October 15, 2025 • 41 mins
Comfort promises a soft landing; contentment promises a deeper life. We open up about the small comforts we run to—food, screens, extra pillows—and then press into a bigger question: what actually produces joy that lasts?
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_03 (00:04):
Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the King of Kings
podcast, where we dive a littlebit deeper into our sermon
series and see what we aretaking Beyond Sunday.
My name is Dina Newsome, and Iam happy to have some of my
Millard coworkers with me today.
Go ahead and introduceyourselves.
SPEAKER_00 (00:20):
I'm Chad Kelly.
I am the student ministry internhere at King of Kings.
SPEAKER_01 (00:25):
And I am Seth Flick.
I am the campus director here atMillard Campus, King of Kings.
SPEAKER_03 (00:29):
Yeah, go Millard.
SPEAKER_01 (00:31):
Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (00:31):
All right.
So we are in week two of theGiving Challenge, and Pastor
Zach Zender is walking usthrough things.
And one of Zach's openingquestions this week inspired my
opening question today.
SPEAKER_01 (00:44):
We're ready.
SPEAKER_03 (00:45):
What's your favorite source of comfort?
SPEAKER_01 (00:49):
Food.
I don't even have to think aboutthat when it's a good thing.
SPEAKER_03 (00:52):
Is there a certain kind of food or just food in
general?
SPEAKER_01 (00:55):
Generally food.
There's a lot of eating thathappens at our house of like six
men.
SPEAKER_03 (01:01):
I bet.
I bet.
SPEAKER_01 (01:03):
But it's like I I'll make like homemade turkey noodle
soup.
And that's like a pretty goodcomfort food.
Or we'll make like mac andcheese.
And that's a really good.
I think anything with just anabundant amount of calories, and
then you just take a napafterward.
SPEAKER_02 (01:16):
That's comfortable.
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (01:18):
I'll go an abundant amount of sugar.
Uh any sweets is my comfort,comfort food.
Uh like in my homehouse, it wasalways like you go for the sweet
jelly over like just butter onyour on your toast or whatever
it'll be.
It has to be sweets.
So chocolate or anything of thatsorts.
SPEAKER_03 (01:33):
What's your like favorite sweet treat?
SPEAKER_00 (01:35):
Literally anything that's chocolate, like the
Trader Joe's peanut butter cups.
If you guys have ever had thoseor anyone listening, uh go to
Trader Joe's and get the peanutbutter cups.
They are awesome.
Better than Reese's.
Whoa.
SPEAKER_03 (01:45):
I'm not a peanut butter cup.
Damn, I'm so sorry.
Like I eat them occasionally.
I like peanut butter, but I'mnot like some people are nuts
out for peanut butter cups.
It's just not my thing.
I don't know.
I'm not a huge chocolate fan.
Like I like my chocolate insmall doses.
SPEAKER_00 (02:01):
I need it in large doses.
SPEAKER_03 (02:02):
I like fruity sweets.
That's why I like JollyRanchers.
SPEAKER_00 (02:05):
Yeah, one of my one of my favorite snacks recently
has just been like cutting up anapple and then dipping it in
peanut butter.
But my favorite part is after Ieat, like I justify my calories
with the peanut butter.
The last like two slices are forNutella.
I dip those in Nutella and thenI can have my sweet kick.
Just do it, man.
Just tell.
SPEAKER_01 (02:23):
Yeah.
So we were without cookies atour house, which rarely ever
happens.
So I baked cookies, butnonetheless, there was a time
period where there were nocookies.
So we had like an open jar ofchocolate frosting and an open
jar of peanut butter.
I can't tell you how many forktime marks are in both where
there's like cross-contaminationof peanut butter and frosting.
Like multiple people in ourhousehold did this just to get
(02:45):
the shipboard.
They know what they're talkingabout.
SPEAKER_00 (02:48):
Like in high school, after right before swim
practice, my like snack beforeswim practice was get the big
tub of cookie dough and justwould do like five or six big
spoonfuls, and that was my fuelfor practice.
SPEAKER_03 (02:58):
I used to get grounded because I would sneak
mom's cookie dough out of thefridge when she would leave it
in the fridge after she had madeit.
Um my favorite source of comfortis my bed.
Not for sleeping, but I love tosit in my bed like with my
laptop and work or write or reador you know, something like
that, or maybe with a cup ofcoffee, just to, I don't know,
(03:19):
just to snuggle, especially likeon a day like today, it's kind
of chilly and rainy today.
Just to sit in the bed and stackall the pillows up behind you.
SPEAKER_01 (03:27):
And I that's so, but see, this is different because
like your comfort inspires youto do stuff.
But like now there's this thingcalled bed rotting.
Yes.
Where like your your effort isto stay in bed and just be for
as long as you can.
Yeah.
I couldn't do that.
Like I would go crazy.
And it sounds like you wouldtoo.
SPEAKER_03 (03:46):
I I think I would go a little nuts.
Yeah.
I could do it maybe for a fewhours.
Like doing nothing.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (03:53):
How about you?
SPEAKER_00 (03:53):
Are you um bedrotter?
If I'm like, if I have my phone,I can bed rot for a while.
Oh, there you go.
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (03:59):
That's or scrolling something.
Like watching TV.
Right, right.
Yeah.
I am I'm a binge watcher of likeepisodes of old series.
Like I'll just pick a series andwatch it from the beginning.
Oh yeah.
Yeah, that's that I could dothat.
unknown (04:11):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (04:12):
All right.
So shifting gears to our sermonseries this week.
Week two, we're talking aboutgiving happily.
What are you guys taking beyondSunday?
What was the thing that spoke toyou most?
SPEAKER_01 (04:26):
I appreciated that he made the move to say your
best indicators of your futureactions are your past actions.
What I loved about that is Ithink there are some people that
are like, when I give, then Imight have joy.
But I think what the Lord isteaching in this is like, no,
the joy comes from the act ofdoing what I do.
(04:48):
And so, like, I am generous andI give.
And when you line up with me,that is when the rest of these
like extra good things on theside of like being happy about
giving, that's when this isgoing to occur.
Because I can tell you there'sbeen a lot of times where I have
given under compulsion or givenunder duress or given under a
responsibility.
(05:09):
And that's what started themovement.
But then once it actuallyhappened in that moment of
generosity, then somethingchanged in my heart.
And I was able to be like, oh,actually that was the right
thing to do.
And my heart wasn't in the rightplace.
So I think that's part of whatI'm taking is that like as you
move in line with the rhythms ofJesus' life and how he gave so
much, it's not like you get morejoy or happiness.
(05:33):
That's why you do these things.
It's as you are lining up closerto Jesus, you can't help but be
filled with fruits of thespirit.
And one of those gets to be joy.
unknown (05:43):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (05:44):
I think for me it was the phrase that Zach said
that when something good becomesthe best thing, then that then
becomes a bad thing.
Like how often in our lives dowe take what God gifted us for a
good purpose?
It's our it's our bed, it's ourphones, it's as many things that
have a good purpose.
It's frosting and peanut butter.
Exactly.
Right.
Right.
Yeah, thank you.
Um, but when that that goodthing becomes the best thing in
(06:04):
your life, then it then becomesthe bad thing.
And it did happens in my lifeall the time, yes, with with
peanut butter cups and withlaying in bed or I was telling
Seth.
SPEAKER_01 (06:12):
These are the worst things that have happened in
your life.
Fair enough.
SPEAKER_00 (06:14):
Fair enough.
Fair enough.
Well, I was talking about Sethearlier today.
Like uh Carolyn and I, my wifehas have been wanting to run the
last couple days.
And so like every night, thelast two nights, we've been
like, all right, tomorrowmorning we're gonna get up and
we're gonna run.
Right before you go to work,it's gonna be great.
And we've slept in every day.
And then we get up, it's like,oh, we gotta go to work.
Let's go.
Get ready.
And so like good things thatbeing sleep when it's
(06:35):
prioritized over health orspiritual habits or whatever
that may be for you, then it canbecome a bad thing.
And how often are we justcalled, or how often do we make
things about our comfort willbenefit us in the moment versus
looking for for the long-termeffect of our actions versus
just you?
SPEAKER_01 (06:53):
I love that perspective that you're bringing
to that because that really isthe devil's task.
That is our flesh's task.
And that is our flesh, the devilcan't create anything in and of
itself.
Like that's only God's job.
He is the only one that canactually create things, but we
can pervert the things that hecreated to be things that we
want to worship and we want tofollow and we want to prioritize
(07:13):
number one.
So the way that you talked aboutthat, I think is really wise for
people to take into effect oflike, wait a second, there's
something else that's happeninghere in my heart with this thing
that should be good or should beneutral, I think is what Zach
called money the week before,right?
And that it's not money that'sevil, it's the love of money
(07:33):
that is what you're gonna dowith it.
So there's a lot of wisdom, andI think what you just shared.
SPEAKER_03 (07:38):
I am obsessed with the hierarchy that he talked
about.
And I wish I would have writtendown the name of the thing.
There you go.
Yes.
Like I, the whole transcendencepart, then talking about how
your ultimate is when you'rehelping someone else reach their
ultimate.
Like that, that's totally myjam.
Like I have like mentored or,you know, coached or sponsored,
(08:04):
like been a Girl Scout troopleader or, you know, worked with
this group of girls in this clubor different things, you know,
volunteering in the community inways.
And when you see them step upand achieve the goals that
they're working for, like thatto me is such a high joy.
And to see that put into thenthis structure, I like I've just
been obsessed with that.
SPEAKER_01 (08:26):
Don't know what it's called, but uh Maslow's
hierarchy of needs is utilizedfor like those going into
education.
So I'm sure that Carolina'sprobably utilized a lot of the
information because some of it'svery, very helpful.
Like a kiddo is not gonna learnalgebra if they're hungry and
they don't have food or if theygo to a school where they're not
safe in their classroom.
So like in education or even indiscipleship, like when we're
(08:49):
working with students or evenadults, if they don't feel like
they're in a safe place, they'renot gonna be able to go even
further than that.
