Latest / 100% Maybe / Ep. 57 - Vision Sunday: The Harvest is Here

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Ep. 57 - Vision Sunday: The Harvest is Here · 100% Maybe

0:00
SPEAKER_00: That's good coffee.
0:01
SPEAKER_01: That's good particulates.
0:04
SPEAKER_01: Those plastic particles, they just kind of coat your stomach lining on the way down.
0:09
SPEAKER_01: That is, yeah.
0:09
SPEAKER_01: It's good.
0:10
SPEAKER_01: It's really good for you.
0:12
SPEAKER_01: So I counteract that with that.
0:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
0:14
SPEAKER_01: Um so on today's episode of Where in the World are Scott and Jeff.
0:20
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember uh Carmen San Diego?
0:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah with your kids?
0:23
SPEAKER_01: I I remember the name.
0:24
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know where in the world is Carmen San Diego?
0:26
SPEAKER_01: It's a big gap between the kids and my kids.
0:28
SPEAKER_01: Well, that was me.
0:30
SPEAKER_01: That was my childhood.
0:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
0:31
SPEAKER_01: That was a great great game.
0:33
SPEAKER_01: Great way to learn geography.
0:35
SPEAKER_01: And uh also reminds me a little bit of 100% maybe right now.
0:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
0:39
SPEAKER_01: So welcome to our makeshift studio in one of the rooms.
0:43
SPEAKER_01: I don't even know the number.
0:45
SPEAKER_01: Um, but we got our we have our stuff so we feel right at home.
0:49
SPEAKER_01: Accoutrements.
0:50
SPEAKER_01: Is that what it is?
0:51
SPEAKER_00: This is so we can feel there's has some source of normalcy, some sense of normalcy.
0:55
SPEAKER_01: These are like your security animals and trinkets, easy and uh easy.
1:01
SPEAKER_01: Whatever, whatever you call it.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: What what's the relics?
1:06
SPEAKER_00: These are relics.
1:07
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
1:08
SPEAKER_01: No doubt, no doubt.
1:10
SPEAKER_01: And I really think we should do a special episode just on each one of these.
1:14
SPEAKER_01: Each one has a story.
1:15
SPEAKER_01: The origin story.
1:16
SPEAKER_01: Origin story.
1:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's like the true Hollywood stories.
1:20
SPEAKER_00: Origin story.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: That would be a great series.
1:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:23
SPEAKER_01: Put that down.
1:24
SPEAKER_01: 2020.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: The problem is neither one of us write things down.
1:27
SPEAKER_00: So I write stuff down.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: Write that down.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: And then email it to somebody that will remember it.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: Like Clint.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: Clint will put it in the in the spreadsheet.
1:35
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's do that.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: I don't what am I looking at?
1:37
SPEAKER_00: Oh, there's the phones.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I got it.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking at a bright light right there.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: And right there.
1:41
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, if you've been around, um, you know we're a little displaced right now.
1:49
SPEAKER_01: There's temporary offices set up everywhere.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: I'm in an office with six people.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't work well.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: Not for me.
1:58
SPEAKER_00: How long has it been since that's been the case for you?
2:02
SPEAKER_00: Um well, first of all, I'm not a I'm not a career uh office person.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: Most of my previous career were outside manual labor kind of stuff.
2:12
SPEAKER_00: Or waiting tables.
2:14
SPEAKER_01: Um you don't get an office with that.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: You don't get an office with that.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: So I what I have found is I cannot I cannot write weddings and um eulogies and those things in a room with six other people doing the things that they do.
2:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that is difficult.
2:30
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm that way too.
2:31
SPEAKER_01: I gotta kinda have to be a little more secluded to to think and to work.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: So here's for those who kind of want an update.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: Um Monday, Tuesday was the first day they rolled back the tubes, the air out tubes or whatever they are.
2:46
SPEAKER_00: So that that portion of the um remediation has stopped.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: Now they have these dryers.
2:53
SPEAKER_00: They're like Did I say that with disdain?
2:56
SPEAKER_00: They're like four foot by three foot.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: They're just giant units that they roll around into the area.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: So they take samples, tells you what the moisture is, they'll put it in there, they'll plug it in, and it just cooks that area of the building.
3:09
SPEAKER_00: So we went from this giant roar to um many different roars, which really informs where you and I are, right?
3:17
SPEAKER_00: You gotta land in a different part of the building to get away from the equipment.
3:21
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we scouted out, um, found a little quiet place that has some AC, I guess, of some kind.
