Ep. 180 - Path To Life
Welcome to this episode of tell me more. Luke's back, and we're excited. We're visiting about the pathway of Jesus, the pathway of discipleship, and just the narrow road that it takes to get there. And this week, we kick off midweek and just life of a new semester at First Brother Charlton, and we're glad you're here.
Speaker 2:Okay. Well, we are back in the studio. And by we, I'm mostly mean
Speaker 1:me because y'all are very weird. We never left.
Speaker 3:We have been here. Luke, where art thou, Luke?
Speaker 1:Vacation days To are for suppers. Actually, were
Speaker 2:You were taking vacation days. I wasn't I at school. So it was a good read Oh, we missed you.
Speaker 3:What? I missed y'all.
Speaker 1:The theme of the doctorate this week.
Speaker 2:Like, what
Speaker 1:did you read up on? The name of the course. What was
Speaker 2:Read a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1:What was the, course?
Speaker 2:The course was called missional leadership. So it was about Leadership.
Speaker 1:That's to be about anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You could pretty much do anything with that. Lot of great reading man. Not like unless you have probably a master's degree I wouldn't recommend most of it. And that's not because I want to insult your intelligence.
Speaker 2:You would just have to have a special like this was assigned to me kind of tenacity Mhmm.
Speaker 1:It's that technical.
Speaker 2:To get through some of that. Okay. But basically you know, are you relying on God's agency or human agency would be the kind of distilling
Speaker 1:What's your summary statement?
Speaker 2:Summary statement. Mhmm. Good. So Alan Roxborough taught it. He was one of the kind of founding people of the missional church movement.
Speaker 2:So if you've ever heard the phrase missional church, he is one of the main forces behind that original movement back in the eighties, nineties. Mhmm. That's awesome. So good time, good week. And now you're back.
Speaker 2:And now I'm
Speaker 3:back. Full throttle.
Speaker 2:Full throttle. Climbing out of the email email 2026. If you sent me an email and I haven't responded to you, I'm working on it.
Speaker 3:Resend it and it goes to the top of the thing. Guess what you just That's
Speaker 1:one way to do this. Send it again and
Speaker 3:That's it'll get to the how we do it. Love it. You I just got back from the little mini vacation.
Speaker 1:I did. I just did
Speaker 3:a Vacationette.
Speaker 1:A long weekend if you will. Thursday through Sunday.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. You do?
Speaker 1:My mother who just turned 75 Whoop. Always wanted to go whale watching and I said let's freaking go and
Speaker 2:Good so job.
Speaker 1:I made her go on a vacation and I say that because my parents How do I say this respectfully to those of you who are
Speaker 2:Do your parents listen to the podcast?
Speaker 1:No. Okay. Well, they might stumble upon it but my parents are hitting an age, they're mostly retired. My dad runs a car wash for kicks and giggles but he needs something to do but they they are hitting an age where they don't like making decisions. I I don't know, maybe those of you listening can relate to that and so they were completely content with Ryan and I saying, we booked all the flights, we booked an Airbnb, we booked all the stuff we're gonna do, here's what time you need to be at my house.
Speaker 1:We drove him to the airport, printed their, I mean, just, my dad just couldn't have loved it more. I'm telling you, he had no problem. He didn't drive a mile. Like, we didn't put him on the rental car. I mean, it was all
Speaker 3:I'm so not at that point.
Speaker 1:Just Whatever in case that you're was.
Speaker 2:You're not there yet? You would like to keep making decisions?
Speaker 3:I would say I'm not even close to that but
Speaker 1:And that's my mom loved it and it was a good I mean, you know, as a daughter who, obviously they took me on many trips and provided much for me. It was fun to do for them.
Speaker 2:Did you see any whales?
Speaker 1:We saw a lot of whales. Yeah. Went to Monterey, California.
Speaker 2:What kind of whales?
Speaker 1:They were gray whales.
Speaker 2:Gray
Speaker 3:whales. Jumping out of the water?
Speaker 1:Yes. I mean, just more that they dove down, so you saw the tail. But the the hole, what they call it, breach. We didn't see that because that's we're not in the right region. They really do that around breeding is what I learned.
Speaker 1:But we probably saw, I don't know, 30 whales. Mean, just
Speaker 2:was That's a pretty incredible.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It was cool. And I was telling Luke, we saw a breed of dolphin that I'd never seen before, which just surprised that was very cool. They came a little closer to the boat, and they have more, they don't have the bottlenose like the dolphins we're used to. They have more of a
Speaker 3:Are they porpoises or dolphins?
Speaker 1:They called them dolphins. They had a name for them, guess. Just wondered.
Speaker 2:Was very porpoises question.
Speaker 3:And they weren't sharks? They had fin, you know, the little shark
Speaker 1:No, they were dolphins. And apparently all dolphins are whales. At least that's what they said.
