Latest / HAVE FAITH LET IT BEGIN® / Troubling Times Part 2: Wisdom in the Midst of Division

Transcript

Troubling Times Part 2: Wisdom in the Midst of Division · HAVE FAITH LET IT BEGIN®

• 0:44
  Hello, everyone, and welcome back to part two of Troubling Times.
• 0:48
  We're going to be talking a little bit more about recapping what happened yesterday.
• 0:53
  So it's not a really formal introduction because those of you that are here
• 0:57
  for part two, you're ready for it and we need your weight.
• 1:01
  So we don't want to make you go crazy. So what I want to do is I want to officially
• 1:05
  welcome back everyone to Have Faith, Let It Begin.
• 1:08
  Today, we continue our conversation with our good friend, Nick,
• 1:11
  who was here yesterday. and as we reflect once again on troubling times,
• 1:16
  not just in our world today, but how scripture speaks into them.
• 1:21
  And last time Nick was here, and I'll give him a chance to also give his own
• 1:24
  little recap. Nick reminded us that every generation has faced challenges.
• 1:29
  He gave us examples from the 60s, the 70s, 80s, and even today,
• 1:33
  and how so much of today's climate feels filled with anger and at times, and even division.
• 1:40
  We closed with a question he did. He wanted to know, how do we get better?
• 1:45
  And that's where today's scripture, today's episode, today's back and forth
• 1:51
  with Nick, you know, plays into fruition.
• 1:53
  Nick also provided us with scripture. It was from Luke seven,
• 1:57
  if I'm correct, Nick, chapter 31 through 35.
• 1:59
  So I'm going to read that back to us for everyone.
• 2:03
  My version is the NIV. I don't know what version you read from,
• 2:07
  but I'm sure it has some meaning.
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  To what then can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like?
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  They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other.
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  We played the pipe for you and you did not dance. We sang and did not cry.
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  For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine,
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  and you say he has a demon.
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  The Son of Man came eating and drinking,
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  and you say, here's his glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and
• 2:47
  sinners, but wisdom is provided right by all the children.
• 2:52
  And that's a passage that you read. I'm going to let Nick.
• 2:57
  We're going to go back and forth, so I'm going to let Nick speak to last,
• 3:00
  a little bit of reflection and comparison, and then I'll bring back what I said
• 3:06
  at the end of last episode, and we'll kind of go back and forth, Nick.
• 3:08
  So welcome back, and again, very powerful episode yesterday.
• 3:12
  Yes, thanks, Angel. And yeah, so I, again, would be very curious,
• 3:17
  and I hope that the Have Faith,
• 3:19
  Let It Begin audience would just give you their feedback on yesterday's podcast
• 3:25
  and what we're about to discuss today, because it would really be good to know
• 3:29
  what their feelings are as well.
• 3:31
  So, you know, Bible passages could be interpreted many ways.
• 3:37
  The way I interpret this is Luke talks about John the baptizer and what John was like.
• 3:50
  So he neither ate bread nor did he drink wine.
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  And they said he was mad. One extreme.
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  Okay, we'll now go to the other extreme.
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  The son of man came and he both ate and he drank and you say he is a glutton and a drunkard,
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  which way do you want it it's you know if you if you say one thing you're you
• 4:22
  you're you don't have it right if you go the opposite way so okay here i am
• 4:27
  doing this oh well we got problems with that to.
• 4:31
  To me, this kind of exactly epitomizes what's going on today.
• 4:37
  And I want to make it clear to everyone, my comments yesterday didn't espouse
• 4:44
  any particular type of political ideology.
• 4:49
  It was how, and you said it, Angel, it's how we as a civilized society deal with our problems.
• 4:58
  And it's on both sides of the fence, both sides, but he, here you go.
• 5:04
  What do you want to be like John the baptizer? He's no good.
• 5:08
  Okay. So we go to the son of man.
• 5:10
  This is what he's doing, which is the opposite of what John the baptizer was
• 5:13
  doing. He's, he's no good either.
• 5:16
  It's, you know, what, what pleases people? I don't know.