But I do like the fact that it'smore than just meeting these
physical needs.
Like to be be a full humanactually means you're leaning
into being one of God's createdbeings and doing what you're
supposed to be doing.
(09:10):
And so that doesn't mean justeating and sleeping and being
secure and looking aftercomforts like what those could
be.
But there's something higherthan that.
So yeah, I I love that idea.
SPEAKER_00 (09:21):
And it's not about yourself.
It's like there's somethingbeyond you that uh you can
serve.
That's the epitome of uh yourpersonhood, if you will, from
from that Maslov's perspective.
unknown (09:32):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (09:34):
So one of the opening questions and kind of
the subtitle of Zach's messagethis week was um comparing
contentment over comfort.
What are your thoughts on that?
Like, what is that comparison orchoosing contentment over
comfort?
What does that mean to you?
SPEAKER_00 (09:51):
I mean, we we do it every day, right?
Every single one of us choosescontentment over, or excuse me,
chooses comfort overcontentment.
Like in the in the in the uh daysix, if you if you were
following in in uh Zach's in thebook, um, you took the quiz and
like Carolyn and I, we took thequiz and we talked about it
afterwards.
She was like, What's the thingthat stuck out to you the most?
(10:13):
I was like, oh, like the thefear one.
Like I'll I'll choose to tochoose like to play into my fear
and to listen to my fear andlike not to talk to somebody on
Sunday or on throughout the weekand uh look at myself versus to
to look to someone else's needsand like step over that fear for
the benefit and the contentmentof serving somebody else because
(10:34):
the the fear is real and itkeeps me from from living the
calling that I that I have tolive.
SPEAKER_01 (10:41):
Yeah, and I mean it's it's not like Zach's just
making this up, like he pointedout multiple times.
I just take these teachings fromthe scriptures.
And Paul he has this reallygreat statement where he says,
godliness with contentment isgreat gain.
And he uses that, and he'stalking to Timothy about this.
He he uses that because othershave allowed godliness to give
(11:04):
them gain.
And so like they're getting aleg up because they they want to
look godly, they want to lookspiritual.
But he's like, No, godlinesswith contentment is great gain.
And that word that's beingutilized there uh is
self-sufficiency when it's usedmost of the time.
But in the context of thisspecific usage, it's God
(11:26):
sufficiency.
And so it's like, yes, you canhave this appearance of
godliness and it'll probablygain you some stuff, maybe
respect, maybe standing,whatever it is.
Uh but godliness withcontentment means that you're
okay with God running your lifeand that he's gonna be able to
take care of it.
Not your comfort, not what youwant to do, not where you want
to go up higher on your, youknow, like hierarchy of needs or
(11:49):
whatever it is.
But you know what?
If God is gonna go to thispoint, then that's okay.
And you can be okay with that.
SPEAKER_00 (11:55):
Yeah.
He's with you when he's hungrywhen you're hungry, and he's
with you when you'retranscendent, transcending.
SPEAKER_01 (11:59):
Yeah.
And how cool is that that Jesusknows what that feels like.
Like he fasted, he knows whathunger feels like.
Uh he was exhausted.
So he knows what you know,needing to nap, not bed rot, but
like needing to take a nap.
He knows what that feels like.
So it's not like he is deprivingsomething from you that he
wasn't willing to be deprived ofhimself to find the value in
(12:21):
having God as sufficient forlike lining up his will with the
Father's will.
And then it's a good practicefor us too.
I mean, to be able to say, thisis where Jesus wants me right
now.
It's not very comfortable.
But you look at the the wholetestimony of scripture, whether
it's an old testament prophet ora new testament evangelist, I
would venture to say zero ofthem were comfortable.
SPEAKER_02 (12:43):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (12:43):
Uh-huh.
Um I'm reading through Ezekielright now, and I just finished
Jeremiah.
Jeremiah had it rough.
Like people talk about Jobhaving it bad.
Jeremiah had to cook his foodover excrement.
Like in front of people.
SPEAKER_03 (12:59):
And we don't do that Bible story in kids' ministry.
SPEAKER_01 (13:03):
You don't.
But at middle school we do.
But I guess I'm bringing that upbecause, like, whether it's
Jeremiah or Ezekiel, God isactually intentionally exposing
them to uncomfortablecircumstances because God's
people had got too comfortablein the lives that they were
living.
And he needed them to see thatyou can live a life without
those comforts.
In fact, I'm telling this guy tolive his life without all of
(13:26):
these comforts.
Like there's a portion of time,a really long period of time.
It's like 390 days or somethingthat Jeremiah has to lay on his
side, bound in ropes, uh, as anillustration.
Now, that doesn't soundcomfortable to me at all.
There's that's not bed rot,that's just regular rotting.
SPEAKER_02 (13:40):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (13:41):
Uh so I mean, you look at all of these examples in
the scripture, and I reallycan't find many where the Lord
is like, you know, it'd be greatif you took an extra pillow with
you, you know, so that you feelphysically more comfortable.
Most of the time when he's usingthe word for comfort, he's using
that in terms of like aftersomething really bad has
(14:03):
happened, and he's letting youknow that in a transcendent
sense, he's going to be therefor you.
And that doesn't necessarilymean you're going to have that
need met, therefore you can becomfortable.
It's be comfortable resting inme.
And I think that's kind of likea much deeper understanding of
what it's like to be human.
And it redefines what comfort islike and it redefines what
(14:25):
contentment is.
And it really puts it as a muchhigher level need than comfort.
SPEAKER_03 (14:32):
Yeah.
Um, I just when he was talkingabout the whole piece of that, I
just kept thinking about thetimes in my life where I was
content but not comfortable.
And kind of like almost at alittle attaboy, you know, that I
could think of multiple oneswhere I remember, and the first
one that came to mind is in themidst of my divorce, where
things were, I didn't know whatwas happening.
(14:53):
I, my heart was breaking forwhat my kids were going through,
you know, just this life change.
Um, but I was content because Iknew that both myself and my
ex-husband had the best interestof our kids in mind.
Um, we were not being hatefuland, you know, awful to each
other, um, that we were gonnafind whatever solution it was.
(15:15):
Um, but it wasn't comfortable atall.
Um, but I just I I really stillstarted going through my life
and thinking of the times wherethat wasn't comfortable at all,
but I was finding contentment.
And I think that that comes frommy sense of trust in God.
I don't think if I had adifferent relationship with
Jesus or if I didn't have arelationship with Jesus, that I
(15:37):
would have found that.
I don't know if I could havefound that because I just knew
that he was watching out for meno matter what the uncomfortable
was in the moment.
unknown (15:48):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (15:48):
Well, how many times do followers of Jesus or new
believers become Christianbecause they hear a gospel that
will give them something or agospel that will take away their
pains and their sorrows?
Like, no, Jesus promises in thisworld you will have trouble, but
but take heart, because he'sovercome the world.
And I think that's the key tobeing a true Christian, to being
a healthy Christian, if youwill, to like Paul says, to be
(16:11):
content in all circumstances.
He's knows he knows what it isto have much and he knows what
it is to be in need.
And what if that's the the truemark of a Christian to when you
have much and when you havelittle, when life's going really
well and when life's hard, whenyou're in a when you're in a
trench of some sort, to to trustthat God's got it and to trust
that he's with you in thatmoment.
(16:32):
Not that he's gonna give you allthe answers, not that he's gonna
uh fix your situation, not thathe can't, because he he might,
but not not being a follower ofJesus to for the benefit of what
he could give you.
And it's like giving is a greatthing, and uh giving can also be
a bad thing if it's for thebenefit of yourself, but but
(16:55):
solely giving because God callsus to give and trusting that the
gifts that we give will be usedhow he needs them to be used.
SPEAKER_03 (17:05):
So Zach kind of walked us through three world
lies and three contradictingJesus truths.
So world lie number one is themore you have, the happier you
will be.
And the Jesus truth thatcontradicts that is the more you
give, the happier you will be.
How did those hit you?
(17:27):
I really um when he was talkingabout the uh the more you have,
the happier you'll be, he wastalking about income-based
happiness and how there's likethis magic number you can input
your zip code, and there's thismagic number of where you are
comfortable to use that word,you know, and that there is a
level of increase of happinessif you're moving from poverty to
like middle income.
(17:48):
But he used the phrase the joycurve plateau plateaus.
And I was like, oh, yep, yep.
Like I can remember when we madevery little thinking, oh gosh,
if we ever get to this mark,everything's gonna be covered
and it'll be so much easier.
And then I remember being pastthat mark and thinking, wow,
this is still really a struggle.
(18:09):
I don't really feel comfortableor happy or like when we get to
this mark, you know, but thereis a level of where then there's
no more joy coming from that.
It's just um what you do with itthat gives you the joy.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (18:27):
What I appreciated about when he hit this like myth
versus the truth.
Can you restate him again?
SPEAKER_03 (18:33):
Uh-huh.
So the lie is the more you have,the happier you'll be.
And Jesus' truth is the more yougive, the happier you will be.
SPEAKER_01 (18:41):
Yeah, I cannot like catalog a time in my life when I
had so much of something thatits increase made me happier.
Like there I think you and Iwere talking about this like a
couple of weeks ago when we weretalking about ministry and how
there are some people that lookat ministry and they're like,
oh, must be nice.
We're at X amount of people inour ministry and there's not a
(19:02):
lot.
But if we had this amount ofpeople, then we would be, you
know, like successful.
But from that perspective, whatyou don't realize is you have
just as many stressors on theother side of like having the
opportunity to steward morepeople means that there's more
people's needs that you try tomeet.
And so, like, even a good thinglike ministry doesn't always
(19:24):
convert to like once you meetthis magical threshold, then
everyone is happy and like therearen't any issues to have to
kind of like meet or deal with,or like all the conflicts go
away.
And so, yeah, I can't reallythink of a time when I had so
much of something that everytime I got more of it, it made
me even happier.
Like you have extra food.
(19:45):
Well, that's fine, but you haveto figure out something to do
with it because it's gonna gobad real fast.
