Ep. 114 - Detoured by Distractions
Download MP3Welcome to another episode of Tell Me More. We are talking about distraction and working through the story of Ezra and Nehemiah. We have a quick beneficial conversation for you as you think about your own life and what it means to your life. Okay. Well, it's time to make podcast.
Speaker 2:Let's do it. Podcast time.
Speaker 1:Before we really dig in, our wonderful, wonderful Kyle Judkins. I don't even know what to call him.
Speaker 2:Kyle. Do you know him?
Speaker 3:I don't know him as 11.
Speaker 2:He's our AVL manager.
Speaker 1:He's a
Speaker 2:great guy. He's really great.
Speaker 1:But he pointed out that we should promote some of the upcoming events that are happening Yes. Over the next
Speaker 2:month or so. People listen to our podcast. And this may be
Speaker 3:I'm still
Speaker 1:shocked by us, by the way.
Speaker 2:Believe it or not, we don't just talk into a room once a week. And because it's hard to know we always talk about this. What's the best way to communicate with our people? It's always a challenge. And so how do you, the listener, know what's going on around here?
Speaker 2:And so he he shot us a pretty good list of things. So can we start with that? Well, before
Speaker 1:we talk about the list, the best way
Speaker 2:Brought to you by
Speaker 3:The Church Center app.
Speaker 2:The Church Center app, a one stop shop for all your church needs.
Speaker 1:If you have not downloaded the new church app, do it. It's called Church Center.
Speaker 2:It looks like Oh, I lost this. Okay. So if you're listening, it's got a little steeple. Right?
Speaker 1:Does it?
Speaker 2:Let me look.
Speaker 1:No. No steeple.
Speaker 2:Oh, hey, everybody out loud. That is
Speaker 1:like Yes. It does.
Speaker 2:Well, it's a church. It doesn't have a steeple. Yeah. But it's a green blue and dark blue little church.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But all
Speaker 1:you have to do to log in is actually just put in your phone number.
Speaker 2:It's pretty easy.
Speaker 1:It's so easy.
Speaker 2:It's pretty user friendly.
Speaker 1:It's great.
Speaker 2:But if you have that, then you could open it up and it would show I'm opening mine. It would show you
Speaker 1:Calendar. Mhmm. All good.
Speaker 2:Hello, Katie. Oh, how wonderful. Thank you. You got a calendar. You got ministries.
Speaker 2:You got a easy way to give.
Speaker 1:It's all there.
Speaker 2:It's all there. And so some things coming up that we would like, if you were to open this, you would see a couple of really exciting things that are coming up this weekend and beyond. Mhmm. They are just a few things. And then we won't have to go through all of them.
Speaker 2:I will say, I will confess, young family picnic night I didn't know about. And I'm a young family. It's not their fault for not communicating it. I just kinda stay in my lane, and I get I'm sure they send something home in a diaper bag. But if you are a part of a young family, this sounds really great.
Speaker 2:I think Ryan and I will try to be there. Young family picnic night, this Friday night at Stovall Park. Hot dogs provided 5:30 to 7:30.
Speaker 1:I think they're also having Pokio's. They are.
Speaker 2:Pokio's. Uh-huh. What's a Pokio?
Speaker 1:It's cookies and ice cream.
Speaker 2:Well, the Hodges will be there.
Speaker 1:What's not to love?
Speaker 3:It's a little food truck. Right? They bring it out. Yeah. It's really
Speaker 2:good. If you're in and so if you're not a young family, when you're like, what's for me? Well, if you have youth in the house, then they have noche de nacho, which is Sunday night, and they have dwell and man camp, which are retreats for the women and the men of the youth. Those are both gonna be at Riverbend the weekend before Thanksgiving. Yep.
Speaker 2:So that's gonna come quick. Sign up for that.
Speaker 1:Registration, I think, will be available through the calendar button in church centers. So you can actually I think
Speaker 2:You're telling me I think you're right. You're telling me that if you can find it on fbca.org/events or the calendar in the planning center, that's a one stop shop to both know about it and register for it.
Speaker 1:Yep. So you can actually, I think, register in the church center app.
Speaker 2:And if you're like, I'm not part of a family, a young family, or a median family, well, we've got Magnificent Mondays, which is a hymn sing for our older adults.
Speaker 3:That's not a surprise.
Speaker 2:Retirees, October 21st. And one thing I didn't mention back to preschool ministry, they're having Touch A Truck on October 19, which is where they get a bunch of bunch of cool trucks. That's preschool ministry.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And we'll be there too. So it's a little bit of an appearance calendar for us, turns out. Nobody cares.
Speaker 1:If you'd like to see the triplets, you know where to buy
Speaker 3:and touch a truck.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 3:They might become help. Oh.
Speaker 2:And bring if you have a cool car
Speaker 3:That's true.
Speaker 2:They're always looking for something
Speaker 3:That's true.
Speaker 2:Fun and exciting. So that's, there's a lot of stuff you could be a part of. And I know we ran through it quickly, so if you can't find it, go to the church app, church center app Mhmm. Or fbca.org/events.
Speaker 1:Both great places.
Speaker 2:With that said
Speaker 3:And this podcast is actually sponsored by all of that. I mean, by First Baptist Lawingtons.
Speaker 2:Yeah. We don't exist in a silo.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 2:We're part of our church.
Speaker 1:We are. Okay. Well, we also had worship yesterday where you preached 2 times
Speaker 2:We did.
