October 22, 2025 • 52 mins
We recap a powerful women’s conference marked by prayer, participation, and connection, then move into Reformation Roots with a practical look at grace alone, faith alone, and Christ alone. We share how grace frees us from performance and fuels a life of purpose and good works.
If you would like to support this ministry financially and help us continue offering new resources that equip you to discover more in Christ, simply text any amount to the number 84321
We'd love to hear from you. Let us know how God is using this resource in your life or send any podcast questions or topic ideas to podcast@afreshwind.org
THANKS FOR JOINING US!
Visit afreshwind.org for even more content and resources to help you take steps towards Jesus and discover more in Christ.
DOWNLOAD THE FRESH WIND APP
With the A Fresh Wind Church app, you can now take the WIND wherever you go! Access sermons, articles, videos, resources and more to help you discover more in Christ.
PLAN YOUR VISIT
We know it can be a little weird or even awkward visiting a church for the first time. That's why we created Plan Your Visit. We want to make your first visit as easy as possible, and actually take time to get to know you and your family. Plan Your Visit now to schedule your visit by letting us know you're coming. We will treat you like family from the moment you arrive.
MAKE A DONATION
Give today and help us continue bringing new content each and every week! We're so grateful for your generosity. Click the link below or simply text any amount to the number (844) 620-5380.
DIG DEEPER
Looking for even more content to help you learn and apply this week's message? Subscribe to the Pastor's Blog! New posts are available each Friday at 7am.
Support the Show
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:08):
Welcome and thanks for joining us on this episode
of the Midweek Podcast, broughtto you by Fresh Wind Church.
Each week, our team brings younew content to help you take
steps towards Jesus and discovermore in Christ.
Today's episode is hosted byPastor Ryan.
SPEAKER_05 (00:27):
Well, hey everyone, welcome back to the Midweek
Podcast.
Pastor Ryan joined as alwayswith Pastor Tim.
And uh this week it's a prettyspecial episode because Tim,
today we're joined by our wives.
We got Joy and Teresa in theroom with us today.
And so, uh, ladies, excited tohave you on the podcast with us.
Girl Power.
Girl Power.
(00:48):
Um so last, not this pastweekend, but the weekend before,
uh, we had the opportunity tohost here at the church the Go
and Beyond Women's Conference.
And uh that was the first timewe've done something like that
in quite a while.
Um just super excited to see uhhow the church showed up and
engaged in that.
And so would love to kind ofhear from you guys.
(01:10):
Um, you know, what what stoodout to you from that event and
kind of if you could give us alittle bit of a recap.
Silence.
SPEAKER_00 (01:20):
Okay.
Well, are you gonna I guess I'llgo first.
A recap.
It was great.
A little recap, yeah.
It was a great we um had I thinkabout 80, 80 women uh came, and
we had uh we had a lot ofchildren uh that uh came also,
and we're so thankful for we hada church that had a lot of uh
(01:41):
teenagers and men took overwatching them, but the ladies
had a great time.
Um we had some great teaching,great music, we had some awesome
prayer times together, and uh wealso had lunch together, and um
it was just it was I thought itwas an awesome day.
Had a lot of great feedback froma lot of the ladies that were
there, so it was a great, greattime.
SPEAKER_05 (02:02):
Yeah, I was I had the opportunity, I guess, to to
be in the room running themedia.
Jared, you know, he kept tryingto offer to trade spots with me.
Of course, he was with the kids.
He's like, Well, you want totrade out, and I'm like, I'm
doing God's work back here,Jared.
SPEAKER_02 (02:17):
From the moment I asked him if he would help for
the kids, he was like, How aboutI do the media?
SPEAKER_05 (02:22):
Yeah, yeah.
He wanted the he wanted to getin that media booth real bad.
SPEAKER_02 (02:26):
But I told him I would try to get him in the
media booth and then it didn'twork.
SPEAKER_05 (02:29):
Yeah, no, no, your husband had to be in there.
But um, you know, I was so I wasin the room.
I was one of the only guys whogot to be in the room that day.
Um, and I tried to give the theladies who showed up their
privacy.
I wasn't trying to like hang outand observe everything going on.
You know, it was a women's eventand wanted to give them their
space.
But um, one of the things thatPriscilla did in the conference
is she kind of forced people,even though it was a simulcast,
(02:53):
so it was you know donevirtually, she forced the the
ladies there to engage inprayer.
And she had, you know, timeswhere ladies she was asking them
to stand up and and then otherpeople to go around the room and
pray.
And after that, just watchinghow our church responded to
that, I guess, a little bit.
I walked out and uh Tim's like,How's it going in there?
(03:13):
And I tried to tell him, I waslike, Man, it's it's going good.
And then I just started crying.
I had to walk away.
SPEAKER_03 (03:20):
Yeah.
So who was there?
Was it older ladies, youngerladies, ladies, ladies, ladies?
SPEAKER_02 (03:26):
I think we had a good mix of older women and
younger women.
Um there's one point where theyhad anyone who was 25 or under
stand up, and there was severalpeople.
Yeah.
So that was cool.
SPEAKER_00 (03:40):
Yeah, it was kind of cool because that was part of
what we were talking about washow our testimonies and how what
we have been through, how itthat when we testify about what
God has done, how that is such aa living proof to you know,
others that God can do for me aswell.
And you know, we had people thatwould stand and it's like, yes,
God has led me through that, anduh I'll pray for you as you are
(04:03):
seeking those similar types ofanswers from God.
That was really cool.
And one of them was you know,the the young ladies, you know,
and just encouraging them tostand up and and just you know
to remain faithful to the Lord.
We live in such weird times,such uh difficult times.
And um just encouraging those.
I mean, I think it like I said,it was great because both young
(04:25):
and older, we had a few ladiesthat I think just a few, but we
had a few that were up there,and uh that was really, really
exciting.
SPEAKER_05 (04:34):
Yeah, what would you s you guys say um your kind of
biggest takeaway from the event?
What stood out to you, or youknow, what what did you write
down in your notebook that youyou know really meant a lot to
you?
SPEAKER_02 (04:46):
Yeah, I think for me, the most powerful thing or
the part that stood out the mostwas we kind of already hit on
it, but the prayer.
Um, you know, or just prayingabout it, going into it.
Obviously, it was it was a liveevent, but like we weren't live
with Priscilla Shire and withthe worship team.
So I was a little bit nervousthat our ladies here at Fresh
(05:10):
Wind would feel that, like itwould be a little awkward, but
they really participated andsought the Lord and prayed for
each other.
And I just thought it was areally powerful moment.
Um, and I would say, other thanthat, just learning, not
learning, because obviously wealready know that we have to
continually go back to our firstlove, but how she broke it down
and encouraged us to do that.
(05:31):
I thought that was good.
SPEAKER_05 (05:32):
I love it.
Teresa, what about you?
SPEAKER_00 (05:34):
There was a phenomenal drummer.
Uh, you know, I enjoyed Ienjoyed that part of it a lot.
Uh, you know, I love music, soyou know, that's the kinds of
things I I just my my mind goesright to it.
Um so that part was reallyenjoyable.
I I also liked the her contentand how she really related to
(05:56):
people um with her children andsome experiences and some of the
things she had talked aboutteaching her trying to teach her
children when they were growingup.
That was really impactful for alot of women here.
And I knew that would be becausewhen I had listened to that
previously, I had heard that andI thought, what a great
opportunity for people who haveyoung children, you know, minor
(06:18):
grown.
But you know, and and it's funnybecause in the feedback I had
from a few ladies, they allsaid, Oh my gosh, I wrote that
down.
I wrote that down.
So I thought it was great.
Just you know, she reminded usthat you know John uh in in
writing in Revelation was in ain a you know, he had been
exiled to uh at an area at theisland of Patmas that was a rock
(06:40):
quarry, that you know,everything in his life was hard
and miserable, and that youknow, he got sentenced to this
place.
But the idea is that no matterhow hard and how difficult the
places that you are in, God wasgetting ready to reveal perhaps
the greatest revelation orunfolding or uh uh revealing of
who Christ really was and thosemessages that would be for his
(07:05):
church.
And I you know, I just I I lovethat because it you know, for
for what doing ministry it justseems like so many times there's
like so many hard places.
And and I'm not saying thatthat's any different in life,
but um just you know alwayslooking for God to to have an
outpouring of of revealing somethings to people.
(07:26):
I I mean that's the thing thatbrings me greatest joy when when
people get a glimpse of who Godreally is, and you know, and so
I think that was veryencouraging.
I really stuck with me that uhjust that message to keep going.
And then also that God hadactually revealed to him uh
here, come up here and look intothe heavens and and and reveal
(07:46):
that what's going on at the sametime that we're living here with
our feet on the ground, livingin this messed up world, the
Lord is on the throne and not hehas not given that up.
He has not because you know theworld has gone crazy, he has not
changed, he has not, his planshave not been thwarted.
Just that great reminder for allthose that were there, and just
(08:08):
a great reminder for all of us.
So I think it was a it reallywas well.
It was done well.
I had a lot of women said thatit was great, had a lot of women
that were loved or teaching, youknow.
So it was a great time.
SPEAKER_05 (08:22):
Yeah, I was it was exciting to see.
Um and just how the I I feltlike the church responded.
And I the worship part, Joy andI is we were coming up to that,
was the one thing that I wasreally worried about.
I'm like, I don't know, maybe weshould bring in a band.
Like that part felt likewatching a worship team on
screen, that's gonna be weird.
But man, I I cranked it up.
You know, I had that sound whenI was dialed in it up.
(08:44):
Um they were singing, but man, Icould hear the ladies in the
room singing.
I was like, they're they're allin on this thing.
So it was just really cool tosee um see how the church
responded to it.
I'm I'm just praying that youknow the Lord will continue to
use that event and the thingsthat um the ladies got to learn
that day, uh you know, in thecoming months to really make an
(09:04):
impact in those those ladies'lives.
SPEAKER_03 (09:06):
Um Joey, what kind of challenges did she leave for
the ladies before they all left?
SPEAKER_02 (09:11):
Yeah, she encouraged them to um be in their Bible,
she encouraged them to beengaged in prayer.
She encouraged them to look thatprayer, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (09:22):
I you gave me a big box of uh prayer cards coming
out, and I'm like, where didthese all come from?
SPEAKER_02 (09:28):
Well, okay, so we collected their prayer cards.
We had a couple of sessionswhere we engaged in prayer, and
then one of them we werecollecting prayer requests on
cards, and we had them turn themin.
And at the end, we were supposedto have everyone take one.
I might have forgot to give itto you at the door, and so I was
like, here, take this, eventhough some women have already
(09:49):
left.
Um, but yeah, she encouraged usto take one, two, three prayer
cards and be praying for it overthe next week.
SPEAKER_03 (09:57):
That was cool.
SPEAKER_02 (09:58):
It was pretty cool.
SPEAKER_05 (09:59):
And she, like I said, that was one of the things
for being a virtual thing, shereally kind of brought out
engagement of the of the peoplein the room, and I thought that
was a neat way to make a virtualevent feel a whole lot more
intimate um than it could havebeen otherwise, I guess.
So um, so that was an excitingevent, but we're not done with
exciting events here at thechurch.
(10:20):
We got uh couple really othersome big things coming up.
Uh, one, we just had ourbusiness meeting, which I know
nobody gets real excited aboutbusiness meetings, but we're
excited it's over.
Uh man, I I love thatopportunity to look back and as
I'm preparing for it, and I lookback over the year and it's
(10:40):
like, man, look at all thethings that that we did this
year as a church, the thingsthat we got to be a part of, the
lives that were impacted.
