Latest / MESSmerized - Funny and faith based encouragement in marriage , family , Christian parenting , and finding purpose / Episode 113 Bible Beyond VBS: Why God’s Story Still Matters with Jonathan Murphy

Transcript

Episode 113 Bible Beyond VBS: Why God’s Story Still Matters with Jonathan Murphy · MESSmerized - Funny and faith based encouragement in marriage , family , Christian parenting , and finding purpose

0:05
[SPEAKER_01]: This is Cynthia Ganoff and you are listening to the mesmerized podcast.
0:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey friends, welcome to the podcast.
0:17
[SPEAKER_01]: I know the weather may not be reflecting this, but it's almost September.
0:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Can you join me in a moment of silence for that?
0:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Pumpkins Pumpkin Bread Football?
0:26
[SPEAKER_01]: It's two thousand degrees, but still nonetheless.
0:29
[SPEAKER_01]: I might be able to cook my pumpkin muffins outside on the front sidewalk, but I'm declaring fall and I'm super excited.
0:36
[SPEAKER_01]: So here we are.
0:37
[SPEAKER_01]: You guys, we have a guest today that's awesome.
0:40
[SPEAKER_01]: And I've always kind of thought we had the best listeners, but I figured out we really do when I got an email from a listener, Sarah Jane Murphy, saying, hey, would you consider interviewing my husband?
0:49
[SPEAKER_01]: I've listened to you for a long time, love everything you do.
0:53
[SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes you get those emails friends, let's just be honest, you're like, oh,
0:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's her husband, what's going on.
0:58
[SPEAKER_01]: How do I politely say no, thank you.
1:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I did a little research and her husband Jonathan Murphy used to be a seminary professor and is currently the pastor of Stoneware Church, which if you live in Dallas, you probably know this church because it was checks when I'll search for many years.
1:14
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I looked at his new book, it's called The Story of God and S.
1:19
[SPEAKER_01]: finding our place and purpose in God's plan for the world.
1:22
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, yes, this guy has got it down.
1:25
[SPEAKER_01]: He's helping us connect the dots from Genesis to Revelation.
1:28
[SPEAKER_01]: What is the full picture in the full story of God's Word?
1:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Because if you're like me and you go up and church, then maybe, you know, a story here, a story there and you're trying to piece everything together.
1:36
[SPEAKER_01]: And so he does this really well for us.
1:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Not to mention, he has a killer accent that you're going to love.
1:42
[SPEAKER_01]: And we laugh really, we really get a good laugh and a good kick out of it as he tries to help me translate the dialect along the way.
1:49
[SPEAKER_01]: So I can't wait for you to hear this today.
1:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Jonathan Murphy and his book is called The Story of God and us.
1:57
[SPEAKER_01]: And listen, I love you all dearly.
1:59
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm probably not going to interview all your husbands.
2:01
[SPEAKER_01]: So I just wanted to save you that email, but never know.
2:05
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, here we go.
2:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Jonathan Murphy.
2:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey Jonathan, welcome to the podcast.
2:13
[SPEAKER_01]: How are you?
2:14
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm doing well.
2:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you very much for having me.
2:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, it's so nice to meet you.
2:18
[SPEAKER_01]: We were just talking before we started taping.
2:20
[SPEAKER_01]: And I said, your wife is a gem.
2:23
[SPEAKER_01]: She reached out to me because she's, I guess, listening to my podcast for years and said, you need, you and my husband need to chat.
2:29
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got a book and y'all would like each other.
2:31
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, let's do it.
2:32
[SPEAKER_01]: So here we are.
2:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, thank you.
2:34
[SPEAKER_00]: And yes, she is a gem.
2:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And yes, I haven't met you before, but your voice rings out loud and clear across our home regularly.
2:41
[SPEAKER_00]: So she's a big fan.
2:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing.
2:46
[SPEAKER_01]: My kids would say, yeah, it rings out a lot around our house too.
2:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
2:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so you obviously have a really cool accent.
2:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Go ahead and let's just start there and then we're going to do a little accent game, but where's the accent from?
2:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Because you know, I'm Texan, we think every accent, we're just like, I don't know it's European.
3:02
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
3:03
[SPEAKER_01]: It's all the same.
3:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
3:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm told to have an accent.
3:08
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't hear it.
3:09
[SPEAKER_00]: But of course, I've been here long enough for people to say, yeah, you have an accent.
3:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Where's that from now?
3:15
[SPEAKER_00]: It's from Northern Ireland.
3:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Northern Ireland now.
3:20
[SPEAKER_00]: The Northern Irish accent is much closer to Scottish sounding.
3:26
[SPEAKER_00]: than the Southern Irish accent.
3:29
[SPEAKER_00]: So most people go, oh, that's Scottish guy.
3:31
[SPEAKER_00]: I have people at church still go, oh, he's from Scotland.
3:35
[SPEAKER_00]: So Shrek is the one that most people think I sound like.
3:38
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure if the comparison is fair.
3:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Shrek is what he said?
3:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
3:42
[SPEAKER_01]: That's fantastic.
3:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's Northern Irish.
3:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so great.
3:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Then give me a sentence.
3:48
[SPEAKER_01]: You want me to try them.
3:50
[SPEAKER_01]: And by the way, everyone, nobody's worse at accents than me.
3:53
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm the worst.
3:54
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's going to be horrifying for all of us.
3:56
[SPEAKER_01]: But let's do it anyway.
3:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Give me a sentence.
3:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you want me to go light or go hard?
4:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, go hard.
4:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Go hard.
4:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Like start hard.
4:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
4:04
[SPEAKER_00]: This is as hard as it gets.
4:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
4:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, are you saying how now brown cow?
4:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Is that what you said?
4:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
4:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
4:14
[SPEAKER_01]: We had to start there with that.
4:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
4:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's do it one more time.
4:17
[SPEAKER_00]: High-ni-brain cow.
4:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Hard-nar brown car.
4:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, you started like car.
4:26
[SPEAKER_00]: So whenever I use the word car, which is cow, like in Mumu, I always have to qualify it with Mumu, you know, the animal that goes to Mumu, because everybody thinks I say car.