Speaker 1:As you normally do.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 1:What'd you talk about?
Speaker 2:What would you say you talked about?
Speaker 3:I got so distracted. I can't remember. Distractions.
Speaker 2:That little bit that little bit on your phone, it went over well.
Speaker 3:Was that okay? It went
Speaker 2:over well and both said
Speaker 3:It was a good
Speaker 1:it was a good comedic bit.
Speaker 2:Yep. Yeah. You dropped the point home.
Speaker 3:Yeah. A little little alliteration. So, actually, when I sent the outline, Jen wrote me back and said, doctor because sometimes I will misspell something or I'll have something to she always catches it. So she wrote me and said, doctor Wiles, you have phone. You have phone spelled f o n e.
Speaker 3:Is this what you intended to learn? And I said, just leave it. I'll explain it later. She was like, okay. Thank you.
Speaker 3:And, but I had to you know, when you're when you're a preacher, you gotta alliterate stuff.
Speaker 1:I would like to point out with my English degree that alliteration is phonetic. It's not based on the spelling. So it still would have been alliteration. It was p h.
Speaker 3:Very much. You know?
Speaker 2:Hey, everybody. Was wrong.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Just like I found it. One of our
Speaker 1:It was more cutesy.
Speaker 3:One of our Truett grads, not you, but but you could have done it. I wanted to make sure that I understood how to pronounce these Hebrew month names.
Speaker 2:You know? It wasn't me either. Just It wasn't me. Everyone already knew
Speaker 3:that, just
Speaker 2:to be clear.
Speaker 3:But, yeah. We talked about distractions. So
Speaker 2:there are, like, 2 other true grads on staff for those who are listening.
Speaker 3:Well, there are people in the church.
Speaker 2:Oh, you're right. You're right. You're right.
Speaker 3:True grads.
Speaker 1:They're they're they got
Speaker 3:taken over my church is what's happening. Aren't you blessed?
Speaker 1:But, may our tribe increase.
Speaker 3:But, yeah, you know, it was interesting. I mean, when I was planning out this series
Speaker 2:You're saying it was my husband?
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 2:It wasn't my brother. I'm just kidding. I'm messing. Okay.
Speaker 3:You're narrowing it down.
Speaker 2:Keep going. Jason Berryhill. Oh, no. Frankly Cliff was. Wasn't Jason,
Speaker 3:but you're narrowing it down. You're getting close. Yep. But, anyway
Speaker 2:Cliffhusk. It was cliffhunk. Yeah. Okay. We're gonna
Speaker 3:keep going here. Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:Speaking of distractions.
Speaker 3:That's right. But, no. It's it's interesting. You know, when you're dating Nehemiah, trying to figure out exactly when did all this occur, Ezra and Nehemiah together actually. There's a little bit of, debate about, just how that material is all put together because even in, like, in Ezra, you go back and forth a little bit, you know, chronologically.
Speaker 3:And so there are some questions just about the exact timing, but what's interesting is there is enough information though that we actually have it pretty close to even the actual months that things happened. And so, you know, Elul, is it it's actually the month for September. It's the word for September, and, there are other countries in the world that even use that phraseology, like in, there are certain countries in the world that that actually means September,
Speaker 2:But
Speaker 3:there are some scholars who believe that what's recorded in Nehemiah took place in October. That's why I mentioned it's Sunday, October 2nd, you know, that that would have been last week, you know, kinda connected it to our time. But, anyway, trying to figure out when all this occurred is fascinating, and it's also pretty cool that Nehemiah gives us such a detailed account of it all. I think that's why it's so interesting. You know, you've pointed that out, Katie.
Speaker 3:You know, you know, it
Speaker 2:was just a matter of
Speaker 3:fact, just, you know, he said this, we said that. Even He sent this letter. I wrote this back.
Speaker 2:Even yesterday, they sent the letter. It was it wasn't sealed. Yeah. And you're, like, everybody's been reading it. You know?
Speaker 2:They tried. It's such a
Speaker 3:Which means the guy could read it all all all the way there, anywhere he stopped. He's got an open letter. Yeah. So he's just stopping along the way reading this letter saying, guess what's happening? Nehemiah's gonna become the next king.
Speaker 3:And they already had a bad reputation for rebelling. And so you have people think, well, wait a minute. Jerusalem's about to get a wall.
Speaker 2:So maybe somebody should've sealed that letter. Is that what
Speaker 3:I'm hearing? So, well, they did it on purpose, you know, to so, you know, so Nehemiah is having to respond to all that. But, regardless, as I was planning this series, one of the attractive things about Ezra and Nehemiah to me is it does have, I think, really good ideas and conversation starters and principles to learn if you're a leader, because you do watch these men, Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah, they demonstrate some pretty incredible leadership actions. That's why some people read those 2 books through that lens. You hear that a lot, you know, in terms of teaching these books.
Speaker 3:So I was thinking a lot about that, however, as you all know, I landed on more of the rebuilding lens, and so I was out walking one morning. I had read Ezra and Nehemiah, and I had listened to a couple of, different teachers on both books, more theologically, bent than anything actually, but I was out walking one morning, and just going through the story, and I kept finding myself just thinking through different things that were a part of the rebuilding process. And, and so that's how I landed kind of on each one of these steps, if you will. And so I I was debating one morning with myself over the difference between obstacles and, distractions, and so, so I had about a 30 minute argument with myself when I was out walking. See, I'm not even gonna talk about distractions because I'm really gonna cover that under obstacles, And then I would go back and forth, go, Well, obstacles are things you actually have to deal with.
