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Conversations #5: Living in the Abundance of God's Provision · The Father's Business Podcast

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Hey friends, I'm Kimberly.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm Elizabeth, and this is the Father's Business Podcast, born out of Sylvia Gunter's heart for people to know who God is and who they are in him.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: So wherever you're listening from today, we pray that you will sense his nearness and know that you are his beloved sons and daughters.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: We're really glad you're here with us today.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: Hi everyone, welcome back.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: We are continuing our conversation, and this week we are going to be talking about provision.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: God is the provider.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: So we have talked about his sovereignty, we've talked about his providence, and all of that, again, came out of a just a natural conversation that Elizabeth and I were having.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: So if you want to listen to that, go back a few episodes.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's conversation number two where we really dive into that.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: So we want to kind of hone in a little bit on God as the provider today.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: So Elizabeth, I'm going to ask you a question.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: When you hear the phrase God will provide, what's your reaction?
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Depends on the circumstance.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes peace.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, God's got this, he's going to provide.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: But most often it's a series of questions.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: How?
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: When?
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: How much?
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: I want I want to know the timeline.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: I want to know the full story of how it's going to happen before I'm going to believe that he will.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Referring back to the conversation we had a couple of weeks ago, just when you were asking me more in depth about my struggle with worry, my struggle with jealousy, in particular about getting married and not getting married and feeling like God was holding out on me.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, in some ways, if he had said, okay, here's the plan, you're going to be 34 when you get married, but you are going to get married, I don't know that that totally would have settled my heart.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because I still would have been like, but you could do it sooner, because you know this is a desire of my heart and you're not doing it.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know that answering those questions would really help me trust him as provider more.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: But my honest reaction is when God says, Be at peace, I've got this.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: My first question is how and when.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: So I think I would totally understand that.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like I would ask God a lot of questions if he says he's going to provide, because I think we are we're in the natural, we're like, okay, help me out.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: I want to know what how, when, where, why, whatever, right?
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: The first time we see God as provider in Genesis 22.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: And it's the story of Abraham and Isaac.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: So set the stage a little bit for what we're about to talk about.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so that is the first time in scripture where God reveals his name as the Lord will provide.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's that's the punchline of the story, right?
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: In Genesis 22.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: But backing up, first God asks Abraham to follow him to a land he doesn't know and allow me to become your God.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then he takes an old barren couple and tells them that they're going to be the father to the generations.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's why he changes his name to Abraham from Abram.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's there's a lot of ins and outs of this story, but Abraham tries to help God out in provision because he thinks his wife is too old and she can't give birth to a son.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: So he goes and oh, actually, she even suggested it.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: So the two of them are in this together.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: No shame on either side here, but the two of them think we need to help God out.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: I don't relate to that at all, trying to help God out.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: But these two people were trying to help God out, and he sleeps with her maidservant and has another son.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then God's like, that was not my plan.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: My plan was I was going to give you a son through Sarah, and then she does.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: So at a very old age for giving birth, she gives birth to a son named Isaac.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's lots more to the story, and several other times where Abraham sticks his foot in it and lies and says, This is my sister, not my wife.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's a lot to the story.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: But where we're getting to in Genesis 22 is God has told Abraham, we need to have a sacrifice, and the sacrifice is your son.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: So that's where we find ourselves.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: And Kimberly, I can't imagine what that was like when you're told, Oh, by the way, here's a son I promised you.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: I promise that you're going to be the father of generations.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, I want you to kill the son that I've given you as a sacrifice to me.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry to ask you this on the spot.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: Do we have any idea of how old Isaac was?
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think that we don't know for sure in scripture.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: But Bible scholars have said he's of teenage age.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: So he would have helped carry the wood up the mountain for his own sacrifice.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: And even along the way, the son goes like, where's the ram?
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Abraham's response is, the Lord will provide.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Kimberly, let me ask you, you're you're told to take your son up a mountain and sacrifice him.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: What what's running through your head when that happens?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, I think first is like, seriously, that's a tall ask.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that I that I can't fathom that question.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: And if I think about my character and who I am a little bit, I think I'm typically compliant and obedient to God and what he calls me to do, but I do it kicking and screaming usually.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think I would probably say, All right, come on, Isaac, carry the firewood, we're going up the mountain.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I'd probably tell him, God's saying he's gonna provide.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna get to the top and there's gonna be a ram or a lamb or something.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: And if there's not, you should run.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: You should run, Isaac, because God didn't provide.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Nice.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate the honesty.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: If my son had asked me going up the mountain, like, where's the ram?
