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Podcast: Behind the Scenes: Small Things, Big Impact; Mustard Seed, (Mat 13: 31-33) · North Raleigh United Methodist Church Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good day, and welcome to North Raleigh United Methodist Church behind the scenes podcast, where we sit down weekly and discuss this week's scripture and sermon.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Kevin Van Hall.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: I serve as your host and moderator, and joining me today is one of the senior pastors here at North Raleigh.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Kevin Johnson.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, Kevin.
• 0:16
  unknown: Hey.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, welcome back.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: It was uh Laura last week finishing up the last series of the I Am statements that were found in John.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And she preached on I am the true vine.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: And today we are going to start a new series, Small Things, Big Impact.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: So could you give us a little bit of background of where this came about, this whole series?
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: So this the next five weeks are going to be there just the gospel readings in the Revised Common Lectionary.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: And so we've talked some about the lectionary, but really if you look up online, the Revised Common Lectionary, it's a cycle of readings.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: And right now we're in year A, and year A is the Matthew year.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so the Gospel readings are most commonly in Matthew during this season or during during this year.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: So this year started Advent and it'll go all the way through until Christ the King Sunday.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: And we really sometimes with the readings, you can kind of make and create a series where, hey, these five weeks have a common theme.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: And really we saw this thread.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: And Pastor Laura put this one together more about seeing kind of the small things and how they have a big impact.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: So one of the weeks is the feeding of the 5,000, right?
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so you have this small gift of five loaves and two fish, right?
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: Another week is going to be about Peter's small step of walking out on the water.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: And then we'll get back into some other some other teaching examples.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: And today, today is kind of like the opener of it really focuses on some quite small literal things in Jesus' teaching and parables.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: So we are in going to be in Matthew's gospel, and we are going to be in uh chapter 13 today, speaking of little things.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus likens the kingdom of God to a single seed.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: We talk about, we'll talk about the mustard seed, uh, maybe some hidden treasures and uh some other things.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna break it up into a few parts and uh sit down and discuss them and break them up a little bit and have a little bit of a discussion.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we do this podcast.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: It gives you a little bit of uh insight that you don't necessarily get in the sermon.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: So we want to thank everyone for uh joining us uh this week as we start this new series.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: But before we start reading and discussing, how about a word of prayer?
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: All right, let's do it.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, you reveal to us what your kingdom is like.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: We thank you that through the gospels you did that in teaching and in your way of life.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: We pray that we would hear that good news today, that we would hear the hope of it, that we would hear the challenge of how your kingdom is, and that you might open us up for how to live in it.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: In Christ's name we pray.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: So, Matthew's gospel, it's quite a few parables, and we are in the middle of it, and we were just finishing up uh Jesus starts talking about the parable of the weeds, and then he goes into the parable of the mustard seed and the yeast.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: So that's where we're going to uh begin today in uh verse um thirty-one.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: So and Kevin was gonna read for us.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: He told another parable to them the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and planted in his field.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's the smallest of all the seeds, but when it's grown, it's the largest of all vegetable plants.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: It becomes a tree, so the birds in the sky can come and nest in its branches.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: He told them another parable.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: The kingdom of heaven is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in a bushel of wheat flour until the yeast had worked its way through all the dough.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, so we understand the mustard seed, and everyone talks about that, and so often it's compared to how is your faith?
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Is your faith like a mustard seed?
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: You literally could have just a little bit of faith, can go a long way.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: I've always heard that comparison with a mustard seed as well.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Just a little bit of faith.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus uh kind of chastises disciples quite a bit, says, if you only had enough faith, and uh if you could move mountains, I'm sure everyone's heard of that.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: So we get this comparison of a mustard seed in its growth to a kingdom.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: So are we talking about heaven when we say the kingdom of heaven in the afterlife, or are we talking about right here and right now in God's kingdom?
