Latest / 100% Maybe / Ep. 43 - The Greater Story: Finding Your Place

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Ep. 43 - The Greater Story: Finding Your Place · 100% Maybe

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Whoa, look who is stopping by the studio.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: Look who it is.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: Hey there.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, thanks for having me again.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, man.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: I uh I called Clint two hours ago and I was like, hey man, need you to do the podcast.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: Get here now.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: Easy.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: Because that's kind of what you do now.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm uh see the pants, just kinda jump in wherever needed.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: Don't really need a week to prepare.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: Don't need Bible studies.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna just gonna go.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: What we're only half joking right now, actually.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we we planned this series last September.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: I had it on my schedule that we're gonna be talking about, uh or I was gonna be teaching about a certain thing.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and then yesterday uh we threw all that out.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, 25 hours ago we threw all that out.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Kinda, right?
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Just the specific message.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Whole series is still locked in.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful series.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually awesome series.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: So what is the series we're gonna jump in?
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: We're coming out of David.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: So um this week we're gonna be jumping into a series we're calling uh the Greater Story.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: The Greater Story.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: So that's something that you might hear if you hang out here enough, you hear that quite a bit.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: So that's a theme that has been constant through many series.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um what is that what does that mean?
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: So it's actually been a part of our vernacular for a while.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: So our our mission statement now, of course, in at community life, we love God, love our neighbor, we we connect people to Jesus.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, our old mission statement, which we've adopted uh several years ago, used to include that phrase, finding our place in God's greater story.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so it's something that is yeah, yeah, it's something that's been a part of our our history.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: But what we realized is it's a little nebulous for a mission statement.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Connect and yeah, find your place in God's greater story.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: While it's incredibly theologically rich and relevant and accurate, it was a little nebulous.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like what is what does that really mean?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so now we get to teach on it and give you some examples.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a good point.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: So it it does make more sense, maybe connects in certain ways in every series, but that is something we hear Scott teach about a lot.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: That is definitely a theme about a faith journey, I guess.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, about what that looks like and what you're connecting to.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, realizing there's something else out there, right?
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: That we get to play a part of something else that's that God's been writing for a long, long time.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: So a a lot of spaces, and we've probably said this.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm thinking back to Welcome Home last year, where it was you know, find your purpose, find your people, some of those things.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: So your purpose, your story.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: So these are uh things that a lot of churches would use.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: And they're not bad things, they're a part of it, but what is it um about the greater story to you that makes it essential, even more than like your story, Clint's story, Joe's story?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: What is what is it that is so much different about the greater story?
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think the greater story kind of encompasses all that.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: So it's um it's uh one of the things we work on when we were talking about mission stuff a little while ago.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things we work on for mission trips is trying to help people like build their uh or understand or write their testament, like know their story, right?
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like be able to notice those milestones along their lives, be able to see how God has moved, how God has used them, how they've been able to connect to God's greater story.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: But to me, it's also a connection to like throughout time and throughout countries and borders and and all of these things that would seemingly divide us or separate us out, that we are part of the same stream or the same rhythm or the same song that has been going on since the beginning of time that we just get to be a note in or or a floating thing that's kind of as as it passes by, we're God is doing something amazing.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: And if we take our own story, our own testimony, and make it the thing, then uh then when we've we've kind of missed the entire thing, uh and we we miss out on the fact that we uh we're invited into a much uh greater story.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: That has to do with the transformation that you were mentioned earlier.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we tend to think of ourselves as the main character in in all all the things.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: And uh it's a it's a different view we when we've talked about worldview or god view, yeah.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: But uh I think that is the shift.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: The worldview says what what makes you happy, what makes you tick, what what is it about you that you need to do in your life where that God view is something completely uh I love that the way you said that we play a part in it, but we are not the main character in it.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, even think of um the Lord's Prayer, thy will be done, right?
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: This this surrendering, this realization that like, man, there there is something vastly more important, more perfect, more beautiful, stronger going on that we're gonna yield to that.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna recognize it, we're gonna yield it, and we get to play a part, and that should be humbling.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: But I think it's that's it's important for us to know.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like, there's a part, right?
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's not the entire thing.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: We have a messiah, it's not you.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's actually one of the the things that uh Scott came back from sabbatical uh two years ago and was like, yeah, I I realize that there's a God and it's not me, right?
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like for all of us, like that that's wildly obvious, but I think it's so important for us to remember that as well, right?
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: In practice, right?