4:38
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought it was car.
4:39
[SPEAKER_00]: And I had never heard that until you said it.
4:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And I thought, wow, it is car.
4:44
[SPEAKER_01]: It is car.
4:46
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm full service, you're welcome.
4:47
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a brand car.
4:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, now it's your turn.
4:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Good friend.
4:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything's bigger in Texas, y'all.
4:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything's bigger and Texas y'all.
4:58
[UNKNOWN]: That's right, good.
5:01
[SPEAKER_00]: I've been here for a while.
5:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you have the benefit of being in Texas.
5:04
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm clearly, I don't know if the IRS is going to buy off on this, but I think I need to go to Northern Ireland on a work trip.
5:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Just to, you know, get this brushed up a little second.
5:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, get that high-nobron co-polished.
5:16
[SPEAKER_01]: That's right.
5:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, tell us a little bit about where you are in life and the kids, all the good stuff.
5:23
[SPEAKER_00]: So I am currently the senior pastor of Stombrard Community Church in Frisco.
5:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I recently took on that role about a year and a half ago, although my journey with them has quite long have been going up there to cover the pulpit for a long, long time.
5:43
[SPEAKER_00]: As I was a professor at Dallas Seminary, which is a seminary here in the DFW area, I have, and I'm still a professor there in some sense I have responsibilities, but they're quite minimal given my pastoral rule.
6:01
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a gem of a wife as you identify.
6:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I have four kids.
6:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
6:07
[SPEAKER_00]: My eldest is Itteen and she's heading off to college in a few weeks or first one to go.
6:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I've got three boys.
6:15
[SPEAKER_00]: The eldest is a girl.
6:17
[SPEAKER_00]: I've got three boys.
6:18
[SPEAKER_00]: They're sixteen thirteen and nine.
6:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're just a little school here where we live.
6:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we've a little dog as well at the house and he gets a mention.
6:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be it.
6:30
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not exactly his biggest fan around here.
6:33
[SPEAKER_01]: So here here on on naughty dogs got one of those.
6:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I'm sending one to college in about a week.
6:40
[SPEAKER_01]: And so people who listen as podcasts know, it's been a it's weeping over here.
6:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Now I already sent my oldest to college and you're sending my oldest as a girl as well.
6:48
[SPEAKER_01]: And
6:49
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like now I know you can send a firstborn girl to college and you're going to be fine because firstborn girls, one, they can run the world.
6:56
[SPEAKER_01]: They're, they're so efficient.
6:58
[SPEAKER_01]: But two, they're communicators.
6:59
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, I mean, I, I thought she was going away and I'm like, this is it.
7:03
[SPEAKER_01]: No, she called like every thirty minutes.
7:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Some point on my girl.
7:06
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't need to know every detail.
7:08
[SPEAKER_01]: But now I'm sending a boy and it's going to be a gnashing of teeth around here.
7:12
[SPEAKER_01]: That is dad has already told him that we will pay him.
7:16
[SPEAKER_01]: weekly has his allowance, his allotment of money based on if he calls his mother.
7:21
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's how it's going over here.
7:22
[SPEAKER_00]: You didn't send this?
7:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
7:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my goodness.
7:25
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm about to send one to college too.
7:26
[SPEAKER_01]: So I feel you deeply on that level.
7:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
7:29
[SPEAKER_01]: But well, let's talk about this.
7:31
[SPEAKER_01]: You've got family and kids and obviously you're a pastor and for y'all who don't live around here, Frisca is a suburb of Dallas and the church that
7:40
[SPEAKER_01]: His pastoring has had Chuck Swindall for years and years and years as the senior pastor, amazing scholar and amazing voice and Christian faith.
7:51
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I just, I want I love that we get to meet you and I love that you're stepping into such an incredible ministry there the last eighteen months that you've been there.
8:00
[SPEAKER_01]: But you also have authored books and listen, as a girl who just wrote her second book, I don't know how anybody does anything else while you write a book.
8:07
[SPEAKER_01]: I can barely like brush my teeth.
8:09
[SPEAKER_01]: But you wrote this book called The Story of God in the As, finding our place in purpose in God's plan for the world.
8:18
[SPEAKER_01]: I think what struck me about it was you said something early on in the book about whether or not and we're talking as believers, Christians, Christians, are we actually reading God's Word?
8:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, what's the actual statistics on that?
8:32
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was taken by that as a girl who grew up in church and realized many, not many, like in the last decade, like, I don't know my Bible.
8:42
[SPEAKER_01]: And so talk to us a little bit about that, and I'll extrapolate that out on myself in a minute, a little more on that.
8:48
[SPEAKER_01]: But tell us a little bit about that.
8:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Do we know our Bible?
8:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Are we reading the Bible?
8:53
[SPEAKER_00]: So I would, instead of saying yes and no, I would say no and yes, right, to flip it a little bit.
8:59
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think we are as
9:03
[SPEAKER_00]: God intends us to read it, listening to His voice primarily.
9:08
[SPEAKER_00]: We are in it, but sort of cherry picking here and there, and it sounds harsh, but generally speaking, putting words in His mouth, having Him aligned to what we want Him to do for us, rather than seeking His purposes in history and how we align with that.
9:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I know that's quite general, so not
9:32
[SPEAKER_00]: thinking of any individual as it were, but, but studies, recent, recent studies have, have shown that while we're a generation that has had the most access to the scriptures in, in whatever form, you know, be at a tablet, digital book version, in whatever language, you can even listen to it at whatever speed you want, and whatever accent you want, that we're still going to be
10:02
[SPEAKER_00]: pretty much at the back of the queue and the new heavens and the new earth when it comes to the Bible trivia quiz that we might get up there and say, hey, sure.
10:12
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's not good.
10:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And I grew up in the church.
10:15
[SPEAKER_00]: I grew up as a missionary kid in Spain attending everything going that related to a church plant, right?
10:22
[SPEAKER_00]: My parents had seven kids.
10:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's start the church by having a kids ministry.
10:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's populate it with our own.
10:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I grew up
10:31
[SPEAKER_00]: hearing these stories and enjoying them, but not really connecting them to the master plot of history as revealed in the Word of God.
10:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we're not in it, but we are.
10:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no, I get that.
10:47
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that's what I was thinking of too.
10:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Like as a girl, he grew up in church and incredible Christian home.
10:53
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm so grateful for that.
10:54
[SPEAKER_01]: And I grew up in a Baptist church.
10:55
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I believe you, me, people.
10:58
[SPEAKER_01]: We've gotten it wrong over the years.
11:00
[SPEAKER_01]: But we do teach the Bible.
11:02
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like that is a place where you go in and you hear God's word, but I realize like in the last decade, maybe a little longer than that.
11:08
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, I kind of have a VBS knowledge of the Bible.
11:11
[SPEAKER_01]: And by that, I mean, I know all the stories.
11:15
[SPEAKER_01]: I know, and I know more than just, you know, Jonah and Adam and I mean, of course.
11:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And in the last many years, I've read through the Bible several times.
11:21
[SPEAKER_01]: But I realized as I was kind of like working through my faith and starting to speak more, I'm like,
11:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, wait, how does that actually connect to this?
11:29
[SPEAKER_01]: And how does this connect to that?
11:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And what is the real theme of this?
11:32
[SPEAKER_01]: And to your point, yeah, I've been in the Bible a lot that I haven't been like in the Bible to understand the fuller picture.
11:42
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm as guilty as anybody else over the years.
11:45
[SPEAKER_01]: And let's not click.
11:45
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm too good for it now.
11:47
[SPEAKER_01]: I've just flipping over the Bible and finding a verse of being like, oh, that's the word for me today.
11:51
[SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes it is.
11:52
[SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes I've just flipped over the Bible.
11:54
[SPEAKER_01]: And I found a word that I wanted to
11:56
[SPEAKER_00]: That's right, keep flipping the pages until you find the one that you want.
11:59
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not it.
12:00
[SPEAKER_00]: That you want to find God too.
12:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
12:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'm back it.
12:05
[SPEAKER_01]: No, that's not it.
12:06
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm the same.
12:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I grew up in the same environment.
12:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Also about this background and it's wonderful.
12:12
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, you know, my the Genesis sort of of this book really comes down to having read some other books out there and going, you know, I know there's more to this than what's been presented to the average Jew Christian.
12:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think we should sort of lift the bar a little bit.
12:34
[SPEAKER_00]: and pursue that and you know I look at the you know preaching obviously is a big part of my responsibility and again I'm not picking on anyone and I'm not holding myself up as the standard but when I look at it our churches
12:49
[SPEAKER_00]: I do see a shift as occurred in the pulpit that has moved more to sort of snack-ted, tocky sermons, and away from the good old word expository preaching, which I know sounds very complex, but all it means is let's sink our teeth into some meat here.
13:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's move beyond the VBS
13:13
[SPEAKER_00]: milk for spiritual infants, as Hebrews says, to solids.
13:17
[SPEAKER_00]: We can handle it.
13:18
[SPEAKER_00]: It's wonderful when you do.
13:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And it will definitely fuel your life to another level with God.
13:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah.
13:27
[SPEAKER_01]: As we're taping this, I'm in the middle of picking book covers for my next book.
13:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And I remember the publicists, or now the publisher saying the other day they're like, listen, you got five seconds for someone to see it on a shelf or to see it on Amazon.
13:41
[SPEAKER_01]: And you got to grab their attention.
13:43
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's just the world we live in because we're watching reals and we've got social media and all that like our attention spans are like a nap now and and I think that's what's happening with us in the Bible or at least for me where I would prefer and like to not to my credit I would prefer give me a shallow ten minute quick TED talk and I can be like yes got it let's go like that's what I'm programmed for
14:08
[SPEAKER_01]: and culturally speaking, but as a believer in an image bearer, we're programmed for deep relationship with the Lord.
14:15
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think we're in a age and time, not just for kids that we rail all over social media, but for ourselves too, where we've got to discipline ourselves into going to the next level and not be content with just a quick little blurb from a quick devotional book, not knocking him.
14:34
[SPEAKER_01]: I think they're great.
14:36
[SPEAKER_01]: But a quick little bird from that, or a two minute thing on whatever Christian radio, like we've got to discipline ourselves and program it into our lives where we get deeper in God's Word.
14:46
[SPEAKER_00]: I agree.
14:46
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, our diet has to be a bit more healthy than snacking on little bits and pieces, and it takes discipline.
14:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Meaningful relationships require time together.
14:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
14:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
15:00
[SPEAKER_00]: We need to be in each other's presence, spend considerable amount of time together on a regular basis for relationship to actually grow in what we would classify as a meaningful relationship.
15:12
[SPEAKER_00]: And God's chosen his word as the primary
15:16
[SPEAKER_00]: a place for us to have a meaningful time with him and ten minutes every so often is probably not going to do it.
15:27
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not knocking or advocating a certain amount of time.
15:31
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just advocating spending time.
15:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Assal Mons says meditating on the Word of God.
15:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Day and night, right?
15:39
[SPEAKER_00]: So that we're trees that are planted, right where we want to be planted, if you're a tree, you want to be near water and be able to produce fruits.
15:46
[SPEAKER_00]: So it seems very basic and it is and it is very well known, but the leap toward doing it is important and to reading well,
15:58
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I read stuff and I get the page twenty two and I go I have no idea what I read for the last twenty one pages.
16:04
[SPEAKER_00]: How did I get here?
16:06
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's it's it's reading well and disciplining ourselves to listen to sit under God's voice not a long side or over.
16:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah.
16:16
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's so many great resources out there.
16:19
[SPEAKER_01]: There's so many great commentaries.
16:21
[SPEAKER_01]: There's, I mean, a million different ways that you can approach the word, right?
16:26
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, and I think those are helpful, too.
16:28
[SPEAKER_01]: I think we can overuse those, right?
16:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And where we really just need to let the Holy Spirit speak rather than we years be, although I love weirs be.
16:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't do anybody talk about weirs be.
16:39
[SPEAKER_01]: But right, like,
16:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I think part of this too is spending time with God's Word, but also getting the resources that help you as you dig deeper, but not being overwhelmed because there's so much out there you don't even know where to start.