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because so often in Matthew's gospel, he always references, he always says kingdom of heaven.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't like the kingdom of God, he doesn't say God very often.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: He's always usually uh avoiding saying God.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well it's interesting, right?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because in so these parables, if we're in Luke or Mark, they'll say kingdom of God.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: And Matthew phrases it as kingdom of heaven.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: Let's just toss out kingdom or heaven entirely.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: Let's just call it God's realm.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: If we just said God's realm is like this, or God's dominion, or the way in like, or God, the way of life in God's realm is like a mustard seed, right?
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not suggesting that there's a problem with the kingdom of heaven.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: I just think sometimes for us, what when when we think heaven, we're thinking pearly gates.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: We're thinking, so what uh even if we don't want to, we're picturing like cherubs, like fat little cherubs with angel wings strumming harps, right?
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is not talking about that at all.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus is talking about the way of life here, and what he's trying to convince his disciples, and what he's trying to convince these hearers, is that God's kingdom is coming in him, and that they can live in God's realm even as they're living in this overlapping time in the real life they see.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so what I've what I've likened it to is that when Jesus is teaching these parables, Jesus is basically Jesus is giving us like 3D glasses, and when we put them on, all of a sudden the world opens up and we see the world differently.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's where the connection of faith and growth comes there.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: I don't I don't think the interpretation of like it being a little bit of faith goes a long way is bad.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because I do think that's I think there's something in all of us, there's an awakening that happens.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I think we can have multiple awakenings in our lives when all of a sudden we understand, oh, like this stuff about Jesus is is is real and big and bigger than anything I could have imagined, and there's immense hope in it, and it changes everything about how I see the world, right?
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think that that's what's happening here in the midst of these parables.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus saying, Hey, sometimes it's not the grand things that make the biggest difference, but but but the kingdom's like a mustard seed, or the kingdom, you know, other places gonna talk about it being like a little like like these little children, right?
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: Who's in that world were insignificant.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, really.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: And and and but Jesus is gonna say, hey, the kingdom is like this mustard seed.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: And and I think what's interesting, it's not that just that it grows, it also grows into a plant that is able to like house creation in that place.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: The idea of yeast is interesting.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeast was often considered like dirty in that culture.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so you have, you know, when the concept of like unleavened bread and everything like that during Passover.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so there's something about yeast, but like we know that yeast, how it works, right, is like a little bit goes a very long way, right?
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: You only need a little bit of yeast when you've made bread ever.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I think about like people's sourdough starters and stuff like that, and how it just takes that little bit um to rise that entire loaf.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: And and and and I think that's what Jesus is saying is that in in God's kingdom, like that little bit that that one person or that movement within a church uh can move mountains, it can do really incredible things.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: We've seen that happen with individuals.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: So when we hear stories of individuals, we've also heard testimonies of a church ministry that just someone started and had a vision, and God does incredible stuff through them.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: And and you know, people it's it's stuff that no one could have anticipated.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, when you say it we'll say God's realm, I love that reference.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I think as a child and learning in my first beginning days that God was this distant person and he was up in his realm, up in heaven, and he wasn't here on earth.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: And we so often separate the realms, heaven and earth, and I'm here when I die, I get to go to the next realm.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Are you saying that we could be in God can be in both realms, either or at the same time?
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: So can God's realm coming down, can we be part of that great realm that God has for us in heaven now, here on earth?
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: We're trying to think of it.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's completely what I'm saying.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, really, is is that, and if I could draw it for you and we had a video and I could show you on the whiteboard, I when when Jesus comes, right, the incarnation of Jesus, it it breaks God's realm open here and now, right?
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: So by the incarnation, by taking on our flesh, and then by dying and resurrecting, Jesus brings us the possibility of living into God's realm, right?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: So we often use this phrase like, well, I asked Jesus into my heart or something like that.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: What what really happens is that we accept God's realm, we we accept living in God's realm.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: I think about those passages in 1 Peter where he talks about um right at the beginning of being a holy nation, a royal priesthood that somehow we are living as part of God's realm.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: I think about when Paul says, Well, you're strangers and aliens now in this world because you are citizens of God's.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: You're you're citizens of God's kingdom, not this one anymore.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know, when when Paul talks and he says, Well, I what would be better for me to live is Christ than to die is gain, right?
