Latest / The Extra Mile Podcast / #9 - Are You Wearing a Spiritual Schmedium? (with Pastor Austin Young)

Transcript

#9 - Are You Wearing a Spiritual Schmedium? (with Pastor Austin Young) · The Extra Mile Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Especially when I was heavier, I would look at a picture at the end of service that they would take of me, and I would think, why didn't somebody say that like that didn't look good?
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Why did somebody let me wear that?
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I agree with you.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think all of us need people in our lives that are gonna challenge what we're wearing, what stage of life we're in, and say, hey, that that doesn't fit your new place in Christ.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't fit the style or season you are in industry.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Hey everybody again.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to The Extra Mile.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Sitting back at the table.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's become one of my favorites.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: My wife, she gave you a huge compliment.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: She said, I love Pastor Austin the way he vibes with you, and I've like I do too.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: So welcome back, Pastor Austin Man, having a conversation in a series we've been talking about called Thrifting.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we had a conversation this past weekend about closet cleanouts.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: What do you what do you know about closet cleanouts?
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was funny because I technically knew that this is what you were preaching about, but then I forgot.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I literally on Saturday, I I got rid of like tons of clothes.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: I got rid of all like my pants and shorts that are like no good anymore.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: And then I looked at my shirts, and this is what I always run into.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just like, I don't know, I kind of wear all of them.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm like, I gotta, I gotta narrow it down again.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Do you feel like I do you feel like I subconsciously influenced you knowing what the topic was?
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: You yeah, probably, but I had also like I'm in the process of trying to shop and trying to, I'm trying to get better style.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like I've hired some young adults I work with to like consult and like help me.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I can't be cool, but I can be better than I am now.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm I'm on that journey too.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I've gotten a few new things, yeah, and then I'm trying to get rid of some old stuff, and that's kind of where I'm at.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I just need to get rid of this stuff I'm not gonna wear.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so and then I was like, oh yeah, he's talking about his like the closet clean out, make room week.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, oh, that's pretty appropriate.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Do you ever find yourself holding on to a piece of clothing like like you're just convinced one day you're gonna either gonna come back to it because you liked it or it just doesn't fit right now.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: But maybe like I there have been times I've held on to some clothes for three or four years thinking, I'm gonna wear it.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I just never did.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think I think I held on to like a large t-shirt for a while.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm right now I'm 2X, and every once in a while I'll get down to be like, if you get me the right brand, I can get in an XL.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember I had a large shirt for a while, and after like five years, I was like, I tried to remember, I was like, okay, so I was like 210.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I'll never get there.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, that's not even my goal weight anymore.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I've just got to throw that shirt away.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's done.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: I find myself keeping stuff because I'm like sentimental.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like I find I'm like, oh, I remember like this shirt has some meaning.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: And my wife's like, just turn it into a quilt.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I don't like that, but I also am never gonna wear it.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but I don't know.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't wear it as a shirt, are you gonna wear it as a quilt?
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Are you ever gonna like cover up with it?
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm not going.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, maybe we just need a bucket of like saved shirts, like nostalgia shirts of like different ministries, organizations, or times and lot, you know, bands.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of band t-shirts don't fit me anymore.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: But I I still listen to the same music, but I can't fit into the same clothes I wore when I listened to that music originally.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh I had a shirt.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: This is years ago, and you have to be a little bit older to remember buckle stores, which our mall still has one, which says nothing because that mall is seriously dated.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: But that's not great.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: I bought a shirt, wow, probably 15 years ago, and I love the shirt.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: It was on sale.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: When I bought it, it was too small because well, it wasn't too small, I was too big.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: But I bought that thing hung in my closet, and every now and then I'd lose a couple pounds and try back on, and I just never could pull it.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: And by the time I could fit into it, it was seriously out of style.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, buckle buckle is like I put in the same thing as like Lucky Brand.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like it has it either has a personality where you never grow out of it because you have the right personality where you can have gems on your jeans as a man and be okay, or it like expires pretty badly, and it does not age well when you look back at like the early 2000s, you're like, what were we doing?
