Latest / Our Community, Our Mission / Ep #288 – Walking Humbly, Loving Mercy, Acting Justly

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Ep #288 – Walking Humbly, Loving Mercy, Acting Justly · Our Community, Our Mission

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for this day and your blessings.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_02: And Lord, just this time to converse about your word and uh, Lord, just um all that you're doing here at the mission.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: God, we thank you for this time.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_02: And as always, thank you for our listeners who are just getting involved and connecting and listening.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: Lord, I pray your blessing over them today and blessing over this conversation.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: In Jesus' name.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Our Community, Our Mission, a podcast of the Topeka Rescue Mission.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, today is Tuesday, October 5th, 14th, if you're listening to it today, and we are on episode 288.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sure by now you've quickly realized I am not Barry Feeker or Lamanda Cunningham or Miriam Crable.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_02: I am Josh Turley, the director of strategic development, and I am joined today by none other than Mike Shottle.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_02: Good day.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: Hello, sir.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: How are you?
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: I'm great.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_03: How are you?
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: I'm doing good.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: I'm doing good.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: Why don't you tell our listeners uh, I'm sure they've heard it before, but your title here at the Rescue Mission?
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_03: I am the director of spiritual wellness and discipleship.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: So happy to have you on today.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: As uh like I said, I'm sure you guys are all aware now that um everyone else is on assignment.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: And so they once again kicked it to us and we're like, hey, you guys didn't do too terrible last time.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_03: Nothing bad happened, so we're gonna have you back.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_02: So okay, we'll let you do it again.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_03: So fantastic.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, so we're super excited to be here.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_02: So as always, in honor of the normal times with with with Barry and Lamanda, we have the special the special thing about what today is.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um the random holidays that nobody really asked for.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but nonetheless they exist.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_02: So we're gonna we're gonna just gonna go over a couple of those.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_02: So today is a fun one.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: National dessert day.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: Not dessert day, dessert day day.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: Which did you know that stressed spelled backwards is desserts?
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: I did not know that.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: It is.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: So when you're stressed, flip it around.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: Have some cake.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: Have some cake.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: That's a great idea.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_03: You know, make my stressful day go better.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_03: A rice crispy treat.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I do like rice crispy treats.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: Or a nice fudgy brownie.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yes.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_03: Like a warm one with just like a dollop of ice cream.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_03: Well, just a little bit of ice cream.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_03: Both of us being lactose intolerant, we probably should stay away from the ice cream.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: I'm good with either.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_03: But ice cream does make it better.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, it does.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_03: It like way better.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_03: So, yeah, I mean, dessert's good.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_02: I always we so like growing up, obviously you're learning how to spell words.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_02: Desert and dessert are very close.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: But how I learned to know the difference between the two spellings is you always want more dessert, which is why there's two S's.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_03: So when you spell dessert, that's that is a very good teaching lesson right there.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_03: Listen there too.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: Because you want more.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: You don't want more of the desert because the desert's kind of terrible.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: Dry.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_03: And there's nothing worse than a dry dessert.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_03: Like this is a dry brownie.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_02: It's very true.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_03: This is a dry piece of apple pie.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: Very true.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_03: Send it back.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: That would be weird to have a dry apple pie.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_03: It really would.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_03: But I've I have had a dry apple pie before, and it's I wouldn't recommend it.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_03: Not very good.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_03: It's not great.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_03: Ice cream can't even save that.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: So National Dessert Day.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_02: We also have National Face Your Fears Day.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_02: No thanks.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: So I mean, you know, I think this is a good observance.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: I think some of us have different different fears.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um talked about some people have public speaking, is a very common one.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: Uh some are spiders.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: Fine with that.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: Both of those.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: What's your what's your fear, Mike?
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_03: Porcelain dolls.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: Porcelain dolls.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_03: And that's when Alec, we have Alec here doing the soundboard.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_03: He's probably gonna just get up from his chair real quick and put the porcelain doll down.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I don't I don't like dolls, especially porcelain dolls, like with the blinky eyes.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_03: I I can't.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_03: I understand.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_03: I can't.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_03: They terrify me.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: Mine would probably I don't know, probably be clowns.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: I don't like clowns.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_03: They kind of Which is wild.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_03: Because like you love Batman.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_02: I do.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I like when obviously Batman beats the Joker because it creeps me out.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: So there you go.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: Wild stuff.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_02: National Face Your Fears Day and National I Love You Day.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_02: Oh.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_02: So this is a little different from Valentine's Day in that it's not just for couples, it is for your family and your friends and just anyone else that you hold dear to your heart.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: Like you, Josh.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_02: I love you, man.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_02: I love you too.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_02: I love you too.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: Love you too, Alec.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_02: We love you, Alec.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, oh stop.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: So so today, face your fears, eat some dessert, and tell your family and friends that you love them.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_03: In that order.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_03: In that order.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_03: Because after you face your fears, you gotta treat yourself and then be like, you know what?