Um I I think I shared at thebusiness meeting since June, our
average weekly attendance hasgone up, you know, almost 73
people.
Our kids' ministry has grown byalmost 40 kids a week.
Um, and so it's man, God hasbeen so faithful in in what he's
(11:04):
doing here at A Fresh Win.
It was a great time to celebratethat.
The budget did get passed, sothat was also a highlight of the
day, and it's something tocelebrate.
SPEAKER_00 (11:12):
And it is cool to, you know, as things uh keep
increasing, whether numbers orwhatever, you know, just in
other provisions, you know, Ioften I look back on it, I
remember when Tim and I um werestarting our church here.
We felt that call, we we knewGod was in it.
We and we were like, okay, howare we gonna do this?
(11:34):
And we found a place to to togather, and we're like, we need
chairs.
Oh, we can't just sit on thefloor.
Um and and and and I remember Iremember telling Tim, here's
some chairs.
We saw found some chairs uhsomewhere.
And uh and we're like, oh, howare we gonna buy those?
And then we had just a a friendof ours, and he's like, Hey, you
(11:55):
need he he just volunteered.
He's like, Oh, I heard you'restarting this, I believe this is
a god thing.
And he's like, I'll give you themoney for that.
And it was the amount of moneywas so small, and and it's just
awesome.
And but just that provision ofthat very beginning, just that
provision to all the way to totoday, all these years later,
just the provisions.
And then of course we werealways doing these things in
(12:17):
faith, you know, trusting God'sgonna take care of all this.
We don't know how it's all gonnayou know work out, but God's
gonna provide.
Tim always reminds me of that.
You know, God's providing.
So it it should be somethingthat is really exciting and
encouraging, you know, to toeach of us that have been there
from that from that start,especially, you know, watching
(12:39):
God do something there.
SPEAKER_05 (12:40):
Yeah.
And if you're not a partner,you're you're invited to these
business meetings.
And I honestly I know business,but we should probably just name
it something different, youknow.
I I name it, I name everythingwhat it is, you know, but maybe
if I came up with a better name,people would show up.
Um But it's it's an excitingtime to look and see what God
has done and and get to be apart of that.
(13:01):
And um, I remember talking withKathy, who's our finance
director here at the church, andwe were working on putting the
budget together and everything,and she's like, Man, do you know
how to work miracles?
I was like, Nope, but I knowsomeone who does.
And uh and the church, uh, ourpartners uh showed up and and
like I said, the budget'sapproved, so we're looking
(13:22):
forward to another year ofministry of what God's gonna do.
And then this weekend we havethe fall fest, and so uh this is
a huge community event that wethrow on.
And so if you're listeningtoday, would encourage you to
come on out on Saturday from 10to 2.
Um, volunteer if if you'd liketo be a part of that.
There's still uh spaces whereyou can do that.
The 25th, yeah.
(13:42):
I guess if listening to thisafter October 25th, 2025.
Don't show up on Saturday.
Um, but uh if you do, we'd loveto have you there.
Uh whether just to come andenjoy it or to volunteer and be
a part of it.
Um and then I think November2nd, we have a baptism uh
scheduled.
SPEAKER_03 (14:00):
Yeah, we're at 27, I think you said in the business
meeting so far this year.
So far this year.
SPEAKER_05 (14:05):
It's been great.
Um I think we've got another uhman, I want to say another five
or six, seven people alreadysigned up for the baptism in
November.
Um so it's not too late.
We'd love for you to head to ourwebsite, get signed up if you
want to be a part of that.
God is doing some some greatthings.
We want to celebrate that stepof obedience.
SPEAKER_03 (14:24):
We don't celebrate the number, we celebrate
celebrate the person behind thenumber.
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_05 (14:29):
All right, that's our event uh highlights.
Now we're gonna jump into youroriginally scheduled
programming, the midweekpodcast, where we are walking
through our October series,Reformation Roots, and uh we're
we're diving into to this uhthis Protestant reformation that
that came about after MartinLuther uh 500 years ago showed
(14:53):
up uh to the church inWittenberg, Germany, and he
nailed his 95 thesis uh to thechurch doors there.
And out of those came what theythey've coined uh the five
solas, um, scripture alone,faith alone, grace alone, Christ
alone, for the glory of Godalone.
And so we are walking througheach of those uh throughout this
(15:14):
sermon series.
And um Tim, two weeks ago youtalked about faith alone.
Uh, and then this past Sunday, Italked about grace alone.
And what's gonna be really coolabout this podcast, I guess, is
those two things go togetherlike hand in glove.
You can't, you don't experienceone without the other, you know,
(15:36):
and so this intersection wheregrace meets faith, and then what
God does in that moment is islife-changing.
It's been changing the world forthousands of years.
SPEAKER_03 (15:46):
Yeah, Christ alone comes into that too.
Um because we can't have faithin faith.
I've met a lot of people whohave faith in their faith, yeah,
and they don't have faith inJesus.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (15:59):
When we say Sunday, so make sure you show up for
that week, too.
SPEAKER_03 (16:02):
Okay, all right.
Um it's very important that whenwe say uh faith alone, that your
faith is in Jesus alone.
Absolutely.
And uh some guy's got a gooddenomination or some good church
or some good doctrine, and youplace your faith in that, you're
(16:23):
missing the mark.
You've got to place your faithin Jesus.
And I think I I think sometimeswe get we put our faith in the
scripture and uh and you knowwhat what my favorite preacher
says and we we can't miss thefact that salvation redemption
(16:44):
comes through faith in Jesus.
Yeah.
And I'll preach it again.
I got my notes right here.
SPEAKER_05 (16:53):
And that that that is it's so important, and we're
gonna dive into to what thatlooks like, especially this this
Christ alone aspect on onSunday.
Um because it is in our world,it's put your faith in whatever
you want, you know.
Um and it there's so muchconfusion in the world of of
where we find purpose, meaning,salvation, even.
(17:16):
Um and and Jesus is clear,scripture is clear, it's Christ
alone.
SPEAKER_03 (17:21):
Um it was a crazy Sunday that Sunday.
We were doing everything.
It was pastor appreciation.
SPEAKER_02 (17:28):
Um children's director announcement.
Yeah, you had like five minutesto preach, but yeah, you used
more than five minutes.
SPEAKER_03 (17:36):
Yes, I did.
So how do you think it wentover?
SPEAKER_02 (17:39):
It was good.
I liked it.
Actually, we um had mothsful menin our life group um last week
who said it really impactedthem.
SPEAKER_05 (17:47):
Yeah.
Um Grama Carroll, she came upafter uh at the church.
She said it was a good service,but boy, it was hit long.
She sat down in a chair by thedoor.
Uh she's I think we justexhausted her.
SPEAKER_02 (18:02):
Not your husband, the other pastor.
SPEAKER_05 (18:06):
It's me.
Um, but yeah, we got to LifeGroup on whatever night that
was, and a couple of the guys inthe group were just talking
about how impactful that sermonon faith alone was, and how God
has all week has been bringingit up to them and reminding them
of that.
If it's faith alone.
SPEAKER_03 (18:26):
Um and so and I think once you grasp a hold of
it, it'll set you free.
Teresa was talking about um asfar as grace goes, um, while I
was studying for that faithalone sermon, that uh God sits
on a throne of grace.
It's made of grace, you know,and it's not a flippant thing.
(18:51):
The Bible never says anythingflippantly.
And it's it's important for usto understand that um when you
place your faith in Jesus, thensuddenly you have all that
grace.
I think it was Tony Evans,Teresa, is that right, Tony
Evans, who said um thedefinition of grace is God's um
(19:16):
never-ending goodness, somethinglike that.
And I always thought about thatyou know, every time you need
grace, every time you needmoney, you go to the ATM and one
day it'll be empty.
Or it limits how much you canget.
But when you go to God's thronefor grace, there's no limits.
(19:38):
Is how he said it.
SPEAKER_05 (19:39):
Yeah, it's and I think that's how I I talked
about it on Sunday.
It's it's inexhaustible.
Scripture says his mercy is newevery morning.
Um, there is a fresh supply ofmercy to get you through every
single day.
Um, and so you you can't get tothe bottom of I think I compared
it to the French fries at RedRobin, and I think I heard
Teresa be like, Really, what iswrong with you?
(20:03):
Who compares the grace of God toFrench fries?
Me.
SPEAKER_02 (20:08):
French fries at Caleb and Emily's.
SPEAKER_05 (20:11):
Yeah, Caleb and Emily's housekeeping party.
SPEAKER_03 (20:13):
Those were, I think, Fry and Friday.
Yeah, beef tunnel.
The ladies were rubbing them ontheir face.
A little moisturizer.
SPEAKER_00 (20:25):
But I'm lost.
SPEAKER_05 (20:28):
Right in the intersection of grace and faith,
we're lost.
Okay.
Um, but here's here's the thingabout grace is it shocks us
because it runs againsteverything we've been taught.
Everything we've experienced inin life.
Even, you know, in our we try toextend grace to our kids, you
know, when they get it wrong,but man, there's so many times I
(20:48):
I can look back and I can belike, man, I wasn't very
graceful in that moment.
Um, you know, I I had Kevin'sbirthday was last month, and um
I had asked him to do thedishes, and it was the day
before his birthday, and hehates doing the dishes.
Everyone in my house hates doingthe dishes.
(21:09):
Everyone in my house hatescleaning, but he he particularly
hates doing the dishes.
I said, Gavin, can you can youget these dishes done for me?
And I had gone, I mean, likewe're on our third or fourth
go-around of me trying to gethim to do the dishes.
He finally walks over to thesink, and as I'm walking by, I
just hear him go, You could dothe dishes.
And yeah, I I about lost it.
(21:33):
Um and and now looking back asyou know, talking about grace,
I'm like, that's that wasn'tvery graceful, their their
pastor Ryan.
Um, and it's the thing that weall want.
I want grace.
I want grace from from Joy.
I want grace from my kids when Iscrew up and get it wrong.
I I want grace from our church.
(21:54):
If I, you know, offend somebodyor I wasn't there when they they
wanted me to be there and neededme.
Um I want grace.
But as soon as you hurt me,grace is the last thing that we
want to give, you know?
And we have learned that, man,if I if I'm gonna get someone's
approval, if I'm gonna getsomeone's forgiveness, I've got
to work for it.
Right.
There's things that I've got todo.
(22:16):
And then you come to scripture,and we've realized, man, that's
not how God defines grace atall.
No, it is because of his greatlove for us.
That's why we get grace.
Not not because we earned it,not because I I did something
that God was was real excitedabout.
(22:36):
He did it because he loves me,and that's it.
And and man, it I think it'sit's easy.
We we've talked about thisbefore.
It's it's easy to comprehend.
It he does it because he lovesme, but man, is it hard to live
out?
SPEAKER_03 (22:52):
I think it's the inner turmoil that we have with
our pride and well, Lord, Idon't need your grace today.
I got this one, you know, take aday off.
And the Lord saying, No, youneed me every day, every breath.
And I think that's why uh thisfaith alone is so important
because it frees you from havingto come up with the right words
(23:17):
or being in the right spot atthe right time and and all those
things that we're like, man, ifI would have been there, or uh
if I should have said thisinstead of that.
Um and we we beat ourselves upbecause we're embarrassed.
You know, we think, Man, Ishould I've been a Christian for
how long?
I should have been ready forthat.
(23:38):
Um but the Lord is not onlygracious, but he's like, I got
that.
I got that.
Wherever you mess up, I'vealready taken care of that.
Let's go.
Keep following.
