Latest / Kids and a Calling / Don't Go to Jod

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Don't Go to Jod · Kids and a Calling

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Hey everyone.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to the Kids and a Calling Podcast, where none of us are actually kids, but we do all have a real calling.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the point people to do it.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Audrey sadly could not be here today.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'm I'm thinking that she started not like it, but I'll take more test but I don't know and touch it.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um but unfortunately that means I'm your host, still less your host today, so hi.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um next to me I am joined by Ramsey Pavlou.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_05: Hey guys.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then across from us is Luke Gibson.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: Hey! There he is.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Alright.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: So again, only three of us.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um hopefully for you guys, that means you don't have to hear us yap as much, but we'll see.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: We may end up talking longer than any of the episodes, so never know.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, I have to do the icebreaker today because Audrey's not here, so here's what I have.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: What's um what's one funny or crazy thing that's happened to you while on the road, either recently or or in your past, uh, with you driving or just not just being in the vehicle?
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_05: I honestly thought a perfect thing for that answer.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_05: Um, so long story short, the first time I ever been to New York, my dad I was young, bro.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_05: My dad rented us, I think it was like a limo because it was low-key cheaper than doing a like a taxi for it.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_05: And or it wasn't a rent, it was just something like we were for some reason in a limo.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_05: Anyways, we get in it and it was really, it was really janky, y'all.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_05: Like he like he thought it was gonna be something else.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_05: It wasn't, but anyways, our driver's driving.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_05: Y'all, if you haven't been to New York, it's a crazy place.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, we're driving in the middle of the road, and this person, it was dead stop traffic because New York, you're never really ever driving, you're kind of just stopping and then moving forward slowly.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_05: Apparently, this person thought we were taking thought we were taking too long to go, and completely just and I don't think they were looking, but they ran into the car.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_05: Like you just hear a like a boom.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_05: Like you, you know when like a bird hits a window.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah, it's like just boom in the whole car.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_05: We all look over and we were like, what is happening right now?
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: How you ran into someone in New York?
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_05: Didn't they like look at us like we were the problem and moved around in carrying it?
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, like y'all shouldn't have been there, or like the driver just like looked back and just like kept going.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_05: It was just so random.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_05: It was like a fever dream, but yeah, that was my story.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like that happens often.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: Bro's used to it, dude.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I have to admit, this is a very charged question for me.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because like three months ago I almost got taken out on the interstate merging by an elderly person.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I was riding with my good friend Tanner, and I was in the passenger seat, and we were merging off of the uh Scott exit onto the interstate.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, you're I'm merging in where I don't have a yield sign, or Tanner was because I was in the passenger seat, and so the traffic coming in from the other lane onto the merge, they have a yield sign.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so they're supposed to stop, and so we're driving like normal, we're just we're just yapping, and there's a car, but it's not coming like insanely fast, and you know, you kind of just expect them to stop at the yield, yeah.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's not like we were far behind, we were right up on it.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: Bro, this old lady did not stop, dude.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: Like I was watching kind of from the corner of my eyes, because I always do, yeah.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and we were just talking and she didn't slow down, she just kept coming.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: Dude, Tanner was not looking at all, and we won't know we were going, and dude, I just went, Tanner, she's not stopping, Tanner, she's not stopping.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: And dude, that dude, I don't think that old lady even recognized our existence, bro.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: She just kept on driving.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's crazy.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: You maybe would expect her to like freak out a bit, like, oh, almost hit someone.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: Dude, I don't think she ever even saw us.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: And then we get on the interstate, and then like three minutes later, we see a cop put her over.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: So she got what she deserved.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_05: That's crazy.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, mine is not gonna top either of y'all.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_04: It was embarrassing for me.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_04: I was driving to the golf course one day to go meet up with my buddy, and I got on the wrong road or whatever, and I had to turn around.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_04: But there's like no place to turn around, no driveways, nothing.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_04: So I was like, oh bro, I know what to do in this situation.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_04: I just learned this like you know, a year or two ago in driving school.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_04: I know how to do a three-point turn.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_04: Like, this would be the first time I use it.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_04: I must I'm gonna do it right.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_04: So I started it off.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, do it right.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_04: I went left.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, I stopped.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_04: You back up a little, then you keep going left again.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_04: You have to do it three times, right?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_04: On the second time, I was about like vertical, no, horizontal with a vertical road.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_04: Uh-huh.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_04: So perpendicular.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_04: And I go to go up forward for my last part of the turn for the third part.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_04: Well, my wheel is on the back of the road where it's gravel.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, dude.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_04: My I haven't changed my tires in so long that there's like no tread on them.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_04: Like, I have to get.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my gosh.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_04: So then there's a huge ditch behind me, also.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_05: Oh my goodness.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_04: So I start, I start to accelerate.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_04: Like, I realize this as I'm braked, and I'm like, man, I gotta go slow.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_04: So I accelerate slow and then it starts spinning and it starts just kicking gravel.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_04: I was freaking out.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_04: I waited for like a minute and it finally caught, and I went on.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_04: I just hit the gas and I kept going on that road.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_05: It's like worst case scenario.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_04: I almost thought about not going to the golf course.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my goodness.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_04: So dramatic.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_05: Like adrenaline.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_05: You just have to go back home and think about his decisions.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_05: Like amazing.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_04: How was I gonna get out?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_04: How was I gonna get out of the room?
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_05: Worst case scenario, it's all stacked up against me.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: Hollow eyes, so it's over.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_05: That's funny.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure everyone um listening has some sort of story, bro.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: Be careful out there.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: Driving is scary.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's terrible.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: If you haven't started driving yet, be careful when you do.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: But um anyway, moving on to the actual important stuff.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure a bunch of you guys just skip the icebreaker every time.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: So that's not what you're here for.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um Pastor Jared, he he picked back up on a series that he started earlier this year.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um one that if you're a true fan, you're probably familiar with because we've talked about it a bit as he was doing it.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, he returned to the built to last series.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, good series.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'm happy he brought it back.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I guess he brought it back because we apparently need to know more about being built to last.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: I guess it wasn't enough.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: But um, yesterday he spoke on the title Built to Last Unbreakable Core.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: So let's get into it.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_05: So he started off with the scripture, Psalms 127, one through two.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_05: Unless the Lord builds the house, the builder's labor is in vain.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_05: Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guard stands watching in vain.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_05: In vain you rise early and stay up late, tolling for food to eat, for he grants sleep to those he loves.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_05: So that's just a great starting point for the whole entire series in general, or well, continuous point, continuing point.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_05: But then right after that, he goes into the story which he'll reference back to during his message.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_05: It was about um the company Johnson and Johnson, about how it started with two brothers in 1886.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_05: That is a long time ago.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_05: But as you know, you see it in shelves today, so you think they must have done something right.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_05: Well, what they did is it started to grow after they they learned into things, tried to solve problems for the medical field, and it started to grow.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_05: But when their son, I believe, I may be wrong, but Robert Johnson II, when he noticed it was starting to grow, he built this statement saying that it starts in order of like priorities is doctors, patients, and families, and then employees, then community, and then the stockholders.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_05: And he believed that this order would be the best way to benefit everybody and keep the integrity of the company that the current, I mean the old founders wanted in the core of the company strong.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_04: I really uh I really like the the order.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_04: I'll say it again because I want to emphasize that he started off with direct consumers, then with employees, then with a community that's you know very close to them, right around them, yeah, and then the stockholders.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_04: But if you if you notice the whole beginning of him having to establish this was the opportunity for stockholders, and that was gonna allow their company to excel and to grow exponentially.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so you would think, oh, I'm starting something new, and this has the potential to grow me a lot, a lot.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm gonna put all my eggs in one basket and focus on this the most.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_04: But what they did here was wise because they kept the order right, and as doing that, if they did that, everything fell down the ladder correctly.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_04: And the stockholders were pleased as long as the direct consumers were first pleased.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's all um so important.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: Because like you were uh saying, Ramsey, they were um they were growing exponentially when um what did you say, Johnson?
