Latest / Beyond the Sermon / Finding the Forge: Conversation (AKA the Scott Show)
Transcript
- 0:00You're listening to Beyond the Sermon, the podcast the First
- 0:03Methodist Church in Collingswood, NJ.
- 0:05On our podcast, the goal is not just to share our sermons, but
- 0:08to go beyond the sermon and talk about what we're learning and
- 0:11what God is doing in US and in our community.
- 0:14The conversation you're about to join was inspired by our Spring
- 0:17Mixtape 2025 non series sermon series.
- 0:21Rather than a series, this will be a collection of sermons based
- 0:24on what God is leading us to preach on this spring.
- 0:27You can find out more information about our church at
- 0:29fumccollingswood.org. Thanks for joining us for this
- 0:32conversation. What was the title of your
- 0:36sermon? Title of my sermon was Finding
- 0:39the Forge. Oh yeah.
- 0:41And I never actually brought it back around to like I probably
- 0:45should have. At the end of the server we have
- 0:46the podcast. Yeah, right.
- 0:47This is the common background. There it is.
- 0:49Yeah, no. We're looking for the forge that
- 0:52doesn't exist in Israel. Finding the forge.
- 0:55We had words or phrases different years that you'd
- 0:59shared. Yep, one of them being rest in
- 1:022022. When did your family go on
- 1:05vacation? The long vacation was 23. 23
- 1:09Yeah, that's what I connected before you pulled up the Bible
- 1:12verses. You're like, and I'm not talking
- 1:15vacation. And then I went and looked over
- 1:17Angie and Karen. I was like, but he got the
- 1:19vacation just a year off. But we talked last week about
- 1:27the difference of like one off sermons and the preparation.
- 1:31Yeah, for that. So was the concept of forging
- 1:36the like impetus of where you were starting or was there
- 1:40something else and then you connected it back to the
- 1:42forging? It started with the idea of
- 1:45forging and like the that being my word for this year is kind of
- 1:50like a this is a good time to kind of share what God's been
- 1:56saying to me and where I feel like God is leading us even in
- 2:01the second-half of this year and and that kind of stuff.
- 2:04So originally thought I might start like base the sermon from
- 2:09that Malachi passage, which is one of the ones that, you know,
- 2:14God kind of led me to for this year.
- 2:16But then as I prayed about it, more found that passage about no
- 2:21blacksmiths in Israel and that kind of framed it in a different
- 2:26way for me. Yeah.
- 2:27Took it a little bit less from what God was saying to me
- 2:31individually and more to our congregation and just kind of
- 2:35the broader context. Yeah, you talked a lot,
- 2:38obviously because of forging, the blacksmithing and like the
- 2:41processes of all of those things.
- 2:45Did you just like YouTube? How is forging done, or how did
- 2:49you learn more about that world that you weren't as familiar
- 2:53with? Yeah, a little bit of research.
- 2:59I was reminded at some point somebody else that I kind of
- 3:03follow and listen to was talking about some of these things and
- 3:07kind of planted a bit of a seed for me.
- 3:10And so, yeah, and some of it was just random knowledge that it
- 3:15accumulated in my brain at some point and just pulling those
- 3:18things together. Yeah, so.
- 3:21I didn't do a super deep dive in blacksmithing though.
- 3:24Yeah, and and as you're going through and sharing, I guess
- 3:27we'll start with movies because that's been a theme lately with
- 3:30Lord of the Rings. I I referenced the books.
- 3:34Well, guess what happened when the movies most of what happens
- 3:37in the books. It's true.
- 3:39So I think that really helped me better connect and understand
- 3:48like the unity within diversity of a community.
- 3:53Because when you're talking like different creatures, it makes
- 3:58more like bold differentiations then maybe even different
- 4:03ethnicities, let alone different like social Eakin social groups
- 4:09or socio economic groups or different education levels.
- 4:12But when you have like different, completely different
- 4:15looking creatures coming together for the 1 mission, that
- 4:20was really helpful as we like look out into our pews and you
- 4:24know, we are not a monolith of people.
- 4:27We're not just carbon copies of like the Collingswood,
- 4:32Methodist, Christian or whatever you'd want to title it.
- 4:35And so how can we be? It's actually connects I thought
- 4:40we talked about last week with Alpha and stuff like that and
- 4:44being prepared for potential dynamic shifts within the
- 4:47congregation. How do you think we can prepare
- 4:51for that as individuals within this church?
- 4:57I think a big part of it is just practicing it and forcing what
- 5:03practicing diversity and leaning into it.