So I I I'd man, this this hasbeen more I thought we were
gonna get ready to do a goodsolid five dry sermons of
(24:04):
doctrine.
And um but these this this partof doctrine has been uh really
good, I think for the church anduh for me to get back in there
and wrestle with these thingsand say, you know what, I I
don't have to be perfect becausehe's been perfect for me.
SPEAKER_00 (24:21):
I I think growing up I grew up in a little bit of a
different type of uh faithsystem and I didn't hear a lot
about grace other than maybesinging amazing grace.
Um there was a lot of uh yourbehavior has a lot to do with
your faith system, and Istruggled so deeply with that.
(24:43):
So um and when I when I when Itrusted when I finally came to
Christ, and I mean I had grownup in church and I heard the
word all the time, but I Ididn't uh trust it to put my
faith in him actively until Iwas 21.
And one of the things that Iwanted to grow in and learn was
okay, so Lord, what is reallyup?
(25:04):
Did you save me or do I have todo something here?
And the idea of grace and gracealone is is is such a freeing
thing that some people will tellyou that and there are people
that take advantage or try totake advantage of God's grace.
They do.
And in fact, I had brought youguys a scripture back in the
(25:25):
book of Jude, he actually giveswarning and and he actually says
there are people that are goingto come into your bodies, into
your assemblies, and they'regoing to take advantage of the
grace of God.
And says that these people willcome in and they will uh try to,
(25:46):
you know, they're gonna try toteach you things that are not
true, and they're gonna kind ofunder the with the idea of, oh,
we're covered by grace, we cando what we want.
God did not give us grace sothat we can just run amok and do
whatever it is that we want todo.
God gave us grace so that wehave the power to actually live
out what God has called us todo.
(26:07):
And you know, like I said, untilyou really start to understand
that, it's so important tounderstand that and this this
this beautiful gift of who Godis and and that like you talked
about, that his throne is builton grace.
This is who he is.
When you start to trulyunderstand that, and it's not
how I've worked responded andand and uh you know whether I've
(26:29):
been a good girl or a bad girl,just that's so silly.
But just that that I amabsolutely his whole salvation
comes by his grace alone to me.
What a beautiful thing.
It's so freeing, it's so dil,it's so um it is so uh I mean it
gives you something to to buildyour life on.
And anyhow, to me, it's such apowerful thing.
(26:50):
I I I think is one of thegreatest things you can learn is
that you're truly covered in thegrace of God.
And and like I said, not so thatyou can run amok and do whatever
you want and think, oh I'm I'mI'm I'm covered in God's grace,
I can do what I want.
But so that you know I'm coveredin God's grace.
Thank God I'm covered in God'sgrace.
SPEAKER_05 (27:08):
Yeah.
I grew up probably a verysimilar sort of idea, um,
thinking that my performance wasreally, you know, God's grace
was definitely dependent on howI performed throughout the week.
Um, and man, I I was worried,like, God, don't let me get hit
by a truck on Tuesday because Igotta get back to church.
I gotta, I gotta confess somestuff.
(27:29):
I've screwed up this week.
Um and and you you live in thiscycle of constantly trying to to
be good enough.
SPEAKER_03 (27:37):
Um and we live in a prove it your prove yourself
culture.
You know, we're always uh someof us are hesitant to go back to
our high school reunion, youknow.
Uh so what are you doing now?
Um same thing I was doing inhigh school, you know.
So we had a we ha we have thispride issue that is weird
(28:02):
because if you talk to usintellectually like if I asked
Joy, and have you been goodenough for your salvation?
She would say, Absolutely not.
I need Jesus, you know.
But we react to things like umour failures uh in a very I
(28:22):
should have, I you know, I couldhave and we we get this guilt
when God already knew that thiswas gonna happen and He's He's
saved you anyways.
Um I got a quote from not Timthe tool man, man, my memory is
going.
(28:43):
But he used to say, um failureis not a person, it's an event.
And we gotta we gotta learnthat.
When we're in when we're inJesus uh and we fail, his grace
covers it right away.
You don't have to go back, youdon't have to um beat yourself
(29:05):
up, you don't have to get backto church and confess it.
Um that that's already been paidfor.
SPEAKER_05 (29:10):
Yeah.
And so as you kind of look wherethese these things begin to
intersect.
I mean, I think Luther said thatthat this idea of faith alone is
the doctrine on which the churchstands or false, because it
determines whether our hope isin Christ.
And so I here's where, and man,I was tempted in my sermon on
(29:32):
Sunday to dive in becausethere's huge debates on this
doctrine.
Um, and you can go, you know,complete reformed theology, you
know, the debate betweenCalvinist and Arminianist.
Um, but there's this idea thatto even express that I I need to
believe or trust in God, youknow, there's people who say,
(29:53):
Well, well, no, now you'veworked for your salvation
because you've had to confessit.
Um And you know, they got alltheir verses to to prove it.
And you can't argue with theirverses, but I'm like, yeah, but
what about this one?
Whosoever will, you know.
And so I think it's not so mucheither or sometimes it's and
both.
Um, and God's gonna work allthat out.
(30:14):
But if you, you know, if faithis just trust, it's simply
trust.
I trust in what God has done.
And so then grace, if you lookat it this way, grace is the
thing that provides the gift andfaith unwraps it.
I mean, I haven't worked for it.
I'm just trusting in the giftthat's already been given to me.
Um, and so you you talk about itthat way a lot.
(30:37):
What can you do with the gift?
You can receive it or you canreject it.
And and faith is that so graceis the gift.
Here, here is my grace for you,my my complete forgiveness for
you because of the love that Ihave for you.
Here it is.
And you can choose to acceptthat gift or you can choose to
reject it.
So faith doesn't earn oursalvation, it simply accepts it.
(30:59):
And it's that trust that says,God, what you have done on the
cross was enough.
It was enough for me.
SPEAKER_03 (31:06):
Sometimes we get trapped arguing what color brown
the mud is, you know.
And uh it salvation is amystery.
Uh Paul describes it as amystery, and there's gonna be
some things that we just can'twork out down here on it.
And if you got it all workedout, I'll be careful.
(31:28):
That's why the five solas was souh great, because it just laid
it down.
This is what we knowscripturally, it's by faith
alone, in grace alone, based onthe scripture alone, in Christ
alone for his glory and not you.
And that those five things uh Ithink really brought the church
(31:52):
alive again.
Uh because we were basically uhat that point we were just doing
what we were told.
No, you gotta do this, okay,I'll do that.
Well, now you gotta do this,okay.
I'll do that.
And uh it was based on whatwe're doing.
And that little whisper of theHoly Spirit, if you'll read
Luther's biography, was the justshall live by faith.
(32:16):
The just shall live by faith.
The just live by faith.
And that will kick you in theteeth every time you don't know
if you're gonna pay your bills,every time you know someone's
sick and you don't know what'sgoing on, or um you took a test
and you just don't know.
And the Lord's saying, Hey, thisis how you're gonna live.
(32:41):
And it it's uh it's a difficultconcept to get a hold of, but
once you do um it's freedom.
It's freedom.
Um Galatians is a great place touh find all that, that we're
just we're free.
Why are we free for freedom?
(33:03):
I love that.
And um I don't know, when I whenI think about this um whole idea
of uh faith and then grace thatthey marry together um what we
believe about Jesus andjustification in a in a way
that's perfectly Jesus and noneof us.
SPEAKER_05 (33:30):
Yeah.
What I I told the church on onthis past Sunday was and we we
need to to quit striving and tojust start trusting in what what
Christ has done, that his workwas enough and God saves you
because he loves you.
And and if you we would justreceive that man the f the
freedom that you're talkingabout that we could begin to
(33:52):
live with.
I wonder how how our lives wouldbe different.
And you know, Teresa talkedabout a little bit ago, but the
there's a the human propensity,you know, we're always looking
to to make this work to ouradvantage.
Um yeah, and so oh well God'sGod loves me and He's given me
(34:13):
grace and forgiveness, and sowell, how can I how can I take
advantage of that?
Um and man, I've seen it in myown life, I've seen it in my
children's lives, you know.
SPEAKER_03 (34:24):
Yeah, we see it a lot in our kids, don't we?
Don't we?
When we look we look how they'retrying to earn our our praise or
our satisfaction.
Um even in my little grandson,Will, he uh he first started now
he says look, Papa, look.
And but it started out look atme, you know, when he was first
(34:48):
started talking, he was like,Look at me, Papa.
And then he would go dosomething, you know.
And um and we gotta be carefulhow we train our kids that um
that they realize there's adifferent way you don't have to
earn God's look.
He's looking at you, he's zeroedin on you, and uh we gotta we
(35:11):
gotta teach them that.
SPEAKER_05 (35:13):
Yeah, and and then here's the the deal with grace,
and so grace it doesn't justsave, but it also trains us then
to live godly lives.
And so that's you know, Paul hehe talks about, well, should we
go on sinning that the grace ofGod may abound?
He says, Absolutely not.
How can you continue insomething that you've already
(35:33):
died to?
Right, you you have been buriedwith Christ, you have died with
him so that you can walk in thenewness of life.
And so I love how Paul inEphesians he he pairs this, you
know, because we want to sayit's not by works, we're not by
works, not by works, and it'snot by works, except Paul says
you've been saved by gracethrough faith.
(35:56):
This is not of yourselves.
God did this so that no one canboast about it, for God has
created you for good works.
And he puts them, I mean, Ithink it's within three verses.
He lists all of it.
Right.
And if we would just keepreading, and so we find, man,
okay, well, because of the gracethat God has given me, it then
empowers me then to go and livea godly life.
(36:19):
And so I'm not supposed to bebanking on the grace of God.
I'm not supposed to be trying tosee how how much on the edge of
this grace can I live and stillget to heaven.
Um, you know, how how much can Itow the line and God not just
pummel me?
You know, like that's what we'retrying to do.
(36:39):
And and that's why I think somany Christians we don't live in
joy.
We we don't have peace.
We're we're just as anxious asthe world is, is because we
spend so much of our Christianlife trying to live on the
outskirts and saying, I want togo to heaven.
I I want to I want to be saved.
(37:00):
I want to, I want all the Godthings and I want the blessings
of God.
I just also want to go live mylife this way.
It's all a video from this onesenator.
I can't even remember who itsaid.
And he says, I wake up everymorning and I tell myself, today
I you know I'm gonna be aChristian.
And by 10 a.m., I still want tobe a Christian, but I want to
smack somebody too.
Like that's man, that's whatwhere we're at, isn't it?
(37:23):
Like we're I I want to be aChristian, but I I want to go
and do these things too.
And we're trying to bank on themercy of God.
And and this is what I soundlike is God's grace available to
you today, right now?
Yes.
SPEAKER_03 (37:36):
His grace is available for you to say no to
what you want to do and yes towhat he's calling you to.
SPEAKER_00 (37:43):
And uh we want to use that grace uh for other
purposes, like Theresa sayingthe the people that come in and
they try to teach you, oh, sincewe're covered in grace, we can
do uh you know, we can dowhatever it is that pleases us,
as it says, whatever, you know,sensual pleasure.
So whatever our senses say, hey,this looks fun.
I want to see this, I want totouch this, I want to listen to
(38:05):
this.
I think going to the to whatwe're gonna be discussing in the
next week or so, this for theglory of God alone is something
that brings all these together,to be honest.
Because none of this makes a lotof sense.
Why does God do this?
What and it it's all about forhis glory and his purposes.
I've been saved to bring gloryto God.
(38:29):
And therefore, every decision,choice, all my life, every
decision, everything that I dois this reflect that?
Is that what this is is about?