16:51
[SPEAKER_00]: That's right.
16:51
[SPEAKER_00]: I think we all need a little bit of help.
16:53
[SPEAKER_00]: It is God's Word, but it is also an ancient book.
16:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, written a long time ago inside of multiple cultures, not just one culture like the Greco-Roman New Testament cultures very different than the Egyptian world that Moses and the first generation of Israelites grew up in.
17:10
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, they're miles apart.
17:12
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we do need a little bit of a help, a little bit of a framework that keeps us within the land as we then study God's Word.
17:21
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think that balance is important.
17:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And again,
17:26
[SPEAKER_00]: My book, the story of God and us is an attempt to come alongside of you as you read the scriptures and say, hey, read this have a little bit of a framework and then go after the word of God and I think you'll be a little bit more orientated as as you do that.
17:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and it's less maybe intimidating for some than pulling out a commentary or that what's it is it?
17:49
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to die that I can't think this in the moment later.
17:52
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to be like, oh my gosh, is it red letter?
17:53
[SPEAKER_01]: What is it that it tells you the different meanings of it?
17:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it the red letter translations, but anyway, like the different ways that you can look at the different versions and translations, the but like there's so many things.
18:07
[SPEAKER_01]: And this, what you've written, I think it's just a practical tool of like read this and read alongside the Bible.
18:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And this will just kind of help you like you said.
18:15
[SPEAKER_01]: It's giving the framework and a little bit of historical perspective around it.
18:19
[SPEAKER_01]: But let's talk about this for a second.
18:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's talk about stories.
18:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And I love, like I've always been told for better where Seanathan, whether or not it's true or I'm just self indulgent.
18:29
[SPEAKER_01]: It's hard to say at this moment, but I feel like the Lord gave me a gift of storytelling.
18:35
[SPEAKER_01]: And I love that because
18:38
[SPEAKER_01]: I was reading out this, I guess I wrote about it too, but, you know, neurocoupling and this whole idea that our brains, like when we're trying, when we're giving information to each other, like the straight facts, our brains don't sync up.
18:49
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you tell a story, our brains sync up because it's the same side of the brain.
18:53
[SPEAKER_01]: And how that makes sense, like when you think about it practically, you can be sitting in a sermon, not when a Jonathan's everybody, but you can sit in there and be so zoned out and be like, Ash, man, I want tortures for lunch.
19:04
[SPEAKER_01]: But if he or any pastor and go into a story, like all of a sudden, we're all back with him.
19:09
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I love that you're talking out how this is, it's the greater story.
19:14
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why Jesus used stories because it's compelling.
19:17
[SPEAKER_01]: So talk to us a little bit about that for the person who's like, oh, I just have to dig into an ancient book.
19:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, it has a story.
19:24
[SPEAKER_00]: That's right.
19:25
[SPEAKER_00]: I agree with you.
19:25
[SPEAKER_00]: I hadn't come at it from some of the biological and scientific side of it, just to somebody growing up listening to stories in a culture that's very storytelling oriented.
19:38
[SPEAKER_00]: We love stories.
19:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I call a story like the international language of the heart.
19:45
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't matter whether you're in twelfth century or whether you're in the twenty-first century, it doesn't matter whether you're in China, Northern Ireland or Texas.
19:54
[SPEAKER_00]: As soon as somebody says, something like once upon a time, we all kind of go, oh, okay, I want to hear what happened in that time.
20:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And so stories have an ability
20:07
[SPEAKER_00]: to go straight for our hearts, the intrigue, the suspense, the joy, the frustration, the disappointment is so reflective of our existence that we immediately connect.
20:24
[SPEAKER_00]: And history is one big, long, true story.
20:30
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a historical story, it's happening.
20:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's full of
20:35
[SPEAKER_00]: people, characters, doing stuff, having stuff done to them, aspiring for things, and all occurring inside of a setting, and that interaction in that setting has a purpose.
20:48
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what the Scripture tells us that God has a purpose.
20:52
[SPEAKER_00]: in the story that's unfolding in history and we're a part of it and so I love to tell stories like you do I think if you read the book you'll read lots and lots and lots of stories just because I think stories are great and yeah if I
21:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I was to say to you, you know this morning I woke up and I heard a big sound outside and I rushed outside and got into my car and I started to drive down the street and you know what happened.
21:17
[SPEAKER_00]: This squirrel jumped onto the road and he looked at me, yeah, I balled me and I hit the bricks.
21:23
[SPEAKER_00]: You're already going.
21:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Man, I see that street.
21:26
[SPEAKER_00]: I have no doubt.
21:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I don't know that squirrel but I've been around squirrels and I want to know what happened.
21:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
21:33
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we're hardwired for stories and God's story is history.
21:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
21:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
21:39
[SPEAKER_00]: And he wants us to know it.
21:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
21:41
[SPEAKER_01]: And just like in, you know, in college or law school for me, too, but they have, you know, you can get the little outlines that are like canned outlines that tell you about the literature and you don't have to read the book.
21:50
[SPEAKER_01]: It gives you the top twelve points.
21:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes I think we're approaching faith that way.
21:54
[SPEAKER_01]: We've got the top twelve points or whatever they are from the canned version of it, right?
21:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Like the Bible school kind of knowledge.
22:01
[SPEAKER_01]: But here's the thing, like you could still have enough knowledge of the literature piece, let's say in high school, that maybe you pass the test, but you miss the richness of how everything comes together.
22:12
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what I don't want for us and what you don't want for us in the Bible.
22:16
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want us to go through life.
22:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And we still have doctorally correct that whatever the ten or twelve or fourteen points are, but miss the fact that these are so in a related and this is the bigger story.
22:28
[SPEAKER_01]: And that bigger story is really what walks us through the big faith questions, the hardship that wears God in this.
22:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, most of that isn't just at the top, you know, point or three or four that we kind of go to.
22:42
[SPEAKER_01]: That's kind of in the nuanced of the entire story put together.
22:46
[SPEAKER_00]: precisely.
22:47
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we need to know how it all fits, not just to know the content that's there.
