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Amazed and Perplexed
Ever been afraid to read the Bible because there were parts you couldnโt understand. We were, but then we realized Jesusโ apostles didnโt understand much of what he said either. They were amazed and perplexed. When they shared Jesus with others, those people were amazed and perplexed too. Join us as we look at what amazes and perplexes us about Jesus. Doubt, questions and wonder are all welcome.
Amazed and Perplexed
Establishing Foundations(Luke 6:46-49)
๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ฌ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ ๐
๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ(๐๐ฎ๐ค๐ ๐:๐๐-๐๐)
(Luke 6:46-49)
Contact: amazedandperplexed@gmail.com
Music by: Heavensense
https://soundcloud.com/hvnsen
Hello, my name is Connor and I'm Jason, and you're listening to the Abased and Perplexed Podcast.
Speaker 2:So we're continuing today, actually coming to the conclusion of the Sermon on the Plain. And, just to remind us, jesus is here, there is a crowd. He specifically turns to his disciples, and I assume that means the 12 plus some. So these are the people that are invested, and he shares, in some ways, a stripped down version of the Sermon on the Mount. And he shares, in some ways, a stripped down version of the Sermon on the Mount, and it's stripped down not simply in content, but even sometimes in the words he used.
Speaker 2:And so, if you're just joining us and haven't done that, I'd encourage you to go back and listen to it, because I think there's a, even though we do these as separate, standalone episodes, I think it's fascinating the ways that they are all woven together. And so in this conclusion and this is a very, almost word for word conclusion of the sermon on the mount, so I find that interesting that he's this is one thing that there's consensus on Um, he is going to, he's going to wrap things up with with a challenge, uh, and and a and a visual that I think a lot of people have stamped on their brains. I'm just curious again, just kind of coming back to this picture anything that you would point to?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think, um, to give, give dignity to these people and just to give ourselves a little bit more context, this is going to be a very famous. If you spend any time around church, you'll, you'll, you'll know what we're talking about. When you know the foolish and wise builders and where they build, they'll be very familiar with you. And I think there's even a meta-narrative that maybe we'll touch here for not just what Jesus is talking about here, but for the whole Sermon on the Plain and Sermon on the Mount, where so much of what Jesus is doing is. He is saying, hey, you thought there was this issue, and I'm telling you there's this surface issue. I don't know why there's so many SHs in there.
Speaker 1:Jesus is saying you've heard it said that the issue is this surface level thing, and I'm actually saying there's a deeper thing beneath that that is ultimately causing the death and destruction that you see around you.
Speaker 1:And so part of what Jesus is going to speak here, too, is the very real reality, that so many things that we think about in terms of how we live our life, especially as followers of Jesus, how we go about our day-to-day life and how we look at sin in our own lives and in other people's lives, how we navigate being a follower of him.
Speaker 1:It's just a good reminder that Jesus is not. Jesus is not specifically trying to address surface level behaviors, but he's trying to get deep down to what the heart, deep down to what the ultimate problem and cause of those things are, and to provide a maybe a map, or provide a way for a better way for live, a better way to live or a better way that we were always supposed to live. And so there's this interesting narrative, like meta meta piece to this, where Jesus is going to give this very specific, specific advice or specific teaching and commands. That I think also speaks to a bigger, a bigger reality for how we're supposed to view all of the things Jesus is talking about on the Sermon on the Mount.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's Plain plain, not mountain plain.
Speaker 2:Yeah, don't get these confused. Sermon on the Mount.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's Plane plane, not mountain. Yeah, don't get these confused.
Speaker 2:It's a funny elevation that comes into this at all, which is kind of funny or topographical features.
Speaker 1:I would love if Jesus one day was like you know. My Sermon in the Valley was just a thousand times better. I don't know why, by the time I had done the Sermon on the Mount, sermon on the Mount, sermon on the Plain, I really had nailed it down to a tight five in the Sermon on the Valley. Maybe the acoustics weren't as good in that one.
