till like
- 2:552:00 in the afternoon called Hebrews no Solomon's porch.
- 3:00Okay. It's the Solomon's porch across
- 3:03the street from that was a Subway and then I think either
- 3:07my junior or senior year a Chinese restaurant came into
- 3:11town. Oh wow.
- 3:14That became the spot. That was it.
- 3:17Like if it wasn't going to be one of those like you had to
- 3:21actually drive to the next town over, which was Nicholasville,
- 3:26or been ordered to Lexington, which Speaking of Of Wilmore, I
- 3:31just saw the update that, like, on Saturday 15,000, people were
- 3:36trying to attend the Revival and 15,000 people from outside of
- 3:40Wilmore. Yeah.
- 3:41Which I think is more than the population of Wilmore put, oh,
- 3:44yeah. The the populations only
- 3:46somewhere between five and six thousand.
- 3:47Yeah. When school is in session.
- 3:49Wow. And so, the 15,000 people, they
- 3:52ended up blocking off the town and only residents were able to
- 3:56continue to get in. Yeah, they had to ask the state
- 3:59police to come in and Kind of help navigate that a little bit,
- 4:02just mind-blowing. No, that's amazing.
- 4:05But you know what? That shows me they need to
- 4:08expand one more. Well, they need to expand one
- 4:10more sure. But but it's not we're always
- 4:14looking for what's that next thing?
- 4:18That next Trend. That next Killer song or
- 4:22lighting setup or whatever, that's going to attract people
- 4:25into our churches but these are people who are showing up just
- 4:28because they've heard That God is there.
- 4:31Yeah, and they want to experience God's presence.
- 4:35And so while I can be really tempting to be envious of, you
- 4:41know, some of the the big mega churches in the country or even
- 4:45some of the ones here in our own area and say like, oh man,
- 4:50they're they're doing it. They've got the big light shows,
- 4:53they've got the big projection screen, Star Band sound like
- 4:57they're professionals. I've got these eight.
- 4:59Hundred or a thousand seat Auditorium that they're packing
- 5:02out. We've got to do what they're
- 5:05doing. If we want to attract people
- 5:08young people in particular. Yeah, but I think what the
- 5:13outpouring, or The Awakening, the Revival, whatever you want
- 5:15to call it at Asbury shows is if God is really there, people will
- 5:21show up. Yeah.
- 5:23And as a thing is when it like started and continued after the
- 5:26service, it was more just like prayer and test them.
- 5:29Moni focused and that's what continued it.
- 5:32So it's not, you know, a lot of the parts of our Sunday morning
- 5:37worship wasn't even the part that continued and Drew a more
- 5:41people. And so when we think that I'll I
- 5:44don't know if I want to just sit in the room and pray and, and
- 5:48people's testimonies that's what you know, continue this to push
- 5:52and move into and to what it was and again, so the beautiful part
- 5:56of our class meetings that we're going to be starting Very soon,
- 6:00is that we'll be praying together and we'll be sharing
- 6:03testimony of how God is working and our lives through the week.
- 6:08And so I'm excited to see a little bit of what we've been
- 6:12hearing about reflected in our small groups and in our
- 6:15congregation this Lenten season. Hmm.
- 6:18You want to expect a natural transition, where, you know,
- 6:22where we going now? Wilmore, Kentucky, man.
- 6:25I just want to get Sunny's Barbecue and camp out in the
- 6:27hell hands yard. Really.
- 6:30They probably let you was my dream.
- 6:32Yeah. Because I was like I don't wanna
- 6:33take make them have to clean the house addressing like I just
- 6:35need access to a bathroom or and have a tent in the yard.
- 6:40I'll use my electric skateboard to get to the chapel.
- 6:43So I don't have to worry about all the traffic of people
- 6:45coming. I mean the line of people this
- 6:47point price stretches to their house.
- 6:49It's baffling. Absolutely baffling.
- 6:52Yeah and the great thing is because I'm I'm part of that
- 6:57extended Asbury world. I saw Friend of a friend's post
- 7:01which said that Zach, the guy who preached the chapel, yeah,
- 7:06that this all kind of launched from texted his wife, right
- 7:10after he got off the stage said, that was my latest stinker.
- 7:13I'll be home soon. Wow.