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: Johnson there's so many Johns, bro.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: Johnson and Johnson.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: When Johnny II decided that they were there, he realized they were growing.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: And that brings about change, a lot of change.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um and he realized that through all this change, if they weren't careful and they weren't adamant on sticking to their core, they could start to drift on those beliefs and things that help them get to where they are.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so that's why he, like you're saying, he came up with the with that list.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um because that's their core, they have to stick to that.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: Other things can change, just like in our lives, and Pastor Jarrett, he hits on this later in the message, but in our lives, in all of our lives, things change.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_05: Um one of the things he said was uh uh the one thing that's constant is change in our lives, like there's always gonna be change.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: So um what uh Johnny the second, I'm just gonna start calling that what he realized is that other things can change, our methods can change, you know, our technology may change, our business uh practices may change.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we need to have a core that doesn't change.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I mean you can see how that worked out, they're still around today and they started in the 1800s.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a pretty good business uh philosophy right there.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and so we as Christians should probably try to model that.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: I think I think that's what your dad was taught.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: Probably someone like that.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe maybe not so much the opening a business with your brother part of it, but but having yeah, the there has to be something with us that yes, things are gonna change.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: Like you just said, I like that.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: That the only thing that doesn't change is change.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's always gonna be a constant.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but there has to be something in us that doesn't change, right?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: If you want one off the top of my head, it's my belief in Jesus.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, right?
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: That's unshakable.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: That has to be something that can't change.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um your prayer life, your prayer habits may change.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, but your prayer life just that you pray uh should be daily.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: But if I'm honest, we don't always pray daily.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: I don't.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we miss out, but prayer as a constant throughout your life, that shouldn't change.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_04: And yeah, the way you do those things too, they can change.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, exactly.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_04: The very core belief and core practice of doing so should not change.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, like I can have a season in my life where I listen to the Bible every time I get in the car, and that's how I receive the word.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_04: And then maybe that's the only way I can do that, or the the most effective way for me in that time.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_04: But like the next season, oh, I have I have that time, or not just the time, but it's better for me to be reading it.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_04: Like I'm studying it out, and oh, it's more effective.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_04: I'm growing more in this season because of that.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and there's a there's a reason for all that why um why you have to have a core that doesn't change, and it's because if every part of your life is flexible, then you don't have anything to drag you back in.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have anything to stand on if everything's flexible.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the ground kids and stuff, like you were just saying, look, yeah, like um your method of listening to the Bible or reading, that may change.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but your core is still there.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: When things start getting rough in life, you're still reading the Bible, you're still listening to it.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: You may only read a verse a day, but that core is still there, and that's what's important.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: You have to have a core within you that when things get rough or when you enter a dry season in your life, that just it doesn't go away, it doesn't change.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_05: One of the examples he used for how unintentionally and how easy it is for like the change to get out of hand is you may start a day with a plan and wake up and you have all these things that you need to get done or want to get done that day.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_05: But just one phone call or notification can change the whole trajectory of your day.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_05: And at the end of the day, you could have been tired from how much of you'd done, but none of it was what you started the day with with the plan was like it okay, that made no sense.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_05: None of it was the things you initially started with wanting to do that day.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_05: And he was saying that slowly the things that mattered at the beginning of the day stopped mattering as the day went on, and that day can then turn into weeks and then can turn into a year.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_05: If we're not careful, our whole life could be just like you were saying, is all flexible.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_05: Like there was never that one constant in your life that kept your course strong.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, and that's that's uh that's definitely a big part of the message that stuck out to me that um how easily drift can happen.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like in that one day, just one little thing out of order can grab your attention and kind of draw your attention away from things that were important to you at the beginning of the day.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: And that happens a lot to us.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it happens to me.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: I know it happens to everyone listening from time to time.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's gonna happen, and that's kind of what this message is is really calling out to us for to be aware of that because it's gonna happen.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: Drift, it happens gradually, like he said in the message.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like none of us wake up one day and we're like, Oh, it's time to drift a God now.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not praying.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's time to drift away.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: What happens is say you have prayer time at night before with God alone in your prayer closet before you go to bed.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: That's like your intimate time with God.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, say somewhere along the way, you start watching Instagram reels before you go to bed, and slowly your attention focuses to I want to lay in bed and watch reels.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so you may go from 20 minutes or 10 minutes of quality prayer time to you start to rush prayer a little bit because you just want to lay down and be on your phone to no, you don't even pray.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it can happen gradually over the span of months, but that's a lot more in tune to how it happens than us waking up one moment, one morning and being like, I don't want to believe in God anymore.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: That's not how that happens.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_05: But then it when you start doing that, it can even start affecting you may not serve in church as much.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_05: And then your connection to the church may start weakening.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_05: And so then now you're you're weakening your prayer life, you're weakening your connection to the church, and then what starts to happen is that just in general starts crumbling.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_05: Your church, your church connection starts.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_05: Priorities change.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_05: Priorities change, and you'll slowly start lose like losing that that stronghold on Jesus, you know, that you'll stop going to church, you'll stop praying, you'll stop reading, and then soon sooner or later you're almost backslidd and not intentionally, but you just stopped.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it happens slowly, and the enemy he he's very aware that he doesn't really need to get us to, you know, say, wake up one morning and say, Yo, I'm not gonna believe in this anymore.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: He's just gonna get us distracted.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: And there's no time like today to do that.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, um he has like every tool he could ever want to do that with all the entertainment distractions.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, if you're in the workforce, our entire society and structure is built on having more money means you're successful, so you can get distracted with that.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, just so many things to pouring all your time into your studies if you're in school and or even just like YouTube, Netflix, social media, just all of that, all the little things or a mix of all of them.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: There's just there's so many things to do in this modern day, so many ways to keep ourselves entertained that if we're not focused on keeping that core the core, and you know, our prayer time or our time with God or reading the Bible, that's kind of flexible and it's not part of our core, yeah, then that's right, that can it's gonna start to drift.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's no if, ands, or buts.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: If it's not at the core, it's gonna start to drift.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_04: And then even whenever it's not like a distraction or something, like what if it's not Instagram at Reels at night or or something like that?