Speaker 3:They're in your way. You have got to address it. Distractions, you can just dismiss. And they are different, you know, but they're connected. And there's a little bit of
Speaker 2:But to give them 2 separate sermons. Yeah. Which is what I ended up
Speaker 3:deciding to do. Just say, well, actually, I don't wanna talk about distractions because I think it's a little different, a little nuance from just an obstacle.
Speaker 2:Well, kinda like Luke said, in our prep sorry. The mic wasn't on yet. When we think about distractions in our day and age, we are very I'm I'm running from what Luke said. Luke talked about our phones and how we might wanna talk about that in here because sorry. I skipped a lot of steps in my mind.
Speaker 2:Because we are a very distracted generation.
Speaker 3:We are.
Speaker 2:And not that we're the same generation, but
Speaker 1:a We're distracted Culture contemporary society.
Speaker 2:There it is. Thank you. Yeah. What's the what's the umbrella for all of us? Yeah.
Speaker 2:We are incredibly distracted. And, I mean, there's studies about the we talk about the algorithm as the enemy, and it's true. But even our attention spans are just the younger you are, the worse it is because you've been, you've been trained to process information in, you know, 15 to 30 second chunks. Where when I was growing up, it was much slower. And now it's just
Speaker 3:Yeah. And and and I thought it was interesting just, you know, like I said Sunday morning, Eric Bruntmeyer just kinda made that comment to me, what's happening in the lunch room at Hardin Simmons. They're just noticing more and more kids are just having conversations. They actually put their phones up in their backpacks and and, and not because anybody's told them to. It just seems to be something they're doing.
Speaker 2:Do you think there's a sorry. I didn't mean to cut you off. But, like, a pendulum swing going on?
Speaker 3:I'm I wonder. We were all
Speaker 1:There are more school districts now moving to phone free high schools or just phone free schools.
Speaker 2:Like realizing how detrimental this really is.
Speaker 1:Yeah. In
Speaker 2:the pendulum, certain stimuli.
Speaker 1:There's like a really prominent book right now. I haven't read it, but it's definitely made in the circles, but it's called The Anxious Generation. It is by Jonathan Hite.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've heard of Hite. And I haven't read
Speaker 1:it. I haven't read it. I haven't read it. I haven't read it.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry. It's
Speaker 1:okay. He's
Speaker 3:an interesting writer though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but there's a there's actually a lot. I think you're seeing a counter movement.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Both from parents and, even Gen Z is actually many people in Gen z are reverting to dumb phones as it were. Mhmm. Just because they've realized the impact that a smartphone has had on their mental health. Mhmm.
Speaker 3:So It's interesting, isn't it?
Speaker 1:Yeah. I think we're you're seeing people who are starting to live in 2 worlds at once. You're seeing people who just keep digging further in, and you're seeing people who are making an exit and navigating what that means. That's how
Speaker 2:how do you
Speaker 3:Mhmm. But I think the whole concept of distraction Mhmm. Is an interesting one to me because, you know, you have, I guess, you have to decide whether something is actually a distraction or not.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So we were talking about this before the podcast.
Speaker 3:What you should be doing, or is it actually a distraction?
Speaker 1:So we I brought this question in before the podcast. How do you know if it's a distraction or if it's actually the work? And so my, my kind of case in point was yesterday morning, I'm listening to the sermon, which is both what I do for my own formation, but also for my job. Because I come in here on Monday morning, I've gotta have questions, and I've gotta be ready to have a conversation that's gonna be publicly broadcasting.
Speaker 3:Tell me more about that.
Speaker 1:Tell me more. And as I'm sitting, my my family and I, we sit in the very back on the chairs on the back wall because, I almost never make it into worship at 11. I think I'd make it in at, like, 11:30 if I'm lucky. And I'm sitting there and our now 5 year old is coloring on the floor. We've she sings with us.
Speaker 1:We have her stand while we're singing, but then, that time's ended. So she's on the floor. She's coloring, and she's got coloring pages from Sunday school all around her. And she's basically spinning in a circle on the floor, moving from coloring page to coloring page. She's dropping crayons, they're rolling everywhere.
Speaker 1:And so as I'm trying to take notes on this sermon about distraction, I'm incredibly distracted by my 5 year old who needs my help opening packages of crayons and
Speaker 2:Yep. But it's your kid. Picking
Speaker 1:up things. And so Yeah.
Speaker 2:You don't want any gloves.
Speaker 1:As you're talking about distractions, so Yeah. What really is a distraction? I was
Speaker 2:about
Speaker 3:to say, was the sermon a distraction to you? You were trying to parent your child, you know?
Speaker 1:And so, but yeah, but I think that's a question a lot of people Exactly. And so you you provided this example about corporate life, but I think about stay at home parents or teachers or people who work in maybe not task oriented professions, but human services where maybe it feels like most of your day is actually just the endless distractions of the needs of other people. Mhmm. So how do you
Speaker 2:And even in the life of Jesus, you see him sometimes totally derail what we thought he was gonna do with the day to pay attention to someone who's come into his mess.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 2:I could think of a couple of those stories. Yeah. And sometimes it seems like he's on a mission and he's not gonna stop Right. To entertain the potential distraction. So Yeah.
Speaker 2:What's the discernment there? You know?