• 5:20
  And that's kind of part of the problem. I don't know if anybody knows what the heck they want.
• 5:26
  It's, it's tough too, because, you know, Now, when you talk about reflection
• 5:28
  and comparison, Nick, this scripture feels like it could have been written for today, doesn't it?
• 5:34
  I mean, Jesus is pointing out how people are never satisfied,
• 5:38
  always critical and often quick to condemn. Sounds familiar?
• 5:42
  Social media today. Hello. The news. Our neighborhoods. Absolutely.
• 5:47
  It's almost like no matter what is done, there's always division,
• 5:51
  always opposition, always anger.
• 5:53
  The way I looked at it too, John came one way, strict, devoted,
• 5:58
  living in the wilderness, and people rejected him.
• 6:02
  And Jesus came another way, sharing meals, engaging with everyday people,
• 6:06
  and people rejected him too, right?
• 6:09
  So the point is clear. People will find fault no matter what. Wouldn't you agree?
• 6:14
  Exactly. People will find fault no matter what. But it also kind of emphasized,
• 6:20
  I think, the contrast between different approaches of faith and how they are perceived by people.
• 6:27
  That's exactly what you just said.
• 6:29
  You know, it's no matter what you say, people are going to find the bad in it
• 6:36
  rather than to look at it and say, well, maybe there's some good in this.
• 6:43
  I don't think people look at the good in it anymore on what's going on.
• 6:47
  It's almost as if I think people are not happy unless they're unhappy.
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  I think people are never happy. I think, you know, if you try to please them,
• 6:59
  they're always going to find the bad in things.
• 7:03
  And you've hit it on some of the topics that you've discussed on your podcast about,
• 7:12
  things that are going on in your life and you've struggled with a lot of things
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  but you can look at it two ways you can either look at it as being,
• 7:23
  bad and impossible to deal with or you can look at the good thing there's a
• 7:30
  good thing in everything There's something good in everything.
• 7:33
  It's whether you choose to see it that way or not. Yeah, it's true.
• 7:38
  And just to add to that, it's exactly what we're experiencing, right?
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  So there's leaders that are criticized, whether it's they do too much,
• 7:48
  too little. Neighbors arguing over politics.
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  Families split over disagreements, hate, anger rising above because we look
• 7:57
  for reasons to be divided instead of finding ways to come together.
• 8:01
  There's a life lesson here, Nick. There's encouragement.
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  And Jesus reminds us, and of course, this is the half-faith version of me,
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  right? I'm going to bring scripture back into it and kind of tie it in.
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  But the encouragement for me is that Jesus reminds us that, and I love your
• 8:17
  input on this, is that wisdom is provided right by all the children.
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  In other words, truth will reveal itself in time.
• 8:27
  Our job isn't to win everything.
• 8:30
  It's not our job to win every argument or silence every critic.
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  Our job is to live faithfully, to live consistently, and to hold on to wisdom
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  because that's God's wisdom.
• 8:42
  And even when the world is shouting otherwise.
• 8:45
  Exactly. Exactly. And there's a way to do everything.
• 8:50
  It's all according to your mindset and how you want to reflect upon it.
• 8:55
  I mean, some of the points that are being brought across today,
• 9:00
  and not only just in our lives and, you know, with the people that we deal with,
• 9:05
  it's with, again, the people who have a modicum of power, who are our political leaders.
• 9:14
  The way they're expressing themselves is insightful.
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  It's incendiary. It's almost trying to rile you up rather than to go about it in a peaceful manner.
• 9:31
  There's always going to be disagreement.
• 9:33
  No matter, you can bring a subject up, there's always going to be a disagreement between two parties.
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  Every subject there is, there's going to be a disagreement. But you can sit
• 9:42
  down and you can talk calmly, respectfully about what those disagreements are.
• 9:49
  And at the end of the day, you may agree to disagree, but that's okay. That's okay.
• 9:56
  You know, and you and I work together and we've had, we've had great conversations.
• 10:00
  Some that we wish we would have probably hit the record button because it would
• 10:04
  have been great episodes.