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_04: But what if it's just that, oh, you your job, you're having to stay later for like a week or two and you're tired and you like you physically need to go to bed.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's not anything wrong with not praying then.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_04: It's just you have to make sure your core is strong enough to say, Oh, okay, I need to restructure that to a different time of the day.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe in the morning or maybe in the middle of the day, but I need to find a different time that I can do the same thing.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_05: And the car drive, like all those simple little changes you can make to keep that car strong.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_05: Because life happens.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like you're not evil if you get beat up at work and you come home and yeah, the world won't stop for your hour time with God.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_05: You're gonna have to move that.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_04: But in the same way, if you don't keep up with those changes and pay attention to the season of life that you're in physically, you can lose that that discipline, you know, even if you you still abide by that and you, you know, you identify with that.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and that was kind of what this point kind of got turning in my head when he was saying all that is you have to be intentional with what you do.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_05: I think the big problem is we're also unintentional with it.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_05: We're like, we'll do it when we get to it, you know.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_05: By the end of the day, before I close my eyes, I'm gonna have to read my Bible.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_05: It's so unintentional, there's no real structure to it, that that's almost a problem because you'll just push it off so much until by the end of the day, maybe you did stay out at work, or maybe you are staying late studying.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_05: You're like, I just can't read it.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_05: And it came to that time where you said you would, but you're just like, I just I can't.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_05: I'm gonna go to bed, you know.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_05: That's kind of that in that decision you make, is because you were unintentional with your time with God.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_05: And in Ephesians 5, 15 through 16, it says, So be careful how you live.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_05: Don't live like a fool, but those who are wise make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_05: That's saying you need you need to pay attention to how you're living um and how you're living, if you're living like a fool or if someone or like someone who is wise, or are you wasting your time or just using it to your advantage?
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_05: You have to think about those things.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_05: Like Luke was saying, if you are running out of time by the end of the night for that season of work or something, or school, or whatever it was, be intentional with where you put that time with God.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's right.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, being intentional has been a very big theme throughout James and throughout all the messages we've been talking about.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: I feel it's it's again where it's like God's really trying to drill this into us, I feel that and out um again with this message that it it it starts with intention.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: You don't just kind of happen into a relationship with God, you don't wake up one morning and you have a disciplined prayer life where you're meeting with God every day, you have to build that and um that's why being aware of distractions and how easy it is to drift, that's a part of being intentional.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_04: Um even whenever you have that moment that you know you kind of realize or you have a moment with God that like you have like like Jacob had with the Bethel moment where um he had a dream and you know there was a stairway up to heaven and he realized, man, like I need to change, I need to fix my ways.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_04: You know, it wasn't just that moment that changed him, it was the fact that he continued and he actually changed from that moment and he started building even there.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_05: I think it's super important to have that moment where or that place where you can go and have those moments and build the strength in your core to be able.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_05: He was also pointing out how to we need to build our core so we can help build others' core.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_05: That's right.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_05: You know, help build others up and not tear them down.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_05: Like you need to have a strong core in order to be the light others need to your family or your friends around you, you need to have that strong core to be the strength for the people who are weak and can't find the strength, they don't know how.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think uh uh an important distinction that I was thinking about while hearing that is that you can't be lax about building your core.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: And if I want to speak in plain terms, your core, getting it settled in you, like prayer necessity.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: You pray about everything, not just in your day.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: You pray consistently, constantly over every little thing.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: Prayer becomes second nature to you.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's the ideal core.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, reading your Bible fascinating, it becomes part of who you are.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like sometimes we can get the misconception that our core is built during the trials, because yes, trials do shape our character.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: We've talked about that on episodes here going through James.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: Trials shape us, but our core that isn't it can be maybe enhanced by the trial.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: We can see aspects of our core shine in the trial, but your core itself is not built in the trial.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's built in the daily decisions you make when life is normal.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: And in the trial, your core is revealed, it's not formed.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: The core is is made long before you get to the trial.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: So you don't wait till you get to a rough season in life.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you lose your job, maybe you lose someone close to you, maybe you're just going through a tough spot in life, or maybe you're younger and you're just school is kicking your butt.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you don't wait till those moments to start praying and seeking the Lord.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: That should already be part of who you are before you reach those trials.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: So that's a good distinction to make.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_04: It's a great point you brought up because Pastor Jared he also brought up something similar to that.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_04: He said, if you're always only running to God, whenever you're in the storm, he's just gonna keep you in the storm until you realize until you realize that's the only way he could get to you.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_05: Like, what's going on, bro?
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: God, what is happening?
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_05: He's like, at least you're talking.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: I mean I really like how um how a point that he brought up in his message, it ties along perfectly with what we've been talking about in James.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's almost like this is all kind of fitting together in a way.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh kind of feel like that might be God.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, maybe might just be me.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: But um Pastor Drett, he brings up the idea that we have talked about in James at least like once every single week at this point.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's that what's in your core is gonna be visible on the outside.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, if you've been listening, like again, if you've been listening to us, if you're a real fan, you're not a stranger to that concept.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: James has talked about it a lot in his book in the Bible.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, the same idea again that what's in your core, it when it's really in there, it's gonna become visible on the outside.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: And not because you're like we talked about, I think, like just two weeks ago, not because you're forcibly trying to make it so where others can see it's just gonna be that's just that's hanging out because that's who you are, because that's in your core.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: So again, um don't go help someone just because you want to be seen as someone that helps people.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: When this stuff is at your core, you're just gonna be helping someone.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_05: I like what you said about that because James talks about um, you know, selfishness a lot.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_05: And if that's what you've always built yourself up on is yourself, when times get tough, the only thing that's gonna be showing through you is how selfish you are, you know?
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, if your core is built on Jesus, the only thing that's gonna be showing through you when times are tough is Jesus.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_05: So I like what you're saying about that is the tie from James to that.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_05: What will show when the times are tough is what's in you, what your core is.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's again whatever's whatever's taking root in you internally, that fruit's gonna show externally.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um your faith is gonna be visible through your works.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, wisdom is gonna be visible through the fruits it produces.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: We talked about that.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm getting all the James we've done mixed up either last week or the week before.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then your heart is gonna be visible through your speech.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: That's yeah, it's pretty much that simple.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then he uh moving on from that point, he I definitely want to hit on the the five things that must stay at the core that he brought up because that's right.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, he gave us these five things.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't even have to look and figuring out from the message, so these are important.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: He just gave them to us.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: So um he started with to know and love God.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um and that one is pretty simple and know who God is and love him with everything.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it doesn't really need much more elaboration than that.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's just you know that God, he's one God, one Lord, he's your God, and you love him, he's at the center of your life.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's that's the first part of the core.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: It all starts there.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: If you don't have that, you there's no reason you should really have the other four.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, you need to make sure you undoubtedly know who he is too, like with without a doubt, have no falter in your mind of who he is to you and what he is point blank, period.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like when someone asks you who God is, your answer shouldn't be uh like some man in the sky, I think.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like, no, like know it for yourself.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like, like that's my Lord, that's my savior.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: He died for me, he died for you, he died for all of us.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um so you should know him, and part of knowing him, you know, is having a relationship, uh and just loving him with everything because everything else that we're about to talk about stems from loving God with everything and having uh him at the center.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: And the second point he brings up is the word.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um I feel like it's just common sense a couple to use like whenever anyone asks, what should I do more of, or what should I have in my core, or anything like that.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's pray, read your Bible, have a relationship with God, but that's because that's what it is.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: You could say it all these different ways you want, but yeah, it's again you have to keep on saying it that you have to be in the word.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and I like the uh another point he added on to you need to know the word is that out of knowing the word and growing your relationship with God from the word, it'll also bring biblical convictions and help shape your life to be that that vessel God needs, you know?