22:52
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, somebody takes a class on Genesis, Exodus, Lividic, his numbers, judoronomy, the first five books, and then the test will be, well, who wrote the Moses, got it?
23:03
[SPEAKER_00]: What's another name for these books?
23:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, Pentateuch.
23:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, that's a big word.
23:06
[SPEAKER_00]: I got Pentateuch.
23:07
[SPEAKER_00]: What does it mean?
23:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Five books and so people then leave thinking, well, I got some content and so I know those books and I'm saying, no, no, hold on.
23:18
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to understand the point of Genesis and what God is doing in there in all those little scenes and how it contributes to this plot that carries over into the rest of history because I think once you do that,
23:32
[SPEAKER_00]: you begin to be able to look for and see God when life happens for us, which is what you're describing and how that fits.
23:45
[SPEAKER_00]: That solids, that's just milk.
23:48
[SPEAKER_01]: right, absolutely.
23:49
[SPEAKER_01]: And to the point of us saying how much we enjoy stories, I love that the chosen has actually, is not by any means, the series to chosen.
23:57
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not replacing at all, the Bible, but it has actually given us visuals behind it and made it feel more story like in what a resounding success, right?
24:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Underscore the point if we want a story, right?
24:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
24:11
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's a wonderful example of helping people
24:16
[SPEAKER_00]: get a visual of actually people in a setting, doing stuff, moving in in a certain direction that we can instantly connect with because I am a person with people interacting in a setting.
24:30
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think that example certainly in narrative, like in the Gospels,
24:36
[SPEAKER_00]: that helps us see the gospels come alive.
24:39
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I would say it doesn't obviously replace the reading of the scriptures.
24:44
[SPEAKER_00]: God gave us a book.
24:45
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't give us a TV series.
24:47
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what's inspired.
24:48
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's obviously a license that has to be in there in terms of filling in what the scriptures doesn't say.
24:57
[SPEAKER_00]: I would have a problem.
24:58
[SPEAKER_00]: If one day we show up a church in the pastor says, turn to the Word of God,
25:04
[SPEAKER_01]: season three episode two of the chosen at that point I have a problem but yeah then we got yeah we got it we got a serious issue there talk to me about just specifically within the Bible I I would love for you to demonstrate this for us it's how you do it in your book but just
25:19
[SPEAKER_01]: how important it is to have an overlay of God's word within the context of the whole story of God.
25:26
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, I would love for you just to tell us, like, what's a book of the Bible, or even a passage, whatever's easier for you to break down, that maybe as we all would overlook, as I'm calling it, it's not in our VBS theology, but what is a passage that you think is overlooked, but yet, so such a critical part of the bigger story of God's word.
25:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Can I go after two as I think of?
25:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure.
25:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, let me go with, let's just pick on the book of Esther.
25:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, the book of Esther very well known VBS, you know, if you're going through kids programs, you'll know about the beauty pageant and one of the biggest issues in the book of Esther if you're reading it for content and and looking at it, not actually engaging it as a story, right?
26:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that will there's no mention of God?
26:22
[SPEAKER_00]: And so historically people go, it shouldn't be in the Bible, there's no mention of God.
26:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And I submit to you that if you understand how story works, God is all over that book.
26:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's all over that book.
26:35
[SPEAKER_00]: In a way,
26:37
[SPEAKER_00]: that God is usually at work all over our lives.
26:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And we call it the providence of God, right?
26:45
[SPEAKER_00]: That God is present even though he seems silent and even though he seems absent.
26:51
[SPEAKER_00]: He's present in the ordinary details of how life unfolds.
26:56
[SPEAKER_00]: And so
26:57
[SPEAKER_00]: in the book of Esther, just one example.
26:59
[SPEAKER_00]: You've got this king who's desperate to get to sleep.
27:03
[SPEAKER_00]: He can't get to sleep.
27:04
[SPEAKER_00]: And so his servants bring him a book to read him and the purpose of the choice of that book to read to him is to bore him to sleep.
27:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And as they read the book, which includes the accounts, the stories of what's unfolded recently, he gets alerted and is awakened to the fact that there's a hero there that he wants to reward.
27:28
[SPEAKER_00]: which is how the likes of Mordecai, one of the key guys in the story, comes into the full attention of this Persian king.
27:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And I see then tries to reward Mordecai.
27:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Mordecai's greatest enemy has an appointment with the king before Mordecai comes in.
27:47
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's coming in to basically slam Mordica, right?
27:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's get rid of this guy.
27:53
[SPEAKER_00]: But before he speaks, the king speaks and says, hey, did you know about this guy who seemed, I want to reward him, bring him here to reward him.
28:00
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's a beautiful little example of how pagan world rulers just going about their daily activities and frustrations are also under the hand of God.
28:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we will look at it from Esther Mordecai's perspective, just how he's been guiding their lives, ultimately to save his people and to continue his master plot of history.
28:31
[SPEAKER_00]: You begin to go, you know what?
28:33
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't see God with my eyes, and I don't hear him audibly with my ears.
28:39
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't have signs in the sky for me today, but
28:43
[SPEAKER_00]: His presence is in the details of my life.
28:46
[SPEAKER_00]: If I am a believer and I'm walking with God, He's not playing hide and seek.
28:50
[SPEAKER_00]: He is wanting to be involved in every decision.
28:53
[SPEAKER_00]: You just need to look for Him and talk to Him and sense His presence.
28:59
[SPEAKER_00]: His customized presence, I would say.
29:02
[SPEAKER_00]: as we walk with him.
29:03
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think you study a book of Esther with the right framework and it's highly practical to your raising of your children, to how to deal with your son going off to college when he might not call, you know, to... Oh, he's going to call Pastor John.
29:21
[SPEAKER_01]: He's going to call.
29:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, he's incentivized, yeah.
29:24
[SPEAKER_01]: He wants to eat, he's going to call his mama.
29:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
29:27
[SPEAKER_01]: For your point, yes.
29:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And the God is at work in his life.
29:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And you've set him up to be able to walk with God on his own to feet.
29:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's hard as a parent.
29:42
[SPEAKER_00]: but God wants to walk with him as much as he wants to walk with you.
