Latest / 100% Maybe / Ep. 45 - The Greater Story: From Darkness to Light

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Ep. 45 - The Greater Story: From Darkness to Light · 100% Maybe

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's been a while since I've been in the old hot seat.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: It is a little bit more than a while.
0:03
SPEAKER_00: I see you got to let it go down a little bit.
0:04
SPEAKER_00: Is this you just decided it's a better mood lighting?
0:07
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
0:08
SPEAKER_00: Like feels like that one's not as bright.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: No.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: It's the same.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: The same, okay.
0:13
SPEAKER_02: It's just how that's how long you've been away.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
0:17
SPEAKER_00: I'm still on vacation.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: I'm not away.
0:19
SPEAKER_00: I'm still away.
0:20
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, this is your vacation.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: So crawled out of the darkness into the church.
0:25
SPEAKER_02: This is how dedicated your pastor is, folks.
0:28
SPEAKER_02: This is his vacation.
0:30
SPEAKER_02: Dedication.
0:30
SPEAKER_02: He's in to film a podcast on his vacation.
0:33
SPEAKER_02: On vacation.
0:34
SPEAKER_02: What a dedicated servant.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: Dedication, uh his uh inability to turn loose.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: Could have been that.
0:44
SPEAKER_02: What are s let's see, what are some other words we can use to describe this?
0:47
SPEAKER_02: To describe this?
0:48
SPEAKER_02: Dedicated.
0:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, dedicated.
0:49
SPEAKER_02: You think too invested, heavily uh too heavily invested.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I love the podcast.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: Could be that.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: I love working with Jeff.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: Let's hope so.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: How about that?
1:02
SPEAKER_00: Let's throw that out there.
1:03
unknown: All right.
1:04
SPEAKER_02: I love that.
1:05
SPEAKER_02: I love that.
1:06
SPEAKER_02: Well, welcome you guys to another episode here.
1:09
SPEAKER_02: We've got Pastor Scott back with us today.
1:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:12
SPEAKER_02: Fresh from what?
1:13
SPEAKER_02: The mountains, some fishing.
1:15
SPEAKER_02: What'd we get into?
1:17
SPEAKER_00: We took a week and um Tammy and Dad and I and Tammy's sister.
1:20
SPEAKER_00: We went up to uh Whittier, North Carolina.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: But the one of the things that we did was dad and I went fly fishing in Mills River.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: My happy place.
1:31
SPEAKER_00: My happy place would be um probably out west, a little bit cooler, higher elevations, yeah, wider rivers.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: But man, I it this is about the only way that uh could could get dad in into um a spot.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: We got a guy that uh got us into a river, the north fork of the Mills River, and we just we killed the trout, caught a lot of great, just big studs.
1:56
SPEAKER_02: Trout didn't even have a chance.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: No, well, but they you know, you catch these monsters, you take a picture, you turn them, and they swim 14 feet over right back into the spot.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: So I think the guy just brings another dude out and they catch him tomorrow.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: Same fish, just so he just got hooks hanging out of his mouth.
2:12
SPEAKER_00: It's just like snapper fishing, you know.
2:13
SPEAKER_00: You you you pull up one, he's still got the hooks.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but uh a lot of fun.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: First time I'd ever done that with dad.
2:19
SPEAKER_00: Just fun.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: It's more you know, it's not you don't know anything about this, but instead of the normal fly fishing, the roll casting because the your gut brush all around you and all that, but it's I'm offended.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: I am an avid outdoors man.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: You are an avid outdoorsman, and I've had you fly fishing before.
2:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know your way around the water a little bit.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah.
2:37
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but you barely.
2:39
SPEAKER_02: I can get it out there, kinda.
2:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, you could.
2:43
SPEAKER_02: Um, all right, man.
2:44
SPEAKER_02: Well, it's good to have you back in that seat, and I know you're excited to jump back into the message Sunday because that's also your other happy place.
2:53
SPEAKER_00: It is it is one of my happiest places.
2:55
SPEAKER_02: Is in the uh in the story, in the scripture, in the greater story.
2:59
SPEAKER_02: In a series that I love.
3:00
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
3:01
SPEAKER_02: So tell me about your thoughts on the greater story, how it's unfolded as a series, because it's a theme and a thought that we say a lot and have a lot, but now than to put it into a into a series.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: My my theology is that you can take a set of scripture and you can study it, read it, parcel out the Greek or the Hebrew, and dive into and spend your whole life doing that, and you will have an understanding of that set of scripture.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: But I think a better way to understand scripture is in light of all scripture.
3:35
SPEAKER_00: So when we take all of our scripture together and we look at the narrative of God from start to finish, and we hold it as such, gives us a better understanding of the heart of God, how God moves us, how God interacts in our lives.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: And I can't imagine a better way to do that than to than to look at the people that we study in scripture that carried this gospel message.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, Clint taking on the daunting task of Priscilla, Aquila, and Apollos, um, so much information in that sermon, it's hard to preach because you're covering all the movements.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: So I think he did, he did a great job at the end of the first service um pulling all of that together.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: And and and really, if you just look at the the global picture of God moves Priscilla and Aquila to Corinth.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: Paul lands there, they meet in a tent maker's guild, maybe possibly where they sat beside each other in synagogue, and then they move to Ephesus, Paul drops them off, he goes in a completely different direction.
4:37
SPEAKER_00: Apollos shows up, and it just it has to cause you to reflect on your own life and say, why am I here?
4:43
SPEAKER_00: Except that we have a sovereign God that, if you're a believer, moves us.
4:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes by because we want to go, and sometimes kicking and screaming.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: Right.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes through a medical challenge that we have that we think is the end of the world, and some sometimes it is.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: But God uses every single thing for his glory.
5:01
SPEAKER_00: So I we have to stop and go, why am I here and what reason am I here?
5:05
SPEAKER_00: Addie did the same thing, just a just a Addy's sermon was great when when you look at how um talking about the the jailer and Lydia, and I know she she kept she pokes the bear.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: Women in ministry, women in ministry.
5:21
SPEAKER_00: And then and then I get she is a she is a woman in ministry, right?
5:23
SPEAKER_00: A woman in ministry.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: So she's so she's poking the bear a little bit.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: Um but but Lydia and the jailer, and then Paul's fighting with the magistrate, and I think I don't know if it was you that brought up the question.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: I know I I think it was actually um Brian in the class, was asking he he was poking her, be trying to get her to to have a bigger conversation about why would Paul fight the magistrate.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: I've never heard the point that he fought that so that the church would have some reprieve.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: Because if Paul just left town and didn't make them publicly apologize, they would have been hammered incessantly.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: So maybe he gave that early church room to grow in Philippi.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: And you're still talking about a small church.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: It's not it wasn't a huge place, but it was very influential in the spread of the gospel because of Priscilla and the the support that they provided.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: So greater story, God uses all of these people and us in the same way.
6:18
SPEAKER_02: One thing too, speaking about like the church in Philippi, that I think you have have uh taught me is thinking through it was our Thessalonian series about reframing how there was just there was the church in Thessalonica or the church in Philippi.
6:35
SPEAKER_02: There was not 85 churches, pick your favorite one.
6:38
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
6:39
SPEAKER_02: I like the teaching here, I like the music here, I like the you know, it's not like that.
6:43
SPEAKER_02: So it really matters what happens to the church in that place because that was it, that was there's no church, there's no church, right?
6:52
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
6:53
SPEAKER_02: So the people that come and connect to that then and then go elsewhere, that's the spread of the church and the spread of the gospel.
7:01
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, an interesting reframing, even for me, thinking about okay, this this was it.
7:06
SPEAKER_02: Like this had to work, or it was it was not gonna be here.
7:10
SPEAKER_02: Like the good news wasn't even here in this place.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and Addie even added to that because it it starts to ferret out your mind as to what it must have been like back then.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: They didn't think church like we think church.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: It was home church.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: So so Lydia's home, the jailer's home, that was the strategy that people gathered together in home.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: So the so the church would have been a gathering of people, which is what it is.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: It's actually is what it is.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: Um, so uh we've just turned it into a building and a place where everybody comes to.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: It's not it's not that.
7:38
SPEAKER_00: It never was intended to be that.
7:40
SPEAKER_02: And so much so that the stories are the thing that drives it.
7:45
SPEAKER_02: And that's I think that's what's great about this series is you're not this church wasn't amazing because of what they did uh corporately.
7:52
SPEAKER_02: It was Yeah, it wasn't a programming issue.
7:55
SPEAKER_02: Right.
7:55
SPEAKER_02: It was the stories of the individuals connecting to Jesus and then having these moments that that's the thing.
8:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
8:02
SPEAKER_02: And that's the explosion of the church, too.
8:04
SPEAKER_02: Um what about what do you so Clint and Addy, I think both told me that the greater story verbiage used to be in the mission statement before it was refined a little bit.
8:17
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I think Addy was talking about how it just it seemed a little bit too too vague for some people.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I I try if I could get back in it, because you know I do it every week, so it it's it's memory, but it used to be we love God, we love our neighbor, we connect people to God's greater story.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, is is what it was.
8:31
SPEAKER_00: And and that's sound for people that are connected to the story, they're like, that's yeah, that's what we do.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: But for people that don't know what that is, they're like, I don't what are you talking about?
8:38
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, hang on, I didn't sign up to be a part of any story yet.
8:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: Who's whose story and what's the story?
8:43
SPEAKER_00: And and so it always took an explanation, and then we got together and we decided they're saying the same thing, but in a more clear, concise way, we're gonna connect people to Jesus.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: And as you learn about Jesus, you figure out what this greater story is all about, and then you figure out your role and and all of that's discipleship.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: So we we have to own that piece of getting you to understanding the greater story.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: Right.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: And I would tell you the more that you understand the greater story, the more you start to see your role in it.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: Or you can look back over your life and go, ha ha.
9:11
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
9:13
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
9:14
SPEAKER_02: What is there anything that comes top to mind, top of mind to you about maybe people that what they have in common or what connects them when they do start to find their place in the greater story?
9:29
SPEAKER_02: I think Clint and I talked about how you can disqualify yourself, maybe based on your experience or what you think about yourself, maybe just even the self-esteem piece of it.
9:39
SPEAKER_02: Or think I can't God could never use me.
9:41
SPEAKER_02: Um whatever.
9:42
SPEAKER_02: Fill in the blank.
9:43
SPEAKER_02: Is there anything that comes top to mind to you about people you know you know of recently that are connecting to this story, what they have in common, or what God then brings out in their life, or people that discount themselves to to even think they can have a part in it?
10:04
SPEAKER_00: Um I'll make something up.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: Uh I mean, uh remember I'm on vacation.
10:08
SPEAKER_00: So that's right.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm I have a vacation brain.
10:10
SPEAKER_02: That's the disclaimer.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: Every day, every day I sit with somebody, I I think there's a there's a part of it.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it's a realization, Jeff, is why we have to do these series.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it's a realization of oh yeah, that is that is God moving me in this section, or I find myself in this section, how can God use me here?