3:28
SPEAKER_01: And it's not bad.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you, they you guys can't see what we're looking at, but this reminds me a little bit of COVID when I was in the gym and we were renovating the build building, and everything in this entire church was in the gym, and I was preaching to a camera, and like if you could just see around, you'd know.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: We're in a room, every couch.
3:47
SPEAKER_01: We need a seating in here.
3:48
SPEAKER_01: Every couch in the church is in here.
3:50
SPEAKER_01: Could almost have service in here, have a chair for everybody.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: There's bookshelves, um all the all the things.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: This is the couch room.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: Well, but it that's fine.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: Fine.
4:02
SPEAKER_01: It works.
4:03
SPEAKER_01: We just need a little area and we can make magic happen.
4:07
SPEAKER_01: We are low maintenance.
4:08
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
4:09
SPEAKER_01: One of the two of us is low maintenance.
4:11
SPEAKER_01: I try to be very low maintenance.
4:12
SPEAKER_01: That's a goal of mine.
4:14
SPEAKER_01: I would I probably have not been defined as low maintenance.
4:16
SPEAKER_01: But no comment.
4:18
SPEAKER_01: I feel let's move right along.
4:20
SPEAKER_01: Let's keep um so what are we doing this Sunday?
4:24
SPEAKER_01: So we're first, second, John, forget him.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: He's coming back in the winter, which might bring a winter storm.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: Um, I I don't I'm not uh superstitious, but when you do a when you try to do a series over and over again and hurricanes show up, I uh you don't have a theory.
4:43
SPEAKER_01: If we have a winter hurricane, we're definitely never.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: The next time I talk about or to John will be in eternity.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: Uh that's that's true.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
4:53
SPEAKER_00: I I still, this is I'm gonna put out a local theory that I this is Scott's.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: I've not heard anybody else say this.
4:59
SPEAKER_00: It's not very brilliant, but we we opened a new high school here in town, and there were some debates over and voting as to what we should name that school.
5:08
SPEAKER_00: Interesting, and they chose the Soundside Hurricanes.
5:12
SPEAKER_01: They did.
5:13
SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
5:14
SPEAKER_01: I've not heard this theory anywhere else either.
5:16
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm just gonna leave that right there.
5:18
SPEAKER_01: Huh.
5:20
SPEAKER_01: I mean it should have gone with the bears.
5:22
SPEAKER_00: We didn't get it.
5:22
SPEAKER_00: Well, it should have gone with the bears, which may have been a worse.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: We might the bears might have turned on us.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: But um that storm didn't just come to our area, it came here.
5:31
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: Like literally landed here.
5:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: So somebody anybody think about anybody want to explore that renaming of that school?
5:43
SPEAKER_00: I think it's too late for that.
5:45
SPEAKER_00: It's never too late.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: I will call it other things.
5:49
SPEAKER_00: Well, tell us where we're gonna be this week.
5:51
SPEAKER_01: We are Matthew Nine because we are people that remember but also that look ahead.
5:58
SPEAKER_00: That's great, Jeff.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: That's a great transition.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: So this week is super important.
6:03
SPEAKER_00: Um not it it's every week is super important.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: This will be the first time, I think, in my career that I have uh done an audible for a Sunday.
6:12
SPEAKER_00: So because of the storm, because of all the displacement and all the challenges, uh, we were in a process of going through legacy groups where we were talking about 2027 and some of the shifts we're doing, not just programmatically, but also in terms of the life of the church, like uh actual grounds building, those things.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: Um and and it just is impossible with the flow of the year.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: So we decided that this coming Sunday we're gonna do a vision and mission Sunday.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: And there in the legacy groups there was a a solid hour of conversation about the things that are coming up.
6:49
SPEAKER_00: So what we did is we went back and we parceled that out and we pulled out the scripture and the underlying text for these reasons that we're doing what we're doing.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: And it's right here.
6:59
SPEAKER_00: It's in it's in Matthew chapter nine.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: But it connects us to our vision and to our mission of of of why why we're doing what we're doing.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, i i I don't in the podcast we can say the things that we're doing, but I'm looking forward to kind of talking about them on a Sunday, but but really inviting the church to participate in what God is doing in our community around us.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: I mean what we have experienced over the last couple years, but really in the last year is a is a great uh uh I don't know if you'd call it awakening, uh revival, harvest.
7:38
SPEAKER_00: You know, uh Christendom gets ridiculous about terms.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: Right?
7:43
SPEAKER_00: They say in order for something to be a revival, that means that something had to be alive that died that came back, meaning believers that are coming back to church.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: We're experiencing people coming to church that have never been to church, that have no baseline for faith.