Even Trader Joe's peanut buttercups.
SPEAKER_00 (19:51):
They might last longer than I'm like, they last
forever.
SPEAKER_01 (19:53):
Come on, they might last a little bit longer than
lettuce.
SPEAKER_02 (19:55):
You could freeze them.
SPEAKER_00 (19:56):
They'll keep a little bit more people.
They're so good frozen.
Well, like more money, moreproblems.
SPEAKER_01 (20:01):
Like, yeah, it's it's not like the This is my
favorite part of we watched thevideo for the giving challenge.
Uh huh.
And I had the blessing to beable to do the Spanish-speaking
group on Wednesday, and thewhole thing is Spanish, and it's
Zach's voice kind of in Spanishuntil he gets to that point.
Then he's like, uh uh asnotorious B I C B I G blah.
(20:25):
And then it was like, Mo money,mo problems.
And so just stopped in themiddle for like this English
quote, which could have beentranslated.
But anyways, I didn't mean tointerrupt, but I just I love
that.
SPEAKER_00 (20:36):
Sorry, I was trying to translate in my head.
I don't speak Spanish.
Um yeah, more money, moreproblems.
Like what what what is or toanother just go to scripture?
Uh, to what is much is given,much will be required.
Um more doesn't equal a fix.
Um more will show you the thetrue things beneath the issue,
if you will.
(20:56):
Um I I think Zach said in a in apast message that the care your
character flaws will be shownwhen you're given more power,
more responsibility.
Um I think that's the same withwith money.
If you struggle to give when youhave little, you're gonna
struggle to give when you havemuch.
Um and uh I may be jumping alittle ahead, but like I'll give
(21:21):
someday, right?
You're if if you're saying thatnow, it'll be much harder to
give someday.
The challenge is what's Godcalling you to do right now?
Not when you have enough.
Um, because uh we're not calledto do something when we have a
prep enough enough preparationfor it.
Um, God often uses the weak, heoften uses the poor, he uses
(21:43):
those uh poor in spirit, he usesthose who are poor in morality
oftentimes.
And that's uh defines all of usas well.
So Jesus uses those who don'thave what they think they need,
and he can use each and everyone of you guys too.
SPEAKER_03 (22:00):
This is also where Zach brought up Acts 2035, which
I just think is a killer versefor this whole, not just the
book, but you know, especiallythis week, it is more blessed to
give than to receive.
And how many times that isquoted in um things that are
outside of the church, you know.
Um all right, world lie numbertwo, look out for number one,
(22:20):
but Jesus truth number two, lookout for others first.
How did those speak to you?
SPEAKER_01 (22:28):
I mean, it it really is biblical.
What are the greatestcommandments?
Well, he summarizes them loveGod and love others.
And so it doesn't say, well,first take care of yourself,
then love God, then love others.
No, like the greatest thing isto love God and everything else
can fall into place after that.
And once you have theopportunity for life to fall
into place, then everything willbe perfect.
(22:49):
But yeah, that's not the case.
So love God, love others, andthe Lord will take care of you
in some way, shape, or form.
And I think that's what like youguys were talking about this
earlier, and that is like yourincome, your life, all of these
things that you're you'repursuing, uh those things all
(23:10):
actually can be taken away.
Like you had shared a reallypersonal story about your
marriage.
Well, some people would say,once I have a marriage, then I
can be happy with the Lord and Ican be content with the Lord.
But that marriage could not workout and it could be taken away.
So what does that mean aboutyour relationship with the Lord?
Your relationship with the Lordthen is dependent upon your your
(23:31):
feelings with a marriage.
And with the same thing with me,like my feelings with the Lord,
if I were to say, uhfinancially, I need to secure
what I need for my family, andthen I'll be cool with Jesus.
But the fact of the matter is,all of that can be taken away.
Well then what's my saying withJesus?
And so uh I think thecontentment aspect plays into
(23:55):
this as well, and that is Ithink our calling is just to be
content with Jesus, period, andeverything else is gravy.
SPEAKER_00 (24:04):
Yeah, that was great.
SPEAKER_03 (24:06):
Ditto.
Yeah, amen.
Right.
Um, I really liked where Zachbrought up here the story of the
woman at the well, uh, whichjust to me is so many little
barriers were crossed.
This was a man talking to awoman who was in a place she
shouldn't be, who uh, you know,had this bad reputation.
But he stopped.
(24:27):
And I think Zach said this islike the longest recorded
conversation in scripture of himwith uh with, and I just think,
wow, you know what I mean?
The point that Zach reallybrought up is that Jesus always
has time for you.
Like there's no, you don't haveto feel like you don't have time
(24:47):
because God always has time foryou.
Um, and he's willing to crossthose barriers for your needs.
And so then how can we be likehim in doing that for others
that we meet?
SPEAKER_00 (24:59):
Well, even I think the I sorry, I didn't say
anything earlier because I wasjust enamored by what Seth was
saying.
I forgot to think of somethingto come up with.
Um but I I I God calls us to behappy.
Uh He uses the word blessed allthe times in the Beatitudes.
Uh I I think comfort isn't a badthing.
Like you said in the beginningof the message, it looking out
(25:22):
for well.
It's a good thing that can bebecome can often be the best
thing that turns into a badthing.
And we can treat comfort likeit's this evil thing.
Like he calls you to becomfortable, but isn't serving
others comfortable?
And and it's comfortable not inthe sense that we define it as
(25:44):
comfortable because ourdefinition of comfortable is way
off.
But Jesus, if he wanted to beserving himself, I don't think
that would have been comfortablefor Jesus to serve himself
because that's not who he is.
And we're all broken, so we'reall gonna try and serve
ourselves.
But what if true comfort withChrist isn't serving serving
(26:04):
yourself all the time, to havemore peanut butter cups, to be
in bed all the time?
What if true comfort that thatChrist is calling us to is to be
with with others, like like Zachtalked about in this point.
SPEAKER_01 (26:16):
I actually went back into the live or into the um
YouTube video for that point.
And what's interesting is thatwasn't even like necessarily the
main point of that section.
It was just like this you couldtell that Zach's been in the
Word long enough where likesomething like that impacted him
enough where he was prompted tosay it by the spirit.
(26:38):
But it didn't necessarily itdidn't have to be in there.
But I thought that that was soimpactful that like I I I need
to spend more time with thatthought of like I don't know,
there's a lot of times where I'mlike, God doesn't need to care
about me.
And so therefore, if he doesn'tneed to, maybe he doesn't.
And and that's not to say like Idon't think he's caring enough.
(26:58):
It's just I don't think I'mworthy of that care for most of
my life, like most of my adultlife.
Whenever you struggle withinadequacy, you believe you're
not worthy of anybody's care,let alone the God of the
universe who's like the mostimportant being in all of
everything.
And so, you know, like to thinkabout Jesus went out of his way
to spend as much time aspossible with this woman as not
(27:20):
what he needed, but what sheneeded.
And I that hit me pretty hard.
Like I had to go back again andlisten to it, just that little
part because it was impactful.
So thank you for bringing it up.
SPEAKER_03 (27:30):
Yeah.
Um, that just made me think of afew weeks ago.
Zach was a guest here, and itwas when you were preaching, and
um, we were talking aboutturning things over to God.
And I can't even remember nowwhich week it was or what point.
Um, and Zach was asking thequestion, why don't we let go of
things more to God?
And my response was sometimes Ithink they're too small for him.
(27:52):
And that's not true at all.
Um, because he he always hastime for me, no matter what
state I'm in.
But uh it's just us knowing thathe's always there and being able
to turn that, have that trustthat he is and that we can talk
to him about anything, even thethings we think may be too petty
or insignificant.
(28:14):
All right.
World line number three, I'llgive someday.
And Jesus truth number three, Ican give now.
So this, the whole I'll givesomeday really made me think of
you guys weren't here, but Zachdid an Easter message a year, a
year ago, Easter, I think itwas, um, that was one day win.
(28:34):
And it was talking about one daywin W-H-E-N, that people talk
about, oh, I'm gonna go tochurch one day win, or you know,
one day when I'm married, I'llbe happy.
One day when I have kids, I'lldo this.
One day when I uh, you know,have a better job, I'll go back
to school.
One day, you know, all thesedreams that we are goals that we
set to um for ourselves that maynever come to fruition.
(28:58):
And then he talked aboutchanging those into one day
wins, W-I-N-S.
So some of our listeners mayremember that series.
And as soon as he said, I'llgive someday, I thought of that.
Oh yeah, one day when my incomeis big enough, then I can give a
portion to the church.
And that's just so like gutpunch because I've been in those
(29:18):
shoes where I've I've not hadmuch money and not felt like
this is I don't have this togive away.
But um then I think of the storyof the widow's might or just any
giving.
And it's not always just money,it is time and treasures and
your talents.
Um, and so I just I really likedthat idea of oh, this is this
(29:40):
I'll give someday.
Yeah, that's not gonna be ever.
It has to be now.
It can be now.
SPEAKER_01 (29:47):
Isn't it interesting how we deal with like these
super nebulous uh words thatmake us feel comfortable?
Like uh someday is one of them,but my other favorite is
somebody.
So, like, who's gonna go?
Out and talk to the poor.
Somebody will.
Like, yeah.
Who's going to go spread thegospel?
Somebody will.
And then until you realize,like, no, that somebody is me.
(30:08):
Like that someday is today.
Uh, all those nebulous ideaslike that give us comfort
because we feel good enough.
We've pacified ourselves to belike, yes, at some point I'm
gonna do that thing that I knowI should do.
But that that like perfectscenario is never gonna show up
where we would allow thatsomeday to be today until
somebody else, that is Jesus inthe scriptures, comes to us and
(30:30):
says, No, that somebody is you,that someday is now, let's go.
And so, you know, like this isthe kind of thing that helps
move us into that rightdirection of ownership and
agency because he's called us tothat.
SPEAKER_00 (30:43):
You know, that's it's great.
And it's like at what point areyou gonna take that action
towards your ideal?