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: There was a season every every um non-denominational pastor in America wore the exact same outfit.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was different colors and shades, but it was all the same thing.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: So we're having a conversation on uh some closet cleanouts, and uh what we talked about Sunday to kind of get the ball rolling was that a lot of the thrifting that people do in stores, the hidden gems they're looking for, the things that they're looking to repurpose, was at one time in someone else's closet and they got rid of them.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: They did a closet clean out because it either no longer fit their size or it no longer fit their style.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: So at one point, man, that shirt, they loved it.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: It fit who they were, but they grew out of it either again, just in a different season, you know, they grew it in a in a way that no longer that's their style, or they gained weight or lost weight, and it just was no longer their size.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And kind of the big takeaway out of the beginning was this conversation that that conversion is a closet clean out.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that that salvation is a is a clothing conversation throughout the New Testament.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: We're called to take off things and put on things, and it's this picture that Paul paints for us like, hey, when you become a child of God, there's new clothing you put on, and there's some old stuff you no longer no longer wear anymore, kind of the same way in our real closet clean outs that we experience that.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: So you know, I don't know what did you think when you heard that closet clean out conversation.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, I think I appreciated the the two versions of of why you get rid of clothes because you think about it, you're like most of the time it's size, like, oh, that's too small, oh that's too big.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: But then just even for me personally, because I'm trying to kind of revamp my style a little bit, I was like, oh yeah, I am getting rid of this because these jeans are a bad fit, like they're just they won't look good, like they're too slim.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like I can't do it any, like I'm not, I shouldn't be doing skinny jeans, and I need to get out of them and get away from them.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think kind of having both of those approaches of like you outgrow things because of your season, and you need to change things about you had a different past or you had a different style, and now you're being called into a new style.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it helped kind of give a good picture of what those changes look like as we are saved, but also as we mature in Christ, and that there are seasons and there are times, and that doesn't even mean that the old clothes were bad or the old things were bad, but it just means we're somewhere God's calling us to something new, and he's doing something new, and that requires us to change if we want to be a part of the new thing he's doing.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: The uh the person we talked about was this guy, Samuel, who I introduced him where the Bible introduces him.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: As a baby, he grows up and his mom, Hannah, was barren for years.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: God finally blesses her and her husband Elkin, and they're able to have a kid, and she makes a promise to God and says, Hey, if you give me a kid, if you give me a son, I'm gonna dedicate him to your service for the rest of his life.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so when he's eventually weaned, she does exactly as she promised to God.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: She takes him to the tabernacle, which at this time is in a city called Shiloh, and she dedicates him to the Lord, which means he's gonna grow up to be a priest, and he's underneath the tutelage or the care of this priest named Eli.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: And just two verses, here's where we're at this past Sunday.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: In 1 Samuel chapter 2, verse 18 and 19, it says, But Samuel, though he was only a boy, served the Lord and he wore a linen garment like that of a priest.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: In verse 19, and each year his mother made a small coat for him and brought it to him when she came with her husband for the sacrifice.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: So again, we get that picture of like this kid didn't dress like other kids.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he didn't have the, hey, you know, go outside and you know, put on your outdoor clothes.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't have any outdoor clothes.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't outside playing like other kids, he wasn't doing what other kids his age did.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: He was in a different calling and a different purpose, and so his clothing, his style reflected his calling.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and so, you know, this this idea that, yeah, that there's things that we do as Christians that really some of it's not sinful.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: It just doesn't match the season of life we're in.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: And God calls us to change our style, change our clothes, get rid of clothes that no longer fit the style of the season of life we're in.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and again, I think Salmon really exemplifies that really well.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think with that, I think we have, or at least I have a tendency when there's change, I don't like to be wrong.