Speaker 2:I thought John was going to pick it up and he didn't include anything. So it's well, there we go. Okay, so I'm going to jump in in verse 46 of Luke, chapter 6, jesus speaking why do you call me Lord, lord, and do not do what I say? As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house, but could not shake it because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete. All right. So in those few verses, jesus says quite a bit. I am curious what amazes you about Jesus sharing this?
Speaker 1:So I've been working on building a little porch area for the for for my family. Obviously I don't know who else I wasn't taking contract work, that's not me at all. Uh, yes, I've been charging my wife by the hour.
Speaker 1:She's not happy trying to recoup all that cat money. I spent, um, but so I've been working on this porch, uh, in our backyard. And, for anybody who doesn't know me well, I am about as illiterate when it comes to handy handyman stuff or getting anything accomplished that requires, like pre thought, I just I'm terrible at it. If you give me instructions and I'm following a guy, I can do a pretty good job and I can. I can do that. But if it's, if I'm the, if I'm the project leader, things go horribly.
Speaker 1:And so with this porch it's, the iterations for what it was going to look like have changed so many times. Um, for what it what it was going to be? Uh, originally it was going to be this pea gravel thing where it was. It was going to be super simple. Um, no-transcript. Another version. I went to another version. I went to like okay, we're going to do pavers, so we're going to do this and this and this and this and that it's going to be perfect't get the right kind of um of of gravel to fill it in if you don't sand it and level it off perfectly, if you put these pavers on top of, on top of this, um, on on top of the surface and you didn't prepare it perfectly. Um, it will sink, or it? Parts of it will sink, parts of it will look silly and you are going to feel like a complete idiot every single time that you walk out there. You're going to see, you're going to see every failure and everything. And, connor, as much as you would love to think that you're going to do it right and you're going to compact the ground perfectly and you're going to get the exact right material and you're going to do it in the right order and you're going to level it off perfectly, you know yourself well enough to know, connor, that that's not going to happen. It will not happen. And so if you try to build this for me intricate structure, it's going to fail and you're going to see the evidence of its failure every single day of your life. And so we've gone with a much more simpler, much less easy way to mess up than before.
Speaker 1:And so I say all that to say and maybe I'll cut that out, maybe I won't element that Jesus speaks to here that says like listen, you seem to be focused on your perception. Jesus seems to be speaking to a narrative here, that you seem you think that God is interested in the overall structure and how polished the doorknobs are. When God gives the law, when God tells you to do this or God tells you to do that he cares about, you know, is the fresh coat of paint on there? Does it look nice? Do people admire the house when you walk by? And what I'm telling you is those things, those surface-level things that you think are the things that God cares about. That's why you think the law like that's.
Speaker 1:When you think following the law is making sure the doorknobs are polished and that the paint is fresh, I, following the law is making sure the doorknobs are polished and that the paint is fresh, I'm telling you you have missed the point of the law.
Speaker 1:And the point of the law is to make sure that the house is built on a firm foundation and it's safe and secure in how it's supposed to be built.
Speaker 1:And so there's this reality here that Jesus speaks to, that we are all, in different areas, drawn to this, drawn to performance-based living, drawn to results-based living, drawn to putting ourselves out there in the best light possible.
Speaker 1:And there's a simple element here that Jesus seems to be saying the way that you judge success, the way you judge beauty, the way you judge truth, the way you judge following God in terms of success or failure. Your surface level view of it is not the view of God and ultimately, if that is the way that you live, you ultimately lead to ruin. And the beautiful thing and the amazing thing to me about that is we see it so clearly, whether we see it in our own small works of building a porch or we see it in the day-to-day life decisions that ultimately wreck a person or wreck a marriage or wreck a. We see the evidence when life is not built on the rock that it's supposed to be lived, and I just I'm so, yeah, I'm amazed by the simplicity of what Jesus says here, and yet how complex the actual breadth of what this looks like is.
Speaker 2:I think that's what draws me is simplicity and where I specifically see it and this has to do with the way again, my experience, how I was raised and my experience where how I was raised but the idea, put them into practice. Practice means it presupposes failure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or else you know, we, we say practice makes perfect, but we don't say just do it perfectly. Um, well, I mean, sane people don't say that, you know, and practice doesn't truly make perfect. Um, but even in that, like such a definitive axiom, practice makes perfect. You're saying there's going to be failure. That leads to that perfection, and I really, to me, that's the part that cuts through everything you said.