Because it and maybe it's morecomfortable to just have it be
an ideal far off in the distancethat one day I'll do this,
someday, or somebody will dothis for me.
But but at what point doesrubber meet the road and
something's gotta be done?
Or else you're gonna be end up80 years old and being like, oh,
(31:06):
one day, well, one day, one day,one day, one one more day might
not come.
So when are you gonna go runningagain with Caroline?
One day.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (31:16):
One day when.
SPEAKER_00 (31:17):
Exactly.
And like what would it look likefor whatever your ideal is,
whatever you you see God callingyou to in the moment to take one
step towards that?
One step towards the the givingmoment or the what whatever you
believe God's calling you to,what's one thing you could take
a step towards today?
Not tomorrow, not next week,today.
SPEAKER_03 (31:39):
This is where he pointed out what you brought out
before that past behavior ismore reliable than stated
intentions.
And that I think is the thing wefight so often of these ideas.
Yep, we're gonna do that later.
But our past behavior is soindicative of what we're gonna
do tomorrow and probably thetomorrow after that, and maybe
the next tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01 (32:00):
But I think that's the really interesting thing
about responding to God's callis that we're in a state of
comfort and like homeostasis.
And every cell in our body wantsto get back to homeostasis.
Like that's we're fightingagainst entropy, like in terms
of like the laws of theuniverse.
And so our cells are constantlytrying to fight to get back to
midline.
(32:21):
And once we step out of that,just like in circumstances,
okay, we do something different,and we realize that, you know,
like maybe that's not asuncomfortable as I thought it
was gonna be.
But then I get comfortable inthat uncomfortable area, and so
it just goes all the way likethat.
Feeling goes back to midlineagain.
And it's almost like you've gotto have this challenge to be
(32:44):
brought out of yourself over andover and over again, because
your new uncomfortable willbecome your comfortable very
quickly, and you can get stuckthere just as easily in the one
step ahead if you if there isn'tanother step that's gonna be
after that.
Well, how beautiful dailydialing dying the self.
SPEAKER_00 (33:02):
Right.
How beautiful like that ourminds are moldable and that over
time you can see a change.
I like to like to go to thepoint of like pushing yourself
to to failure, if you will, oralways being uncomfortable.
I remember a story of some aninfluencer, they always they
they sought failure for a monthor a hundred days or something
like that.
And like one day it would belike they'd go to McDonald's and
ask for a cheeseburger refill.
(33:23):
Like little little things likethat that they're gonna say no
to.
But he found out that sometimespeople actually said yes.
I love that series.
SPEAKER_01 (33:31):
Uh-huh.
Now I know there's multiple, butthere's one of the guys who
actually wrote a book, I thinkit was called Rejection Proof.
Yeah.
And he one time, like in thiswhole series, he goes up to a
pilot and he's like, Hey, couldI fly your plane?
And the dude was like, Have youever flown a plane before?
He's like, No.
And the guy's like, All right,let's try it.
There's another title.
That's awesome.
Did you see the video where hehe's just carrying a soccer ball
(33:54):
and he's got nets in his handand he walks up to some random
house and he goes, Can I kicksoccer in your backyard?
And this grown man is like,sure, and I'll do it with you.
Like it is a great series oflike just perpetually putting
yourself out there.
SPEAKER_00 (34:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (34:09):
And it's first of all, the things that you fear
aren't gonna usually be what youthink it's gonna be.
Uh-huh.
But you also grow quite a bitand you learn a lot about people
and you get to serve a lot ofpeople when you know that that's
what's what's gonna happen.
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (34:22):
Well, well, the crux of this whole challenge is like
doing hard things regularly.
Giving is hard because whereyour treasure is, your heart
will be also.
And giving of your heart, ifyou're not a giving person in
the moment, is hard.
You're gonna do hard things.
What's a hard thing you could dotoday?
Take it back to being practical.
The the muscle's not gonnastretch itself.
(34:44):
Um, I'm not gonna get better atrunning if I don't start
running.
Something's gotta happen todayand not not next week again, not
not pushing off back, back andback, but today.
SPEAKER_01 (34:57):
So I think that's like the the gauntlet throwdown
for podcast listeners right nowis like, what are you gonna do
when this podcast is over that'sgonna connect you further with
Jesus and get you out ofcomfort?
SPEAKER_00 (35:08):
Craig Finkey uh wrote a book, Joining Jesus.
He wrote many books like that.
And in one of those books, uh,it says, don't read another book
about spiritual spirituality.
Live out the spirituality thatyou're reading about.
Because another book is notgoing to help you as much as you
think, because you gotta go anddo it.
You gotta go join Jesus on hismission.
And you gotta you gotta give.
(35:30):
You can't keep talking about itor reading more books about it,
getting more, more wisdom aboutit, or more knowledge, if you
will, because wisdom is appliedknowledge.
You gotta apply the knowledgeyou got.
unknown (35:40):
Yep.
SPEAKER_03 (35:41):
Okay, so that kind of wraps things up with a story
of Ryan Trahan, who's aninfluencer who did the penny
challenge and kind of did apenny a day to get across the
country to go meet Mr.
Beast.
How did that guy how did thathit you?
SPEAKER_00 (35:56):
Uh last uh January, Caroline and I ran a half
marathon and we ran our halfmarathon with Ryan Trahan.
unknown (36:02):
Really?
SPEAKER_00 (36:02):
We didn't see him at all, but we were ran at the same
time.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (36:08):
My Ryan Trahan was at a um my son Christian went to
DECA Internationals and RyanTrahan was there presenting, and
so he got to meet him briefly,like in a large group.
But yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (36:21):
That's cool.
No, actually I watched both ofthose series with my boys uh for
several reasons, but like Ithink them seeing kindness of
strangers, but also like beingcreative and uh just putting
yourself out there, I think is aa regular challenge outside of
comfort.
And both of those challenges hadhim do that.
(36:42):
And then they had other funthings too that we didn't get to
cover in the sermon, like thegreat reset.
So if somebody gave a certainamount, it like would reset his
transportation back to nothing.
Or or like maybe he had a nicecar and the reset would put him
back to like having to ride abike or whatever it would be, or
yeah, or somebody would donate acertain amount, like lump sum to
(37:04):
St.
Jude's or wherever, like FeedingAmerica was the first one.
And it would put his amount forthe day back to like a penny at
that point.
So I mean, it was just reallyneat to see like he was not
comfortable and he had toovercome that.
And I don't know, I thought itwas good for my boys to see
something like that too.
SPEAKER_00 (37:23):
Yeah, one of the ones for the the 50 states in 50
days, 50 house and 50 dayschallenge was if a certain
amount was donated, he had toeat a vegetable.
He hates vegetables.
That is one of the things hedespises the most in the world.
SPEAKER_01 (37:34):
Um wasn't there one where like if he got a certain
amount donated, he'd have to geta tattoo of someone else's
choosing.
Uh-huh.
Yeah.
That's dangerous.
SPEAKER_00 (37:41):
Oh, yeah.
It's probably a vegetable ofsome sort.
Probably.
Right.
Um but how how cool is it thatthere's influencers that have
such influence on our everybodyin the world and they're coming
to Christ.
Like, praise God for his wife,who through him is able to
influence so many people for thegospel.
(38:01):
Uh, and it's great that it'slike for students' perspective
specifically, that students thatare watching him can get to see
a person with influence, withpower, responsibility, whatever
it may be, and that loves Jesusand is doing it in a
God-honoring way and is doing itfor the benefit of others beyond
(38:22):
the benefit of themselves.
There's so many influencers thatare just there to get more money
and um like just do it all forthemselves, get the nicest car,
but it's cool.
It's a it's amazing that thatRyan is out here to benefit not
himself, but others.
So, Ryan, if you're listening,we would love to have you as
students.
Just uh want to throw it outthere.
SPEAKER_01 (38:43):
Uh yes, also, Ryan, if you're listening, we'll have
a series, I believe, in thespring called Influencers.
And so it'd be perfect if youjust wanted to come and talk
about your faith a little bit.
That's fine.
Yeah, maybe you'll re-rankNebraska's.
I'm sure it's a regularlistener.
SPEAKER_00 (38:56):
Chad at King of Kings is my email.
Just C H A D E.
SPEAKER_03 (39:01):
All right.
As we wrap up today, do you guyshave any final takeaways from
this message?
SPEAKER_00 (39:07):
It just this the blessing of giving.
Every time I've given, whetherit's money, time, um, the
benefit for somebody else, I'vewalked away uh feeling content
in my calling to Christ, to loveothers and to put others before
myself.
SPEAKER_01 (39:24):
I would say the same thing because the more you give
away, the more you realize youare called to trust in Jesus for
everything in your life.
And I think churchy folks likemyself uh focus a lot on, yeah,
Jesus is so all sufficient forgrace.
But then when it comes to payingmy bills, that's where I'm like,
oh, I don't, I don't know.
(39:44):
Uh but when you give, you'reactually just saying, Yeah,
Lord's gonna take care of me.
He's given me a sound mind totry to figure this all out, but
he also has blessed me in ways Ican't even imagine that are
gonna support my family.
So yeah, kind of along the samelines.
How about you, Dino?
SPEAKER_03 (40:00):
I really like the idea that Zach talked about.
Generosity changes ourneurochemistry and the
biological piece of that becauseI think of how God designed us.
And now, like this isconfirmation that He designed us
for our like our brainwaves tochange and dopamine to be
released and good things tohappen when we're generous.
(40:22):
I mean, how can you argue thatthat's not what he wants for us?
SPEAKER_00 (40:25):
Right.
Yeah.
Well, and if if generosity isfocusing on others in a world
where we can look at our blackmirror and look at ourselves all
of the time, no wonder anxietyis spiking, no wonder fear and
all these negative reactions tofocusing on yourself too much.
Depression is literally worryingabout yourself too much.
And no wonder we're dealing withthat right now.
(40:49):
So the antidote for for thesethings is to focus on others and
to to love those that are aroundyou.
unknown (40:57):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (40:58):
Well, thank you guys so much for being here.