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: So what I'll do is if I notice something isn't right anymore, I'll want to try to like demonize it and be like, oh, it must have always been bad.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: It must like that's even happened with like styles of church and like the way churches do things and the way like things like that progress and what you know what discipleship looked like 20 years ago, what it looks like now, like you kind of want to go and be like, man, they had it so wrong, now we've got it figured out.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like that style was so bad.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: But you even alluded to this in the message is like styles come back around, and I think as much as God is doing a new thing with Ecclesiastes, there's nothing new under the sun.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: God's doing a new thing, but he's doing a lot of the same stuff he's been doing since creation of redeeming people and changing them.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I think for me that's helpful too of going just because this isn't the right time for it doesn't mean that it's evil, doesn't mean that it's wrong, doesn't mean that it didn't have a great season in my life and a great purpose.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: And even the tradition I was raised in is no longer where I'm at theologically.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: But instead of demonizing it and saying, oh man, they raised me so wrong, I'm so grateful for the foundation it laid and the good that was there.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: And and so I think that's kind of a part of it for me, too, of as style changes and as God calls me to different ways of living, or even I I'm kind of my theology is growing and progressing, is making sure that I don't try and make everything in the past evil just because there's something new now.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: So you, you know, again, salvation is a clothing conversation.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to put things on, take things off.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I think probably trying to recognize what is it that's no longer a part of our style.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I said this style is our identity.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, I think you can, you know, not judge somebody by the by the outside, but you can look at somebody and the way they talk, the subjects of what they talk about, how they talk about them, how they carry themselves.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Again, this external lens that you see is our clothing.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: And you can say, does that person, is that person a Christian or not?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Again, we don't know their heart, but the style of clothes they wear, the style of conversation they have, the style of relationships they're in, I think it speaks to where we're at in our relationship with God.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: And if we are in Christ, it's time we take off some old things that were a part of our previous lifestyle, and now we're part of a new lifestyle, and styles come and go.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: But once you're in Christ, man, you start adopting a brand new style.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I think all of us, I think, can stop and consider where we need to change some clothes, do a closet clean out.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: There's some stuff that shouldn't go with us any longer.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I and I don't think it's just at conversion.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's like as you go on and God keeps drawing you near, I think you continue to be like, oh, that's and like you said, it's another thing that's not bad, but it's like it's just it's not in anymore.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: This isn't who you are.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: This is God's calling you to a different, a different thing, a different position.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're in a different job.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: And now in this job, it requires you to live out your Christianity in a slightly different way.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think that's that's really, really helpful.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: That framework of like we have to get rid of what isn't right for the season that we're in.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, my wife, she is uh she's really good, she's stylish.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I pick out most of my own clothes, but I'll be honest, some of my better clothes and better outfits she brought home, like she'll lay them out.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: She said, Hey, I got you.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: She didn't give me a shirt, she gets me a whole outfit.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I gotta say, she always does a great job.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: And there's times I will put something on and I'll look in the mirror and I'll think, man, this looks good.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, babe, how's it look?
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, ah, those pants are out of style.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: And what's weird is she can see it and I can't see it.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, that's why we need friends who love the Lord the way we do that can look at us and say, Hey, you you're wearing a style.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're carrying something in your life that really no longer fits with who you are and where you're at in your spiritual journey.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, that's that's out of style.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: If you could maybe think of two or three things, what would you say are things that maybe no longer are in style for a person who's in Christ?