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: In how we think about things.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you mentioned transformation, so peeling back the veil a little bit.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: This series was marked as uh because transformation is a is a value that we hold here dear.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: So we we try to make these uh even when we teach and in stories and series and and scripture we um go through as a church, we try to make it relevant to to who we are and to to what we do, with transformation being a big piece of that.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um something I've seen is within the transformation, um, there tends to be a maybe a wrestle within with within us that we can see that transformation, thinking of it as a destination versus maybe a process.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Can you talk about how how to best hold transformation?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe if you want to relate it to to some of the things we're gonna study in this series.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: All all of all of that.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that we sat down last September and we were talking about this series, we were like, okay, let's let's find stories from scripture where someone was one way, they had an experience or or uh a revelation or that they they knew God and then they were different.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know how difficult that is to find stories like that in scripture?
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Not at all, right?
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh with the exception of uh a few, there are instance after instance, person after person, young, old, all all cultures across time where you have an experience and that changes you.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think in some regards this series almost a repackaging of of some of the other ones we've done, like Unsung Heroes or um uh um series we've done that that specifically talks about that that change, that that character arc.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um but it but I think it's so true and it's all so um relevant and and and makes sense the way that that God seeks after us, sees a guy like Paul, for example, and finds him, Paul experiences Christ in a in a new way for the first time, and then uh and then Paul decides to change his life forever.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: That that's a pretty obvious arc.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: That that transformation, like that that sanctification happens immediately, uh happens over a lifetime where the the where he finds him that salvation is is present to him uh in uh in a moment, but Paul spends the rest of his life.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he spends years like in the desert, right?
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like being being trained and and wrestling with his faith and understanding things differently, that that transformation uh happened over a very long period, and then even after he hit the road and spent years and years on missionary journeys, that that transformation was still happening, right?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: He was never done.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's not as exciting if you're watching a movie and you need a 10-year time jump.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they just put a montage to oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: Because we don't really have time to to see you in the desert learning.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's not exciting.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's not, but that's the truth.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: And we've seen even coming out of David, you see this anointing, you see, hey, you you're gonna do these incredible things and live this incredible life with a heart for the Lord, but not yet.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Not yet.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know that David, he probably maybe could have spent a little more time learning and and listening, but uh could we all?
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, right.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so um, that's a great point about that.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: To you, you mentioned sanctification or that process of of becoming more like Christ, yeah, the removal of of ourselves and and our spirit and and God um you know, filling us.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: We're filled with it, but it's it's that chipping away of ourselves that happens over time.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: Is that a is that a connected word or parallel word for you with transformation and sanctification, that process?
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: I think it has to be, because otherwise, transformation just means you were something and now you're something else, right?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: I think sanctification really gives uh more of direction to exactly what we're talking about.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: C.S.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Lewis talks about uh, you know, when someone believes, there's an understanding that, like, yeah, I need to stop doing this, or if you think of your life as a house, he gives the example.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, I know I need to paint this room or I need to stop the leaky roof.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but when we allow Christ in, the transformation that happens is total and complete.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it is a process, but it's it's way more than than paint and facade.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's structure, it's bones, it's adding other levels and and building a base, like all of the things using the example of a house that that we can see but never know was even possible.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: But it moves us closer to to maybe becoming a more accurate representation of the the the temple of the living God.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's a good way to look at it.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: What about so we'll jump into a little bit of scripture.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: I know um still being fleshed out, still being written as far as the the specific uh points, maybe, and and on Sunday the sermon about where you're gonna go with it.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: But um, before we do that, I want to just ask you about uh thinking about the impact that uh people have had.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: Because when we get into the story more, you'll you'll see the results of these direct influences.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh people that let's call it understood their the greater story is out there, understood they have a part to play in it.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: Let uh Jesus be the transforming uh presence in their life and then the result of what happens.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: So um if that's the picture we see in so much of of scripture and and around us here in this church and and community, um, what is it to you about people that have maybe played a part in that for you that that sticks out, whether it's you know, specific people or or just what they what they had in common?