- 7:17Like he felt coming down off the stage after that, Chapel service
- 7:21that he had flopped whiffed and that's where God showed up.
- 7:26And so I should mess up more often.
- 7:29I mean, it gives Has me great hope because I feel like that's,
- 7:32you know, half my Sundays, at least every Sunday.
- 7:36There's something I feel like I should have said that better.
- 7:39I didn't handle that well, or, I probably wasn't as clear as I
- 7:43need to be, you know, explaining that concept or inviting people
- 7:46to respond in some way. And it's just such a good
- 7:51reminder that. It's not on us.
- 7:53It's not all on. It's not at all on us.
- 7:55Like, yes, we have to be faithful.
- 7:58Yes, we have to show. Oh up where God has asked us to
- 8:01show up but we've got to trust that he's the one who's doing
- 8:04the work. Yeah.
- 8:06And if we're not doing that if we're trying to do it on our
- 8:08own, that's when it's gonna fail.
- 8:11Yeah well I was thinking if I did go that what if I like
- 8:16didn't start going to the chapel until like 3:00 a.m. now because
- 8:20it's gotten so big and they're trying to protect it for the
- 8:22students, they're putting like boundaries on when people can
- 8:24come in. Yeah, now you're over 25.
- 8:27So you wouldn't be allowed in at 3 a.m.
- 8:30Yeah, and even if this was 10 years ago, you wouldn't have
- 8:33been able to get in Scott. That's true.
- 8:35That's true. Try and protect it for the young
- 8:38people, the odds, death City, the Ambassador.
- 8:44Yeah. But then, they're going to open
- 8:45it up in other facilities. Yeah, they're looking for some
- 8:48other locations to transfer the majority of it.
- 8:52Yeah, yes amazing. So I'm excited to see how this
- 8:57outpouring as I believe that's What the school is starting to
- 9:01yeah, title it. As is how the out, pours into
- 9:05the regular life and outside of that building and into the
- 9:08country and into the streets, into the people that aren't
- 9:11going to a more Kentucky and see how God is going to use this as
- 9:14a stepping stone or a launch pad for what he is doing
- 9:20specifically there. So, all that to say, I can't
- 9:23remember a time I've ever watched a commercial and gone
- 9:26out and bought something I can name too many times especially
- 9:32food, usually, once I started having my own money and then I
- 9:36saw something I was like, yeah, that's like five, ten minutes
- 9:39away that. So or make me think of another
- 9:43restaurant that I want to go to but even just like like Facebook
- 9:47ads or Instagram, as there's always things like because it's
- 9:50catered specifically to you and so they usually get me on
- 9:54especially the things where it's a subscription.
- 9:57Model, first one for free but you just pay shipping.
- 10:01Yeah, and then you have to remember to cancel all I've
- 10:03done. Easily, three, four dozen of
- 10:05those. Yeah, gets me Hook Line and
- 10:07Sinker almost every single time. Always afraid to do those there
- 10:10have been a couple times. I've forgotten to cancel before
- 10:12the the subscription closet it on my calendar and so that my
- 10:16phone reminds me of the day. Of speaking of Kentucky, we were
- 10:19talking about being envious sometimes of other people of not
- 10:26just the The resources that they have.
- 10:29But also sometimes for example, the service is happening in
- 10:33Wilmore. Yeah.
- 10:34Wishing that for our services, but also I was curious.
- 10:38If you've ever been envious about someone's spiritual gifts,
- 10:43more experience, a spiritual experience, they had.
- 10:47I mean, I think it's a pastor, there's always the temptation to
- 10:54Envy those who we see to be. Either better preachers or who
- 11:01are in a preaching to larger crowds or something like that.
- 11:06Where I mean it's never really been my desire to lead a huge
- 11:13giant mega church or anything like that.
- 11:16But there's still something within me that says if they
- 11:20exist they must be the standard for success and I don't actually
- 11:26believe Of that to be true but it's tempting to go there.
- 11:30It's tempting to think that to think that then if we've got you
- 11:35know, 100 people are 150 people showing up that somehow We need
- 11:43to do whatever we need to do to program for growing to that kind
- 11:47of a size where I actually think God.
- 11:51Most often uses churches down through histories use churches,
- 11:55where they're small enough close enough to each other.