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_05: That's right.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_05: It'll help build you.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because and that's what starts happening when you get it in your core.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that's what that's what he was really harping on.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: That's why it's a part of being in your core, because it's not just reading the word, it's having the word ingrained in your heart.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and like you just said, when you start doing that, and that word's in your heart, you're gonna start showing those uh biblical qualities and and wisdom and stuff.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's just gonna it's gonna start happening.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: That's how it works, it's gonna change you from the uh from the inside out.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so um it'd probably help a bit if you have that in you before you reach the trials.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_04: So and then another part about you know having the word and making sure that you're partaking on your own time is kind of something he hit on, and that it's not the pastor's job to grow your relationship with God.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's his job to obviously be the shepherd of of you know of the church, yeah, and to bring the word that God has for that time and for that season of the church.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_04: But if we're not in the word, then we're not growing, like you said, with personal convictions and with truly letting that sink in our heart.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_04: Because I think I don't remember if it was a week or two ago, but we talked about a scripture where it said if you have the word basically inside of you, then whenever trials come, the word will will fight that for you.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_04: You know, you know that that will come forth as a prayer or as a an answered promise to that situation.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, definitely.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um gotta have the word inside.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_04: It's you can't just be you can't just look for handouts, yeah.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like definitely it helps, obviously, when you're going through a trial and then you look up verses about what's going on in that like say you're you just lost someone and you look up verses that help with grief.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: 100% do that, that helps.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: But say you're going through a trial uh part time in life, and you already have a word in you and it's ingrained in you, yeah, dude.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like Luke just said, it's already fighting for you.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like right.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: Holy moly, dude.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like we got it.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, you wanna let that word be engraved in you.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then um his third, uh, the third core part of the core that he brought up is apostolic truth, and very important.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the major distinction that he brought up is that doctrine isn't something that we redefine when culture changes.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: The same doctrine they had back in Acts 238, back in the New Testament, that uh back in the Bible, you know, that that same doctrine didn't change just because we live in America now, and America wasn't in the Bible.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: Right um, I don't know if you have overseas listeners, but wherever you live, just because that country may not have existed back then in the Bible or the culture has changed so much from back when this doctrine was laid down.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: Doctrine is still doctrine, yeah.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that just that doesn't change, and you have to know that within your heart because if you put more emphasis on the culture around you, you can start kind of questioning the doctrine.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, being uh you should never be in a spot where you're trying to fit your doctrine into the culture, it should kind of be opposite.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, try to fit the culture into the into the doctrine because the doctrine's there, right?
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so you never want to compromise that.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's pretty much all you can really say on that.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: That know the doctrine, know it in your heart, and that's a part of knowing your word and having it ingrained.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: Have that doctrine ingrained in you.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um shouldn't be wishy-washy.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: And then um the fourth core, um, it won't be a surprise, prayer.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_01: That goes along with the word.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I feel like we've already talked about it enough on this podcast, like just this episode, like we've talked about prayer so much already that you pray when life is good, you pray when life is bad, you pray when nothing's going on, you just pray.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it has to become a part of your daily relationship with God.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_01: That's how you talk to him.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_05: To add on to that though, I would like to say that prayer isn't just for yourself, though.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, because your prayer life needs to be strong so you can have a relationship with God, yes.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_05: But it needs to be strong because your prayer can change others' lives, not just yours.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_05: When you pray over somebody, like if you were at Pulse, Nathan prayed over Emory when she had celiac and now she doesn't have celiac, like your prayer can change more than just your life, it can change others, and that's why it needs to be such a strong part of your core because it doesn't just benefit you, it benefits others.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because if you haven't caught on by reading the Bible by now, that it Christianity isn't an I sport, it's a it's a team sport.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, we're kind of doing this for everyone else.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, that's very good, Ramsay.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_04: That um that's true.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_04: And then with with prayer and the word combined, it almost in a sense opens your spiritual eyes to more things like that, like praying for others and seeing the impact that it truly can have, or even on a higher level, operating in the gifts of the spirit.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_04: You know, once you're you're growing and you're you're leveling up in those seasons of life.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, leveling up.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I feel like uh long story short, that if you have prayer at the core, circumstances isn't gonna change whether you pray, it's just gonna change what you pray about.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so prayer is there no matter what's going on.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_01: Then the final uh part of the core he brought up was the house of God.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: And um that's um that's interesting because now that he talked about it, I have seen like certain people like on like online that they'll be like, Yeah, you don't actually need to to go to church.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like your relationship's about you and God, and the church is in a building that you go to, and it's like I know, like, yeah, do you have to go to church, dude?
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's not just what the church is for.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like, Christianity is not just me and God, it's me, God, and the people of God.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I have to be connected to those people.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: I can't just be a lone wolf alpha sigma or whatever and do my own thing.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, yeah, it's the body of Christ.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm I'm a part of this, like we're all a we're all a family.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, um, that's just like the scripture that says, what does the hand say or something like that?
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_04: It's like different body parts saying no to each other, like teaching out you.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: And like uh like ARC was just saying, you you strengthen others by being a part of the body and they strengthen you.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's there's really no like there's no benefit to going out on your own.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um even if that's what God was like, yeah, that's that's chill if you like go and don't be a part of the the church or whatever, even if that was the case, there's still no benefit.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you strengthen others by being in the body and they strengthen you.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to have that connection.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, because the church not only does it give wisdom like from the pastor side, just going there weekly gives discipline from just going there weekly to your life structure as well.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_05: But it also, if you don't have that community around you, maybe this is a new area, it gives you that community, those friends, that family, that found family that you can get from the church that all believe the same thing you do.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_05: Or it could also give you that from those people the strength you need in moments where you're struggling, where you're weak.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_05: It'll give you that that strength, that encouragement that you just can't give yourself.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_01: That um like that, you you you get stuff from them when you when you're going through a tough time.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's yeah, that that's good to have.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_01: And then on top of that, you strengthen them, they strengthen you.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_01: You guys you sharpen each other, you're surrounded by people with like-minded faith.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_01: And like you said, Ramsey, your pastor.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you need that spiritual counsel in your life, you need someone that has you know anointing from God to speak in you like that.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's just it's non-negotiable.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, and if you don't want to believe me, it's it's in the Bible.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so um, so yeah, just fellowship, accountability, teaching, all that.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, we need it.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_01: And he was gonna say we aren't meant to do it alone.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_04: No, that's very true.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_04: And then he kind of went with that same, that last point, the house of God and the you know, the unity of the body into his last point of passing it to the next generation.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_04: You know, if we're not listening to not only the pastor, but the elders of the church and those that have gone through many trials and many things that we haven't experienced yet, but we will possibly in the future, yeah, then how are we gonna know how to deal with them?
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_04: How are we not gonna have how are we gonna know how to endure those things, even whenever it may be tough, even if we do have a strong core, you need that, yeah, you need that help, that advice, that uh counsel.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I like um, I like the idea of passing it on because um it ties into uh Ramsay, you had mentioned it earlier that um to to pour into others, you didn't say it exactly like this, but it this is the point to pour into others, you have to have it in you first.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um that's good.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_01: I think what Pastor Jared said is to help align others with God, you first have to be aligned.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_01: So before you can pour into the next generation or just try to reach out to people and pour into them and help them, you have to have it set in you first.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that's gonna be the most effective way you can help people is by having it all together in yourself first.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um so yeah, um as us on this podcast, we we've we've had talks um before.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, wow, I said that like that's reprim reprimanding.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_01: No, but we've we've sat down and we've we've discussed that if we're gonna be talking this stuff, we can't just be saying it to say it.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like if I come up here and I'm talking about God tells us not to gossip, and Proverbs says that gossiping is for a fool, and then I leave the podcast room and go to church on Wednesday, and I'm talking about uh some lady in the church, then what's the point?