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't have said God's gonna provide.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: I would be walking up that mountain grieving that, okay, this is what God's called me to do.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: This is pretty black and white.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Go kill my son, so it's time to kill my son, so let's go sacrifice my son.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: It never would have entered my mind that there would have been a ram somewhere on the mountains.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: There had to be a ram.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: There had to be.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: He was not gonna sit there?
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yes.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: In my economy, there's always another option.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: In my economy, God makes you do hard things.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: So that's both are probably true between the two of us.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: You would hope there would be, but I wouldn't even have hope.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: I would be like, this is the hard thing God has called me to do.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: God is God and I am not.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I would have been grieving and also complaining to management all the way up the mountain that there's got to be a different way you could do this.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: The answer would not come into my head.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: That means you're gonna have a ram at the top of the mountain.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, I would think there's surely gonna be a ram at the top of the mountain, or we're gonna get halfway up and he's gonna give us a different plan, or Isaac's gonna fall on the way up and he's not gonna be a good sacrifice.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Or, you know, Or you're gonna pick up a stick and beat your son so he's not a good sacrifice.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: Or Isaac's gonna run.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: I do naturally and truly joking here, but like in in all seriousness, I do think oftentimes I'm gonna follow you, God, but I I'm pretty certain there's gonna be a different outcome here.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: Some of my darkest days were in my twenties losing my dad to cancer.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: And we are surrounding my dad's bed with him taking his last breaths, and I think that's when I actually accepted he's going to die.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: But prior to that, I could have told you a thousand ways that God was gonna show up differently.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I really believed it, and probably that's why that moment was so hard, is because I was like, oh, he didn't.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's why the great disappointment came in.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: But I do genuinely tend to think God is gonna provide and show up because I know he can.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: Which leads us to a conversation we had last week, right?
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's the the tension in all of this is we know he can and yet he doesn't.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: But in this story he did.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: In this story he did.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: He did.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Which then informs my faith that I should trust.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: God has a thousand different options that I hadn't even thought about.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because I I I'm I'm not going up the mountain looking behind every bush, thinking there's a ram somewhere.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: I am just like, set my face like flint.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: This is what God called me to do.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: I don't get it.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I would have even been thinking, okay, we sacrifice this one, God will just give us another son through Sarah.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like it would have been disasterized in my life.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I know you're not surprised by that, Kimberly.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not surprised by your response either, because when we find ourselves in just everyday situations, your MO is it's gonna work out.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's gonna work out.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: And at the same time, my head is reeling through four different backup plans of what we need to do if it goes wrong.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: So some of this is again where our natural bent informs how we feel about God and how we process our faith.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: But I love that you you would tell your son to run.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: But as the story goes, we know he doesn't have to because they do get to the top.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Isaac is on like the altar is built, the sun is there, the knife is raised before God says stop.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then the ram appears.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: And again, that's where I would want to talk to management and say, okay, could we, as you suggested, get halfway up the mountain and say, Okay, you've proven your faith, you've proven you're willing to do this to me.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Don't don't kill your son.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, God has far too much fun with this.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Wait until much later in the story before he shows up and he provides.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: Which is why I think that Abraham shows up later in Hebrews in the hall of faith scriptures, right?
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like, to be honest, I would tell my son to run way before I tied him down to the wood, okay?
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know that I have that much faith.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: Right, yeah.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: And yet Abraham did.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: He was fully obedient and he was fully trusting in God.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know, like you had set the stage before for everything that they had walked through and everything he'd tried to control.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe there was this element of like, I'm an old guy at this point, I've learned all these stories, and yeah, I'm gonna trust God.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: And if I have to sacrifice my son, I'm faithful and obedient.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's what he's called me to do.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: And and God's he declares himself in that moment as Jehovah Jirah.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord who provides.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: To me, that's a beautiful picture, and it's also a pretty terrifying and frightening picture, you know, how he does that.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it it also echoes what's to come when God himself gives his own son so that we do have provision.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that is the beautiful part about it.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't think if even God in that moment said, Okay, Abraham, I'm gonna I'm gonna ask you to go up the mountain, I'm gonna ask you to kill your son, and here's why.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: And he tried to explain the crucifixion and the resurrection that comes so much later in history.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: Again, that goes back to this whole thing of would explanations from God really help?