29:45
[SPEAKER_00]: And all of that we actually learn before we experience.
29:51
[SPEAKER_00]: We learn as we watch these stories of the scripture unfold, as God says, look what I've done with people in the past.
29:58
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I want to do with you.
30:00
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think that helps us understand the bigger purpose, the bigger picture.
30:05
[SPEAKER_00]: God's relational personal desire to be in your everyday.
30:11
[SPEAKER_00]: The other one I would pick, and this is purely because I'm in a series on the book of Philippians at the minute with Archie.
30:18
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's fresh.
30:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I love it.
30:22
[SPEAKER_00]: It's one of those verses that people know, but struggle to reconcile with their heart, Philippians won twenty-one.
30:33
[SPEAKER_00]: plastered all over, you know, Hobby Lobby, et cetera, as a verse to put on your wall, I call it sort of the motto of the Christian life.
30:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And the beginning of it Paul says, for to me, or to me, life is Christ.
30:47
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's saying, hey, if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're a citizen of heaven on earth, then that should be your motto.
30:55
[SPEAKER_00]: But he follows it with, and death is again.
31:00
[SPEAKER_00]: just for the sake of my accent.
31:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Gain, right?
31:04
[SPEAKER_01]: I know, I was just, I like, do we need to put subtitles?
31:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you seen Gain, okay?
31:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Just like how it's car or whatever it was?
31:10
[SPEAKER_01]: It's Gain.
31:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, side note, I keep telling my congregation, my goal is not just to disciple your hearts and your minds.
31:18
[SPEAKER_00]: My goal is to disciple your ears and your tongue.
31:21
[SPEAKER_02]: We appreciate that.
31:23
[SPEAKER_00]: So, sometimes I have to pause and say,
31:26
[SPEAKER_00]: say it in a different accent.
31:27
[SPEAKER_00]: So gang, death is game.
31:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Like that's hard to hear.
31:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, like to what that goes counter everything within us to view death as something positive to to desire.
31:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And I submit to you what Paul is doing there is helping us lift our eyes to what's coming on the horizon of history.
31:52
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you study the rest of the scriptures, that's there, right?
31:57
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a new heavens and a new earth that's coming.
32:00
[SPEAKER_00]: And when you begin to see what God has said concerning what's coming for the believer, you will begin to see death as the gateway to gain.
32:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's hard for us, right?
32:14
[SPEAKER_00]: But I submit to you that being in the word regularly, with God, meaningful presence, meaningful relationship, listening to what he has said in the scriptures for more than ten minutes, meditating on a day and night as the sound one says, begins to birth within your heart, a hope, an enjoy and an excitement about our future.
32:43
[SPEAKER_00]: that is going to be better than anything you could ever desire here and anything that we could ever come up with ourselves.
32:53
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm not saying that we should all go out, you know, morbidly going, hi, I'm not a bite living, I'm a bite dying.
32:59
[SPEAKER_00]: But what I am saying is that for the believer who's in the Word of God and understands God's purposes in history, the story of God and us, I hope begins to be dialed up
33:12
[SPEAKER_00]: that is hard to explain to a world that does not know Christ and what's coming.
33:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And my last chapter in the book was my favorite chapter to write albeit I didn't write it last.
33:28
[SPEAKER_00]: I wouldn't care.
33:29
[SPEAKER_01]: By the end, man, I was just hoping to pump out anything, so I was really impressed.
33:32
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, she didn't write it last.
33:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
33:34
[SPEAKER_00]: No, because when you look at the first two chapters in Genesis, how it got the on-ramp to history and all that's there, well, what's in the last two chapters of the Bible, it parallels it in many, many ways.
33:48
[SPEAKER_00]: And so doing those two chapters together was just a beautiful sacred
33:55
[SPEAKER_00]: season for me.
33:57
[SPEAKER_00]: I had never camped out on heaven on the new heavens and the new earth and the death is gain portion of my walk with God as I did writing this and I got excited.
34:10
[SPEAKER_00]: I just got excited and every believer should get excited.
34:16
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd also help you be a bit more
34:19
[SPEAKER_00]: focused today, I think it's CS Lewis that says those who think about heaven most tend to be the most useful.
34:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Here, right?
34:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you know where we're heading and so you want to live to that end.
34:32
[SPEAKER_00]: But anyway, that's the thing.
34:33
[SPEAKER_01]: And it changes.
34:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it changes.
34:37
[SPEAKER_01]: The knowing the framework of the Bible changes the framework of how you perceive things and like to your point.
34:43
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't need to be polyana or more but about it or any of the either extreme of those.
34:48
[SPEAKER_01]: But you start looking at life a little bit differently when instead of saying how could a good God allow this to happen.
34:54
[SPEAKER_01]: then you're looking at it from perspective of like, he knew it was gonna happen.
34:58
[SPEAKER_01]: He's created.
34:59
[SPEAKER_01]: This isn't the end.
35:00
[SPEAKER_01]: This is barely the beginning of the goodness he's gonna show over his people.
35:05
[SPEAKER_01]: And you just, it reframes how you look at things.
35:08
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think.
35:09
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the beauty of getting deep in God's word is you can look at, you know, go to our, our standard go to for another, the Plansie has already says Laura to prosper and well, wait, I'm not prospering good things aren't happening.
35:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, let's dig a little deeper like what is prosperity for a believer in the day you're greatest gain or.
35:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, how do you say it?
35:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Again.
35:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, Jen, you're best, you're great as Jen is, is to spend eternity in the face to face with your Lord.
35:39
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, it's just, it's, it's a good reminder and I'm just so thankful that you are, you're putting words in a book around this.
35:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, in case anybody lost this, it'll be in the podcast notes, but it's called the story of God in us.
35:52
[SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to ask you that before we go about another, a quote, I think I heard this on a podcast, you said this.
35:58
[SPEAKER_01]: And it could have been a quote of someone else, so tell me if I'm wrong.
36:01
[SPEAKER_01]: But you somebody said to this effect, if you want to know what you truly believe, chart your week.
36:07
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm pretty sure it's you because that sounds like you're wording in the best of ways, chart your week.