7:56
SPEAKER_01: So that can't that's not a revival.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: That's not a revival.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: It is a harvest.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus I mean, to me it's what Jesus calls.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: There is a there are seeds that have been planted in our community, and I would say in our nation and in our world, where people are truly searching for hope.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: And it all comes about as a result of what's going on in society around us, and none of that should surprise us.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: When you read through um Old Testament and New Testament, uh our belief is that God puts people in authority, allows people to have uh positions of authority for his own glory.
8:34
SPEAKER_00: So you can look around and you can say, What is going on?
8:38
SPEAKER_00: But ultimately God moves the pieces to where he needs them to be.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: And our job is to be ready and to be prepared.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: And there are people coming into the kingdom, there are people looking for answers, there are people that are desiring to grow in their faith.
8:53
SPEAKER_00: And if we continue to do business as the Western church has, we will be ineffective, and God will find people that will do it.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: Because God is not going to call people to the kingdom and then entrust them to churches that will not um will not do right by by what he's called them to do.
9:12
SPEAKER_00: That's that's Scott's belief.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: So we started early on in this year putting systems of discipleship in place that start on the basic level.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: How to understand your Bible, what what are the core tenets of of the different genres of the book.
9:26
SPEAKER_00: I know I'm talking a lot before we get into it, but this Sunday really kind of brings next year into place us adding new services on a different day that will open up a us to a group of people that maybe never get a chance to go to church or they're watching online um because they work in the service industry or so we're gonna do all that.
9:48
SPEAKER_01: To you, is it because there's been a lot of dialogue that we've had about it?
9:52
SPEAKER_01: Is it the continuation of marrying the mission, dating the model, of understanding that we're called to do something, but that something could look very different from year to year?
10:05
SPEAKER_01: How do those decisions come to be?
10:08
SPEAKER_01: Do we picture like a bunch of uh people in cloaks and torches making uh make making decisions here?
10:15
SPEAKER_01: What what is that what does that look like?
10:17
SPEAKER_00: That that looks scary.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
10:19
SPEAKER_00: Uh no, that's uh we uh well, I don't envision any of that.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: I envision us tightening up what we're doing so that we can continue to connect people to Jesus.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: Uh what we did do over the last six months as well is to put a a vision statement in place um that centers around discipleship, um, raising up a Christ-centered community that is transformed through discipleship.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: And and that's that's what we're gonna do.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: So uh, yes, connect people to Jesus, but it's not just uh, hey, pray this prayer and you're good for the rest of your life.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: Praying a prayer of faith and believing in Jesus is one step in a journey that is a journey of our faith.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: And if we only focus on that step, and if we're if and I don't want to say only an evangelistic church, that's an important step.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: But if if that's all we focus on, then we are not discipling people.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna put things in place that do that.
11:07
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna look at our infrastructure, i.e., our parking lot, what we've got going on at the preschool.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: We've got to make some changes so that we can make space there for playground and and all of that access points that are that are there.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: But we at when it comes to our parking lot, we have uh put band-aids all over that thing.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: We've paid officers tons of money.
11:26
SPEAKER_00: They're wonderful, they're awesome, they're part of our church, but at some point that's that there's only so much you can do in moving traffic.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: There's a traffic light now that we have that helped things out a little bit.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: Got people that help park, and we've opened up the back 40, but you got people stumbling across.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: So it's time.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: It's time to go ahead and solve that.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna we're gonna fix the parking lot.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: We'll talk about that.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: And we've got some some very generous people in the church that are offering to to uh offering matching funds of large donations of of money.
11:54
SPEAKER_00: And so, so it takes those to help and and every every denomination of money matters.
11:59
SPEAKER_00: You know, everybody can give according to to what they have, and and we're gonna ask people to pray about that and and give and and all that's gonna be taken care of.
12:07
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna move remove an obstacle that has kept us from connecting people to Jesus.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: And then we're gonna open up this church on a different night, and we're gonna have have services, and uh, we're gonna invite our church.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna invite you to attend at different services and to serve and to give and to do all the things.
12:25
SPEAKER_00: Man, we get to participate in this greater story, but it calls all of us to to really search our hearts and find the passion area that God has called us to, then do that.
12:37
SPEAKER_01: A lot of it to me is also when you have a churchwide kind of focused vision or mission specific about hey, this is where we're at and this is where we want to go.
12:51
SPEAKER_01: When you see people go from like a tender to investor or invested.
12:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like what we're connected.
13:01
SPEAKER_01: Right.
13:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
13:02
SPEAKER_01: So what because I think a lot of it is that.
13:04
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's people that come and and uh and we love that, and that's why we're here.
13:09
SPEAKER_01: But also as part of discipleship, we want to call you to hey, God has something maybe greater for you because you're gifted specifically, you have these specific gifts and God knows what he's doing when he puts it all together.
13:21
SPEAKER_01: But when you see people go from a tender to like investing in the kingdom, what can you see like see the difference in them and can you see how that gets lived out?
13:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I I think over time, right?
13:37
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that you can make an investment, but I think when you become a when you become an active participant ongoing, what happens is you you you start to see the world differently.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: And Tammy and I just just because of some some personal issues we're walking through with family, um, you know, it's easy to look at your family and just go, man, this is it.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: This is the generations that go beyond us, and we're excited about things that are in front of us, and um, and and and we typically think the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: But when you stop and you look at the impact that you can have that goes from, you know, your two children and their spouses and then the generations that come beyond them, if you can stop and you can look at the 1,400, 1,500 people that actively work through this church every week and growing, the number's massive.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we are the body, we are the body of Christ.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: We are the we are the family of God.
14:27
SPEAKER_00: And and so it just allows you to realize the investment that you have.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: It's truly eternal.
14:33
SPEAKER_00: It goes beyond you.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: And um, and those aren't I've I've been in churches where pastors say that so that they can get an offering, right?
14:41
SPEAKER_00: I I don't, I'm not, I'm not that guy, right?
14:44
SPEAKER_00: Like we've invited everybody to be right along, shoulder to shoulder.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: I I'm a guy that I know my lane.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: I I preach well.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: I love I preach well.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: I I love what I study, I love presenting it.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: And and for some reason it works.
14:59
SPEAKER_00: People can hear it and they can understand it.
15:00
SPEAKER_00: So so I've heard that that's well.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: Um, that's my lane.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: I've and I have a I have a sense of leadership about me.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: I've had to sharpen that and work on it.
15:10
SPEAKER_00: A lot of things I do poorly.
15:12
SPEAKER_00: So I've surrounded myself with people that do those things well, and nothing pleases me more than to be in an organization where I know my lane.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: And then somebody comes and says, Hey, what about this?
15:21
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, not my lane.
15:22
SPEAKER_00: Go see Clint, go see Vicky, go see Kristen, go see Jeff, go whatever.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: And we, and because we all own this together.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, it's not, I'll take whatever hits I need to take as a senior pastor.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: And I know I've got to make decisions that only I can make, and I've got influence that only I have.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: But dude, we it it I do not get here without this team, and I do not get here without you.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: And I'm so excited about what's in front of us.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: And when I look at the hell that we're walking through around us, all of us, individually and corporately as a church, don't mess with us, man.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: Don't don't mess with that that scripture last week um of uh Senakarib sending the the um the email, sending the letter to obvious story to yeah, to Hezekiah and and saying, Don't you dare believe your God can save you from this.
16:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
16:10
SPEAKER_00: And so Hezekiah's just like, well, I gotta go ask God about that.
16:13
SPEAKER_00: And God said, Oh no, God sent Isaiah.
16:15
SPEAKER_00: And Isaiah said, Don't worry about it.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: He's not even coming into the city.
16:18
SPEAKER_00: Right.
16:18
SPEAKER_00: That that's that's the belief I have.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: But but even if not, I'm okay.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: Man, I I God has set us here at this time in this season for this.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: And I and I I feel that bubbling up inside of me, and I'm excited.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm excited for this Sunday.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: And we should probably read scripture at some point.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: That's a lot.
16:36
SPEAKER_00: Let's go along setup.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: So in Matthew chapter nine, and it's uh 35 through 38, four, 35 through six or seven, thirty eight, four verses that are so simple.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: And here's the context.
16:49
SPEAKER_00: Chapter nine follows think about Matthew.
16:53
SPEAKER_00: Matthew has the birth story as told through Joseph.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: He's connecting to a Jewish audience.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: Then he preaches the Sermon on the Mount.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: You've heard it said, but I say, you've heard it said, but I've said, and he gives them this impossible way to actually accomplish the law, but to realize that the that God has written it on our hearts, and so there's a way to do that.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus goes about sharing the good news in a region of the world called the Galilee.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: This would be Santa Rosa County size.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: Maybe Santa Rosa's bigger than the Galilee.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: That's probably comparative.
