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The Long Road: Introduction · The God Who Sees You Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: We gain perseverance as we walk with God and learn from Him through the trials that often take years to resolve.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, friend, and welcome back to the podcast.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're starting a whole new series, and it's called The Long Road.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: This was actually inspired by this track that I run at by my house.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: And on the way back from the track, you can either go straight up these steep steps or you can go to the right, which is kind of like a windy long path.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: It takes longer to get up, but it's a lot easier because it's not directly up the steps.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: So that whole thing kind of inspired me to make this series.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm calling it the long road because sometimes I believe God wants to take us on a longer road to teach us some things and to show us some things along the way.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: And there's just a lot of great themes that I want to talk about through all this series.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: And one thing I want to talk about is just the importance of obedience and how much that matters to God, how these small steps of action add up to really large obedience, and how God desires to partner with us and how he wants to see us take that action, how we learn more on the long road than on the quicker path, and how as we learn, we grow closer to him and we see beauty along the way.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's just so many great lessons that I want to share with you.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I've been learning this for years with the Lord.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: He's been taking me on this journey.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: And you're going to hear a lot of running themes because that is something that he has used to teach me in my life through running.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so I just want to bring that in and share with you all the things that he's taught me.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: There's time and time again throughout scripture where I see this theme of God desiring to take us on this slower, more windy, more stops along the way type road where there's more pauses and more waiting and kind of more sitting in the pain and sitting in the hardship and the trials.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm calling all of this the longer road, the long road.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: On this journey, though, we experience a closeness to God that is unmatched.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: There is a deep faith that is forged in all of this.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I have several really close friends that I would consider are on this walk with the Lord, are on this longer road with Him.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, you know, as I was thinking about all of them and thinking about you guys, and I'm sure a lot of you are also on this road where maybe you're not having answered prayers yet.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've been praying for something for years, for a really long time, and you're waiting for the Lord to come through for you.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: But you're also realizing that in the waiting, there's just been so much that you're learning along the way.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so I hope that this whole series just kind of connects with that part of you that is waiting, but also the part of you that still believes that God is good and that He is with you on this journey.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: James 1, 2 through 4 says, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: We gain perseverance as we walk with God and learn from Him through the trials that often take years to resolve.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is where our faith is really forged and we begin to understand His heart.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: The other day I was thinking through this concept.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've ever heard people say, I have a life verse.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: I have something that I've had my whole life and something that I cling to.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I actually don't have a life verse.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I was just kind of thinking through some of the main verses that have been like pillars of my faith.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Psalm 23 immediately came to mind.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, the Lord is my shepherd.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: That was that was a big one.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: But the other one that came to my mind is just this passage that I've I've realized through walking through years with the Lord.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it sums up like kind of what we're going to be going through in this series.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's really like could be our theme verse, also something that I believe is is one of my life verses.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: So it's Matthew 11, 29 through 30.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: It says, Jesus says, Come to me, all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Take my yoke upon you, let me teach you, because I am gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: So in all of this, I believe Jesus is teaching us to walk with this lighter backpack, this lighter load.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: He's exchanging our hard, unbelievably heavy burden that we carry for this lighter load.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: I love the way it says, Let me teach you.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because walking this way does not come naturally to us.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: We actually naturally would carry the burden on our own.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus is teaching us how to walk lighter, how to take that easy yoke from him.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I also love the way he describes himself here.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of the only descriptions Jesus actually gives of himself.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, I am gentle in heart because that's who he is.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you're gonna see that care that character trait of him come through in this series, that he's gentle with you as he walks this long road with you.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: I can't wait to start this series, and I can't wait to see all that we're gonna learn on the long road.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: So let me pray for us, friends.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, thank you for um being here.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for walking with us on this long, windy road that sometimes we don't understand and it feels hard and it feels like we're waiting forever.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: But Lord, we know that you're with us and that you're in this in our midst and that you're carrying us and that you're gentle with us.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I just thank you that you're teaching us how to walk with a lighter load.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: You're teaching us how to have that easy yoke that you want for us, Lord.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: I pray that throughout this study we would cling to you and see your truth and understand your heart more and just illuminate your word to our heart as we study.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: All right, friends, I have a special bonus for you.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to go deeper in this study, I'm gonna put a link below.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: I've actually created a Bible study for you to go even deeper with this.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll provide that down below in the video.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining me.