36:11
[SPEAKER_01]: And you said, how you live not what you say in the case where your heart is.
36:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, so I don't know if I said that I certainly agree with it and what I tell again my congregation when they don't know on they don't understand what I've said because of my accent just as soon it was really really good.
36:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, profound.
36:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, so I'm going to claim that whether I said I know I do I do believe it I think that we tend to think of of
36:35
[SPEAKER_00]: knowledge more given where we are in history, more just through the avenue of what we know mentally or rationally.
36:44
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the content, right?
36:47
[SPEAKER_00]: But knowing is way more relational as well, experiential as well, best on truth.
36:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I've over the years, as I've mastered, I've encountered a lot of believers who believe correctly in the sense that they know doctrine and they know the Bible and they win all the Bible drill tournaments available, right?
37:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Who can get the Malachi first, all of that stuff.
37:17
[SPEAKER_00]: But their behavior doesn't communicate that they actually know that personally.
37:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
37:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Not consistently in their lives.
37:27
[SPEAKER_00]: And so behavior is one of the best metrics or ads.
37:35
[SPEAKER_00]: There's another one, AIDS, AIDS, to you.
37:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah, yeah, it's to you.
37:40
[SPEAKER_00]: As to what you actually truly believe in the deepest crevices of your heart.
37:47
[SPEAKER_00]: because you want to align your life to what you value.
37:51
[SPEAKER_00]: The stuff we have to do because we have to provide for our families that we might not particularly enjoy.
37:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you don't like your work, but you're there because you have to provide for your family.
37:59
[SPEAKER_00]: But specifically what you do when you have the option of not doing it, that's an indicator through your behavior of your value, which is a heart setting.
38:12
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think that believers should regularly reflect upon what they do, how they spend, where they go, what they talk about, because all of that stuff is indicative or symptomatic to you, to yourself of what you truly believe.
38:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, and if you align your life with what you believe are value,
38:40
[SPEAKER_01]: It's hard to not be in God's word if that's the truth.
38:44
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're going to line and I guess flip the other way.
38:48
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're not spending time in God's word and I'm not trying to make any means make anybody feel bad or guilty.
38:53
[SPEAKER_01]: You have a Holy Spirit.
38:54
[SPEAKER_01]: It is not something again off.
38:56
[SPEAKER_01]: I think there's some truth in the fact that if you reflect on the amount of time you're spending in God's word or not spending in God's word, I mean, you're kind of showing yourself what you value or don't value.
39:06
[SPEAKER_01]: And as a girl, I'm not talking a salvation issue, like we're not earning a salvation, right?
39:11
[SPEAKER_01]: that is a girl who grew up in church has been a lot of time in church and and even does Christian ministry.
39:17
[SPEAKER_01]: There are spans of time where I spend so little time in God's word is embarrassing and I value other things good things that I value other things over prioritizing what I know to be true.
39:30
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I think your to your point is well taken that we all need to step back sometimes in the sess and say what is the amount of time and or the
39:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, I don't know, the validity I'm giving to God's word was a say about.
39:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we all we all have a list of priorities and we all have a goal.
39:52
[SPEAKER_00]: The good life as it were that we're pursuing and you know, I
39:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I am very aware given my life, given the people around me, that there are so many competing voices in our life and that some people aren't in the world, not because they want to be in it, but because they're confused.
40:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we've talked about, well, there's help available.
40:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Some aren't in the word because they're disintegrated.
40:19
[SPEAKER_00]: They just don't value it highly.
40:22
[SPEAKER_00]: They've got their ticket to heaven as it were and they're just going to, you know, they got what they wanted.
40:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Some are distracted.
40:29
[SPEAKER_00]: There's so much stuff going on in our world that's vying for attention.
40:34
[SPEAKER_00]: We're distracted.
40:34
[SPEAKER_00]: But when you do, and it's a discipline, that's why I love you said that.
40:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Your hunger doesn't get satisfied, your hunger grows.
40:47
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what happens.
40:50
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm reading God's word because I'm hungry to hear from God and to walk with Him.
40:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And I finish and I'm more hungry.
40:58
[SPEAKER_00]: And I would submit to you that that's the spirit of God in you.
41:03
[SPEAKER_00]: telling you, see that book you're reading, I wrote it and he's connecting you because you were mad to fellowship with God and that's his primary meeting room as it were.
41:15
[SPEAKER_01]: a man and a man.
41:16
[SPEAKER_01]: I always say this when I was pregnant.
41:17
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't drink a lot of water.
41:18
[SPEAKER_01]: I drink a lot of Diet Coke and that's not a good thing.
41:22
[SPEAKER_01]: But I always say when I was pregnant because I couldn't drink a lot of Diet Coke, I drink a lot of water because that's what we're supposed to do.
41:27
[SPEAKER_01]: And the more I drink water, the more water I wanted and it was such a novel thing for me because I don't ever just, I think I'd love to have some water right now.
41:34
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that's God's word too.
41:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Like the more, like you're saying, the more saturated and you are the more you crave it and you desire it.
41:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And what happens is God actually begins to, I would say, snuff out the wrong values and then light or birth or plant new values.
41:55
[SPEAKER_00]: So yes, you might say, I don't really want to read my Bible.
41:59
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to do it as an act of discipline.
42:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And I would say, go for it.
42:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I know that if you regularly do that as an act of discipline as a behavior, that in the process, God actually begins to shift the values so that, down the line you go,
42:16
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm down to do this.
42:17
[SPEAKER_00]: This isn't the chore.
42:18
[SPEAKER_00]: This isn't the discipline.
42:19
[SPEAKER_00]: I love it.
42:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And to go back to the practicality of the Bible, we connected to this issue, take the book of Haggai.
42:27
[SPEAKER_00]: That's one of those little books tucked into the portions of the scripture that nobody ever visits, you know, one of those minor prophets.
42:34
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet when you read the little sermons that he produces to little group of people, living, you know, way back and
42:42
[SPEAKER_00]: and times, you know, fourth, fifth century, you begin to read, oh my goodness, these are so relevant to life.
42:49
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he's essentially going after what we're talking about here, our values, our priorities.