- 5:07And so that was like a big part of why for Sunday school last
- 5:12year, we chose to have one big Sunday school for everyone
- 5:16except the kids, right? Where we would come together and
- 5:20we'd have a little lesson and then literally we'd just number
- 5:24off however many groups we were going to have that week.
- 5:27And so you ended up with teenagers and young adults and
- 5:32middle-aged adults and older adults all talking in one small
- 5:38group about the concepts. Similarly, in our Practicing the
- 5:42Way course, we tended to try to divide people up, not just, you
- 5:47know, peers with peers, but across the different strata of
- 5:52demographics that we had. So that way it's just one more
- 5:56opportunity for people to get used to talking to the people
- 6:00maybe aren't just like them. Even if on some surface levels
- 6:06they do tend to look the same in their lives, It's still an
- 6:12attempt to lean into it, to practice it, to choose it.
- 6:16So that way, when some of the bigger differences come, maybe
- 6:20it doesn't feel quite so jarring.
- 6:22Yeah, yeah. And I think that intentional
- 6:25community, even within the community is important.
- 6:28And that's why I guess I'll announce it here is that we're
- 6:32we're seeking to have people host our college students
- 6:36throughout the summer for dinner and potentially lunch, depending
- 6:41on how their summer work schedules align.
- 6:46But I think that it's something so simple that anyone can do,
- 6:52because even if you're horrible at cooking, you can order a few
- 6:56pizzas. Yeah, or you can hopefully boil
- 6:59spaghetti and throw a jar of sauce on.
- 7:01Or you could throw some store bought burgers and dogs on a
- 7:05grill like. I mean, in this economy, maybe
- 7:07not. Bubble burgers are getting up
- 7:08there. I'm sure they're going to be
- 7:09like $25 a box this summer. But you know, it's something
- 7:15where our college students seem to want a place to gather and to
- 7:25have the body as a whole welcome them in and not have them feel
- 7:31like segregated out to like you do the young people stuff and
- 7:37we'll be the old people stuff. And when you'd like us to
- 7:39support through pairs, I'm fine financially, we'll come
- 7:42alongside you. But I think to be 1 body
- 7:45together and intentionally like in the home and making it
- 7:48personal, it's so important. And so if anyone listening would
- 7:52like to host our college students at some point this
- 7:55summer, I will. You're looking for people to
- 7:58host them for dinner every night of the summer.
- 8:01If I don't get me free food, I'm not opposed to it.
- 8:04Right now the goal is to have a weekly meeting and if I'm in the
- 8:10country or in town, I will be joining our college kids.
- 8:14So they're not all strangers that can make the connections
- 8:17and maybe even help stimulate the conversation a little bit
- 8:22with people. But then also they're they're
- 8:23simple. We get a board game, a movie,
- 8:27whatever it might be, and just a time to be worn.
- 8:29Hole in the backyard yard or. Yeah, bocci ball.
- 8:33Yeah, I love bocci ball. It's simple.
- 8:36Anyone, any age can play and if you don't have a yard and you're
- 8:39not opposed to breaking things in your house, we can play bocci
- 8:42ball indoors. Yeah.
- 8:44Sure, a couple dents in the floor which just create
- 8:48memories. So every time you feel the bump
- 8:50in your floor, you'll think of our wonderful college students.
- 8:53Yeah, growing up, my, my grandparents would have Memorial
- 8:58Day picnic, a 4th of July picnic and a Labor Day picnic every,
- 9:02just about every year. And, you know, there'd be
- 9:05extended family and extended family friends and all that kind
- 9:08of stuff that would come. And every time it seemed like
- 9:12every time after dinner, it eventually led to a bocce ball
- 9:16game where we would just kind of like, throw the little white
- 9:19ball and just keep going with it.
- 9:22And we just go around their house.
- 9:24Yeah. So like all the time.
- 9:27Yeah, my aunt and uncle are are super into it and it's one of
- 9:31like the two games my uncle will play.
- 9:33That and code names. There you go.
- 9:36And oh, crocodile, is that what it's called?
- 9:39I don't know that. One like the Canadian game, it's
- 9:41like wooden board and there's a little pegs and you're like
- 9:44flicking the little. They look like checkered discs
- 9:47and you're trying to get them as close to the center.
- 9:49Oh, that's a fun one. The only Canadian game I know is
- 9:54I'm curling. Racist.
- 9:55OK, there you say, like moose tipping or something.