Speaker 2:That's true.
Speaker 1:We saw those. A couple of yeah. Mean, you know, sea life, but we saw a lot of whales, and it was really neat because the next day we did Pebble Beach, which my dad had just the best day. Mhmm. My mom had the best day whale watching, my dad had the best day Pebble Beach.
Speaker 1:Didn't go for the whole Pebble Beach thing, like golf the 18 holes at Pebble Beach, but they have a nine hole that's much more accessible, very chill, but it's up on the hill overlooking the real Pebble Beach, the 18 hole, and then of course the ocean, so it's pretty picturesque. And for my dad and Ryan, we dropped them off, they just got to kinda, you know, low pressure chip
Speaker 2:and putt,
Speaker 1:super fun, and we had lunch at the restaurant that overlooks the eighteenth hole in the water.
Speaker 3:You just walk out there on it.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. You can
Speaker 3:walk out almost to the green.
Speaker 1:Almost to the green. Mhmm. And they did and Ryan Just
Speaker 3:playing golf.
Speaker 1:It very beautiful. But he was watching and then he Ryan realized you could also walk the cart path on the whole eighteenth. And so Ryan spent a lot of time just staring at it all.
Speaker 3:It's beautiful.
Speaker 1:Sent me a bunch of pictures.
Speaker 3:Lot of history on the eighteenth home.
Speaker 1:He seemed to really enjoy it.
Speaker 3:Tiger Woods was playing in the US Open there and he was winning by, I forgot his incredible lead, 2000, think it was probably the greatest year of golf in Tiger Woods' life.
Speaker 1:Where were you in the
Speaker 3:2000? He standing on the eighteenth tee box and you saw the water down the left. So you gotta stay right, obviously. A lot of guys hooked the ball in the water during the first shot.
Speaker 1:Oh, goes down the hole. Mean, runs along the entire A
Speaker 3:ton of pros hit the ball in the water.
Speaker 2:I thought it was Y2K's fault.
Speaker 3:Well, what he didn't realize was his caddy had given away a sleeve of golf balls to some fans. And so Tiger actually hit one of his golf balls in the water on '18. I can't remember what day it was, but he only had one ball left. And and so he could he could have laid up or I'm trying to remember how it all worked, but nevertheless. So Stevie knew he reached in the bag.
Speaker 3:There was only one ball left. So if he hits that ball in the water, he's not gonna finish his round. And he toyed with, do I tell him this is the only ball or I just don't worry about it. So he didn't, he just let him hit and Tiger just ripped one down there, you know, just massive shot. And then after the round was over, told us that was the last golf ball in the back.
Speaker 3:That's a menacing golf hole. It's beautiful. I could see what It's
Speaker 1:Ryan from the whale watching tour got the I packed my binoculars.
Speaker 2:Well done.
Speaker 1:Got caught at TSA for the binoculars, I don't know. But certainly, they searched my binocular bag. Anyway, Ryan, yeah,
Speaker 3:This saw millennial with binoculars. I'm I'm very impressed.
Speaker 1:I have a nice set of binoculars.
Speaker 3:That's great.
Speaker 1:I keep them on my 5th Floor office. Okay.
Speaker 2:You I said well done earlier and I would
Speaker 1:like to retract that and say whale done. Ayo. I love that. Well Ryan was like, yeah yeah, saw the whales. Then spent the rest of the time because where we were going along the coast, you could see both Spyglass and Pebble Beach.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah. And that's all he did. Yeah. Just checked it out. Just scoped out where
Speaker 3:we The story. Were the next
Speaker 1:It was lovely. And the weather was perfect. So it was 50, full sun, no wind.
Speaker 2:Oh, beautiful.
Speaker 1:Great day to whale watch, great day to golf. My mom and I shopped. And then we drove to the coast. One the cool things about driving to the coast is now that you kinda know what to look for, we could see the whales from the coast. And so I thought that was very cool because you could stop and look at the scenery and then kinda turn and wait and find some whales, watch through the binoculars, and back to it.
Speaker 1:And then again, just put my parents back in the car and brought them home. They were happy happy.
Speaker 2:Love it. That's Yep.
Speaker 3:Well, we're glad to have y'all back.
Speaker 2:It's good to be back.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 3:Podcast booth 2026.
Speaker 2:Here
Speaker 1:we I miswrote the date twice today. Started with 2023. Oopsie.
Speaker 2:It's about three years off.
Speaker 1:Then corrected to 2025 confidently. And then looked at it later and thought that's not right either.
Speaker 2:It's gonna take a while.
Speaker 1:It will take a while. Can
Speaker 3:you believe it?
Speaker 2:It might still be 2020.
Speaker 3:You know, we used to write checks.
Speaker 1:Go on.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I've written checks.
Speaker 3:It's a piece of paper. Oh, you have?