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: And and so he's saying, like, I am I'm already living in in that realm.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: So so one of the things I liken it too is that when we, you know, we just Kevin and I are recording this 30 minutes after finishing a funeral service.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: And when when we die, we I think when we step into God's realm permanently, however that works, it's not as much of a shock to our system as we think it is.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's it's just like a full realization, right?
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: When Paul says, Well, then I will see face to face, even as I'm fully known, right?
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: He says, now I see through a glass dimly in 2 Corinthians, right?
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so I do think there is this sense.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so the idea, right, is that how do we live in God's realm?
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we live by the fruit of the Spirit.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: We live love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, justice, self-or the patience.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: I was thinking about we also live a life of justice, right?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: We live, we want to bring on earth as it is in heaven.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: That's Jesus' prayer is ultimately saying, let's live God's realm here as it is in heaven.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: So there's two realms that can coexist, but he doesn't, and we'll talk about the description of how beautiful it actually is.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: But in this description, he's talking about it's growing.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Is it still growing?
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Is the realm itself growing?
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Is the is the place we live growing, or is the membership growing?
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: What is growing here?
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like a must be.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's what it's all that kind of stuff.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um Yeah, so I think it is I think he's saying that that I think sometimes for me it's it's it's the realization of God's kingdom and realm grows within me.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: So there's this awareness.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if a Jew in two uh 20 you know, 20 centuries ago would have spoken in that way and kind of like a self-actualization, self-realization, probably not.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I do think it is an idea that this movement is going to keep growing.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think Jesus is also seeing there's going to be this movement of followers after him.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I do think there's that.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's realization, it's also a a growth of that.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um so yeah, I I that's a couple ways in which I but I also think it's more the idea that like people who didn't believe were going to start to like it's like that turn where where more and more would start to see who Jesus is come to faith, have their lives upended and transformed by that grace, right?
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: So I I do think it's also that that it's it that the the in-working of the yeast and everything like that.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: That so I think it's it's all of those things.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's all of those things.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: That's why it's a parable, right?
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's not we don't have to label, well, it's this for that.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: That's not how it works.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, exactly.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: And and uh so often we think of about the yeast as the word of God and how you go out and you spread it, and the word of God spreads, and that's spreading the God's word, his kingdom, his realm of his wishes to everyone.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then once that kingdom is spread amongst everybody, there's is there a reward?
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a reward here on earth, or is it only in heaven for joining God's kingdom?
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: What is God's kingdom like after it grows and the membership grows?
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to continue on with our uh discussion.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'll push the conversation on a little bit farther into uh into Matthew, into um uh the parables of the hidden treasures.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll go to 44.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: We'll just read a few verses here.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure that somebody hid in a field, which someone else found and covered up.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: Full of joy, the finder sold everything and bought that field.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: When he found one very precious pearl, he went and sold all that he owned and bought it.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I see two things here, Kevin.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: I I'm I'm gonna be the antagonist.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't understand.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: I understand it's a wonderful thing.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's a beautiful thing that you'll sell everything for.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: You when you find it, sure, you can't.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: But why is it hidden?
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Why is the kingdom of God hidden?
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think that's what Jesus compared to.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, we get Jesus explaining things in parables, right?
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: In a sense of, you know, there's kind of that he who has ears to hear, let him hear, and some don't have ears to hear at that time.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: So there is a sense of like it was the wise and learned people, it was the religious elite, it was those people who didn't understand.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: They couldn't get what he was saying because it it it upended their worlds.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas this is good news for the poor, this is good news for those that are not at the center all the time.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think the hiddenness of it.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I I I are we saying it because of people that that haven't been going to the temple, or like you said, the Pharisees uh experts in the scripture that might understand is this that uh it's open, available to other people to go out and find that could just be in a in a field and come across it, or you're searching for a field and you can come across it.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to be um brought to you.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: Anybody could find this?