That God has poured this graceon me so that I might live a
life that brings the glory.
Is that on me?
I can't do that.
That's craziness.
But when I completely put myfaith in him, I completely say
(38:52):
this is Lord, I I don't know howI even believe this.
I believe you even gave me thefaith to believe you.
And I'm just trusting what yousay about me.
And I and I live in thatfreedom.
And it's for his glory.
I think that connects all thesethings, you know, how how how we
walk this way.
I I just I I think it's it'sit's it's so powerful when you
(39:14):
learn these truths about who Godis and and this is for him where
that will change everything.
SPEAKER_03 (39:20):
It's part of our culture though.
You know, joy drives reallyfast.
Our culture says, you know, thespeed limit's 35.
But uh I'm gonna drive 42.
And I'm betting on the grace ofthat highway patrolman that he's
gonna say, I'm gonna let thatseven miles an hour go.
SPEAKER_02 (39:42):
No, I speed and I don't even think about the grace
of the police officer, which Ithink is what a lot of us do.
We go through life not thinkingabout grace, not paying
attention, not living our life.
I think, like really all of youI know, Teresa, and a couple of
you have mentioned it's freeing.
So I think that when we live inthat grace, not taking advantage
(40:04):
of that grace, it changeseverything about how we live.
I think as we grow closer to theLord, I think that changes who
we are and it changes trulyevery aspect of the way that we
live our life.
We're not trying to takeadvantage of it, but we're also
not like being overcome byeverything going on around us.
(40:29):
Like we're being intentionalabout who we are in Christ and
being rooted in him.
SPEAKER_03 (40:34):
In every circumstance.
Yeah, that makes sense.
And you gotta grow, you gottagrow into that.
Um work out your salvation withfear and trembling.
Uh, what was the other verse wewere studying there in um
Philippians?
Uh, live a life worthy of thegospel.
Yep.
And uh, and then we're studyingin First Peter with the forge,
(40:56):
and it's like grow up into yoursalvation, you know, and that
that's what we're that's whatwe're trying to do.
I spent most of my life servingthe Lord with how far can I, how
much, how fast can I go before Iget a spanking?
You know, because you know,Hebrew Hebrews chapter 12 says,
I knew I was Jesus, Jesus' son.
(41:17):
I had received him and he hadjustified me and saved me
forever, but he really loves me,and he's not gonna get let me
get too far off the path withouta uh wake up call.
And uh I know a lot of peoplethink that God's gonna punish
you with um oh, you're gonna getcancer or you're gonna get uh in
(41:40):
a car crash, and that's howGod's spanking you.
No, no, he's going to say, I'llhold your joy till you're ready
to obey.
Live live your life when I wasgonna hire you and uh I said, I
don't know if I should hire him.
And the Lord said, Well then I'mI'm out.
(42:00):
You wanna start a church?
You can do it by yourself.
And and that's what he does.
He says, Okay, I'm your joy, I'myour everything.
Um do we do we want to have a arelationship problem?
It's I'm I'm still his son.
Um but when he stops talking tome, then I'm like, Where's
(42:22):
where's my freedom?
Where's my grace?
Where's my and I've got to turnaround and go back to the throne
to get to grace.
And help in time and need mercy,help in time and need.
Right.
Right when you think, you know,God's punishing you for
something, and you're like, God,why are you punishing me?
And he's like, No, bud, that'sall you.
SPEAKER_05 (42:42):
Yeah, I I think often the punishment that God
gives is He just gives us whatwe want.
Right.
You want that thing more thanme?
Yeah, have it.
And you get all the consequencesthat come with it.
Yep.
And you know, I was thinking asJoy was talking there, um she's
talking about we need to getcloser to God, and as we do, we
(43:04):
we begin to to understand thefreedom that's in it.
And I was thinking, man, howcould we carry the weight of all
this guilt and the shame and theregret if not for God?
If He didn't, I mean, in yoursermon a couple weeks ago, you
you were carrying around thisbackpack and you you walked it
up and you dropped it at the thefoot of the cross.
(43:25):
And I'm like, man, how many howmany of us were are still
carrying that thing around?
You know, um, we just pick it upand and walk around with it.
I mean, it's the whole pilgrim'sprogress sort of idea.
You know, we just walk aroundthis- But no, that's my idea.
Oh sorry, Tim's idea.
This this giant burden evergrowing on our back.
Um, and on Sunday, I was like,man, so I'm using you know
(43:49):
Ephesians chapter two here, andPaul's like, you're dead.
Yeah, you are dead.
There's no easy way to say it.
You're dead.
Not a life support, you're dead.
And I was like, if this is yourfirst time in church, I'm sorry.
If you're finally deciding togive this a try, I hate to tell
you because this isn't probablywhat you want to hear.
But Paul says, you're dead.
You're a zombie, you're a deadman walking.
(44:12):
That is who you are.
But grace has come because Godloves you and He can make you
alive in Christ.
He can take what was dead inyour life, he can make it brand
new.
Well, how do I experience that?
I experience it through faith.
It is through faith.
And when I put my faith andtrust in what God has done, then
(44:33):
all the old things in my lifepass away, and behold,
everything becomes brand new.
And from that moment on, I now,as a child of God, have
responsibility to the king.
Right.
To my dad.
You know, if my kids, I tellthem all the time, hey, you got
my last name.
There's some responsibilitiesthat go along with that.
How you live and how you behavewhen we send you to other
(44:55):
people's house, how you do yourschoolwork, all that stuff
matters.
Um, Joy, she makes sure thatthat he knows.
You know, uh, one of thegreatest things ever is our
school sends report cards everySunday, and Joy looks at them
every Sunday.
SPEAKER_03 (45:10):
Um you get to church.
That's a joke, Joy.
SPEAKER_02 (45:17):
Don't look at me like that.
But there's Gavin always islike, well, so and so can do
that.
I'm like, I don't care.
I'm not so-and-so's mom.
SPEAKER_05 (45:25):
Yeah, yeah.
And we want we want some otherfamily's rules, and God says,
You're mine.
You're mine.
And what does scripture tell us?
God disciplines those he loves.
You know, you're you're talkingabout that.
And so there's responsibility.
And so now I there, and and Itried to say it on Sunday, man.
(45:45):
Imagine all the things that havenot happened in the world
because God's people said no.
You know, if God prepared goodworks in advance that we are
supposed to do, that means thereare some good works out in the
world that God wants done, andit is assigned to me.
You know, we use Monday.com herefor our church software so that
(46:08):
we can assign tasks to people.
In Monday.com, God assigned thatgood work to you.
And now you have aresponsibility to go and and do
and walk in that good work.
I was like, man, I wonder howmany hospitals haven't been
built, how many kids are stilldon't have a home or are still
you know going to bed hungry orcold?
(46:28):
How many wells haven't beenbuilt?
How many businesses hasn'thaven't been started?
How many books haven't beenwritten?
SPEAKER_03 (46:36):
But man, you gotta you gotta pull back from that
and and live by faith.
Lord, did we need all thosethings that could have been?
And the Lord says, no, I I gotall that, guys.
It's not up to you.
We're letting people off thehook, Tim.
I'm just I'm just I think Ithink we gotta we gotta be
(46:59):
mature about this.
It's outside our realm ofthinking, because even today,
the Lord reminds me.
Live by faith.
SPEAKER_05 (47:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (47:11):
Just a few minutes ago, I was driving in the back,
I was putting those screensaway, and I looked at all that
grass in the back there, and Iwas like, who's gonna cut that
grass?
And the Lord said, You're gonnago talk about faith.
So let's just let's live byfaith.
SPEAKER_05 (47:28):
The truth is, God's got it.
And if when we are faithless,scripture says God is faithful.
So every good work that you passby and you didn't even think
about, or God put it right inyour face and you said no.
God has He hasn't lost controlof anything.
He's still seated on the throne,you know.
(47:50):
Um you guys talked about that.
I can't remember if it was Joyor Teresa, but you know, while
we're feet are on the earth, Godis still up in heaven.
He's still God.
We haven't changed anything.
And so God is going toaccomplish what he wants to
accomplish in the world.
I just think we we miss out onbeing used by him.
SPEAKER_03 (48:10):
And in the world, that's where the grace, the
freedom, the glory that he canreflect off of us.
It's it's huge.
The joy, the peace, the sense ofsatisfaction and accomplishment.
Um look what God did.
And he used me, and he had todrag me there, and he had to put
(48:31):
his foot on me to hold me there.
But look what happened.
Look what he did.
And uh sometimes uh we forgetall about forget about that
part.
We're always worried about well,what that's what's gonna is that
gonna cost me, you know, what'sthat gonna look like?
But when we get to heaven, we'regonna see that glory.
SPEAKER_05 (48:50):
Yeah.
And this God's grace is isbigger than you can imagine.
Um and when you got all thosethings wrong, listen, he's
covered it.
And so this isn't about makingyou feel guilty, but what I'm
challenging you with here is istrue joy in the Christian life
is found when you begin to stepinto those good works that God
(49:14):
has prepared for you.
And are they hard?
Sure, they're hard.
Are there are you always gonnalove it?
Not always right away, you know,but you'll find purpose and
satisfaction and joy as you sayyes to those things.
Jesus said, I came that youwould have life and that you
would have it to the full.
Grace and faith are the thingsthat empower us to grab a hold
(49:38):
of those things and live out thelife that you were created.
SPEAKER_03 (49:42):
And let go of that backpack and that big
expectation that you have.
You know, you hit the altar upthere and you say, God, I'm
gonna go, go, go, go.
Just tell me where to go.
And then you find yourselfwatching Netflix saying, Oh, I'm
just too tired, you know.
SPEAKER_02 (49:59):
Never too late.
Never too late to get to thecity.
SPEAKER_03 (50:01):
Never too late.
And just like you said, it'snever too late to get close to
him, you know, and and uh findout what it's like to have a
real relationship uh with him.
That's one of those things thatI think all Priscilla, what's
her last name?
Sreyer?
Shire.
Shire.
Um, she was talking about it atthat conference.
So boy, we've ran all the wayaround the circle.
(50:24):
You've been trying to not preachyour next sermon on this.
And uh it's buffing right upbecause you can't you're right,
it all goes together.
SPEAKER_05 (50:34):
Yeah, each one of these builds right on top of
each other, and it's hard to totalk about them independently of
one another.
Um, because yeah, I we need allfaith alone, we need grace
alone, but none makes sensewithout Christ alone.
Um, and so it's yeah, come cometo church on Sunday as we we
start to to talk about that too.
(50:55):
Um, Joy, Tracer, you guys gotanything else?
Kind of any thoughts on thisbefore we wrap up?
SPEAKER_03 (51:03):
Yeah, when we podcast, we we podcast hard.
You gotta break in there,ladies.
SPEAKER_02 (51:08):
You just there's never opportunity for us to
break in there.
SPEAKER_03 (51:12):
I know, we're just bing-bong and begging for so um
well, thank you for coming andlistening to us to podcast live.
SPEAKER_05 (51:20):
Got to hear it live.
SPEAKER_03 (51:24):
If Ryan's not talking, I'm over here breathing
hard in the mic.
SPEAKER_05 (51:29):
Stop it.
People need to go.
You pray for us.
SPEAKER_02 (51:35):
Oh, Jesus.
Thank you for who you are.
Thank you for the opportunity tocome on here and just talk
openly and freely about you andthe grace that you give to us.
Lord, I thank you that we canchoose to have faith in you and
in you alone.
And I thank you for the lifethat we have when we choose to
follow you.
(51:55):
I thank you for the joy and thepeace.
