Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / September 28, 2016 | Men's Fraternity - Fall 2016, Session 3

Transcript

September 28, 2016 | Men's Fraternity - Fall 2016, Session 3 · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: All right, man, welcome.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: See a couple new faces uh out here this morning.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: For those that haven't gotten breakfast, uh it it's pretty good.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: The blueberry muffins are uh are excellent.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: So um well I've got a uh a question to ask of Jason this morning.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: I was gonna ask it of um uh I would have asked it of Jim if he'd have been here, but I said, you know, okay, got uh Derek sitting here on your on your left side.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um can I sit on your right side?
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Derek's Derek's a pretty important guy, but uh I mean I uh I think I deserve to be able to maybe sit at uh on your on your right side.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: So if I could have a seat and sit maybe next to you for the uh uh for the rest of the session and uh and maybe ask Jim if I could sit there on his right side for the for the rest of the semester.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh gee, sound anything like uh what we read this week?
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the uh you know you get when you think about it, uh you know, between uh James and his brother and his mom, I mean, somebody had somebody had some pretty big you know what's to to make that request.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: And uh the disciples, they were they were pretty incensed, but you wonder if uh maybe they were just mad because uh they didn't ask first.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's like nothing ventured, nothing gained.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, what's the worst that could happen?
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: He could say no.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: So um uh anyway, we're gonna get to uh uh talk about uh James this week and next and uh get to know a little bit about uh the man behind the the persona.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: So with that, I'm gonna let you guys take over.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know how to appreciate that Paul at all, actually.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_02: And uh welcome to Men's Fraternity.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I'm Jason, I'm not Jim, so don't uh don't Can we call you Jim for today?
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: Is that okay?
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you can you be can you be a first century Jim?
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: I could be a first century Jim.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it would be confusing if you if you're listening to it online and didn't see it, but uh I'm glad everyone came here today and right before the sun comes up.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: And uh I get to the honor of going through our first couple slides with you today.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_02: First off, uh if you don't have a book yet, see Derek.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: That's Derek right there.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: There are more coming in.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: There are more coming in.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I know there's a couple people who don't have them.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um they should be in hopefully next week.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, we should have them for next week.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: All right, and this week we had an exciting game in Kansas City.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um 24 to 3.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_02: Six interceptions the Chiefs had.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_02: Anyone go to that game?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: No one watch the game?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: Parts of it.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: Very good.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: A few of it.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: Very good.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: So they rebound after a tough game against the Texans and starting in next next week a tough game against the Steelers.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: I believe the Steelers lost this week, too, so uh they'd probably be hungry, like much like we are.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: Say thank you to Tom.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: We're cooking our breakfast this morning for Men's Fraternity.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Tom.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um is it I'm a KU fan, but during football season, I don't expect any KU slides up here.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: It's fine.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we'll wait for a couple months here.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: But K-State, 35.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Missouri State zero.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_02: So uh wow, they really took it to them.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_02: Did anyone go to that game?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, we did.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: So you got rained out.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_02: Uh after 35 to nothing, it probably was just kind of like a mercy kind of thing.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: Like, all right, we can stop.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the in is it I think Jim wrote this probably in there in hope in the final week of the 2016 season, the Royals hope to finish above 500, which has been the goal, like it would have been my dream of the Royals most of my life, actually, uh up till the last couple years.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, you know, fair I guess I probably fall into this category too.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_02: We're such fair weather fans, you know.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_02: I hear people so uh upset or over the Royals, oh, they're not even gonna make the playoffs this year.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: And we're thinking you don't remember the 30 years that they didn't make it at all and be thankful for the last couple years.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: And they even played pretty good this year, and they had injuries and they fought through it.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, I did find out from Siri they eked out a win last night, four to three, four to three.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: So uh they looking like they're might finish above 500 if they work hard.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I think one of the best things about that is that he got Siri on his phone and said, Did the Royals win last night?
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: And she said, The Royals eked out a win, four to three.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: Use the word eked.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: She's a smart lady, really.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: If you ever uh very high vocabulary.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_02: She especially at five in the morning, you know, is she she's all she's on it anyway.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: But that's I guess we're going to more serious things.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: More serious than that.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: How could we do that?