Speaker 2:I write checks. I still write checks.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay. Well.
Speaker 1:But go on. For the for the younger listeners than us.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, the the fir I think it's like the first fifteen days. I can't remember where they give you grace. In other words, when you write a check in the new year in January
Speaker 1:Oh, they'll let
Speaker 3:you You typically write the wrong They'll cash it. They go ahead and cash it because they know you have a little grace period. You have to get used to writing that new year. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Anyway.
Speaker 1:We also started our new staff structure today.
Speaker 3:Congratulations both for some time.
Speaker 2:Thank you. You are
Speaker 3:now the minister of local engagement.
Speaker 2:Think it's local, you're a true minister.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry. You're the local engagement minister. I'm sorry. Correct. And you are our new associate pastor.
Speaker 1:It's true.
Speaker 3:I just Look at you two.
Speaker 2:Well done.
Speaker 1:Hadn't really
Speaker 3:said it that Congratulations. Thank you. You two little seminary grads serving in ministry. In We're doing our world.
Speaker 1:We're just doing the best we can
Speaker 3:with what we have. Yes, you are.
Speaker 2:My favorite title for you is still Reverend Prom Queen.
Speaker 1:It's really the only one that matters to me. I mean, thanks personnel committee but
Speaker 3:Katie Reed Hodges. Come on.
Speaker 1:I'm honored I'm honored to be here. I'm honored to serve. Honored to be with y'all.
Speaker 2:It is an honor.
Speaker 1:Really looking forward to
Speaker 2:To be with y'all.
Speaker 1:To honestly, I'm looking forward to getting six months down the road where we really figure out what this all looks like, who's gonna what, how we work together.
Speaker 3:Meetings structure. Rhythm is the right word, right? Staff meeting schedule.
Speaker 1:Schedule, rhythm, structure, that's all good.
Speaker 3:All those worst meetings today already on a Monday and
Speaker 1:I know Jen this afternoon said, is it really just Monday? Because we'd lived a lot of life and it's a new rhythm. So, I think it'll serve us well. And if it doesn't, And
Speaker 3:if fresh on the brain and get here at nine for a meeting, for all staff meeting, which I had to miss today because I was speaking somewhere, but heard it went really well.
Speaker 2:It did.
Speaker 3:Ada helped me shoot a video for it. I don't know if y'all saw the video.
Speaker 1:We did. Watched the video.
Speaker 3:And Lee was my videographer. Sorry, Addison. Think your
Speaker 2:job is coming for
Speaker 3:your job. Least right now.
Speaker 1:I think it is. It was a great video, but it wasn't
Speaker 2:You're good.
Speaker 1:In Addison and you. Yep. And then a lot of departmental meetings today. Mhmm. More tomorrow.
Speaker 3:Engagement team tomorrow.
Speaker 1:It is.
Speaker 2:Tomorrow? Yes. That's correct.
Speaker 1:And yeah. Just keep rolling. Mhmm.
Speaker 3:It's really good.
Speaker 1:New
Speaker 3:day. Congratulations to y'all.
Speaker 2:But you know what's even more exciting than staff structure? Nothing. Jesus.
Speaker 1:Oh. You found it.
Speaker 3:Talk about him.
Speaker 2:This is one of those days where Katie and I will I had to both confess. I listened in between in between kind of climbing out of my email hole. I listened at two times speed to your sermon. Wow. I I don't always get to listen a lot of days because I'm talking to people or running interference Would you like for me to
Speaker 3:talk two times speed right now? Try.
Speaker 2:What would that I know what you sound like at
Speaker 1:two times speed. Think I'd go with what I have.
Speaker 3:It's Monday. Still kinda hungover from Sunday so Monday's hard. You could probably pull
Speaker 2:up 1.25. Yeah, maybe.
Speaker 1:I think stick with what you got. Yeah. Your
Speaker 2:voice is good as is.
Speaker 1:I did catch some of the sermon.
Speaker 3:Good. Me too.
Speaker 1:What what I really did catch in in all seriousness is your pastoral prayer. Mhmm. But in the second service was at the beginning of the sermons, and then the first service was part of the
Speaker 3:service
Speaker 1:I more, I don't know what you say about a prayer. How do you qualify it? But I thought it was timely and meaningful. Is a fair assessment?
Speaker 3:Yeah. Well, these are, these are challenging days. I think we all know that. And, just being, concerned about just how polarized and fractured we are. That's one thing.
Speaker 3:But also how decisions are made and the impact they have on people and and then not just the people that are in power, quote unquote, in leadership, but, you know, as that power filters all the way down to just regular people, people make decisions that either escalate or deescalate things. And, yeah, and then all that does is trigger just more polarization and more escalation. And that's just the culture that we're in right now. And so I'm burdened about it. So my best answer, at least for right now, is to pray and to lead our church to pray.