We are gonna talk about weekthree next week.
And until
Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the King of Kings
podcast, where we dive a littlebit deeper into our sermon
series and see what we aretaking Beyond Sunday.
My name is Dina Newsome, and Iam happy to have some of my
Millard coworkers with me today.
Go ahead and introduceyourselves.
SPEAKER_00 (00:20):
I'm Chad Kelly.
I am the student ministry internhere at King of Kings.
SPEAKER_01 (00:25):
And I am Seth Flick.
I am the campus director here atMillard Campus, King of Kings.
SPEAKER_03 (00:29):
Yeah, go Millard.
SPEAKER_01 (00:31):
Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (00:31):
All right.
So we are in week two of theGiving Challenge, and Pastor
Zach Zender is walking usthrough things.
And one of Zach's openingquestions this week inspired my
opening question today.
SPEAKER_01 (00:44):
We're ready.
SPEAKER_03 (00:45):
What's your favorite source of comfort?
SPEAKER_01 (00:49):
Food.
I don't even have to think aboutthat when it's a good thing.
SPEAKER_03 (00:52):
Is there a certain kind of food or just food in
general?
SPEAKER_01 (00:55):
Generally food.
There's a lot of eating thathappens at our house of like six
men.
SPEAKER_03 (01:01):
I bet.
I bet.
SPEAKER_01 (01:03):
But it's like I I'll make like homemade turkey noodle
soup.
And that's like a pretty goodcomfort food.
Or we'll make like mac andcheese.
And that's a really good.
I think anything with just anabundant amount of calories, and
then you just take a napafterward.
SPEAKER_02 (01:16):
That's comfortable.
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (01:18):
I'll go an abundant amount of sugar.
Uh any sweets is my comfort,comfort food.
Uh like in my homehouse, it wasalways like you go for the sweet
jelly over like just butter onyour on your toast or whatever
it'll be.
It has to be sweets.
So chocolate or anything of thatsorts.
SPEAKER_03 (01:33):
What's your like favorite sweet treat?
SPEAKER_00 (01:35):
Literally anything that's chocolate, like the
Trader Joe's peanut butter cups.
If you guys have ever had thoseor anyone listening, uh go to
Trader Joe's and get the peanutbutter cups.
They are awesome.
Better than Reese's.
Whoa.
SPEAKER_03 (01:45):
I'm not a peanut butter cup.
Damn, I'm so sorry.
Like I eat them occasionally.
I like peanut butter, but I'mnot like some people are nuts
out for peanut butter cups.
It's just not my thing.
I don't know.
I'm not a huge chocolate fan.
Like I like my chocolate insmall doses.
SPEAKER_00 (02:01):
I need it in large doses.
SPEAKER_03 (02:02):
I like fruity sweets.
That's why I like JollyRanchers.
SPEAKER_00 (02:05):
Yeah, one of my one of my favorite snacks recently
has just been like cutting up anapple and then dipping it in
peanut butter.
But my favorite part is after Ieat, like I justify my calories
with the peanut butter.
The last like two slices are forNutella.
I dip those in Nutella and thenI can have my sweet kick.
Just do it, man.
Just tell.
SPEAKER_01 (02:23):
Yeah.
So we were without cookies atour house, which rarely ever
happens.
So I baked cookies, butnonetheless, there was a time
period where there were nocookies.
So we had like an open jar ofchocolate frosting and an open
jar of peanut butter.
I can't tell you how many forktime marks are in both where
there's like cross-contaminationof peanut butter and frosting.
Like multiple people in ourhousehold did this just to get
(02:45):
the shipboard.
They know what they're talkingabout.
SPEAKER_00 (02:48):
Like in high school, after right before swim
practice, my like snack beforeswim practice was get the big
tub of cookie dough and justwould do like five or six big
spoonfuls, and that was my fuelfor practice.
SPEAKER_03 (02:58):
I used to get grounded because I would sneak
mom's cookie dough out of thefridge when she would leave it
in the fridge after she had madeit.
Um my favorite source of comfortis my bed.
Not for sleeping, but I love tosit in my bed like with my
laptop and work or write or reador you know, something like
that, or maybe with a cup ofcoffee, just to, I don't know,
(03:19):
just to snuggle, especially likeon a day like today, it's kind
of chilly and rainy today.
Just to sit in the bed and stackall the pillows up behind you.
SPEAKER_01 (03:27):
And I that's so, but see, this is different because
like your comfort inspires youto do stuff.
But like now there's this thingcalled bed rotting.
Yes.
Where like your your effort isto stay in bed and just be for
as long as you can.
Yeah.
I couldn't do that.
Like I would go crazy.
And it sounds like you wouldtoo.
SPEAKER_03 (03:46):
I I think I would go a little nuts.
Yeah.
I could do it maybe for a fewhours.
Like doing nothing.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (03:53):
How about you?
SPEAKER_00 (03:53):
Are you um bedrotter?
If I'm like, if I have my phone,I can bed rot for a while.
Oh, there you go.
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (03:59):
That's or scrolling something.
Like watching TV.
Right, right.
Yeah.
I am I'm a binge watcher of likeepisodes of old series.
Like I'll just pick a series andwatch it from the beginning.
Oh yeah.
Yeah, that's that I could dothat.
unknown (04:11):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (04:12):
All right.
So shifting gears to our sermonseries this week.
Week two, we're talking aboutgiving happily.
What are you guys taking beyondSunday?
What was the thing that spoke toyou most?
SPEAKER_01 (04:26):
I appreciated that he made the move to say your
best indicators of your futureactions are your past actions.
What I loved about that is Ithink there are some people that
are like, when I give, then Imight have joy.
But I think what the Lord isteaching in this is like, no,
the joy comes from the act ofdoing what I do.
(04:48):
And so, like, I am generous andI give.
And when you line up with me,that is when the rest of these
like extra good things on theside of like being happy about
giving, that's when this isgoing to occur.
Because I can tell you there'sbeen a lot of times where I have
given under compulsion or givenunder duress or given under a
responsibility.
(05:09):
And that's what started themovement.
But then once it actuallyhappened in that moment of
generosity, then somethingchanged in my heart.
And I was able to be like, oh,actually that was the right
thing to do.
And my heart wasn't in the rightplace.
So I think that's part of whatI'm taking is that like as you
move in line with the rhythms ofJesus' life and how he gave so
much, it's not like you get morejoy or happiness.
(05:33):
That's why you do these things.
It's as you are lining up closerto Jesus, you can't help but be
filled with fruits of thespirit.
And one of those gets to be joy.
unknown (05:43):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (05:44):
I think for me it was the phrase that Zach said
that when something good becomesthe best thing, then that then
becomes a bad thing.
Like how often in our lives dowe take what God gifted us for a
good purpose?
It's our it's our bed, it's ourphones, it's as many things that
have a good purpose.
It's frosting and peanut butter.
Exactly.
Right.
Right.
Yeah, thank you.
Um, but when that that goodthing becomes the best thing in
(06:04):
your life, then it then becomesthe bad thing.
And it did happens in my lifeall the time, yes, with with
peanut butter cups and withlaying in bed or I was telling
Seth.
SPEAKER_01 (06:12):
These are the worst things that have happened in
your life.
Fair enough.
SPEAKER_00 (06:14):
Fair enough.
Fair enough.
Well, I was talking about Sethearlier today.
Like uh Carolyn and I, my wifehas have been wanting to run the
last couple days.
And so like every night, thelast two nights, we've been
like, all right, tomorrowmorning we're gonna get up and
we're gonna run.
Right before you go to work,it's gonna be great.
And we've slept in every day.
And then we get up, it's like,oh, we gotta go to work.
Let's go.
Get ready.
And so like good things thatbeing sleep when it's
(06:35):
prioritized over health orspiritual habits or whatever
that may be for you, then it canbecome a bad thing.
And how often are we justcalled, or how often do we make
things about our comfort willbenefit us in the moment versus
looking for for the long-termeffect of our actions versus
just you?
SPEAKER_01 (06:53):
I love that perspective that you're bringing
to that because that really isthe devil's task.
That is our flesh's task.
And that is our flesh, the devilcan't create anything in and of
itself.
Like that's only God's job.
He is the only one that canactually create things, but we
can pervert the things that hecreated to be things that we
want to worship and we want tofollow and we want to prioritize
(07:13):
number one.
So the way that you talked aboutthat, I think is really wise for
people to take into effect oflike, wait a second, there's
something else that's happeninghere in my heart with this thing
that should be good or should beneutral, I think is what Zach
called money the week before,right?
And that it's not money that'sevil, it's the love of money
(07:33):
that is what you're gonna dowith it.
So there's a lot of wisdom, andI think what you just shared.
SPEAKER_03 (07:38):
I am obsessed with the hierarchy that he talked
about.
And I wish I would have writtendown the name of the thing.
There you go.
Yes.
Like I, the whole transcendencepart, then talking about how
your ultimate is when you'rehelping someone else reach their
ultimate.
Like that, that's totally myjam.
Like I have like mentored or,you know, coached or sponsored,
(08:04):
like been a Girl Scout troopleader or, you know, worked with
this group of girls in this clubor different things, you know,
volunteering in the community inways.
And when you see them step upand achieve the goals that
they're working for, like thatto me is such a high joy.
And to see that put into thenthis structure, I like I've just
been obsessed with that.
SPEAKER_01 (08:26):
Don't know what it's called, but uh Maslow's
hierarchy of needs is utilizedfor like those going into
education.
So I'm sure that Carolina'sprobably utilized a lot of the
information because some of it'svery, very helpful.
Like a kiddo is not gonna learnalgebra if they're hungry and
they don't have food or if theygo to a school where they're not
safe in their classroom.
So like in education or even indiscipleship, like when we're
(08:49):
working with students or evenadults, if they don't feel like
they're in a safe place, they'renot gonna be able to go even
further than that.
But I do like the fact that it'smore than just meeting these
physical needs.