Lord, the contentment, just theability to see more than what's
right in front of us and in thisworld that we live in.
So, Jesus, we love you.
Pray that you'd have your way.
Jesus' name, amen.
unknown (52:10):
Amen and amen.
SPEAKER_01 (52:11):
Thanks again for joining us for this episode of
the Midweek Podcast.
We'd love to hear from you.
Let us know how God is usingthis resource in your life or
send any podcast questions ortopic ideas to podcast at a
freshwind.org.
If you would like to supportthis ministry financially and
help us continue offering newresources that equip you to
discover more in Christ, simplytext any amount to the number
(52:34):
84321.
We're so grateful for yoursupport.
Make sure to tune in next weekfor a brand new episode of the
Midweek Podcast.
Be blessed and have a greatweek.
Welcome and thanks for joining us on this episode
of the Midweek Podcast, broughtto you by Fresh Wind Church.
Each week, our team brings younew content to help you take
steps towards Jesus and discovermore in Christ.
Today's episode is hosted byPastor Ryan.
SPEAKER_05 (00:27):
Well, hey everyone, welcome back to the Midweek
Podcast.
Pastor Ryan joined as alwayswith Pastor Tim.
And uh this week it's a prettyspecial episode because Tim,
today we're joined by our wives.
We got Joy and Teresa in theroom with us today.
And so, uh, ladies, excited tohave you on the podcast with us.
Girl Power.
Girl Power.
(00:48):
Um so last, not this pastweekend, but the weekend before,
uh, we had the opportunity tohost here at the church the Go
and Beyond Women's Conference.
And uh that was the first timewe've done something like that
in quite a while.
Um just super excited to see uhhow the church showed up and
engaged in that.
And so would love to kind ofhear from you guys.
(01:10):
Um, you know, what what stoodout to you from that event and
kind of if you could give us alittle bit of a recap.
Silence.
SPEAKER_00 (01:20):
Okay.
Well, are you gonna I guess I'llgo first.
A recap.
It was great.
A little recap, yeah.
It was a great we um had I thinkabout 80, 80 women uh came, and
we had uh we had a lot ofchildren uh that uh came also,
and we're so thankful for we hada church that had a lot of uh
(01:41):
teenagers and men took overwatching them, but the ladies
had a great time.
Um we had some great teaching,great music, we had some awesome
prayer times together, and uh wealso had lunch together, and um
it was just it was I thought itwas an awesome day.
Had a lot of great feedback froma lot of the ladies that were
there, so it was a great, greattime.
SPEAKER_05 (02:02):
Yeah, I was I had the opportunity, I guess, to to
be in the room running themedia.
Jared, you know, he kept tryingto offer to trade spots with me.
Of course, he was with the kids.
He's like, Well, you want totrade out, and I'm like, I'm
doing God's work back here,Jared.
SPEAKER_02 (02:17):
From the moment I asked him if he would help for
the kids, he was like, How aboutI do the media?
SPEAKER_05 (02:22):
Yeah, yeah.
He wanted the he wanted to getin that media booth real bad.
SPEAKER_02 (02:26):
But I told him I would try to get him in the
media booth and then it didn'twork.
SPEAKER_05 (02:29):
Yeah, no, no, your husband had to be in there.
But um, you know, I was so I wasin the room.
I was one of the only guys whogot to be in the room that day.
Um, and I tried to give the theladies who showed up their
privacy.
I wasn't trying to like hang outand observe everything going on.
You know, it was a women's eventand wanted to give them their
space.
But um, one of the things thatPriscilla did in the conference
is she kind of forced people,even though it was a simulcast,
(02:53):
so it was you know donevirtually, she forced the the
ladies there to engage inprayer.
And she had, you know, timeswhere ladies she was asking them
to stand up and and then otherpeople to go around the room and
pray.
And after that, just watchinghow our church responded to
that, I guess, a little bit.
I walked out and uh Tim's like,How's it going in there?
(03:13):
And I tried to tell him, I waslike, Man, it's it's going good.
And then I just started crying.
I had to walk away.
SPEAKER_03 (03:20):
Yeah.
So who was there?
Was it older ladies, youngerladies, ladies, ladies, ladies?
SPEAKER_02 (03:26):
I think we had a good mix of older women and
younger women.
Um there's one point where theyhad anyone who was 25 or under
stand up, and there was severalpeople.
Yeah.
So that was cool.
SPEAKER_00 (03:40):
Yeah, it was kind of cool because that was part of
what we were talking about washow our testimonies and how what
we have been through, how itthat when we testify about what
God has done, how that is such aa living proof to you know,
others that God can do for me aswell.
And you know, we had people thatwould stand and it's like, yes,
God has led me through that, anduh I'll pray for you as you are
(04:03):
seeking those similar types ofanswers from God.
That was really cool.
And one of them was you know,the the young ladies, you know,
and just encouraging them tostand up and and just you know
to remain faithful to the Lord.
We live in such weird times,such uh difficult times.
And um just encouraging those.
I mean, I think it like I said,it was great because both young
(04:25):
and older, we had a few ladiesthat I think just a few, but we
had a few that were up there,and uh that was really, really
exciting.
SPEAKER_05 (04:34):
Yeah, what would you s you guys say um your kind of
biggest takeaway from the event?
What stood out to you, or youknow, what what did you write
down in your notebook that youyou know really meant a lot to
you?
SPEAKER_02 (04:46):
Yeah, I think for me, the most powerful thing or
the part that stood out the mostwas we kind of already hit on
it, but the prayer.
Um, you know, or just prayingabout it, going into it.
Obviously, it was it was a liveevent, but like we weren't live
with Priscilla Shire and withthe worship team.
So I was a little bit nervousthat our ladies here at Fresh
(05:10):
Wind would feel that, like itwould be a little awkward, but
they really participated andsought the Lord and prayed for
each other.
And I just thought it was areally powerful moment.
Um, and I would say, other thanthat, just learning, not
learning, because obviously wealready know that we have to
continually go back to our firstlove, but how she broke it down
and encouraged us to do that.
(05:31):
I thought that was good.
SPEAKER_05 (05:32):
I love it.
Teresa, what about you?
SPEAKER_00 (05:34):
There was a phenomenal drummer.
Uh, you know, I enjoyed Ienjoyed that part of it a lot.
Uh, you know, I love music, soyou know, that's the kinds of
things I I just my my mind goesright to it.
Um so that part was reallyenjoyable.
I I also liked the her contentand how she really related to
(05:56):
people um with her children andsome experiences and some of the
things she had talked aboutteaching her trying to teach her
children when they were growingup.
That was really impactful for alot of women here.
And I knew that would be becausewhen I had listened to that
previously, I had heard that andI thought, what a great
opportunity for people who haveyoung children, you know, minor
(06:18):
grown.
But you know, and and it's funnybecause in the feedback I had
from a few ladies, they allsaid, Oh my gosh, I wrote that
down.
I wrote that down.
So I thought it was great.
Just you know, she reminded usthat you know John uh in in
writing in Revelation was in ain a you know, he had been
exiled to uh at an area at theisland of Patmas that was a rock
(06:40):
quarry, that you know,everything in his life was hard
and miserable, and that youknow, he got sentenced to this
place.
But the idea is that no matterhow hard and how difficult the
places that you are in, God wasgetting ready to reveal perhaps
the greatest revelation orunfolding or uh uh revealing of
who Christ really was and thosemessages that would be for his
(07:05):
church.
And I you know, I just I I lovethat because it you know, for
for what doing ministry it justseems like so many times there's
like so many hard places.
And and I'm not saying thatthat's any different in life,
but um just you know alwayslooking for God to to have an
outpouring of of revealing somethings to people.
(07:26):
I I mean that's the thing thatbrings me greatest joy when when
people get a glimpse of who Godreally is, and you know, and so
I think that was veryencouraging.
I really stuck with me that uhjust that message to keep going.
And then also that God hadactually revealed to him uh
here, come up here and look intothe heavens and and and reveal
(07:46):
that what's going on at the sametime that we're living here with
our feet on the ground, livingin this messed up world, the
Lord is on the throne and not hehas not given that up.
He has not because you know theworld has gone crazy, he has not
changed, he has not, his planshave not been thwarted.
Just that great reminder for allthose that were there, and just
(08:08):
a great reminder for all of us.
So I think it was a it reallywas well.
It was done well.
I had a lot of women said thatit was great, had a lot of women
that were loved or teaching, youknow.
So it was a great time.
SPEAKER_05 (08:22):
Yeah, I was it was exciting to see.
Um and just how the I I feltlike the church responded.
And I the worship part, Joy andI is we were coming up to that,
was the one thing that I wasreally worried about.
I'm like, I don't know, maybe weshould bring in a band.
Like that part felt likewatching a worship team on
screen, that's gonna be weird.
But man, I I cranked it up.
You know, I had that sound whenI was dialed in it up.
(08:44):
Um they were singing, but man, Icould hear the ladies in the
room singing.
I was like, they're they're allin on this thing.
So it was just really cool tosee um see how the church
responded to it.
I'm I'm just praying that youknow the Lord will continue to
use that event and the thingsthat um the ladies got to learn
that day, uh you know, in thecoming months to really make an
(09:04):
impact in those those ladies'lives.
SPEAKER_03 (09:06):
Um Joey, what kind of challenges did she leave for
the ladies before they all left?
SPEAKER_02 (09:11):
Yeah, she encouraged them to um be in their Bible,
she encouraged them to beengaged in prayer.
She encouraged them to look thatprayer, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (09:22):
I you gave me a big box of uh prayer cards coming
out, and I'm like, where didthese all come from?
SPEAKER_02 (09:28):
Well, okay, so we collected their prayer cards.
We had a couple of sessionswhere we engaged in prayer, and
then one of them we werecollecting prayer requests on
cards, and we had them turn themin.
And at the end, we were supposedto have everyone take one.
I might have forgot to give itto you at the door, and so I was
like, here, take this, eventhough some women have already
(09:49):
left.
Um, but yeah, she encouraged usto take one, two, three prayer
cards and be praying for it overthe next week.
SPEAKER_03 (09:57):
That was cool.
SPEAKER_02 (09:58):
It was pretty cool.
SPEAKER_05 (09:59):
And she, like I said, that was one of the things
for being a virtual thing, shereally kind of brought out
engagement of the of the peoplein the room, and I thought that
was a neat way to make a virtualevent feel a whole lot more
intimate um than it could havebeen otherwise, I guess.
So um, so that was an excitingevent, but we're not done with
exciting events here at thechurch.
(10:20):
We got uh couple really othersome big things coming up.
Uh, one, we just had ourbusiness meeting, which I know
nobody gets real excited aboutbusiness meetings, but we're
excited it's over.
Uh man, I I love thatopportunity to look back and as
I'm preparing for it, and I lookback over the year and it's
(10:40):
like, man, look at all thethings that that we did this
year as a church, the thingsthat we got to be a part of, the
lives that were impacted.
Um I I think I shared at thebusiness meeting since June, our
average weekly attendance hasgone up, you know, almost 73
people.
Our kids' ministry has grown byalmost 40 kids a week.
Um, and so it's man, God hasbeen so faithful in in what he's
(11:04):
doing here at A Fresh Win.
It was a great time to celebratethat.
The budget did get passed, sothat was also a highlight of the
day, and it's something tocelebrate.
SPEAKER_00 (11:12):
And it is cool to, you know, as things uh keep
increasing, whether numbers orwhatever, you know, just in
other provisions, you know, Ioften I look back on it, I
remember when Tim and I um werestarting our church here.
We felt that call, we we knewGod was in it.
We and we were like, okay, howare we gonna do this?