Speaker 3:And, I just felt led to I actually prayed that prayer Saturday night, if that makes sense. Because I'm I kind of wrote out, which which is not always common for me,
Speaker 2:but I felt like I needed to it.
Speaker 3:Yeah. But sometimes you just need to capture what you really wanna express to God on behalf of your people. And just a way of shepherding people, you know, and helping helping us be centered in the right things. And, that's my hope and prayer for us that we'll be good in the moment because you never know when that moment's going to come. They just happen at times at where you've gotta make a really quick decision sometimes that you live with for a long time.
Speaker 3:And, so just praying for our people who find themselves scattered all over to be good in those moments, and to be thoughtful in how we articulate what we believe and live it out in front of others. So yeah. It's a again, it's a it's a reminder to me of just how important it is to for the church to make disciples.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:Because that's what we need in our culture. We need disciples. We need people to understand what really matters and and why it matters and how we're supposed to live it out in our everyday lives. And, and and we have so many people in our church who just do that really, really well. You know?
Speaker 2:We do.
Speaker 3:And I'm grateful for that. A lot of models today. I I spoke at, a senior center down in Mansfield. And I thanked those senior adults. I thanked them for their
Speaker 2:Several of whom are church members here.
Speaker 3:Exactly. Which is what
Speaker 1:I was Increasing number of church
Speaker 3:members. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So just thanking them for their faithfulness and talk encourage them about, you know, the we just came through Christmas and I don't know. I've just kinda lingered with the Christmas story this year just personally. I said, staff meeting, our last worship meeting that I helped leave, we talked about the shepherds, you know, returning.
Speaker 1:Last Tuesday.
Speaker 3:And so I did a little bit of that with these senior adults today. Just just the just the richness of the Christmas story, how inclusive it is, you know, just in the way Matthew's gospel includes Jews and Gentiles in the genealogy of Jesus and he includes what you might refer to as saints and sinners. You've got Josiah, who was a true great king. The Bible says there's never another king like Josiah. Great name for a kid.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Wanna think about that.
Speaker 3:Mhmm. And told him that Josiah's great grandfather's name, Josiah. So we named him now for both his great grandfather and the king in the scripture. And I've told him before, you don't have to make this name great. This is already a great name.
Speaker 3:Just just live into this name, you know? But you also had Manasseh, who was a wicked king listed in that lineup of Jesus and and and his forebears. And and then you have Tamar and Ruth and, you know, Ruth's a Moabite, if you think about that, enemy of Israel. And, of course, Tamar and Judah, this very suspect really not Tamar's fault necessarily. It's Judah not making sure she's cared for.
Speaker 3:You got they don't name Bathsheba. It's just Uriah's wife, but everybody knew who he's talking about. And Rahab Mhmm. And Mary. And so I just talked about how this story is so inclusive of male and female and Jews and Gentiles and saints and sinners.
Speaker 3:But you get to Luke's account and Luke tells us in Luke one about Zechariah and Elizabeth and he says, think it's in verse five of chapter one, Luke says, and they didn't have children because Elizabeth was barren and they were very old. And then, she ends up, of course, with a child as an old lady. And then so when Mary finds out she's pregnant, unmarried, overwhelmed, I'm sure, she goes and visits with an old woman, Elizabeth. And so
Speaker 2:Just a beautiful picture that you've got this pregnant teenager Yes. And a pregnant octogenarian.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Who knows? Yeah. This old woman. So she goes to her and gets this beautiful blessing from Elizabeth affirming her.
Speaker 3:Elizabeth knowing full well the implications of her being pregnant and not currently actually, technically married to Joseph.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:But she sought her out. And, and then, you know, you get to the the story of the of of Mary and Joseph taking Jesus to the temple. And you have this presumably old man, Simeon, who God has told him, I'm gonna let you live until you see the the Lord's Messiah. And and Luke says, he took the baby from their arms, you know. And that sounds to me like an interview, like Mary telling Luke, you're not gonna believe what happened when we got to the temple.
Speaker 3:This old man comes up and just takes the son of God out of my hands,
Speaker 1:you know,
Speaker 3:and blesses him. And then you have, it says Anna, and Luke says it again. He says she was married for seven years and now she's very old, 84 years old. She blesses them. And I just told these folks today, said, I want you to think about that.
Speaker 3:So this story is for is for the Jew and the Gentile, is for the male and female, is is for the saint in the center. It's also for the young and the old. And because the story is told very intentionally and how these older people play a unique role. It's a role of blessing, you know, that that's hard to play when you're younger because you don't you don't really have the gravitas to bless anybody, but you get seasoned and and you have something to offer to people. And I just said, you know, I just wanna encourage them.
Speaker 3:Let's don't run past Christmas just yet. Let's make sure we it's just January. You know, let's take in Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Get it
Speaker 3:all done. All of this. Greatest ever told. There's a lot of great stories in this world, but this one here is the greatest
Speaker 2:story ever told.