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, I think I think you go with some of the obvious things is one of the first ones that I think of is language, what you talk about, the way you talk.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think another one is the kind of content you consume, shows, books.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: I think those are the hardest and the easiest.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: Because you're like, if you're not super attached, if you if you don't have bad language, it's not hard to give it up.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: If you're not super attached to like raunchy books or like graphic TV shows, you're like, I can, you know, it's not a problem.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: But when it's a part of your normal life, I think some of those things that can seem innocuous and are so culturally forward that living countercultural is like, so I gotta become a weirdo, like I gotta talk like a weirdo, and I gotta, I gotta not know what anybody's talking about about the latest TV show or whatever.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: I think those are ones for me that I'm like, the temptation is like, I should know what people are talking about.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: And then you start to watch, you're like, dear goodness, I should not be watching this.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: Or whatever.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I think you kind of battle that as things that some of the first things that get addressed, I think, when you give your life to Christ are some of those really countercultural changes that can be huge shifts for people.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: So ultimately, we we recognize there are some things that that no longer fit my new style, no longer fit my new identity.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a child of God.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: This can't go with me.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: I cannot continue to wear those clothes, they're out of style for a Christian.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the other side we talked about again is that you know, people do a closet clean out because things no longer fit their style.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: And this is really the more obvious and probably the bigger one, and things no longer fit our size.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: So style is our identity, size is our maturity.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: And the conversation is again back to Samuel.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Every year, his mom would bring him a brand new linen cloth, a brand new, basically a robe, because she expected, hey, this year, my son Samuel grew up.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: I've not seen him in a year.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: When I go back, I'm gonna bring a larger robe because surely he's grown.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: The assumption is that's a spiritual picture of us that we should be growing in our godliness.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: We should be growing in our relationship with the Lord.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: And the same way, if you had a baby that wasn't growing, you would be concerned.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: We should be concerned if we are Christ's followers and we're not growing in our spiritual journey.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that that's the one that definitely resonates with me.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: I was thinking about it, and like even as I I heard you preaching it, I laughed.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: Because over the last five years, as I've been here, uh, I've gotten clothes from your closet cleanouts as you've lost weight and I have not.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like, hey, this will probably still fit you, buddy.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, thanks, man.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's true.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I some of them were still too small.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: But um, I think about that, and you're kind of like, oh yeah, like if you're if you're growing or shrinking, you know, at adulthood there's health, but it's like if you're getting healthier, there are usually changes in the clothes that you wear.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: So, like if you're if you're already pretty healthy and then you start hitting the gym and working out and lifting weights, now all of a sudden, like, unless you want to be in that schmedium, like you probably need a shirt that's not so tight on your arms.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: You don't want to be that guy.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you might need to, if as you then build muscle, like for me, I'm still like, I'd love to get down to an XL.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I'm the opposite.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to, but at the same time, I'm trying to get healthier and grow in a certain way.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so with that, I want you wanna make sure you're changing what you're wearing, but that's only if I change my health.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we so we grow into things and we grow out of things, but at the end of the day, again, there it there is growth.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: There should be growth.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's easy for all of us.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: I can think back when I first got saved and I could see some really quick changes, style changes, and I could see some pretty quick um maturity changes.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I never read the Bible and I started to read the Bible.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: I never prayed and I started to pray.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so there were obvious um closet cleanouts that was happening.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: There was things I was getting rid of and things I were putting on.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: And for some reason, I don't know why, um, why this is, but even in my own life, it feels like sometimes we stagnate in our growth.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: We keep wearing the old styles instead of new styles.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: We stop growing in our maturity.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: And the Bible paints the picture that we should continue to grow, outgrow old styles, and outgrow old clothes as we move forward in Christ.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: And for some reason, man, we stagnate in our journey.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so I would say for anybody watching this that maybe you need to evaluate what's in your closet.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: What are you wearing?