(11:34):
And we found a place to to togather, and we're like, we need
chairs.
Oh, we can't just sit on thefloor.
Um and and and and I remember Iremember telling Tim, here's
some chairs.
We saw found some chairs uhsomewhere.
And uh and we're like, oh, howare we gonna buy those?
And then we had just a a friendof ours, and he's like, Hey, you
(11:55):
need he he just volunteered.
He's like, Oh, I heard you'restarting this, I believe this is
a god thing.
And he's like, I'll give you themoney for that.
And it was the amount of moneywas so small, and and it's just
awesome.
And but just that provision ofthat very beginning, just that
provision to all the way to totoday, all these years later,
just the provisions.
And then of course we werealways doing these things in
(12:17):
faith, you know, trusting God'sgonna take care of all this.
We don't know how it's all gonnayou know work out, but God's
gonna provide.
Tim always reminds me of that.
You know, God's providing.
So it it should be somethingthat is really exciting and
encouraging, you know, to toeach of us that have been there
from that from that start,especially, you know, watching
(12:39):
God do something there.
SPEAKER_05 (12:40):
Yeah.
And if you're not a partner,you're you're invited to these
business meetings.
And I honestly I know business,but we should probably just name
it something different, youknow.
I I name it, I name everythingwhat it is, you know, but maybe
if I came up with a better name,people would show up.
Um But it's it's an excitingtime to look and see what God
has done and and get to be apart of that.
(13:01):
And um, I remember talking withKathy, who's our finance
director here at the church, andwe were working on putting the
budget together and everything,and she's like, Man, do you know
how to work miracles?
I was like, Nope, but I knowsomeone who does.
And uh and the church, uh, ourpartners uh showed up and and
like I said, the budget'sapproved, so we're looking
(13:22):
forward to another year ofministry of what God's gonna do.
And then this weekend we havethe fall fest, and so uh this is
a huge community event that wethrow on.
And so if you're listeningtoday, would encourage you to
come on out on Saturday from 10to 2.
Um, volunteer if if you'd liketo be a part of that.
There's still uh spaces whereyou can do that.
The 25th, yeah.
(13:42):
I guess if listening to thisafter October 25th, 2025.
Don't show up on Saturday.
Um, but uh if you do, we'd loveto have you there.
Uh whether just to come andenjoy it or to volunteer and be
a part of it.
Um and then I think November2nd, we have a baptism uh
scheduled.
SPEAKER_03 (14:00):
Yeah, we're at 27, I think you said in the business
meeting so far this year.
So far this year.
SPEAKER_05 (14:05):
It's been great.
Um I think we've got another uhman, I want to say another five
or six, seven people alreadysigned up for the baptism in
November.
Um so it's not too late.
We'd love for you to head to ourwebsite, get signed up if you
want to be a part of that.
God is doing some some greatthings.
We want to celebrate that stepof obedience.
SPEAKER_03 (14:24):
We don't celebrate the number, we celebrate
celebrate the person behind thenumber.
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_05 (14:29):
All right, that's our event uh highlights.
Now we're gonna jump into youroriginally scheduled
programming, the midweekpodcast, where we are walking
through our October series,Reformation Roots, and uh we're
we're diving into to this uhthis Protestant reformation that
that came about after MartinLuther uh 500 years ago showed
(14:53):
up uh to the church inWittenberg, Germany, and he
nailed his 95 thesis uh to thechurch doors there.
And out of those came what theythey've coined uh the five
solas, um, scripture alone,faith alone, grace alone, Christ
alone, for the glory of Godalone.
And so we are walking througheach of those uh throughout this
(15:14):
sermon series.
And um Tim, two weeks ago youtalked about faith alone.
Uh, and then this past Sunday, Italked about grace alone.
And what's gonna be really coolabout this podcast, I guess, is
those two things go togetherlike hand in glove.
You can't, you don't experienceone without the other, you know,
(15:36):
and so this intersection wheregrace meets faith, and then what
God does in that moment is islife-changing.
It's been changing the world forthousands of years.
SPEAKER_03 (15:46):
Yeah, Christ alone comes into that too.
Um because we can't have faithin faith.
I've met a lot of people whohave faith in their faith, yeah,
and they don't have faith inJesus.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (15:59):
When we say Sunday, so make sure you show up for
that week, too.
SPEAKER_03 (16:02):
Okay, all right.
Um it's very important that whenwe say uh faith alone, that your
faith is in Jesus alone.
Absolutely.
And uh some guy's got a gooddenomination or some good church
or some good doctrine, and youplace your faith in that, you're
(16:23):
missing the mark.
You've got to place your faithin Jesus.
And I think I I think sometimeswe get we put our faith in the
scripture and uh and you knowwhat what my favorite preacher
says and we we can't miss thefact that salvation redemption
(16:44):
comes through faith in Jesus.
Yeah.
And I'll preach it again.
I got my notes right here.
SPEAKER_05 (16:53):
And that that that is it's so important, and we're
gonna dive into to what thatlooks like, especially this this
Christ alone aspect on onSunday.
Um because it is in our world,it's put your faith in whatever
you want, you know.
Um and it there's so muchconfusion in the world of of
where we find purpose, meaning,salvation, even.
(17:16):
Um and and Jesus is clear,scripture is clear, it's Christ
alone.
SPEAKER_03 (17:21):
Um it was a crazy Sunday that Sunday.
We were doing everything.
It was pastor appreciation.
SPEAKER_02 (17:28):
Um children's director announcement.
Yeah, you had like five minutesto preach, but yeah, you used
more than five minutes.
SPEAKER_03 (17:36):
Yes, I did.
So how do you think it wentover?
SPEAKER_02 (17:39):
It was good.
I liked it.
Actually, we um had mothsful menin our life group um last week
who said it really impactedthem.
SPEAKER_05 (17:47):
Yeah.
Um Grama Carroll, she came upafter uh at the church.
She said it was a good service,but boy, it was hit long.
She sat down in a chair by thedoor.
Uh she's I think we justexhausted her.
SPEAKER_02 (18:02):
Not your husband, the other pastor.
SPEAKER_05 (18:06):
It's me.
Um, but yeah, we got to LifeGroup on whatever night that
was, and a couple of the guys inthe group were just talking
about how impactful that sermonon faith alone was, and how God
has all week has been bringingit up to them and reminding them
of that.
If it's faith alone.
SPEAKER_03 (18:26):
Um and so and I think once you grasp a hold of
it, it'll set you free.
Teresa was talking about um asfar as grace goes, um, while I
was studying for that faithalone sermon, that uh God sits
on a throne of grace.
It's made of grace, you know,and it's not a flippant thing.
(18:51):
The Bible never says anythingflippantly.
And it's it's important for usto understand that um when you
place your faith in Jesus, thensuddenly you have all that
grace.
I think it was Tony Evans,Teresa, is that right, Tony
Evans, who said um thedefinition of grace is God's um
(19:16):
never-ending goodness, somethinglike that.
And I always thought about thatyou know, every time you need
grace, every time you needmoney, you go to the ATM and one
day it'll be empty.
Or it limits how much you canget.
But when you go to God's thronefor grace, there's no limits.
(19:38):
Is how he said it.
SPEAKER_05 (19:39):
Yeah, it's and I think that's how I I talked
about it on Sunday.
It's it's inexhaustible.
Scripture says his mercy is newevery morning.
Um, there is a fresh supply ofmercy to get you through every
single day.
Um, and so you you can't get tothe bottom of I think I compared
it to the French fries at RedRobin, and I think I heard
Teresa be like, Really, what iswrong with you?
(20:03):
Who compares the grace of God toFrench fries?
Me.
SPEAKER_02 (20:08):
French fries at Caleb and Emily's.
SPEAKER_05 (20:11):
Yeah, Caleb and Emily's housekeeping party.
SPEAKER_03 (20:13):
Those were, I think, Fry and Friday.
Yeah, beef tunnel.
The ladies were rubbing them ontheir face.
A little moisturizer.
SPEAKER_00 (20:25):
But I'm lost.
SPEAKER_05 (20:28):
Right in the intersection of grace and faith,
we're lost.
Okay.
Um, but here's here's the thingabout grace is it shocks us
because it runs againsteverything we've been taught.
Everything we've experienced inin life.
Even, you know, in our we try toextend grace to our kids, you
know, when they get it wrong,but man, there's so many times I
(20:48):
I can look back and I can belike, man, I wasn't very
graceful in that moment.
Um, you know, I I had Kevin'sbirthday was last month, and um
I had asked him to do thedishes, and it was the day
before his birthday, and hehates doing the dishes.
Everyone in my house hates doingthe dishes.
(21:09):
Everyone in my house hatescleaning, but he he particularly
hates doing the dishes.
I said, Gavin, can you can youget these dishes done for me?
And I had gone, I mean, likewe're on our third or fourth
go-around of me trying to gethim to do the dishes.
He finally walks over to thesink, and as I'm walking by, I
just hear him go, You could dothe dishes.
And yeah, I I about lost it.
(21:33):
Um and and now looking back asyou know, talking about grace,
I'm like, that's that wasn'tvery graceful, their their
pastor Ryan.
Um, and it's the thing that weall want.
I want grace.
I want grace from from Joy.
I want grace from my kids when Iscrew up and get it wrong.
I I want grace from our church.
(21:54):
If I, you know, offend somebodyor I wasn't there when they they
wanted me to be there and neededme.
Um I want grace.
But as soon as you hurt me,grace is the last thing that we
want to give, you know?
And we have learned that, man,if I if I'm gonna get someone's
approval, if I'm gonna getsomeone's forgiveness, I've got
to work for it.
Right.
There's things that I've got todo.
(22:16):
And then you come to scripture,and we've realized, man, that's
not how God defines grace atall.
No, it is because of his greatlove for us.
That's why we get grace.
Not not because we earned it,not because I I did something
that God was was real excitedabout.
(22:36):
He did it because he loves me,and that's it.
And and man, it I think it'sit's easy.
We we've talked about thisbefore.
It's it's easy to comprehend.
It he does it because he lovesme, but man, is it hard to live
out?
SPEAKER_03 (22:52):
I think it's the inner turmoil that we have with
our pride and well, Lord, Idon't need your grace today.
I got this one, you know, take aday off.
And the Lord saying, No, youneed me every day, every breath.
And I think that's why uh thisfaith alone is so important
because it frees you from havingto come up with the right words
(23:17):
or being in the right spot atthe right time and and all those
things that we're like, man, ifI would have been there, or uh
if I should have said thisinstead of that.
Um and we we beat ourselves upbecause we're embarrassed.
You know, we think, Man, Ishould I've been a Christian for
how long?
I should have been ready forthat.
(23:38):
Um but the Lord is not onlygracious, but he's like, I got
that.
I got that.
Wherever you mess up, I'vealready taken care of that.
Let's go.
Keep following.
So I I I'd man, this this hasbeen more I thought we were
gonna get ready to do a goodsolid five dry sermons of
(24:04):
doctrine.
And um but these this this partof doctrine has been uh really
good, I think for the church anduh for me to get back in there
and wrestle with these thingsand say, you know what, I I
don't have to be perfect becausehe's been perfect for me.
SPEAKER_00 (24:21):
I I think growing up I grew up in a little bit of a
different type of uh faithsystem and I didn't hear a lot
about grace other than maybesinging amazing grace.
Um there was a lot of uh yourbehavior has a lot to do with
your faith system, and Istruggled so deeply with that.
(24:43):
So um and when I when I when Itrusted when I finally came to
Christ, and I mean I had grownup in church and I heard the
word all the time, but I Ididn't uh trust it to put my
faith in him actively until Iwas 21.