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because I don't think we could fully understand the scope of everything that God is doing and weaving together and those things.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: But I agree with you.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think through the course of his life, after trying to fix it his own way so many different times and it going horribly wrong, perhaps some wisdom has creeped into Abraham's mind.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: God will provide.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe he went up that mountain more like you, Kimberly.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Not not saying to his son, you're gonna run, but just knowing, you know what?
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: No, I know the character of God enough to know that he's not gonna require this of me.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: There's got to be another way.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: And that is the the push-pull of me when it comes to the provider thing, because I do believe, and one of the names of God that I cling to the most is God is the way maker and that he will find a way.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, in some ways, I can believe that God's purposes will move forward.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: That I get.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's more the practical provision for myself is where I struggle with this looks impossible right here, you know, paying these bills and there's not enough money in the bank account, those types of situations.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's where I struggle to believe that God is provider.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Elizabeth, you were just talking about it's in some of the practical things where we wonder if God will provide.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: And part of my story that I don't know if we shared this exactly in in Conversations Number Two episode, but I did have a father who provided financially for us and showed up.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I could trust that he did.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: Now, was that a full provision?
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: No, it wasn't.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: But at the time growing up, I really felt like, hey, dad's gonna provide for us, dad's gonna show up.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so that did give me a picture of my heavenly father that I've that I've always felt like I could trust God to be the provider and the Jehovah Jira.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: I've always appreciated that name of God and clung to that.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: He will provide.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so I do kind of have this sense of I don't have to worry, I don't have to fret, he will show up.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: But that doesn't mean I trust that in all areas.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: There's little categories of where I believe that he will show up and he will provide, right?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: But when you look at Matthew 6 in verses 25 and 26 in that that passage there, Jesus actually says this.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: He says, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: Look at the birds of the air.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: Your heavenly father feeds them.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: Are you not of more value than they?
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: He goes on in verse 32, and he says, Your heavenly father knows that you need them all.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: Your father knows while I have certain categories where I can know that God knows, and know that he will provide, and know that he sees my worry and sees my anxiousness.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: I have to cling to he knows all of it.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: I just have my categories, but he knows all of it.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: He knows all of the need.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't have to be anxious, because that takes us to Philippians, right?
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: He will provide every need.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: But feel some lack there, right?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: And my categories I know.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: He's got it.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: But there's other areas where we we feel the lack.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: We feel the uncertainty.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I think sometimes where I've got to keep myself in check is my God will provide my every need.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean my every expectation, my every desire, my every want, my every dream.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of my churning with God about provision, if you really boil it down to it, is more about those things.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's the things that I want in my life that I don't have.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: But according to scripture, in this moment, if that is what I needed, somehow it would be provided.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I've seen ways where I'm down to my last dollar and all of a sudden God provides for me in a way I didn't expect.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I I don't even remember my mom drilling that into me at an early age telling the story.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: There was a time where my parents were living paycheck to paycheck.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: I was the baby in diapers and she didn't have any laundry detergent.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Payday wasn't for another five days.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that day in the mail, one of the companies back then that was trying to get you to buy their detergent, they used to mail you samples.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: We don't do this anymore.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: But she got a sample of laundry detergent in the mailbox that day.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it was just enough to get to the next paycheck.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I have heard and I have lived an experience where my needs have been met, much like you, like your dad.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: He always provided.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: It may not be everything you wanted, but he was a provider.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: But I think a lot of times my struggle is I have expectations, dreams, desires.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Not that those aren't good things to have, sure, but I define those as needs.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where God and I have to kind of have some more conversation about what is my daily bread that I need for today versus what I think I want for today.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that rolls into other areas of our life, like emotional needs, spiritual needs, financial, mental, relational, you know, like in all those, all those areas.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: We've talked about the fact that we live in a very anxious time.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: I think we've always lived in an anxious time if we think about it, but I think with social media and technology, it's advanced the way we process things or it tries to advance the way we process things.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: It actually slows us down from processing a lot of things.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: We have a lot of people growing up who feel incapable, who feel like they would rather be understood than to try something new because it brings them anxiety.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: That anxiousness can drive us and it can drive us towards broken cisterns, actually.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it can drive us towards running to things that will make us feel better rather than actually looking to Jesus to be the one who will provide us with peace and a sense of security and a sense of stability.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: Because, like for your mom, if we go back to that example, laundry detergent showing up didn't change her circumstances in the bigger picture.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: They met her need in the moment.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so, what does that look like emotionally for us?
