Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / January 25, 2017 | Men's Fraternity - Spring 2017, Session 3

Transcript

January 25, 2017 | Men's Fraternity - Spring 2017, Session 3 · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: All right man, hey uh good morning.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: We always know we're getting close to summer when um when Bill wears shorts, so uh summer must summer must just be around the corner.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, or it's close.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, well hey, who anybody here born in Missouri?
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean so we got a couple guys.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so you know Missouri is the show me state, you know, and so we've got our own we've got our own version this morning of of you gotta show me, you know.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Let me ask this question too.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Anybody ever been around somebody that's just like consistently kind of negative?
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Just just kind of a negative attitude, you know.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: We used to say kind of Debbie Downer, you know.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: So all right, so so so we can we can relate here.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: So so we've got our own version this morning of uh kind of Mr.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Mr.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Downer and uh gee, you gotta show me, you know, I'm not gonna believe anything until until I actually can see it myself.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: So uh anyway, I'm gonna this is kind of short this morning, but I'm gonna let uh Jason and Derek here kick us off and uh talk about the the infamous doubting Thomas.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: Appreciate that, thank you.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: Well, the infamous doubting Thomas.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: Before we get to Doubting Thomas, we have some other news that I think would be probably pretty good to cut.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: Well, maybe not pretty good to cover, but we're gonna cover it anyway.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: First, sad times.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: It was close at certain points of the game.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_02: That is like the beginning.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh in the third quarter.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: The we're talking about uh the the chapter today, not to jump ahead, is a pessimist who is transformed.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking a little bit about pessimistic thinking and optimistic thinking, and this shows you that I've somewhat of an optimistic thinker.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh who's six minutes left.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: I thought KU was still gonna win this game.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it actually was like a five-point game at that moment, it was seven minutes left, and I really thought they were going to, and uh got home and I had it on the I was listening on the radio, got home, uh getting the kids ready for bed, that kind of thing.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: I checked the score, like wow, I'm glad I didn't listen or watch the rest of it.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: I would have that's really horrible.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: So anyway.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: Sad time apart at the end.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: Is that what happened?
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: They just were playing.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: They didn't score as many points as they needed to at the end.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_02: At the end.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_02: And so therefore, they lost this time.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: Also, Iowa State over K-State by five.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: Again, didn't quite score enough points at the end.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: Or the beginning.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: Or the beginning, or the middle.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: Man, this is a real downer for me.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: I know.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we're gonna a few more college basketball things.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: I got the the score updates.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um Marquette over number one Villanova by two points.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: That's we've got Tennessee also unranked over number four Kentucky by two points.
• 3:03
  unknown: Oh my god.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it people are just falling.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_02: Giants falling down.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: Falling down.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: So probably what will happen, none of the rankings will change this week.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_02: So um this is a little bit more simple.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: This is not a bad thing.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: This is more bad news, but we've got good news coming after this, okay?
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: There is some good news.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: There's a silver lining.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: But Ventura, I'm sure you guys heard about him down in the DR um driving.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: There's different stories about how it happened, why it happened, but um the main crux ended up dying in a car crash.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_02: 25 years old.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um he had two pennants.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_02: It's pretty crazy.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: For the American League pennants.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: One World Series.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's pretty crazy.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's crazy.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was very sad.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: Just different different things like that happening.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: I got a text.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: How I found out on Sunday is Hunter Rue texted me and and told me, and I thought, man, that's horrible.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, you guys ready for the good news?
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: This is not good news.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: That's good news, isn't it?
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_02: No, people aren't excited about that.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I know, let's see here.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: Is Brad uh Brad, you're you've got a Falcons fan in your in your are you all Falcons fans or just George George, George.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: He wore his Falcon stuff.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: This is this is good.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: He wore his Falcon stuff on Sunday before they won.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like and he's I've seen them wear it before, so it's not just like, oh, this year I'm a Falcons fan.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: He's been a Falcons fan at least six months or so.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_02: So you know So So how how is George a Falcons fan?
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: Or why?