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very blessed in that my whole life I feel like they're that God has placed people in my life.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh of course we start with parents and family, uh cousins and aunts and uncles and all that kind of stuff that helped kind of shape and provide and and even if not through words, if through through actions, uh the choices they made, uh whether to to to pursue something or to pursue family or or to pursue uh career, whatever it was.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like those sort of examples um were were surrounding me from a young age.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then they've thinking about you know coaches and teachers and things like that along the way who um probably could have made very different career moves, but chose to uh to to really chase something that would had uh a bigger impact.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: So to be uh in in a place where they were able to speak into the lives of young people, uh, myself included, I I think it meant a lot.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: I know it meant a lot.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it had a huge impact.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: I love those Sunday mornings where I look out uh from the stage and uh and see many of you who have at some point along the way through your arm over my shoulder.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: I may have had less gray hair back then.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: I could have had long hair if you've been around the church for a while.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I've seen pictures.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: But throw your arm around me, uh, you know, pull me off to the side and say, like, all right, all right, what was you know, like let's think through this.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and truly those those mothers and fathers of the faith, uh, those brothers and sisters that have that have guided well, that loved well, and really leaned into that and helped uh provide that um that outside voice of of transformation, of encouragement, uh that led me to those places.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: So to start a list of names, I wouldn't I would leave hundreds of people out.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um but just knowing that I if none of us are are where we are on on our own.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: That it's through people who realize that that we're we're called to something else, we're called called to live in community, we're called to serve, we're called to sacrifice, um and then those people speaking speaking truth.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I hope you know who you are.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: And whether it's in my life or someone else's life, that those words matter and and have truly led uh generations, which we'll read about today, yeah, to it to a new understanding.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: What do you what do you think stops us from entering that greater story?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh first ourselves, right?
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: So there's um there's uh either a disqualification, maybe I'm just I'm just riffing.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: Can I just come off of the cuff?
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we do here.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Either like, oh, I don't have anything to say of value or of consequence, or I don't have anything to offer that yeah, like either uh they've already got it figured out, or it looks like they've got it all squared away, and so I don't really have anything.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um or or maybe it's even uh something in their past that they feel like this has disqualified them from that, or someone else has already done it.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, someone else has already said that, or they let them know.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's probably the first one.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: The second one is probably like awkwardness, like it's crazy.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: Addie and uh, Pastor and I were talking about this yesterday, just like how many people avoid at all cost awkwardness, right?
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Awkward conversations, not for the right uh reasons, but but for uh for the sake of just I don't I don't want to like it'd be weird if I went up to you and said, like, hey, great job, or hey, that was a terrible thing, or like whatever.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's I think that's probably part of it.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then a million other reasons.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: I don't you you got anything to weigh in on that?
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Any thoughts?
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, I I would echo the I've probably more the first one you said, I think about feeling like the thing that I've seen a lot lately is feeling like I don't have what if they ask me something that I don't know how to answer, especially if it comes to the yeah, to the sharing of faith or you know, trying to just, you know, talk to somebody in in a different way.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um and and probably the the feeling like if I don't have it all together, I don't know how I could possibly then communicate to someone else, you know, any word of encouragement or anything like that.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I s I I see that um, you know, as as kind of a a barrier that that we put up in front of ourselves because I don't uh God certainly does not expect us to um he knows we're not gonna have it all together all the time.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: That's not a shock to him.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: And still he picked us.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: He picked us to to be the the ones to carry the message.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not to love our neighborhood.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: This was plan A, too, for him.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: The church and people to carry forth the message always has been, and we've done so very, very imperfectly.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: But that's been God's plan from the beginning, and it still is.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: So there's something really beautiful about it and powerful, and it should cause us, I think, to have a a sense of of awe of that.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, it also can come with that if if we're only looking to ourselves, it comes with it then a sense of well, I I can't do this.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: And nobody's nobody's arguing that you can't do that.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: We agree.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: We can't do that um ourselves.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: And that isn't that the point.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: That's it.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so let's jump into some scripture here.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, like I said, I know you're still working out uh the details, but just in general, tell us who who we're gonna be looking at, what where we find ourselves as far as the story of scripture goes.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so what we're trying to identify um in the in this three-week series, um, three different people or groups of people uh who may not get a whole lot of love, a whole lot of airtime, but whose lives are radically radically changed and uh who have connected themselves to God's greater story.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: Originally we talked about Paul being week one.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: What we quickly realized in our meeting yesterday was like way too much.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's way too big of a target.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: That uh that was literally an eight-week series last uh summer, summer before last.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: So probably should narrow that down.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: So these first two weeks, um uh the first week, this this coming Sunday will be Priscilla and Aquila, uh, a missionary couple who Paul meets.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um Addy will be discussing or sharing with us Lydia and others.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, there's some folks there in Lydia's uh town, and then on the third week, Nicodemus.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: So so people who don't have honestly have a whole lot of verses.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: There's not a ton, a ton of information.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: We're just getting off the the series of David.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: Lots, I mean, chapter after chapter after chapter, like tons of information.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: That was another almost Paul type situation.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: We're trying to whittle down.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, that's where we came up with a year or two studying David.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: But for for these folks, um, Priscilla and Oquiller specifically for this week, what was the uh what was the connection, what was the interaction, but really what was the the transformation and and legacy or impact, uh whatever you want to call it, that that they made and and how are they brought into what what role were they able to play in in God's greater story?