- 11:59That the pastor actually knows. The people I saw on Twitter the
- 12:04other day, someone was posing her Ike.
- 12:06I visited this this little local church about a hundred people
- 12:10and the second time I went back the pastor knew my name.
- 12:13So coming from a megachurch like that was just kind of almost
- 12:17creepy to me like to to actually know the pastor.
- 12:21I'm like, but it's not how it should be hmm, that's what I
- 12:24mean, but the Temptations there. Yeah.
- 12:26To look at those and to see, you know, and to wanna have that
- 12:31kind of success or to hear a preacher preaching on a podcast
- 12:36or a live stream or something and be like, wow, I wish I could
- 12:39preach like that Pastor even though.
- 12:42It might just be a one-off sermon, your hearing that, you
- 12:46know, you don't have the context of all those other sermons where
- 12:49it's okay or mediocre or good, but not great.
- 12:53And yeah, I think for me it's finding the balance of where
- 12:58admiration turns into Envy because, you know, there's so
- 13:04many people. John oh swell Craig.
- 13:07Keener and T. Right?
- 13:09Like all of these in my mind like geniuses.
- 13:12It's like the amount of knowledge, they have of
- 13:16scripture, the research, they've done about the scriptures, like
- 13:19all of these things just as, like, mind-boggling to me.
- 13:23And so because I admire them, it's like, oh, man how much like
- 13:27more in my mind? Fruitful, could I be if I had
- 13:32what they had and then reminding myself of like, well, that's not
- 13:36exactly who God called me to be in.
- 13:38Luckily, he's right, right. Those people and their resources
- 13:41that they've created dad to help me understand more and save me
- 13:46the thousands of hours that Craig can assure you everything.
- 13:50He's done. Yeah.
- 13:50And that's where showing up and being faithful to be where God's
- 13:54called you to be is so important.
- 13:57Yeah. Not about trying to be someone
- 13:59else in the context you're in. It's about being faithful to
- 14:02what God's asked you to do. Yeah.
- 14:04And like the gifts, I mean even within our own church Aaron
- 14:08Adriana who leads our contemporary worship service.
- 14:12I always The term I use is disgustingly talented.
- 14:15Mmm. Where he's just as brain.
- 14:19Musically is on another level. Yeah and so like we left young
- 14:22adults just the other night and there's that piano upstairs on
- 14:26the way to the youth room and he just like, want to check out the
- 14:28tuning so he just like hits a couple keys and he goes, huh?
- 14:32And then just breaks into Flight of the bumble bees.
- 14:35I'm like, are you kidding me? Just off the top of his head,
- 14:38right? The David said don't do nothing
- 14:40just like a diva. On an attitude piano.
- 14:44Yeah. Yeah amazing.
- 14:46It's like man. And then you get the little Emma
- 14:48goes from admiration to like man, I wish I could do that.
- 14:51Yeah, like not even like for other people and Glory like if I
- 14:55could just entertain Myself by being able to fly on the keys
- 14:59like that. Gosh, where I'm just over here,
- 15:02you know, I know middle C. Yeah, that's about the extent
- 15:06time, huh? Can punk out Mary, had a little
- 15:09lamb. Jesus loves me.
- 15:11I wish all Oregon. That one of the things you would
- 15:15talked about as well, in our service was the the story of the
- 15:22land owner and he would hire people throughout the day, but
- 15:25then paid them all equally no matter how much work they put
- 15:29in. And I was curious, if you've
- 15:31ever felt like you were treated unfairly at a job.
- 15:36So when I was in seminary, I worked, you know, alongside
- 15:40going to school to make Take all of that meat and meat and pay
- 15:45for school and that kind of stuff.
- 15:46And the first job I had when I was down there, we move down to
- 15:51Jackson Mississippi in July of 2006.
- 15:56And so, shortly after that, I got a job working at Lifeway,
- 16:01Christian bookstores and life way.
- 16:06They had a very strict dress code, you had to wear your
- 16:11company issued, sure. And a pair of khakis, some kind
- 16:15of closed toed shoes and your shoes had to match your belt
- 16:18like Okay blah blah blah and so I walked in one day wearing a
- 16:24pair of khaki corduroys. Oh and I was told that if I
- 16:30broke dress code again, it would be if this was just a verbal
- 16:35warning but it would be a written warning because I wore
- 16:38khaki corduroys, instead of You know flat khakis.