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_03: I love you guys.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, hopefully, your fear is not telling someone I love you.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_02: That would that that is a fear, though.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_03: That's a cyclical.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_03: It is a fear.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, I don't know what they call it, but it definitely has phobia at the end of it.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um, yeah, that just be a cyclical thing.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: So good stuff.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: So there's your national days today.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: Hope you guys can celebrate well.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: And um, thanks for hanging with us through those.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: We're so sorry.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: So uh, Mike, today you have kind of a special word for us.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna kick it off to you and you kind of share.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: I know you've kind of had shared this in one of our staff chapels, and so I'd uh love to hear of that have you share that with our listeners.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm trying to well, I'm checking right now, just checking my notes when I did.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_03: Uh this was August 6th.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_03: This was August 6th.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, so we are now October 14th.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_03: So it's been over two months ago that I shared this, but this has been one that uh really what I do when I when I share with our staff in our staff chapels on Wednesdays is I don't I don't want to share anything that the Lord is not working in my heart with.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_03: So um I've been working through the entire year, uh working through different prophets, uh, books of the prophets in the old testament, and just so happened to be wrapping up the minor prophet Micah and um came to Micah chapter six, verses six through eight, and the entire book, just to give an overview of it, is Micah is telling about the imminent coming of different uh empires that are coming.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_03: You have the Syrians, you have the Babylonians.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_03: Israel is split right down the middle.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_03: You have northern Israel and southern Israel, you have Samaria and Judah, and Micah is really calling them out about the he's calling them, he's calling them out about the sin, about the corruption that's going on in Israel, and you know, people are trying to get an economic uh gain from money, from land, whatever it is.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_03: So he's telling them that this imminent doom is coming, basically.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_03: This judgment is coming for Israel.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_02: And what roughly what kingship was he around?
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_02: The prophet of Micah.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um Dash Kitcher question.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_03: You did.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I don't have that written down.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_03: I want shoot.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_03: You asked me a question that I don't know.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_03: That's the answer to.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_03: Um, yeah, I don't know.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_03: Uh but uh Micah is saying, hey, you know what?
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_03: We need to turn our hearts back to the Lord.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_03: And um he's saying that this is the stuff that needs to happen.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_03: And then in Micah chapter six, verses six through eight, uh verses six verses six and seven, it says the following.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_03: So he's saying, uh, you know, we have to sacrifice back to the Lord, you have to give your hearts back to him.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_03: And the people are asking, what should I bring before the Lord when I come to bow before God on high?
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_03: Should I come before him with burnt offerings, with year old calves?
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_03: Would the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousand streams of oil?
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_03: Should I give my firstborn for my transgression, the offspring of my body for my own sin?
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_03: And then Micah says, He has told you, O mankind, what is good and what it is that the Lord requires of you.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_03: One is to act justly, two, to love mercy, and three, to walk humbly with your God.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_03: So that kind of really resonated with me because sometimes we just get so caught up in, well, I'm doing this, I'm doing that, I have this to offer for the Lord, I have that to offer for the Lord, and then what ends up happening?
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_03: You know, the shoe drops, and then it's like, well, God, do you hate me?
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_03: Um, or you're just looking out for you know, me to to mess up next or whatever, you know.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_03: Whether you have that thought or not, sometimes we think, well, I've been giving this, and what do I have to show for it?
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_03: So one of the things that I wanted to really give back to the staff is look, it doesn't matter what we have to offer.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_03: It doesn't matter what um, and that's what that's what Micah was sharing too.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_03: Like, no, it's not the burnt offerings of year old calves, it's not the fragrant things that you can offer to the Lord.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_03: What the Lord wants of you is to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with him.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um so why should we act justly?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_03: Uh in Isaiah chapter 56, verse 1, it says this is what the Lord says preserve justice and do what is right for my salvation is coming soon, and my righteousness will be revealed.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_03: So the author here is writing that the Lord is saying that his salvation is coming, and because of that, his people should be obedient to his calling.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_03: So obviously, Isaiah 56, which this is hundreds of years before Christ's coming, this is a foreshadowing of Christ's deliverance.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_03: There is nothing we can do by obligation to receive his salvation, which then is a call forward to Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 through 9.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_03: For it's by grace through faith that we have been saved, not by our own doing.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_03: So his salvation is come.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_03: What do we do?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_03: If his salvation is come and it is by grace through faith that we've been saved, what do we, as followers of Christ, need to do?