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: Because we don't uh in Acts 18, you don't get a sense they're this on fire for the Lord missionary couple looking to do incredible things straight away.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: But what happens is they Paul comes, lives with them, works with them.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um I don't know if he did actually live with them or like lived uh in proximity to like was in with them, yeah.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um verse three, Paul lived and worked with them for they were tent makers just as he was.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: So we see this common trade that is actually what brings them together.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: And uh the picture it paints, Paul living life with these people, getting to know them, and Paul's at this time teaching this is in Corinth.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um so what they're obviously transformed and and and have this uh new invitation, maybe it's new to them um to step into this bigger part of the greater story.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Where so these guys, uh Priscilla and Aquila, and they're usually listed in that order.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think when we get the introduction here, it's the only time where Aquila is is mentioned first.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the husband's mentioned.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um there's all sorts of thoughts, and we may dive into that on Sunday.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, but the two of them working alongside each other, yeah.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: My my version says um that he stayed and worked with them.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, maybe crashed their house and they just uh worked alongside each other, but they got to see this guy in like everyday real life, real world things, yeah, right?
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: So think of your family and think of those people you work with.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Usually they see two very different sides of you, or at least you show up differently, your responsibilities are different.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: But they're seeing the Apostle Paul probably almost every minute of every day, working and living alongside this guy.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: And what a uh what a what a testament uh to to him that they're able to experience that.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like he for sure could have just put a tent in the yard, right?
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, like they making them, you know, just whatever, just grab one for yourself, Paul, throw it in the back.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's last year's model.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: Set it up.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't sell that one, you can have it.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: Seems like put a patch in it.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe that uh could be.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um okay, so they end up going with Paul.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, what what sticks out to you, I guess, in general, about maybe that um transformation they share and then how it impacts now continuing on.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: Because there's if you know Paul at all, this guy was on the move when he got ready to go loose.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: He got turned loose and did more um for the spread of the gospel than any person probably in history.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know that that's even debatable as far as what he was able to do and the churches he established.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: So going from Corinth, um, they're following him and end up in um Ephesus, right?
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: So here's a couple who just uh well they lived in Rome in the capital city.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh this crazy situation that happened.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: The Caesar kicked everybody, uh all the Jews out.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: They found themselves in Corinth, right?
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they meet Paul there, and then Paul says, Hey, let's do you want to leave everything behind again and move with me over here to Ephesus?
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: And they're all in.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let's game on.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: Let's let's go do that, Paul.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: Guy that we've known for a year and a half.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and they do.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: They uproot and they move, and uh, and they uh those decisions, the decisions to do the the crazy, uh seemingly wild uh payoff and an impact and end uh the the ripples.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um so here's a couple who um they have a they have a uh they're part of the tent makers guild, they have a profession, but they're they're they're getting after it.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: They're they're helping spread the gospel.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um Paul sees them as um at least impactful, I won't say important enough, but at least uh impactful enough that to take them along with them.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: And when they get to Ephesus, uh Paul even leaves and leaves them there for a while to to kind of continue to to run things.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: So these are people who the Apostle Paul puts his trust and and bode of confidence in and they're uh they're doing it.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: What was the question?
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um so then you get into their interaction though with Apollos.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh maybe we can touch on that, and then um in 1824, so there was a Jew named Apollos, an eloquent speaker, knew the scriptures well, had arrived in Ephesus.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um he had been taught the way of the Lord and he taught others about Jesus, but he only knew about John's baptism.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so knew about the the physical baptism.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: So uh remember Jesus was baptized by his cousin John, John uh the baptizer, and it was a uh a baptism of repentance, right?
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: It was that preparation for for for Jesus, right?
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: For the the the baptism that that we would receive, right?
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: You can think of Pentecost, you can think of those things.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so Apollos was was pretty amazing, very educated, cultured, was from Alexandria that like uh at the time rivaled, if not surpassed, even Athens in education and culture and architecture and those things.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so here's a guy who's been trained by some of the best of the best, and he has most of the story.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's a beautiful speaker, like bringing in control.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, yeah.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so here, uh Priscilla and Aquila, they hear them and they're probably blown away, and they're like, You are this close.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: So close.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you were so close.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we got we got to fix this.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: What I love about the heart of these two is they they see them, they hear them, and they don't call them out in the middle of the crowd and say, like, you got it wrong, buddy.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like there's like this loving embrace where the two of them invite him back to their house.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, look, come come to our house.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we're gonna work this.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: That this is again, I'm thinking of Paul living with these guys.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: These guys are now turning that in, and their their house is the church.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, we'll read about that later in in Romans, where Paul even says, Hey, greetings back to you guys, Priscilla and Aquila, and the house church, right?