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: What's a part of your lifestyle, your identity, your maturity, that you need to continue to move forward in your relationship with God.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you are alive and you serve Jesus, you should be growing forward in maturity and growing in the knowledge of God, growing in the calling of God and all the things that encapsulate that idea of growing.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, my my favorite line, and I I felt like the Lord dropped this in my heart, and I kind of chuckled sitting there writing the notes.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: You mentioned this, but I made this comment that the church is filled with people wearing spiritual schmediums.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, I think a lot of people knew the call for reference.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: Some didn't, so I had to define it.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: But I I think that's true.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of people, man, that are fat.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they have grown because they sit in church every week, they do their devotions, they spend time in prayer, like they do all of the things that should be a part of the spiritual discipline of our life, but they never walk it out.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: They never really kind of embrace a higher level of a calling, or they never embrace a greater level of sacrifice, a deeper level of holiness.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, all the things that would define kind of that maturity, it's it's like they never take that step.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: They want to they want to stay in the last season instead of growing it in the new season.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's probably one of the greatest challenges of the modern American church is people that are growing in some ways but not allowing it to express it in like an outer physical expression of their faith that changes those around them.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean I think that's something that we all struggle with because like you want to sometimes it's a pain.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like I don't love shopping and trying on clothes, and I don't so I like I don't always want to update my stuff.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I'm like, I like what I have and I want to keep it, and then someone's like, you should not keep that.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so kind of like what you were saying, your wife's like, no, those are bad now, and you're like, I as I grow, I want my clothes to fit the body that I have.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: So if I'm growing in a healthy way, the outward should be showing what is happening underneath.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so if we're growing in discipline and we're growing in Christ, like there should be an outward fruit of that.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: And if there isn't, then there's some kind of a disconnect between the maturity that you think you have and the actual fruit that you're showing, and that idea of of trying to navigate the maturing and the changing in size, I think is definitely the hardest part of continuing to mature in Christ.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: Because sometimes you're like, I like I like what I have.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: I don't like change.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: I don't wanna, it's gonna be harder to change, it's gonna be uncomfortable to change.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so um, I do think people definitely get stuck there.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: So spiritual mediums to me are again, it's it's the things that we're still expressing that doesn't represent where we're at in Christ.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: So again, we know the Bible verses to um, you know, the Bible says, let no root of bitterness, you know, take root in you.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so we know what the Bible says about bitterness, but we still allow ourselves to be bitter.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: So we know what the Bible says about forgiving our enemies and praying for those who persecute you.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like, so we know the scriptures, like we feel like we we have new knowledge, we've grown in our knowledge.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: We just haven't walked it out.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's where, again, the church is filled with people that know their Bibles, that hear the messages.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but again, they never walk in it, they never walk in a in a bigger level of faith.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: They never put on a bigger garment of service, they never really walk it out in a way that's that's clear, like, hey, to those around you, you are growing in the things that God has for you.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: So Samuel did it great.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: Again, he kept this linen, he kept this identity, and again, every year he grew bigger and bigger, not just physically, but the Bible says he grew in favor with God, he grew in favor with men.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's how we should grow.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: Our growth in God should impact every area of our life.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: And when we're not growing, we need to be concerned.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: So um a couple of verses I'm I just want to share.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, I I mentioned this Sunday, but I didn't need to get into detail.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: But there's something called uh infant growth charts.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know that was the name.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Infant growth charts, what that is is when you have a newborn baby, you have kids, I have kids.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we take them back to the doctor pretty often.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: And the doctor does a couple things.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: The doctor measures their length and measures their weight, and they're looking for something.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: They're looking for the same thing that Hannah was looking for in Samuel.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: Is my child growing?
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: And we do that physically, but again, this whole conversation is spiritually.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: We should look at ourselves and say, hey, ask the question hey, am I growing?
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: Am I reflecting the knowledge I have?
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Am I reflecting the Jesus I serve?
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because if not, there should be a concern that we're not growing.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what the Bible says in uh in 1 Peter 2, 2.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: It says, like newborn babies, so the same way that you take a baby and they measure their length and measure their weight, are they good?
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like newborn babies, you must crave the pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: Cry out for this nourishment.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I found that one of the number one reasons that newborn babies are not growing is undernourishment.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: They're either not drinking enough milk or they have a kind that their body can't.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Process.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: And this is exactly what Peter says.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Peter says, hey, if you're not growing, it's because you're not getting enough spiritual milk.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: What is spiritual milk?
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's the word of God.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: The more we get the word of God in us, the more it'll grow through us.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, I would say to people watching this, if you want to grow uh in your maturity, you want to grow in your identity, you got to start with the word.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so this is still pretty fresh for me because in the last three months on our staff, three of our kids' staff have had brand new babies in the last three months.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: So like every time I'm talking to these ladies, I'm like, how's so and so?
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: They're like, Great, you know, he's eating.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I always like, hey, how long are they sleeping now?
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like, yeah, and I mean, literally about an hour ago before we recorded this, I was talking to um Pastor Naomi and I was like, Hey, how's how's he doing?
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: How long's he sleeping?