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: But I actually I do want to mention K.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: You said you're a KU fan.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: I do want to mention KU.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: Great.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: They do have a win under their belt this season.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: They did beat, what is it, Rhode Island.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: Right state.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: University.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: University of Rhode Island State.
• 5:06
  unknown: State.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: Chalukies.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever they are, but we're gonna keep announcing that every week until they win another game.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: So we've been going through the apostles.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: Last week, we were in Peter, this week, and next week we're gonna be talking about James.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so one thing that we do see so far is that these guys are diverse.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so one of the keys that we're kind of looking at over the course of this semester and next semester is that God really can use anybody, anybody he chooses to serve him.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: There's not one mold, there's not one fit, there's not one class, there's not one gender or race or anything like that.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: But God really can use people of all different backgrounds, all different abilities, um, all different classes to serve him and to accomplish his kingdom work that he's going to be doing in the world.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: And so as we jump into James, um of you guys are like, what exactly do we know about James?
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: What what is in scripture?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: What what is there to know about James?
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: And the fact is there aren't a lot of hard facts to know about James.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: And if you guys were reading through the the chapter, the beginning of the chapter this week, um, you guys see that what Getz does is he kind of extrapolates and uses a lot of inferences to to bring out some conclusions about James' life.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: And we may look back and James is maybe looking down at us from heaven and being like, these guys have it completely wrong.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's not my life at all.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: But it seems convincing that maybe some of the inferences that Getz comes up with could be true.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: They could be how James' life actually went.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I think probably the most important thing that we pull out of here is some of the some of the questions that he asks throughout each of the headings, I think are really important for us.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: And some of those principles and topics that that we're going to talk about, um, I think are very beneficial for our lives, very beneficial for the way that we try to live out our Christianity.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think his title is really interesting.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, a power hungry man who gave up everything.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: A power hungry man who gave up everything.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: And he makes some heavy, heavy inferences off of a few verses, a few things that we do see in scripture about James, such as his family background, um his father being a fisherman, kind of this fisherman business, and how James was probably the older brother of John.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: They were obviously brothers, but James was probably the older brother based off of um how he's listed in scripture, how he's typically listed first, is one of the points that that Getz brings out.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think one of the key things that he does point out in the first um the first couple of pages is that this is not James, the brother of Jesus, this is not James of Alpheus, but it's James the son of Zebedee, the brother of John, who's also the son of Zebedee, also called the sons of thunder.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's the specific James that we're talking about here.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: And he kind of goes into this story at the very beginning about this guy who's really power hungry and um goes off into this field, into this field of work, to where he is able basically to gain a lot of power, gain a lot of money, and doing something that's clearly not very moral.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so I think Getz puts this at the beginning of the chapter to kind of show us and give us a picture of how when we sometimes when we strive for power, when we strive for our personal gain, when we strive for that um position, that high position in our lives, sometimes, um like the like the gym in the intro story, sometimes we can leave our morals behind, sometimes we can leave God behind, sometimes we can leave what we're called to in serving Christ behind for chasing our own personal glory.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so as we go in to specifically James, just understanding that a lot of the things that Getz brings out are inferences, but there's a lot of key things and a lot of key topics that we can learn um throughout this chapter.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: And when we were talking about the very first heading that I that I get to talk about, I thought it was just perfect, and it just happened to be that my dad has been joining us from Min's fraternity, but he's gone the next two weeks.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: And so the very first uh title is A Chip Off the Old Block.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I get to talk about how my family shaped who I am, and talk about that.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I thought, man, that could get a little dicey that I remember.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, my dad's not gonna be here.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_02: That's good.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_02: All right, so I can tell any story, and it's online, but chances of him watching it or listening to it online are slim.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: Now he probably will that I said that.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_02: But anyway, uh as Derek is saying, and I as I was reading through this, I I told Derek this too, and Derek's exactly right.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: There are some inferences I you know about James' life that come conclusions that are there that I was like, wow, I don't know if I would have necessarily drawn that, and that's probably why he's Gene Getz, and I'm Jason.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: So anyway, but uh but when it talks about his family, James's family, and a chip off the old block, he asks a question how have your parents affected your the way you live, either positively or negatively?