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: I think it is somewhat that anyone can find it.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: I also think it's about I I think in the case of these of these two it's it's that the way of God's realm is so revolutionary that it is worth giving up your entire life for.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: I mean I think that's really the message of these two parables in particular, right?
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: So these ones continue the theme of small things, but in both the cases, right, what happens?
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: They find it, right?
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: They find the treasure in the field, he says, Well, I'm gonna buy that whole dang field, right?
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because I know that it's got this treasure in it, right?
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the other one, the merchant, he's on the lookout for fine pearls, everything.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: He finds this one.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: This one is so particular, it is so valuable that he says, Take my whole life savings.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: Stop the search.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Search is over.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: I found it.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: Take everything I've got.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it makes me think of those other times where Jesus tells it more directly, right?
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: He says, See, if anyone will come after me, they must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me, right?
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: And then right after that, he says, Whoever wants to give up his life will lose it, right?
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: Or go what is it to gain the world and profit and forfeit your soul, right?
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so he says, I I so I think there's this sense of I I There's this sense of when we when we truly meet Jesus and we realize the depth of his love for us, turning over our everything to him, and and essentially using a word that we don't like to use too much today, would surrender, right?
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: Giving it all over to him.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: There's this there's this beautiful scene that happens when when when when Anglican or Episcopal priests are ordained, they lay completely flat in front of the altar when they're ordained.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um just kind of surrendering their uh will completely to God.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I just think that that's somewhat what this is saying, like, hey, this is worth everything.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's Jesus' point here is when you get it, when when when it clicks for you, this this kingdom is worth it's worth everything.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um I I was reflecting this week, uh, I was thinking about this yesterday when I first read the text for for the day.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I was thinking about my own story a little bit.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um there were there were times when I was in the midst of my call to ministry and late in high school and early in college, and I wanted to do really, really big things for God.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: And usually those big things also corresponded with my own notoriety, right?
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: So they they were it was it was well I'm gonna be this level of pastor and thousands of people be there, and my books will have sold all these things, and it's be well, it's for God's glory, of course, but you know, um, but people would know my name.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: And and I wonder, you know, is it is it is that my personality type?
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: We can look at that among the with the psychologists who are listening to this, or is it just my own arrogance of being, I don't know, 17 to 22 years old and and sensing this?
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: Or was it the American way creeping into it that was just like trying to climb a ladder and get to the highest place possible on that ladder?
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so I wondered like how did how did my perspective change where I insisted on being the one who does the big things for God?
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: And your perspective changes and gets humbled throughout life, right?
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: One way my perspective changed is having children, because you quickly realize you're not very important when you have children, other than your your world shrinks real quick.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: And what matters is these little humans you got to care for, and it changes everything, right?
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: So that helped me.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um but I think, right, the hard part for us as Christians sometimes is that we often hold up these stories and the examples of the people who do the biggest things for God, right?
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: So we hold up these stories as the paramount things, the people who went the farthest, did the most, the great heroes of faith, not just in the Bible, but people in our day and age too.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: And when we do that, we ignore the small hidden things.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I think what's happening in this parable is Jesus is whispering to us, God's kingdom is made of the small things.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's not it's not the big stuff you do.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's very much that Mother Teresa, we can do no great things, we just do small things with great love.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: And and that's that's kind of the theme of this whole series throughout, is is that like it's telling the type A Enneagram three persons among us that look like me.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Who are constantly trying to achieve, stop it.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: Stop it.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: And just do the little thing in front of you.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: Love, love, love the person.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: Try to figure out how to love the person next to you who ticks you off.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: That's it.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: Do that.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: Anything's progress.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: I do like this the fact that he gives instance, he tells me that we're all seeking.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: We're all searching.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: We're all searching for that treasure, that notoriety, that famous.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: The some people want the material things or the money.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: But when you search for the kingdom of God, and when you find it, that's when you're going to be most satisfied.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's when you're going to reach your pinnacle.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: If you're searching in for other kinds of treasures, uh money or fame, you're you're going to be disappointed.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're not going to you once you find it, it's not going to be the treasure you think it is.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: 100%.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: Cabeman's called Band That I Love from the 90s.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: They wrote this song where they sang, This world has nothing for me, and this world has everything.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: All that I could want and nothing that I need.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: And that I mean, that's the truth of consumerism, right?