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_03: We need to act justly.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_03: So the passage from Micah chapter 6, verse 8, to act justly, to love mercy and walk humbly with God.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_03: The first part of acting justly is a callback to Jeremiah 22, 3.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_03: So a lot of these are cross-references.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm sorry if anybody's wanting to follow me.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, you're doing a little you're gonna be doing a lot of switching back and forth to different books.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_03: So um I'm sorry if you're gonna do that.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, if you're driving, please focus on driving.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_03: Do not do not check the cross references.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_03: My word, please.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_03: Don't unpack it for him.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_03: I will unpack it, yes.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_03: So Micah chapter 6, verse 8 is a callback to Jeremiah chapter 22, verse 3.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_03: This is what the Lord says administer justice and righteousness.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_03: Rescue the victim from robbery from his oppressor.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_03: Don't exploit or brutalize the resident alien, the orphaned, or the widow.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_03: Do not shed innocent blood in this place.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_03: In other words, which if you listen uh from a couple weeks ago when I was on the podcast last, Barry had me unpack the seven biblical pillars of TRM.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it was you, me, uh, you, Josh, Barry, and me.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and one of the pillars that we had, the fifth pillar was advocate for the lost and broken.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_03: Right, which is a call for Proverbs chapter 31, verses 8 through 9.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_03: Open your mouth for those who cannot speak for themselves.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_03: Judge righteously.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I'm totally blanking on the rest of it right now.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but it's to open your mouth and judge righteously for those who can't defend for themselves.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_03: So the important thing is is to act justly.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_03: Basically, that's saying is bring a voice to the voiceless, give them hope.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_03: So a lot of the things that are said at the beginning of Micah uh the entire book of Micah is that there is judgment.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_03: It's doom.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_03: It's doom and gloom.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_03: We can't end at the doom and gloom because God's judgment, it's not our judgment.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_03: God's judgment has to be brought forth in order for the hope to be to be given.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: So well, and I think it unpacks like a picture of what that hope is, right?
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_02: If we don't understand what you know our sins have done and as kind of unpacked in the old testament, like we've talked about, then you don't understand the redemption within the new testament.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: And and I love, I'm I don't know if I'm jumping ahead of your notes, but I do love how kind of this ultimately is kind of laid out with Jesus when he says, you know, one of the two greatest commandments, love God, and love our love your neighbor yourself.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um that's unpacked right here.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think it's cool that those echo each other too.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: So anyway, yeah.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um yeah, so like the whole the whole doom and gloom, you see the you see the storm that's coming.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_03: It's almost like when you don't know what the outcome's gonna be, yeah, us knowing what you were just saying, Josh, is we know the outcome of what the hope is.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_03: But during this time, they didn't know that there was gonna be a Messiah coming, they didn't know when he would be coming, if they did know he was gonna be coming.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, you have Malachi, which is the last book of the Old Testament, and then you have Matthew, which is the first book of the New Testament, and that's a 400-year gap that's between them.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_03: That's like known as the 400 years of silence.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, nothing, no word heard from God.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_03: When is the Messiah gonna come?
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_03: We're in captivity, there's wars that are being fought, people are oppressing us.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_03: When are we going to be delivered?
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_03: It's doom.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_03: There's a big giant tornado that's coming straight for them, and it's gonna wipe them clean.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_03: But what we also know from when there is horrible weather that comes through, nine times out of ten, after the weather leaves, what comes out?
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_03: The sky clears, the sun comes out, animals come back out.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's like the beginning of it's like the beginning of Bambi.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, there's a mess, but there's hope that comes afterwards.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_03: So, excuse me.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_03: By bringing a voice to the voiceless, you know, yeah, it was a foreshadowing that Christ came.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_03: And in Matthew chapter 23, verse 23, um, Jesus calls out, calls out the Pharisees.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_03: You know, these are teachers of the law, these are people, these are these are men who know the word of God inside and out, up and down, left and right, blindfolded, with their hands tied behind their back.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_03: These are guys that know it.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_03: And yet what are they doing?
