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Transcript

Satisfaction in Jesus... · How to Faith a Life Podcast with Faith Womack

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you're listening to the How to Faith a Life podcast, where we wrestle with questions on how to live a life of faith, from everything from books to Bible studies, even Bible study tips.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: This is your place to wrestle with the hard questions and dive deep into what scripture really says for the Christian walk.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you've subscribed to this podcast and your favorite podcast streaming services, review this podcast so other people can find it, and share with other believers who want to ask the hard questions.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, with all that said, let's begin.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Hey guys, welcome back to the How to Faith a Life podcast.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: This is now my fifth take of trying to record this podcast.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: And each time I just like lose my train of thought and struggle through it, which I guess ultimately points us to our need for a savior.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: But um I would love to talk about John with you.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Anybody that goes to my church might be giggling, I although I don't think anybody listens to this.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because I am teaching, we just started a series through John with our women's Bible study, and I am so like I am pumped up reviewing John and just all of its beautiful literary elements and how he uses metaphors and just like thematic imagery all throughout the gospel, which are all like very human, very earthy things like bread, water, um, truth.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: He uses very human things, gait, sheep, vine, to point to these really deep theological concepts.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I've been refreshing myself on this and been really encouraged the more I look at this.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, so he takes these really human concepts and teaches us these really theological, deep concepts about God through these really earthy human concepts.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, like our hunger.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: He'll take the imagery, the metaphor of our hunger, and um, he'll present Jesus, you know, feeding the 5,000, and then Jesus says, I am the bread of life.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Or he'll raise Lazarus from the dead and he'll say, I am the resurrection and the life.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: And time and time again, like it's like John is screaming, don't you see?
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the answer.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so I've like tried to record this like five times, and each each time I like feel like I'm falling short, or I'm not exc blah blah, I'm not explaining it well.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: And as you guys can probably tell, I'm like tripping over my words, I'm tired, I should probably go take a lunch break, and you know, my human limits have reached their point.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus is the answer.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: And in John, like I'm sitting here trying to teach you guys about that, and it's like I don't even believe in the depths of my heart that that's true because I'm trying to be enough, and even just this simple, ridiculous recording of a podcast.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like, come on, Fa.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't about you.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: You're literally like, do you even believe what you're teaching right now?
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're literally spewing off the fact that like Jesus is more than enough and you're not believing it in and through yourself.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: But we do this all the time in our human experience.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like, um, I just took off my sweatshirt.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: I had put on a sweatshirt because this morning when I woke up, it smelt like fall outside, and so I was like, I'm gonna put on my sweatshirt, I'm gonna snuggle underneath the blanket, maybe I'll even light some candles.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: It is officially fall, you guys.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I found myself sweating like a man.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I took my sweatshirt off.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And even in my human experience of like sweating and not being able to make the right dressing decisions, I see how I'm I'm not enough in and of myself.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like I cannot save myself.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: I do not have the answers, and that in a small way points to Jesus, points my eyes heaven-bound to the heavenly realities of um no more tears, no more pain, and I would argue no more sweat because um they're the final consummation in Jesus.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus feeds the five thousands and he says, I am the bread of life.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: And uh let's look at the woman with the well, John 4.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: He Jesus sits there and she's trying to get water, and he says, I offer you water that's better than this, a well that never runs dry, uh, water where you will thirst no more.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: And she's like, Okay, cool.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: What is it?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Smart water?
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Is it vitamin water?
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of water is this?
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, No, no, no, no.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is like the life-giving water.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: I will satisfy your deepest thirsts, what you really are longing for.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: You've ran from man to man to man, and I offer you life.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Not not life like running from man to man to man, from brokenness to brokenness to brokenness, but I offer you real satisfaction that maybe you're looking for in these men.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I recently read a pretty good argument that like she it was likely that her husbands were divorcing her, and I'm totally botching the explanation of this, but because of the way like divorce laws worked, um, she might have been like being abandoned by the men, but either way, it's still true.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: She's looking for satisfaction in human means, which we all do, even me trying to film this podcast, looks for satisfaction in human means of like me doing well or trying to have you know all of my stuff together and a good recording.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, I will never be satisfied.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: There will always be lighting that needs to be corrected or a better situation, or me could have me could have worded that better.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I could have worded that better.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is the answer.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so while I want to sit here and talk about how like John takes us through our human experiences over and over and over again and shows us how Jesus the answer, Jesus is the true satisfaction that we're yearning for through our sweat, through our hunger, through a beautiful story, whatever.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like I would love to sit here and talk about that.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: But even through my own experience of recording this podcast, I am preaching to myself just how badly I need a savior because I can't even record a podcast, right?
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: I would love for you to think about like in your own life today, how often or how easy it is for you to try and be enough.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like I I literally, I'm pretty sure, I'm pretty convinced that I try and do this about every minute of the day.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, I'm do I believe what the Bible says?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Do I really truly believe what the Bible says?
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm not living like I believe what the Bible says.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: If I'm gonna be honest with myself.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: If I'm really gonna look to what I do when I'm heartbroken or frustrated or tired, what do I do?