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: How do we trust?
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: There was an emotional need that she had in that moment, too.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: She got God had to provide for her to be calm and have peace and trust in him.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's a that's a a lesson and a thought for us today, too, just to recognize I have to look to God to be the one to meet my loneliness, no matter what relationship I'm in.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: You like we talked about a few weeks ago too.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: You have married people and single people and divorced people and widowed people.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: Their needs of loneliness are still there.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: Doesn't matter your status.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so, how do I trust that God knows my needs?
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like you said, he knows my wants and desires as well, but he can distinguish in his sovereignty and his providence with that wisdom what is needed and what I genuinely need.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: And how do I lean into trusting him and aligning my spirit, soul, and body with who he is as father, son, and spirit so that I allow him to meet those needs because I can resist him meeting those needs.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: Well, he can direct me to go to the mailbox and I don't go get it.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, if we use that example, you know.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: Or we can spend all of our energy, which is my tendency, churning and stewing and worrying and not just trusting.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's there's another verse, you know, you talked about the consider the birds of the field.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: There's the other verse where it talks about consider the lilies of the field, how they neither toil nor and all of these things.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: They're they're never worried.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: And there was a, I remember a season of my life where one of my good friends, like she would just have to keep saying to me, be a lily, be a lily, be a lily.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I need to be a lily.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I am being a lily today.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it is.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's a moment-by-moment decision to rest in the trust and this in the sovereignty and the provision of God rather than churning to try to figure out in my finite understanding how is this problem going to get fixed.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Easy to say, harder to live for sure.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: Kimberly, I know there's a lot of different streams of the Christian faith out there, some that believe that we should be blessed as Christians in financial ways and and other things.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: But I think if you take a look at scripture, what you see is faithful people go through hard times all throughout scripture, and faithful people find themselves in lack, up to and including Jesus.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says in Matthew 8.20, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: So Jesus, the Son of God, lived without the basic security of a house while he was here.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now we can wrestle with, well, he was also fully God, he wasn't just human, but he understood what it meant to be in lack.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: It also says in 2 Corinthians 8.9, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: So Jesus was willing to step into lack.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: Just coming to earth was lack.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: Not even talking about the physical things of not having a home or wondering where his next meal is coming from and those types of things.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: We have a God who understands the feelings that we have when we feel that we're in lack.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that is the compassion and the grace that we hold on to in these moments is that we can learn to trust him for provision because he knows what it feels like to be without.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: And we can also lean into who he is and be content with where we are because of who he is.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that leads us to a scripture in Hebrews that I am I am guilty of this.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: I had to be reminded as I was getting ready for this podcast.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: I am quick to quote the part of the scripture that says, I will never leave you or forsake you.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I hold on to that promise and I believe it is true.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: But do you know what the first part of that verse says?
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: I I was like, this is a little convicting as I was reading through this.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 13, 5 says, Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: For he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: And Kimberly, how many times in my own life do I want the I will never leave you or forsake you part, but I don't want the be content with what God has given you.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so for all of us, I think we've got to wrap our head around what does provision mean?