Like to be be a full humanactually means you're leaning
into being one of God's createdbeings and doing what you're
supposed to be doing.
(09:10):
And so that doesn't mean justeating and sleeping and being
secure and looking aftercomforts like what those could
be.
But there's something higherthan that.
So yeah, I I love that idea.
SPEAKER_00 (09:21):
And it's not about yourself.
It's like there's somethingbeyond you that uh you can
serve.
That's the epitome of uh yourpersonhood, if you will, from
from that Maslov's perspective.
unknown (09:32):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (09:34):
So one of the opening questions and kind of
the subtitle of Zach's messagethis week was um comparing
contentment over comfort.
What are your thoughts on that?
Like, what is that comparison orchoosing contentment over
comfort?
What does that mean to you?
SPEAKER_00 (09:51):
I mean, we we do it every day, right?
Every single one of us choosescontentment over, or excuse me,
chooses comfort overcontentment.
Like in the in the in the uh daysix, if you if you were
following in in uh Zach's in thebook, um, you took the quiz and
like Carolyn and I, we took thequiz and we talked about it
afterwards.
She was like, What's the thingthat stuck out to you the most?
(10:13):
I was like, oh, like the thefear one.
Like I'll I'll choose to tochoose like to play into my fear
and to listen to my fear andlike not to talk to somebody on
Sunday or on throughout the weekand uh look at myself versus to
to look to someone else's needsand like step over that fear for
the benefit and the contentmentof serving somebody else because
(10:34):
the the fear is real and itkeeps me from from living the
calling that I that I have tolive.
SPEAKER_01 (10:41):
Yeah, and I mean it's it's not like Zach's just
making this up, like he pointedout multiple times.
I just take these teachings fromthe scriptures.
And Paul he has this reallygreat statement where he says,
godliness with contentment isgreat gain.
And he uses that, and he'stalking to Timothy about this.
He he uses that because othershave allowed godliness to give
(11:04):
them gain.
And so like they're getting aleg up because they they want to
look godly, they want to lookspiritual.
But he's like, No, godlinesswith contentment is great gain.
And that word that's beingutilized there uh is
self-sufficiency when it's usedmost of the time.
But in the context of thisspecific usage, it's God
(11:26):
sufficiency.
And so it's like, yes, you canhave this appearance of
godliness and it'll probablygain you some stuff, maybe
respect, maybe standing,whatever it is.
Uh but godliness withcontentment means that you're
okay with God running your lifeand that he's gonna be able to
take care of it.
Not your comfort, not what youwant to do, not where you want
to go up higher on your, youknow, like hierarchy of needs or
(11:49):
whatever it is.
But you know what?
If God is gonna go to thispoint, then that's okay.
And you can be okay with that.
SPEAKER_00 (11:55):
Yeah.
He's with you when he's hungrywhen you're hungry, and he's
with you when you'retranscendent, transcending.
SPEAKER_01 (11:59):
Yeah.
And how cool is that that Jesusknows what that feels like.
Like he fasted, he knows whathunger feels like.
Uh he was exhausted.
So he knows what you know,needing to nap, not bed rot, but
like needing to take a nap.
He knows what that feels like.
So it's not like he is deprivingsomething from you that he
wasn't willing to be deprived ofhimself to find the value in
(12:21):
having God as sufficient forlike lining up his will with the
Father's will.
And then it's a good practicefor us too.
I mean, to be able to say, thisis where Jesus wants me right
now.
It's not very comfortable.
But you look at the the wholetestimony of scripture, whether
it's an old testament prophet ora new testament evangelist, I
would venture to say zero ofthem were comfortable.
SPEAKER_02 (12:43):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (12:43):
Uh-huh.
Um I'm reading through Ezekielright now, and I just finished
Jeremiah.
Jeremiah had it rough.
Like people talk about Jobhaving it bad.
Jeremiah had to cook his foodover excrement.
Like in front of people.
SPEAKER_03 (12:59):
And we don't do that Bible story in kids' ministry.
SPEAKER_01 (13:03):
You don't.
But at middle school we do.
But I guess I'm bringing that upbecause, like, whether it's
Jeremiah or Ezekiel, God isactually intentionally exposing
them to uncomfortablecircumstances because God's
people had got too comfortablein the lives that they were
living.
And he needed them to see thatyou can live a life without
those comforts.
In fact, I'm telling this guy tolive his life without all of
(13:26):
these comforts.
Like there's a portion of time,a really long period of time.
It's like 390 days or somethingthat Jeremiah has to lay on his
side, bound in ropes, uh, as anillustration.
Now, that doesn't soundcomfortable to me at all.
There's that's not bed rot,that's just regular rotting.
SPEAKER_02 (13:40):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (13:41):
Uh so I mean, you look at all of these examples in
the scripture, and I reallycan't find many where the Lord
is like, you know, it'd be greatif you took an extra pillow with
you, you know, so that you feelphysically more comfortable.
Most of the time when he's usingthe word for comfort, he's using
that in terms of like aftersomething really bad has
(14:03):
happened, and he's letting youknow that in a transcendent
sense, he's going to be therefor you.
And that doesn't necessarilymean you're going to have that
need met, therefore you can becomfortable.
It's be comfortable resting inme.
And I think that's kind of likea much deeper understanding of
what it's like to be human.
And it redefines what comfort islike and it redefines what
(14:25):
contentment is.
And it really puts it as a muchhigher level need than comfort.
SPEAKER_03 (14:32):
Yeah.
Um, I just when he was talkingabout the whole piece of that, I
just kept thinking about thetimes in my life where I was
content but not comfortable.
And kind of like almost at alittle attaboy, you know, that I
could think of multiple oneswhere I remember, and the first
one that came to mind is in themidst of my divorce, where
things were, I didn't know whatwas happening.
(14:53):
I, my heart was breaking forwhat my kids were going through,
you know, just this life change.
Um, but I was content because Iknew that both myself and my
ex-husband had the best interestof our kids in mind.
Um, we were not being hatefuland, you know, awful to each
other, um, that we were gonnafind whatever solution it was.
(15:15):
Um, but it wasn't comfortable atall.
Um, but I just I I really stillstarted going through my life
and thinking of the times wherethat wasn't comfortable at all,
but I was finding contentment.
And I think that that comes frommy sense of trust in God.
I don't think if I had adifferent relationship with
Jesus or if I didn't have arelationship with Jesus, that I
(15:37):
would have found that.
I don't know if I could havefound that because I just knew
that he was watching out for meno matter what the uncomfortable
was in the moment.
unknown (15:48):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (15:48):
Well, how many times do followers of Jesus or new
believers become Christianbecause they hear a gospel that
will give them something or agospel that will take away their
pains and their sorrows?
Like, no, Jesus promises in thisworld you will have trouble, but
but take heart, because he'sovercome the world.
And I think that's the key tobeing a true Christian, to being
a healthy Christian, if youwill, to like Paul says, to be
(16:11):
content in all circumstances.
He's knows he knows what it isto have much and he knows what
it is to be in need.
And what if that's the the truemark of a Christian to when you
have much and when you havelittle, when life's going really
well and when life's hard, whenyou're in a when you're in a
trench of some sort, to to trustthat God's got it and to trust
that he's with you in thatmoment.
(16:32):
Not that he's gonna give you allthe answers, not that he's gonna
uh fix your situation, not thathe can't, because he he might,
but not not being a follower ofJesus to for the benefit of what
he could give you.
And it's like giving is a greatthing, and uh giving can also be
a bad thing if it's for thebenefit of yourself, but but
(16:55):
solely giving because God callsus to give and trusting that the
gifts that we give will be usedhow he needs them to be used.
SPEAKER_03 (17:05):
So Zach kind of walked us through three world
lies and three contradictingJesus truths.
So world lie number one is themore you have, the happier you
will be.
And the Jesus truth thatcontradicts that is the more you
give, the happier you will be.
How did those hit you?
(17:27):
I really um when he was talkingabout the uh the more you have,
the happier you'll be, he wastalking about income-based
happiness and how there's likethis magic number you can input
your zip code, and there's thismagic number of where you are
comfortable to use that word,you know, and that there is a
level of increase of happinessif you're moving from poverty to
like middle income.
(17:48):
But he used the phrase the joycurve plateau plateaus.
And I was like, oh, yep, yep.
Like I can remember when we madevery little thinking, oh gosh,
if we ever get to this mark,everything's gonna be covered
and it'll be so much easier.
And then I remember being pastthat mark and thinking, wow,
this is still really a struggle.
(18:09):
I don't really feel comfortableor happy or like when we get to
this mark, you know, but thereis a level of where then there's
no more joy coming from that.
It's just um what you do with itthat gives you the joy.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (18:27):
What I appreciated about when he hit this like myth
versus the truth.
Can you restate him again?
SPEAKER_03 (18:33):
Uh-huh.
So the lie is the more you have,the happier you'll be.
And Jesus' truth is the more yougive, the happier you will be.
SPEAKER_01 (18:41):
Yeah, I cannot like catalog a time in my life when I
had so much of something thatits increase made me happier.
Like there I think you and Iwere talking about this like a
couple of weeks ago when we weretalking about ministry and how
there are some people that lookat ministry and they're like,
oh, must be nice.
We're at X amount of people inour ministry and there's not a
(19:02):
lot.
But if we had this amount ofpeople, then we would be, you
know, like successful.
But from that perspective, whatyou don't realize is you have
just as many stressors on theother side of like having the
opportunity to steward morepeople means that there's more
people's needs that you try tomeet.
And so, like, even a good thinglike ministry doesn't always
(19:24):
convert to like once you meetthis magical threshold, then
everyone is happy and like therearen't any issues to have to
kind of like meet or deal with,or like all the conflicts go
away.
And so, yeah, I can't reallythink of a time when I had so
much of something that everytime I got more of it, it made
me even happier.
Like you have extra food.
(19:45):
Well, that's fine, but you haveto figure out something to do
with it because it's gonna gobad real fast.
Even Trader Joe's peanut buttercups.