- 16:45Yeah, there's they should have specified.
- 16:47That's on them. I'll that's what I thought.
- 16:49I didn't see anything wrong with.
- 16:50I thought I still looked nice. I was still keeping within the
- 16:53spirit of the dress code. I was really thought you were
- 16:56some rebellious hippie. Yeah, apparently so yeah.
- 17:01So that was the the like kind of silly example that came to my
- 17:05mind but mine mine. I felt like connected really
- 17:08well with the parable because I worked at McDonald's.
- 17:12In Glassboro for too many years and I picture of it.
- 17:17There's proof great, it's already circulate around the
- 17:20youth group. Everyone seen it.
- 17:21If you haven't just asking youth kid.
- 17:23Hey, can I see the picture of Jeremy working at McDonald's
- 17:26when he was in high school and almost all of them either have
- 17:28it as their background or have it somewhere on their phone?
- 17:31Lucky me anyway after like working there for two years and
- 17:37you get like a 10 to 20 cent raise each year.
- 17:40I'd worked my way up to To, let's say 850 an hour and then
- 17:45minimum wage got boosted up and the state.
- 17:48And I stayed at 8:50 now, because I think that might have
- 17:51been what they raised it to. I can't remember that.
- 17:53All the new people were getting paid the same and I did it.
- 17:58So I could work all the different stations and these
- 18:00other kids were working slow, and didn't know what to do.
- 18:03Have the tiles. Like how am I getting paid the
- 18:05same amount? Like yes.
- 18:07We're clocking in the same hours, but like, I have the
- 18:10experience and I just Got paid, minimum wage.
- 18:14I was happy. I was making more than when I
- 18:15started, sure. But I was very discontent with
- 18:18that and I can't Trash Talk Bells too much more because they
- 18:23have too much power. But similar things much worse
- 18:29happened to many of my co-workers.
- 18:31Yeah and stuff like that happens, right?
- 18:32And and there are times where we feel like someone else is
- 18:37getting what we deserve or someone else is getting more.
- 18:42More than we think they deserve. And that's where that's where it
- 18:49shifts into that Spirit of Envy, rather than just like coveting
- 18:55or Desiring or something like that, where it's like, no, I
- 19:01actually don't think you deserve to get that.
- 19:04And that's where we might direct it at an individual.
- 19:09But most often were actually angry at God.
- 19:12Because he's not giving us what we think we deserve or he's
- 19:18giving someone else, what we think he should be giving us and
- 19:23I think that kind of, gets down to the root of Envy in one of
- 19:29the books. I was reading for the sermon
- 19:31series, which is called them glittering.
- 19:34Vices telling talk about the seven, deadly sins glittering
- 19:38vices. They're telling the story about
- 19:42Mozart and this guy named salieri, which if you've ever
- 19:47seen the movie Amadeus, it kind of tells the story from
- 19:51salieri's perspective, he was the court musician for Emperor,
- 19:57Joseph Franz, or somebody Franz Joseph Groove.
- 20:01Yeah, the emperor of the Austrian Empire use the court
- 20:06musician and you know, he thought he was pretty hot stuff.
- 20:09He thought it was pretty good and then this Young upstart
- 20:11Mozart Comes along and he's getting all the Acclaim.
- 20:15He's getting all the attention and salieri realizes that in
- 20:21comparison. He's fairly mediocre, mmm, and
- 20:25he starts to get angry about it. I starts to Envy Mozart.
- 20:30He starts to get angry with God about why God would allow this
- 20:35young kid out to him. And he'd worked so hard and all
- 20:39of his desire was to glorify God.
- 20:42His music and all this stuff and the Envy gets so bad.
- 20:47He ends up being involved in a plot to have Mozart killed, wow,
- 20:51and ends up. Driving him insane.
- 20:55He ends up dying in an asylum because it's the Envy drove him
- 21:03crazy. But ultimately he was angry at
- 21:06God. Yeah.