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: That that exists in our world.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: And and shoot, if we don't get lured into it time and time again, you know, it it was easy to think about in in my early 20s that I was going to be able to give up everything to follow Jesus because what did I have?
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: But but then you have to reorient it again 20 years later when you know you actually have a little bit in the bank account and you have a house and stuff like that, and you got to figure it out.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: You got and we got to ask those questions again, right?
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: And what is what is actually worth something in my life?
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: And how do I how do I invest in what really matters?
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: I mean that that's all Jesus wants us to live completely in that realm of thought when we're studying these parables, right?
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: He wants us to He wants to jumble up our categories and screw up our lives.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's what he's doing.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: Shake it up a little bit.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: Turn turn things upside down, flip flip the tables, and you've we've missed the point.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: And uh hopefully we're still searching 2,000 years later.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: Have we ever gotten we still haven't fixed the point.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna continue on uh further into uh Matthew um and talk about um the parable of the net.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: How's that?
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'll do that and I'll c and I'll and I'll do the part that closes it, and we may focus more on the latter.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that people threw into the lake and gathered all kinds of fish.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: When it was full, they pulled it to the shore, where they sat down and put the good fish together into containers, but the bad fish they threw away.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's the way it will be at the end of the present age.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: The angels will go out and separate the evil people from the righteous people and will throw the evil ones into a burning furnace.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: People there will be weeping and grinding their teeth.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: Have you understood all these things?
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus asked.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: They said to him, Yes.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: Then he said to them, Therefore, every legal expert who has been trained as a disciple for the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings old and new things out of their treasure chest.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: So we get a little bit of end of times of what the kingdom is going to be like, and not everyone is going to be a part of that kingdom.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe free will, it's your own your own choosing.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: Not necessarily, I don't know if that's predestined.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: We won't get into that like you talked about.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about the last part that you wanted to talk about.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, and I mean I don't I'm not ignoring the parable than that.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: It just sounds really simple.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: This is the same type of last days judgment that Jesus is talking about in Matthew 25 when he talks about the sheep and the goats.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's a very similar imagery, right?
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: Is Jesus describing exactly how judgment's gonna go down and people go into heaven and to hell?
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: Or is it more of a warning of saying, like, hey, like let's let's make make sure you're a good fish and not a rotten one, right?
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like I so I think it's more of that.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: And and but sometimes we've made these things into the literal, and maybe it's not meant to be that so much.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I really love how the message translates the last verse.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um Eugene Peterson, when he wrote the message, he said, Then you see how every student well trained in God's kingdom is like the owner of a general store who can put his hands on anything you need, old or new, exactly when you need it.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I just think that's a really helpful you know, you think about, I don't know, I like going to Ace instead of going to Home Depot or Lowe's, right?
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: Because usually at a good ace, there's that old guy there.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: There's there's at least one old guy who not only can tell you where that screw is or where that fastener you're looking for is, but then he can give you some pointers on how to do your project, right?
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: Even better than YouTube.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: And and and that's what he said.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, he's basically saying, like, you know, every student of God's kingdom, they become like that old guy at Ace.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's a good closing image.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: I'm probably you know, and if you don't know that old guy, you need to go and and and find him, right?
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: And and he could pull out, he could put his hands on anything you need, old or new, exactly when you need it.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's what happens when we become this like a student of the kingdom, when we start to live in the ways of the realm, we start to take it on.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: Kevin, I had this I've in my life, one of my one of my goals always has been if I could have the language of the Psalms to be the kind of the life that oozes out of me, so that I would memorize them to such a degree that I would be able to just have them be the thing that flows forth from me naturally.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um that's just been a goal of mine.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't do the best at memorizing them all the time.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's easier to memorize them 30 years ago than it is today.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: But like um I think about how that I just want, you know, when someone cuts me, I I I want I want it to be the blood of Jesus that that pours out, right?