Speaker 3:And I think you deal with that. You
Speaker 2:know? Everything. Yeah. Teach us everything, doctor Williams.
Speaker 3:That at church because right now is, I think, is a great example of you having to discern that as a leader. So we're in the middle of a very contentious election cycle. Okay? Then the countdown is on. Alright?
Speaker 3:Here it's October.
Speaker 1:Which I saw something that if you see someone on Facebook whose posts anger you, you can hit snooze on their posts, and you won't see them again until the election's over.
Speaker 2:Because it snooze for 30 days. And now we're within the window.
Speaker 1:Yeah. You're within the window. Like hack. Snooze your loved ones for 30 days Yeah. And maintain
Speaker 3:your love for them. I love that. Well, so, you know, one of the questions that you deal with if you're a pastor, you know, do you, how directly do you address things like this, when you know it's the conversation in the public domain right now non stop, and how do you try to speak into it prophetically? Do you just ignore it? Is it a distraction, or is it really a central thing that the church ought to be talking about?
Speaker 3:And, and so you have people are across the spectrum on that as you might imagine, you know, and kind of my take on it would be that the church exists for a unique reason, that nothing else in society fills that that place. If the church doesn't fill this space, with what it's supposed to bring, there is nothing other things can take up space, but no really nobody really brings that very phenomenon to, to a community or to a conversation. And so I think that as normal, y'all wouldn't be surprised by this, I believe there's a ditch on both sides of the road. On the one hand, you can turn into the kind of church that all you do is engage in political conversation and it really becomes the thrust of who your church is and you become identified with a certain ideology. That does happen.
Speaker 3:Or you can just totally ignore everything. I think I've told y'all this story before that my one of my professors in seminary was in Dallas when president Kendi was assassinated, and and he went to church the following Sunday morning, and it wasn't mentioned from the pulpit in Dallas at this particular church. And he just said to us as burgeoning pastors and leaders, use common sense or something of this magnitude occurs. You know? Don't think you're tied to your series or the lexicon that you can't step aside and go, oh my goodness.
Speaker 3:This mess massive things occurred. So I think I think that is is important, that we do that. But at the same time, if you get to the point to where all you do is give attention to all things political, if that just becomes the kind of the rallying cry of your church, well, then to me, you've lost your way. You've bought into a distraction, I would say. I think helping people to learn how to think for themselves and reason for themselves and understand how they can best apply their Christian, hopes and their theology into every single arena is our job.
Speaker 3:And so, I don't think I always have to be so specific to show you what to do. I I'm trying to spend more time helping you figure out how to do it because you've got to decide what to do if that makes sense. Mhmm. And so I'm not going to, cave in to this, this distraction in my opinion that I've got to address every single political issue that's on the horizon. I would rather raise up really strong, good, healthy, flourishing believers who can use the right lenses.
Speaker 3:They can focus all this through and then make the decisions for themselves. Now, if, y'all know me well enough to know that sometimes I will use humor to kind of address that. I started to do that Sunday morning in both services I decided against. I didn't say anything about the first service. I said something.
Speaker 2:When you kinda walked up to it and said, nah. Never mind.
Speaker 3:I said something about it. I'm not gonna do it.
Speaker 2:You said y'all wouldn't like me for it, which I thought was funny because you say things that people don't like Yeah. Because it's true. Yeah. I mean, you don't shy from those. Right.
Speaker 2:But you gotta do those in the right way at the right time.
Speaker 3:So Right. What I had what I had planned to say in both services
Speaker 2:Tell us more.
Speaker 3:I was just going to talk about how
Speaker 1:easily distracted
Speaker 3:we are because we're just so easily led away. And I think if you if you wanna see how that works, you can watch the political debates right now because what will happen is that that just pick pick any of them because they all do it. The the the person posing the question can ask a question, and if you're sitting there watching it, and then the the the the candidate never answers that question, the candidate just starts spouting something else,
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:And and you're like, oh, yeah, that's exactly right. You know? And then next thing you know, you you're gone. You're gonna go down a rabbit hole with whatever the candidate has brought up has brought up, but you're not even thinking about the real question itself, because we're just so easily distracted, you know? And I watched it happen in both debates.
Speaker 3:The the ones that happened for the president, the ones that happened for the vice president. And and one point, I even paused it and made that comment to Cindy. I said, ain't it funny that we've already been we've emotionally taken ourselves to the distraction that the candidate, led us into
Speaker 2:Instead of the question they've had.
Speaker 3:Instead of the real question, which is actually something that we should actually be concerned about. Mhmm. You know? And, but we're just so easily distracted. That's just how we are right now.
Speaker 3:It's just take us this oh, yeah. You're exactly right when I'm thinking, well, no. That we may be right, but what about this what about the question about the economy? You know, that was the actual question, but neither one of them talked about it. But they've got us all emotional now because we're so easily distracted.
Speaker 3:And I think they know that.
Speaker 2:Well, and we need to I mean, I I'll stay off my soapbox. I'll do like you did on Sunday. Another time. Another place.
Speaker 1:But even
Speaker 3:as you think
Speaker 1:about this, and this ties into the phone piece, if you think about from a psychological or neurological research perspective, there's actually a lot of great research to basically say here's how human brains work. You're not as smart as you think you are. That includes me. I'm not as smart as I think I am. Your emotional processing in your brain, and I'm trying to remember the exact number, it's either 10 or 100, but it happens at least 10 times faster than the logical part of your brain.