Speaker 2:I agree with that idea of I think we make it super complicated. You know where we're like. Oh, how do you have a good marriage? Well, you got to do these 57 things right.
Speaker 2:And Jesus would say, no, and it's not just marriage, it's your whole life. If you have a strong foundation, you will weather the storms, you will. And it's almost so overly simplistic that I'm like Jesus. Do you really know what people are going to be dealing with? Until you consider, oh, he's in the middle of this, he's in the middle of chaos and he loves his people. And the fact he's not leading an army against the Romans doesn't mean he doesn't love the people. He simply knows leading an army against the Romans doesn't solve the real problem here, which is why he spends almost zero time doing what we would consider activism work. How is he improving the lives of the Jews?
Speaker 2:And I would suggest not much. You know in terms of are they being well fed? Are the rights being protected? You know the things we think about. Are they being overtaxed? You know, the American history is based on this fact that when people are mistreated, they need to stand up for themselves and they need to, by force, say we will not be treated this way. And I think, as an American, as a stereotypical American mindset, when we look at other countries, we're like well, those people need to stand up. You know what I mean. Well, jesus didn't do any of that. I mean the fact that he allowed himself to be murdered is the opposite of what we usually cry out for, and so we make it super, super complicated. He's like no, no, no. Here's the key here to building a foundation, and in some ways, it's easier than building a foundation out in your backyard.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:He says I want you to take my teaching and practice it, meaning you keep it in front of you. Here's the standard and I'm not planning to fail. I'm simply saying I will fail again, and again, and again, because he doesn't say once you perfect it, once you master it, then you have a good foundation. He's saying no, simply by hearing my words, saying I'm going to try. That's what builds the foundation and that, to me, is mind-blowingly simple.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's an element here where you look, if you're one of the disciples hearing this, you're like man. I would really love more teaching about what the overthrowing process looks like and how we're going to really remedy a lot of this. A lot of these bigger issues, these surface-level things, and and for them they wouldn't seem certain they would seem, you know, monumental, monumentally important. Because I mean, because they were, um, and I think, modern day. For me and a lot of people I talk to, there's some frustration. We're like man, jesus, I wish there was some more prep for, like, how do we deal with things in the church? How do we deal with this strife? How do we deal with all these issues that eventually come up, that are that are really painful and really hard to deal with?
Speaker 1:And I think the message that Jesus is giving to the disciples is, or the same message he's giving to the disciples here and now, saying, listen, if, if first thing isn't first, if you aren't building on a firm foundation, then all those things that you want to accomplish, whether that is building, you know, making a healthier church, whether that's, um, you know, stopping tax oppression and whatever, like, whatever the thing is that you're wanting like if, if, ultimately, if ultimately, it's not being built on a firm foundation and those things you might succeed in those in a, in a generation, you might succeed in a moment, here or there, but ultimately, the the deeper things underneath that are going, those deeper needs are going to be unmet and ultimately I, that's what I've come to do, I've come to meet those.
Speaker 1:I've come to meet those needs and I think for me that's a good challenge because I can look with judgment on them and be like you know, or I can look at in some form of condemnation of like, hey, don't focus on that, don't focus on this, but I spend so much of my time being like Jesus, I need some. We, the church needs to be doing this, the church needs to be doing that, or man, why is it this way? Or why is it that way? And I think Jesus would often look at me and be like, hey, let's make sure that you're building on a firm foundation here, let's make sure you've dug down and you've done the work, and you've allowed me to do the work in you to be fully planted and built on the rock that you were called to be built.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that this is the key and I think it's really to put it in the context of the teaching. If you go back and you're like, okay, blessed are the poor. Ugh, I hate all of that, you know. I hate the thought of it. I'm not even super comfortable with poor in spirit, but especially poor, you know. And I think he's applying it to the fullness of life, not simply. I don't even think he's dividing it between spiritual and physical. I think he's applying it to the fullness of life, not simply. I don't even think he's dividing it between spiritual and physical. I think he's just saying to take on the spirit of, I will never have enough to satisfy me. I will never have enough to satisfy me. Only God can satisfy me. Taking that spirit on that's just one thing.