Speaker 3:And it and it's inclusive, and that's what I love about it. I love how the gospel writers wrote in such a way that brings everybody in. And and you can hear it through those lenses or, you know, see it through those lenses hopefully and and realize you you have a role to play in this world no matter who you are and you're factored into the story. And, and then the shepherds returned glorified and praising god for what they've seen and heard. But we ought to all do that.
Speaker 3:We ought to all January's when we all go back to our routine, you know. Well, let's go back glorifying and praising God. I I I pray every year that Christmas will change my people just a little bit.
Speaker 2:You
Speaker 3:know, because it should. Mhmm. You know? And and so so yeah, that's I I love the fact that I had a chance today just hanging out with some seasoned veterans just to encourage them. It's pretty good one.
Speaker 1:Thank them.
Speaker 3:Some great people.
Speaker 2:Some of the very best.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. And then, you know, when I was thinking about, this this series that we're in on Sunday morning, what we're about to do is start a journey watching how people are on the path of life, watching them live this life. But I wanted to set the stage these first two Sundays to make sure we all understand this this is God's plan for us. It's for us to flourish. And but but in order to flourish, we actually have to live a certain way.
Speaker 3:It's not just going to happen to us. And and I love that phrase in in Psalm 16 that that that God shows us. He reveals to us the path of life and and so our daily Bible readings this week are all about that. You know, choosing this path of life, walking this path of life. Psalm 84 is the is the pilgrim sermon, you know, just finding, springs in the desert.
Speaker 3:Well, that's that's what people that are on this path discover, you know, because we're all gonna walk through the desert. We just are. Doesn't mean life is gonna be easy, but you're still on the right path, you know? And so just wanna encourage our people in it. And, so yeah, just this first two sermons to me are the foundation really for the year, you know, of where where we're actually headed as a church.
Speaker 3:And, and I've had numerous people continue to visit with me. So I'm just about flourishing and what does that really mean. And and, I even read an article the other day where there's a one of the he writes for gospel, excuse me, gospel coalition, but he kinda critiqued the whole idea of human flourishing and feels like that's less than fruitful in the scripture. It's not really the same thing. And I just so disagree with that.
Speaker 3:Because to me, biblically, what we're talking about is biblical flourishing. We're not we're not talking about flourishing from just a mere human perspective.
Speaker 1:Like prosperity gospel flourishing.
Speaker 3:That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about something truly biblical that's rooted in
Speaker 2:a character Jesus isn't gonna make you rich or make your life easy. Exactly.
Speaker 3:And he could have done
Speaker 1:all that. Mm-mm. Look at everybody who's followed him
Speaker 3:Yes. Throughout history. Just concluding himself.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I sat down with a dear brother in Christ this afternoon whose family is back in India and you know, is just sharing about the persecution that the Indian church is experiencing and he's got families and family members in ministry. And so following Jesus is not a recipe for worldly success or That's
Speaker 1:what you're
Speaker 3:not get I'd
Speaker 1:probably run the other way. If you wanted that, you should probably gain the whole world and lose your soul. That'd be my recommendation.
Speaker 3:And those options are everywhere to me. That's just antithetical to me what the Bible teaches the
Speaker 1:whole thing. Okay. So how do you reconcile those two things? We kinda look, and I gave our opinion because because we have strong ones.
Speaker 3:Well, I think that flourishing just means something different. You know? I mean, when I look at, you know, I think I've I've shared this illustration with y'all before about one of the last times I was in one of the countries working in West Africa, we can't go there anymore because of the persecution. It's really hard for our people there. And but we have an evangelist there.
Speaker 3:There are two two or three of them that we work with. And, one of them is named Umaru. Great. Just just a godly man and a deep follower of Jesus, but just has a really hard life. He's been persecuted.
Speaker 3:Yeah. The last time I was there, he rode a bicycle. I've forgotten. It was, like, 30 something miles. And, and it had no it had no, tires left.
Speaker 3:Just rims? So he's riding on the rims just to get to us. So he'd taken his shirt, and kinda torn it in some places and just wrapped a couple of things around the rims just so he would have something touching the ground. And so, he's the one that one night one of our volunteers was really sick and I had to stay up most of the night with that person. And so Amaru speaks I mean, just barely speaks English at all.
Speaker 3:But he just he just is aware of things. He's just that guy, you know, he's a very faithful evangelist. And so when he saw me, well, he was not about to go to bed if I was up. He just said he just was not gonna do this. So he came over.
Speaker 3:So I'm trying to explain to him, you can go to bed. You're fine. I kept saying, you you go, you know, making the sleep sign, you know. I'm fine. And he kept saying, no.
Speaker 3:No. No. Calls me samba. No samba. So he he gets this little makeshift mat and puts it over there where I'm I'm sitting in this chair.