10:28
SPEAKER_00: Both are the same thing, viewed through different lens.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: So how you get there I think matters.
10:33
SPEAKER_00: You know, I I like to I I I have I've shared this multiple times from stage, but if you've not heard it, then it's you know, it doesn't matter.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: But part of my narrative is sitting across the table from a uh uh one of a guy that I would tell you was the most prominent voice in my life early 2000s, and he said, Well, we shared with that Tam him that Tammy and I were moving here from Orlando.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: We I grew up here, but we're moving here to start a church.
11:02
SPEAKER_00: And uh this guy without hesitation looks across the table and says to me, You don't have what it takes to be a senior pastor.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: Um And that was correct.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: Right.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: So like in my life, I've got to own the fact that I not only did I not then, I s I still would tell you I don't now, right?
11:21
SPEAKER_00: Uh I there are there are moments when if if not for the grace of God, if not for the leading of God, if not for the So yeah, I think every day disqualifies us.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: Every day we can prove that we are not equal to the task that God has called us to.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: And the moment that we think we are is the moment that we've stopped moving towards the things that God has called us to.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: If we could do all the things that God wants us to do, there's there's no reason for God in our lives, or there will be no evidence for God in our lives.
11:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we've seen people that are come out with natural talent and all of the schooling that start great churches and do all of that, and there's nothing wrong with that.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: But I I think when you can look back at your life and go, man, I how do I get to this place?
12:03
SPEAKER_00: And then people are like, Yeah, how do you get to that place?
12:07
SPEAKER_00: Then people can say, okay, maybe there, maybe there is hope for me.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: And mine is a wildly different journey as to how I find myself here, but it is what keeps my feet on the ground because um I didn't get here because I have some amazing ability.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: I I love scripture and I love talking about it, but I had to learn on stage with people suffering that were listening to me how to speak, yeah, how to carry the story.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: And I still would say that largely the reason people live listen is because of my enthusiasm and because of my excitement of scripture.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: They'll tolerate a lot of stuff that I say to get to some of the things that I find.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
12:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: Right?
12:45
SPEAKER_00: So maybe I don't have what it takes to be a senior pastor, but I but I did have the wisdom along the way that God's given me to surround myself with people who don't have the can do the things that I can't.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: Still learning.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: Um, so there, I I don't know if that's an answer to your question, but uh, but but that's that relates personally to me.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: I I don't know that I would share about other people and and what they've been, but all of us hopefully have the ability to look back at that and yeah.
13:09
SPEAKER_02: That's good.
13:11
SPEAKER_02: Too, I think so many people don't they don't want to start a church, but they do want to know how to live out their faith on a day-to-day basis with you know the people in their home, their families, their co-workers, how to share their faith a little bit.
13:23
SPEAKER_02: So connecting to that, I think those stories about Lydia, about the jailer, about um Apollos, about he was kind of a speaker, but uh he had some talents, you know.
13:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
13:34
SPEAKER_02: But Priscilla, Quilla, like these people.
13:36
SPEAKER_00: You just had bad information.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: Go ahead.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
13:38
SPEAKER_02: Right, right.
13:39
SPEAKER_02: Um, those are so important too, because that's what's gonna ring true to most of us as well.
13:43
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, no, that was well said.
13:45
SPEAKER_02: You should go on vacation more often and then just pop in here.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: My brain is so foggy right now.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it took me a while to formulate that answer.
13:51
SPEAKER_02: Even the even the phrase when I edit, it's gonna be like right there.
13:55
SPEAKER_02: Right there.
13:55
SPEAKER_02: Like, wow, he was on it.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: Even the phrase to start a church, right?
13:58
SPEAKER_00: I I I even think about that differently.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: I, you know, Tame and I came here to start a church.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: How presumptuous is that?
14:04
SPEAKER_00: A church is a what we think of it today as an organization with a 501c3.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: That's just insane.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: You have a Bible study in your house, this is a church.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: That's what Priscilla and Aquila and Apollos and those guys were doing, man.
14:15
SPEAKER_00: They were the church.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: We are the church.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: This is a this is the church.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: So um go start a church, get a Bible study, go do that.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: Love and encourage people, give them a place to land and be inquisitive, which then transitions us to our story today.
14:30
SPEAKER_02: Let's do it.
14:30
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
14:31
SPEAKER_02: Let's do it.
14:31
SPEAKER_02: That was a lot of talk.
14:32
SPEAKER_02: Let's get into the good stuff here.
14:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
14:35
SPEAKER_02: Um we're talking about Nicodemus.
14:38
SPEAKER_02: Going back in time.
14:39
SPEAKER_02: The most famous passage of the Bible, probably.
14:43
SPEAKER_02: At least the most famous verse in the Bible.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: Without probably without question.
14:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
14:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: What people don't know is that the most quoted or famous verse, John 3.16, they they don't ever think about who is on the other side of that question, right?
15:02
SPEAKER_00: Who was on the other side of that statement, I should say.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: And it's Nicodemus, um, a religious leader.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: We've even talked about him.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: But, you know, if we're gonna talk about the greater story, he's he's an interesting cat.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: He only shows up in the Gospel of John.
15:18
SPEAKER_00: He shows up three times, and if you look at the story of his life, it looks like God is working on him in each step of the way.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: But to do a deep dive on Nicodemus is to is to try and wrestle to the ground one of the most influential people in Israel at the time of Jesus.
15:39
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't necessarily a politician to the terms of like Pilate or one of those guys.
15:45
SPEAKER_00: He he was he was on the Jewish ruling council, the Sanhedrin, 71 uh ruling elders, uh very prominent group.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: You you and I were joking before this about how do you get on that group?