Speaker 1:So before you actually are even capable of forming that logical Mhmm. Kind of linguistic Mhmm. Thought, your brain has accelerated into Emotionally reactive emotional reaction, and then it moves throughout the rest of your body. So we may think of ourselves as really rational people. But your emotions are actually flying at 10 times or a 100 times.
Speaker 1:I can't remember. I'm sorry. The speed of your rational thought Mhmm. And so, yeah, we get led astray really easily, really quickly.
Speaker 3:Exactly. And then you forget even where you even started and what was even going on in the 1st place. But but but as I was praying through this series, what I was hoping to accomplish in general, is I'm wanting to encourage and assist and come alongside people who truly are rebuilding their lives right now, who are or maybe they're rebuilding their company, or they're a part of just rebuilding anything. Or it's funny, we have a, the gentleman who works at the golf course, who who comes to our church, but he's not always able to be there because he has to be at work. And, so yesterday afternoon, I decided to go to the driving range golf course yesterday, and so I was walking up to the driving range, and he stopped me.
Speaker 3:And, he said, hey, doctor Weil. How you doing? I said, good. And he said, hey, man. It's a good sermon today.
Speaker 3:And, you know, he said, I'm trying not to be distracted. Well, he's 20 years old, and I started laughing. I said, well, here's what I know about you. You're not rebuilding anything. And, and he started laughing.
Speaker 3:He said, well, I'm 20. I said, exactly. I said, you're building.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:And then he just made the comment, like, but I'm learning about building. I'm thinking about all this. So and I thought, man, that made me feel really good to think a a 20 year old young man stopped me when he's walking up to hit golf balls and let me know that this is, intersecting his life right now as he's contemplating his future and what he's doing. He's taking these principles and thinking about them.
Speaker 2:It's been a very practical series.
Speaker 3:Yeah. That's and that's what I've been hopeful for. I've tried to use the voice of the of a shepherd. Mhmm. We've talked about the different voices, and I've been trying to do that in this series
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's good. To be a much more practical kind of approach to things, because I've tried to vary this year's sermon styles, if you will, you know, to to give a fuller, more fully throated approach to all of this. And I'm gonna be very intentional about that in the future. You know, I just spent, the day at Hardin Simmons with all these pastors, and my, they let me pick my topic of it was about preaching, but they said, Could you just tell us what aspect of preaching do you want to cover?
Speaker 1:And
Speaker 3:so I chose pastoring your church from the pulpit. Now, it's a little misleading because we all know you have to be engaged with people to pastor them, and shepherd them, and be in their lives.
Speaker 2:But I know that you also see preaching as an act of pastoral care.
Speaker 3:I do. I really believe that, and I believe it's a way to to lead people. And so I spent some time with a lot of these church leaders, pastors, almost all of them were, talking through how do you do that in your preaching? What does what does that really mean, and how do you need to think about it? And so we we talked about different categories of sermons, you know, because some sermons are more theologically bent.
Speaker 3:You're you're thinking, okay. I'm trying to teach our people to think theologically, to reflect theologically, to understand maybe complex Christian doctrine. Some sermons are more, spiritual life focused, you know. They're helping you understand maybe spiritual disciplines or what it means to be formed spiritually. Some sermons are vision casting.
Speaker 3:You're you're you're you're looking at the church and saying, okay. We're we're going to have to, you know, blessing the generations was was an example of that, of us looking toward the future for our church. And some sermons are more pragmatic, addressing life issues. And, so we talked about how you've got this breadth of material with all these different genres of literature in the scripture. You got this beautiful, set of truth, if you will, that the Lord has given us.
Speaker 3:And so, as you engage it in your preaching, you need to engage it all. You need to find your way in all of it. And then I would encourage you to think through the categories of sermons, however you would choose to put them. I said, this is how I would do it. Then you have to think about the liturgy of your church, kind of the seasonal rhythm of your church, and every church is different.
Speaker 3:I've been in numerous churches as a pastor. They all have a different vibe, a different feel. They they just, have different personalities. I'll never forget when I was, I was I was interviewing with the church search committee, and, they'd asked me a whole bunch of questions. And I've been thinking about what I wanted to ask them, and they finally said, well, do you have a a a question for us?
Speaker 3:I said, yeah. I said, if you were to describe your church as a person, how would you describe your church as a person? And that was, it was interesting to listen to them. They kind of, went back and forth. And finally, this is where they landed.
Speaker 3:They said, we would say our church is is like, middle aged balding accountant who's had a pretty good career and now he's looking at everything and asking the question. So is this really all I intended to do with my life? So reasonable, he's thoughtful, not given to a lot of emotion, but is really wondering what's next. Well, after I went there to pastor that church, that was a pretty good description of that church. You know?
Speaker 3:And so I just challenge these pastors to think about the church they're pastoring and just say, okay. You look at your church. How would you describe your church and then look at the seasonal rhythms of your church and then build a preaching plan that engages that seasonal rhythm or changes it. You know? If it needs to be adjusted, shape it, and then bring these different categories of sermons and take the genres of literature seriously and take your own voice seriously.
Speaker 3:You know, you've got to find your own voice, and, I love to illustrate that with, with 2 golfers. It's how I typically do that when I'm teaching preaching. There's a there's a professional golfer named John Daly who is his typical phrase is known. They call him grip it and rip it. He he goes up to the ball.