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_03: They are not acting justly, they are not loving mercy, and they are definitely not walking humbly with the Lord.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_03: Jesus calls them out because they're giving, they're giving the lowest of low, the bare minimum of their tithe for the sacrifice of their sins.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_03: So they're offering, they're offering the best stuff, though.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_03: They're giving the dill, the mint, the cumin.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_03: Um, while these weren't expensive herbs, like cinnamon or myrrh, um, man, mint, dill, and cumin.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_03: They sure smell nice, right?
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, you got mint.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_03: This is where we beg to differ with our opinions, but I love mint chocolate chip.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_02: I like mint, just don't put it with chocolate.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_03: Don't put it with chocolate.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_02: It's fine.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_03: Or like dill, like you could do anything with dill.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_03: Shoot, you could put dill in a salad, you could put dill in like a ranch dressing, you could put dill dill bread.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not done.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_03: Oh man, dill pickles.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_03: You could do a whole bunch of stuff with dill.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_03: It smells nice, nice.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_03: Cumin or cumin, whatever people call it is.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, that's one spice you need.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I don't think they were doing this in in Israel, but tacos.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_03: You don't think they were making tacos.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think they made tacos there.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_03: No, yeah, that I don't think they did.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_03: But they smell nice.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_03: You can use the stuff for cooking, but also there is some medicinal things that you could use mint, dill, or cumin for.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_03: Mint being one of them, I mean peppermint.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_03: If you have a headache, put a little bit of peppermint oil on your forehead, and then your forehead burns and you don't have a headache anymore.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_02: So, what you're saying is they were offering these as like the bare minimum.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_03: As a bare minimum, but also like as a hey, look at me.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_03: This is what I have to offer.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_03: It's very pleasing to the nose.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_03: This is what I have to offer.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_03: And Jesus is saying, you know what?
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_03: I am fed up with seeing people who are poor who are suffering.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_03: I am sick and tired of you religious rulers who are going out because, you know, the Lord told me to sacrifice these things, and yet I am not seeing the people who are orphaned.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not seeing the people who are widowed or poor.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_03: So acting justly is something that we as believers need to be.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_03: We need to give a voice to the voiceless.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_03: This isn't, you know, a direct get out of jail free card to, you know, dress up in hockey pads and start acting like Batman and say, Why are you doing this?
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_03: And you go, justice.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_03: That's not, that's not what I'm getting at.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_03: What I'm saying is that speak up for those who can't speak for themselves.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_03: Acting justly is by showing the love.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes love hurts.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_03: But showing the love of God that you are cared for, you have dignity, you have a purpose.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_03: You're not, you're not a screw-up, you're not a burden, you're not the world's not a better place without you.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_03: It's not.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_03: By acting justly, you are seeing people for who they are, created in God's image.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's good.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_03: So by acting justly, this is all a callback, another callback.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_03: Go figure, because that's what the Bible does.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_03: There's cross-references left and right.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_03: In Genesis chapter 18, verse 19, God tells Abraham to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_03: All the nations will be blessed through whose bloodline?
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_03: Abraham's.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_03: So keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_03: Therefore, justice and keeping it is not an option.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_03: It is a covenant.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_03: It isn't a, well, if you do this for me, I do that for you.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_03: No, it's a covenant.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_03: No matter what, I am going to keep my end of the bargain up.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_03: So, what does this look like in the place that we work?
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_03: One of the things is sometimes when we have to love people, there's plenty of opportunities that we have that we are able to love people, but it hurts.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_03: And I shared this one, and I for confidentiality purposes too, I'm not going to name his name, but I remember it was probably a couple months into working here at the mission, and it was when I was I was just doing uh truck driving, uh, when I was working at the distribution center.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_03: And we used to have the SIT program, which was servants and training.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so it was a lot of like internship.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_03: We'd have some our guests in programming where they would come and they would um have places that they would work with throughout the mission.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_03: So they'd be at the front desk, they would be at the hope center, they'd be in the kitchen, they could be on the maintenance team, they'd be at the distribution center, uh, whatever that looked like.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_03: Basically, it was it was an internship.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_03: And we had one guy who his um what's the word I'm looking for?
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_03: It was like a work um, it was an assignment.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_03: Work assignment?
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it was it was a like a year-long kind of discipleship program that also kind of had like a work study with it.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_03: Work study, thank you.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_03: There's the word we're kind of go with it.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_03: So thank you.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_03: Um so and everything we used to have sit, sit got we did away with that because of COVID.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_03: It just got, yeah.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_03: So um, but this sit member in particular, he was a hard worker at the distribution center.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_03: And one day he didn't show up, and we were calling out, didn't know where he was at, and he showed up later on in the week uh ringing the doorbell, and I answered the doorbell, and it was him, and I was like, Hey, what's going on?