42:55
[SPEAKER_00]: God is on their list, but their priority list, but he's not at the top.
43:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Hague has a problem with that.
43:04
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, they've other things that are distracting them or,
43:09
[SPEAKER_00]: vying for their attention, and Haggai comes in as God's messenger to help them reprioritize, reset their lives.
43:19
[SPEAKER_00]: So everywhere you turn in the pages of Scripture, if you read it to listen to God's voice, not put words in God's mind, you leave going, this is practical to my day.
43:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
43:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, have you know that you brought up Bible drills a minute ago?
43:35
[SPEAKER_01]: So then I felt compelled because I too have a tension span of a nap.
43:39
[SPEAKER_01]: You said that the Hagar and I was like, well, I'm going to find it before you answers his question.
43:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I only got to Habaqa.
43:45
[SPEAKER_01]: So that didn't happen.
43:47
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't say you had the attention span of the knot, you did just to be clear.
43:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I know it's definitely a Cynthia thing.
43:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, tell us this as we wrap up.
43:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Everyone we're going to grab this book because it's a great book and it's a great resource.
44:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Tell us also for someone that's listening that's like, can you give me
44:06
[SPEAKER_01]: a commentary or something that you really thinks good and strong, but not so academic that we can't understand it, or anything that we have commentary, like what's a good resource that you point people to, if we're trying to dig a little deeper in God's word.
44:19
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm gonna answer this probably in the way you're not expecting.
44:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, here we go.
44:24
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have a book for you.
44:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
44:26
[SPEAKER_00]: I do have this for you.
44:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Find a local church that preaches God's word every week.
44:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
44:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And the reason I say that, God gives us His word, but He gives us His word.
44:41
[SPEAKER_00]: We're in us.
44:42
[SPEAKER_00]: We're a community.
44:42
[SPEAKER_00]: We're a faith.
44:43
[SPEAKER_00]: That's another one.
44:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Faith.
44:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Faith.
44:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my gosh.
44:48
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought I was a faith like one.
44:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
44:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Not the faith now.
44:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Not the faith.
44:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Now I don't do math over here.
44:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
44:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Faith family.
44:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Faith family.
44:54
[SPEAKER_00]: He, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he
45:04
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I would say you've got to, as a believer, discipline yourself to be a part of a local church fifth family.
45:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And to sit under the teaching of God's word, week and week, that's the best commentary, the best help you're going to get.
45:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.
45:22
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's right out of the New Testament itself, right?
45:26
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not something.
45:27
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm making up as a pastor because I want people in church.
45:30
[SPEAKER_00]: That's because that's the community of the local churches, another instrument in the hand of God to mature you in Christ.
45:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And I also think we have a bit of a danger here in Western society at the minute where, you know,
45:49
[SPEAKER_00]: We all went to church because Mama Dad made his go.
45:53
[SPEAKER_00]: And we might not have wanted to go.
45:55
[SPEAKER_00]: But as adults, we begin to go, hey man, I should be a church this Sunday.
46:01
[SPEAKER_00]: But what's not happening, what's happening is that the next generation isn't seeing the importance of the discipline of going to church in a Sunday morning.
46:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Not as an act of legalism, but just as a good habit, because they're going to become
46:19
[SPEAKER_00]: adults one day.
46:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And you wanted to be in their immediate thinking on a Sunday morning that at least I should be a church, that that's a good thing.
46:30
[SPEAKER_00]: So long story short there, I haven't a book for you.
46:35
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a request that you go to your local church and start sitting under the Word of God.
46:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Being expository listeners is what I call it, right?
46:45
[SPEAKER_00]: We want the expository preaching that is somebody opening up the scriptures to help us understand what God has said.
46:51
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a very teaching preacher, more teaching than I say.
46:55
[SPEAKER_00]: But I expect expository listeners.
46:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Believers are showing up and saying, you know what?
47:01
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm ready to hear from God.
47:03
[SPEAKER_00]: It's my responsibility to hear from God so.
47:06
[SPEAKER_01]: So good.
47:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I'm going to end by I'm going to use some of your words at a sentence every one of you ready.
47:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's see if I get it right.
47:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't have a car.
47:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Fifth is to your get gin.
47:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Is that right?
47:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you have a cow faith as to your game?
47:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Did I say the words right?
47:24
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm really working hard here.
47:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no you you're listen.
47:28
[SPEAKER_00]: You're improving.
47:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we struck from here on out.
47:32
[SPEAKER_01]: I referred a faith as fifth and gain is is it Jen?
47:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Jen.
47:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, again.
47:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
47:39
[SPEAKER_00]: So I know I Brian Kai.
47:42
[SPEAKER_00]: I am our wrong car fifth.
47:46
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a whole bunch of other words.
47:48
[SPEAKER_00]: We can leave that for another day, not too much on.
47:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, that's why you should go to Stonewire and church everybody.
47:53
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're anywhere near the Dallas area, it's just north of town in Frisco, Texas, and you will find Jonathan Murphy there, and if not, and even if you do go there, get the book, the story of God in us, finding our place and purpose in God's plan for the world, and I will link it on the podcast notes, and it's so nice to meet you.
48:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
48:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Pleasure is mine, and thank you for what you do.
48:17
[SPEAKER_00]: I will hear you around this place.
48:21
[SPEAKER_01]: You'll hear both of us.
48:22
[SPEAKER_01]: How about that?
48:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be a weird one for me, yes.
48:26
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, thank you.
48:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
48:27
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, friends, I hope you enjoyed that.
48:32
[SPEAKER_01]: A huge thank you to Pastor Jonathan Murphy for being here into his precious wife for reaching out.
48:37
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm glad we got to do this.
48:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Grab a copy of the book, The Story of God in S, and then also
48:43
[SPEAKER_01]: friends, would you please please please leave a review for the podcast.
48:46
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just a great way to help other people find this.
48:49
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
48:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much for being here.
48:51
[SPEAKER_01]: More great shows coming this fall.
48:53
[SPEAKER_01]: You're not going to want to miss any of them.
48:55
[SPEAKER_01]: So make sure you're subscribed and thanks for being a part of the mesmerized family.
49:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Do the fairy dust.