Speaker 2:And I think, as I'm listening to this sermon, as I'm standing there with these men and women and I'm listening to it, as I'm standing there with these men and women and I'm listening to it, and the Sermon on the Mount is in some ways worse. But it's that idea of like. How will we ever like? So you're different than the law. But now you're saying it's so deep. I mean, how would I ever be able to do this and for him to end, because I remember thinking this is a very demanding teaching. But really it's like hey, I'm just asking you to practice If you think I have value. Because why do you call me Lord? Lord, meaning you're the master, you're the one in charge. Why do you say that and don't put into practice? And I can't emphasize that enough. Is there such freedom in there that I'm going to try? Yeah, what I understand to do, I'm going to try, and that's what's building the foundation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's beautiful. And there's a piece here that you're speaking to. I think that like the specific part where he'll talk about you know, like you've heard him say, don't commit murder. But I've said every time, you know you look at your brother with hate in your heart, you know you've committed, you know, basically committed murder in your soul, basically the same deep essence that causes murder you are actively putting out into the world.
Speaker 1:I think there's a piece here, I think there's a part of what Jesus is speaking to in our own life that says like listen, listen, you're going to be practicing something, like you're going to be practicing a way of life and the way that the religious leaders have taught you, the way you think it's supposed to be, is, if you meet these benchmarks here, if the house looks good, if the doorknob is polished and there's paint on the wall, like then, that means it's good. And I'm saying, listen, the practice, like the really important practice, that's the stuff that nobody else sees Most of the time that's the practice that nobody else sees. And so it's like you know, I don't have a lot of times in my life where, like I have the opportunity to commit adultery Like that. That doesn't occur to me. I don't put myself in that sort of situation and so I successfully do not commit adultery. But I have a lot of times in my life where I can lust upon somebody that's not my wife and most of the time nobody else is going to see that battle. Nobody else is going to see that practice of when I practice not doing that, when I practice turning away from that.
Speaker 1:And I think what Jesus is speaking here to is this radical we've talked about before this radical autonomy he gives you and me and says listen, like you think it only matters what other people can see what other people, how they can perceive your house. But I'm saying it's much more important when only you and I know, when only you and God know what the deeper level here is. And there's a beautiful autonomy and power that he gives us. But it's also I mean it's deeply challenging and it's deeply alarming for us if all we are focused on is how we're being outwardly perceived, because it's just a radical rebuke of so much of how we live day to day.
Speaker 2:That is, and that honestly brings up another piece of this that amazes me is the applicability of it, like if you said um, in general, okay, here's these oppressed people. Do they value? Uh, what did they say?
Speaker 2:Substance over over style style or substance I'd be like no because I wouldn't think that'd be a style, but but it is. I mean the same thing, then that's that's where the easy target there's the Pharisees, you know, or the specific Pharisees who are, you know, doing all these tasks but not loving, you know. That's the easy target, but it stands as an example of me as the Pharisee, you know, but a lot of my Phariseeism is deep within, you know. But you're exactly right, that idea of it was very different in terms of how it looked with them maybe, but it's the exact same thing.
Speaker 1:Well, and you think about all the pressing issues that jesus speaks to. You know, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the poor, blessed are the sick, blessed are the meek. And then you, you fast forward to the beginning of the church. And what is the church for? The first century, two centuries, become famous for they become famous for being people that are among the poor and among the sick, and people who are living out these things. Not because that became the only. They didn't begin to serve the poor and serve the people, the dregs of society, because that was the be-all, end-all. It came from a deep well, from a deep foundation of loving and trusting God and then being compelled to love the people that God loves.