Speaker 3:And he all he has is he only has two books. He has a a bible, and then he has, some kind of devotional book in his language. And so it's, you know, 01:00 in the morning and he's laying on this mat and he's got a flashlight tucked between his neck and his shoulder and he's sitting there reading, you know, as I'm watching him. And I think about him all the time. I think about how when I'm sitting in my air conditioned heated office at home surrounded by every book that I've ever really wanted, every scholar pretty much at my fingertips.
Speaker 3:There's Umaru and this this faithful, godly man persecuted in his community. And if you were to go to him and say, man, you know Jesus. Jesus will make you flourish. He will say, I am flourishing. Because he is.
Speaker 3:Even though he's been persecuted for his faith, there's nothing tangibly, physically that you could point to, you know, that he's received because of his decision to follow Jesus. In fact, it's the opposite because he's been shunned by so many people. He when he had his once he became a believer, he had he and his wife had a little baby boy and so they go to the when every time that happens in their village, the chief pulls everybody together and the the the father announces the name to the chief and the chief announces the name to the to the village. And he named his son John the Baptist. And so, I forgot how you say it his name.
Speaker 3:It's like or something like So he calls his name and the chief says, well, this is not a family name. There's no
Speaker 1:one in
Speaker 2:think I've heard that story before.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Nobody in your family has this name. He's like, what what are you what are you doing? And so here's Amaro in this Islamic village, and he says, well, this is his name. And he tells him his name is John.
Speaker 3:And again, the chief says, there is no I've known you your whole life.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:I know your parents. I know your grandparents. This is not a name in your tradition. And then he said, well, his name is in the NGO, John the Baptist. And John the Baptist prepared the way for people to know who Jesus is.
Speaker 3:That's who my son is going to be. Well, I mean, he was ostracized, you know, and and
Speaker 1:So that didn't go over with?
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 1:With chief.
Speaker 3:But that's Umaru though. And I'm thinking, so, yeah, if you're gonna talk about flourishing When you see him Yeah.
Speaker 2:When you see
Speaker 3:him, he's flourishing. But he's not Yeah. If you're gonna take the American Western not just American, Western, you know
Speaker 2:Careful now. I can get really into that one from
Speaker 3:last week. Have another word that I would use, but I don't think you can say it because I think it's a cuss word. But you
Speaker 2:of flourishing The Western detritus.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Flourishing is so less than. It's it's so non transferable.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:You know? It it just can't function in so many places in the world. But if you take real flourishing where you're in the presence of God and you're choosing the path of life and you experience the fullness of his spirit and you're being useful in his hands and you're you're being fruitful with your life Mhmm. That's transferable to any culture. And so
Speaker 1:And the flourishing measure, the one that we've, I've just been looking at for a year plus now, the 12 questions, they really added the ones about material and financial stability later. Because it felt, for lack of a better term, tone deaf to not ask
Speaker 3:about those. Yeah, sure.
Speaker 1:But really, if you focus on the ones they're really trying to get the heart of, meaning and character and virtue, happiness and life satisfaction,
Speaker 3:those Yes, yes. And even the questionnaire that we took as a church delves into do you pray Do you read your bible every day? Mhmm. You know? Are you fervently praying for the coming of the kingdom of God?
Speaker 3:Well,
Speaker 2:these are the
Speaker 1:Ten ten out of 10 everyday. Katie.
Speaker 3:These are real questions.
Speaker 2:If I could steer us to the sermon that you preached yesterday. Because it is Monday. We're That's true. Miracle of Miracles reporting on a Monday.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Barely. We got it in the eleventh hour. It's 04:50. Four five o.
Speaker 1:Actually gotta wrap up
Speaker 2:so Katie can go from there for children. Close.
Speaker 1:Yeah. That day care. Yeah. They really want to go home.
Speaker 2:They do.
Speaker 1:No. Respectfully. Respectfully. They They should. Should.
Speaker 2:You know, you talked You know, you're talking about formative practices. Yes. And on Sunday morning, and we've talked about this on the podcast, but the world is a formation machine.
Speaker 3:It is.
Speaker 2:And it is a It's a counter formation machine. So I think we forget. It's really easy for so many reasons that we don't have to get into. But to think idolatry is this thing of the past and to think that idolatry was just people bowing down to wooden statues or carvings.
Speaker 1:It's Careful. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. People, us, you, me, we're really really good at making something. I mean, if you're watching Mhmm. I have an object in my pocket that someone made, someone came up with an idea and we just keep putting more and more and more into it. And now, it's this thing that's over me.
Speaker 2:It is. And that's what, you know, you quoted John Mark Comer talking about the spooky algorithms.
Speaker 3:One of my favorite little Yeah. It's a great little clip.