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: She's like, he's sleeping like almost eight hours a night now.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: He's only a few months old.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, dude, that's awesome.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: I and she goes, he loves to eat.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, that's that's how you know he's growing.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: And she's like, I put him next to a uh like a seven-month-old baby, and I was like, my baby's big, yeah, like and he's not that old.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, when the baby's eating well, when the baby's resting well, when you're doing the things that help you grow, you're hitting those those growth numbers.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's the conversation of like, man, if you're if you are taking in the word of God, if you're getting the nutrition that you need, if you are having that, there is going to be a growth.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: And at the beginning, like a newborn, it is an exponential growth.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: And as you get older, it becomes more refined, it becomes more intricate, but that has to be the foundation of this growth because the Bible is how we learn to hear the voice of God, how we learn what he's like, how we build our relationship on him.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's how we get to know him first and foremost, I think.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so so growth is a spirit is a spiritual conversation.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: Again, Peter, he says another um makes another statement on growth.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: He says this, he says, rather you must grow.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I think the challenge for all of us is this isn't something that happens, it happens organically when you're when you're a physical baby.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like you don't have to make yourself grow.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you're getting the nutrients that you mentioned, yeah, you're gonna grow, but spiritually, you have to intentionally make yourself grow.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't happen automatically, you have to put yourself in a position of growth.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what he says.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: Rather, you must grow, and here's how we grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord our Lord Jesus Christ.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think what he's saying is that the closer you get to Christ, and how do we do that?
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: We do that through his word, we do that through prayer, the more we get to know who he is, and that starts to change how we live.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: It starts to change first in our grace because what brings us to Jesus, grace, what keeps us in Christ is grace.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: And if we really understand that, we're gonna grow in grace and not just how we receive it, but the way we apply it and the way we give it to other people.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so if there's any place that we can learn to grow, it's where Peter says, Hey, grow, grow in your knowledge of Jesus, dig into his word.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's the pure spiritual spirit spiritual milk that he spoke about earlier.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: And as you grow, it's gonna be reflected in your understanding of grace and your application, and then your calling and your purpose and your influence, like all those things just start to maximize and take off to a whole nother level.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so I would just challenge anybody wearing a spiritual medium.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: Hey man, do a closet clean out, get rid of the stuff that no longer fits the style you have, the identity you have in Christ, the size of maturity you are, man.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: Let's keep rolling together.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what's the what's a closing thought maybe you have?
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think I'm still like coming back even to what you said about what Shauna does for you, and you're like, this is good, right?
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: She's like, it's not good.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: Here, this this is what fits you.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the invitation could also be if if you're kind of going, I think I'm actually in a pretty good spot, ask the three people who are closest to you, ask your spouse, ask your parents, ask your siblings, ask your roommates.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: Because I promise they see the schmedium in your life, and they may be able to speak to the style or the size that's not right for you when you don't see it yourself.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: You might look in the mirror and go, This actually looks pretty solid.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: And they might come up and go, hey, I love you, so let's like talk about this.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: This may not be the right fit for you.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think even inviting people into this, those that are close to you, that you can trust, that love you, um, I think that can be a huge help to figuring out where maybe you're lacking in nutrition or where your style's in the wrong way.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's what Hannah, you know, would have been to Samuel.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: Again, if she would have brought a new level of robe and it wouldn't have fit him, I think she would have said, Hey, what's are you okay?
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: Are you eating?
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: Are you okay?
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're still wearing last year's robe.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, you know, I look at uh I look at pictures.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I think I'm in style, I think I look okay.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: And especially when I was heavier, I would look at a picture at the end of service that they would take of me, and I would think, why didn't somebody say that like that didn't look good?
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: Why did somebody let me wear that?
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I agree with you.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think all of us need people in our lives that are going to challenge what we're wearing, what stage of life we're in, and say, hey, that that doesn't fit your new place in Christ.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't fit the style or season you are in ministry.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so let's be that to each other.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: Let's continue to grow and move forward in the things God has for us.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: Hey guys, thanks again for joining us for the extra mile.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: Great conversation.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: Looking forward to next week as we move back into week number three of thrifting.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna see what God does as we uh as we make memories together.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: Pastor Austin, thanks for joining us.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're gonna