SPEAKER_00 (19:51):
They might last longer than I'm like, they last
forever.
SPEAKER_01 (19:53):
Come on, they might last a little bit longer than
lettuce.
SPEAKER_02 (19:55):
You could freeze them.
SPEAKER_00 (19:56):
They'll keep a little bit more people.
They're so good frozen.
Well, like more money, moreproblems.
SPEAKER_01 (20:01):
Like, yeah, it's it's not like the This is my
favorite part of we watched thevideo for the giving challenge.
Uh huh.
And I had the blessing to beable to do the Spanish-speaking
group on Wednesday, and thewhole thing is Spanish, and it's
Zach's voice kind of in Spanishuntil he gets to that point.
Then he's like, uh uh asnotorious B I C B I G blah.
(20:25):
And then it was like, Mo money,mo problems.
And so just stopped in themiddle for like this English
quote, which could have beentranslated.
But anyways, I didn't mean tointerrupt, but I just I love
that.
SPEAKER_00 (20:36):
Sorry, I was trying to translate in my head.
I don't speak Spanish.
Um yeah, more money, moreproblems.
Like what what what is or toanother just go to scripture?
Uh, to what is much is given,much will be required.
Um more doesn't equal a fix.
Um more will show you the thetrue things beneath the issue,
if you will.
(20:56):
Um I I think Zach said in a in apast message that the care your
character flaws will be shownwhen you're given more power,
more responsibility.
Um I think that's the same withwith money.
If you struggle to give when youhave little, you're gonna
struggle to give when you havemuch.
Um and uh I may be jumping alittle ahead, but like I'll give
(21:21):
someday, right?
You're if if you're saying thatnow, it'll be much harder to
give someday.
The challenge is what's Godcalling you to do right now?
Not when you have enough.
Um, because uh we're not calledto do something when we have a
prep enough enough preparationfor it.
Um, God often uses the weak, heoften uses the poor, he uses
(21:43):
those uh poor in spirit, he usesthose who are poor in morality
oftentimes.
And that's uh defines all of usas well.
So Jesus uses those who don'thave what they think they need,
and he can use each and everyone of you guys too.
SPEAKER_03 (22:00):
This is also where Zach brought up Acts 2035, which
I just think is a killer versefor this whole, not just the
book, but you know, especiallythis week, it is more blessed to
give than to receive.
And how many times that isquoted in um things that are
outside of the church, you know.
Um all right, world lie numbertwo, look out for number one,
(22:20):
but Jesus truth number two, lookout for others first.
How did those speak to you?
SPEAKER_01 (22:28):
I mean, it it really is biblical.
What are the greatestcommandments?
Well, he summarizes them loveGod and love others.
And so it doesn't say, well,first take care of yourself,
then love God, then love others.
No, like the greatest thing isto love God and everything else
can fall into place after that.
And once you have theopportunity for life to fall
into place, then everything willbe perfect.
(22:49):
But yeah, that's not the case.
So love God, love others, andthe Lord will take care of you
in some way, shape, or form.
And I think that's what like youguys were talking about this
earlier, and that is like yourincome, your life, all of these
things that you're you'repursuing, uh those things all
(23:10):
actually can be taken away.
Like you had shared a reallypersonal story about your
marriage.
Well, some people would say,once I have a marriage, then I
can be happy with the Lord and Ican be content with the Lord.
But that marriage could not workout and it could be taken away.
So what does that mean aboutyour relationship with the Lord?
Your relationship with the Lordthen is dependent upon your your
(23:31):
feelings with a marriage.
And with the same thing with me,like my feelings with the Lord,
if I were to say, uhfinancially, I need to secure
what I need for my family, andthen I'll be cool with Jesus.
But the fact of the matter is,all of that can be taken away.
Well then what's my saying withJesus?
And so uh I think thecontentment aspect plays into
(23:55):
this as well, and that is Ithink our calling is just to be
content with Jesus, period, andeverything else is gravy.
SPEAKER_00 (24:04):
Yeah, that was great.
SPEAKER_03 (24:06):
Ditto.
Yeah, amen.
Right.
Um, I really liked where Zachbrought up here the story of the
woman at the well, uh, whichjust to me is so many little
barriers were crossed.
This was a man talking to awoman who was in a place she
shouldn't be, who uh, you know,had this bad reputation.
But he stopped.
(24:27):
And I think Zach said this islike the longest recorded
conversation in scripture of himwith uh with, and I just think,
wow, you know what I mean?
The point that Zach reallybrought up is that Jesus always
has time for you.
Like there's no, you don't haveto feel like you don't have time
(24:47):
because God always has time foryou.
Um, and he's willing to crossthose barriers for your needs.
And so then how can we be likehim in doing that for others
that we meet?
SPEAKER_00 (24:59):
Well, even I think the I sorry, I didn't say
anything earlier because I wasjust enamored by what Seth was
saying.
I forgot to think of somethingto come up with.
Um but I I I God calls us to behappy.
Uh He uses the word blessed allthe times in the Beatitudes.
Uh I I think comfort isn't a badthing.
Like you said in the beginningof the message, it looking out
(25:22):
for well.
It's a good thing that can bebecome can often be the best
thing that turns into a badthing.
And we can treat comfort likeit's this evil thing.
Like he calls you to becomfortable, but isn't serving
others comfortable?
And and it's comfortable not inthe sense that we define it as
(25:44):
comfortable because ourdefinition of comfortable is way
off.
But Jesus, if he wanted to beserving himself, I don't think
that would have been comfortablefor Jesus to serve himself
because that's not who he is.
And we're all broken, so we'reall gonna try and serve
ourselves.
But what if true comfort withChrist isn't serving serving
(26:04):
yourself all the time, to havemore peanut butter cups, to be
in bed all the time?
What if true comfort that thatChrist is calling us to is to be
with with others, like like Zachtalked about in this point.
SPEAKER_01 (26:16):
I actually went back into the live or into the um
YouTube video for that point.
And what's interesting is thatwasn't even like necessarily the
main point of that section.
It was just like this you couldtell that Zach's been in the
Word long enough where likesomething like that impacted him
enough where he was prompted tosay it by the spirit.
(26:38):
But it didn't necessarily itdidn't have to be in there.
But I thought that that was soimpactful that like I I I need
to spend more time with thatthought of like I don't know,
there's a lot of times where I'mlike, God doesn't need to care
about me.
And so therefore, if he doesn'tneed to, maybe he doesn't.
And and that's not to say like Idon't think he's caring enough.
(26:58):
It's just I don't think I'mworthy of that care for most of
my life, like most of my adultlife.
Whenever you struggle withinadequacy, you believe you're
not worthy of anybody's care,let alone the God of the
universe who's like the mostimportant being in all of
everything.
And so, you know, like to thinkabout Jesus went out of his way
to spend as much time aspossible with this woman as not
(27:20):
what he needed, but what sheneeded.
And I that hit me pretty hard.
Like I had to go back again andlisten to it, just that little
part because it was impactful.
So thank you for bringing it up.
SPEAKER_03 (27:30):
Yeah.
Um, that just made me think of afew weeks ago.
Zach was a guest here, and itwas when you were preaching, and
um, we were talking aboutturning things over to God.
And I can't even remember nowwhich week it was or what point.
Um, and Zach was asking thequestion, why don't we let go of
things more to God?
And my response was sometimes Ithink they're too small for him.
(27:52):
And that's not true at all.
Um, because he he always hastime for me, no matter what
state I'm in.
But uh it's just us knowing thathe's always there and being able
to turn that, have that trustthat he is and that we can talk
to him about anything, even thethings we think may be too petty
or insignificant.
(28:14):
All right.
World line number three, I'llgive someday.
And Jesus truth number three, Ican give now.
So this, the whole I'll givesomeday really made me think of
you guys weren't here, but Zachdid an Easter message a year, a
year ago, Easter, I think itwas, um, that was one day win.
(28:34):
And it was talking about one daywin W-H-E-N, that people talk
about, oh, I'm gonna go tochurch one day win, or you know,
one day when I'm married, I'llbe happy.
One day when I have kids, I'lldo this.
One day when I uh, you know,have a better job, I'll go back
to school.
One day, you know, all thesedreams that we are goals that we
set to um for ourselves that maynever come to fruition.
(28:58):
And then he talked aboutchanging those into one day
wins, W-I-N-S.
So some of our listeners mayremember that series.
And as soon as he said, I'llgive someday, I thought of that.
Oh yeah, one day when my incomeis big enough, then I can give a
portion to the church.
And that's just so like gutpunch because I've been in those
(29:18):
shoes where I've I've not hadmuch money and not felt like
this is I don't have this togive away.
But um then I think of the storyof the widow's might or just any
giving.
And it's not always just money,it is time and treasures and
your talents.
Um, and so I just I really likedthat idea of oh, this is this
(29:40):
I'll give someday.
Yeah, that's not gonna be ever.
It has to be now.
It can be now.
SPEAKER_01 (29:47):
Isn't it interesting how we deal with like these
super nebulous uh words thatmake us feel comfortable?
Like uh someday is one of them,but my other favorite is
somebody.
So, like, who's gonna go?
Out and talk to the poor.
Somebody will.
Like, yeah.
Who's going to go spread thegospel?
Somebody will.
And then until you realize,like, no, that somebody is me.
(30:08):
Like that someday is today.
Uh, all those nebulous ideaslike that give us comfort
because we feel good enough.
We've pacified ourselves to belike, yes, at some point I'm
gonna do that thing that I knowI should do.
But that that like perfectscenario is never gonna show up
where we would allow thatsomeday to be today until
somebody else, that is Jesus inthe scriptures, comes to us and
(30:30):
says, No, that somebody is you,that someday is now, let's go.
And so, you know, like this isthe kind of thing that helps
move us into that rightdirection of ownership and
agency because he's called us tothat.
SPEAKER_00 (30:43):
You know, that's it's great.
And it's like at what point areyou gonna take that action
towards your ideal?
Because it and maybe it's morecomfortable to just have it be
an ideal far off in the distancethat one day I'll do this,
someday, or somebody will dothis for me.