17:29
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is just traveling around this region.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: Every now and then he'd pop out to Tallahassee.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: Every now and then he'd pop out to Jerusalem.
17:37
SPEAKER_00: But that's about how far he would he spent traveling his entire life.
17:41
SPEAKER_00: So he's doing, he's healing and he's doing all of these things just in this little regional area.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: And people are responding in incredible ways.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: So let's so let's I'm gonna read it.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I feel like I'm preaching a sermon right now, but it's it's four verses.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: Let's read it.
17:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let's read it.
17:55
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: So it says Um, then Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: Look at this description.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: Because they were harassed and helpless.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: Then he tells you what that's like.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: Like sheep without a shepherd.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna start preaching, but just look around.
18:23
SPEAKER_00: Harassed and helpless, pretty apropos description.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: Then he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: A question I'll ask on Sunday is in Jesus' time, in his context as he's looking out, who were the laborers?
18:46
SPEAKER_00: I got a feeling there's only one, and it's Jesus.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: Now we could talk about that on Sunday.
18:52
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
18:57
SPEAKER_00: And that's where chapter 9 ends.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: And that's a tragedy.
19:01
SPEAKER_00: Because so if you if you don't know, this is the 100% maybe podcast, and Jeff, I feel like I'm talking so much, so you can just tell me to shut up and talk.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: But I'm on a roll, so just here we go.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: Let you go.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: Long after the Bible was written, very well-meaning people helped us by making the Bible teachable and giving it the opportunity to be something that we could study by coming back in and putting chapter breaks and pericopes or titles on each section.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: So someone decided that that next word needed to be in chapter 10.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: But so you have to do an exercise every now and then and take the chapter out and just read on into the next chapter.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: Because after Jesus says, send out the laborers into the harvest, into his harvest, the ver chapter 10, verse 1 says, Then Jesus summoned his 12 disciples, gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to cure every disease and every sickness, names them, and then you know what he did?
20:04
SPEAKER_00: He sent them out.
20:06
SPEAKER_01: There's a kind of a cool flow if you take a step back and I think look at the whole you know, the first few chapters.
20:13
SPEAKER_01: Jesus comes onto the scene, he then calls first disciples, then he does some teaching.
20:21
SPEAKER_01: Does some teaching, then he does some demonstration, and then he sends them out.
20:26
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
20:27
SPEAKER_01: And then of course they come back and he he kind of teaches them a little bit.
20:31
SPEAKER_01: Right.
20:32
SPEAKER_01: After they've done some things, yeah.
20:33
SPEAKER_01: They're like, hey, this went really well.
20:35
SPEAKER_01: This did not go so well.
20:36
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, Yeah, uh-huh.
20:37
SPEAKER_01: Uh huh.
20:38
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, how'd that work out for you?
20:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
20:40
SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's pretty cool, just the I think you see a real pattern of like intentionality, go figure.
20:48
SPEAKER_01: Jesus actually, you know, had a real plan here about what he was doing.
20:51
SPEAKER_01: Sounds kind of uh obvious, yeah.
20:54
SPEAKER_01: But you know, there there are times I think it you really see if the call for us is to be like Jesus, you see the model that he presented to us to follow, I guess.
21:05
SPEAKER_01: So um let me ask you this for those that aren't farmers here in the audience.
21:09
SPEAKER_01: Um, what what what is the harvest?
21:12
SPEAKER_01: What does he mean by that?
21:15
SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah.
21:17
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean for us?
21:18
SPEAKER_01: I guess what did he mean, and what does it mean for us?
21:20
SPEAKER_00: Metaphorically speaking?
21:21
SPEAKER_00: Or or in terms of uh uh okay, that that's a great question, but I think you have to wrestle that to the ground.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and and then you can say what it means for us.
21:29
SPEAKER_00: That's what we do here.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: That's what we do here.
21:31
SPEAKER_00: So uh Jesus Jesus is talking about uh the people that are responding to his message and the miracles, and he's seeing them.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: They are what are the two H's?
21:46
SPEAKER_00: Harassed and helpless.
21:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I got confused, confused and helpless.
21:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: All those words fit.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: Uh so Jesus is seeing them, they're responding to the message.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Message in the chaos of what's going on around them.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: And um, and so he wants to go out and harvest that.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: And and so I think then you just have to kind of figure it out what does it mean to harvest?
22:11
SPEAKER_00: I I would say it would be to give them enough truth to understand who the shepherd is, right?