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_03: You haven't answered anything, and he said that um he had a late pass with his one of his kids, and his child said that you know, I liked you better when you were drunk, and he was like five years sober.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_03: And he said, I just drank an entire half gallon of vodka about 15 minutes ago.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, Whoa! So you're talking fine now, and then while we were conversing back and forth, his speech was very quickly going south, yeah.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_03: Uh swaying back and forth, and I was like, okay, we gotta get him down.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, he said, Um, I know I'm gonna blackout soon, but I knew that I'd be safe if I came here.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_03: So I said, Man, I gotta call 911.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_03: There's nothing that I can do that's gonna be able to help you.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_03: This is not safe, this is not good.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so I called 911 and they showed up to take him to the hospital.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_03: And one of the last things that I said to the EMTs was, please take care of him.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_03: Please help him.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_03: He's a really special guy.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um then one of the And you wouldn't have had that I was just gonna say, you wouldn't have had that opportunity had you not got to know him.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_02: No, not at all.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's something is like partly just getting to know people.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's huge because you know, if you hadn't had that chance to get to know him and learn his who he was and learn what his struggles had been and learn what he had walked through, then you know, you wouldn't have a good opportunity to advocate for him.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_02: So you were presented with that because of your history with him.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_03: So building the relationship.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_03: So I mean, was there a punishment?
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_03: He wasn't in the sit program anymore, obviously, because he broke he broke that contract.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_03: But the punishment wasn't mine to hang to to hand out.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_03: I had to rely on God to lead me to do the right thing, and right at that moment it was to save his life.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um we have to recall what Jeremiah charges in chapter 22, verse 3.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_03: Rescue the victim.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_03: Do not take advantage or oppress the alien, the orphan, or the widowed.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_03: But by doing this, we honor God and draw closer to him.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_03: So that's acting justly.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_03: To love mercy the next step of Micah chapter six, verse eight.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_03: To love justly, it's a call back to Hosea chapter six, verse six, where it says, For I desire faithful love, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_03: So loving faithfulness, loving mercy can be better worded to mean merciful, kindness, favored, and loving kindness.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_03: If God desires faithful love and knowing him over sacrifice and burnt offerings, then how should we treat everyone?
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_03: Let me ask that question again.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_03: If God desires faithful love, if he desires that over knowing excuse me.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sorry, let's back that up.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_03: I'm trying to read my chicken scratch.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_03: You're good.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_03: If God desires faithful love and knowing him over the sacrifices and burnt offerings, how should we treat everyone?
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_03: We should treat everyone with mercy.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_03: Treat every single person with mercy.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: How some translations sounds like say mercy and some say faithfulness.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_02: So how does that kind of work together there?
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and then in other translations it'll also say loyalty.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_03: So whatever that looks like, if it is by being faithful to someone, I'm faithful to my wife.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_03: Um whether that means through that I will never take another woman, that's what it is.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_03: But also the faithfulness is that I will pursue her as Christ pursues the church.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_03: Am I perfect?
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely not.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_03: Do we sometimes have arguments?
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_03: But the whole thing of loving her and having mercy, by me being faithful, she will give me mercy.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_03: Because it's like, look, I know you're not perfect, but I love you for it.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_03: So I don't know if that makes any sense.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_03: Um the whole thing with loyalty too.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, if you don't have loyalty and friendship, what's what's the point in having a friend?
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_03: So one of the one of the cool things that I kind of uh that I kind of uh picked this apart, uh the illustration that I used for this, and I actually had the the fortunate um opportunity to have my parents here when I shared this week.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um because this is actually week two.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_03: I'm just blowing through three weeks worth of sermon notes.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_03: So congratulations, everybody.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_03: Uh condensed.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_03: Where you're getting the reader's digest version.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_03: There you go.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so loving mercy, living out and loving mercy.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um I talked about my dad, and one of the things that I always prefer to do is when I talk about people when I'm when I'm in a share in a sermon or a devotion, for instance, I want to get their permission.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_03: I did not get his permission for this for the sole reason that I knew that he was going to be sitting, and I just kind of wanted it to bless him.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_03: So I gave an illustration of my dad.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um, he has always been active in church.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, he would give you the shirt from his back.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_03: The guy loves Jesus, but he's also a bear.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you poke the bear, you're gonna get mauled.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um, cross him or my mom, rut row.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_03: So there was a there was a time, and I remember I was in, oh, I think I was in eighth grade.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_03: Um my brother was no, I wasn't in eighth grade, I was in sixth grade, excuse me.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um, because my brother was a freshman in high school.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um, my brother was on a baseball team, and he was active playing baseball all growing up, but this was the final year that he played because when he got to the plate this one game, um he didn't duck quick enough.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_03: And the pitcher, um is it debatable that he did it on did it on purpose?