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: What God is our provider.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it can mean finances, but there's so much more to that provision than that.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Elizabeth, I think that's the provision that ultimately leads us back to the cross.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: The ultimate provision, the greatest provision ever beyond money and health and security is the person of Jesus Himself.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: And as we've been talking, I've been thinking this podcast is going out the Thursday before Easter.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: And the hope of the resurrection comes because of the darkness of the crucifixion.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just what we were talking about with Abraham and Isaac.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: Thank God he provided a ram in the thicket.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: And no matter how you approach that story, no matter how your personality shapes it out, or what type of Abraham you would be, what we know about Jesus is that in Romans 8 32, it says, He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I have to pause even in this season of our church calendar that we're looking at and go, God is the provider.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: And how can I doubt, rhetorical question here, how can I doubt that he will provide when he gave the ultimate provision of his son for the greatest good ever, that man could be saved, that we could have hope, that we could have a promise of a future and life, an abundant life, knowing, of course, that the thief does come to steal, to kill, and to destroy, and to take us out, and to cause us to doubt, and to take us back to all the lies and the struggles that we have.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: But ultimately, God gave his son so that we could have abundant life.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: And if God has already given us his son, who is the most precious gift that he could ever give us, which is what he was asking Abraham to do with Isaac to point us towards a greater story, because Genesis to Revelation is a story.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's a big picture.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: Then that should change the way we understand provision, to be honest.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: Just like I said last time, we get so man centric.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: We get so focused on my needs, my wants, my desires today, and my small.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Small little world.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like if you look at the globe, I'm a little tiny dot that you can't even see, to be honest.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: But I feel like I'm the center of it.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: I live as if I'm the center of my story rather than living as if God is the center of the story, who is painting a bigger picture, who is moving a lot more moving parts than I even can comprehend.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think that's where we have to widen our understanding of not just provision, but who God is, right?
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: And as we widen our understanding of who God is, then we widen our understanding about provision is not just about he's going to provide you material things.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: He's going to give you a good life because you're a Christian.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: He's going to bless you.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: He's going to not withhold from you.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like all these things that that can be true to his character.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: He is, he is God.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: He is a provider.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: He is good.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: He is loving.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: He is faithful.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: But his provision is not always the tangible things we're looking for.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: And it's also not necessarily the removal of hard things in our lives.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: And those are truths.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's not easy for us to sit and say these things, but but it's truth.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: His presence inside the hard thing, his presence when we don't get the thing we need is actually what grows us more than having the thing we think we need.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: There's a scripture in Luke 12 7.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, Why?
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: Even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: Fear not, you are of more value than many sparrows.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: He knows the details, he has the understanding, he sees the bigger picture, he sees Genesis' revelation, he sees all of today, he sees the purview of time, he's outside of it, and he says, What I'm gonna provide for you is myself.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: Myself.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: And you're gonna celebrate that and commemorate that as the greatest day in the church calendar.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly, it's not about my birth.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's a cool thing.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's a great thing.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that was pretty immaculate.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: However, this is the crux of it.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: Literally, the crux is the cross where I was given and I said, Lord, if there's any other way, let this cup be taken from me, Father.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: And my father said, No, there is no other way.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus went through a horrible, horrendous death on the cross so that he could be raised again.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: And as the apostles' creed says, he experienced death, he experienced hell and was brought back to life for a greater purpose, not just a Lazarus type of life, right?
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: To go back to what we talked about last week too.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: So in the midst of that, Elizabeth, how do we respond and live?
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: Knowing if that is the truth that grounds us.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I am not, again, we say this a lot, we are not here to simplify your needs, your lack, your fears, your doubts and struggles.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: But having the understanding that God is not just providing, but he is the provision.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: How does that change the way we live?
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: How can that change the way we live?
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: So to say there's there's the right answer, and then there's the the life answer.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: But the true answer, the real answer is it should change everything.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: It should reframe any situation I find myself in should be the foundation should be peace and trust because I've seen this beautiful act of provision given on the cross that has forever settled for all eternity everything that I need is in Christ.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: So therefore, there should be no worry, there should be no fear, there should be none of these other emotions.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, look how much time Jesus spent and the rest of scripture tell us don't be afraid, don't be afraid, don't be afraid, stand firm, don't be afraid, because God understands we're frail and we are going to worry, some of us more than others.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: I learned how to worry well at the at the knee of my father is this tension that we live in, which is it's all been paid for.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Any mistake I'm even gonna make in the future, already paid for.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I love as you were talking earlier.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: We were joking about how you would handle Abraham versus how I would handle being an Abraham.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I told you I would just be obedient and you would be like, There's got to be another option.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: And what you just quoted, what Jesus said to his own father, there's both of them.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: He first said, Isn't there any other way?