15:58
SPEAKER_00: And and you jokingly said, you know, money.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, I mean, I I you know he shows up at the in the last story that you have of him bringing spices to Jesus' burial, yeah, which amounted to an amount of money that is obscene.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: So he's he has to have great means.
16:15
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: Somebody in my Bible study this morning said, could have been the wealthiest man in all of Israel at the time of this.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: Um, 100% maybe.
16:24
SPEAKER_00: That's what we do here, right?
16:25
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: Uh so if I was to tell you that John 3.16, which we always look at as the passage for salvation, was a conversation between Jesus and the richest man in Israel at the time, maybe that doesn't change how you feel about the text, but it should cause you to go, okay, what's that all about?
16:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: Why, why does John, last gospel written, give us a story that nobody else gave us?
16:51
SPEAKER_00: Maybe this was John's connection, right?
16:52
SPEAKER_00: Remember when, remember when remember when I'm just talking, you haven't even said anything.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: I'm just listening.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm just throwing information out there.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: Remember when John and Peter, Jesus is arrested, and they run down there and John gets in, but Peter can't get in.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: You remember that story?
17:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: And then John has to go back and let Peter in.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: It could be because of his relationship with Nicodemus.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: So John could be a family relationship, he could be a friend.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: That could be 100%, 20%, maybe.
17:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
17:20
SPEAKER_00: But some John has an in with this group that Peter does not have.
17:26
SPEAKER_00: So it would explain why maybe in Peter's gospel, which is the gospel of Mark, right?
17:31
SPEAKER_00: We've had that conversation before.
17:32
SPEAKER_00: Mark would have been his understudy.
17:34
SPEAKER_00: So he writes.
17:35
SPEAKER_00: So maybe that's why it's not in Mark's gospel.
17:37
SPEAKER_00: And we know that Luke and Matthew use Mark's gospel as the baseline for their gospels.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: So when John writes his many years later, he includes stories that those others didn't have in there.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: Maybe this is why Nicodemus shows up.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: That's a lot of information.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: So but it's helpful.
17:52
SPEAKER_00: Give me some, yeah.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: It's helpful.
17:54
SPEAKER_02: I think um one of the two the greater story pieces of this too is understanding Nicodemus was a Pharisee, but part of the Sanhedrin.
18:04
SPEAKER_02: So the Sanhedrin made up of Pharisees, also Sadducees, who religious leaders that controlled the temple.
18:12
SPEAKER_02: Um, and then also just prominent what we'd call lay people, people, influential, powerful people, connected people, and they made up I I was trying to think of a modern equivalent.
18:23
SPEAKER_02: I don't know that we have it, but you're thinking of your lawmakers, your senators, your uh powerful people, your business.
18:30
SPEAKER_02: Because it was a theocracy, that would be that, yeah.
18:33
SPEAKER_02: Right.
18:33
SPEAKER_02: So they're so when you see the council, that's what this is made up of.
18:38
SPEAKER_02: There were Pharisees that were not all hated by the people.
18:44
SPEAKER_02: They were teachers.
18:45
SPEAKER_02: Some of the Pharisees from from what scholars believe were not loathed uh by everyone.
18:51
SPEAKER_02: And so it I I just think it's an important context, especially if you're talking greater story, that there is an element of of of those that that were more sensitive to the greater story, that understood um Jesus maybe a bit more than others.
19:08
SPEAKER_02: But the tale that's as old as time is that the people with the money, like the power and the control and these movements that threaten that, they they don't like that so much.
19:19
SPEAKER_00: No.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: No, and and Nicodemus shows up as somebody that is in that ruling class, on that ruling board, who's inquisitive and wants to know.
19:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
19:29
SPEAKER_00: He said, you know, that the the opening line says, We know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do the signs that you do apart from the presence of God.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: Um, the word we, we laughed about it today.
19:40
SPEAKER_00: Well, 100% maybe who's we?
19:41
SPEAKER_00: It could have been him and the the elders, could have been him and his wife.
19:47
SPEAKER_00: Could have been him and Bob who just showed up and saw a miracle.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
19:50
SPEAKER_00: Um, so uh we don't know, but we know that he's there speaking on behalf of more.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: Where where you probably get a better insight is when you get down to verse 11, Jesus is re-emphasizing and he says, Very truly, I tell you, we speak.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: So now Jesus is using we and he's talking about the disciples or his followers.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: We speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen, but this is where you get Nicodemus' side as related from Jesus.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: Yet you do not receive our testimony.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: So there's something about the testimony that Nicodemus and his we, whatever that group is, does not receive from Jesus.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: But Nicodemus is there trying to learn, trying to understand, trying to sort it out.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: There's there's more information here, and I don't want this to become all data, but this is the place, right?
20:33
SPEAKER_00: This is where we put the information out.
20:35
SPEAKER_00: It's not this simple, but think of Pharisees and Sadducees as denominations.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: In, you know, as we have denominations in Christendom today, you got your Baptists, your Methodists, your Pentecostals, they all believe a little bit different about things.
20:49
SPEAKER_00: But your Pharisees, your Sadducees, your Essenes, although the Essenes was probably a Jewish sect that was pushed out, um, they all have different roots and different origins.
20:59
SPEAKER_00: Well, the Pharisees, which he's a part of, is rooted in the exile.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: Um, so when when Israel was exiled from the land of Jerusalem and and many of the inhabitants were moved into Babylon, they didn't have a temple.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: There was no temple to offer sacrifices.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: So they were left without their main source of their religious faith, which would be the Sadducees, right?