Speaker 1:And so I think you know we talk about burnout, whether it be in a nonprofit or ministry or any of these hard things. I think a lot of times burnout can come from when we're living from a place that, um, when we're not, when we're living from a place that isn't built on the firm foundation, because you can do a lot of good things and, like you know, you can do a lot of great things in ministry and you can love a lot of people and you can do a lot of good, Um, but when does when does burnout? I mean there's a lot of reasons that burnout happened, but but why does're not built on the foundation that God has called us to build them on? Then, as we try to white knuckle it and keep our structure from collapsing, I mean that's inherently thoroughly exhausting to be more focused on keeping the structure up against the storm as opposed to the point which was to shelter and to care and to provide, to provide what God had compelled us to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that that actually helps me segue to what perplexes me, and it is that what does it look like when, when a person's house, when a torrent strikes and it collapses and destruction is complete, like I physically know? You know, we had tornadoes recently in our area and there are pictures of houses that are just obliterated, like you wouldn't even know their houses had people not told you and you look, okay, I think this used to be, you know, a building supply that was probably part of a house, you know, but in terms of life and you talking about burnout, so three years ago I well, I recognize it, probably last of you know, I have a coworker, tim, and my wife Heather. They came to me separately and were like, hey, I think you're going through some burnout here. You know, and it's just our, our, our congregation, the congregation I work with, in the grand scheme of things are really super grace filled and kind and everything. But the situation of you know we had a building burned down and then COVID hit and then all these different things holding that together.
Speaker 2:I had unintentionally stopped building my house on the simplicity of Jesus says it, and I'm going to try, and you got to keep in mind, the chief thing Jesus is looking for is not the fulfillment of the assignment, it's trusting him to work in you to fulfill the assignment. And that is not splitting hairs. That is hugely different. And so when they first brought it up I was like it's not that bad, it's not that bad. But I noticed you couldn't read a list of hey, here are the signs of burnout. And you're like, oh, you can put my name by that, you know.
Speaker 2:And so I already had a sabbatical coming. I took three months. You know that they graciously gave me, and a big part of sabbatical is trusting that God will get the job done without you there. And I come back and I really and it could be a humbling experience if your identity is wrapped up into it but I came back and the church was just as good as when I wasn't there.
Speaker 2:Now I'm not saying I don't bring anything. My giftedness does, but it reminded me this is God's church, it's not my church. Now, take it out of the job of being a pastor or a minister and say, okay, what about your life? You know what I mean. Is your life successful because of your planning, because of your hard work, because of your whatever attribute your giftedness, your skill, your education, or is it successful? Because what you know to do and by that I'm saying there are things you don't understand about the Bible that you don't know to do yet and I want to say this when we see these guys living this out in the book of Acts, they know so much less than what you know if you've read the Bible a time or two.
Speaker 2:I don't mean the whole Bible. I mean, if you're familiar with the Bible you have so much more concrete information than they had. All of what they had was oral, just being passed along. They had very little written down New Testament-wise and they were simply saying I'm trusting God with this. What do you know to do? I know to love my neighbor. It's just like you were saying what were they famous for? Jesus said love your neighbor. And those who were rich probably didn't give them much leeway to love them, but the poor would, the sick would, and so that became their calling card and what really eventually made them more socially acceptable. But that is the thing. It's not because they're like, oh, we're going to become the best at loving the poor. They simply said God said to love and we'll be known by our love. So we're going to love. And they simply said God said to love and we'll be known by our love, so we're going to love and he just keeps giving us opportunity to love the sick and the poor.
Speaker 2:And it's that kind of idea of saying, when I need to reset and like in that mode, I need to reset. I didn't need to reset on man, I got to get my skills down. It's I need to reset on. Who am I trusting to make things work in my life?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's so good. And I sometimes have to go through this diagnosis process, basically in my life, where I have to ask myself am I living in a way that requires God to come through? Yeah, I try to ask myself this. I try to ask myself that all the time, reminding myself, um, because it is so easy, Um, once you, once you hit in one area of life, once you hit a little bit of of of bedrock and you begin to build there, it's so easy, um, to then try to cut corners on on another part of the project, another part of a part of your soul work, another part of who you are. It's so easy. When you have that little bit success of building on a firm foundation, they begin to want to cut corners. And so it's always important for me, it's a routine thing I have to work through of.