Speaker 3:He's usually smoking a cigarette. He's got a can of beer in his hand, and he's bare footed, you know, and he puts the beer down. And when he swings, he goes way over. I mean, his his the head of the club is almost back pointing to the ground, which you just don't do. I mean, nobody does that because
Speaker 2:John Daly does it.
Speaker 3:Yeah. You just can't do that and get back to the ball. Or Jim Furyk, who's about this big around and,
Speaker 2:he's holding up his finger.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I'm sorry. He's tiny, skinny, and he's very reasoned, very precise, very measured guy. And when you get to the top of his backswing, his head of his club is pointed straight up into the sky. In other words, he he does not go way over and his right l he's a right handed golfer and he has what's called the chicken wing, which you don't want in golf.
Speaker 3:Baseball, you do. Baseball, you know, you you want your elbow up so that you can explode through the ball. In golf, you keep that elbow touched. Jim Furyk has the club pointed straight into the sky. His right elbow is up.
Speaker 3:Any golf professional who's teaching a golf swing would say, here is a great example of what not to do. Do not do this. Unless you're Jim Furyk and you wanna win the US Open and captain the Ryder Cup team, he just camped in the US President's team and just President's Cup team just won it. He's won a gazillion dollars. He looks completely different than John Daly.
Speaker 3:John Daly's won, PGA championship British open, and he's won a gazillion dollars. My point being, you gotta find your voice. You know, you you gotta figure out what is the best you and then preach with that. And so that's what I've tried to do. And so when I was thinking about this series, it felt like it was time for a pragmatic kind of almost a, a suggestion of how to kind of series.
Speaker 3:And so that's how this arose in this, kind of in the in the seasonal journey that we've been on. And Nehemiah and Ezra lend that that text, to me, lends itself to that very thing because to me, there's just a lot of practical how to stuff in it, you know. So I'm concerned about the people in my church who are, you know, digging out of a divorce, or they're trying to put their marriage back together, or they're trying to figure out what do I do now that this has happened to me, you know. My company has has changed, and now I've got this new job, or I've transferred, or my life circumstances have changed, or, you know, even kind of what you described, Luke, in your family, you know, you think about, a spouse has died, I'm now retired, I've got I've got kids that are living in different places. So, what do I do with that?
Speaker 3:I'm in a I'm in I'm not in the era where I was figuring out what to do with my life and what job I wanted and you know what I mean? That's not and not to throw your mother-in-law out on it, but I understand that's where your mother-in-law is. She's in a very different place in life. Well, okay. It's it's it's something in front of you now.
Speaker 3:I think about, you know, me and Cindy as we're looking at the future that we have. We look at Restore Hope and where we see Restore Hope today, and we've been asking the question, Okay, we've done this. We've helped build to this point. Now what? It feels to us like we're entering into another season, and so we're asking ourselves those very questions.
Speaker 3:So this this series has been one that has been practical for me, not just for the church, because I've been thinking through, okay, what's the next leg of the journey look like for me? So, I've been praying. Well, and
Speaker 2:you've teased some things about the life of our church I have. Which we talked about here some.
Speaker 3:And doing an honest assessment. Yeah. You know, an honest evaluation of where things are. And, and so I'm hopeful that it's an it's been an encouraging thing, but I know how easily distracted we are. So So that's why I decided to go ahead and pull distraction out of the hospital.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You know what
Speaker 3:I mean? Because I just think that's where we are, and I think people identify with it because, they they know they can get detoured, you know? Yeah. And and I think they also watch other people do it, and it can be very frustrating because you're watching other people thinking, you know, you're that you shouldn't even be dealing with that right now. You know?
Speaker 3:You should you're you're so distracted in your life right now, and I've got a couple of people in my life that that's how I feel. And I'm trying to figure out how can I be of assistance to get them back up on the pavement, you know, a little bit? Get out of the ditch or out of the the little side alley that they've found themselves in somehow.
Speaker 2:So for those who have ears to hear Yeah. This sermon's for you.
Speaker 3:Yeah. That's right. Yeah. And, and so think about we're gonna transition into next week. Well, as a believer, what's supposed to undergird all of this for me, I believe is God's revealed truth.
Speaker 3:And so that's what I love about the story of Nehemiah and Ezra. They get the wall rebuilt. You've got the temple rebuilt but the people still don't seem yet to understand the rhythm of life that's been given to them by the lord and the authority that's been handed them through the through the scripture And so they have a time where they actually gather around the scripture and they listen to it to be taught to them and they have this incredible reaction to it. Well, that's what we're gonna do next Sunday to remind everybody. We've gotta be grounded in truth.
Speaker 3:We can't just rebuild willy nilly. You know, do do whatever we think is right. You know, in the book of Judges, everybody did what was right in their own eyes, and that ended up to be a disaster.
Speaker 1:Not a great plan.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So the authority of the scripture, the revealed truth of God. That's where we're headed, and then the result of all of that. Once all this culminates in your life, there's incredible joy and peace, and that's where we'll be the next Sunday. That's what we're aiming toward, you know, is seeing the joy and the beauty of this life that God's given us.
Speaker 3:And, so, so yeah. And then we'll transition to missions, you know, then we'll transition to Advent, and then we'll turn the page, and we'll begin a 3 year journey.
Speaker 2:All on flourishing.
Speaker 3:That's right, and start January 25, and we're going to engage in a 3 year journey learning more about human flourishing. And, it sort of it all fits together for me, you know, naturally, because I'm an architect.