And one of the things that Iwanted to grow in and learn was
okay, so Lord, what is reallyup?
(25:04):
Did you save me or do I have todo something here?
And the idea of grace and gracealone is is is such a freeing
thing that some people will tellyou that and there are people
that take advantage or try totake advantage of God's grace.
They do.
And in fact, I had brought youguys a scripture back in the
(25:25):
book of Jude, he actually giveswarning and and he actually says
there are people that are goingto come into your bodies, into
your assemblies, and they'regoing to take advantage of the
grace of God.
And says that these people willcome in and they will uh try to,
(25:46):
you know, they're gonna try toteach you things that are not
true, and they're gonna kind ofunder the with the idea of, oh,
we're covered by grace, we cando what we want.
God did not give us grace sothat we can just run amok and do
whatever it is that we want todo.
God gave us grace so that wehave the power to actually live
out what God has called us todo.
(26:07):
And you know, like I said, untilyou really start to understand
that, it's so important tounderstand that and this this
this beautiful gift of who Godis and and that like you talked
about, that his throne is builton grace.
This is who he is.
When you start to trulyunderstand that, and it's not
how I've worked responded andand and uh you know whether I've
(26:29):
been a good girl or a bad girl,just that's so silly.
But just that that I amabsolutely his whole salvation
comes by his grace alone to me.
What a beautiful thing.
It's so freeing, it's so dil,it's so um it is so uh I mean it
gives you something to to buildyour life on.
And anyhow, to me, it's such apowerful thing.
(26:50):
I I I think is one of thegreatest things you can learn is
that you're truly covered in thegrace of God.
And and like I said, not so thatyou can run amok and do whatever
you want and think, oh I'm I'mI'm I'm covered in God's grace,
I can do what I want.
But so that you know I'm coveredin God's grace.
Thank God I'm covered in God'sgrace.
SPEAKER_05 (27:08):
Yeah.
I grew up probably a verysimilar sort of idea, um,
thinking that my performance wasreally, you know, God's grace
was definitely dependent on howI performed throughout the week.
Um, and man, I I was worried,like, God, don't let me get hit
by a truck on Tuesday because Igotta get back to church.
I gotta, I gotta confess somestuff.
(27:29):
I've screwed up this week.
Um and and you you live in thiscycle of constantly trying to to
be good enough.
SPEAKER_03 (27:37):
Um and we live in a prove it your prove yourself
culture.
You know, we're always uh someof us are hesitant to go back to
our high school reunion, youknow.
Uh so what are you doing now?
Um same thing I was doing inhigh school, you know.
So we had a we ha we have thispride issue that is weird
(28:02):
because if you talk to usintellectually like if I asked
Joy, and have you been goodenough for your salvation?
She would say, Absolutely not.
I need Jesus, you know.
But we react to things like umour failures uh in a very I
(28:22):
should have, I you know, I couldhave and we we get this guilt
when God already knew that thiswas gonna happen and He's He's
saved you anyways.
Um I got a quote from not Timthe tool man, man, my memory is
going.
(28:43):
But he used to say, um failureis not a person, it's an event.
And we gotta we gotta learnthat.
When we're in when we're inJesus uh and we fail, his grace
covers it right away.
You don't have to go back, youdon't have to um beat yourself
(29:05):
up, you don't have to get backto church and confess it.
Um that that's already been paidfor.
SPEAKER_05 (29:10):
Yeah.
And so as you kind of look wherethese these things begin to
intersect.
I mean, I think Luther said thatthat this idea of faith alone is
the doctrine on which the churchstands or false, because it
determines whether our hope isin Christ.
And so I here's where, and man,I was tempted in my sermon on
(29:32):
Sunday to dive in becausethere's huge debates on this
doctrine.
Um, and you can go, you know,complete reformed theology, you
know, the debate betweenCalvinist and Arminianist.
Um, but there's this idea thatto even express that I I need to
believe or trust in God, youknow, there's people who say,
(29:53):
Well, well, no, now you'veworked for your salvation
because you've had to confessit.
Um And you know, they got alltheir verses to to prove it.
And you can't argue with theirverses, but I'm like, yeah, but
what about this one?
Whosoever will, you know.
And so I think it's not so mucheither or sometimes it's and
both.
Um, and God's gonna work allthat out.
(30:14):
But if you, you know, if faithis just trust, it's simply
trust.
I trust in what God has done.
And so then grace, if you lookat it this way, grace is the
thing that provides the gift andfaith unwraps it.
I mean, I haven't worked for it.
I'm just trusting in the giftthat's already been given to me.
Um, and so you you talk about itthat way a lot.
(30:37):
What can you do with the gift?
You can receive it or you canreject it.
And and faith is that so graceis the gift.
Here, here is my grace for you,my my complete forgiveness for
you because of the love that Ihave for you.
Here it is.
And you can choose to acceptthat gift or you can choose to
reject it.
So faith doesn't earn oursalvation, it simply accepts it.
(30:59):
And it's that trust that says,God, what you have done on the
cross was enough.
It was enough for me.
SPEAKER_03 (31:06):
Sometimes we get trapped arguing what color brown
the mud is, you know.
And uh it salvation is amystery.
Uh Paul describes it as amystery, and there's gonna be
some things that we just can'twork out down here on it.
And if you got it all workedout, I'll be careful.
(31:28):
That's why the five solas was souh great, because it just laid
it down.
This is what we knowscripturally, it's by faith
alone, in grace alone, based onthe scripture alone, in Christ
alone for his glory and not you.
And that those five things uh Ithink really brought the church
(31:52):
alive again.
Uh because we were basically uhat that point we were just doing
what we were told.
No, you gotta do this, okay,I'll do that.
Well, now you gotta do this,okay.
I'll do that.
And uh it was based on whatwe're doing.
And that little whisper of theHoly Spirit, if you'll read
Luther's biography, was the justshall live by faith.
(32:16):
The just shall live by faith.
The just live by faith.
And that will kick you in theteeth every time you don't know
if you're gonna pay your bills,every time you know someone's
sick and you don't know what'sgoing on, or um you took a test
and you just don't know.
And the Lord's saying, Hey, thisis how you're gonna live.
(32:41):
And it it's uh it's a difficultconcept to get a hold of, but
once you do um it's freedom.
It's freedom.
Um Galatians is a great place touh find all that, that we're
just we're free.
Why are we free for freedom?
(33:03):
I love that.
And um I don't know, when I whenI think about this um whole idea
of uh faith and then grace thatthey marry together um what we
believe about Jesus andjustification in a in a way
that's perfectly Jesus and noneof us.
SPEAKER_05 (33:30):
Yeah.
What I I told the church on onthis past Sunday was and we we
need to to quit striving and tojust start trusting in what what
Christ has done, that his workwas enough and God saves you
because he loves you.
And and if you we would justreceive that man the f the
freedom that you're talkingabout that we could begin to
(33:52):
live with.
I wonder how how our lives wouldbe different.
And you know, Teresa talkedabout a little bit ago, but the
there's a the human propensity,you know, we're always looking
to to make this work to ouradvantage.
Um yeah, and so oh well God'sGod loves me and He's given me
(34:13):
grace and forgiveness, and sowell, how can I how can I take
advantage of that?
Um and man, I've seen it in myown life, I've seen it in my
children's lives, you know.
SPEAKER_03 (34:24):
Yeah, we see it a lot in our kids, don't we?
Don't we?
When we look we look how they'retrying to earn our our praise or
our satisfaction.
Um even in my little grandson,Will, he uh he first started now
he says look, Papa, look.
And but it started out look atme, you know, when he was first
(34:48):
started talking, he was like,Look at me, Papa.
And then he would go dosomething, you know.
And um and we gotta be carefulhow we train our kids that um
that they realize there's adifferent way you don't have to
earn God's look.
He's looking at you, he's zeroedin on you, and uh we gotta we
(35:11):
gotta teach them that.
SPEAKER_05 (35:13):
Yeah, and and then here's the the deal with grace,
and so grace it doesn't justsave, but it also trains us then
to live godly lives.
And so that's you know, Paul hehe talks about, well, should we
go on sinning that the grace ofGod may abound?
He says, Absolutely not.
How can you continue insomething that you've already
(35:33):
died to?
Right, you you have been buriedwith Christ, you have died with
him so that you can walk in thenewness of life.
And so I love how Paul inEphesians he he pairs this, you
know, because we want to sayit's not by works, we're not by
works, not by works, and it'snot by works, except Paul says
you've been saved by gracethrough faith.
(35:56):
This is not of yourselves.
God did this so that no one canboast about it, for God has
created you for good works.
And he puts them, I mean, Ithink it's within three verses.
He lists all of it.
Right.
And if we would just keepreading, and so we find, man,
okay, well, because of the gracethat God has given me, it then
empowers me then to go and livea godly life.
(36:19):
And so I'm not supposed to bebanking on the grace of God.
I'm not supposed to be trying tosee how how much on the edge of
this grace can I live and stillget to heaven.
Um, you know, how how much can Itow the line and God not just
pummel me?
You know, like that's what we'retrying to do.
(36:39):
And and that's why I think somany Christians we don't live in
joy.
We we don't have peace.
We're we're just as anxious asthe world is, is because we
spend so much of our Christianlife trying to live on the
outskirts and saying, I want togo to heaven.
I I want to I want to be saved.
(37:00):
I want to, I want all the Godthings and I want the blessings
of God.
I just also want to go live mylife this way.
It's all a video from this onesenator.
I can't even remember who itsaid.
And he says, I wake up everymorning and I tell myself, today
I you know I'm gonna be aChristian.
And by 10 a.m., I still want tobe a Christian, but I want to
smack somebody too.
Like that's man, that's whatwhere we're at, isn't it?
(37:23):
Like we're I I want to be aChristian, but I I want to go
and do these things too.
And we're trying to bank on themercy of God.
And and this is what I soundlike is God's grace available to
you today, right now?
Yes.
SPEAKER_03 (37:36):
His grace is available for you to say no to
what you want to do and yes towhat he's calling you to.
SPEAKER_00 (37:43):
And uh we want to use that grace uh for other
purposes, like Theresa sayingthe the people that come in and
they try to teach you, oh, sincewe're covered in grace, we can
do uh you know, we can dowhatever it is that pleases us,
as it says, whatever, you know,sensual pleasure.
So whatever our senses say, hey,this looks fun.
I want to see this, I want totouch this, I want to listen to
(38:05):
this.
I think going to the to whatwe're gonna be discussing in the
next week or so, this for theglory of God alone is something
that brings all these together,to be honest.
Because none of this makes a lotof sense.
Why does God do this?
What and it it's all about forhis glory and his purposes.
I've been saved to bring gloryto God.
(38:29):
And therefore, every decision,choice, all my life, every
decision, everything that I dois this reflect that?
Is that what this is is about?
That God has poured this graceon me so that I might live a
life that brings the glory.
Is that on me?
I can't do that.
That's craziness.
But when I completely put myfaith in him, I completely say
(38:52):
this is Lord, I I don't know howI even believe this.
I believe you even gave me thefaith to believe you.
And I'm just trusting what yousay about me.
And I and I live in thatfreedom.
And it's for his glory.
I think that connects all thesethings, you know, how how how we
walk this way.
I I just I I think it's it'sit's it's so powerful when you
(39:14):
learn these truths about who Godis and and this is for him where
that will change everything.
SPEAKER_03 (39:20):
It's part of our culture though.
You know, joy drives reallyfast.
Our culture says, you know, thespeed limit's 35.
But uh I'm gonna drive 42.