21:24
SPEAKER_00: So the Sadducees handled the temple sacrifices.
21:26
SPEAKER_00: They were the ones that were predominantly around the temple.
21:28
SPEAKER_02: And they'd gladly sell you one.
21:29
SPEAKER_00: And they would gladly sell you a sacrifice.
21:31
SPEAKER_00: So so when they find themselves in exile, this group of a spiritual renewal broke out, which would eventually become known as the Pharisees or the Order of the Pharisees, who then started this practice of synagogues where they would get together and they would they would establish their lives around the law or around um around the Torah.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: This is where all of the laws came in and all of the extensive study, and the Israelites did better.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: In exile than they ever did in their own land.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: So when they moved back into Israel and they started the temple back up, that's where the Sadducees came back to a prominent order.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: But so did the Pharisees.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: Because the Pharisees now had the synagogues all throughout Israel where you could go every Saturday and worship and have synagogue, you know, synagogue worship or worship or however you want to say that.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: So they became a very prominent part of Israel.
22:29
SPEAKER_00: So imagine now, when you think of Israel today, there is the Temple Mount, but they're not offering sacrifices anymore.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: So the largest thought is still based on law.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: So that phariseutical order still carries its way across the life of Israel, the law or the Torah.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: It's the pervasive element of the way that they believe.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: Because when the temple went down, the Sadducees went away.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: Um, because they had no more influence.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: And now the Pharisees were the ones that so it makes no when you think about Nicodemus and why God would choose him in the greater story, and Joseph of Arimathea, these would have been the prominent guys that were connected to the early church, could have been in terms of money, but there's a there's a famine and there's all these things that start to happen, so you don't even know how Nicodemus how all that impacted them, right?
23:22
SPEAKER_00: You don't get those other stories.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: I I haven't done it yet, but I want to go back and study and see if there's more information on Nicodemus after the resurrection.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: It's not in scripture, but is there extra canonical stuff that maybe gives us an insight that we can kind of hang our hat on?
23:37
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
23:38
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
23:38
SPEAKER_02: Let's talk about him and his uh curiosity, his seeking.
23:42
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
23:43
SPEAKER_02: And I think too, the um the Pharisees, the Sadducees only took the Torah, the first five books, as like this is the law and this is it.
23:53
SPEAKER_02: Nothing else.
23:54
SPEAKER_02: I I think scholars believe the Pharisees continued on some of the oral traditions that were passed down.
23:59
SPEAKER_02: So maybe even just in in his mindset already, he's more open to seeing what's what's happening versus like, nope, this is the law, it's closed, it's done, this is it.
24:11
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
24:11
SPEAKER_02: So because you do see a guy who's seeking here, and John and his use of how he writes his gospel, a lot of light and darkness.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
24:21
SPEAKER_02: And that's the common thread.
24:22
SPEAKER_02: So there's there's a cool piece about Nicodemus here, this happening in the darkness, which we've talked about, I think we talked about that when we did the Gospel of John at length.
24:32
SPEAKER_02: But if you look at the three stories I think you're gonna use about um the interactions we have, this is fully and completely in the darkness.
24:42
SPEAKER_02: The one in John 7 is kind of partially out there, and then when he shows up at the end, this is full daylight.
24:48
SPEAKER_02: Like he's the darkness has now stepped into the light, and he's yeah, John actually writes it that way.
24:53
SPEAKER_02: He's committed to that.
24:54
SPEAKER_02: Um what about Nicodemus sticks out to you in his questions?
24:59
SPEAKER_02: I think we've talked about a lot of that about he's thinking just very physical, very earthly, and Jesus is trying to to get his mind into the spiritual things.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: I I I don't know how to how to put this, but um the Nicodemus stands as a guy whose life was flipped upside down in one moment.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: Everything he believed was shattered if what Jesus says is true.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus says you must be born of the water and born of the spirit or born from above, there's a word play that happens in that text.
25:27
SPEAKER_00: And Nicodemus goes, uh and I that you you understand this in our normal conversations.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: If you're if you're if you're an engineer and you're in conversations with engineers, you can ask a very educated question, right?
25:39
SPEAKER_00: Here is a religious leader that's very well trained.
25:42
SPEAKER_00: Jesus calls him the teacher of Israel, um, who Jesus says, You must be born of the water and born of the spirit or born from above.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: And Nicodemus' response is not a he's a very educated religious man, but his question is like you would ask if you didn't know anything about the topic, how how can I be born again?
26:03
SPEAKER_00: Like he he starts to ask a very natural question about a spiritual thing.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus' question is like, How do you not know these things?
26:11
SPEAKER_00: Right.
26:11
SPEAKER_00: So I so there's a part of it where um his inquisitiveness, which you got to give this guy credit for, a lot of times when you find yourself in a position of power, your impetus in all decisions is to maintain that power.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: He's trying to learn, he's trying to grow.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: So there's something to be said for Nicodemus in this setting that he's learning.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: But man, he is he is just looking at it as dazed and confused.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: Um, how can I be born again?
26:41
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is going, man, I don't know why you don't know this.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: Right.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: If you're, you know, you gotta be born this way, but you gotta be all but that meant that a guy, Nicodemus, who Jewish law means if you do everything right according to the law, then you are good.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: Right.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, No, you've got to be born from above.
27:00
SPEAKER_00: There's a there's a second birth, which means Nicodemus went everything I've ever talked about to this point is wrong.
27:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
27:09
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is like, yeah.
27:12
SPEAKER_02: Basically.
27:13
SPEAKER_02: You can see too why that has to unfold over time.