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_03: I think so.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_03: He did not show any sign of remorse, uh, threw the ball and it hit my brother right in his left eye, uh his left eye socket.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_03: And just immediately it swelled.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um and my dad rushed on the field, you know.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_03: The the the pitcher was like, oh, well, all right, well, should have ducked.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_03: And I just remember my brother getting taken to the emergency room.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_03: Ended up not having anything wrong, uh, just some bruising, even though it swelled up like a uh boy, it was bad.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_03: Um But what was really cool was seeing how my dad took care of my brother, but then a couple weeks passed, and we were back at the uh baseball diamonds, and we were waiting in line for concessions.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's right after school, and this kid was about two or three people behind us, and the pitcher.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_03: The pitcher, yeah, sorry.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_03: The pitcher was about two or three people behind us, and my dad looked, and I saw my dad look, and I was like, oh yeah, dad's gonna give it to him.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_03: Dad's really gonna get it.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_03: Put him in a headlock, dad.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_03: And the kid was visibly disoriented.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_03: Um, looked like he was he'd been crying, um looked like he thought he was in trouble, and my dad turned around and he looked at him and he said, Hey, come here.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, Yes.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_03: He's gonna get him.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_03: And my dad goes, What do you need?
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_03: And the kid goes, What?
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_03: And my dad said, What do you need?
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_03: You're late to your game, aren't you?
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_03: And he goes, Yeah.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_03: And my dad said, What do you need?
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_03: And he goes, No, no, no.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_03: And he said, I'm asking you right now, what do you need?
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_03: And he said, uh, a Gatorade and uh a snack.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_03: And my dad said, Okay, all right.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_03: And he said to the person at the the concession, he said, Whatever this kid wants, I'm paying for it.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_03: And the kid just looked at my dad and said, Thank you.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_03: And my dad said, Okay, go.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_03: And he went, and I said to I said to my dad, I'm like, What are you doing?
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_03: Doing.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_03: This was the kid that threw the ball at Matt's head.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_03: And you just treated him to something.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_03: My dad goes, Michael, we don't know what that kid's home's life like.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_03: The best thing that I can do is I can love him in a way that he might not see that love at home.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_02: You never know somebody's story.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_02: You never know what somebody's been walking through, what difficulties they've been going through.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, your dad was able to kind of be that light for him.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_02: And who knows what how that impacted him.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_02: You may never know the the seeds of kind of what you plant, but um just knowing that that was there, and I'm sure that blessed him.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_03: So Right.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_03: Um last time we saw the kid, but you know, maybe maybe it did.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe that changed his trajectory.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_03: I'd like to think that it would, that a yellow Gatorade and a package of pretzels or whatever combos.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's what it was that he took, but it's like, you know, whatever, you do your thing.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_03: Faithful love is more evident when you love the people who are different or really hard to love.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_03: Somebody who's wronged you.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_03: It is so evident.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_03: And that's why in Micah 6, verse 8, the Lord makes it clear that his people need to focus more on their heart rather than what they are offering God, their character and their behavior rather than what they are bringing to burn as a sacrifice.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_03: So this really just coincides with everything that we've been discussing with our seven biblical pillars, um, with what um advocating for the lost and broken looks like when we see someone, and when someone sees what we are doing and how we live and serve and lead, do they see the evidence that we are abiding in Christ?
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_03: And this is what you just what you just said a couple minutes ago.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_03: Jesus says in John chapter 13, verses 34 and 35, a new command I give you.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_03: Love one another just as I have loved you.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_03: You are also to love one another.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_03: By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_03: It should be a distinguishing factor to be a disciple of Christ, to be a follower of Christ.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_03: I can tell that that they that is a follower of Christ by the way they love the person in front of them.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um really great, really, really great um line that I know I've shared multiple times being on this podcast, but I love the play.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_03: I've never read the book, I don't have the time to read the book because it's literally as thick as a Webster's dictionary.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_03: But Les Miserables.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_03: You have the main character Jean Valjean, who is in prison for stealing a loaf of bread because his sister's son is dying.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_03: So then there's a prison guard named Javert who doesn't care.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_03: Um doesn't care who Jean Valjean is.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_03: He doesn't even call him by Jean Valjean.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um he calls him by his number, which is 24601.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_03: Um the entire play, the entire book, the entire musical, everything.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_03: Javert's sole purpose is to find Jean Valjean and get him back into justice so that he can pay the debt of what he did wrong.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_03: Stealing a loaf of bread, but he sees him as a criminal.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_03: The entire time Javert's sole purpose is to make Jean Valjean's life miserable, to condemn him.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_03: And then there's a turning point in the entire play in the book, where Jean Valjean could have easily taken Javert's life, but he spares it.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_03: He says, you know what?