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm not living with the wheel.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'd be a hypocrite.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um but that's besides the point.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'm saying that to say that if you're gonna help others and try to reach others, you have to have it in you first.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_01: You you have to be aligned first.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_01: Pastor Jared said it perfectly.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and just to add one more thing onto that, this is gonna sound really harsh and not to put it all on you, but you we almost can't afford to have a weak core in this world, you know.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_05: Like we in order to reach people, like you were saying, we need a strong core.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_05: The Bible calls us to reach people, and if we can't reach them without a strong core, then we can't we can't afford to be slacking and be lazy and have a weak core.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_05: God doesn't call us to be comfortable, he calls us to be uncomfortable.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_05: So we always have to be building that core so we can be reaching those people that need need to hear Jesus.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_01: I know I love that.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'd argue that that now more than ever, we cannot afford to have a weak core because this world, um, especially if you live in America, dude, this this world is designed to grab your attention.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_01: So if you haven't set in you that my attention is gonna be on God and you're just kind of going through, and you know, like you said, Ramsey, you pray at the end of the day if you feel like it, if that's kind of your mentality, dude.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_01: So many things are gonna grab your attention, yeah.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_01: Whether it be like we've said, reels, um, politics, um, random wars going on everywhere around the world that we have access to because we have a phone, all this stuff.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, if you don't have a strong core, it is so easy to get pulled in so many different directions.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, and just be distracted.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_01: And um, before we um we make the bridge on to James, because I know we're we're excited.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um one of you had mentioned it already that um Luke's younger brother, Nathan, he he spoke to us at our youth service at Point Church.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I feel like what he he said, it kind of goes along with what we've been hearing, what we've been talking about.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: So um I just wanted to bring it up.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_01: He brought up the the concept of creating space for God in your life so that when God speaks, you can hear it.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like he must have gone and talked to Pastor Jared or something because that aligns like perfectly that if you are if you have that core, um, and if you're setting out space for God, you're gonna hear him.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_01: But like we just talked about, you know, with all this stuff going on, um all this noise, all this, all these distractions that we have to be adamant, like um Nathan had said that God is at my center and that I am gonna carve out space to hear him because God he'll often speak in just a a tiny quiet voice.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so um great message.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Nathan.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_01: Just a good job.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_01: It really goes along with what we've been talking about distractions.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_01: Keep the distractions at bake.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um realize all the distractions in your life and how easy it is to be distracted and make room for God.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_05: Um but yeah, that that's that's um yeah, build your core to be a life centered around Jesus to last.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_05: Amen, sister.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, um, good job, Nathan.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_01: Great message.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_01: We really need to hear it.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um all of it.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_01: All right, so last week we finished up James chapter three.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_01: So let's go right in.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_01: Today we'll be going over um James four, verses one through ten.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_01: So let's get right into it.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_04: Let's see, we got verse one.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_04: What is causing the quarrels and fights among you?
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_04: Don't they come from the evil desires at war within you?
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_04: Verse two, you want what you don't have, so you scheme and kill to get it.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_04: You are jealous of what others have, but you can't get it.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_04: So you fight and wage war to take it away from them.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yet you don't have what you want because you don't ask God for it.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_01: I love how he um he immediately pulls it inward.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_01: He um he just immediately asks you to look and see within yourself where those quarrels and fights actually coming from.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_01: He immediately points it within because that's where it all stems from.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's the same idea that what's going on inside is gonna reflect on the outside.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_01: So you have a bunch of fighting desires and quarrels and you things not set in place.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you're probably gonna be more quarrelsome and fighting on the outside to people you meet out in the world or your your boss, your co-workers, people you go to school, people in your church, um, your family.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um so yeah, just really good uh call to look inward.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and it I it it keeps going in verse three says, and even when you ask, you don't get it because your motives are all wrong.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_05: You want only what will give you pleasure.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_05: And he, without saying the word selfish, is calling you selfish.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah if your motives are all wrong while you're praying and you're only asking for yourself, kind of like how in the message I was saying from the message, the thing I was saying was that prayer is more for than just yourself.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_05: If you're only praying about yourself and your own desires and your own wants, you're doing it all wrong.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_05: All your motives are all wrong.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_05: That's not what the point of prayer is.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_05: That's right.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it's just it's really um I mean, he's basically talking about envy here.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_01: Like you want something.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_01: He he says it plain as day, you want something, you don't have it.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_01: So that starts affecting how you view the person that has it, and that leads to quarrel.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_01: And that didn't start because that person did something to you, that started because inside you felt envious.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that that pattern is not just for envy that that can go for any type of quarrel, any type of problem.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna start within.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, so we gotta wrangle that in.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_01: We have to make sure that any desire that's coming from from within us is coming from God, yeah, and not just us.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, if our fundamentals aren't locked in, like we've been talking about for the entire time, and then our focus is off.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_04: And if it's if our focus is off, then we're focusing on things like this, like others and their journey and the what they're focusing on.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_04: And all in the while, we're like, oh, I want that, I want that.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_04: Whereas what we are supposed to be focusing on is in a different direction and we're just we're too focused on the things around us.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's a that's a really good point.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_01: I like how you put that.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_01: That um, yeah, because if our focus, if our main focus is on God and that has all of our attention, we're not gonna be getting envious over our brother or sister fighting.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_01: But if you're but yeah, if you're if your attention is on all this other stuff, yeah, that's how that happens because your desire inside is not locked in on the right thing.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_05: Um the cliche you always want what you can't have.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because um, if you're not focused on the main thing being the main thing, um, spoiler alert, that main thing is God.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_01: And you might start getting envious, and you saying, I want this might start becoming I deserve this.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so now you're like, why do they have it and I don't?
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so now you can question them and question God.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_01: God, why do I not have this?
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_01: God, why do they have this?
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_01: What did you do to deserve that?