27:16
SPEAKER_02: Oh man.
27:18
SPEAKER_02: Exactly what you're saying.
27:19
SPEAKER_02: And I think a lot of us have experienced this with an encounter with Jesus and understanding, wait, everything I believe is wrong.
27:28
SPEAKER_02: And about myself, about God, about my life.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and maybe not wrong, maybe misunderstood.
27:35
SPEAKER_00: Or or the ultimate hook is misunderstood.
27:38
SPEAKER_00: Because I thought if I was good and I just lived a good moral life according to the Torah I was in.
27:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
27:44
SPEAKER_00: Right?
27:45
SPEAKER_00: Um, and and what Jesus is saying, you gotta be born from above.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: There's a do we have that modern equivalent today?
27:52
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
27:53
SPEAKER_02: Of the thought of, hey, I just need to be a good person and probably it'll work out in the end.
27:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's just not it's not cloaked in Judaism.
27:59
SPEAKER_00: Right.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, and and and to be fair, you go back to Abraham.
28:03
SPEAKER_00: Abraham was credited as righteous because of his faith, right?
28:07
SPEAKER_00: So I I do think that in their understanding of faith, there was the ability to to have a belief that went beyond just law, doing good things, which centers on you doing right to attain righteousness.
28:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, uh in Abraham, you see a faith that goes beyond just doing right, his heart was in a different place.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: So somewhere in there, there's a math equation that equates to righteousness and faith.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: And Nicodemus was there wrestling with it.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: He was trying to sort it out.
28:35
SPEAKER_00: The second you you mentioned it, but and I don't want to drop this thought.
28:39
SPEAKER_00: The three conversations we have with Nicodemus, this one, which gives us the most well-known verse in all time, then you have the second, and then you have the last one where he goes and helps Joseph Arimathea prepare Jesus' burial for a body for burial, which means he comes out of the shadows at daylight carrying a truckload of money worth of allows.
29:01
SPEAKER_02: It would have been fit for a king.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: Fit for a king.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus, so he is making a, he's not just getting this guy ready for burial.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: It's above and beyond anything you could imagine.
29:10
SPEAKER_00: So from darkness to fully out before the resurrection, mind you, making a statement about what he believes in this Jesus.
29:18
SPEAKER_00: The story in the middle is so interesting because he does take a stand in defense of Jesus because there's this, they want to the ruling with the Sanhedrin wants to a rule, wants to arrest Jesus.
29:31
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
29:31
SPEAKER_00: And Nicodemus says, hey, wait a minute.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: Our law says he should be have a fair he doesn't, so he doesn't really take a stand for Jesus.
29:38
SPEAKER_00: He takes a stand for the law.
29:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
29:40
SPEAKER_00: So he hides behind the law to offer Jesus the opportunity to to stake his claim.
29:46
SPEAKER_00: But they immediately look at him, are you accursed?
29:49
SPEAKER_00: Do you do you come from Galilee?
29:51
SPEAKER_00: Right?
29:52
SPEAKER_00: Because if you did, we know our scripture teaches that nothing comes from Galilee.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: Well, they didn't have the story.
29:56
SPEAKER_00: Jesus doesn't come from Galilee.
29:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: He was born in Bethlehem.
29:59
SPEAKER_00: So, um, or at least from the lineage of David.
30:02
SPEAKER_00: So they just they didn't have all their facts right.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: Um so I I I look at that story and I see him trying to invite everybody else to be as open as he is, yeah, but still doesn't have the fortitude maybe to push more heavily into that.
30:18
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
30:19
SPEAKER_02: It does make you think as there were there more conversations, like did he did he build this relationship with Jesus?
30:27
SPEAKER_02: Was that going on?
30:28
SPEAKER_02: But you definitely see you you see a a shift a little bit of of yeah, I can't fully, I'm not fully there yet.
30:35
SPEAKER_02: I can't fully publicly defend this guy, but also there is the the connection to what he believes and what he knows.
30:43
SPEAKER_02: But you you see a wrestling, I I think you do.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, or or or a guy that's like, hey, bring him in here so we can, so you can hear him.
30:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
30:49
SPEAKER_00: Like so I want you to hear for yourself what I've already heard.
30:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
30:52
SPEAKER_00: So let's let's give him a fair trial.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: Because maybe in his heart of hearts, he's thinking, let's let that guy do the heavy lifting.
30:58
SPEAKER_00: Instead of me having to stand up here and try and say maybe somebody else will say something.
31:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
31:02
SPEAKER_00: Maybe somebody else will go, oh, you know, he is right.
31:04
SPEAKER_00: Uh so there there could be a piece where he was in favor of him being arrested or brought in or any of those things.
31:10
SPEAKER_00: That that council did what those councils do and what our politicians do.
31:14
SPEAKER_00: They tried to protect their power.
31:15
SPEAKER_00: And as of as that order, they were making sure that there was nobody that was false teaching and nobody that was so they they just they listen, it's a greater story.
31:25
SPEAKER_00: They did what they were gonna do, which was arrest them and kill them.
31:29
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
31:29
SPEAKER_02: If I am a seeker, if I am trying to wrestle through what Jesus is to me, what this means to my life, what what would you say to that person?
31:41
SPEAKER_02: Maybe even in context of a guy like Nicodemus.
31:46
SPEAKER_02: Hey, I don't I'm not a religious leader, I'm not this, I'm not that, I'm not the wealthiest guy in in all of Israel.
31:53
SPEAKER_02: Um but what do you say to the person that that is trying to wrestle with some of these truths uh that Jesus has for us?
32:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I that's and that's the million-dollar question.
32:04
SPEAKER_00: I th I think what I would say is there are some that that that pretend that they've got it all figured out and they don't.
32:11
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Nicodemus stands as a guy that that had the greatest of knowledge and did not know.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: Um, and the greatest of religious leaders and did not know.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: So if you're a person that is not that and you're searching, you're welcome to the party.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: Because I think we all, I I'm I'm right in the middle of that.
32:27
SPEAKER_00: I find things in scripture all the time where I'm just like, man, that is so awesome, so glad to know that.
32:32
SPEAKER_00: Or, ooh, taught that wrong, you know, for years and so glad to appreciate the new clarity and the insight.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, it's this is a it's a transformation life.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: I I pray that we we all, no matter your role or station in life, never lose the inquisitiveness of trying to know God.
32:53
SPEAKER_00: And uh and anybody that presumes to know the God of the universe fully, I need to say that, yeah.
33:00
SPEAKER_00: And and completely uh doesn't.
33:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
33:06
SPEAKER_00: They just don't.
33:07
SPEAKER_00: There's no way.
33:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we can't we can't understand him.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: Uh but that's why it's important for us to say, okay, I can't fully understand.
33:14
SPEAKER_00: I do know in part, so why am I here?
33:16
SPEAKER_00: What is it that you're calling me to do?
33:18
SPEAKER_00: To use Addie's sermon, what's the next step?
33:20
SPEAKER_00: How do I connect to this story?
33:22
SPEAKER_00: That's a kind of an answer to what you're having.
33:24
SPEAKER_00: But but yeah, but keep searching.
33:26
SPEAKER_00: Uh I I always start with the premise that God is a God that wants to be known.
33:31
SPEAKER_00: Why else come to this earth?
33:33
SPEAKER_00: Why show up in in Israel as an Israelite?
33:37
SPEAKER_00: He could have shown up as an alien, he could have shown up as a thousand different things, but he showed up as a human being that could speak to people, that could interact with people, that shared stories in a way that ate food that they ate because God wants to be known.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: And then now we we read this and we have to wrestle it in our context to understand that God still wants to be known.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: We gotta do the work.
33:56
SPEAKER_00: So keep asking the questions.
33:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
33:57
SPEAKER_02: It's good.
33:59
SPEAKER_02: Awesome, man.
34:00
SPEAKER_02: Anything else you wanna you wanna say about any of this?
34:03
SPEAKER_00: Um greater story of matters.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: It matters.
34:07
SPEAKER_00: I I I I pray, pray, pray.
34:09
SPEAKER_00: I I know that there are many, many people that are walking through very, very difficult moments in life.
34:14
SPEAKER_00: And I could list them all, but you know, whether it's health issues or we have no idea how many days we have on this planet.
34:21
SPEAKER_00: We have no ideas, uh idea the the influence that we have.
34:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I would say wherever you are, whatever you're doing, first of all, get to know this God.
34:30
SPEAKER_00: That's probably first step.
34:31
SPEAKER_00: Second of all, ask the question why, why?
34:34
SPEAKER_00: What am I doing here?
34:36
SPEAKER_00: Continue to do what you're doing, but what am I doing here?
34:39
SPEAKER_00: Why has God positioned me in this job at this point?
34:43
SPEAKER_00: Because it's it it is as equally important as what I do, right?
34:48
SPEAKER_00: Never fall into the bucket of saying, well, Scott does this, and so Scott's more there's not a world where that is true.
34:56
SPEAKER_00: Um if you're an accountant and you find yourself in an office and you have an opportunity to speak into someone's life, or even just love someone that's unlovable, it is it is as equally important as anything that I do on any Sunday morning and in any setting.
35:11
SPEAKER_00: Period.
35:12
SPEAKER_00: So um just know that God God is sovereign.
35:17
SPEAKER_00: We have the ability to honor Him with our lives, and we need to do that.
35:23
SPEAKER_00: This is not our story, it's His story.
35:26
SPEAKER_00: We're a we're a chapter in that story.
35:29
SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't I don't know the the right way to be able to put that.
35:32
SPEAKER_00: We've always wrestled with how to say those things, but um but if we are truly going to be used for his glory, then we have to give him access to our lives.
35:43
SPEAKER_00: Um and I and I think when we do that, and and I man, here's so let's let's talk theology for a second because I'm not sure how I feel about some of these things.
35:52
SPEAKER_00: All right, right?
35:53
SPEAKER_00: There's people that take um, there's the the text is it's in Romans, good, perfect, acceptable will of God.
35:59
SPEAKER_00: And I came from a denomination that like to divide that out.
36:02
SPEAKER_00: You can be in the good will of God, you can be in the acceptable will of God, or you can be in the will of God.
36:06
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and they try to say you're and that's a you're an A, you got an A, a B, a C, or you're an F.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: I don't think that I think those are descriptors of the will of God.
36:16
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
36:17
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
36:18
SPEAKER_00: And I think there is a there is an understanding of life that when you come to the place and you realize I'm a believer, my life belongs to God.
36:25
SPEAKER_00: And so God, let's go accomplish as much as you can accomplish in my life.
36:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
36:31
SPEAKER_00: That's a different speed, right?
36:33
SPEAKER_00: So that's as to say, I'm gonna fight you for the rest of my life, and you may be able to use me to accomplish X.
36:39
SPEAKER_00: God is not going to sacrifice the rest of that mission because you are a bonehead.
36:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
36:45
SPEAKER_00: God is going to meet that mission.
36:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
36:47
SPEAKER_02: So there's a there's an interesting thread.