But but at what point doesrubber meet the road and
something's gotta be done?
Or else you're gonna be end up80 years old and being like, oh,
(31:06):
one day, well, one day, one day,one day, one one more day might
not come.
So when are you gonna go runningagain with Caroline?
One day.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (31:16):
One day when.
SPEAKER_00 (31:17):
Exactly.
And like what would it look likefor whatever your ideal is,
whatever you you see God callingyou to in the moment to take one
step towards that?
One step towards the the givingmoment or the what whatever you
believe God's calling you to,what's one thing you could take
a step towards today?
Not tomorrow, not next week,today.
SPEAKER_03 (31:39):
This is where he pointed out what you brought out
before that past behavior ismore reliable than stated
intentions.
And that I think is the thing wefight so often of these ideas.
Yep, we're gonna do that later.
But our past behavior is soindicative of what we're gonna
do tomorrow and probably thetomorrow after that, and maybe
the next tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01 (32:00):
But I think that's the really interesting thing
about responding to God's callis that we're in a state of
comfort and like homeostasis.
And every cell in our body wantsto get back to homeostasis.
Like that's we're fightingagainst entropy, like in terms
of like the laws of theuniverse.
And so our cells are constantlytrying to fight to get back to
midline.
(32:21):
And once we step out of that,just like in circumstances,
okay, we do something different,and we realize that, you know,
like maybe that's not asuncomfortable as I thought it
was gonna be.
But then I get comfortable inthat uncomfortable area, and so
it just goes all the way likethat.
Feeling goes back to midlineagain.
And it's almost like you've gotto have this challenge to be
(32:44):
brought out of yourself over andover and over again, because
your new uncomfortable willbecome your comfortable very
quickly, and you can get stuckthere just as easily in the one
step ahead if you if there isn'tanother step that's gonna be
after that.
Well, how beautiful dailydialing dying the self.
SPEAKER_00 (33:02):
Right.
How beautiful like that ourminds are moldable and that over
time you can see a change.
I like to like to go to thepoint of like pushing yourself
to to failure, if you will, oralways being uncomfortable.
I remember a story of some aninfluencer, they always they
they sought failure for a monthor a hundred days or something
like that.
And like one day it would belike they'd go to McDonald's and
ask for a cheeseburger refill.
(33:23):
Like little little things likethat that they're gonna say no
to.
But he found out that sometimespeople actually said yes.
I love that series.
SPEAKER_01 (33:31):
Uh-huh.
Now I know there's multiple, butthere's one of the guys who
actually wrote a book, I thinkit was called Rejection Proof.
Yeah.
And he one time, like in thiswhole series, he goes up to a
pilot and he's like, Hey, couldI fly your plane?
And the dude was like, Have youever flown a plane before?
He's like, No.
And the guy's like, All right,let's try it.
There's another title.
That's awesome.
Did you see the video where hehe's just carrying a soccer ball
(33:54):
and he's got nets in his handand he walks up to some random
house and he goes, Can I kicksoccer in your backyard?
And this grown man is like,sure, and I'll do it with you.
Like it is a great series oflike just perpetually putting
yourself out there.
SPEAKER_00 (34:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (34:09):
And it's first of all, the things that you fear
aren't gonna usually be what youthink it's gonna be.
Uh-huh.
But you also grow quite a bitand you learn a lot about people
and you get to serve a lot ofpeople when you know that that's
what's what's gonna happen.
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (34:22):
Well, well, the crux of this whole challenge is like
doing hard things regularly.
Giving is hard because whereyour treasure is, your heart
will be also.
And giving of your heart, ifyou're not a giving person in
the moment, is hard.
You're gonna do hard things.
What's a hard thing you could dotoday?
Take it back to being practical.
The the muscle's not gonnastretch itself.
(34:44):
Um, I'm not gonna get better atrunning if I don't start
running.
Something's gotta happen todayand not not next week again, not
not pushing off back, back andback, but today.
SPEAKER_01 (34:57):
So I think that's like the the gauntlet throwdown
for podcast listeners right nowis like, what are you gonna do
when this podcast is over that'sgonna connect you further with
Jesus and get you out ofcomfort?
SPEAKER_00 (35:08):
Craig Finkey uh wrote a book, Joining Jesus.
He wrote many books like that.
And in one of those books, uh,it says, don't read another book
about spiritual spirituality.
Live out the spirituality thatyou're reading about.
Because another book is notgoing to help you as much as you
think, because you gotta go anddo it.
You gotta go join Jesus on hismission.
And you gotta you gotta give.
(35:30):
You can't keep talking about itor reading more books about it,
getting more, more wisdom aboutit, or more knowledge, if you
will, because wisdom is appliedknowledge.
You gotta apply the knowledgeyou got.
unknown (35:40):
Yep.
SPEAKER_03 (35:41):
Okay, so that kind of wraps things up with a story
of Ryan Trahan, who's aninfluencer who did the penny
challenge and kind of did apenny a day to get across the
country to go meet Mr.
Beast.
How did that guy how did thathit you?
SPEAKER_00 (35:56):
Uh last uh January, Caroline and I ran a half
marathon and we ran our halfmarathon with Ryan Trahan.
unknown (36:02):
Really?
SPEAKER_00 (36:02):
We didn't see him at all, but we were ran at the same
time.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (36:08):
My Ryan Trahan was at a um my son Christian went to
DECA Internationals and RyanTrahan was there presenting, and
so he got to meet him briefly,like in a large group.
But yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (36:21):
That's cool.
No, actually I watched both ofthose series with my boys uh for
several reasons, but like Ithink them seeing kindness of
strangers, but also like beingcreative and uh just putting
yourself out there, I think is aa regular challenge outside of
comfort.
And both of those challenges hadhim do that.
(36:42):
And then they had other funthings too that we didn't get to
cover in the sermon, like thegreat reset.
So if somebody gave a certainamount, it like would reset his
transportation back to nothing.
Or or like maybe he had a nicecar and the reset would put him
back to like having to ride abike or whatever it would be, or
yeah, or somebody would donate acertain amount, like lump sum to
(37:04):
St.
Jude's or wherever, like FeedingAmerica was the first one.
And it would put his amount forthe day back to like a penny at
that point.
So I mean, it was just reallyneat to see like he was not
comfortable and he had toovercome that.
And I don't know, I thought itwas good for my boys to see
something like that too.
SPEAKER_00 (37:23):
Yeah, one of the ones for the the 50 states in 50
days, 50 house and 50 dayschallenge was if a certain
amount was donated, he had toeat a vegetable.
He hates vegetables.
That is one of the things hedespises the most in the world.
SPEAKER_01 (37:34):
Um wasn't there one where like if he got a certain
amount donated, he'd have to geta tattoo of someone else's
choosing.
Uh-huh.
Yeah.
That's dangerous.
SPEAKER_00 (37:41):
Oh, yeah.
It's probably a vegetable ofsome sort.
Probably.
Right.
Um but how how cool is it thatthere's influencers that have
such influence on our everybodyin the world and they're coming
to Christ.
Like, praise God for his wife,who through him is able to
influence so many people for thegospel.
(38:01):
Uh, and it's great that it'slike for students' perspective
specifically, that students thatare watching him can get to see
a person with influence, withpower, responsibility, whatever
it may be, and that loves Jesusand is doing it in a
God-honoring way and is doing itfor the benefit of others beyond
(38:22):
the benefit of themselves.
There's so many influencers thatare just there to get more money
and um like just do it all forthemselves, get the nicest car,
but it's cool.
It's a it's amazing that thatRyan is out here to benefit not
himself, but others.
So, Ryan, if you're listening,we would love to have you as
students.
Just uh want to throw it outthere.
SPEAKER_01 (38:43):
Uh yes, also, Ryan, if you're listening, we'll have
a series, I believe, in thespring called Influencers.
And so it'd be perfect if youjust wanted to come and talk
about your faith a little bit.
That's fine.
Yeah, maybe you'll re-rankNebraska's.
I'm sure it's a regularlistener.
SPEAKER_00 (38:56):
Chad at King of Kings is my email.
Just C H A D E.
SPEAKER_03 (39:01):
All right.
As we wrap up today, do you guyshave any final takeaways from
this message?
SPEAKER_00 (39:07):
It just this the blessing of giving.
Every time I've given, whetherit's money, time, um, the
benefit for somebody else, I'vewalked away uh feeling content
in my calling to Christ, to loveothers and to put others before
myself.
SPEAKER_01 (39:24):
I would say the same thing because the more you give
away, the more you realize youare called to trust in Jesus for
everything in your life.
And I think churchy folks likemyself uh focus a lot on, yeah,
Jesus is so all sufficient forgrace.
But then when it comes to payingmy bills, that's where I'm like,
oh, I don't, I don't know.
(39:44):
Uh but when you give, you'reactually just saying, Yeah,
Lord's gonna take care of me.
He's given me a sound mind totry to figure this all out, but
he also has blessed me in ways Ican't even imagine that are
gonna support my family.
So yeah, kind of along the samelines.
How about you, Dino?
SPEAKER_03 (40:00):
I really like the idea that Zach talked about.
Generosity changes ourneurochemistry and the
biological piece of that becauseI think of how God designed us.
And now, like this isconfirmation that He designed us
for our like our brainwaves tochange and dopamine to be
released and good things tohappen when we're generous.
(40:22):
I mean, how can you argue thatthat's not what he wants for us?
SPEAKER_00 (40:25):
Right.
Yeah.
Well, and if if generosity isfocusing on others in a world
where we can look at our blackmirror and look at ourselves all
of the time, no wonder anxietyis spiking, no wonder fear and
all these negative reactions tofocusing on yourself too much.
Depression is literally worryingabout yourself too much.
And no wonder we're dealing withthat right now.
(40:49):
So the antidote for for thesethings is to focus on others and
to to love those that are aroundyou.
unknown (40:57):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (40:58):
Well, thank you guys so much for being here.
We are gonna talk about weekthree next week.
And until
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