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_03: My focus is that there's this boy who is dying here.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_03: I'm going to help him.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not fighting you, but if you want me to be in captivity, if you want me to be arrested, let me take care of this boy, and then I'm done fighting you.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_03: I will come back and you can send me to prison.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_03: And that just puts Javert on a downward spiral of he could have killed me, but he didn't.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_03: What kind of world is this that I live in that I have tried to do an eye for an eye?
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_03: Anybody does anything wrong, you have every right to give back plus some force.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_03: So Javert ends up jumping off of a bridge, but the most important thing that Jean Valjean learns through the entire story is to love another person, whether it is somebody who looks like you, acts like you, or somebody who is your sworn enemy, to love another person is to see the face of God.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_03: That is the line from Le Miserab.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_03: To love another person is to see the face of God.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_02: That's so good.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_03: So to love mercy, it looks like an action.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_03: It's an incredible action, and vengeance is not ours to repay.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_03: But we need to stand for those who are defeated.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_03: And while we are doing that, we need to love everyone.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_03: So I don't think it's ironic that Christ is depicted as two animals from two completely opposite sides of the animal spectrum.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_03: And what are those two animals?
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_03: Lion.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_03: A lion and the lamb and a lamb.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_03: You have a lion, the lion of Judah.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_03: Jesus is the lion of Judah.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_03: He is just, he's terrifying.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_03: It's not something that you would want to be stuck in a cage with.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_03: But he's also the lamb.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_03: He is loving.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_03: He is innocent.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_03: He's the lamb of God.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_03: He's both.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_03: To love him and to be known by people to be his disciple.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_03: Is to be known by his love and to love one another.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_03: So act justly, love mercy, and then finally, walk humbly with God.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_03: So what has God told us to do?
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_03: What has God told his people to do?
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_03: To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_03: So God's people were disobedient.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_03: We are sinful.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_03: We're disobedient.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_03: Micah's calling them out in chapter six because they thought the Lord, they thought what the Lord was requiring them was kind of unreasonable, because it's like, what do you want me to give?
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_03: Should I give this?
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_03: Hundreds of calves?
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_03: Hundreds of jars of streaming oil?
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_03: Should I give my firstborn child?
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_03: I only have one kid.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_03: I ain't giving my kid up.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_03: But that's far from what the Lord required of them.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_03: What the Lord wanted from them was a foreshadowing for what was to come with Christ's life, death, and resurrection.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_03: So when we walk humbly with him, it points us to two different passages in Isaiah.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_03: Isaiah chapter 57, verse 15, and Isaiah chapter 66, verse 2.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_03: Isaiah 57, 15 says, For the high and exalted one who lives forever, whose name is holy, says this.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_03: I live in a high and holy place, and I live with the oppressed and the lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the oppressed.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_03: So abide or lives is from the Hebrew word shekan, which literally means to be with, to intimately know, and to walk with.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_03: So he's saying he lives in a high and holy place, but also he lives with the oppressed and lowly in spirit.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_03: Lowly in spirit, humble in spirit.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_03: And then in Isaiah chapter 66, verse 2, it says, My hand made all these things, and so they all came into being.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_03: This is the Lord's declaration.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_03: I will look favorably on this kind of person, one who is humble, broken in spirit, and trembles at my word.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_03: Someone who is not proud, but teachable, and is in awe of the Lord.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_03: To be in awe of him is to know how great he really is.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_03: You have Isaiah chapter 6, verse 5, where Isaiah, when the year of King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord on his throne, high and exalted, smokes filling the temple.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_03: And what is it that Isaiah says when he realizes that he is in the glory of God?
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_03: Woe is me, for I am ruined.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_03: My eyes have seen the king, the Lord of armies.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_03: And then when he's in the presence of the Lord, he's not terrified to the point where he's like, Oh, I'm dead.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, he's saying he's dead, but what does he say after that?