• 4:49
  unknown: He likes birds.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, that's he has some ra does he have a Ravens shirt as well and a Cardinals?
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: I gotcha.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I I noticed that on Sunday that he had his Falcon shirt on, and I thought, well, good for him.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Someone wants someone to win.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: No, Derek is well, I Derek's a Patriots fan, which, you know, I don't know, must be a tough life being a Patriots fan.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: So we need to we need to qualify that a little bit though.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_02: Alright.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_02: Because I at this point in my life, I've been a long I've been alive for a long time.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_02: At this point in my life.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: Most of your life.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think I consider myself, I can't consider myself a true Patriots fan because I can't name more than five or six players on their team.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't watch them every week and I don't know who they're playing every week.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: But the reason I I'll tell you the reason I became a Patriots fan is because they win all the time.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_02: But there's more to it than just that.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_02: So when I was in third grade, my family moved from Illinois to Indiana.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_02: And the school I went to, everybody was hardcore Indianapolis Colts fans.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_02: They love the Colts.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_02: Peyton Manning was somewhat at the beginning of his prime at that point.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: And they were saying, man, the Colts are the greatest, they're the best.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_02: Peyton Manning's the best quarterback of all time.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I really just wanted to argue with somebody.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_02: So I looked at all the teams and I said, which team is better than the Colts?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: Consistently.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: And it was the Patriots.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_02: And that was it, you know, mid-2000s when they went to like four Super Bowls or something like that.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: And so I chose the Patriots and I got to talk trash to all my friends, and that's how I began to do it.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: I never heard that part of the story.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: Now I have a little more respect for you, I guess.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: So you're really not a Patriots fan.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: You are just an anti- uh Peyton Manning fan.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: I have a lot of respect for that.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: So there you go.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: Appreciate that.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna do a little something, a little something different this morning.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_02: Jim's gone, so we're doing things different today.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_02: So if you guys didn't know, this is also important.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's important.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_02: Another sad thing.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_02: Not yeah, another semi-sad thing.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it is sad.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_02: But Jim um ended up flying out to Texas because that is where Melody's mom lives.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_02: And so she Melody's mom is in the hospital right now dealing with some serious um health complications, and so we don't really know what's gonna happen over the next few days or over the next week, but um that's where they're at, and they're taking care of her.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: And so if you guys remember them, just lift them up in your prayers because they they definitely need it.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: For sure.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: But now it's 6 30 in the morning, so it's a nice game.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna take a time to make play a nice game of would you rather I'm sure all you guys have played this game before.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: We've got well listen, should we just get into it?
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, let's just get into it.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's a voting game between your tables.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: So would you rather eat 12 shrimp with sword swords as tentacles or eat raw duck?
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: Hmm.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: 12 shrimp.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: Swords as tentacles.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: Just think about it.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: Or raw duck.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: Raw duck.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: Who says raw duck?
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: Ooh.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: Who's eaten the shrimp with You have to pick one.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: That's a part of the game.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_02: We got abstainers.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: You're like, whatever.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_02: Let's just talk about the Bible and give it away.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, anyways.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: There's there could be a loosely tied in point at the end of this.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: Would you rather watch six episodes of Gilmore Girls, 30 minutes apiece, or do three hours of shopping?
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_02: You are shopping, but it's not for you.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's it is for someone else.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: Alright, would you this is for the playoffs?
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: Would you rather be a real Chiefs fan and never go to the Super Bowl and live in turmoil basically your whole life or become a Patriots fan like Derek, but I'd always win but not be a real fan.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_02: Choose wisely.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_02: Choose wisely.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: You said Patriots fan?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_02: Oh man.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
• 9:27
  unknown: That's the only reason I become an economy.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: Good.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_02: So?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: Patriots fan.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_02: There we go.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_02: Alright.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_02: Would you guys rather be on a team of half-glass full people or half-glass empty people?
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_02: Which team would you rather be on?
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_02: The full team?