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_01: And now you're fighting this whole battle in yourself that eventually is probably gonna spill out to the other person.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_01: All because you let your focus drop a bit.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_05: And you'll end up hating them and for no reason.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, yeah, so many different and you we can't hate, we know that, but then the emotions and the um desires are so strong that you'll find yourself hating somebody who never did anything to you.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_05: And that'll just dig you such a deep hole that you can never get out of, or it'll be hard to get out of.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_04: That's right.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_04: And then even if if it's like not that serious in your life, and like it's just something that you looked over at and you're like, Oh, okay, but I'm still wondering about that.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I may be on the right course, but I still wonder about that.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_04: Well, he says, You don't have it because you don't ask.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and he doesn't say after that, he didn't even say that, oh, God will give it to you whatever you ask for it.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_04: He says, You just have to ask, and then you have to wait for the answer.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_04: You know, if as long as you're speaking with God or at least you're in communication with him about the subject, you're gonna get an answer.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_04: And if you get the the answer you don't want, which is like that's not for you, that's not for the season for you, refocus.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_04: You have to be okay with that.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_04: And you're at least gonna have an answer to go off of.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_04: You're not gonna, you know, if you get that answer and you're disobedient, that's on you from then on.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_04: He basically, you know, of asking God and seeking for an answer.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, then um, I like how immediately in verse three, from that point, um and even when you ask, you don't get it because your motives are all wrong.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_01: So now he's like making you look inward again, calling you out.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um you want only what will give you pleasure.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um that can be a tough pillow to swallow, but we've talked about this concept before.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we're praying for something and it's not really something God wants in our life, it's just something we want.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like for a surface level example, if I'm praying really bad because I want a Bugatti, that desire is probably not from God.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's just something I want.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and if I'm not using some expensive cars an example, we we can do that.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_01: We can we can pray for things that we don't really need, or maybe we feel we need, um, maybe it's even something spiritual.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's just not for us in this season, or just God doesn't have for us in our walk.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_05: And it's not necessarily wrong to want things, it's just it becomes the problem when your wants start trumping God's wants for you in your life, and when you let your wants be what has the the final say in the end of it.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I feel like there's there's no greater example than Jesus Himself praying in the Garden of Gethsemane.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he didn't he straight up said it when he was praying.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_01: He was like, I don't want to do this.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like, if this cup of suffering can can pass from me, let it be so.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_01: That was his desire that he wanted that.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_01: He wanted to, he didn't want to, you know, go and get crucified.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_01: He wants that.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_04: And I I like your example there.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_04: I just want to mention something real quick.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_04: He mentions the flesh, he doesn't outright ignore it, he mentions it, but then he brings it back to the core, he brings it back to exactly where he knows he should be thinking and operating in.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, and that's where he's like, not my will, but your will.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, if there's anyone we should be modeling, it's Jesus.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so I like that.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, he talked about the flesh.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you didn't ignore it.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you shouldn't be afraid to bring that up to God.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like, model Jesus, be like, God, I really want this.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_01: But I think it's like like you said, Ramsay, you have to, you know, God's desire comes first.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_01: We shouldn't, we shouldn't feel like we should be guilty over having desires.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_01: God doesn't want that.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um we're we're made to desire things.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_01: We're all gonna have things we want.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_01: We're all made with certain desires.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_01: It makes us unique.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah, bring that to God.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_01: He wants that, he wants every little thing for you to pray about.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_01: He wants to know what you want um from your own mouth.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_01: But at the end of the day, it has to be your will, not mine, your will over mine.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_01: So so yeah, I like that.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, James is just highlighting that you have to pray with the right intentions.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_04: That's right.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_04: And then I wanted to add also that if you bring it up, then you're you're not keeping it inside and letting jealousy build and build and build.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_04: It's out in the open and you've spoken to God about it.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and you reveal what's on your heart, and it's no longer a thing that builds in there as long as it's in the open.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it'll probably fade over time, actually.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_04: Right, right.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_01: That's very practical advice to don't feel like you have to hide your desires like that from God.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, if you go up to Jod, Jod, who is that, bro?
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_05: Oh no, but I like it.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_01: If you go to if you go to God in your prayer time and you're like, I I'm just I feel like I'm really getting jealous over what my friend has.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_01: God's not gonna be like, you fool! What is wrong with you?
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_01: Shame.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_01: No, like he wants you to talk about it to him because, like you just said, that's that's putting it out there.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's giving even the the parts of you that you know um maybe aren't completely in line with God.
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_01: That's offering it up to him.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's how you deal with that.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_01: You don't keep it inside and somehow fight your way through it and fix it and then give it to God.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_01: You just give yourself to God.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_01: Take captive every thought, you know.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_05: Last thing to wrap that up real quick is that's another way of being selfish, just thinking that you can handle it on your own and not give it to God.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_01: Because we are not all that, bro.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, God, like he couldn't have made it more clear in the Bible that we're pretty weak.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, our flesh is weak.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_01: We need God um all be all.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_01: So we ain't all that.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_01: You gotta give it to God.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_01: You aren't strong enough.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not strong enough.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_01: None of us are strong enough.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_01: Pastor Jared isn't strong enough to do it on his own.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, so yeah, absolutely.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um who wants to read that that verse four right there?
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm kind of liking uh Luke's narration voice.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, he starts off with you adulterers.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_04: Like that's what we get.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my okay.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_04: Don't you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God?
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_04: I say it again.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_04: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_05: Wow.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_01: All right, so quick disclaimer He's not saying here that we've all cheated on our spouses.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um you can't really do that in my case if you don't have a spouse, so he's not saying that to me.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um but but it's the idea that he's he's saying that to get your attention.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like this is how serious it is.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_01: That if you are so entrapped with the world, I'm looking for a word, I don't think that's the word, but if you're so uh enamored by the world, if you're so um tied to the world that you start modeling it, then you're cheating on God.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's there's no better way to say it.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_01: That's why he's using the word adulterers.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_01: And um when I first read verse four, when when he says, Don't you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God?
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to know what he was really meaning by friendship.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because when I'm thinking friendship, I'm thinking me and my personal friends, like my good friend Logan, my good friend Tanner.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm thinking like that.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I really looked into the the meaning, and the the uh friend word that he's using here comes from the Greek word philia, which just loosely means affection, attachment, association, friendly allegiance.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um all that to say that James here, he's not saying, like when he's saying being a friend of the world, he's in no way saying that if you go out and be friendly with a person in the world, that you are like cheating on God.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_01: We we needed to like hit that.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_01: That absolutely not.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus ate with sinners.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um kind of the whole point is to reach out to sinners, you know, love them just like we love each other, just like we love, um, just like we love, you know, you gotta love people.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah, out of the way a hundred percent.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, it's not about the individual people.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_01: And yes, another disclaimer, yes, we have boundaries.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, um, don't go be best friends with a witch, like have a boundary.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_01: But he's not saying again, like, if you go and eat lunch with someone that lives in the world and talk to them and just hang out with them, you're not cheating on God.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_01: That he's not saying to not go do that.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, right.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_01: What he's really saying is is you becoming so attached to the world, to its values, its desires, its priorities.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_01: If that starts shaping who you are because you're so attached to that, then yeah, you're you're starting to become an adulterer to God because he's not the number one main thing.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, like if you start chasing fame, success, money, um, entertainment, if those things start becoming the things that you think about every day, that that you're chasing, that's your no your number one goal goals are things that aren't gonna matter when you pass on, then you're starting to become attached to this world.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what he's that's what he's really hitting at here, that if you're becoming, I'll I'll use friends, friends in the way that that you're buddy buddy with the world's desires, and those desires are now your desires.
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you have a good friend, um, you guys are gonna share things.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_01: So if you are friends with the world, you're gonna share similarities with the world and with the mindset of the world.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_01: So if if you're there, that's where you don't want to be.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_01: So that's what he's hitting at.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I just wanted to hit that definitely because when I first read it, I'm just like, is he telling me to not like talk to people in the world?
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_03: No, yeah.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like, no, that would mean Jesus himself was being a contradiction because he went out and hung out with sinners.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_04: I even thought about that word that he used friendship.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_04: Friendship we always think of as a positive, a good thing.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, like this person's gonna grow me in my life.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_04: But I thought about another way that a friendship could be good, but can lead to uh I guess cheating on God with the world.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_04: So let's say you have a friend who's a business partner or who's like very strong in the business, and you guys grow really close.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_04: Well, both of y'all's cores are not gonna be, if they're not aligned, then his core values, if they're stronger than yours, then they could pull you away from what your true core is.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_04: And if you're if your cores in your friendships or in your relationships are not co-aligned, it could definitely pull you away from what is of peak importance in your life and where you should be growing and striving for things.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's um because if you if you start getting in in that type of scenario where you're kind of letting your core values be pushed to the side and maybe overwritten in a way, or maybe just pushing them down a bit, um, it gets to the point where you're gonna start learning what to love and what where your values come inside, you're gonna stop learning um from God and from the word, and they're gonna stop coming from that, right?