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_03: Who is going to take these words?
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_03: And what does Isaiah said?
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_03: Here I am, Lord, send me.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_03: To walk humbly with our God is to remember his greatness and to lean into him all the more.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_03: And what I think that looks like to walk humbly with the Lord.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_03: I think of a man that I grew up knowing, and I had the privilege to talk to on the phone a couple weeks ago.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_03: His name is Vic Albert.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_03: Vic is 95 years old, and I had the opportunity to talk to him and talk to his uh second wife.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_03: His first wife, Dottie, passed away a couple uh a couple years ago, uh, several years ago, actually.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_03: But Vic and his wife Pat married in 2018, and I grew up knowing Vic and his wonderful wife Dottie.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um Vic was known as the sucker man by every single person at the church, not just kids, the adults too.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_03: Kids would line up each Sunday to fish a dum-dum sucker from his leather bag.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_03: He had this, well, I mean, I was a child, so I thought it was a large leather bag, but honestly, it's literally like something that you'd put a laptop in.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_02: So it sounds like Santa with suckers.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_03: Santa with suckers, yes.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_03: Every single Sunday.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_03: And kids would line up.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_03: And kids would, I would even say kids were more excited to see Vic than seeing Santa.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um for some of us, like my grandfather, my mom's dad passed away before I was born.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_03: My dad's dad uh lived north of Port Huron, so I didn't really get to see him a lot, but every single Sunday, for me, Vic was a pseudo-grandfather.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_03: Um, Dottie and my grandmother were friends, and gosh dang it, they were so wonderful.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_03: They were wonderful to kids.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_03: They had a heart for people.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_03: Um, they had a heart just to keep knowing and asking questions.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_03: A lot, I mean, I was on the phone with him for an hour and a half, and I had to keep guiding it back because he just kept asking questions about me and asking questions about my family and about my wife and about my daughter.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_03: And what I asked him was is that, did you have any idea of the impact that you had on my life?
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_03: Like, why did why did you choose to do what you did?
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_03: And he said, I really just love kids.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_03: And it thrills me to be able to pour into kids that needed the love that they might not have at home.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_03: He said, I never thought of it that way that I was really blessing kids.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_03: But Dottie and I prayed all the time at home for everyone.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_03: The way that Vic, 95 years old, his wife Pat now would say that they go grocery shopping, he still has rentals, rental properties around town.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and people will stop him and say, Hey, thank you for what you did for me 30 years ago.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_03: Because he loves to listen, he is so slow to speak about himself, about anything that's going on in his family, and he is so slow to anger.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_03: What's really cool about Vic is at 95 years old, does he miss his first wife?
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_03: But another day is just another opportunity for him to give all glory to God, to walk with the Lord, and be so in tune with him that he leads you to do things that don't make any sense.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_03: Leads you to do things to love people who are hard to love, to see people who are not seen, to be a light for those who are in need.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_03: And he uses us as vessels.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes there's people who are put on our hearts or our minds, just in a conversation when we're having with a friend or a relative, and we think, you know what?
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_03: I think I need to call that person just to see how they're doing.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_03: And then when you call that person, they're literally beside themselves.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_03: How did you know that I was struggling?
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I didn't.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_03: Just felt led that I needed to call you.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_03: Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 through 10 said, For you are saved by grace through faith.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_03: And this is not from yourselves.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_03: It is God's gift, not from works, so that no one can boast.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_03: For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_03: So we as believers, as followers of Christ, we're here.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_03: We have work to do by God and for God.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_03: So what does that work look like?
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_03: Beautiful sacrifices, things that are pleasing to the eye?
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_03: We are required to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_02: Man, thank you.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_02: What a what a great and encouraging word.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um I hope uh I want to well first want to thank all of you for listening to this.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Mike, for for sharing this.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's such an impactful word to to hear kind of these tie over and to what does it look like, you know, to love God, to love people, to act justly.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so thank you for listening um to another episode of our community, our mission.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we pray that this has um just blessed you and encouraged you today um to you know really experience that love for yourself from God and to share that love with those um that you encounter in each day of your own life.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_02: So um thank you for listening.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_02: If you would like to learn more about the Topeka Rescue Mission, you can go to TRMonline.org.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_02: Again, that's TRM Online.org.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um thank you for listening.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_02: Share uh share this with your friends so they can they can listen to it too and um keep tuning in each week as we're gonna have uh more updates as we get more into the holidays and and uh just some exciting uh things coming up.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you for listening and have a blessed day.