Speaker 2:What he's actually getting at is there's a phrase cultural commentators use, it's surveillance capitalism. What they make money
Speaker 1:off is Marf.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. Your
Speaker 1:I'm swimming in it. I hate it.
Speaker 2:No. I mean, you talked You mentioned it on Sunday. You just talk about something and see what your phone shows you next.
Speaker 3:It's crazy.
Speaker 2:It's Mhmm. Let's plant ideas in you to get you to buy something. And that's idolatry.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:It's we've we've made something. We made a material thing, we made a system, we made a method, we made a technique Mhmm. And we invested power in it and now it's out of our control and it's actually over us and that's idolatry.
Speaker 1:And you talk about discipleship. Discipleship Discipleship. Discipling us
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's In the wrong direction. We are living under and we are a victim to and out of control of the powers and principalities of this world. And it takes Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:So light the stove and boil your phones. This is not good.
Speaker 2:It's not just your phone. There's a lot of stuff behind this. Is.
Speaker 3:And I think it's the pressure that we feel. I mean, I look at our young, young generation coming up and, I'm burdened for them. I pray over them because I want them to see through it. Just to see beyond it and see the fallacy of it. And and I think a lot of them do.
Speaker 3:I do. I think they're beginning to realize this this right here, there's something deeper.
Speaker 2:Yeah. The people walking in darkness.
Speaker 3:Yeah. There's something about it.
Speaker 2:Have seen a great light.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And I love that quote from Comer, you know, just the it really is discipling people. And I even mentioned that in the message, you know, Katie, you and I have talked about that, how you're being discipled by the internet by strangers. And it's just, it's
Speaker 1:just so Yeah, Luke and I talked about that too. It has a name. There's a name for it. The idea that we're all following these internet sensational people we don't really know.
Speaker 2:Parasocial relationships?
Speaker 1:And well, no, you had a good name for it. It's in an article. Oh, don't I don't believe it. Now it's people that they not even be pastors. They're just people who are good on camera.
Speaker 2:Oh, gig evangelism. No. No. Wonder I didn't remember it.
Speaker 1:It ain't that catchy. We can come up with something better. But the idea that you like, maybe back up fifth when I was in college, YouTube came up whatever. Yeah. It's like we started being discipled by other pastors.
Speaker 1:Yeah. But they had a platform. That's how they were getting
Speaker 2:They had a church.
Speaker 1:They had some people.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Like the passion speakers, you know, Louie Giglio, John Piper, that was big when I was But now, it can be someone who is sitting in their living room with an iPhone, and they're just good communicators. They don't even have a people. So it's even worse.
Speaker 3:Exactly. Even They're have
Speaker 1:in community, they don't have accountability, they're just spouting what they heard, made up, thought about, and they get followings. And it's Oh, yeah. Bad.
Speaker 3:That's why I think that that we have a unique, awesome opportunity, and that is to be in community as the people of God together on this path of life together and swim upstream against this, this, you know, this unknown anonymous force.
Speaker 2:The idol. It's just all around
Speaker 3:us. I just I just sense that there's a hunger in people for that. And, and I think we you know, I was in a a meeting a while back where, we were actually planning the ascent meeting. And one of the questions we talked about was, what what can only humans do?
Speaker 2:What
Speaker 3:can only humans do? And to me that's that's where the church really has an an an an a way into people's lives because there's so many things that you can depend on, you know, technology to do for you, but there's some things that are just not going to happen.
Speaker 1:There's even things that only you know, Robert Creech, doctor Creech, taught us at Truett Pastoral Ministry? Yeah. He wrote a book, Pastoral Baptist Theology, something like that, but he talks about what the church can only do even in relationship to social workers or therapists because we're not, this could sound negative, mean it positive, bound by licensure. Like, can text somebody that I haven't seen in a while and say, I haven't seen you in a while. Are you doing okay?
Speaker 1:The therapist can't do that. They can't just cold call. Mhmm. There's They're they're bound by certain Mhmm. Expectations.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And so we have just such a unique role that we can play as a church to to love the world, transform it.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So out of respect for our wonderful CDC teachers who probably have about five minutes to go.
Speaker 1:Oh. Well one thing I wanna do And that's why We're sponsored by First Brothers Charlotte. We are. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. We are.
Speaker 1:And there's lots going on.
Speaker 2:Midweek.
Speaker 1:Can I Yeah? Let's talk about midweek.
Speaker 2:The big one.
Speaker 1:And I wanna talk about daily bible readings too.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:That goes into all this
Speaker 2:what we're talking about. So much.
Speaker 1:Midweek starts
Speaker 2:This week?
Speaker 1:Tuesday and tomorrow. Wednesday night Wednesday night.
Speaker 3:Fourteenth. This is Monday.
Speaker 1:And everything starts on Wednesday
Speaker 2:Mhmm. 6PM.