- 10:04It's like for our Canadian audience, I don't want to get in
- 10:06trouble. They're stuck indoors because of
- 10:08the snow. So either go out and you do the
- 10:11curling because it's so snowy and icy, or you stay inside and
- 10:14play crocodile. There you go.
- 10:16But yeah, anyway, young adults, college students.
- 10:19Point We're going to keep going down this rabbit trail until it
- 10:22ends. It's, it's done college students
- 10:27this summer. I think that's a great
- 10:28opportunity for people to connect with them and take a
- 10:32step maybe outside of their comfort zone within the church
- 10:35community and to have a chance to engage with them and.
- 10:40Yeah, that's great. But let's bring it back to Sure,
- 10:44Jeremy. You're the one editing this
- 10:46podcast. Back to my sermon, which is
- 10:49really the most important thing of the week.
- 10:51Let's get back to Scott. We talk too much about our the
- 10:53next generation and, you know, part of our church.
- 10:58Let's get back to Scott. The Scott show.
- 11:00You might change this episode title to that.
- 11:03Oh, there we. Go.
- 11:05Oh wait, I have that power. I definitely can.
- 11:07I'll thank you after you do it. Because it has to be the Scotch
- 11:11show. He's even control of the title
- 11:13of the Scotch show. All right, but yeah, so you go
- 11:16back to your forging and right, yadda yadda.
- 11:19What was the anvil and what was the hammer?
- 11:21Explain the parts. In that analogy, blacksmith is
- 11:24God. The heat of the forge and the
- 11:28furnace. I did learn the difference
- 11:31between a forge and a furnace, that a forge is more open, a
- 11:34furnace closes in order to get higher, hotter temperatures,
- 11:38like if you were actually trying to purify.
- 11:40But the the fire is kind of like the the experiences we face in
- 11:44life. Like, I know most people have
- 11:49been through stuff and they're going through stuff and it's
- 11:52just kind of that heat that comes from living in this world.
- 11:58The. Peaks the greatest experiences.
- 12:01Well, no, I'm talking more about the, the hard things of life and
- 12:04the fire, the the sufferings of life.
- 12:08And so that's the fire, the water kind of compared to just
- 12:13the church itself being a place where people could come and
- 12:17experience a bit of relief from those fires.
- 12:22Sadly, I think a lot of times the Church has contributed to
- 12:27some of those fires in people's lives rather than being a place
- 12:31of relief and strengthening. So the calm fire rim stuff.
- 12:36Yeah, yeah. So but yeah, that water where
- 12:42the metal gets cooled either in the tempering phase or in the
- 12:49just kind of the the fixing of the shape.
- 12:52And then talked about the, the hammer kind of being biblical
- 12:56truth and the practices, the things that God uses to
- 12:59intentionally that we engage in intentionally that God uses to
- 13:03shape us and mold us. And I think it's important to to
- 13:07remember that those are things that even though we engage them,
- 13:11they're still in God's hands. They're how God works in our
- 13:15lives. It's not what we're
- 13:16accomplishing, it's what he's doing.
- 13:19And then said the anvil is kind of the the small intentional
- 13:23community that becomes kind of the the place where those hammer
- 13:30blows are actually made more effective in our shaping because
- 13:36because that's where we're working out what God's doing in
- 13:39our lives. Yeah, I think what was harder
- 13:42for me as you're going through that is like I, I joked fire
- 13:47brimstone. But like, you know, our logo
- 13:49currently still has a flame behind the cross.
- 13:51So like so used to like the represent the representation of
- 13:55like the Holy Spirit with fire and God's refining fire and then
- 14:02also like water, you know, the living water and all these
- 14:06things. So like trying to shift and get
- 14:11onto the imagery and and what you are proposing, one of the
- 14:15things you've mentioned is God like stocking the fire and maybe
- 14:19increasing some of the pain and suffering within this world in
- 14:24order to. What?
- 14:27Yeah, in order to bring us to the point where he can do what
- 14:30he needs to do in US. Right.
- 14:33The in blacksmithing, if, if the blacksmith isn't able to shape
- 14:39the metal into what he wants to, he'll stoke the fire, make it
- 14:42hotter so that the the metal gets softer and it gets more
- 14:46pliable and he can do what he needs to do with it.
- 14:51And I think God works in our lives that way.
- 14:54Not that he's necessarily causing all of the things that
- 15:00happen, especially the things that happen as a result of sin,
- 15:03but I think sometimes he'll take those things and kind of turn up
- 15:08the heat. So that way it drives us to him.