- 21:08And so, the movie tells the story starts out with him in the
- 21:10insane asylum and a priest comes to His final confession and he
- 21:15tells a whole story about his relationship with Mozart and but
- 21:22ultimately it came down to he was really mad at God about what
- 21:26he gave someone else. He thought he deserved and an
- 21:29illustration that really helped me gain perspective and check my
- 21:37own heart. As in the book said Jesus
- 21:39outside the lines. I think that's one, I multiple
- 21:42copies and My office, if anyone wants to borrow one Scott
- 21:44Saul's, right? Yeah.
- 21:46And he in regards to Greed talks about, you know, if we hear
- 21:51about someone that's spent like ten thousand dollars on a bottle
- 21:55of wine at a fancy let's say in Dubai because I know
- 21:59everything's expensive and Dubai, ten thousand dollars and
- 22:02it's like well natural reaction for many as well.
- 22:05Imagine what you could have done with that ten thousand dollars.
- 22:08Instead of by the bottle of wine, you can bought a car.
- 22:11You could have Someone get their caught, you could have had this
- 22:14many people that many people and it's all in perspective of we
- 22:19would use that money for Hound that.
- 22:21But then when you look at the fact that we are, what if we're
- 22:26in America, then we're in like the top 3%, the world economies
- 22:30and crazy like that. And so what we spend on even a
- 22:37fast-food meal out in many places is like Five to ten days
- 22:43wages like a week's wages because I think it was, I don't
- 22:46know, post covid-19 think is like 50% of the world lives off
- 22:51of like to $3 a day short on thing.
- 22:54Yeah, something like that. And so in comparison, someone
- 22:57else somewhere else in the world is like, why would you go out to
- 23:01McDonald's and get a large fry? Do you know who you could have
- 23:04helped? And he could have had with that.
- 23:06And so, it's more of the being content with where with what God
- 23:11has provided us. And not looking down on those
- 23:14that have less and not trying to be judges of those who have more
- 23:18and spend more, however, they choose but to be content and
- 23:22good stewards of what God has given us.
- 23:25And I don't want to go too much further because it might lean
- 23:27into what I'm talking about on Wednesday guard.
- 23:30What is happening tonight at our Ash Wednesday service, right are
- 23:37Ash Wednesday, terms at 7:00 in the sanctuary.
- 23:41Yes. Yeah, that is an interesting
- 23:43Dynamic, though. When we will we look at the
- 23:45world as a whole rather than just our American context.
- 23:50You know, when we served as missionaries in Uganda here, we
- 23:54feel like, pity from people, like, oh, your missionaries,
- 23:57you're racing your support. You don't have much, you don't
- 24:00have a house. You're not like all this stuff,
- 24:03because we raised our support. And that means your salary was
- 24:06only, you know, x amount of money, which to most Americans
- 24:09didn't seem like an acceptable. I'm out.
- 24:13But then, we'd go over to Uganda and we were like, rich, rich,
- 24:19rich, like personal security detail because of how rich you
- 24:23were Ike. We had a vehicle.
- 24:24So, like that, just put us, stratospherically Out Of Reach
- 24:29For, You know, most of the people we lived among and
- 24:34there's always an interesting Dynamic to try to balance and to
- 24:39navigate it, well, I don't know that we always did.
- 24:42Did, but we tried to, yeah, and that's a perspective that I hope
- 24:48the team will gain as we send a mission team down to Mexico.
- 24:52Yeah, we're a lot of times. It's the worry of the Comforts
- 24:57of life that people are worried of losing as they go down.
- 25:01But a lot of the times teams that I've taken have felt like
- 25:05they don't have the physical things and resources that were
- 25:09used to in the States but they have stronger relationships.
- 25:12God and the people on the team's desire to have more of the
- 25:17community to have more of the yeah strong faith as the people
- 25:21down there and so even though it may look like they don't have
- 25:24much, they have one is important and yet so I'm excited for us to
- 25:29learn from each other. Yeah, as where as we're down
- 25:32there? Well, that's our conversation
- 25:33for today, but that doesn't mean the conversation is over.
- 25:37We'd love to hear your thoughts on these topics as well.
- 25:40To ask a question about anything we've discussed in this.
- 25:42Episode or to join the conversation, you can head over
- 25:45to fum. See Collingswood org slash
- 25:49podcast, thanks for being part of this conversation.
- 25:42Episode or to join the conversation, you can head over
- 25:45to fum. See Collingswood org slash
- 25:49podcast, thanks for being part of this conversation.