Speaker 1:If God doesn't show up here, will anybody notice? And will I notice? And most of the time, for me, the answer is I have built my life in a way that doesn't require God to show up. Now, that's, in some ways, a lot safer, but according to what Jesus says here and according to my own life experience, when the storm comes, ultimately it might all seem like it's good, but when the storm comes, it will leave me exactly where Jesus says. It will leave me, Um and I for myself, cause I always want to put this on the church.
Speaker 1:I always want to be like are we doing church in a way that requires God to show up, or does it just require, you know, just require our own power and our strength? Um and I always want to be careful to put it back on myself of like do I live a life in a way that requires God to come through Um and I and and ultimately, that's the, that's the power of God, and oftentimes I fail at that, but I know that's the path that God not only was I meant for. Not only is it the wise path, but it's also just the path to so much more joy and goodness in life, Because a life built on my own strength and power is outrageously boring and that's terrible to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. Well, and I'll take a perfect example of this. I've got to in four days I've got to do a newcomer's dinner people that are new to the memorial orbit and so that memorial's the church where I preach at, and so I've done this now I don't know 20 times.
Speaker 2:You know I could do this on autopilot so easy, and I may you know even after having this time now I'm more likely not to, since we've had this particular conversation, you know. But if I step back and I say so, I'm saying how do you make sure you're going to bedrock? And I want it's not super complicated. It has to be intentional. You got to make a choice. Want it's not super complicated, it has to be intentional. You got to make a choice, but it's not super complicated. It's the idea hey, gone I am.
Speaker 2:This event is coming up and I think it could really be meaningful, not just for the new people, but for us who have been here for years. And so we want to hear from you. And so here's what I have planned. Here's the things I plan to tell them during an orientation. Here's how we're going to structure the supper.
Speaker 2:I want to intentionally give you the possibility to blow it up, make it all go crazy, interrupt it. You know what I mean. If it does blow up, I want to be faithful and just be asked okay, then what else? What can we do to accomplish this? If it doesn't, then I'm going to assume you're allowing this to flow in the way that we've experienced it before, which isn't evil. The issue isn't the plan. The issue is depending on the plan, and I'm going to come with all the love and grace and truth that I can muster and I'm going to trust you to give that to me, but I'm going to create space where you only have so much bandwidth, right, and I'm going to say, man, I want these people to experience the love of God, the truth of God, the beauty of God, these parts of God, and what will happen is because I've done it both ways.
Speaker 2:When I go in and we're telling people, here's how to anticipate what your experience will be at our church, it is so much more beautiful and life-giving Additionally and I can't even explain this, this but the questions the people ask are richer and, and I don't know what the chicken, the egg there is I'm asking them to pray, I'm asking me to pray, but whoever prays, that's influencing that, that dynamic now, because we don't have parallel universes where I can say, okay, here's where I don't and here's where I do. Go for the bedrock and and and reaff, man, you are our foundation to this very tiny event. This is tiny, but I'm asking you to do that. So that is the way I concretely think through. How do we keep coming back and saying okay, here's what this is about.
Speaker 1:Well, and it's important you're checking with yourself and allowing God God, if you want this to blow up, if you want it to go the way I've had it conceived in my mind anywhere in between I'm on board and I want you to show me that process of just that checking it does a whole number of things. One it helps you be more open to God, wrecking it and going in a completely different way. But it also it humbles you, because you can't do that without recognizing oh yeah, I would have done this on autopilot, I would have done this by my own power, and it can seem so simple, but that in of itself, that deeper level thing is so, it's so big. It's what Jesus I think is getting at so much with the Sermon on the Plain and the Sermon on the Mount. He's saying like listen, these things that you think are small, these things that you think that nobody else will care about, these deeper thoughts, just because on the outside it seems like man, you put on a great newcomer dinner, just because you seem to have all the right words for it, she's like no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1:When you checked yourself and allowed the pride that you had over this event, or the pride to be able to do something and do it really well. When you checked that at the door, something amazing happened. There was something fundamentally changing. And the thing that we have to do, the thing that I have to do repeatedly, is trust that with that small thing, because there's a very likely possibility, you could spend the next four days, five times a day, praying God, do something.