- 15:13Like it's like CS Lewis talks about pain being the megaphone
- 15:17that God uses to speak to us. Or if you look at scripture, you
- 15:22know, there are some drastic things that happen, like the
- 15:25exile. It was painful for the people of
- 15:27Israel and, and they saw it as a very negative thing.
- 15:31They saw it as punishment, and it was because they had failed
- 15:36to live according to the way they knew God had called them
- 15:41into being. And so God used a very painful
- 15:45experience to reorient them to what he wanted to do and.
- 15:51Not even that. So we've gone with the youth
- 15:53kids, we've been studying through overarching story of
- 15:57scripture and we're in the exile Babylon, reading about Daniel
- 16:01and all that kind of stuff. But just this morning I was
- 16:06watching one of my professors and someone asked the question
- 16:09about like the diaspora, because we're talking about world
- 16:13missions and migration and how migration was necessary for
- 16:18Christianity to spread and get to.
- 16:20Excuse. Me all over the world and all
- 16:23this awesome information is providing.
- 16:26We were talking about the diaspora of like after the
- 16:29temple was destroyed and what, 8070, yeah, 7080 and that
- 16:36diaspora. But they were asking about the
- 16:39effect of the one by the Babylonians and how that
- 16:43affected Christianity. Sure.
- 16:45And hugely. He makes the point that when we
- 16:50read Acts and we read all of these new people that are
- 16:53leading in the faith and where they're from, they're from
- 16:57places that the Jews went to because of the Diaspora and they
- 17:03were able to then take the gospel out to that place.
- 17:07So says that the Diaspora because of the Babylonians ends
- 17:11up creating like the trails that the disciples after Jesus and an
- 17:18axe spread out to and are able to follow to then go and preach
- 17:23to you know, they say go and preach certain ones were
- 17:26preaching first to the Jews. That's because the Jews weren't
- 17:29all right there, right, right in Jerusalem and, and in that area,
- 17:34they had gone out because of the diaspora.
- 17:36And so God was able to use even something that was a punishment
- 17:41for the people that weren't walking with him to then prepare
- 17:44the way for the gospel to spread out into the world.
- 17:47Yeah. And then similarly, even in
- 17:49Acts, it talks about like the persecution that got stirred up
- 17:52in Jerusalem against the Christians.
- 17:56And that was what spread them out to places like Antioch and
- 18:02Damascus. And so Paul was going to
- 18:05Damascus to arrest Christians who had fled there from
- 18:10Jerusalem. Yeah, because of his persecution
- 18:13and others like him. It's amazing to see God using
- 18:18all these things and you know, people that are living it aren't
- 18:22seeing hundreds of years into the future and how this thing
- 18:26that for them is the worst thing to happen in their generation
- 18:30and yet God is able to use it and redeem it for his.
- 18:33Glory. Yeah, yeah, one of the early
- 18:36church fathers coined the phrase that said the blood of the
- 18:39martyrs is the seed of the church.
- 18:42You know, it's it's often been through those times of
- 18:46persecution and suffering that God has brought the greatest
- 18:51moments of church growth and spiritual development.
- 18:57Yeah, and. That's what we're seeing now,
- 18:58Yeah. The church growth in Latin
- 19:00America, sub-Saharan Africa, Asia is off the charts.
- 19:05There's more Christians in Africa than any other continent
- 19:10currently. But when we think usually of the
- 19:14church and the Hub, we think of like Rome, Eastern Western
- 19:18Europe, and then travels out to the United States.
- 19:21And then we go, OK, now we're going to get to the rest of the
- 19:25world and we're going to these places.
- 19:27But now those places are the hub of Christianity.
- 19:30And my professors like jokingly, he says at the end of a lot of
- 19:34his stuff, he goes, so if anyone wants to become missionaries to
- 19:38white people, we have a sign up sheet in the back of the church
- 19:42because that's where it's dying off is in in Europe and in North
- 19:46America. And so, you know, the places
- 19:49that were once the growing church, so now the dying church,
- 19:54and the places that seem to be unreached are now the majority
- 19:59of the church. And the mission sending?
- 20:02Centers and it completely shifts how I grew up thinking of
- 20:06missionaries, how I grew up thinking of like where the
- 20:09church was and where it needed to go.
- 20:12But you know, one of our biggest challenges at this time is how
- 20:16do we minister to those that feel like they already know what
- 20:21Christianity is about, Like they have a remnant or idea of what
- 20:26they think churches or what Jesus is and they're already not
- 20:30about that. And so how do we?