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: I go lay down on the couch and I scroll.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Or I eat a piece of chocolate, or I rant and root to Joe, or I cry.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I often will run, not that crying is necessarily bad, but like I'll run to human means and tell myself, like, this is the answer.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because that therapist on TikTok told me that maybe I just need to journal about my issues, I'll journal some more, you know, or because um that book that I read told me that saying this particular prayer in this particular way will be all my answers and solve all the answers, whatever I'm trying to say, solve all my problems.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Whew, yo, yo, girl, faith.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, anyway, because I may try and run to other places for my answers, reveals in my heart that I'm not trusting in the Lord to me be my everything, to be my satisfaction, to be the strong tower, the the cleft that I run to.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um I can hide underneath his wings.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like, he is more than enough.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: More than enough.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Not just enough, like more than enough.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like everything that I need.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Do I truly believe that?
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I touched on this in my recent devotional when we looked at the Shema and we talked about like the Matt Chandler situation and how we all like want to sit here and like have it all figured out.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, like we need to trust in the Lord, and the Lord is the answer.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm loving him with our whole heart and mind and soul.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Strength is um the answer.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, it's like, do we believe that?
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Do we act on that?
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I think it can be really hard sometimes.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say uh you're hungry right now, I don't know what you're doing, or maybe you're just tired.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I am constantly tired.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's you.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um I don't know what happened to me when I was going through seminary, but I feel like that like totally wore me out, and I'm just chronically tired, possibly.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: There's been points where I felt rested.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, the point of the story is like I usually feel tired.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: That is my usual functioning state.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I know a lot of people constantly feel tired, and that is their functioning state.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: But how often do I do does my brain or my heart tell itself, hey, let me go to the lore because I feel tired?
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Most of the time it's like, let me drink another cup of coffee.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Most of the time it's like, let me go take a nap.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Let me go complain to my husband, let me go honestly, I'll go on a run so that I like wake myself back up, which is probably not healthy.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: But like, I go to human means, to human experience, to human things to try and answer my problems.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Do I believe what I say I believe?
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus says that he is the bread of life.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: He says that he is the way, the truth, and the life.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: He says that he is the good shepherd.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: You get what I'm saying?
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if I truly believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, then he is somewhere that I can go.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Even for my tiredness, even for my hunger, even for my anxiousness, even for whatever, even for my sweat underneath a sweatshirt.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like, he like, do we believe what the Bible says?
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying that we need to have like perfect faith or everything figured out or believe everything like to the perfectness, because obviously the cross.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: But as I've been looking back through John and all the beautiful imagery that it uses, I've been continually reminded that in every bit of my human experience, Jesus is the answer.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Whether it's my hunger and my thirst, Jesus is gonna satisfy my true hunger and my true thirst.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, whether it's the sweat underneath my sweatshirt or um the anxiety about pleasing so-and-so, so-and-so, Jesus is the answer.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we often, like even in cultural Christianity, we belittle that.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: We normalize that to the point of where we don't even believe it anymore because we're just like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, you know?
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, do we actually believe what the Bible says and what Jesus says about himself?
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: If there were like any words that we should super cling to above the others, it should be what Jesus says, right?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's like the whole like red letter stuff.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that the rest of the Bible isn't in there, but y'all get what I'm saying.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then on top of it, like what Jesus says about himself, like that should be like extra important.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: That should be the extra bonus points, and don't pick this apart.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: You like there, there could be I haven't thought too much about this, but like we should especially pay attention to what Jesus says about himself.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's the point of where I'm rambling, okay?
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: And yet we oftentimes choose not to even believe it and live by it and let it transform our lives.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: Granted, we're on this side of heaven, so it's the now and the not yet.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: We don't get it in its completeness.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: But like, why don't we run to Jesus when we're longing to be satisfied?
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't we actually believe what we say we believe?
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many like routes we can go with this.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: It makes me w think about Nicodemus, who went to Jesus in John 3.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: He went in the darker than I, you know, he was hiding from all his peers seeing him go to Jesus.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: And a part of him knew that Jesus had a level of answers that was seeking something.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, that's where Jesus says the so famous John 3.16 that we love to plaster everywhere on our bracelets, on our, you know, book bags.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I see that verse everywhere.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: But what should shock us the most is Nicodemus didn't originally respond to it like we respond to it.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: He walked away, not professing a saving knowledge quite yet.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: I would argue he did come to faith.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's a little vague, but either way, he walked away pondering.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Not truly believing, questioning.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I think sometimes we take that perspective even though we believe.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: We're like, hmm, yeah, Jesus is supposed to be my satisfaction.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'll ponder that.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'll question that.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: And we postpone like the beauty and the healing of like actually running to Jesus to be our satisfaction, to be the bread of life, to be the way of the truth of life.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like we postpone trusting him to be that in little ways.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying like in salvific ways, I'm saying like in very little ways.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: We choose over and over again to run to the world.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: And it has just been so beautiful for me to return back to the book of John and be reminded um of this call and all of these very human, earthy ways to trust in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Again, renewed, even more so than last time.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know where you are and how you're listening to this or what you're doing, but I would encourage you to even like whatever experience you're experiencing right now.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're driving down the road or you're doing some dishes, maybe you're folding some laundry, whatever experience you're doing, I would encourage you to just kind of like tune in.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: What are you experiencing?