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I I would venture to say that no matter what your family life has been, whatever your family background has been, you could say, I mean, you could answer that question two ways.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_02: Probably there's always some positive things, and there's always some negative things.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_02: No matter how how great your family is, or no matter how uh if you feel like your family is was a negative environment, there's still some positive things.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: If you have a really positive environment, there's still some negative things.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_02: And uh and I that's I think it shows up in the in the family with James.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: One thing that was interesting, and I think that he's probably right, that he points out is that uh James was uh the firstborn son, because he every time that he's listed, he's listed first.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: And there is an Old Testament story that if you were that we all probably know, but if you were a Jewish person, you would definitely know, and especially if you were impressed, it would be impressed upon you if you were the firstborn son, I would think.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the story of Jacob and Esau.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: And the fact that Esau being the oldest got his birthright stolen by his younger brother, got deceived, and uh Gene Getz kind of makes a conclusion that uh the older brother would have probably been taught that story in Jewish tradition, and as kind of a warning, you know, the older brother is as at least what he was saying is that in that culture, the oldest brother would be expected to take the lead, that he would be the the kind of lead the leader.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: And um as you as you read through the what he was saying, it kind of makes some sense that every time that he's listed, it's it's James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John, right?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_02: So he's listed first.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_02: He's kind of the the leader, he's uh he's uh the oldest one, uh, you know, and um I was I had to kind of had to start thinking, you know, in our culture today, I don't know if I really believe I believe that just because you're oldest, you need to take the lead.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: I just started thinking of that.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_02: Who in here is the old like the firstborn son?
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_02: Like it says how do you is anyone here a firstborn son?
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so I'm a firstborn son, but I'm a firstborn son by 18 months.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: My brother's eighteen months younger than I am, so it's not like we have many, many years between us.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um but I just thought that was kind of interesting and kind of challenged me to think, hmm, you know, as a firstborn son, what do I feel like is my responsibility uh for our family, for our brothers, you know, it did that did that shape my shape me a little bit?
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it probably has um but you know the question of how has your family affected you positively or negatively, I mean that's a very, very, very deep question, you know.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: I was raised, I I feel very fortunate.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: I was raised in a Christian home.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_02: I was taught the word of God at a very, very early age, you know, and that did shape how I saw the world and how I see the world today, you know.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: And some of you didn't grow up in that way, and it probably shaped the way that you see the world as well.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_02: And that's just something for you guys to talk about at your groups.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_02: And but one thing that uh that I think is in the conclusion of the chip off the old block, uh, he talks about, you know, James had some really good personality traits.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_02: He was ambitious, he he was up front, he was a leader, but also could have translated into uh some bad personality traits of being either selfish or overly ambitious, that kind of thing.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so no matter what your family history, you know, you can you can glean some good things from it, and you're always going to be something that you have to overcome.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_02: And uh he talks about his father and his mother there too.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I thought this was really, really interesting to and I hadn't really thought much about uh James's parents, really.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_02: Zebedee, you know, we know he's the son of Zebedee.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_02: He was a very, very prominent bit businessman.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_02: Uh he was probably wealthy, so James probably grew up in a wealthy family.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and in fact, he makes uh Gene Getz talks about it, and I it I didn't ever think about it this way, but when Jesus was arrested, John, the younger brother, went to see the high priest.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_02: He he was able to go access the high priest.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: He was actually able to go to the most powerful man in the Jewish community at that time and uh uh talk to him and and have access to him.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: So that I mean, he infers, and I think it's probably true, that he knew him.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_02: He knew the high priest, the high priest would have known his family, that family would have been very, very influential.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so probably had a good uh a good name in the community, in the Jewish community.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and also probably was a pretty it was probably pretty um an important thing when people found out that they were following Jesus.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like this is an influential family, and you know, I think that probably affected some people and probably affected the community quite a bit when they started following Jesus, you know.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, some of the Jewish people didn't believe that Jesus was a good rabbi or the son of God eventually when he proclaims that.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: Then also he talks about his mother and uh and the story, of course, that uh Paul was referencing that is in uh Matthew chapter 20, 21, and uh 20 and 21, verses 20 and 21, where uh Salo, James's mother, actually goes to Jesus and asks for his for her sons to be at Jesus' left and right hand.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: And he says, I thought that was interesting that James would have been at the right hand because he's the oldest one and he would have been in the one the most prominent position.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, it's it's worth pointing out, I think, that that I think that his his mother didn't really know what he was asked what she was asking.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_02: You know, Jesus was here to not to build a kingdom on earth, not to help the Jewish Empire overthrow uh the Romans or anything like that.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: He was building a kingdom in heaven, you know, it was a spiritual kingdom, it was f bigger than what they even could imagine.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but you know, I think it shows how forthcoming she was and how much she cared about her her sons, that she wanted her kids to be at the right and left in the prominent positions, and kind of almost expected that.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't know.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_02: That's the kind of the influences that James would have had from the mother and father, influential, powerful, rich, uh, a mother that expected her sons to be, you know, at the at the right left hand of the of the rabbi of the teacher that they were following.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that it really is interesting just how much our families, how much our parents and the things that we've seen growing up really do affect kind of the way that we think, the way that we see things, the way that we react to different things.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um Gabby and I have been married for two years now, and we're starting to think understand a little bit more about really how much her mom and dad and their relationship is played out in the way that she sees things, and the way that she does things, and how my family kind of influences the way that I do things, and how that how that comes up and and bears fruit in our relationship.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so maybe that would be a great one of the great topics to talk about today is you know what things did you see in your mom, what things did you see in your dad, what things did you see in their relationship together that now you're seeing yourself doing?