And I'm betting on the grace ofthat highway patrolman that he's
gonna say, I'm gonna let thatseven miles an hour go.
SPEAKER_02 (39:42):
No, I speed and I don't even think about the grace
of the police officer, which Ithink is what a lot of us do.
We go through life not thinkingabout grace, not paying
attention, not living our life.
I think, like really all of youI know, Teresa, and a couple of
you have mentioned it's freeing.
So I think that when we live inthat grace, not taking advantage
(40:04):
of that grace, it changeseverything about how we live.
I think as we grow closer to theLord, I think that changes who
we are and it changes trulyevery aspect of the way that we
live our life.
We're not trying to takeadvantage of it, but we're also
not like being overcome byeverything going on around us.
(40:29):
Like we're being intentionalabout who we are in Christ and
being rooted in him.
SPEAKER_03 (40:34):
In every circumstance.
Yeah, that makes sense.
And you gotta grow, you gottagrow into that.
Um work out your salvation withfear and trembling.
Uh, what was the other verse wewere studying there in um
Philippians?
Uh, live a life worthy of thegospel.
Yep.
And uh, and then we're studyingin First Peter with the forge,
(40:56):
and it's like grow up into yoursalvation, you know, and that
that's what we're that's whatwe're trying to do.
I spent most of my life servingthe Lord with how far can I, how
much, how fast can I go before Iget a spanking?
You know, because you know,Hebrew Hebrews chapter 12 says,
I knew I was Jesus, Jesus' son.
(41:17):
I had received him and he hadjustified me and saved me
forever, but he really loves me,and he's not gonna get let me
get too far off the path withouta uh wake up call.
And uh I know a lot of peoplethink that God's gonna punish
you with um oh, you're gonna getcancer or you're gonna get uh in
(41:40):
a car crash, and that's howGod's spanking you.
No, no, he's going to say, I'llhold your joy till you're ready
to obey.
Live live your life when I wasgonna hire you and uh I said, I
don't know if I should hire him.
And the Lord said, Well then I'mI'm out.
(42:00):
You wanna start a church?
You can do it by yourself.
And and that's what he does.
He says, Okay, I'm your joy, I'myour everything.
Um do we do we want to have a arelationship problem?
It's I'm I'm still his son.
Um but when he stops talking tome, then I'm like, Where's
(42:22):
where's my freedom?
Where's my grace?
Where's my and I've got to turnaround and go back to the throne
to get to grace.
And help in time and need mercy,help in time and need.
Right.
Right when you think, you know,God's punishing you for
something, and you're like, God,why are you punishing me?
And he's like, No, bud, that'sall you.
SPEAKER_05 (42:42):
Yeah, I I think often the punishment that God
gives is He just gives us whatwe want.
Right.
You want that thing more thanme?
Yeah, have it.
And you get all the consequencesthat come with it.
Yep.
And you know, I was thinking asJoy was talking there, um she's
talking about we need to getcloser to God, and as we do, we
(43:04):
we begin to to understand thefreedom that's in it.
And I was thinking, man, howcould we carry the weight of all
this guilt and the shame and theregret if not for God?
If He didn't, I mean, in yoursermon a couple weeks ago, you
you were carrying around thisbackpack and you you walked it
up and you dropped it at the thefoot of the cross.
(43:25):
And I'm like, man, how many howmany of us were are still
carrying that thing around?
You know, um, we just pick it upand and walk around with it.
I mean, it's the whole pilgrim'sprogress sort of idea.
You know, we just walk aroundthis- But no, that's my idea.
Oh sorry, Tim's idea.
This this giant burden evergrowing on our back.
Um, and on Sunday, I was like,man, so I'm using you know
(43:49):
Ephesians chapter two here, andPaul's like, you're dead.
Yeah, you are dead.
There's no easy way to say it.
You're dead.
Not a life support, you're dead.
And I was like, if this is yourfirst time in church, I'm sorry.
If you're finally deciding togive this a try, I hate to tell
you because this isn't probablywhat you want to hear.
But Paul says, you're dead.
You're a zombie, you're a deadman walking.
(44:12):
That is who you are.
But grace has come because Godloves you and He can make you
alive in Christ.
He can take what was dead inyour life, he can make it brand
new.
Well, how do I experience that?
I experience it through faith.
It is through faith.
And when I put my faith andtrust in what God has done, then
(44:33):
all the old things in my lifepass away, and behold,
everything becomes brand new.
And from that moment on, I now,as a child of God, have
responsibility to the king.
Right.
To my dad.
You know, if my kids, I tellthem all the time, hey, you got
my last name.
There's some responsibilitiesthat go along with that.
How you live and how you behavewhen we send you to other
(44:55):
people's house, how you do yourschoolwork, all that stuff
matters.
Um, Joy, she makes sure thatthat he knows.
You know, uh, one of thegreatest things ever is our
school sends report cards everySunday, and Joy looks at them
every Sunday.
SPEAKER_03 (45:10):
Um you get to church.
That's a joke, Joy.
SPEAKER_02 (45:17):
Don't look at me like that.
But there's Gavin always islike, well, so and so can do
that.
I'm like, I don't care.
I'm not so-and-so's mom.
SPEAKER_05 (45:25):
Yeah, yeah.
And we want we want some otherfamily's rules, and God says,
You're mine.
You're mine.
And what does scripture tell us?
God disciplines those he loves.
You know, you're you're talkingabout that.
And so there's responsibility.
And so now I there, and and Itried to say it on Sunday, man.
(45:45):
Imagine all the things that havenot happened in the world
because God's people said no.
You know, if God prepared goodworks in advance that we are
supposed to do, that means thereare some good works out in the
world that God wants done, andit is assigned to me.
You know, we use Monday.com herefor our church software so that
(46:08):
we can assign tasks to people.
In Monday.com, God assigned thatgood work to you.
And now you have aresponsibility to go and and do
and walk in that good work.
I was like, man, I wonder howmany hospitals haven't been
built, how many kids are stilldon't have a home or are still
you know going to bed hungry orcold?
(46:28):
How many wells haven't beenbuilt?
How many businesses hasn'thaven't been started?
How many books haven't beenwritten?
SPEAKER_03 (46:36):
But man, you gotta you gotta pull back from that
and and live by faith.
Lord, did we need all thosethings that could have been?
And the Lord says, no, I I gotall that, guys.
It's not up to you.
We're letting people off thehook, Tim.
I'm just I'm just I think Ithink we gotta we gotta be
(46:59):
mature about this.
It's outside our realm ofthinking, because even today,
the Lord reminds me.
Live by faith.
SPEAKER_05 (47:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (47:11):
Just a few minutes ago, I was driving in the back,
I was putting those screensaway, and I looked at all that
grass in the back there, and Iwas like, who's gonna cut that
grass?
And the Lord said, You're gonnago talk about faith.
So let's just let's live byfaith.
SPEAKER_05 (47:28):
The truth is, God's got it.
And if when we are faithless,scripture says God is faithful.
So every good work that you passby and you didn't even think
about, or God put it right inyour face and you said no.
God has He hasn't lost controlof anything.
He's still seated on the throne,you know.
(47:50):
Um you guys talked about that.
I can't remember if it was Joyor Teresa, but you know, while
we're feet are on the earth, Godis still up in heaven.
He's still God.
We haven't changed anything.
And so God is going toaccomplish what he wants to
accomplish in the world.
I just think we we miss out onbeing used by him.
SPEAKER_03 (48:10):
And in the world, that's where the grace, the
freedom, the glory that he canreflect off of us.
It's it's huge.
The joy, the peace, the sense ofsatisfaction and accomplishment.
Um look what God did.
And he used me, and he had todrag me there, and he had to put
(48:31):
his foot on me to hold me there.
But look what happened.
Look what he did.
And uh sometimes uh we forgetall about forget about that
part.
We're always worried about well,what that's what's gonna is that
gonna cost me, you know, what'sthat gonna look like?
But when we get to heaven, we'regonna see that glory.
SPEAKER_05 (48:50):
Yeah.
And this God's grace is isbigger than you can imagine.
Um and when you got all thosethings wrong, listen, he's
covered it.
And so this isn't about makingyou feel guilty, but what I'm
challenging you with here is istrue joy in the Christian life
is found when you begin to stepinto those good works that God
(49:14):
has prepared for you.
And are they hard?
Sure, they're hard.
Are there are you always gonnalove it?
Not always right away, you know,but you'll find purpose and
satisfaction and joy as you sayyes to those things.
Jesus said, I came that youwould have life and that you
would have it to the full.
Grace and faith are the thingsthat empower us to grab a hold
(49:38):
of those things and live out thelife that you were created.
SPEAKER_03 (49:42):
And let go of that backpack and that big
expectation that you have.
You know, you hit the altar upthere and you say, God, I'm
gonna go, go, go, go.
Just tell me where to go.
And then you find yourselfwatching Netflix saying, Oh, I'm
just too tired, you know.
SPEAKER_02 (49:59):
Never too late.
Never too late to get to thecity.
SPEAKER_03 (50:01):
Never too late.
And just like you said, it'snever too late to get close to
him, you know, and and uh findout what it's like to have a
real relationship uh with him.
That's one of those things thatI think all Priscilla, what's
her last name?
Sreyer?
Shire.
Shire.
Um, she was talking about it atthat conference.
So boy, we've ran all the wayaround the circle.
(50:24):
You've been trying to not preachyour next sermon on this.
And uh it's buffing right upbecause you can't you're right,
it all goes together.
SPEAKER_05 (50:34):
Yeah, each one of these builds right on top of
each other, and it's hard to totalk about them independently of
one another.
Um, because yeah, I we need allfaith alone, we need grace
alone, but none makes sensewithout Christ alone.
Um, and so it's yeah, come cometo church on Sunday as we we
start to to talk about that too.
(50:55):
Um, Joy, Tracer, you guys gotanything else?
Kind of any thoughts on thisbefore we wrap up?
SPEAKER_03 (51:03):
Yeah, when we podcast, we we podcast hard.
You gotta break in there,ladies.
SPEAKER_02 (51:08):
You just there's never opportunity for us to
break in there.
SPEAKER_03 (51:12):
I know, we're just bing-bong and begging for so um
well, thank you for coming andlistening to us to podcast live.
SPEAKER_05 (51:20):
Got to hear it live.
SPEAKER_03 (51:24):
If Ryan's not talking, I'm over here breathing
hard in the mic.
SPEAKER_05 (51:29):
Stop it.
People need to go.
You pray for us.
SPEAKER_02 (51:35):
Oh, Jesus.
Thank you for who you are.
Thank you for the opportunity tocome on here and just talk
openly and freely about you andthe grace that you give to us.
Lord, I thank you that we canchoose to have faith in you and
in you alone.
And I thank you for the lifethat we have when we choose to
follow you.
(51:55):
I thank you for the joy and thepeace.
Lord, the contentment, just theability to see more than what's
right in front of us and in thisworld that we live in.
So, Jesus, we love you.
Pray that you'd have your way.
Jesus' name, amen.
unknown (52:10):
Amen and amen.
SPEAKER_01 (52:11):
Thanks again for joining us for this episode of
the Midweek Podcast.
We'd love to hear from you.
Let us know how God is usingthis resource in your life or
send any podcast questions ortopic ideas to podcast at a
freshwind.org.
If you would like to supportthis ministry financially and
help us continue offering newresources that equip you to
discover more in Christ, simplytext any amount to the number
(52:34):
84321.
We're so grateful for yoursupport.
Make sure to tune in next weekfor a brand new episode of the
Midweek Podcast.
Be blessed and have a greatweek.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com