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: I just want to be so steeped in that way and in the way of the kingdom.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I think what happens is as we get older, as we mature in faith, as what we call sanctifying grace, that starts to happen more.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: And it ain't perfect.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: And do we doubt or do we have struggles?
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, absolutely.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: But but the hope is that as we do grow, as we grow deeper in faith with Christ, that you know, you've known those people who just they they just seep wisdom.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's the key.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's the wisdom.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what comes with age.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: You you you take the knowledge along the way that you have when you're younger, but then it seasons and turns into wisdom when you're much older.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so you actually can use that knowledge before, because before you might have had that knowledge of like, what good is this knowledge?
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's gonna come into play.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's like when you learn about world history when you're 13, right?
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't make a bit of sense, but you memorized everything you need to learn about ancient Egypt and Greece and everything for the test, and it didn't make any sense, right?
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then somehow, like 15, 20 years down the road, you're like, oh, you know, and all of a sudden it kind of clicks.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's what wisdom is, right?
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: You you you you it starts to it starts to make sense.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_01: It starts it's it's you know, every teenager thinks their parents are an idiot, right?
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: Until they become a parent and they're like, oh no, now now I get it, right?
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that's the way of life, right?
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's sort of what it is.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_01: Wait till they get on the other side.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they're on this side of the child, they're wait till they're on the other side and they're a parent and they have kids.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you just have to yeah, you kind of just have to the way it is.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then at that point in that wisdom, um you come funeral, when you're finally at your end end of life, you realize what's important, and it's you want to be surrounded with your family and your friends, and it has nothing to do with necessarily the material things or any of the things that you've gathered in your life.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: And and it's all about that next step of being being with God.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: And that wisdom comes at the very end, so often we just uh can't see it while we're going through it.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think that's the key, is right, if we can surround ourselves with the people who are wise, and if we can also if we surround ourselves with wise people and we try to live as this kind of student of the kingdom now, then maybe, maybe just maybe we can start to live more and more in God's realm and less and less in this one, right?
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying be like so pie in the sky that we ignore the realities of our existence and that we don't look at the news and see the it's it's more that we have you know, some people called it a kingdom perspective on it.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_01: That's fine, that's a way to see it.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_01: It just to say, hey, like there is something greater than all the trials and tribulations of this life, and um and it's what's going on in God's realm and and trying to live within it, right?
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's it's a challenge to us to do that.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: And and I think that it's also but then we're reminded that it does that doesn't have to be some like great huge accomplishment.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's it's it's little.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's in the little stuff.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's in the it's in the daily, it's in the daily decisions we make and the daily ways that we connect to God in our in our lives.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this is a great new series.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: We are beginning today, and we will continue.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you said for the next five weeks.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: And Laura will be uh joining us uh next week as we uh continue on with uh little things and how they can make a big impact.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: And well we've there's so many, many different parables and different interpretations.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh everyone has their own way of looking at things, just like their own life of their own perspectives uh and how they might make a difference and change things.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: But I love how you uh you like all of us when we were younger, great big aspirations of what we were gonna do.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: We were gonna change the world to make a difference.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then sometimes you realize maybe you didn't, but maybe you did.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: In a small way, you did make a big difference.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: So making a difference every day.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: So well we're gonna wrap up uh today's podcast with uh that point, and we're gonna ask you to join us again next week when Laura will be here and we continue our discussions on the small things with big impacts.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: But in the meantime, Kevin's gonna be preaching this Sunday.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: If you can come out and uh listen.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: If not, it is gonna be posted on the website.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: You can look for it and listen to it there.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: So until next week, we'll sign off and may the love of Christ be with you always.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: So goodbye, everyone.