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_01: And they're gonna start coming from the world because you're influenced by something.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um and what we should be influenced by is God, by his word, um, by his spirit.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_01: But if we are so uh buddy buddy, if we're friends with the world, if that's where we're spending all of our time, we're gonna start learning from that.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna start getting desires from that, we're gonna start learning what we think we want from that, what we think we need from that, where we see our future from that.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_01: And it's gonna stop aligning with with God, the things of God with us plan for your life, and it's gonna be and it's gonna become what do I want?
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_01: What's gonna make me happy?
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_01: What's the best for me?
• 54:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um stuff, what does success look like for me?
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 54:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um so yeah, just right true.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_05: I think that's why that in the message, one of the points was the community of the church.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_05: That's why one of the core values needs to be the community of the church, so that the people you surround yourself with absolutely aren't well, okay.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_05: The people that you surround yourself with the most aren't people who are contradicting to what your core values are.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_05: There's someone that supports and builds those core values up and not just questions them.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you have co-aligned cores.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_01: So definitely you got to make sure that you are loyal to God and and not the world, because again, he's using adultery to show how important that is.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_01: That you may not be cheating on your spouse, but you are committing spiritual adultery.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's just important because it's about loyalty.
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's not just, oh, I I spent a little bit of time out on my own and I picked up a few habits from from the world.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_01: I I think I know it's best for me.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's not it's not something so casual.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_01: It really is that important that if you are being influenced by the world and your desires are and what's inside of you is, then you're being disloyal to God.
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_01: That that's how He sees it.
• 56:05
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 56:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's how you should see it.
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_01: It shouldn't, it shouldn't be something that you know you just casually do.
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it shouldn't be something light.
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's either I'm completely aligned with God or I'm not.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_01: And if I start to catch myself slipping, that means something.
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like I have to stop everything and be like, what's happening?
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, take a step back.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_05: And I always think it's kind of funny how James always re-emphasizes things, like how in verse uh what was it?
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_05: It was when he said, and I say it again, it was just through one through four.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_05: But then here in verse five, he says, Do you think that the scriptures have no meaning?
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_05: They say that God is passionate that the spirit, that the spirit has that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him.
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_05: And he gives grace generously in the scripture as the scriptures say.
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_05: Well, okay, we'll stop there, but God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_05: If we call ourselves Christians, which are people who believe in Christ and we have the spirit of Christ within us, we should be faithful to him.
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_05: And another way of us being hypocritical, like you were saying earlier, Hudson, is that we aren't faithful to him and that we do become friends with the world over him, and the world's desires trump God's desires for our life.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_04: It can make us blunt or um what what is it, numb to the spirit.
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_04: And like we can we can absolutely ignore, or maybe not ignore, but put them on the back burner to the other things that we're involved in or focused on at the time.
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_05: That's dangerous when you become numb to the spirit, but that's right.
• 57:33
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, that's a different whole different conversation.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_01: Not really, because it's it fits with the whole, yeah.
• 57:38
  SPEAKER_01: You start slowly drifting and you're gonna become numb.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_01: But um, but continuing with uh verse six, um, and he and he gives grace generously.
• 57:48
  SPEAKER_01: As the scriptures say, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_01: Seven, so humble yourselves before God, resist the devil, and he will he will flee from you.
• 57:58
  SPEAKER_01: Eight, come close to God, and God will come close to you.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_01: Wash your hands, you sinners, purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_01: So literally what we just talked about, divided loyalty.
• 58:09
  SPEAKER_01: So he's laying out the problem now and in plain, plain text, divided loyalty.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um just in case, you know, we were reading this with blinders on and we didn't catch catch his drift until now, he's he's showing, you know, divided loyalty.
• 58:24
  SPEAKER_01: So what's the what's the solution to that that he's laying out?
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's grace, you know.
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_01: He he goes through all of this, um, divided loyalty, being jealous, having things off on the inside of you that lead to quarrel, all this stuff.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_01: And then he ties it back to grace.
• 58:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um that that's what it all comes back to.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_01: That again, it's not our power.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_01: We're not gonna be able to go to some on some self-improvement journey and read some self-help books that are gonna fix everything.
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's just not.
• 58:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's it's God.
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so the answer is seeing God's grace and submitting to him, being humble.
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's why he throws in the um God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_01: We have to we have to be like, God, I can't do this on my own.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_01: God, I'm I I think I am getting jealous of something.
• 59:13
  SPEAKER_01: God, I I have been distracted, I have put you on the back burner, God, I see that.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I see I can't do this alone.
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_01: And that's humility.
• 59:23
  SPEAKER_01: You you you lay it down before him and you you accept the gift of grace that he's given you by submitting to him humbly.
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the answer.
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_01: That's what it's all coming back to.
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_01: That if any of this stuff is going on, that if you have divided loyalty, that if you've been distracted, that if you have problems of any kind going on in your heart, it goes back to grace.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 59:46
  SPEAKER_04: And I like the the framework that we're given through these couple of verses of how to go about seeking grace.
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's obviously the whole entire you know, word you could put on it is humbling yourself, of course.
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_04: But then within verse 8, he says, he kind of gives you a step-by-step almost.
• 1:00:02
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, wash your hands, you sinners, purify your hearts.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_04: And you I was thinking about it, I was like, well, purify your hearts and wash your hands.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_04: Those seem like the same thing.
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_04: But then I read it again, I was like, wait, wash your hands.
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_04: If you think about it, Pilate washed his hands of Jesus' blood.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_04: So we must first decide that we're not going to be a part of this anymore.
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_04: We're not going to keep our hands bloody or even have any say or any matter in this that we're doing wrong in.
• 1:00:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:00:32
  SPEAKER_04: And then he calls us out, you're still a sinner, even though you've put off those ways or you've chosen not to keep going down that route, you still must be purified in heart.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:00:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I really like that example of the heart and the hands, because one's the inside and one's the outside.
• 1:00:49
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like you just said, cleansing your hands that can be seen as say I have dirt on my hands because the sin was dirty.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_01: What I was doing on the outside was dirty.
• 1:00:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm washing that away because I don't want that on me anymore.
• 1:01:03
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 1:01:04
  SPEAKER_01: And then on the inside, my heart's being purified.
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_01: So he's he's using that um symbolism to show outside and inside.
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um they're both related.
• 1:01:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like we've been talking about literally like this entire season that outside and inside are connected.
• 1:01:20
  SPEAKER_01: They're basically the same thing in a way, because what's on the outside is coming from the inside.
• 1:01:25
  SPEAKER_01: So he's saying, wash your hands, that's on the outside, and then on the inside, purify your hearts.
• 1:01:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 1:01:30
  SPEAKER_01: Because both have to be correct.
• 1:01:32
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 1:01:34
  SPEAKER_05: Love how you put that, Luke.
• 1:01:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_01: Good job, Luke.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_01: Podcast uh plus respect to you.
• 1:01:40
  SPEAKER_04: Extra points.
• 1:01:42
  SPEAKER_04: We got verse nine.
• 1:01:43
  SPEAKER_04: Let there be tears for what you have done.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_04: Let there be sorrow and deep grief.
• 1:01:48
  SPEAKER_04: Let there be sadness instead of laughter and gloom instead of joy.
• 1:01:52
  SPEAKER_04: Verse 10.
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_04: Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_05: He ain't playing no games.
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_05: He is so straightforward with this.
• 1:02:01
  SPEAKER_05: It's crazy.
• 1:02:02
  SPEAKER_01: I really like the um kind of just the tie back to the beginning of this chapter.
• 1:02:08
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that the this chapter, it opens up with people grasping and and an imagery of fighting for what you want and and all this stuff.