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: No, okay.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: Then he set his face like Flint and he went to the cross.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Our own personalities are both reflected in that one little piece of scripture, and that's that is the detail and the love that God weaves into everything that he does.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, yeah, some of us are facing a power bill at the end of this month that we're not sure how we're gonna pay it because there's not enough money in the bank account.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that is reality, and we have to face those real things that are going on in people's lives.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: And at the same time, as you said, as this podcast is coming out, we're celebrating the greatest provision that's ever been given.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: And somehow those two coexist.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: We have a mutual friend who, when I start to tell him a story, and I'm like, you're not gonna believe what happened, he starts smiling before the story is over.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, Have I already told you this story?
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, No, but I know God's gonna show up somewhere.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, I there's gonna be God in here somewhere.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I I look at him and I'm like, I wish I lived every day with that much faith.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: That, yeah, I can smile now because at the end of this story, which may not be next week, it may be way down the road, but somewhere down the road, there's gonna be a really good punchline to this story.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: And for all of us, it will be an eternity.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: There's an amazing punchline to this story at the end where there will be no more tears, there will be no more pain, there will be no more suffering, and we will be in the presence of God for eternity.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what God, our provider, has already provided for us in advance.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I would hope that would allow us to live from a place where we're looking for the evidence of God's provision more than I'm focusing on lack and what I don't have.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now, yeah, easy to say, harder to do, but living from a place of gratitude where I wake up in the morning expectant that God is gonna show up for me.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: Elizabeth, even as you're saying that, do you remember the last phrase you just used?
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: I wake up expectant that God is going to be there for me.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: As you're talking about one day we're gonna see the fulfillment and we're gonna be in the presence of Jesus and there's no more tears.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: They often say there's no more lack.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: The other piece to that story is it's not just no more lack.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: There's actually flourishing on the other side.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: The flourishing that comes, it's not just this life is over and we go to heaven and we see Jesus and that's the end.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like I think oftentimes seeing Jesus should be enough in and of itself, and we don't know the whole story.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: But what I do know is that there is a piece of the story where the Garden of Eden points us also to the end of time where there will be a new heaven and a new earth, and there will be this idea that Jesus will reign without this sin, and he will be sovereign and providential and providing and love, and there will be this idea that we get to flourish in that relationship with him like it's meant to be.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: And the peace that that brings me is overwhelming.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's not just I need to be content.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: Again, those lessons are huge.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: Philippians 4, 6, do not be anxious about anything, but everything about prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: Let your request be made known to God.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_01: So that act of choosing to not be anxious, choosing to be patient, choosing to take him my needs and everything by prayer and supplication.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: Internally, I want to get to a place of peace, but if I'm honest, I do get there sometimes, but often I come back to lack, I come back to need, I come back to want.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: The day of flourishing, the time of flourishing is no more of that.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like it is ultimate peace.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: That's the glory of the resurrection.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what Jesus wants us to see in him.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where we've used this word before, that's where Eucharistio comes in.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: That is where an overwhelm of gratitude comes in.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: And this is not a simplistic well, choose to have a gratitude journal and be grateful here and there for what God has done and the little things here and the because he hasn't done the big things over here.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: Sure, that will help you.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: That can be a practice that helps you, but so much bigger place from a such a bigger heart and place of motivation.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: God is saying, Truly, I am your provision.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: I am the fulfillment of all things.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_01: Every good and perfect gift comes from above.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_01: That's what James says.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I think about First Thessalonians, where Paul says, Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_01: He doesn't say give thanks for every circumstance.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: He says, give thanks in every circumstance.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so while we are walking in the flesh, while we're walking in a very broken world, very broken, what we have to cling to is being grateful that Jesus came to give us life.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_01: And it may not be until I live in a time of flourishing when this life is over and I see Jesus that I ever understand why any of this crap happened.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_01: But I hope and pray maybe he'll give me the opportunity to understand it.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_01: But it will be with a different set of eyes.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: It will be with a different mind.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: And it will be with an attitude and an understanding that Jesus is the one who allows us to live in a flourishing place.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_01: What I long for is the day where he may answer the questions and he may not answer the questions, but what I can have genuine, internal, forever peace with is that he is enough.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: I want to know in here that he is enough right now.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I will wake up tomorrow and want to know that he is enough.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: But in between now and tomorrow morning, I will struggle with that.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_01: I want the peace that the resurrection brings, that he is enough.