22:16
SPEAKER_00: Because sheep without a shepherd.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: So they have no direction, they have no framework of what it means to be safeguarded in a world if they're harassed and helpless or confused and helpless, then then they're missing some key elements that would safeguard them from being still harassed.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: Uh from being at least helpless.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: But not not as confused.
22:38
SPEAKER_00: Or not as confused or not as helpless or not as harassed.
22:41
SPEAKER_00: You know, somebody can harass you all they want, but if you have a if you have an understanding as to why that person is harassing or where it's coming from, maybe you can view that and maybe it's not as harassed, maybe it's just a pain in the butt.
22:51
SPEAKER_01: Well, and if you go on to his discourse in 10, I mean, there's some you talk about wrestling some things to the ground.
22:58
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's when he's talking about, hey, I'm actually here to turn families against each other because you're either gonna be with me in my kingdom or you're gonna be against it.
23:07
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
23:08
SPEAKER_01: So I think goes to what you're saying about it's not it's not so much like, hey, this is all let's just hold hands and skip through the the harvest, this is gonna be great.
23:18
SPEAKER_01: He's literally using some some pretty harsh language to be like, oh wow, is this really something that I want a part of then?
23:26
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: One of the conversations we had in worship planning yesterday, and buddy, it just it because the the same sort of conversation came up about harvest.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: What does harvest look like?
23:36
SPEAKER_00: So when we visit family in Oklahoma, every now and then they really enjoy sticking me in a tractor.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they allow me to, I have not gotten to drive the grain truck, but they've threatened to allow me to drive the grain truck because that probably can be run into a stump and then you'll just figure it out.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: They drive the million-dollar John Deere tractors, they let me breathe the byproduct.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: And here's the big thought I have harvesting is messy.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: Even in a world where you pay all that money for equipment that plants straight rows that maximizes every inch of property, when you see uh the the tractors going through and the grain trucks, I mean the earth is full of thatch and byproduct of all the stuff and animals and things are running, and it's a and it makes me feel like the harvest.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: So when we get into questions of, well, what's God calling me to do?
24:30
SPEAKER_00: What am I equipped to do?
24:32
SPEAKER_00: What is harvest?
24:34
SPEAKER_00: I always feel like harvest in this sense is pulling back the veil and offering truth in the world where they're harassed, providing a shepherd, providing direction.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, it's showing up in a in a situation with somebody who has questions doesn't mean you're gonna have all the answers.
24:50
SPEAKER_00: Could be just showing up.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: Could be just showing up.
24:53
SPEAKER_00: Josh on Sunday morning uh used used the text um about peace in the storm, and Jesus had the ability to stop the storm.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: I don't know that we have that ability.
25:05
SPEAKER_00: I do know that we have the ability to bring peace into the middle of the storm.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's the same thing.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: Um so so to answer your question, you know, what does the harvest look like?
25:18
SPEAKER_00: There are people that are looking for answers.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: They are hungry.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: Life has brought them to a place to where they're searching for more.
25:28
SPEAKER_00: All of those analogies and words.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: And this is exactly why we're here.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: We're not here, we're not here to hold hands and skip.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: I think there was a time when the church thought that.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: And there are some churches that make it all about the pleasantries of life and the what we get out of life.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: Harvesting for the disciples got them all horribly killed.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: How about that for a bright, shiny message?
25:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
25:56
SPEAKER_01: I was looking for a pillow that we could put that on.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: Here it is.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm a firm believer in that, man.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: That's a John is the one that lived the longest, but it wasn't because they didn't try.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: They tried to boil them, they tried to so so deciding to be present in the harvest means that there will be family members that will and it's and it's not because we just go be lightning rods that just are mean to people.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: Right.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: Speaking truth and loving people and caring for them, some people just can't handle that.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: They don't want anything to do with it, and they're gonna come up with other ways to go about it.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: But but we have to hold fast to the truth and and we're called to go out into the harvest field.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: The disciples were not ready.
26:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
26:35
SPEAKER_01: When you see when you think of that, say I'm somebody, yeah, I mean, God's calling me to step into something, I don't know what it is.
26:44
SPEAKER_01: How do you see that actually the church um comes along and is able to provide something maybe that is more effective than like, hey, I'm just gonna go out and start knocking on doors and or preach on the street or something?
27:02
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
27:03
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying those things maybe don't have their place.
27:05
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about that guy.
27:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the street preacher yelling at everybody is probably a different thing, but you know what I'm saying?
27:13
SPEAKER_01: Like, how is it uh how does it involve getting like step in with the church and connect versus like just uh me kind of spinning my wheels on my own?
27:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh so uh I would say wholly different conversation, but absolutely fits.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: So it's a bigger conversation to me.
27:31
SPEAKER_00: What what we have in the modern day church is completely different than what they had, like the organization of a 501c3 and what we are, and this is the work I'm doing in my brain right now.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, it is it is wholly different than what they had in the early church, but it has elements of it.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: So when I look at our church, what we've done, pastors, modern day megachurches, or even small churches, is we have turned the gathering of a Sunday morning slash, go to look at Acts 2, apostles' teaching into the end-all be all.
28:06
SPEAKER_00: Like we're gonna raise money, we're gonna build buildings and come gather and hear the apostles' teaching.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: That's one piece of it.
28:14
SPEAKER_00: Right.
28:15
SPEAKER_00: So if a church, our let's just look at our, let's look at ourselves in the mirror.
28:19
SPEAKER_00: If we're not also leaning into the other aspects of faith, which I would argue are maybe more important, equally as important.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: Let's just say that's all getting trouble.
28:30
SPEAKER_00: Nope, there's no trouble.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: Um building community, allowing people to connect to folks around them, learning to take what the apostles taught and work it through in a group that is also helping to feed each other, that is also visiting each other in the hospitals, that is also helping carry fences to the side of the streets when a hurricane goes through.
28:53
SPEAKER_00: That's what this storm did.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: Is it it it helped us to connect to our neighbors or to our life groups in different ways.
28:59
SPEAKER_00: That's one aspect of it.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: The ability to give, what you see in the early testament, was true sacrificial giving.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: They were, they were, they were those that were Jewish, were still giving to the temple in what was their original context of what they understood because because they were Jewish and that's what they're thinking, but they also then would give to the kingdom for the various needs.
29:21
SPEAKER_00: So we have to be nice to have a bigger conversation about what that looks like in in modern day understanding.
29:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
29:26
SPEAKER_00: That's why I don't bang the drum of understanding tides.
29:29
SPEAKER_01: Well, and it seems like, too, they don't they didn't have to be told by somebody to do it.
29:34
SPEAKER_01: They were already there living with them, and they were like, there's the need, I can meet it.
29:38
SPEAKER_01: No brainer.
29:39
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
29:39
SPEAKER_00: They knew the mission of the church, spreading the good news, and they were about it.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: And if they saw a need and they had the ability to do that, they either met it or they met whatever portion they could of it.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: And that was the early church.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: And and we're we are as close to looking like that today with a completely different context than maybe ever before.
29:59
SPEAKER_00: And and then they served and they jumped in.
30:01
SPEAKER_00: Those those four elements, that's what we've made our church about.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: But I s every it seasons, it could be that I'm 55 and so I'm in that world, looking at those different areas and seeing the viability of each one.
30:12
SPEAKER_00: Um we we can't we can't just do one of the four.
30:16
SPEAKER_00: Got to find those connecting areas and and see how they work, not just to build community life church.
30:24
SPEAKER_00: It cannot be that.
30:25
SPEAKER_00: It can't be that.
30:27
SPEAKER_00: Community life church may grow as a result of it, but your larger question was how does that show up for us?
30:33
SPEAKER_00: We have the benefit because of the people and the things to take those resources and to use them to flesh it out in a way that can become a resource.
30:41
SPEAKER_00: So that's what I'm gonna do.
30:43
SPEAKER_00: I don't want this to be about apostles' teaching only.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna drive this into discipleship and I'm gonna drive it into groups and encouraging people to be able to give and then ask for the parking lot is gonna be something that we're gonna have to be able to fund, but that's just to remove the impediment of the parking lot.
30:58
SPEAKER_00: The day that Scott shows up and says, let's build a 5,000 seat auditorium out back so we can all be in one service, somebody needs to say no.
31:07
SPEAKER_00: That's that doesn't, it's not gonna work that way because that's not, it doesn't seem like it fits into the mission of what we're doing.
31:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:14
SPEAKER_01: What about if you ask for the river in the back to stock with uh travel out?
31:19
SPEAKER_00: I'll have to do some real work as to how that'll connect people to Jesus, but I don't think that's probably appropriate at this point, right?
31:26
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: I I think as that as that works right now, taking a team somewhere to that is near a river so that we can do that, but it provides that space is probably the biggest stretch I can make.
31:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
31:35
SPEAKER_00: But being able to come back with an entire year of sermon series and all of that, it it works.
31:40
SPEAKER_01: There was a church, giant church in Dallas that had like, I want to say like a million dollar fish tank in it.
31:47
SPEAKER_01: Really?