36:50
SPEAKER_02: I've pull the thread with studying some of this, and it it ties into council.
36:55
SPEAKER_02: It also ties into greater story because Paul was also a Pharisee.
37:01
SPEAKER_02: Paul was trained by Gameliel because he talks about it.
37:05
SPEAKER_02: There's a really cool interaction in Acts 5 where Gameliel is mentioned, and it's this council again, and it's Peter.
37:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, I guess Peter and John.
37:16
SPEAKER_00: Were you gonna hang this phone up without bringing that up?
37:18
SPEAKER_00: Keep going now.
37:19
SPEAKER_02: God made it all work out.
37:20
SPEAKER_02: Good.
37:21
SPEAKER_02: So basically, they're gonna kill the the uh disciples.
37:25
SPEAKER_02: And Gamelliel is the one that says, Hey, remember this guy, his movement came and went, nothing ever happened.
37:32
SPEAKER_02: Hey, remember this guy, he had some followers, they did some things, came and went.
37:37
SPEAKER_02: He says, You might want to rethink about trying to kill these guys because if it's nothing, it'll go away.
37:42
SPEAKER_02: It's gonna go away on its own.
37:44
SPEAKER_02: We don't need to get involved.
37:45
SPEAKER_00: But if it is God, nothing's gonna stop it.
37:49
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
37:50
SPEAKER_00: Right.
37:50
SPEAKER_02: And it just it reminds me of what you're saying there.
37:53
SPEAKER_02: Like, I I think we tend to think of God's will as like so linear, and even God is like, okay, here's my life, and here's this, and here's this decision, and this and that.
38:04
SPEAKER_02: God is an infinite God with infinite possibilities, and he can come in and redeem and restore and do anything he wants to do, and we can't stop it.
38:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're not yeah, you see what was the phrase you used a few weeks back that we said we're gonna turn into a t-shirt?
38:17
SPEAKER_00: Like God's man's failings can't thwart the plan of God.
38:20
SPEAKER_00: I I you you never use the word thwart.
38:21
SPEAKER_00: No, this is nobody uses the word.
38:23
SPEAKER_02: This has become not an actual quote.
38:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, it's but it's what happens to quotes, right?
38:27
SPEAKER_02: So what is it?
38:28
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
38:28
SPEAKER_02: The failure, I don't remember.
38:30
SPEAKER_02: Something about we have video evidence, I would say we can go back and find it.
38:33
SPEAKER_02: A few weeks back.
38:34
SPEAKER_02: Um, yeah, the the the failure of men is not gonna stop God's plan, basically.
38:39
SPEAKER_02: Right.
38:39
SPEAKER_02: Our our failings are not gonna stop what God wants to do.
38:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
38:42
SPEAKER_00: And so when you when you read the John 3.16, it establishes the heart of God.
38:46
SPEAKER_00: For God so loved the world.
38:48
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say, for God so loved people that loved him back, or the Jews, or the Israelites.
38:54
SPEAKER_00: He says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, whoever believes in him shall not perish but everlasting life.
38:58
SPEAKER_00: God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world will be saved through him.
39:03
SPEAKER_00: Those two scriptures give shape to the heart of God in a way that everybody should understand.
39:08
SPEAKER_00: Right?
39:08
SPEAKER_00: God, God wants everyone to be in relationship with him, but not everyone will be.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
39:15
SPEAKER_00: Right?
39:15
SPEAKER_00: So, so the the in that in that terminology is the ability for us to utilize our man, I don't know.
39:23
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know what I'm saying there, other than understand the heart of God, understand that we're broken, and God knows that.
39:31
SPEAKER_00: That's not surprising to God, and then just figure out why we're here, right?
39:36
SPEAKER_00: It's not to amass our own kingdom and our own thing.
39:40
SPEAKER_00: Um, in and of itself, there's nothing terrible about that because we can use all of those things for God's glory, right?
39:47
SPEAKER_00: So this is Scott's not the preacher that says, everything you've ever done, give me all of your money.
39:52
SPEAKER_00: That's not, I'm never going to be that guy.
39:54
SPEAKER_00: But I do think there's a place for you to say, God, why do I have all of this?
39:57
SPEAKER_00: And there are people that go, it is for God, and let's go and let's see how far down this road we can get.
40:02
SPEAKER_00: So, but that's a that's a deal that God has to do inside of you, just like he did in Nicodemus.
40:07
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
40:07
SPEAKER_00: And when we get to that place of transformation, then the greater story becomes more important than anything we're doing.
40:12
SPEAKER_00: And man, that's when you are, you, you, you start to be a part of things that you never imagined you'd be a part of, and you see God accomplishing greatness, great things around you.
40:23
SPEAKER_00: Then at some point you look back and I think we're in it.
40:26
SPEAKER_00: We're in that window.
40:27
SPEAKER_00: And I don't want to lose sight of that.
40:29
SPEAKER_00: What we see going on in community life church, like it's just it's uh uh blows my mind away.
40:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
40:37
SPEAKER_00: But to see the baptisms, to see what's happening.
40:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there are struggles, yeah, there are challenges and the changes going on in youth ministry in so many different areas, but um, there is no question in my mind God has positioned us where we are now to have the influence that we have now with schools opening up and um all the things.
40:56
SPEAKER_02: All the things, all the things, yeah.
40:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it'll be good.
40:58
SPEAKER_02: So hope you guys can join us Sunday, either in person in the family room, or online.
41:04
SPEAKER_02: Love to have you guys finished out the greater story.
41:07
SPEAKER_02: Love you.
41:08
SPEAKER_02: See ya.