Speaker 2:You put it together.
Speaker 3:Putting it all out. But I'm excited about it, I really am, and I'm hopeful. And I I think, I sense in our church kind of, a sense of renewal among our people, you know, as I'm watching them, that many of them have reengaged in some areas at church, and I just sense that in the body right now, and that's a really good positive thing. And it's attractive because other people get drawn to that, and that's exactly what's been happening to us. Friends are beginning to visit with friends, and folks are inviting their friends, and, you know, well, that's the kind of thing that happens in a in a in a community, in a church.
Speaker 3:So so, yeah, I'm I'm very encouraged by it all, and I don't want us to get distracted. And so that's one of the things we'll be talking about as a staff because, again, it's so easy. And it's not just politics. It's it's it's issues, you know, you can kind of become a 1 or 2 issue church, you know, and to me that just doesn't feel like you're giving the full, you're giving your full attention to the full revelation of God, you know. The early church, they didn't get distracted to me, by trying to prove certain things.
Speaker 3:They just tried to be faithful to the g the way as they called it. Yeah. And learning how to be faithful to the way just ended up bleeding over into a lot of other things, but they never lost their way.
Speaker 2:Each of them had their own personality Yeah. Each church Yeah. In in Acts. Yeah. But it wasn't like a one issue church.
Speaker 2:Church.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:Right?
Speaker 1:Well, and I think that's the answer too to the how do you discern if it's if it's a distraction, if it's actually the work you're called to, if it's an opportunity. Mhmm. And it's people probably aren't distractions. I mean, people are coming to you. You know, my child is not a distraction.
Speaker 3:Yeah. People generally would not be distractions. I would agree with that, Luke.
Speaker 2:Well, the timing could be though.
Speaker 1:Yeah. The timing may be, but you know, I think it, when you envision yourself in your workplace or maybe you're a stay at home parent, the people you are with are the people God has placed you among. And so if they're coming to you with needs, those are opportunities to pray with them, to start conversations about Jesus, to parent well and effectively. I'm sorry. I chose my child over listening with full rapt attention.
Speaker 1:I'm not sorry.
Speaker 2:Oh, no. No, you're too late.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm called to. Right.
Speaker 3:And this is the only season in life where your child will be this age Right. And you will engage on that level. One of these days, your child will be sitting with the youth and will not even know where you are. And to be honest with you, may not care at that season of your life where you are. And then So don't
Speaker 2:miss it. Family picnic Friday night.
Speaker 3:It's just one of those things.
Speaker 1:It is. I mean,
Speaker 3:I I thought, you know, Sunday morning, Cindy's out of town. She's in Africa. And so, Ada wanted to she wanted to be at Jam Sunday, and, you know, our daughter has been dealing with cancer. There's a whole lot there. And so Ada wanted to know, will you come by and pick me up and, you know, bring me to church with you, Poppy?
Speaker 3:And I said, well,
Speaker 2:it early.
Speaker 3:I have to be here early, and, you know, that means you will be here through 2 different worship services. And she said, that's okay, Poppy. I I wanna come. So I went and picked her up early Sunday morning, and she was dressed up in her beautiful dress and ready to go, had her little backpack packed. And and so, we got here that morning, and, and I said, okay.
Speaker 3:I'm gonna trust you this morning. You know? You're you're a mature little girl, and you know your way around this church, and you know I'm gonna have to be in worship at 8:30, and I'm I know you're not gonna come to that service. Well, she had her iPad. I gave her some money.
Speaker 3:She said, I'm gonna go down to the cafe and get some breakfast, and I'm doing I'm gonna read some on my iPad, and and then I'm gonna go to Sunday school, and then I'll meet you for the 11 o'clock worship service, and then I'll go to jam. And I was like, oh, okay. Mhmm. She's 10. And guess what?
Speaker 3:She did every bit of that. Yeah. You know? And I thought, my goodness.
Speaker 2:Well, not long ago though.
Speaker 1:Girls, man.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:Yeah. There was a time when she was 3 years old, you know, or 4 years old, and we were doing exactly what you were talking about, Luke, or Cindy was. Yeah. No way you put
Speaker 2:money in your hand and send her to a cafe. That's an iPad. Right? And
Speaker 3:then there you go. And then we get in the car to go home after jam, and she says, puppy, I had a really good day today at church. I really like getting there early. Would you pick me up next Sunday morning, on your way to the 8:30 service? I know Mimi's still gonna be in Africa.
Speaker 3:And I said, well, Ada, it makes for a long day for you. She said, it's okay. I kind of enjoyed it. She said, I kinda had some quiet time in the cafe. I enjoyed my breakfast there, and I thought, okay.
Speaker 3:Well, there that's not a distraction for me. Right. But the point is, this is season of life that one day is not gonna be there anymore. And so I think that people are always important. But I think that what I was trying to communicate Sunday morning is the other things that come in your path when you're rebuilding, I don't I'm also hoping to encourage so it's not to be surprised by them.
Speaker 3:Don't don't be surprised that you're a little bit afraid. Don't be surprised that you're gonna fail sometimes. Don't be surprised that, your faith is gonna be challenged. You know? Are you gonna doubt yourself sometimes?
Speaker 3:Can you even do this? Is god really in this? We all experience those times, I think. And the frustration that's why I want to refer to what Jesus went through.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I just I do believe he's got frustrated as
Speaker 3:a person. I do. I think, you know, I I feel it in his voice. I've been with you this long. You couldn't you couldn't pray with me for 1 hour.