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: Or you're like, Man, I really just sounded like my dad right now, or man, I really just did something that my mom would have done.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I said I would never do that, but somehow it it comes out and it affects us in that way.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: And God's kind of created the family unit to be an offspring of that.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so, like Jason was saying, one of the most important things I think for us, for any any Christian person who's going to be a parent, is for instilling those Christian values.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because doing that, preaching the word of God, um, having a God-centered household will carry over into the next generation.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: It will carry over um into kids.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's that's one of the questions.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe your family looks like this or did look like this.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_02: I kind of looked at the girl in the glasses when I was growing up.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: You're the kid in the front left.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, with the propeller hat.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's me.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: I was probably like the grandpa next to him when I was three years old.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um the big I and me is kind of his neck section, and specifically asking the question: how well do you handle position and power?
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: How well do we handle that?
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: And we see, and and it's kind of a mirror from what we talked about last week um with Peter, in that really there there's a few main things.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: As James is one of the inner circle guys, one of the Jesus' three inner circle guys, and so he got to be there when um Jesus healed Jarius's kid.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: He also got to be there on that mountaintop experience.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: He got to be there at the Transfiguration, he got to see Lijah, he got to see Moses, and from him coming from a a prominent fisherman business background, um, kind of knowing the high priest, family knowing the high priest, um, seeing himself as a powerful person, and even the way that he wanted, him and him and John wanted to be at the right and left of Jesus, um, kind of expecting this high status, expecting these great things to happen to him.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: And you can imagine what he was like when he gets to see Elijah and Moses.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, those are if if you're Jewish at this time, those are like the pinnacle people who you would want to see.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: And he got a he got a front row seat to it and got to be there.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so definitely not a humbling experience, I don't think, for him.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: If anything, it kind of elevated um his thought of power and his thought of position.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: And then he gets the assignment from Jesus.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, hey, you three, I want you guys to come over.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: I want you guys to just wait here while I go pray.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's serious.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: I just need you to stay awake.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, this guy who's in these powerful positions, in this prominent position, he knocked out with.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Peter with John, completely asleep on the job, completely not what you would expect from somebody who's in that that high of a position or thinks he's in that high of a position.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: You would expect a little bit more responsibility, expect some awareness.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: Because when he was at the transfiguration witnessing something really cool, he didn't fall asleep.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, This is awesome, this is Elijah, this is Moses.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: I get to hear God speak.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: He's not sleeping during that time, but then he gets the job of, hey, stay awake while I go pray.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: And clearly he wasn't as excited about that.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: That was not a prominent position.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't really get to see anything cool.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, nothing great was gonna come of it for for him, at least he thought.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so this guy who's very much about power, very much about position, gets asked to do something that's pretty lowly, pretty unrewarding externally anyway, and falls asleep and doesn't take it seriously.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so the question that that we're asking, the question that Getz is asking is how do we handle position and power?
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I would probably take it a step further and say, how do we handle when we think we should be in a position of power and somebody asks us to do something that may be a little more lonely, that may be a little more menial?
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe no handing out crackers, maybe helping to clean up a bathroom at the end of a day at your business, maybe um whatever that thing is.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: How do we handle that?