• 10:05
  And that's how we came together here. Right. I mean, so I would think that when
• 10:09
  trembling times come and they will always, we always will, and they always will do that.
• 10:14
  We can choose to rise above the noise. We can choose to be patient.
• 10:17
  When others are impatient, we can choose to be kind when others are cruel.
• 10:24
  And most importantly, we can choose to reflect the love of Christ even when
• 10:29
  it's not popular, even when it's misunderstood.
• 10:33
  You know, I'll let you have the, the, the first part of the, you know, last words.
• 10:38
  And then, you know, we'll close out in, in, in maybe a last minute thing.
• 10:42
  And then, and then let everybody know there's going to be a part three,
• 10:46
  but the part three is not going to come right tomorrow.
• 10:49
  We're going to give you guys a couple of days. We want you to respond.
• 10:56
  We want you to give us some information so we can create a part three.
• 10:59
  And if you would like to be on the show and be with us, debate us,
• 11:05
  speak with us like adults can do, you are more than welcome. Nick, go ahead.
• 11:11
  Absolutely, Angel. And I invite your audience to, again, to reflect.
• 11:19
  And if you disagree, wonderful. Let's talk.
• 11:24
  Let's speak about it. But I want them to keep in mind that because they listen
• 11:30
  to this show, I want them to understand, and this is actually a slogan at the University of Texas,
• 11:39
  what starts here changes the world.
• 11:42
  If everyone could have a mindset and think about how Christ sees this,
• 11:50
  I mean, I'll be frank, I see Christ looking down at this with a tear in his eye.
• 11:57
  Look at what my creation is doing. This is not what I created.
• 12:05
  But we, as believers in Christ, and you said it before,
• 12:10
  one person at a time, if you just try to speak to people who have differing
• 12:17
  opinions or maybe who don't agree with you.
• 12:21
  You know, you just get them to at least understand it can be done better.
• 12:27
  And again, what starts here changes the world one person at a time.
• 12:32
  Absolutely. And I want to thank Nick for coming on again and joining us for
• 12:35
  bringing back, you know, his passage, his message.
• 12:40
  And to all of you listening, thank you for your patience and understanding when
• 12:43
  it comes to a kind of like a political and a very, very different style of have faith let it begin.
• 12:48
  But you know what? Sometimes you have to do that. Sometimes we have to come together.
• 12:52
  So remember this, troubling times may surround us, but God's wisdom always leads
• 12:58
  us in the right direction and leads the way.
• 13:02
  And as always, remember that a power of prayer and a day without prayer is a
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  day without power. So we're gonna pray together.
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  Heavenly Father, we thank you for reminding us that through your word,
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  that troubled times are nothing new.
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  Just as people in Jesus' day criticized and condemned him, so too we see it today.
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  But Lord, help us to be different.
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  Help us to live with wisdom, with love, and with patience.
• 13:34
  May our actions speak louder than the anger around us.
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  And may our faith remain strong, no matter the season.
• 13:44
  We ask you to bless Nick, his family.
• 13:47
  We ask you to bless our Half Faith Let It Begin family. And we ask you to bless
• 13:52
  Dr. E, who's going to be very upset that Nick took over his spot.
• 13:55
  That kid has to be Latin. Put a joke in there, right?
• 13:59
  And you never know. Maybe he'll join us too. That'd be really cool.
• 14:02
  We thank the Half Faith Let It Begin family because without you,
• 14:05
  we can't be on this platform.
• 14:07
  And we bless this country as we strive to become a better together.
• 14:12
  That's not bad English. That's the reality. We want to become better together.
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  We can put them together. And we ask us of you in the name of the Father,
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  the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
• 14:23
  In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Think about that. In Jesus' name we pray.
• 14:28
  Nick, thank you again for joining us and for bringing us back to this passage
• 14:32
  and letting us all listen and remembering about troubling times.
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  Remember, all of you out there today, you matter and never forget.
• 14:45
  Have faith, let it begin.
• 14:48
  Have a good one. Take care, guys.