Speaker 1:6PM with I'll put a little asterisk. Care groups, there's like a meet and greet but then the session really, if you're wanting to do divorce care, grief share, it really starts next Wednesday the twenty first. But we'll be in the we'll be there, we'll be in the rooms but really the twenty first
Speaker 2:So we have Perspectives. If you're interested in that, it's not too late. Talk to me That's
Speaker 1:missional formation.
Speaker 2:The missional formation. That's me, Ashley, Sarah, ask us, we'll help you. It is free to our college students.
Speaker 1:We love that.
Speaker 2:If you are one of our college students, perspectives is free for you. We have bible heroes.
Speaker 1:For the first or fourth grade?
Speaker 2:No bible heroes. Sorry.
Speaker 1:That's k k.
Speaker 2:Pre k k. Yep. And then we have
Speaker 1:Deep dive.
Speaker 2:Deep dive for, first through fourth. Uh-huh. The bridge for fifth through sixth. Man, I'm doing better than my And
Speaker 1:you're describing everything is in our Children's Building.
Speaker 2:He's just Children's Building. Preschool Children's Building.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So
Speaker 2:good. Then, the break is our youth Wednesday night programming. That's in our student Building.
Speaker 1:That's seven through twelve.
Speaker 2:That's seven through twelve. Yep. We have care groups kicking off with a
Speaker 1:Yeah. Grief share, divorce care and then starting February 1 we're doing another depression support. Yep.
Speaker 2:And then, on February 11, Metroplex Women's Clinic is gonna host kind of a super moms thing which is a one time
Speaker 1:That's cool.
Speaker 2:Kind of crash course in single parenting for moms. So if that's something you actually have a passion for, I'd love to hear from you. So you can email me, we'll see who listens. But if you Yeah. Wanna support single moms in our community who are maybe new to parenting
Speaker 1:I'm just trying to do the very best.
Speaker 2:Or you've walked that journey before or you are a single mom and you feel like you could use some good resources. February 11. Love it.
Speaker 3:We were
Speaker 1:eighteen's Ash Wednesday. It's all coming quickly.
Speaker 2:It is all coming quickly. As What else is on Wednesday? We have, I think the Crochet cooking class corner. Crochet corner cooking class. Pastor's bible study during the day, games in the morning, grounds and games in the evening.
Speaker 1:Fbca.org/events should chronicle all that for us. And it's really fun and it's it's kicking off. I mean it's it's here.
Speaker 2:It's Wednesday.
Speaker 1:Let's do it. The other thing I wanted to make sure that y'all know about, doctor doctor Wells talked about it from the pulpit, but is that we're doing not weekly bible readings, but daily bible readings.
Speaker 3:That is correct.
Speaker 1:And Kirk Grice, in his new role as Mhmm. Captain of flourishing, associate pastor.
Speaker 2:I like captain flourishing. Personnel committee. Will you work on that?
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Associate pastor's good, but have
Speaker 3:you heard about captain Czar, maybe. I don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Flourishing
Speaker 2:Salvation Army job description?
Speaker 1:Whatever you wanna call that. He has, taken doctor Wiles daily bible reading scriptures and made them into more devotional guides. Is that what you'd call
Speaker 3:Exactly right. Every day.
Speaker 1:Every day. Good. Six days a
Speaker 3:week. So good.
Speaker 1:They are. And they're if you're looking for a way to engage with the scripture but also have some prayer prompts, some opening psalms, etcetera, Subscribe to them. Fbc.org/biblereadingswithans on the end, biblereadings, can get you there, but then you can get them an email subscription and get them they come to your inbox at 7AM. Yep. And it's a good way
Speaker 2:You don't have to read it at 7AM
Speaker 1:but rarely do I. But the, just I feel like it dovetails well with the, I joked, a phone is not, the phone is not the enemy but the way you use it certainly could.
Speaker 3:No doubt.
Speaker 1:Could and so you can use it good. He just dropped in your email Really good. With Kurt
Speaker 3:Staley Inconvenient. Yeah. Yeah. And it's indigenous to our church.
Speaker 2:And it
Speaker 1:will help you be disciples of Jesus. Mhmm. Intentional disciples. Intentional disciples of Jesus. It is it is but one Jesus
Speaker 3:is what we're
Speaker 1:doing. Really good method. The other would be to come live life in community
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:Of course. Service or mission. There's lots. We can help you on the Jesus way. We actually want to help you
Speaker 2:on Jesus way.
Speaker 1:We actually exist to help you on
Speaker 2:the We Jesus do. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So Amen and amen. What a great way to end.
Speaker 1:Well, there's lots we could talk about, but you're right. I do, want to honor our very lovely CDC workers and go get my kids on time.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I think everyone would appreciate that. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Thanks so much.
Speaker 2:So on that note, amen. And amen.
Speaker 1:Until next week. 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.