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I know for me when I was in high school, um, especially when I was a senior, one, we got new jerseys, and so it's like, oh yes, and I I played quarterback on my high school team, and so I was like, yes, we got new jerseys, we're gonna look so good, this is awesome.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: And during my senior year, I also got to be number one on the team, and we never had a number one on the team.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: And looking back, I was like, man, that might have been one of the biggest mistakes.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: Just giving me that number just kind of inflated my ego at that point.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so I was a senior in high school, um, starting quarterback on the high school team, um, had a girlfriend at that time who was a cheerleader on the team, so kind of this stereotypical jock thing going on.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so I had position in my school, I had power amongst my team.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the things that I got caught up in when I was in high school was wanting to fit in, wanting to hang out with the cool kids, do what they were doing.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so I got invited to a lot of these parties and started drinking a little bit when I was in high school.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: And looking back, some not so great decisions came of that.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so that was an example of me.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I look back, it's like, man, I had this position, I had this power, and especially I was claiming to be a Christian at that point.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: How differently could I have used that position?
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: How differently could I have used that power to make an impact for God, to make a positive impact for other people, to be an influence, a positive influence amongst my team, amongst the the friends that I had.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: But there were certain situations where I had that power and I had that position, and kind of like James, fell asleep on the job.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of great things I could have been doing, but I didn't, and and letting that power and position um get to my head.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I will say that Derek and I kind of lived uh totally opposite lives in high school.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um I was not the quarterback, I didn't have a new jersey, and I didn't have a girlfriend.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_02: So uh but I you know I didn't I didn't have that experience of being the popular one or being the quarterback.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_02: I was a lineman, and I I understood my responsibility of you know making a big gaping hole and sacrificing my body so hopefully that the Derek, good-looking Derek person could run through and his girlfriend as a cheerleader could say, good job, you know.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_02: And uh but I but over over the years, and another thing is that I, you know, I've I've read these stories of the Bible and thought about the the inner three and thought, man, you know, how awesome would that be to be one of those three people that were picked to see all these awesome things and be one of Jesus' favorites, you know.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_02: But um in the through my life I've realized that sometimes even when you are put in a position of being a support role, you know, to see that position and understand that uh everyone has a you what you have certain power that God has put you in given you, you have a certain position that God's given you, that no matter what position you're in, uh God can use you through that position uh to accomplish lots and lots of of awesome things and see God work no matter what.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_02: But uh but yeah, but I just thought I'd mention that.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_02: Derek and I had kind of opposite experiences there.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: So we did, and it's interesting.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: And as you guys go around your tables and talk about different experiences, I'm sure every single person's gonna have a different experience.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: And God created us that way, and we can all use those different experiences to learn from them, um, to learn from each other and continue to grow in our relationship with the Lord.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: So let's this is gonna be our our key verse, and if you look at the end of the chapter, it's in the end of the chapter as well.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um but let's just go ahead and read this this verse get together out of 2 Corinthians.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: The old is gone, the new is come.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: 2 Corinthians 5, 17.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um so in our small group time, kind of those those two big topics of family dynamics, how do they affect you?
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: What things um positively, what things negatively, how do those impact your life, the things that you've seen and the things that you've experienced, and then specifically with power, which whatever level of power that is, when you're put in that position of power, or maybe think you should be in a position of power, how do you handle that?
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: Is it for God's glory?
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: Is it for our own glory?
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: Is it for some other reason?
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: How how exactly do we use that?
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_02: I would.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_02: Let's pray.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_02: Heavenly Father, thank you so much for giving us a time to come early in the morning and and dig into your word and and learn a little bit here about uh about apostles and about James, Father.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_02: I pray that we can learn uh learn lessons about when you put us in a in a position of power, Father.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_02: I pray that we would use it to glorify you.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_02: And I pray that uh that we can share that with our family, and I pray that would be uh the goal of our lives to be first be good um be good uh pastors of our family, Father.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_02: I pray that uh we would pass on godly traits to our to our children and to our family.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I pray that uh everyone here would just have a really good day.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_02: I pray that uh even though they might be tired from getting up extra early, I pray that you would energize them, and I I pray that you would just keep them safe till we meet again.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_02: It's in Jesus' name I pray.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.