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: This is a trickier question than you might think, as we found out.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: So when people say our glass is half full, usually we call that optimistic thinking.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh we were talking about optimistic versus pessimistic thinking.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: And here are some uh good things about uh each of them, and uh it was kind of interesting when we were talking about that.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I hadn't really thought about the pessimistic side because I I feel like I'm a fairly optimistic person.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm an extremely optimistic person.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: Like I said, with you know, like a couple minutes left in the KU game, I thought they were gonna win.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I always think they're gonna win.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: I always think the Chiefs are gonna win.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: So that's very, very optimistic thinking.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but okay, so optimists optimists typically uh take risk, uh and high they take a high risk challenge and they think everything's gonna come out okay because you know you think it and believe it, and positive thinking, the power of positive thinking, they have um most of the time self-confidence, uh tough-minded in the sense that they always think that things are gonna work out and a can-do attitude.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: So those are some positives of optimistic thinking.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_02: Usually when we think about the half-glass empty person, we think about the pessimistic person, we think of it as highly negative, right?
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_02: We think of it as two completely opposite ends of a spectrum.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: You either have the half glass full, optimist, all the way to the other end, half glass empty, negative, pessimist.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_02: But here's some things, some positive qualities, you know, depending on the situation, about pessimists.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_02: They are planning obsessed.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_02: They want everything to be planned out, they think, try to think through every single detail.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um they think about, because they think about every detail, they think about everything that could possibly go wrong, right?
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_02: But what about if this happens?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_02: What about if this happens?
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_02: There's this negative thing that could happen, there's this thing that could happen.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um they collect a lot of data.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: So they are they're they're very, very slow to act because they're constantly collecting data, they're constantly analyzing, they're on this path where it almost seems um like there's nothing that's going to be done, or nothing that's going to be done well, um, it could seem.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_02: But something that was kind of interesting as we were, you know, doing some research about this is that the half-glass full people and the half-glass empty people don't necessarily have to be at opposite ends of a spectrum, and how they can actually coexist together and where each of them serves a specific purpose in making the team work well.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: And so one of the examples of this as we were researching is actually the US Navy SEALs.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: And so what they've found is that a great mix of optimists and a great mix of pessimists on the same team is actually ideal for having the best outcome on that team.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_02: Because you've got the people who are very analytical, they're thinking through all the different scenarios, pessimists, hey, what if this goes wrong?
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: What if this goes wrong?
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: What if this goes wrong?
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: And you have the optimists who are like, hey, let's go, we can do it.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: And so when you mix those things, you don't get overloaded on the optimist side where you may miss some of those potential pitfalls that could happen, some of those negatives that could happen, but you also don't have a team full of pessimists where you don't have any positive momentum going forward.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: And if you have a team full of people that think everything's gonna go right all the time, they might not be prepared for something doesn't go right.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: And if you have a team of tons of people that say everything is gonna go wrong all the time, then they won't know how to celebrate when things go right.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: But so that kind of brings us to Thomas, uh, that we in and like we said, chapter eight is a pess uh pessimist who was transformed, and also during the middle of the of the chapter uh gets it called him uh a sincere pessimist.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: And basically, um to set this story up, uh the first time that we're introduced uh to Thomas, um oh, shall I not go there yet?