Speaker 3:I mean, after all all that I've spent, all that you've been walking with the Son of God, we've walked on water, we've fed 5,000 people, we've raised people from the dead, and I ask you to pray and you're gonna fall asleep. I mean, seriously.
Speaker 1:I mean
Speaker 2:There's a whole podcast, probably series of podcasts, on just the humanity of Jesus. Mhmm. Because it's so interesting to me because, you know, you get right up to that line of sinning is what I'm trying to, like, trying to articulate. You know, Jesus never sinned. We know that.
Speaker 2:That's just a tenet of our faith. That's right. So we're you know, but when I feel that I get frustrated with people, I think it does go into sin. So, like, what is I mean Where's
Speaker 1:where's the line? How do
Speaker 3:I not cross it?
Speaker 2:And, like, so, like, I don't sometimes I don't like holding up Jesus as angry or or Right. Frustrated because we can't I can't accomplish that without
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 2:Thinking ill of my neighbor.
Speaker 3:You're angry and do not sin, the Bible says.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I guess it's possible.
Speaker 1:Haven't done
Speaker 2:that yet. But I'm not sure I've done it. And I think that's the you know, when you see Jesus as a frustrated person, somehow, we believe and see that Jesus gets frustrated, but doesn't sin.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 2:So it doesn't turn into contempt for his neighbor or his disciples.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 2:There's some balance there where he could get frustrated with them and still have, like, ultimate love. You
Speaker 3:got it. Because he's awesome.
Speaker 2:And this is and and that's I know. I joked with doctor Oz and Luke before we started the podcast, like, do you wanna talk about Simon Peter or Jesus just to, like, hop into the new testament again? Because not that I miss Jesus. It's everywhere. Jesus everywhere in all of us.
Speaker 2:But the, he is just such a wonderful person.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 2:And we can go there or not. We're kinda hitting Yeah. Toward the end. But we'll we'll we'll
Speaker 3:talk more about that.
Speaker 2:The story is not Peter.
Speaker 3:It's an incredible story.
Speaker 1:It's worth seeing Peter next month.
Speaker 2:Let's do it. We will. I'd like that. I'd like that. And and I am joking.
Speaker 2:I don't miss Jesus. Jesus is in all this.
Speaker 3:Of course.
Speaker 2:But I I do like thinking about the humanity of Jesus, and I think it helps us
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 2:Learn how to be fully human ourselves. And so it's a fun conversation.
Speaker 3:And we're we're unlike the disciples who were very comfortable with his humanity, less comfortable with his divinity. We're very comfortable with his divinity and less comfortable with his humanity. It's just interesting what time has done to us. Mhmm. You know?
Speaker 3:They they were very comfortable with him as a human. Yeah. And they walked together, ate together, slept you know, they went to bed at night. They watched him be tired. You know, so,
Speaker 2:I know. And what's that like, and how do we you know, Fosdick, who I know, Fosdick's very liberal or whatever, but he has a book called The Manhood of the Master. And it's it's helpful it was helpful for me at that time of my life. I probably read it 20 years ago, 15 years ago. Just to think about maybe that's because I was raised in, you know, America in the, nineties and early aughts.
Speaker 2:Yeah. But to think about the manhood of Jesus as he
Speaker 3:had Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Just who he is and how I can be like that because I'm human, you know. Oh, yeah. And he was like me, but better, you know. I think it's a really it can be really helpful. So Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I I read Fosdick, you know, I mean, he's incredibly liberal. He and I disagree on so much. He's he's one of the most insightful liberals, though, that I've ever read.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I do. I mean This
Speaker 1:is proof that you can read people who you disagree with, listen to voices you disagree with, and actually
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Learn. Learn.
Speaker 2:But that and then
Speaker 1:But also not become then.
Speaker 2:And that is what I didn't say earlier because it's a rant that I have. We have to still be critical thinkers.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 2:And that's a whole thing. But I I do worry that we, in all of the ways, are less and less Just critical thinkers with discernment and the ability to reason, even though that's like a great attribute of God that we have. And you have to just think critically. So, yeah. Read whatever you want, I mean, within reason, that's helpful and edifying.
Speaker 2:And if you disagree, think about it. Talk about it with us, you know. I don't know what I think about this. That's okay. We don't have to
Speaker 1:And just because you disagree doesn't mean the other person's evil.
Speaker 2:And there are things that, you know Amen. Even theologically there are people sorry. I I ran right over that. That was a really good statement. Go back.
Speaker 2:My mind didn't catch up. Put it in my my synopsis that you
Speaker 1:You disagree doesn't mean that person's evil. That's right.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. So to villainize your people you disagree with.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Don't
Speaker 2:do it. We can do better than that. We can, and I think we should. And particularly in this era, that with the church needing to redeem itself a little bit in society, we we can have that posture. It's really good.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Okay. I've got lots to save it some other time.
Speaker 3:We'll have
Speaker 1:a podcast next week. So
Speaker 2:Yeah. Listen to my personal podcast, which is a phone call with me. I'll tell you everything.
Speaker 3:And there you have it.
Speaker 1:There you have it.
Speaker 2:Call me a grumble. Okay.
Speaker 3:See you.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening, everyone.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening to the Tell Me More podcast today. You can subscribe to this podcast on your app of choice, or you can visit us at fbca.org to find out more information about the podcast and our church. Thanks for listening. Have a good day.