• 31:54
  unknown: Period.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: Kimberly, as you're talking, the word that keeps coming up is a you sit you use the word flourish, and I keep thinking about the word abundance.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: And we we've talked about abundance a lot on this podcast before, and that God is the God of abundance.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: He is abundance.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this you're you're challenging me in a very good way today.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because you were talking about being in the end, the eternity, these types of things, and what we're going to be able to understand then.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I think my problem, and probably a lot of our problems is we don't understand the abundance we're living in now.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: It was all bought at the cross.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: All the glory that the Father has given to Jesus, he has given to us, that is promised to us in Scripture.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: The abundance of who Jesus is and was as he walked this earth is still available to all of us.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: We get to not only experience it, but then also be it for the people around us.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: And oftentimes when I find myself in a place of lack or thinking I am in lack and focusing in on need, it makes you go very inward.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: And as you said, your world gets very small.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so maybe for this Easter season, our prayer needs to be for each one of us.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: As the scripture says, join with all the saints in trying to understand the heights and the depths and the widths of God's love for us.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because it is incomprehenible.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I think if we could just we talk about Lazarus on our last podcast, maybe maybe I need a couple of days as Lazarus.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I need to go to the other side, get a taste of what that is, and come back to fully comprehend the abundance of what is provided, not only financially, but emotionally, spiritually, and allow ourselves to be reminded.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this is not a pick up a stick and beat ourselves moment at all, because if we did this well, we would not have to be commanded over and over, even in some of the verses you were just reading, to be thankful in all things if this was easy.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: But I guess my prayer for you and for me and for anyone who's watching this podcast is that we would drink deeper from the living water and that we would taste more of the abundance of who God is, and that we would run to that river and want to not just sip from it, but jump in it and fully experience the abundance that's there for us today.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because, like you said, it's easy theologically to say, yes, I agree to this.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: God is abundant and he is my provider, and he is already done more than enough by dying on the cross for my sins.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: But what happens when I wake up in the morning and I put my feet on the floor?
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: Am I rehearsing the abundance of God or am I rehearsing everything that it feels like is on my shoulders for today?
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that that is not to dismiss.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: We all have huge responsibilities in our lives of ourselves and families and other things that we're taking care of.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: But how do I help retrain my heart and my spirit to live from such a place of abundance that my list of responsibilities turns from a weight that feels like it is dragging me down, I'm going under for the third time and I'm not sure I'm going to make it back up, to I am so excited I get to see another way that God can show up for me today.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: And that may not be that he solves the problem.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: It may just be that he's reminds me that he's with me in it.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I do think it is important to train our brains to look for the goodness of God.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because our finite human brains naturally don't, because if they did, we wouldn't have to be told how many times in scripture to don't be afraid, don't worry, don't worry, don't be afraid, don't worry, give thanks, remember who he is for you.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: I guess our encouragement as we end our time here today on God being our provider is that we would all have that higher view that you're so beautifully just illustrated for us.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: There is so much more provision.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: There is so more of him.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: The gift he's given us is already so much bigger than we could possibly ask or imagine for.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it's only going to get better.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: And while it may get better eventually, I mean, that's the resurrection story.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: There were some dark days in between.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: If we're if we're talking about the Thursday of the week of things, this is the night of the Passover.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is the night of betrayal.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: This is the night of a very dark and a night of great loss.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: But the beauty is, is the provision was already provided before Jesus ever showed up on this earth from the foundations of the world.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: He was.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: The word was God and the word was with God.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: The provision was already provided before the earth was created and before the need for the provision was ever happened in in Genesis with Adam and Eve.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: My hope and prayer for all of us is that if you don't have faith on your own that God will provide, can you hold on to the faith of God who provided before there was ever even a need and will continue to provide.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so we bless you today with the richness after this conversation of the verse in Philippians 4 19.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_01: My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_01: May you know that in light of this conversation, and may you know that in light of the resurrection.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: This podcast is made possible through donations by people like you.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: To donate, go to www.thefathersbusiness.com.
• 37:10
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