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: The people meeting in your house.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Apollos may have been one of these for for a time while they kind of fixed his theology, right?
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: Where they let him know the rest of the story, were they able to connect him?
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: What can we learn from that today?
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: Because I my mind immediately thinks to what you said about either having a public confrontation, yeah, or how about just oh man, getting up and leaving?
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: Because like this guy doesn't know what he's talking about.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: We're out of here.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: So the first the first time you hear something you don't like or don't agree with, you're gone.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: So what can we learn about how they chose to handle this in in light of that?
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, it's biblical, isn't it?
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: If if there's an issue, and I don't know if you can technically call this an issue with a brother or sister, but you you pull them off the side, right?
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: You have a conversation with them.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like if they don't listen, then you bring in another or two or three, and then if there's a further issue, then you drag the church.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like that sort of stuff.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and and they they follow right along with that.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't know if they had that as like a structure of disagreement at that time, or if it's truly just an outpouring of their heart.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like, man, like out of the love for this guy, right?
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: And out of the impact that he can have, and honestly out of a concern for for himself as well, right?
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like we want him for him, his own personal transformation for him to know the rest of the story.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: And whoever's listening to him too.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: Let's make sure this is cleaned up a little bit.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we've got to tighten this up.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we've got to make sure that it's it's uh it's right and pointing people in the right direction.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so as a result, they uh yeah, I I just picture um like hosts above hosts, like the hospitality that they have to be pouring out, right?
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: Showing this guy, like bringing him in, a guy from a different part of the world, probably starting to gain a following at this point for being a pretty eloquent speaker.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: He's already traveled in the world to do this, the humility that he must have had, yeah, and then the realization that he he's like, oh, okay.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, now we got that last missing, very crucial piece of this puzzle.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a really uh important picture, I think, of of what you said, maybe an overflow of of just that spirit of unity that that Christ brings us to.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: He's the one that unifies us apart from him.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: Many of us wouldn't even know each other, let alone be living life together.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: So Jesus is the is the one that unites us.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's a a big practical takeaway too about what can be taught, uh, what can be learned, you know, um within this as well.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um so what what is your hope then for people to leave with on Sunday?
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: So let's just think about Priscilla and Aquila.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: They they were working, they ran into Paul, you know, got God orchestrated that for them to to meet.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh whether it be in the tent makers guild or in the synagogue, um, they they came to know Paul, they grew in their faith, they stepped out in faith, and then look at the impact that that had.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: So not only were they um able to to follow Paul, support him, um, let him stay with them, and then kind of run the house church there in Ephesus, which became later when when John moved there, became really the epicenter of the early church.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um the the the ground that they tilled, the uh the conversations that were had there in Ephesus, and then think of Apollos.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: He came in, they they loved him well, they didn't chastise him, but they helped help him to see the light, and that truth will, you know, will bring about a change in someone's life.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: And he didn't stay in Ephesus, though.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: We see him traveling, continuing to travel, and the the people that he was able to bring to Jesus um through their their kindness and through their it's grace and truth, right?
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Through their grace and through their truth they extended him.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean the impact that that they had.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: Paul writes about them several times and and what what's I I think it caught me as I was looking into this in 2 Timothy, which is believed to be Paul's last writing, in the last four verses that Paul writes in the last letter that he writes, he mentions Priscilla and Aquila.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like greetings to you guys, like love you guys, shout out to you guys, like that kind of stuff.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: So apparently even Paul years later saw the impact that that this these two were having, yeah, and and wanted to make sure that they were remembered and thought about and loved.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so for a guy like that to remember them as well and and to make kind of such a deal in his his last letter.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's yeah, that's gotta say something.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's huge.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, really beautiful.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome, man.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we're excited.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: Excited to uh to hear Sunday and and to be here and um yeah, jump into this greater story, which we're all a part of, whether we realize it or not.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: Open your home, have a loving conversation full of grace and truth.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, and who knows, you may just be helping um connect untold number of people to the greater story into Jesus as well.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: Let Uncle Charlie pitch the tent in the back.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: Let it stay inevitable.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: A year and a half, maybe a year and a half.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_01: There's your there's your uh your uh no longer.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: Only a year and a half though, yeah.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: Well thanks, man.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: Appreciate you being here.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: Looking forward to it.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for uh thanks for having me here.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: See you guys.