Speaker 1:If you want to do something different, do it completely different. Do it completely different. And the answer to God could be like hey, jason, I trust you, I want you to do what you have planned and we have to believe that, in the process of being open to it, that there is power in that. And that's small, because only you and God are going to know that. But the power at least in my own life, the power, the closeness with God oftentimes comes with those moments that nobody else will know and won't seem that big when you try to explain it out loud. Those, for me, are the big moments where I have breakthrough.
Speaker 2:And that lands with me the way you talk about that it is because, again, our walk with God, faithfulness is. The only thing I really have to offer him is my free will. And when I say exactly all those things you said, when I say, god here, I am for this and I want you to lead me in the humility that that demands, not that I'm creating, I'm saying the situation where I say I realize you're sovereign and I'm not. You're in control and I'm not. That is the work of God to believe the one he sent.
Speaker 1:So I'm curious what perplexes you. Yeah, I just want to say another piece of that that's so important. When you give that over to God, you're also giving over your need to be seen as competent. You're giving over your need to be seen, or even not even be seen, but for other people to perceive that you're doing your job well. You are sacrificing so much of your identity in how we fabricate our view of ourselves, and so the very act of doing that is combating so many different false identities that we assign to ourselves. And so that thing right there and there's so many examples in all of our lives that we could approach all the time it's not a small thing. Because it's not just a small thing where how's God going to impact this dinner? Those questions, those checks that you're giving yourself, that you're opening up to God, those are fundamentally addressing who you are and who you think God is to you, and who you think, who you ultimately see yourself as in the eyes of God, and what you believe about him and about yourself. And so, yeah, I just want to, I want to, I want to encourage myself there, because it's so easy to get caught up in.
Speaker 1:Well, it's just a newcomer's dinner. Well, it's just this, it's just that one fight with my wife, it's just. It's just that one coworker, it's. You know whatever it is. But these things, jesus seems to be convinced that these things, these individual interactions, these small things, have wide-ranging ramifications for ourselves and for the people around us, and I think I trust Jesus on that one. I think he's right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think you're right and I love that, and I think that's the thing is. Oftentimes we get fixated on these big things in the Bible oh, david took down Goliath and Joshua took down the walls of Jericho and all these things. Those are built explicitly on the small and he didn't need to take down that giant to define him. Matter of fact, it's fascinating to me and we probably probably made this point before is that he never refers to it again. Other people do, at least for a season, you know.
Speaker 2:But but he's not like, hey, wait a minute, I'm the giant killer here, like it does not become his identity and I think, yeah, my identity is I am a child of god. That that's the height of it. My name is written heaven, I am a child of god, I'm the son of the most high King. And and then to be able to become fascinated with my real opportunity here is not to accomplish this thing, whether it be a good husband, be a good father, be a good minister, be a good, whatever it's to fortify the bedrock by doing this very thing we're talking about in the smallest thing. I'm like. I am am fascinated with you, jesus, and fascinated with how good you are so if I may, yes, what perplexes you about this?
Speaker 1:yeah, what perplexes me is is that's just the first part of this passage, when jesus says why do you call me lord, lord, and do not do what I say I? I, you know, there's a piece here that we've talked about a thousand times in terms of of why we don't do these things we just had this big, long conversation why we don't build on the firm foundation. But, yeah, the perplexing thing just ultimately comes back to you. I see the beauty and the wisdom in the Sermon on the Mount. I think it not only, not only do I think it's true, I think it's beautiful and I think it's right, and I noticed in my life, when I live it out, that my life is richer, my connection with God is richer, my impact on the people around me is more fruitful and beautiful and and enriching for enriching for the land. That sounds like a deep, a deep sentence and I and I just keep coming back to. I just keep coming back to why does it have to be? Why does it have to be a practice? I get why it has to be a practice, but I just go, man, I wish there was just this lever in my soul that I could pull, that it was the practice a few times and it became perfect. It was.