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Are you tired?
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Do your legs ache?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Does your head hurt?
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: Are you a little anxious?
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: Do you feel encouraged?
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Do you feel recharged?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: What are your human experiences?
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I would argue there's definitely something in there that points to either your need for a savior or that now and not yet concept.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like we have in part what we will have in full in heaven in Revelation 21 through 22.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: And how that can be the breath in our veins.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that can be our everything, that that is what we can hold on to.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, how the Lord has just placed throughout our day, throughout our lives, uh continual, constant reminders of our need for him, and how John plays off of those metaphors and that thematic imagery over and over again through his gospel.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think that's a coincidence that we will for sure face hunger and thirst if we don't eat or drink a single thing in one day.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like John will not even let us go through one cycle of a day without being reminded of our need for a savior.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Not even one single day.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I would argue we shouldn't go through one single minute.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: But we let ourselves, right?
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we often will fool ourselves to think I can satisfy my thirsts in other ways.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'll just scroll the gram or whatever.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um this morning I was standing in the kitchen and Joe said, ooh, look at the birds.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I peered out the kitchen window, and there were like hundreds of birds flying down from the tops of these pine trees in our on our land.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know what was going on.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: It was like one of those freaky moments, but it was like they were synchronized flying.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of synchronized swimming, they were synchronized flying from the tops of the trees down through like the air of our yard, onto the grass, and then up to the trees again, like all synchronized flying around.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it was beautiful.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: It was like a visual orchestra of sorts.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it just it was like it was synchronized.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, the Lord gave me a picture of, in some ways, how that's gonna be heaven.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Just like those birds didn't how to did it have to be taught, like they didn't go to like some university course on how to fly in synchronized ways.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like, no, like that they were like crows or something.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like they were like seagulls or anything, like that is ingrained in them to just fly in big groups and it for to be beautiful and like wavy and cool to look at.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like that is deeply ingrained in them.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: Just like they didn't have to learn first things first when they first were born how to breathe, it's deeply ingrained in them.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: And in us, we didn't have to learn how to breathe, it's just deeply ingrained in the same way.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: I truly do think that like we have this synchronized need for worship, and we try and satisfy it with worship of ourselves.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: But when we face the final consummation and are in heaven and we're joining in with all creation to worship Him, it will be like that first breath we took after we were birthed, and there's no like teaching of it, it's just part of our human creaturliness.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's so ingrained in us, it's so natural to take that first breath.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: It'll be just so natural in our creature humanliness to shout that first hallelujah.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: And to join in then this synchronized singing or synchronized worshiping of our Lord and Savior.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I think when we're going through life and all of these human experiences and we faced heartbreak or tiredness or whatever, it is reminder after reminder that we yearn for that.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: That that is what we have awaiting.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: And um, it is a picture pointing us to that.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: And God is so good to make us in such a way that we are continually reminded for our need for Him.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: But also, ultimately, this points to the incarnation perfect God being made flesh for what?
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: For that redemption of our souls, to reconcile us to himself, to be the propitiation for our sins, the payment, the ransom for our debt that we could not pay.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't it so beautifully ironic that he, the incarnation is a picture, the word-made flesh is a picture of him going through all those human earthly experiences, the sweat on his armpits after wearing a sweatshirt, you know, like the hunger and the thirst, the tiredness, the headache, whatever.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: He went through all of that, knowing that he's the satisfaction.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: He's at the heart core of what we need.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: And he went through all of that, so what?
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: So that he could die as a propitiation for our sins, as a payment for our brokenness, paying, ransoming us, paying that debt that we could not pay.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: And is it not so beautiful that now we experience that humanness as a reminder of our need for him?
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's a continual call to turn and surrender and say, Lord, I need you every hour.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: I need you evermore.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: More than I even thought I needed you 10 minutes ago.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: I need you even more now, Lord.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oh Lord, no, I see it now.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: I need you even more, Lord.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: So cry out with me today.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we need you ever more.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: We need you even more than we thought so yesterday.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Even more so than we thought 10 years ago.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we we confess that we cannot save ourselves.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: And we will never save ourselves.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: We can't even decide what to put on in the morning when we smell false smells.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: I foolishly put on a sweatshirt, Lord.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: But you, God, are the answer.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: And you claim those seven I am statements.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: You are the bread of life.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: You are the resurrection and the life.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: You are the way, the truth, and the life.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: You are the vine.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: God, we cling to you as that cleft, as that strong tower.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, we ask that you continually send us to our knees in every bit of our human experience.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: May we be reminded of our absolute and total need for you, that we might turn and worship of you.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: And it's in your name we pray.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.