• 1:02:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then it ends with James telling them, or at least these verses end with him saying, you know, stop trying to elevate yourself.
• 1:02:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:02:28
  SPEAKER_01: Stop trying to do all this stuff, stop trying to do this all on your own.
• 1:02:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um just humble yourself.
• 1:02:35
  SPEAKER_01: And that's really back to the core that we don't have to do this.
• 1:02:38
  SPEAKER_01: We don't have to lift ourselves up.
• 1:02:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:02:40
  SPEAKER_01: Again, it's you trust God to do that.
• 1:02:42
  SPEAKER_01: And what does it say?
• 1:02:43
  SPEAKER_01: It said, He will lift you up in honor.
• 1:02:46
  SPEAKER_05: I think it's kind of important to see that in these last few verses from well, all of James, but in these last few verses, it stands out that God's not asking for you to come perfect.
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_05: He's asking you for you to come as you are.
• 1:02:59
  SPEAKER_05: He says, Come close to God and God will come close to you.
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_05: Humble yourself before the Lord and He will lift you up in honor.
• 1:03:04
  SPEAKER_05: If you just come, if you just take that first step towards Him, to walk towards Him, to you, you wash your hands, you take yourself physically out of that rule of sin, and you purify your hearts and you go to Him.
• 1:03:15
  SPEAKER_05: That is all He's asking of you.
• 1:03:16
  SPEAKER_05: He's not asking for you to make yourself pretty and make yourself clean and make yourself perfect before you go to Him.
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_05: That's His job.
• 1:03:22
  SPEAKER_05: He's asking you to grieve and of your sins and then go to Him and He will help you out of that.
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_01: I like that.
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_01: You said that perfectly.
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's I think you said it better than what I was trying to say.
• 1:03:32
  SPEAKER_01: I think I was trying to say more in line with what you just said that you know, the act of washing your hands, that's getting out of that sin.
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that's walking away from it.
• 1:03:40
  SPEAKER_01: But it doesn't end there because if you just walk away, you may walk back the next day.
• 1:03:44
  SPEAKER_01: So it's walking away, you know, um, washing your hands with quotation marks of whatever that sin is.
• 1:03:50
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe it's a habit, maybe a way of life, maybe a belief, um, or just anything, washing your hands of that sin and then from within, like you just said, it's letting go of the sin and then letting that change happen on the inside so you don't go back to it.
• 1:04:05
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, that's um like how you put that because that's I think that's more in line with what I was trying to hit at with that.
• 1:04:11
  SPEAKER_04: That's right.
• 1:04:11
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, the process of recentering on God should be very, you know, purposeful, meaningful, right, right, tactful with whenever you do it to prevent loss of focus in the future.
• 1:04:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:04:22
  SPEAKER_04: Because if if it's like a moment and you you make a big deal about that and you truly mean it in your heart, you're not going to forget that moment.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_04: And it's gonna make an impact on your future decisions and just how you live your life, you know.
• 1:04:35
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 1:04:36
  SPEAKER_05: It's a very powerful uh section of scriptures.
• 1:04:39
  SPEAKER_05: All of James is really he's cooking, bro.
• 1:04:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he is.
• 1:04:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'm excited to get into more.
• 1:04:45
  SPEAKER_04: It even ties back to to like the message.
• 1:04:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:04:48
  SPEAKER_04: It's like our Bethel moment is not that's not it.
• 1:04:52
  SPEAKER_04: It's very important.
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_04: We have to make sure that we experience it and we and we use it the right way.
• 1:04:58
  SPEAKER_04: We build off of it, like Jacob did, and we learn from it.
• 1:05:01
  SPEAKER_04: We let we let it change us and the people around us.
• 1:05:05
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, like Pastor Jared in the message said, you know, we should be affecting others through our our moment.
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:05:12
  SPEAKER_04: By living our moment out.
• 1:05:14
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, um, I'm I was really excited to uh to have the the um I'm LARPing so hard, the the series, the um built out of the series.
• 1:05:24
  SPEAKER_01: Do I even go to this church?
• 1:05:25
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I was um I was really excited that he picked back up on that again.
• 1:05:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's a really good one.
• 1:05:30
  SPEAKER_01: Really good series.
• 1:05:31
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, if I had to summarize what we talked about in the in the message today, just have a have a core, realize what's going on around you that we live in a society that's trying to, you know, have you distracted in all these different ways.
• 1:05:46
  SPEAKER_01: Just analyze and see what's inside.
• 1:05:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I'm gonna I'm gonna issue a uh a challenge that that will be pretty difficult because I've done it myself before and it was difficult.
• 1:05:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's um really in theme of what we've talked about with you know losing focus and and stuff.
• 1:06:06
  SPEAKER_01: Just just look back over your life over the past year, maybe a year or two, and see if you can pinpoint any areas of maybe habits you have now or things you're doing now that two years ago spiritually would have made you gasp.
• 1:06:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um is there something I'm doing now?
• 1:06:25
  SPEAKER_01: Is there time that I've given away from God to other things that a year ago I wouldn't have even imagined doing?
• 1:06:32
  SPEAKER_01: Have I let something slip?
• 1:06:33
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I'm trying to hit.
• 1:06:34
  SPEAKER_05: I've never heard that one before.
• 1:06:35
  SPEAKER_05: That's good, that's very good.
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_01: Have I let something slip that I didn't realize it?
• 1:06:39
  SPEAKER_01: It just happened gradually.
• 1:06:40
  SPEAKER_01: But if I were to look back straight up a year from now and look at where I'm at or a year ago and look at where I'm at now, would that surprise me?
• 1:06:50
  SPEAKER_01: Have I given up something?
• 1:06:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's man, that's great.
• 1:06:52
  SPEAKER_01: Has something slipped?
• 1:06:54
  SPEAKER_01: And then for James, I mean, we talk about it so much.
• 1:06:58
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, like what 30 minutes and for 10 verses, I feel like I don't even need to go through it again.
• 1:07:05
  SPEAKER_01: But I mean, again, it comes back to grace.
• 1:07:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um we can't do this on our own, and that starts with submission to God, with humility, that what's on the inside is gonna show up on the outside.
• 1:07:19
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like we say the same thing every time, but yeah, but that starts with humility.
• 1:07:23
  SPEAKER_01: So, I mean, if you've if if you feel that you've lost sight of something, if you feel that maybe something isn't set right in you, um, we all have those moments.
• 1:07:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um just know that you don't have to be ashamed to bring that to God.
• 1:07:37
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 1:07:38
  SPEAKER_01: Just come to him and be like, I messed up.
• 1:07:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and talk to them about it.
• 1:07:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we can't help you.
• 1:07:45
  SPEAKER_01: God helped you.
• 1:07:45
  SPEAKER_01: So if anything, if you think we're all stupid after listening to this, um God is very much not stupid.
• 1:07:52
  SPEAKER_01: So get that from what we said.
• 1:07:54
  SPEAKER_01: Go to God with it and submit to him, and you'll find that it'll get better.
• 1:07:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:08:00
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening, guys.
• 1:08:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we love to come here and speak to you guys.
• 1:08:04
  SPEAKER_01: So so thank you.
• 1:08:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um make sure to be in tune for our episode next week.
• 1:08:07
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see you then.
• 1:08:09
  SPEAKER_04: Bye.
• 1:08:09
  SPEAKER_04: Bye.
• 1:08:10
  SPEAKER_01: Bye guys.