Speaker 1:You know, my brother and I used to always have this funny conversation. You know about my brother and I used to always have this funny conversation. You know about basketball and how we used to compare putters in golf and three-point shooters in basketball. So if you ever watch golf, you know I'm so sorry, but if you ever watch golf and you have a professional who's like putting the control they have on, that is absurd. Like there's no wiggle, like I don't understand how golfers can have like wiggle when they're moving or how surgeons do surgery. That's crazy. I'm a big dumb guy, but surgeons I have so much wiggle and shake in my hand when I do anything and so I've just been always baffled by that and I've always been like man why can't three-point shangers?
Speaker 1:It seems like such a simple thing to put the ball in the hoop. Why, why is? Why? Are the best ones in the world only successful like 42 percent of the time? What is it about this reality that even the people that practice day and night, practice and practice and practice the greatest ever are only shooting like below 50 percent? Like it's just this.
Speaker 1:It's just this wild thing, um, and there's something about the way the world is set up and humans and free will and all this sort of stuff where, like, I'm like man, it's so I'm wondering here, like it's so hard, because I think I would be so happy if my practice got me up to like a 42% success rate at this, like if I was, if I was, if I was the Steph Curry of doing this, I'd be like that's fantastic. But I want a hundred percent, like I see the beauty of a hundred percent, I see the beauty of of when my team shoots 100 from three and I'm like it. There's a part of it that seems like if you get the, if you practice just hard enough and just right enough, if you have just the smooth enough like a stroke that like a putter or surgeon has like it should, it should be okay and I get it. Like there's an offender in basketball and maybe there's there's an adversary, and so there's reasons why I can come up with why I'm not you know why I'm not a hundred percent from from in my practice of this. Um, but yeah, I it just I just leave myself going like man. I get it.
Speaker 1:I can come up with intellectual reasons, but my heart still goes like man. I've been, I've been, I've been going to the gym and getting up threes my entire life and I'm still only shooting 27%. I'm still only shooting 30%, like God. I've been putting this up all the time and I know what God would say. Hey Connor, the percentage is not what I'm worried. I think I know what Jesus would say, and yet my heart still just goes. Man, this is a lot harder. It's so beautiful and yet it's so hard.
Speaker 2:I think the percentages are really useful. I love this thought. Heather talks in terms of and she's not a sports fan at all, but we're talking about it valuing what your spouse does for you and cause you can always, if you're, if you're yet to be married, you know, and if you are married, you know this. It is so easy to become fixated on the things your spouse does that bothers you or doesn't do that you wish they did those kinds of things Just so easy. Um, but focusing on the batting average, meaning over time, here is here is the love I received from them, and I'm not suggesting it's useful to quantify it, and it's certainly not useful to argue about. Are you doing 52% or 53?
Speaker 1:You, really you. You batted it about like two, two, 40 last week. Yeah, I'm using 50s. Yeah, I don't even understand it. Obviously. Last week, yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm using 50s. I don't even understand it, obviously, but the point is, it's the idea that over time, what is it you're doing? And so switching it solely to this idea of my relationship with God, like you're talking about, and how much of the biblical order be submitted, which literally means I'm allowing myself to be arrangeable by God. God, you put me where you want, you take me where you need me to have me say the things you want me to say. I'm arrangeable by you. That's what the people were honored for in the New and Old Testament is they were arrangeable by God. They submitted to God and allowed him to lead them, and so it's like I think there is something about.
Speaker 2:I think, when I hear this and I'm wondering those of you that are listening, is it feel like, oh, I've not done anything and now I gotta do everything and I, I need us to hear what connor said, and I think the basketball, the three-point shot or the putter shot, I think that is really a great picture of. Again, this goes back to he's not saying I'm looking for you to perfect this and he could, he could say that, but he's saying I'm simply saying when you hear it, don't ignore it and put it into practice. And I think what I'm simply saying when you hear it, don't ignore it and put it into practice. And I think what we often hear is, when you hear it, you better do it perfect or we're going to slam you down. And that is not what Jesus is saying.
Speaker 2:It's not what he's saying and that's really, really important that he ends both the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon on the Plain with this picture of saying I need you to take it seriously, submitting to me, but I also need you to understand you're going to fail a lot, or else I wouldn't use the word practice.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening Grace, peace and love. Thank you.