31:48
SPEAKER_01: In the lobby.
31:48
SPEAKER_01: That's interesting.
31:49
SPEAKER_01: And of course, of course, you know what was above it in big letters is the I will make you fishers of men.
31:56
SPEAKER_01: So here's the here's the trial.
31:59
SPEAKER_01: No, it was I mean, it was like a artificial tank, you know.
32:02
SPEAKER_00: Just is it does the guy that owns Bassbro shop attend that church, maybe?
32:05
SPEAKER_00: Telling you.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
32:06
SPEAKER_01: It was it was a whole thing.
32:07
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, and I'm and I I mean we're in we're all up in uh it's easy to throw rocks, man.
32:12
SPEAKER_00: We've got our things.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: I I just I I I want to be about mission and vision and and and this is the this is the verse uh Jenny, Jenny is the one that came into worship landing and screwed us all up because this is what she was praying.
32:27
SPEAKER_00: And um and and I screwed us all up in the best way.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: Be b not uh she might have, not had the foresight of what we were about to go through as a community.
32:37
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's it's interesting.
32:39
SPEAKER_00: People that have such a heart intercessory praying, they seem to have an edge as to where we're headed.
32:47
SPEAKER_00: And uh one of the things I need to learn as a pastor is to is to open up the ears and to listen a little bit more.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: I heard her when she came out, and this was the verse that was that was rolling in her heart, and uh I'm telling you, it is powerful.
33:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
33:01
SPEAKER_00: It's where we're headed as a church.
33:03
SPEAKER_00: So the intent of Sunday is to bring focus to scripture and where we find ourselves now.
33:13
SPEAKER_00: Turn the soil of people's hearts, allow them to process.
33:17
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna put all this before the church on Sunday, and then we're gonna work through a series that's been on the board.
33:23
SPEAKER_00: It's called the Care Series.
33:25
SPEAKER_00: It's our it's our every year we do it during this time.
33:28
SPEAKER_00: It's uh Addie's Addie's branched it out a little bit.
33:31
SPEAKER_00: It's it's when we have the celebrate recovery testimonies.
33:34
SPEAKER_00: So there's two Sundays that'll be with that also with scripture and some other things.
33:38
SPEAKER_00: But then the book ends, the first one is right on All Saints Day, and it'll be the opening that will connect us to All Saints Day and then really allow people to to remember their loved ones.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: So so that that's gonna be poignant.
33:49
SPEAKER_00: But then the last one is when we'll call back and really give folks a chance to to commit and think and pray and and how they want to respond to the next year in terms of where they're gonna serve, what services they're gonna attend, how they can take who they are, their resources, and and really how you can take that and put it in a 2027.
34:09
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be an exciting year.
34:10
SPEAKER_01: Sounds like a Sunday that you don't want to miss to me.
34:17
SPEAKER_00: It does.
34:18
SPEAKER_00: I'll be there.
34:19
SPEAKER_00: I know if what's rolling around in my stomach has any indication that you you won't you uh it's and it's not because of anything awesome Scott's gonna do.
34:28
SPEAKER_00: There i there are moments where you feel like God is bringing things together for a particular time and everything, even nature, is aligning around it.
34:38
SPEAKER_00: Um it's a really cool place to be.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: It comes with all the feels good and bad.
34:46
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
34:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and uh I'm I'm here for it.
34:50
SPEAKER_00: Cool.
34:51
SPEAKER_00: I'm here for it.
34:52
SPEAKER_01: Well awesome, man.
34:53
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for uh, you know, whatever rolling with with all this and finding a new place to sit every week.
35:00
SPEAKER_01: But one of my favorite moments.
35:03
SPEAKER_01: Um but yeah, we love you and are excited to to to share those moments Sunday together.
35:09
SPEAKER_00: So just know that there I I I believe there will be a time when you will look back in your life and say, um, do you remember when when?
35:21
SPEAKER_00: And we got to see, and and we were in the middle of, or right on the on the cusp of, or we got to see what God was doing palpably.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm not it's not a weird miracles conversation.
35:34
SPEAKER_00: It's like you get to look back and go, yeah, uh I'm glad that we saw and knew that it was happening while it was happening.
35:39
SPEAKER_00: For me, that's huge.
35:41
SPEAKER_00: But so to be able to so, anyways, I'm I'm excited.
35:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
35:46
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
35:46
SPEAKER_01: Appreciate it.
35:47
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
35:48
SPEAKER_01: Love you guys.
35:49
SPEAKER_01: I'll see you on Sunday.