- 20:32Well, and I think, I think that's the shift we're
- 20:35experiencing right now, right? And, and the younger generation
- 20:39that's coming up, Gen. Z, Gen.
- 20:42Alpha, they don't have that remnant mentality.
- 20:47They don't have that, you know, that little bit of Christian
- 20:51influence that maybe millennials did and Gen.
- 20:54X certainly did. And so, yes, OK.
- 20:59He pointed at himself, and I wasn't sure.
- 21:01Yeah, I'm one of the oldest millennials, that's for sure.
- 21:05Yeah. January 1984.
- 21:08It's generally considered the start of the Millennials,
- 21:11sometimes 83. How many times have you re
- 21:16googled that for comfort? Yeah.
- 21:18Well, the reality is I actually look at the rest of the
- 21:21millennial generation, like I don't really relate because
- 21:24there's so many things in my childhood that are different
- 21:28than what defines the millennial generation.
- 21:31Like often it's talk talks about like they grew up with the
- 21:34Internet and computers and stuff.
- 21:36I remember not having those things, you know, and not just
- 21:39because my family didn't have them, Like they didn't exist on
- 21:43a wide scale. You know, I didn't have a cell
- 21:46phone until I was 16. So anyway, but but the younger
- 21:51generations, Gen. Z, Gen.
- 21:52Alpha, they don't have that. They haven't been shaped by that
- 21:56in the same way because most of what they've grown up in is the
- 21:59post Christian context or what they are growing up in.
- 22:04And so I think that's a part of the openness that we're seeing
- 22:09is they're able to hear about Jesus.
- 22:12They're able to hear about what God's doing, and in a way that
- 22:15doesn't come with the same baggage.
- 22:18And if we can present Jesus as he is and leave aside our own
- 22:25baggage that comes with it, I think it's a pretty compelling
- 22:28witness to those generations. And how do we represent Christ?
- 22:33How do we represent Christ if we aren't walking in his ways and
- 22:38living like he did right. And so I think that's where, you
- 22:41know, the practicing the way course was so great.
- 22:44And you even can you just share the the warning you gave at the
- 22:47beginning of our last session? Yeah, yeah.
- 22:51I sat, I sat him down in our last practicing the way session
- 22:54and said, I just want to say now that I wrote the rough draft of
- 22:59my sermon for Sunday before I watched the video.
- 23:03Because when I, I'd sat down on Wednesday morning to really kind
- 23:06of write out kind of the, the outline or the rough draft of my
- 23:10sermon and then sat down that afternoon in advance of our
- 23:14Wednesday night session and watched through the video for
- 23:17that last week. I was like, oh, there's a lot of
- 23:20similarity here. There's a lot of echoes and I
- 23:26didn't want anybody to think that I watched the video and
- 23:30then sat down and wrote my sermon based on.
- 23:32Which the word forge was not mentioned in the video.
- 23:35That's true. But it is interesting that after
- 23:38all of the different practices, the conclusion of practicing the
- 23:42way is community. Yeah.
- 23:45And so when you talk about this. Together.
- 23:47The hammer and all that stuff and then the anvil like it.
- 23:50The last piece is the support underneath all of the other
- 23:53things that we do is we're living trying to live like
- 23:56Christ and practicing the way and so how you know you touched
- 24:00on discipleship bands. We've talked about practicing
- 24:05the way we had emotionally healthy spirituality and the
- 24:09fall. And we will have it again in the
- 24:13fall for people who didn't get a chance to.
- 24:15Get into it is like for those that curiosity has piqued or
- 24:19they've done one piece of any of this or multiple pieces, as a
- 24:23congregation, what can we look forward to?
- 24:26Like by the end of this year, what are some things that are
- 24:29going to be available and talked about?
- 24:31Yeah. So emotionally healthy
- 24:32spirituality is going to be a part of that for sure.
- 24:35We're going to run another session of that in the fall
- 24:39because there's a second-half to that called Emotionally Healthy
- 24:42Relationships that I'd love to get to because I think a lot of
- 24:46us have experienced brokenness in relationships.
- 24:49A lot of that pain comes through relationships, but so then does
- 24:52a lot of the healing that needs to take place come through
- 24:55relationship? So I want to get to that point,
- 24:58but I wanted to broaden our base of people who have been through
- 25:02the emotional healthy spirituality class before we get
- 25:06to the relational side of it. But yeah, so that EHS class will
- 25:10be happening in the fall. At some point we're going to
- 25:15have a a workshop based around these discipleship bands to kind
- 25:21of give people an overview, kind of work through some of the
- 25:26stuff in much more depth then I was able to in just kind of
- 25:32passing over the questions. And but I wanted to just plant
- 25:35that seed so that way we could get there a little there.