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: Probably not.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the first time that we uh are introduced to Thomas is in chapter John chapter 11.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: But to set that up in John chapter 8, uh Oh, we're not quite there, yeah.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: There we go.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, in John chapter 8, uh Jesus has started to teach.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: He had done many miracles, he had started his ministry, and uh a lot of a lot of Jesus' teaching started becoming stronger worded.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: He started hinting at and telling people that he was more than just a man, that he had a special relationship with God, hinting at that he might be the Messiah.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: Uh in fact, I I think it so in ja in John chapter 8, uh he he says the very controversial going back to Abraham, he says, before Abraham was I am, like not I was, but I am, like I am that I am, I am God, like uh how God addressed Moses to the burning bush, I am, like before Moses was I am.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so using that language, the Jews got really, really, really upset.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: And in in chapter 8, 59, it says that that they picked up stones uh to throw at him, but uh Jesus was hidden and went out uh of the temple complex, so he was able to escape, but they were ready to kill him, they were ready to hurt him.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: They were those were fighting words before Abraham was I am.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so then you go to uh chapter 10, and Jesus continues to teach, and he continues to teach hard truths about himself.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, in in chapter 10, as I was reading that, it said he said, actually, they said to him, If you're the Messiah, just tell us.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, Well, I have told you, but you haven't heard.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like he's like, I'm not trying to hide it from you.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: And uh he said in John 10, 30, the Father and I are one.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: And when he said that, again, the Jews picked up the rocks to stone him.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so after that, I mean that it was a lot of high tensions in Jesus' ministry.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: The Jewish people were really upset, thought he was a blasphemer, or at least were saying that he was a blasphemer.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: He was saying things like, Well, you're have hard hearts, you're not gonna be able to see who I really am.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: And they're saying, Well, you're just a man, and you're saying you're the son of God, and so they were at odds with each other, and it was a very dangerous situation.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: So he withdrew uh beyond the Jordan River uh to stay kind of safe.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: And it says that a lot of people came to him, but at that time it seems like from the text that he wasn't going back into the temple or back where the Jewish populations were were really um upset with him.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so that is kind of the what happens as we come up to chapter 11 and about when we're going to be introduced specifically to Thomas for the first time.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we get and then we jump into John 11.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_02: This is where we see the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead raised from the dead.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_02: And it's interesting because in verse 3 it says, So the sisters sent a message to him, Lord, the one you love is sick.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_02: So we've got Lazarus who is sick, Mary and Martha, um, his sisters, and they tell Jesus, hey, he's sick.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_02: And then in verse 4 it says, when Jesus heard it, he said, The sickness will not end in death, but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_02: So we see that Lazarus is sick.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_02: Mary and Martha know to call on Jesus.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_02: They've been around, they've they've heard about some of the miracles, they've seen some of the miracles.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_02: Who are they gonna go to?
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: They're gonna turn to Jesus if there's somebody who's sick.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_02: If there's somebody who is not well, somebody who's suffering, um that's the person that they're going to.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_02: That was the first person that they would call is Jesus.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, okay, so as uh as the story goes in chapter 11 is is uh really interesting.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: He says that Jesus, you know, tells his disciples, well, Lazarus is asleep, and they were like, Well, um, good, then he'll get better if he's sleeping.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, No, he's dead.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: I meant he's dead, like he was trying to tell them in a more subtle way, and they didn't get it.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, but he said, We need to go, you know, we need to go to, you know, over to see Lazarus.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like this plans were sort of made in uh in chapter 11, verse 8.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: It says Rabbi the disciples told him, just now the Jews try to stone you and you're going there again.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: So they were very concerned because you know, we just talked about chapter 8, chapter 10, tensions were high.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like I know this is your friend, but really is it worth going to see it, your friend that's dead to to die yourself, you know.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: They were just really concerned about it.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so the story is kind of picking up there, and then in chapter 16, d-un dun, we're finally introduced to Thomas.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_02: We see Thomas come on the scene, and in verse 16, he says, Let's go so that we may die with him.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_02: Those are his first words that we see in the book of John.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: First time we hear about Thomas at all, what he says, let's go so we can die.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, hmm, that doesn't seem very optimistic.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: It actually seems very pessimistic.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, let's go so that we can die.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_02: And the point that Getz makes is that there's that he, Thomas, is a sincere pessimist.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: Meaning that he really wants to follow Jesus, he really wants to serve, he wants to do the best, but he's also very pessimistic and saying if we go, we're gonna die.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: Because you guys remember back in chapter 8 when we almost got stoned to death.