- 25:38Because I do think that these discipleship bans are a key part
- 25:42of what God wants to do in US. And there are other models
- 25:48people could use. I I lean towards these
- 25:50discipleship bans because I've seen the fruit of it in my own
- 25:52life and. And in the lives of others.
- 25:55And in the lives of others, for sure.
- 25:57And so it's not that I think that that they're the only way
- 26:00God can meet this need, but I do think they're a great option for
- 26:06us. And so kind of mentioned it like
- 26:08they're different than just a Bible study at church.
- 26:10They're different than your Sunday school class.
- 26:13It's different than even what a life group often becomes,
- 26:16although a life group might have some of those aspects in it
- 26:21where you are in closer relationship.
- 26:23But I do think we need those two or three or four people who we
- 26:29choose to be that vulnerable and intimate with as we work out
- 26:35what God's doing in our lives. Because reflecting week by week
- 26:40to be able to share with that group helps you not miss what
- 26:46God's doing, right? When we're when we're walking
- 26:50with God day by day, it's just like watching our kids grow.
- 26:55We don't always see the little changes that are happening day
- 26:59by day. And then somebody who hasn't
- 27:01seen them in six months bumps into you and they're like, Oh my
- 27:06gosh, you're getting so big. How old are you now?
- 27:09And, and I think the same can happen in our spiritual lives.
- 27:12We don't necessarily notice the changes that are happening day
- 27:16by day and the way he's growing us.
- 27:18But these weekly check insurance help us to notice those things.
- 27:22And they help us to see where he's moving and where we can
- 27:27cooperate with him even more to make ourselves available to what
- 27:32he wants to do. Yeah, and and more urgently, you
- 27:36called the church and to prayer and fasting.
- 27:39Could you give a little rundown for that in the more immediate?
- 27:42Yeah. So starting tomorrow, Thursday,
- 27:48May 8th, I'm just inviting our congregation, and anyone else
- 27:55who cares too for that matter, into a time of prayer and
- 28:00fasting, asking people to skip lunch that day, to fast from
- 28:04lunch that day, and devote that time to prayer for the legal
- 28:10situation that our church is in. With our annual conference in
- 28:15the denomination, leading up to two weeks from tomorrow will be
- 28:21some depositions that are happening in that legal case.
- 28:24And so we want to make sure we're covering that process in
- 28:29prayer and the representative from our church here in
- 28:32Collingswood in prayer. And so yeah, for the next 3
- 28:38Thursdays, not a long time, 3 weeks, asking people to pray and
- 28:44fast for that lunch hour each of those Thursdays.
- 28:49And so, yeah, we'd love to have people join.
- 28:51And I think there is, there's so many things that fasting does in
- 28:57us, but one of them is it makes us more more open to hearing
- 29:04what God is saying so that we can respond to that.
- 29:08And so it's not, I was listening to a podcast and we need to put
- 29:13that in the show notes. I think one of the best
- 29:16teachings I've ever heard on fasting was listening to it just
- 29:20last week and so, but he said, you know, fasting isn't a hunger
- 29:26strike before God where we're trying to get his attention so
- 29:30he'll do what we want him to do. It's far more about opening
- 29:35ourselves up to what God is doing, what he is saying.
- 29:41And when we choose to to abstain from, from food, it makes us
- 29:48that much more available to God. So we'll put that, we'll put
- 29:53that in the show notes for sure. Yeah.
- 29:55So I hope you'll you'll join us in that fast over the next three
- 30:00weeks. Give yourselves a prayer over
- 30:04this situation, and we'll see you next week for the
- 30:08conversation you're listening to Beyond the Sermon podcast, the
- 30:12First Methodist Church in Collingswood, NJ.
- 30:15On our podcast, the goal is not just to share our sermons, but
- 30:18to go beyond the sermon and talk about what we're learning and
- 30:20what God is doing in US and in our community.
- 30:23The conversation you're about to join was inspired by our January
- 30:272025 sermon series, Practicing the Way, Apprenticing under
- 30:31Jesus's Rule of Life. In this series, we're talking
- 30:34about what it means to live according to the way of Jesus
- 30:37and the practices that can help us createspace for God to
- 30:40transform us. You can find more information
- 30:42about our church at fumccollingswood.org.
- 30:46Thanks for joining us for this conversation.