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_02: You guys remember back in chapter 10 when we almost got stoned to death, we just left this place and now Jesus, you're you're saying we want to go back to that same place where they already tried to stone us before.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_02: Some people would make this case that Thomas was being sarcastic.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um we don't really know exactly kind of what his feeling was or what his his motive was behind saying what he said, but he was very, it looks like anyway, that he was probably eager eager to go, he was probably eager to serve, but also on that pessimistic scale, saying, Right, it's a possibility.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna die.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna die, but we know anyway, that's alright, you know, and uh in it's kind of interesting because we don't know for sure, but it he's the he's the one quoted as saying this.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: No one, none of the other disciples are saying, Jesus, wherever you want to go, we'll go.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: You know, even though they didn't really want, you know, want to, it was a scary situation.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: He was the one that said, you know, we're probably going to die.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: But that's okay, okay, we'll we'll go with you.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: And they actually ended up going and seeing the miracle of Lazarus being raised from the dead.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, it's a little bit of a a push towards the the end of the section we were reading.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh they m gets makes the conclusion that or says that possibly, we don't really know, but possibly this could have inspired the disciples to uh Peter to be able to say uh, you know, when he was reinstated, hey, wherever you go, I'll go, you know, and to be willing to die for their faith as well, or at least set the framework for the first disciple that was at least verbally willing to die.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: For Jesus' cause for for who he they thought that was the Messiah.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so that brings us to principle one.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's possible to be a pessimistic personality, yet a sincere follower of Jesus.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: And like we just said, uh Thomas was able to, you know, be realistic, pessimistically realistic, but yet still follow him sincerely.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, and I I think I mean it changed my a little bit of my uh opinion of Thomas as I read this section, read, reread these stories again, and like he was the one that said, hey, let's go, even though all the other disciples are saying, hey, this is a scary place where you we were just they're gonna try to kill us.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, let's go anyway.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we'll follow Jesus.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's interesting that we do, and I think for all of us, we have the people that we know who we would consider to be very pessimistic.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_02: And we have the people that we know who we consider to be very optimistic.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_02: And we know the people on the optimism side who maybe they're really, really optimistic and they have that can-do attitude, but maybe they don't think about all the other possibilities, all the other shortfalls that could come from making you know a certain decision, um, all of the negatives that could happen.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_02: But then we also know the pessimistic people who it seems like, man, they're always a downer, they always want to bring up something negative, they always want to bring up these other situations that you know probably won't happen.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_02: But we're very thankful when we do have those pessimistic people who are planning, who are thinking through, okay, what's the worst case scenario?
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: What's the worst thing that could happen?
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_02: So that while chances are very low that that thing probably will happen, you can at least have a chance on your team, whatever team you're in, whether it's work, whether it's ministry, whatever, so that you can prepare in case that situation does happen.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_02: And in case that worst case or bad situation does happen, you at least have thought about it before instead of being caught completely off guard by something negative happening like that.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_02: And we have our memory verse, which is a long one.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_02: It's actually two verses.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_02: There you go.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_02: So let's, yeah, let's say this together.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_02: Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_02: But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: John, pray for us.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: Heavenly Father, thank you so much uh for giving us this day.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: Father, I pray that we would use it to glorify you and and to get closer to you.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for um your word and the in specifically now in John and chapter 8 through 11.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: We talked about uh disciples that were really had real fears and and real faith, Father, and I pray that uh we would continue to grow in our faith in you.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: I pray uh for everyone that is hurting right now.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: I pray that everyone that uh has family members that are sick or hurting or possibly just lost loved ones, Father.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: I pray that you would comfort them.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I pray that you would be with Jim and Melody and their family as Melody's mother uh is in the hospital, father, and in your control, but uh I pray that you would just be there with that family.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's in Jesus' name I pray.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: Here's four questions that can kind of get you guys started off.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, is it possible possible to be a sincere follower of Christ yet not be a true Christian?
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_02: So kind of an interesting question.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_02: Can you follow what Christ teaches on the outside, but maybe not be a sincere Christian?
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um how can pessimism actually be a good thing?
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_02: How can pessimism and optimism work well together?
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_02: And have you ever been pessimistic towards God in different ways?
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_02: Mm hmm.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_02: So hopefully you guys will have some good discussion and see how maybe some of this plays out in your workplace or church or home or you know, wherever that is.